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At Ponant, we vet each location that we go to prior, during and after our visits. Our goal is to always be as eco friendly on and of of our vessels, to our oceans, and respectful to the places that we visit. Hopefully, we leave each place just as it was before we arrived, yet better via contributing to their economic and environmental state in a myriad of positive ways.” – Mrs. Edie Rodriguez, Ponant’s Americas Brand Chairman story with the scrubbers and LNG-powered vessels, which ship which makes port calls around the clock, picking up and overcomes many of the objections some may have about in- delivering short-hop passengers – often plus their car or bikes – dustry impact on the environment.” and loading and unloading goods.” The site review of the Mid-

A niche player in the small vessel luxury segment, Crystal natsol (capacity of 1000 passengers, built 2003), offered that:

Cruises (owned by Genting Hong Kong – which also has an “Hurtigruten ships also carry cargo, calling at villages large and ownership stake in Asia-specialist Star Cruises, and recently small, docking only as long as necessary to load and offoad sold out its shares in the holding company for Norwegian passengers and cargo, sometimes in as little as 15 minutes. And,

Cruise Lines), is entering the expedition segment, building on unlike the long, drawn out docking procedure we’re used to on the success of its Crystal Esprit, marketed as a yacht- with conventional ships, the Midnatsol zips in and out of port in a 62 passenger capacity. Crystal, originally a subsidiary of the fash, aided by triple bow thrusters and a state-of-the-art pod.”

Japanese giant NYK (where it operated in the smaller luxury Notably, six of its existing vessels are being retroftted to run on ship segment), will be launching its 20,000 gt ultra luxe Crys- LNG, battery power, and biogas (derived from fsh oil). tal Endeavor, a 200 passenger vessel, with a PC 6 ice class Logistics is of paramount importance throughout cruise ship designation (Polar Code, Category “B”) now under construc- operations. At Ponant, top management is heavily involved. tion at MV Werften. Edie Rodriguez (who held a senior position at Crystal previ-

Along the coast of Norway (and niches such as Iceland), ously), explained, “We source in a proactive manner for fuel,

Hurtigruten is a market leader. The operator has been at the food and wine, etc., as well. Logistically we do the best pos- forefront of technological innovations; its hybrid powered sible by providing the best that is available around the world to

Roald Amundsen, with a passenger count of 530, is set to de- provide freshness as frequently as possible. Having stated this, liver from the Kleven yard- Ulsteinvik, early in 2019. A sister while there are minor challenges in some very remote destina- vessel, Fridtjof Nansen, is expected to come online later in tions, we don’t really get complaints about this and it is not an 2019; in January, 2019, a third vessel- with 2021 deliver, was issue for us.” When asked about situations where itineraries ordered. According to the operator, “The new ships are de- must be changed- because of extreme weather, for example, she signed by Rolls-Royce, in collaboration with the recognized answered: “Our ships are small so there is not a lot of storage

Norwegian yacht designer Espen Øino.” The ice strengthened space available, but we do keep as much as possible on board vessels are able to run in fully electric mode, on state of the art for these types of scenarios. We also have relationships around battery power, for short periods of time. the world so that many variations of back ups are available as expeditiously as possible.” FIU’s Dr. Humphrey added, “Lo- gistics for the cruise lines depends on the offering and the scale

The Logistics of Cargo and Cruising

Unlike vessels in the feets of Crystal and Ponant, the Hurti- of the operations. Visit any major US cruise port on a weekend gruten vessels are not positioned for luxury travelers. If there is and you see the stevedores loading in supplies for the week, and an intersection between cruise shipping and cargo logistics, it this is the ship’s only supply efforts for the week. When you could likely be found along Norway’s coast, between Bergen get into some of the more unique and upscale offerings (think: and Kirkenes. As described by travel site Cruise Critic, review- small), then you see sourcing locally during the voyage.” ing the vessel Richard With ( 11,205 gt, with capacity for 590 Smaller is clearly beautiful. Ponant’s Rodriguez, reviewing passengers, built 1993 and refurbished 2018 , named after Hur- the sector overall, told MLPro, “The world is bullish on the tigruten’s founder), “…Like the rest of the feet, it is a working luxury travel spending sector, as am I. At a recent luxury travel www.maritimelogisticsprofessional.com 27

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