Page 12: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (November 1996)

CRUISE SHIP REPORT by Bridget Murphy, associate editor

A fourth-quarter cruise sector update

Topping off cruise news in recent weeks, in late September Cunard's

Peter Ward offered his resigna- tion as company chairman after only 15 months with the cruise line. According to Cunard owner

Kvaerner, the former chairman of

Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Ltd. will reportedly return to London to pursue other business opportuni- ties. "When I came here in September (1995), the only guy who went to bed worrying about the bottom line was me. Cunard was almost like a welfare state at sea," Mr. Ward told The New York Times in an interview this summer. Following his official departure on October 31, Antti Pankakoski, executive vice president of Kvaerner Masa-

Yards and chairman of the compa- ny that owns cruise ship Royal

Majesty, was to take over as chief executive, and attempt to put a lit- tle more wind back in the ailing fleet's sails.

To further jazz up the line,

SeaVision, Inc. — with new heaquarters in Miami — was recently retained to install a state- of-the-art television broadcast cen- ter and distribution system aboard flagship QE2. The project is reportedly the largest television upgrade ever undertaken aboard a cruise ship, and is scheduled to be completed in time for the vessel's 1997 World Cruise from New York on January 4.

Things have been heating up down in Miami, with former Royal

Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (RCCL) executive Rod McLeod's one-year, non-competitive contract clause temporarily sending him into another arena — the arena of

National Basketball Association team Miami Heat, where he will serve as a marketing consultant to the sports franchise while enjoying a hiatus from cruise shipping and mixing with his new boss, Heat owner and Carnival CEO Micky

Arison.

Speaking of Carnival Cruise

Lines (CCL), as the company's twin office building is erected on the

Miami waterfront, and in the after- glow of a groundbreaking contract with British interest Airtours, the line has struck a deal with

Hyundai Merchant Marine to develop an Asian cruise venture. It has been projected that Ray Lutz, former vice president and general sales manager of Carnival's

Holland America Line unit who worked with Carnival Vice

Chairman Howard Frank on the negotiation of the agreement, will become the president of the new company.

Carnival's Tropicale will sail from

Inchon, Korea, to China, beginning in the spring of 1998. During the winter, the vessel will be reposi- tioned to other homeports in south- east Asia. The ship was originally built in 1982 by Aalborg Shipyard in Denmark, and weighs in at 36,674 gt, with a length of 660 ft. (201.1 m) and beam of 85 ft (25.9 m).

Additionally, Carnival Destiny, the world's largest cruise liner at 100,00 gt, was delivered this month by Fincantieri. Reportedly, the megaship will host British

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