Page 24: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (December 2001)

Cruise Report ferentiation."

Fain added, "There has been a strong resur- gence in demand for cruise vacations in

North America as trav- elers recover from the events of September 11," Fain said. "We wanted to address the

Southern European market and these four ships will be a thor- oughly dramatic way of doing so."

The merger, which

Fain has dubbed a "nat- ural link of two compa- nies," has been in the works since 1991.

According to Fain, the two companies began talking again, ironically on September 11, about how they could masterfully bring their brands together. Surprisingly, there were no plans of getting involved with Micky Arison's cruise powerhouse Carnival Corp., which in recent years has garnered the reputation of its reorganization of cruise lines, (name- ly Holland America and Cunard), which would have probably filed Chapter 11 had they not been "rescued" by Carnival. According to Ratcliffe, both RCCL and P&O

Princess had their reasons for not getting involved with powerful cruise line. "We have not had any discussions with Carnival," Ratcliffe said. "A combination with

Carnival for virtually anyone in the industry is problematic because of anti-trust issues."

Williams Named President, COO Of Royal Caribbean

And Celebrity Cruises

Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. named Jack Williams president and chief operat- ing officer of Royal Caribbean International and Celebrity Cruises. In his new role, Williams, previously president of Royal Caribbean International, will man- age the day-to-day operations of both cruise lines. The two lines will continue to operate independently under Williams.

Williams' appointment follows an earlier announcement today that respected- cruise veteran Richard Sasso, president of Celebrity Cruises, will resign from the company, effective January 1, 2002. "My association with Celebrity has exceeded even my expectations," said Sasso. "The professionalism and dedication of the staff, officers and crew. The perfec- tion of detail in the cruise product itself. And, the trajectory of growth that has doubled our fleet in two years. There are no internal departmental changes for either line under the new reporting structure.

Celebrity department heads will now report directly to Williams. Royal

Caribbean departments will continue to report to Williams, who will still oversee

Royal Celebrity Tours. Corporate Communications will now report to the chair- man's office. "Royal Caribbean and Celebrity have performed well for us, and we are commit- ted to keeping the two operations separate," said Royal Caribbean chairman and

CEO, Richard Fain. "I am confident that both lines will continue to capture mar- ket share and convert new prospects to cruising under Jack's very capable leader- ship." Jack Williams has served as president of Royal Caribbean International since 1997. Previously, he held various management positions at American Air- lines, where, most recently, he was vice president and general sales manager. He began his career at American in 1972. Richard Sasso has been president of

Celebrity Cruises since 1995. Previously, he was senior vice president of Sales and Guest Services. He had held senior positions with Costa Cruises and Chan- dris Cruises earlier in his career, which began at Costa in 1971.

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