Welcome to Cruise News, your daily update on
everything happening at sea. Visit CruiseNews
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alerts. Good to be here. We have a heavy docket
today. It really feels like one of those weeks
where the industry is showing us its entire lifecycle.
Entire lifecycle, that's a good way to put it.
Yeah, you know, from the strategic shutdown of
a beloved small brand to, well... the cold financial
calculus of fleet deployment, and sadly, the
human reality of mortality at sea. It really
is the full spectrum. So we are looking at three
major stories leading the news, plus a roundup
of some pretty significant port developments.
We're going to start with a major shakeup in
the Alaska market. Oh, yeah. Alaskan Dream Cruises.
has officially ceased operations. And this isn't
just a pause, you know, it's a full stop for
a well -known operator. It is. And when we really
dig into the why, it serves as a kind of master
class in the current economics of small ship
cruising versus, you know, the mega carriers.
Then we're moving to the Norwegian bliss. NCL
has confirmed the end date for Jersey Boys, but
the story here isn't just about a musical closing.
No, not at all. It's about a fundamental shift
in how NCL views its onboard real estate and
entertainment. ROI. That's a massive topic. I
mean, the days of the loss leader Broadway show
might be numbered, at least for a Norwegian.
And we also have a very somber report from the
Celebrity Summit regarding the passing of jazz
clarinetist Ken Poplowski during a charter sailing.
We'll discuss what happened and the unique nature
of these music charters. A tragic loss for that
whole community. Just awful. So let's get into
the details. I want to start with Alaskan Dream
Cruises. For our listeners who track the expedition
market, this is significant. Huge. On February
4th, The company officially ceased operations,
canceled all future sailings. And this came down
from the owner, Jamie Cagle. And the phrasing
was interesting. He called it a strategic decision
following a review of long term objectives. Strategic
decision. That's often corporate shorthand for
we can't make the math work anymore. I think
that's exactly what it is. And looking at their
fleet, the math must have been incredibly difficult.
They were operating four vessels. The Chichagov
Dream. Admiralty dream the baron off dream and
the Alaskan dream and we need to put those ships
in context, right? These aren't just small in
the way a 600 passenger luxury ship is small.
Oh, no These are intimate expedition style vessels
the entire fleet all four ships combined only
had 223 births 223 that is a staggering number
I mean you have single lifeboats on the icon
of the seas that hold more people than their
entire fleet and yet Those four tiny ships still
require captains, engineers, chefs, deckhands.
That's the core of the economic pressure, isn't
it? It's the fixed cost problem. Exactly. Whether
you have 40 passengers or 4 ,000, you need a
bridge team. You need insurance. You need to
buy fuel. When you are splitting those costs
among just 50 guests, your per passenger operating
cost is... Well, it's astronomical. And these
were U .S. flagged vessels, which adds another
layer of complexity. A huge layer. Being U .S.
flagged is a double -edged sword. It let them
bypass the Passenger Vessel Services Act. Meaning
no stop in Canada. They could go straight from
Sitka to Juneau. Right. But the trade -off is
they have to hire U .S. citizens and follow U
.S. labor laws, which means much higher wage
costs. Significantly higher than the international
lines hiring globally. And you have to remember
they are competing in a market that has become
incredibly crowded. You have the giants like
Princess and Holland America just dominating
through sheer volume. all the priority permits
for Glacier Bay. And then they were also getting
squeezed from the top end too. It's not just
the big ships anymore. No, the luxury expedition
market has just exploded. You have the Ritz -Carlton
yacht collection, you have Virgin making inroads,
MSC. Everyone wants a piece of that high -yield
Alaska market. So Alaskan Dream was just stuck
in the middle? Completely. They had this unique
local product. I mean, they could navigate shallow
fjords the big ships can't even look at, but
they just didn't have the marketing muscle of
a Ritz -Carlton or the pricing efficiency of
a Carnival. That squeeze was so visible in their
pricing strategy. I saw reports that for the
2025 season, they were offering a 70 % discount.
to Alaska residents. 70%. When you see a 70 %
discount, that is a distress signal. That's a
line that is desperate to put heads in bags just
to cover fuel and crew. It just suggests the
demand wasn't there at the price they needed.
