If you haven’t heard of Compagnie du Ponant (http://en.ponant.com/), chances are you’ll be hearing - and seeing - alot of the French basedcompany in the coming months. The cruise ship company has just announced that yet anothersleek new ship is under construction. Set to launch in the spring of 2015, the new ship will be a sister to the line’simmensely popular Le Boreal, L’Austral, and Le Soleal that were all inaugurated between 2010 and 2013. While theline has sailed everywhere including the waters of the Mediterranean and remains a leader in the Arctic and Antarctic,this new vessel will open up a series of new destinations for Compagnie du Ponant.
So my question is who is building the best cruise ships? And who’s building the best looking ones?
That vessel, though nice looking, doesn’t compare to any vessel that NCL, Carnival, or the other “big” ship companies have. It is tiny compared to the other cruise vessels. In the cruise industry that I was a part of for 10years, small boats usually mean exclusivity, expensive for guests, and a completely different expectation of service and itinerary than the “normal” cruise ship companies.
The guests on these smaller vessels usually expect better food, accommodations, better service, and more diverse itineraries. The smaller Japanese cruise ship I worked on, the Asuka, and the small English ship, the Saga Rose both had vastly different clientele and business models.
I would love to see some new cutting edge designs for the big players in the industry though. Something like this would be interesting to see.
