Clever Cruiser

TheStar.com:

Grenada is questioning whether to allow entry to ship passengers on all-gay cruises, news reports from the Caribbean island say.

“We have not taken a policy as to whether the ships should land in Grenada or not,” Tourism Minister Clarice Modeste-Curwen recently told the Grenada Advocate.

“As a government, our policy is that we do not support it (homosexuality),” the minister also told the Grenada Broadcasting Network. “But are we going to put a barrier that says in any port of entry that if somebody is gay they should be debarred from coming to this country …? This is my question. What does the Grenadian community want of us?”

The minister did not return calls , and nobody at the prime minister’s office, Grenada’s embassy in Ottawa or its consulate in Toronto would speak to the issue.

Gay cruises have run into problems in the Caribbean before, said Helen Kennedy, head of the Toronto-based gay rights group Egale.

“In 1998, the Cayman Islands turned away a gay cruise,” Kennedy said. “Then in 2000, the Cayman Islands were forced to implement a non-discriminatory policy because they are a British territory.”

Protesters met gay cruises in the Bahamas in 2004 and in St. Vincent last year, she said.

Photo from Stock.xchng.

Florida Trend:

Less than two years from now, Royal Caribbean will beat its own record for the largest cruise ship by launching a $1.2-billion, 220,000-ton, 5,400-passenger giant. The “Genesis Project” ship — two are under construction in Finland — are a third bigger than Royal’s Freedom class ships, the current record holders at 160,000 tons and 3,634 passengers.

The move underscores an industry construction surge. Cruise industry analyst Tony Peisley forecasts worldwide capacity will increase by 75% by 2015. “The Genesis is really just the tip of it,” Peisley says.

Meanwhile, Miami-based Carnival has 18 ships coming through 2011, including its largest, the Carnival Dream and the Carnival Magic, at 130,000 tons. For its Cunard line, Carnival is putting the Queen Victoria into service this month, with a $702-million, 92,000-ton, 2,092-passenger vessel, the Queen Elizabeth, coming in 2010.

Why the building boom? Larger ships give the lines more flexibility in pricing service and amenities, allowing them to secure passengers with lower lead-in prices and then build profits with for-fee add-ons. Bragging rights to the “largest ship” also give Royal Caribbean a marketing edge over Carnival, its bigger rival.

But all the construction has launched a wave of speculation about cruise line yields, the impact on profits and whether, in the Genesis Project, the public will accept a ship that has more than 10 times the tonnage and more than eight times the passenger capacity of the Princess ship used 30 years ago in “The Love Boat,” the show that popularized cruising. The rising cost of fuel, of course, will also have an impact.

Not to worry, says Peisley. He predicts yields will smooth out in a couple of years and revenue and profit will continue to grow.

Adelaide Now:

South Australia’s summer cruise season got under way this morning when the big, white Sun Princess slipped alongside the Outer Harbor passenger wharf.

Princess Cruises calls the ship “a premium superliner” and it certainly measures up: 261m long and rated at 77,400 tonnes with 11 decks.

It arrived from Albany, Western Australia, and is due to sail down Gulf St Vincent tonight on its way to Melbourne, as part of its maiden 28-day circumnavigation of Australia.

The Sun Princess is carrying its maximum 1950 passengers in 975 staterooms. Many of the passengers took shore excursions in Adelaide and nearby regions today, and most went shopping.

Each cruise ship visit is worth at least hundreds of thousands of dollars of money injected into the economy from passengers’ spending and by provisioning the ship.

It was the first visit to Adelaide for Sun Princess but it will be back on March 30.

Next cruise ship to visit will be the Superstar Gemini on December 5.

Cruise Critic News:

Calling all U.K. residents! P&O Cruises is looking for 12 groups of up to four people (families, couples or friends) who have never taken a P&O cruise but are willing to try out one of the line’s six different ships. The best part? They’ll get to go for free.

However, there is of course a catch: Winners will actually be on assignment for P&O cruises. Prizewinners will also be given a job onboard as “Inspector Cruiso,” and required to complete a daily report about the experience onboard and take photographs using supplied disposable cameras. To get in the running for the gig, visit www.inspectorcruiso.co.uk; choose the P&O ship you’d like to sail on and tell P&O why you’d like to become a “cruise inspector” in 25 words or less.

The winning entries will be judged and selected at P&O’s discretion. All photographs and images taken on the disposable cameras will be the property of P&O Cruises, and the winners must “make themselves reasonably available” for publicity purposes.

Closing date for entries is February 1, 2008. Winners will be notified by February, 29 2008.