Not even close. Now despite this, it doesn't
feel like a chaotic bankruptcy. The parent company,
Alan Marine Tours, is still in business right.
Correct. And that's a crucial distinction to
make. Allen Marine is a staple in Southeast Alaska.
They run the day tours, the shore excursions,
the catamarans. The whale watching trips that
everyone takes. Exactly. That business model
is still very viable. High volume, short duration,
no overnight hotel costs. So they are simply
exiting the overnight cruise part of the business.
And they seem to be handling the exit responsibly.
They're refunding guests and even setting up
a transfer program to uncruise adventures. Which
is a very classy move. Instead of leaving guests
stranded, they are handing them off to a direct
competitor, which, you know, it preserves the
reputation of the parent company. What about
the ships? The Chichagof? The Emeraldi? They're
currently laid up in Sitka. No word yet on if
they'll be sold or repurposed. It's a tough market
for older tonnage right now. OK, let's pivot.
From the small shicks of Sitka to the massive
floating resorts of the West Coast, we need to
talk about Norwegian Cruise Line and the Norwegian
Bliss. This is a story that has been developing
for a while since mid -2023, but now we have
the concrete detail. The headline is this. The
Broadway musical Jersey Boys which has been the
anchor entertainment on The Bliss, will officially
end its run in February, 2026. And this just
aligns perfectly with that fleet wide pivot we
discussed last year. NCL is aggressively moving
away from these expensive licensed Broadway productions.
And they aren't replacing it with another big
license. No six, no kinky boots. The advisory
explicitly says the theater will transition to
rotating live specialty acts. Specialty acts.
Which, you know, in the industry, that usually
means comedians, magicians, jugglers. You mean
a cover band? Right. It's a very different value
proposition than a full -scale Broadway musical
with a huge cast. I've seen the passenger reaction
online, and there's a lot of skepticism. There
was a strong rumor that Choir of Man, which is
super popular on other NCL ships, would take
the slot. Enquired Man fits the new model perfectly.
It's high energy, smaller cast, lower production
cost, but NCL has not confirmed that. For now,
it's just this row -taking variety description.
I want to dig into the economics here, because
you mentioned ROI. Obviously, licensing Jersey
Boys costs millions, but is The savings just
about the license fee. It's twofold. First, yes,
the license fees and the royalties are massive.
It is significantly cheaper to produce your own
shows in -house in Tampa. But the second factor,
and people often overlook this, is the birth
economy. The crew cabins. Exactly. A show like
Jersey Boys needs a large cast, musicians, stage
managers. They all occupy cabins, cabins that
could be used for revenue generating staff or,
you know, paying passengers. So if you get rid
of the 30 person Broadway cast and hire a solo
magician and comedy duo. You've just freed up
maybe 25 beds. On a ship like the Bliss that's
a huge efficiency play. NCL has decided that
the wow factor of a Broadway show isn't driving
enough bookings to justify the the drag on the
ship's operational efficiency. That's a gamble.
I mean for a long time the entertainment wars
were all about who had the biggest name on the
marquee. It is a gamble. NCL seems to be betting
that passengers just want something entertaining
and they don't really care if it won a Tony Award.
And if you look at guest satisfaction surveys.
Sometimes the highest rated shows are the improv
comedians or the dueling pianos. NCL is betting
they can keep that satisfaction score without
the Broadway price tag. The timing is also really
specific here. The Bliss is in L .A. right now
doing the Mexican Riviera. But in April. 2026,
right after this change happens, it repositions
to Seattle for the Alaska season. So the Alaska
summer crowds will be the first test subjects
for this new format, which is interesting. You
know, it's a captive audience in Alaska, often
tired from long port days. That's a fair point.
They might actually prefer a quick 45 minute
variety act over a 90 minute musical. Shorter
attention spans might align better with magicians
than musicals. OK, we have to shift gears completely
for our third story. We're moving to the Celebrity
Summit, and unfortunately, this is a tragic update.
It is a very sad story. We are reporting on the
death of Ken Paplawski, a true legend in the
jazz world. This occurred on February 2nd. Paplawski
was aboard the Summit for the Jazz Cruise. This
wasn't a regular sailing. It was a full ship
charter. Right. And for those who haven't been
on a charter, it's a completely different ecosystem.
