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Latest News for Members from Regent Seven Seas Cruises
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Regent Seven Seas Cruises has made a very special offer to members of the World Ocean & Cruise Liner Society for select voyages.
In order to learn more about this offer members must call Beth Schmidt at (800) 828 4813 ext 1009 and mention the special offer for members.
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E NEWS SUPPLEMENT...by Bill Miller
April 16, 2012
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Greetings!
Recent news from Prestige Cruise Holdings, the parent company of luxury cruise operators Regent Seven Seas Cruises and Oceania Cruises is that a new "anti-rebating" policy will be in effect beginning May1st. This policy is meant to stop the growing trends of agents dropping rebating parts of their commissions in order to lure passengers away from their existing agents.
There are many key points to this new policy, such as; Passengers "must" pay the full gross fare for their cruise, whether by credit card or check. If they pay an agency by check, or the agent processes their credit card and sends a check to the line, the check must be for the full gross amount of the cruise. Passengers who book with the line and then turn the booking over to an agent have only 30 days to do so. Should a passenger wish to move their booking from one agency to another after their booking is made, they may do so, but the new agency will earn a reduced commission thereby hampering an agency's ability to lure away a booking from another agency who has already put time and effort into this reservation
While the full policy is too long to go into here it stresses a point that is happening throughout out world. Manufacturers of goods and services wish to control the sale, and sale prices, of their products. In speaking with some of our agent friends many feel that the agent's ability to rebate is hampering the lines from increasing their share of direct bookings. They point out that once the line's are able to shift more share of the business to a direct booking model, using outsourcing if needed to handle the business, the perks they now offer the consumer to sway them to come direct will certainly disappear.
The lines on the other hand indicate that they are not looking to put their agent partners out of business. They consider them a vital partner in their business and are in fact trying to help them survive. They see all to often incidents where a knowledgeable, helpful agents puts in the time and effort to help one of their passengers, only to see that passenger leave to get a lower price. They are however trying to put an end to a situation where their luxurious product appears on the discount shelves of certain agencies who are willing to sell it with a bare minimum of profit.
Stay tuned for more information!
Sincerely!
Tom Cassidy
P.S. Remember to join us aboard the new Celebrity Reflection on January 26, 2013 for a 7-Night WOCLS cruise to benefit the American Cancer Society. This is a very worthwhile project and the cruise will have many perks, benefits and great rates. Call our coordinator Beth Schmidt at (800) 828 4813 ext 1009 for more details.
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Troubles at sea! 
The 30,000-ton Azamara Journey had her very first arrival in New York City on Apr 9th. The 694-bed ship berthed at Pier 88. Previously, in 2007, the ship did a seasonal series of New York-Bermuda cruises but from Cape Liberty in Bayonne, New Jersey.
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Delayed sailing!
A US Federal judge ordered the 2,758-bed Carnival Destiny to be detained at Galveston on Mar 31st. The detention was based on a $10 million lawsuit filed by a German passenger from last January's Costa Concordia tragedy. The detention was later lifted & the ship finally sailed.
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Britain - Hotel service!
The big ferry Regina Baltica -- the former Viking Song, built in 1980 - is serving these days as a floating hotel for workers on a wind farm project off the Norfolk coast.
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London - Commemoration! 
A Titanic dinner was held in the Edwardian-styled Hotel Russell this week to highlight the centenary of the infamous tragedy.
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 Merchant Shipping - Biggest yet!
South Korea's Daewoo Shipbuilding has begun construction of the world's largest floating dock. When completed next winter, the 1,417-ft long dock will be able to handle vessels as large as ultra-sized 18,000-capacity containerships.
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Good news! 
New York including Brooklyn is now one of the five busiest cruise ports in all of the USA. And the numbers are encouraging - 582,979 passengers passed through the Port in 2010 and then increased to 632,923 in 2011. Estimates are for over 650,000 this year. There were 241 passenger ship calls in 2010, up to 267 in 2011. Passenger spending increased from $144 million to nearly $150 million between 2010 and '11.
Changing the calendar! The $1 billion plan to raise the deck of the 1932-built Bayonne Bridge by 65 feet, for clearance of new, mega-sized container ships, could be advanced from its projected 2016 completion date. The project is based on the widening of the Panama Canal, scheduled for completion in Aug 2014. Container ships often berth in New Jersey, at Newark & Elizabeth.
