Posted on Wednesday, January 30, 2013 by Shawn Dake
Continuing Shawn J. Dake’s
Cruise Ships 2012, The Year In Review
NIEUW AMSTERDAM versus ZUIDERDAM off Ft. Lauderdale, photo © Peter Knego, March 2012.
Holland America Line had a relatively quiet year operating their fleet of 15 ships, eight of which have been added since 2000. In late October it was announced that the largest vessel in company history had been ordered from the Fincantieri shipyards in Italy. The new ship will arrive in the autumn of 2015. It is projected to have a gross tonnage of 99,000 tons and carry 2,660 guests. Presumably by staying under 100,000 tons, Holland America will market this as a more “intimate” vessel in keeping with their previous reputation.
The VOLENDAM rescued 70 people from an Alaskan sightseeing vessel, the BARANOF WIND, which had run aground in Glacier Bay on August 19th. Under the command of Captain Peter Bos, the ship continued on its course, with the new passengers enjoying the remainder of the day cruising the National Park. In another area, Holland America Line has had a long-standing on-again-off-again relationship with Bermuda. After completing a final season of cruises, the 1,346 passenger VEENDAM will leave the lovely island in the Atlantic. Nearly all cruise ships have become too large to enter the harbor at St. Georges, Bermuda, and others no longer fit into Hamilton either, leaving only the busy Dockyards area to handle the big ships.
SEABOURN QUEST exiting St. John’s, photo © Peter Knego December 2012.
Seabourn Cruise Line has now been fully integrated operationally into Holland America Line’s corporate offices in Seattle. It remains the most luxurious line in the Carnival Corporation portfolio. Beginning in the winter 2013/14 the SEABOURN QUEST will offer voyages to Antarctica for the first time, enabling the company to say they cruise to all seven continents of the world. The 32,000 ton ship was built in 2011 and carries 450 passengers in all-suite accommodations.
For more than a decade Shawn Dake has written his annual “Cruise Ships, The Year In Review” which has now grown to a nearly 15,000 word essay recalling all of the events that have taken place within the cruise industry the previous year.
Dieter Killinger
January 30, 2013 at 2:30 pm
Just back from a 14 day southern caribbean cruise on MAASDAM.
Food and the incomperable Indonesian service is still superb. However, ship is showing signs of its age, despite its renovation in 2011. Elevators and automatic doors, for example don’t seem to work well much of the time and one has the feeling that HAL is not terribly interested in this little ship in their fleet anymore. HAL has so many ships now of all sizes. What has not changed is the fierce loyalty their Mariner Club past passengers feel for the line. I have not seen this devotion to such an extent with other lines.
Glenn L.
January 31, 2013 at 8:05 am
I can agree with Dieter, after sailng Veendam To Bermuda twice and recently in a suite,same story- Excellent food and service but also noticed that the ship seems to be run down. Our suite reached 80 deg.F, at times and it was no picnic in formal wear, the problems no doubt are related to Holland America’s attempt to increase revenue by intalling sliding glass doors on Veendam’s promenade deck cabins and removing the aft pool to accomodate more cabins below, without increasing the ships chill water capacity- the results are obvious.
Bermuda is another story, beautiful island. My wife and I have sailed to Bermuda over 18 times in 21 years but it appears as if the island cares little about it’s cruise ship industry. Carnival pulled out of Bermuda reportedly because an agreement was reached to allow the cruise line to open the ships casinos at night but then Bermuda renegged. As with most cruise destinations, the ship goes out to sea each day and gets revenue in it’s casinos/shops but this is not the case with Bermuda’s consecutive port stays of up to 3 nights.
Having some of the highest port taxes is probably not helping matters either.
St.Georges is desolate these days, many shops have closed down. Hamilton still bustling but Bermuda has torn down one of it’s cruise ship terminals in favour of parking on Front Street. After Veedam departed for the last time, a nearby cycle rental closed it’s doors.
The regular callers to Bermuda use her deep water berths- King’s Wharf and the fairly new – Heritage Wharf but now it appears that Heritage is unfit to accomodate NCL’s new Breakaway according to this story in The Royal Gazette:
http://www.royalgazette.com/article/20130123/NEWS/701229925
Hopefully Bermuda will reconstruct the dock in time for the new arrival and avoid tendering passengers. I wish Bermuda would get it act together, it truly is beautiful.
Joseph Sturges
February 1, 2013 at 10:57 am
I am sure that internal government issues in Bermuda have played a part in the cessation of small ships coming into Hamilton. However, the big buck mentality of the cruise lines, i.e., large ships filled with thousands of people, has managed to fill their coffers but remove the quaint Front Street docking experience. Bermuda has always been a lucrative market, with departures from NY, Boston and Baltimore. But the cruise lines want economies of scale and send these monolithic giants down to the dockyard to reap the profits.
No one foresaw, or didn’t care about, the effect of 2500 or more passengers dumped out at the dockyard. The strain and drain on the bus service, cab service, etc, to say nothing of the crowds, makes the whole experience less pleasant. Docking in Hamilton and Saint George was a pleasure…perhaps now a thing of the past forever.
We can only hope Veendam or another ship of her size comes back.