NEWS SPECIAL REPORT
Go-karts, millennials and oil paintings were among topics discussed at a Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings round-table in London. Harry Kemble reports
From left: NCLH’s Andy Stuart, Frank Del Rio and Harry Sommer
Go-kart track on Norwegian Bliss
Oceania extends life of its ships as Picassos look on
The lifespan of Oceania Cruises’ Regatta-class ships will be extended “by a decade” as a result of the $100 million-plus OceaniaNext renovation programme.
Frank Del Rio, president and chief executive of parent Norwegian Cruise Lines Holdings, also revealed that artwork from the Regatta-class ships would be auctioned in the years ahead to free
up funds to modernise Regatta, Insignia, Nautica and Sirena. However, he said the line
would keep the “timeless” Picasso artwork which hangs in the vessels. “All the artwork is gone – every
single piece has gone off to Christie’s or Sotheby’s. We are going to be auctioning it off in the next few years,” Del Rio said. “We will probably keep the Picassos. But there are a lot of 18th and 19th-century oils by Thomas Buttersworth. They will be sold as part of the Oceania Collection.” The renovation programme will
see each vessel given 342 new designer suites and staterooms, while restaurants, lounges and
“We believe investing in these Regatta ships will give another 10 years at high yields”
bars will gain new decor. Insignia will come back into service next month. Subsequent overhauls will
see Sirena return in May 2019, Regatta in September 2019 and Nautica in June 2020.
Del Rio said: “We believe we can
invest in these Regatta-class ships and have another 10-year run at very high yields.” He added: “With the higher cost
of shipbuilding, and the difficulty of finding slots, I think this is what you are seeing the industry do more than ever before. “That explains why OceaniaNext
will invest over $100 million – above and beyond normal
dry-dock expenditure.” Nautica launched in 2000, while
Regatta, Insignia and Sirena came into service in the late 1990s.
Encore revs up for a longer go-kart track
Norwegian Encore’s go-kart track “is going to be bigger and better” than those on Breakaway Plus-class sister ships Norwegian Bliss and Norwegian Joy. Norwegian Cruise Line chief executive Andy Stuart said the tracks
on Joy and Bliss had been “a huge hit” with passengers and that the operator wanted to improve with each ship launch. Stuart declined to reveal how much longer the track on Encore
would be, but said: “It is going to be bigger and better. We want to keep evolving and making everything slightly better on the next ship.” Encore will have capacity for almost 4,000 passengers and will sail out of Miami from November 2019 after its launch.
Cruise chief hails success of NCL’s all-inclusive pricing
Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings’ president expressed his surprise that no other cruise company has copied NCL’s Premium All Inclusive pricing policy in an industry where “copying is sport”. Frank Del Rio said the pricing strategy, introduced in April 2017, had been successful and attracted new-to-cruise customers. “In this business, copying each other is a sport,” he said. “You can’t copyright or trademark anything because it is in the public domain. “If you take a risk and
succeed, others will copy you. If you fail, others will stand around and laugh at you.” Asked what other challenges faced cruise lines today, he cited port availability, compliance with environmental regulation and recruiting enough crew with the necessary skills to enter the cruise industry at a service level. “Service is one of the ways
that we want to differentiate ourselves,” he said.
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travelweekly.co.uk 8 November 2018
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