Commenting on the earlier decision to reduce Vista orders by one to four and to transfer one newbuild into a 116,000gt order for the Princess brand, Frank said it was not because of any dissatisfaction with Zuiderdam, the first of HAL's new series. 'Had we owned Princess back when we ordered the Vista class ships, we wouldn't have ordered as many,' Frank told Seatrade Insider. When the opportunity arose post-merger to rearrange newbuilds with Fincantieri, Carnival took it. 'It has nothing to do with the ship itself,' Frank added. 'Zuiderdam is performing very, very well.'

But Carnival's vision includes growing Princess at a faster rate. 'The idea in our minds is that the Princess brand is more scalable,' Frank said. 'Its market is broader than HAL's.'
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I agree that Princess has a larger market because Princess is trying to be all things to all people. Personal Choice dining vs. Tradtional; small R-ships & Royal vs. Baby Grands/Grands/Grander Grands; catering to an older clientele vs. catering to families and children; month-long exotic itineraries on smaller ships vs. quick 7-days to the Caribbean on behemoths. There's a lot of diversity in the Princess product.

On the other hand, I see Carnival focusing HAL's brand identity along with building fewer ships to position it better against Celebrity.

I would also expect Princess to either limit or drop altogether their exotic sailings- instead focusing upon Alaska, Mexico, Caribbean, Europe... with secondary markets in Hawaii, New England, and Panama Canal.

I find it a shame. Princess was once a premium cruise line with global appeal and elegance. But as of late they have become an unfocused brand- and if Carnival Corp is good at anything it is focusing their brands.

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Originally posted by Fairsky:
I agree. I think we should expect Carnival Corp to push Princess into the mass market vigorously.

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I'm sure we are just a few years away from a Princess fleet of almost entirely Grand/Sun/Coral class ships with the majority being Grands.

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Any bets on how long before HAL/Costa/Carnival/Cunard/ and Princess all share a hull design?

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Carnival would be foolish to give P&O a Vista ship when Cunard will be sailing Queen Victoria in the UK market. To have both major UK brands sail the exact same hull seems silly.

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Originally posted by Fairsky:
I'm sure they are itching to use the Canberra name again.

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I don't know... More people might be put off than attracted by that name.

For instance, ROTTERDAM (IV) took a LOT of criticism from people who were basically just PO'd at HAL for getting rid of the old ROTTERDAM, and could not bear to actually like her replacement, however good or bad it might have been.

Some (most?) of these people seem to have later made peace with the new ship.

Even though ARCADIA was actually CANBERRA's stated replacement, it might still be too soon to use the name.

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Originally posted by Keitaro:
If Princess focuses more on shorter cruises and bigger ships, wouldn't they lose many loyalists?

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Princess has long been focusing on shorter cruises and bigger ships as much as they could have short of completely eliminating longer cruises and smaller ships, which is something they might have wanted to do, but perhaps couldn't afford.

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Does anyone think Princess might get an altered version of the Destiny/Conquest-class?

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But with the mixture of Personal Choice and Traditional dining Princess is trying to ween the old-timers off the old, stuffy way of Princess cruising and onto the new, hip-and-trendy way of Princess cruising.

Also, I imagine that if it hasn't happened already we will soon see strong marketing for HAL within Princess onboard future cruise offices targeted at the smaller-growing core of Princess faithful.

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Originally posted by jsea:
with the mixture of Personal Choice and Traditional dining Princess is trying to ween the old-timers off the old, stuffy way of Princess cruising and onto the new, hip-and-trendy way of Princess cruising.

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Originally posted by cruiseny:

If there's anything Princess is not, it's hip and trendy. Just look at their ships - about as hip and trendy as your local Marriott!

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It already expired.

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Originally posted by cruiseny:

For instance, ROTTERDAM (IV) took a LOT of criticism from people who were basically just PO'd at HAL for getting rid of the old ROTTERDAM...

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That's ROTTERDAM (VI) not ROTTERDAM (IV) mister smarty pants....