Maroon 5 brings Texas sized cruise ship to town

Performing live to a standing-room only crowd, GRAMMY award-winning band Maroon 5 rocked the Port of Galveston over the weekend with 3,690 passenger Carnival Magic as a backdrop. It was a fitting welcome at the ship’s new year-round homeport that cast a spotlight on just how big cruise travel is in Texas.

“We’ve played every kind of venue imaginable across the world, but we’ve never helped to launch a new cruise ship,” said Adam Levine, Maroon 5 front-man and coach on the hit NBC series “The Voice. “We’re excited to work with Carnival and to be part of the Carnival Magic celebration for fans in Texas.”

Plenty of fans turned out at the dock-side event with Carnival Magic parked directly behind the stage. An estimated 5,000 fans, some of which won highly sought-after tickets in a Facebook contest, rocked to the 11-song, hour-long performance.

Wondering how the arrival of a cruise ship translates to bringing a hot, popular band with over 15 million albums sold to town?

Carnival expects to carry more than 450,000 guests annually and have a positive impact on the Texas economy. In 2010, the cruise industry added $1.1 billion in direct spending, generated 16,457 jobs and $828 million in income for Texas workers according to a report from the Cruise Lines International Association.

That was before Carnival Magic joined Carnival Triumph for year-round sailings from Galveston, making Carnival the largest cruise operator in Texas. The new deployment means a 24% increase in capacity for Carnival alone which should translate into even more income and jobs.

It’s big business and not limited to Carnival Cruise lines. Royal Caribbean brought Mariner of the Seas into town without much fanfare a day earlier, also adding to the port’s capacity. Next year, Carnival sister-line Princess Cruises returns to Galveston with one of their newest ships and Disney Cruise Line comes to town.

Reason enough to bring in Maroon 5? You bet. They’d bring in Elvis if they could.

Photo: Carnival Cruise Lines

Captain Kid Rock sails again

He doesn’t get to marry people at sea, drive the ship or make people walk the plank but Captain Kid Rock’s second-annual Chillin’ the Most Cruise is underway once again. Along with 2,700 of his fans, Kid Rock is on the way to Cozumel from New Orleans aboard the Carnival Triumph.

The five day charter sailing goes to Cozumel, just Cozumel, and no place else. That’s probably just what the doctor ordered for the rabidly fun-loving fans on board.

“For this heavy-drinking, heavy-smoking crowd, it’s an itinerary that includes all-hours bars, pole-dancing classes and performances by 16 acts, including Rev. Run, Gretchen Wilson and two up-close-and-personal concerts by Rock himself.” says Brian McCollum, on board, from the Detroit Free Press
Fans arrived in New Orleans early and by all accounts, the party was well underway before the ship left the dock.

“Fans had begun piling into New Orleans a day early, excited to dive in to what many returning cruise-goers described as a Kid Rock family reunion. These are the hardest of the hard-core — the fans whose Kid Rock concert counts run into the dozens and whose arms are vividly emblazoned with tattoos of the Detroit star” McCollum wrote.

But other than a few drunken domestic arguments, the crowd seems to be as somewhat-under-control as it probably could be with Rock in charge of the festivities.

“The party will be everywhere,” Rock boasted to the Free Press just after boarding yesterday adding “Everywhere you go on this boat, you’ll be walking into it.”

I bet there’s a story or two coming out of this before it’s all over. Actually, let me take that back on the “he doesn’t get to make people walk the plank” thing I mentioned earlier. I wouldn’t put anything past the venerable Mr Rock.

Flickr photo by familymwr

Cruise ship home ports- not always the goldmine they promise

When cruise lines base ships in a coastal city, good things usually happen because cruise ship home ports generate good things. Just one cruise ship from any major cruise line can mean $millions in jobs and tourism dollars. Being a cruise ship home port can greatly enhance the image of a city too. Not every city is cut out to be a cruise ship home port but the ones that are, expect to be one for quite a while. Imagine their surprise in Mobile, Alabama when the one cruise ship they had gave notice; they are sailing away to be based elsewhere.

“We have made the very difficult decision to discontinue our cruise operations from Mobile effective October 22, 2011.” said Gerry Cahill, president and CEO, Carnival Cruise Lines


A difficult decision indeed. Cruise lines have a stake in the success (or failure) of a cruise ship home port as well. A lot of time and resources go into choosing a home port in the first place then the process of supplying the ship, booking passengers, arranging ports of call and other ongoing activities take place.

