Celebrity Cruises for Bruises with Cunard
Trouble has broken out on the high seas it seems with a row over Celebrity Cruises’ new vessel which is sailing from Southampton. It seems that the cruise line is out to poach passengers from P&O Cruises and Cunard, TravelMole has reported.
The new Celebrity Equinox is a luxury 2,850-passenger cruise ship costing $800 million and it had its launch recently with an eight-day celebration. It will be offering cruises from Southampton, as will the Royal Caribbean’s Independence of the Seas from next summer.
Together they are expecting over 100,000 passengers between them and according to UK and Ireland managing director and vice-president Robin Shaw, they will be hoping to attract the top third of P&O Cruises’ passengers.
Celebrity president and CEO Dan Hanrahan, went even further by announcing that Celebrity will also be attempting to woo over Cunard’s clientele. He said: “We will cannibalise P&O and a number of travel agents are telling me, ‘Why should we sell Cunard any more?’ People who may have chosen Cunard in the past and who have now seen this ship, now see this as an extremely attractive alternative.”
Cunard, however, has been quick to issue a reply with the boss of Cunard dismissing the lack of experience and quality that Cunard can offer over the young pretender. “It is quite bold of them to be saying that they are the best out of Southampton when they haven’t actually started sailing from here yet,” he said. “What I would agree with is that a lot of Celebrity’s passengers are coming from Royal Caribbean.”
P&O Cruises managing director Carol Marlow was a little more gracious and she welcomed the new cruise experience that Celebrity Equinox can offer the British public.
Travel Industry news posted by Marilyn on 30 July 2009
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