It's like a floating festival. The entire ship
is booked by one organization and every single
passenger is there for the music. He is a clarinetist
and saxophonist and, I mean, considered by critics
like Russell Davies to be one of the greatest
living jazz clarinetists. Just a giant in the
field. He had been battling multiple myeloma
since twenty twenty one, but he was still performing.
In fact, he was scheduled to play a set at four
zero p .m. that day with pianist Shelly Berg.
And that's how they realized something was wrong.
Correct. He didn't show up for the set. Yeah.
The organizers, specifically Michael Lazaroff,
said that Poplowski was a professional's professional.
He respected the bandstand. He never, ever missed
a set. When he wasn't there, they went to his
cabin and, well, they found him. The impact on
a charter like this must just be profound. On
a regular cruise of 3 ,000 strangers, a death
might go unnoticed by most. But on a jazz charter.
Everybody knows everybody. The artists mingle
with the guests. They eat dinner together. It's
a community. When the announcement was made before
the evening concert, reports say the room just
fell completely silent. It wasn't losing an act.
It was losing a friend. And operationally, the
ship continued its journey. It did. The summit
was on its final leg back to Fort Lauderdale.
It arrived on schedule. There was no deviation
or delay. But the tone of that final night was
obviously heavily impacted. Just a stark reminder
of the realities of life, even on vacation. It
is. The organizers have said they're planning
extensive remembrances for him on future cruises.
A fitting tribute. While it's difficult to pivot
from such a human story to, you know, operational
logistics, the industry machinery does keep moving.
We have several significant updates in our news
briefs this week. That's right. The business
of moving ships and building ports, it doesn't
stop. Let's start with the weather. We talk about
hurricane season all the time, but winter cruising
on the East Coast is proving to be a real headache.
Oh, yeah. The Carnival Sunshine got stuck in
Norfolk because of a winter storm. The port actually
closed. And this is the risk of that year round
strategy in non -tropical home ports. As lines
push to keep ships sailing from Baltimore, Norfolk,
New York in January, they're running into these
nor 'easters. And it creates a mess for the passengers.
It does. And it's forcing the lines to rewrite
their refu... fun playbooks. Passengers get frustrated
sitting in a snowy terminal for eight hours.
The lines are realizing if they want that winter
revenue, they need better contingency plans.
Speaking of port tensions, let's go back to Alaska
for a moment. Haynes, American Cruise Lines just
pulled a four million dollar offer to rebuild
a dock there. This is a really complex story.
It just highlights that friction between the
cruise industry's desire for growth and the local
community's desire for control. The money was
on the table. Why would they pull it? because
of the strings attached. American cruise lines
wanted a preferential use agreement, basically
guaranteed access for 20 years. And the locals
pushed back. The local borough assembly and especially
the fishing community pushed back hard. They
did not want to sign away control of their waterfront
for two decades just to get a dock repaired.
It's that classic fisherman versus tourism battle.
So by pulling the offer, ACL is sending a message.
Exactly. We will invest, but only if we get guaranteed
priority. And since they couldn't get it, they
took their checkbook and went home. OK, finally,
I'm going to group two stories together because
I think they paint a clear picture of the future.
Holland America has opened bookings for 2027
and 2028. Way in advance. Focusing heavily on
Pacific cruises. And Carnival announced they
are home porting two ships in Baltimore starting
in 2027. This is the drive to strategy in action.
This is the industry betting against the airlines.
Explain that. Why does a second ship in Baltimore
matter so much? It's all about the catchment
area. Millions and millions of people live within
a four -hour drive of Baltimore. If flight prices
stay high and air travel continues to be a hassle,
people will choose the vacation they can drive
to. So Carnival is planting a flag and saying
We will come to you. Precisely. And Holland America
is doing the same on the West Coast, opening
up San Diego and Vancouver for longer round -trip
voyages. They're targeting that demographic that
wants to avoid the airport at all costs. So fewer
flights to Miami, more road trips to Baltimore
and San Diego. That seems to be the winning bet
right now. It really has been a week of transitions.
We're seeing the end of the small ship era in
Sitka with Alaskan Dream, the end of the Broadway
era on NCL, and the industry just doubling down
on regional accessibility. The industry is always
evolving to find that efficiency, whether it's
in the engine room, the theater, or the home
port. And that's where we'll leave it for today.
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