Ocean Village to be phased out as Carnival rationalises brand portfolio -

Carnival UK has announced that it is rationalising its portfolio with the phasing out of the Ocean Village brand, beginning in Autumn 2009. Consistent with Carnival’s strategy of investing in brands which show the greatest growth potential, both Ocean Village ships will transfer to the P&O Cruises Australia brand, the first in time for Christmas 2009 and the second a year later.

Commenting on the move, David Dingle, CEO of Carnival UK and Chair of the Carnival Australia Management Committee, said:

“In reviewing the most effective deployment of our ships, we have recognised the major growth potential in the Australian market and the profit opportunity which awaits. Clearly it is disappointing to wind down our Ocean Village operation which has been superbly created and delivered by an excellent management team, but we must recognise the need to maximise profit performance from our assets. Ocean Village has done much to change the face of British cruising, and all our UK brands have benefited from this. The arrival of new ships for P&O Cruises and Cunard in 2010 and the continuing development of Princess Cruises in Britain will ensure that Carnival UK continues its growth despite the redeployment of the Ocean Village vessels.”

Best,

It will be nice to see these ships go to P&O Australia, to me probably the most "natural" place for them. By 2010 Australia will have two Princess ships (SUN/DAWN) dedicated to Australian passengers along with these three modern, comfortable ex-Princess vessels. I imagine this signals the end of PACIFIC SUN's career in Australia as she would really look like the black sheep of the family otherwise.

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Originally posted by mike sa:
OV possibly based in Auckland. Well that was a surprise - I recall us talking previously that P&O Australia might get rebranded Ocean Village - gone the other way.

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Originally posted by r.fiebig:
Don't forget "Sky Wonder", Waynaro.

Best,

Raoul

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Originally posted by Waynaro:
Now cruising with P&O Australia is more attractive to me. At this point, only PACIFIC DAWN will get me down. Pretty soon, I will have a hard time choosing which ship!

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It helps that I have had a soft spot for anything Sitmar based on my childhood experience on SKY PRINCESS (ex-Sitmar ship with lots of ex-Sitmar crew).

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Originally posted by mike sa:
I mean they have a relatively small population compared to the US or Europe and with this number of ships a lot of them are dedicated cruisers.

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They must have been the #1 nationality on board when I sailed in MARCO POLO, and they were lots of fun and certainly brought down the average age compared to the mostly older American and British pax.

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Originally posted by Patsy:
Doug, yes a silly name. Also a silly name when they built Ocean Village in Southampton 20 years ago and that ended up being a failure.

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[ 10-31-2008: Message edited by: dougnewman ]

http://www.thewest.com.au/aapstory.aspx?StoryName=526701

[ 10-31-2008: Message edited by: Galaxy ]

according to P&O's press release "Pacific Jewel" is the current "Ocean Village Two" not the current "Ocean Village" as the newspaper article suggests. The 63,500 gt vessel to enter service in late 2010 is the current "Ocean Village".

Best,

Raoul

Edit: I guess this posting is obsolete now that Frode has edited his posting.

[ 10-31-2008: Message edited by: r.fiebig ]

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Originally posted by r.fiebig:
Frode,

according to P&O's press release "Pacific Jewel" is the current "Ocean Village Two" not the current "Ocean Village" as the newspaper article suggests. The 63,500 gt vessel to enter service in late 2010 is the current "Ocean Village".

Best,

Raoul

Edit: I guess this posting is obsolete now that Frode has edited his posting.

[ 10-31-2008: Message edited by: r.fiebig ]

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So Ocean Village will close out with the original OCEAN VILLAGE then... Wonder what they'll call her? PACIFIC OCEAN?

If they picked JEWEL they could NCL-style and do PACIFIC GEM I suppose. Or PACIFIC DIAMOND, PACIFIC SAPPHIRE PACIFIC RUBY if they like Princess names.

Rather a forgotten ship I think, everyone pays attention to the Italian twins as they've got the Dome but I always thought she was nice too. Poor thing has had enough identities in her life though - SITMAR FAIRMAJESTY, STAR PRINCESS, ARCADIA, OCEAN VILLAGE and now PACIFIC something.

And it just occurred to me that the old CROWN PRINCESS has now had the distinction of sailing for two aborted brands!

One wonders if perhaps people who don't do cruises just don't do cruises, not even cruises for people who don't do cruises.

[ 10-31-2008: Message edited by: dougnewman ]

The original OV was the Arcadia that P&O had and ex Star Princess. Personally I could not understand why P&O UK got rid of it to OV so quickly as it was a nice looking ship and seemed to fit the profile of a smaller type of ship they were after when they got rid of the Victoria.

P&O Australia has really changed its image, there are now tv commercials about it promoting more luxury/prestegious type of holiday with the Pacific Islands as the tropical resort type destination.

Could be a smart move too as Australia is unlikely to go into recession unlike the US. Money is still being spent here. With travel plans People seem to be abandoning the US completely and investors will not invest money in the US at the moment as it has a very bad name due to the world financial crisis.

With my personal cruising preferences I have zero plans to visit the US in the near or distant future and do not even want to touch US soil even at airports. I have bookings to fly to London in November 2009 for cruises and other destinations I want to concentrate on is Asia,Pacific Islands, Europe, Middle East and possibly Brazil/Argentina.

I want to cruise the Caribbean again but will only do it with P&O on a round trip from Southampton.

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Originally posted by Sutho:

Could be a smart move too as Australia is unlikely to go into recession unlike the US. Money is still being spent here. With travel plans People seem to be abandoning the US completely and investors will not invest money in the US at the moment as it has a very bad name due to the world financial crisis.

With my personal cruising preferences I have zero plans to visit the US in the near or distant future and do not even want to touch US soil even at airports.

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Money is still being spent in the US, don't be mistaken. Airports are busy, planes are full, restaurants are crowded, malls are loaded with people, etc. etc. etc. The economy has not come to a halt. Discretionary spending is certainly down, but the hardest hit are big ticket items like houses and cars. People are putting off vacations or taking a vacation closer to home as well. Things are not great, but contrary to what you might read we are not at the point of bread lines or a total collapse of our economic system. In addition it's an election year, and many Americans are taking a wait and see attitude based on what the next administration will bring to the table as well.

Some economists are predicting a global recession, and if this is the case I can assure you Australia will not be immune.

It's probably a good thing you are avoiding the US as your dollar is tanking against ours. I think it's at around $1.50 for every US dollar. Great for the US, as Australia is quite the bargain at the moment. Our dollar goes far and even airfares have been reduced. I'm seriously thinking of a trip down under in 2009.