“We are extremely grateful for the many years of tremendous partnership, support and cooperation provided by the Alabama Cruise Terminal team, the local leadership in Mobile, area travel agents and the community at large.” added Cahill, noting “Unfortunately, we have not been able to achieve favorable financial results with this program.”

And that is the end of that.

They tried and they tried again but it just did not work out for Carnival in Mobile, Alabama begging the question: “Was Mobile a good choice for a cruise port in the first place?”

Well it certainly seemed so at the time. City leaders and government officials courted Carnival, built the new Alabama Cruise Terminal, but are left with an empty facility and a $26 million construction bill to pay. Mobile’s mayor is in Miami, trying to work things out with the cruise line as we see in this report from local television station WKRG.

WKRG.com News

The issue at hand seems to be all about the prices being paid for a sailing aboard the Elation. While the ship sailed full, prices were lower than needed by the cruise line to reach the level of profitability they need to make staying there worthwhile.

So off to New Orleans the Carnival Elation goes.

Right now, New Orleans has the Carnival Triumph, a newer, bigger ship with more to offer, selling for about the same price.

Right now, a 5-night ride on the Elation goes for a starting price of $379 per person + tax on a mid-April sailing while the Triumph is has a starting price of $359 per person +tax. About the same.

But Carnival Triumph is moving to Galveston where a 5-night sailing in April of 2012 will start at $499 per person + tax. A much higher price. Take that $100 or so per person times the 2000 or so passengers on each sailing of the ship and we’re talking millions of dollars a year.

Other factors go into the decision to move a ship too.

“Additionally, the itineraries from Mobile require much higher relative fuel costs to operate and those fuel costs will become even more unfavorable with the implementation of the new ECA requirements starting in 2012.” said Cahill which brings up a whole other topic as cruise lines scramble (reposition ships, in this case) to make ends meet.

Cruise lines are already absorbing the higher price of fuel rather than pass it along to passengers in the form of the highly-unpopular fuel surcharge and nothing will be left off the table as an option to keep prices down.

This is by no means a Carnival-exclusive method of operation. While these decisions are tough ones for cruise lines to make, the very nature of their “mobile assets” makes moving ships a viable, if not prudent way to do business.

The entire U.S. west coast cruise industry has been transformed as ships from many lines were redeployed to more profitable waters. The common fear reported earlier with these moves is that less supply of ships in North America will force higher prices as cruise vacations continue to be in high demand. This move of the Carnival Spirit takes yet another ship from the U.S. West coast who recently lost Royal Caribbean’s Mariner of the Seas to Europe.

A realignment of assets among cruise lines and less capacity in North America could mean fewer choices and higher prices. Travel authority Arthur Frommer called the shifting of capacity to European waters “the biggest development in cruising” noting “you’ll see far fewer cabins and berths in the Caribbean.”

It may all boil down to an overzealous push by local leaders to attract cruise ships in the first place. The seductive allure of the considerable tourism dollars that just one ship can mean might cause government officials to look beyond elements of the deal that might come back to haunt them later.

In the case of the Carnival Elation in Mobile, Alabama, the cruise line, by contract, had to give the city just 90 days notice if they were moving a ship. There are those who might question the wisdom in agreeing to those terms when doing so included building a new cruise terminal the city would be obligated to pay for years into the future.

When would-be port cities throw their hat in the ring for consideration to be a home port for a cruise ship, they naturally want to portray their city favorably. Sometimes too favorably.

Both Brownsville, Texas and Savannah, Georgia have made similar bids for cruise line attention. Critics of the idea sounded off when preliminary feasibility studies came back painting a bit rosier picture of what might be than reality would indicate.

“The reality is they have as much chance to get a cruise ship to visit as they do in luring the Lakers from Los Angeles” said cruise industry expert Stewart Chiron CEO, CruiseGuy.com speaking of a feasibility study done by Brownsville, Texas. “These results are based on the cow jumping over the moon, planets aligning and may also require peace on earth!” he added.

In the end, it all seems to boil down to money. The same money cities dream of coming out of a depression, honestly wanting to create jobs, fill hotels and put their city on the map.

Chiron concludes the big question is “Where will the cruise lines be able to reap the highest yields?”

Apparently not in Mobile, Alabama.