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Ocean Liner Collectibles - Moonlit seas but in Boston!
One of my favorite recreations of the great ocean liners was in poster art - those large, very colorful, often artistic depictions of the ships, life onboard & their faraway destinations. I am giving an illustrated talk about the Floating Palaces: The Great Atlantic Liners on Thu May 3rd, at the International Poster Gallery at 205 Newbury St in Boston. Telephone: 617-375-0076.
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Ocean Liner History - One hundred years ago!
It has been, of course, the centennial of the sinking of the Titanic. On Apr 19th, I hosted a bus tour in New York City - highlighting Pier 59 where the Titanic would have berthed, Pier 54 where the survivors landed aboard the Cunard rescue ship Carpathia, the Jane St Hotel where some survivors were housed, the location at 11 Broadway where the White Star Line offices were located & to the Titanic memorial tower at the South Street Seaport Museum.
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Heroic duty!
The world's largest liner, the 225,000-ton Oasis of the Seas, rescued 23 Cuban refugees off Jamaica on Apr 5th.
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San Francisco - Better than ever!
The preserved Liberty ship Jeremiah O'Brien, a 7,200-ton vessel built in World War II, in 1943, has just been dry docked & refurbished in San Francisco. The 441-ft long O'Brien is one of two preserved Liberty Ships (out of 2,700 constructed) in the USA. |
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Changing face!
Long known as a discount cruise line in the UK & Europe, Thomson is creating an upmarket division called Thomson Platinum Cruises. Two ships will be refurbished for the division - the 54,000-ton Thomson Dream will be refitted this fall, the 33,900-ton Thomson Celebration gets her makeover in the spring of 2013. |
Ocean & Cruise News
Current & Past Issues Members can download a PDF of current and past issues using the following links
Past Issues of this "new" Email Supplement beginning with the Feb. 21, 2011 issue can be found by clicking our logo below
The above listed items are copyrighted material and are for the exclusive use of paid members in good standing. Any unauthorized duplication, transmission or distribution of this material without the written permission of The World Ocean & Cruise Liner Society is strictly prohibited.
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WORLD OCEAN & CRUISE LINER SOCIETY'S
HOSTED CRUISES
One of the great things about being a World Ocean & Cruise Liner Society member is joining us aboard one of our "Hosted" member cruises. Each cruise features low group rates, special amenities plus onboard lectures and events
Veendam - Bermuda (7 Night)
Jun 3, 2012 - Call for Current Rates
Queen Mary 2 - Independence Day Cruise
July 1, 2012 - Call for Current Rates
Queen Mary 2 - Canada / New England (11 Nights)
Sep 21, 2012 - Call for Current Rates
*Rates are per person based on double occupancy.
Government fees are additional.
For Reservations and Information Call WOCLS Group Coordinator Beth Schmitt at (800) 828 4813 Ext 1009
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About Bill Miller 
Bill Miller is an international authority on the subject of ocean liners & cruise ships --- from those "floating palaces" of yesteryear to the current generation of cruise ships, the "floating resorts". Called "Mr. Ocean Liner," he has written some 80 books on the subject: from early steamers, immigrant ships and liners at war to other titles on their fabulous interiors, in post card form and about the highly collectible artifacts from them. He has done specific histories of such celebrated passenger ships as the United States, Queen Mary, Rotterdam, France, Queen Elizabeth 2 and Crystal Serenity.
In all, he has also written over 1,000 articles for newspapers, magazines and nautical journals & newsletters. He even had his very own ocean liner quarterly, the Millergram. He has made nearly 450 voyages to date: Atlantic crossings, tropical cruises, coastal runs and even trips on container cargo ships and exotic banana boats. He has appeared in some three dozen video & television series, both in the USA, Britain, Europe and Australia, including Castles of the Sea, The Floating Palaces, The Super Liners, Inside the World of a Cruise Ship, Disasters at Sea, Deco: Age of Glamour, and Lady in Waiting: The Story of the SS United States. He has also appeared on The Today Show, CBS Evening News, CBS Sunday Morning, Good Morning America, NBC Evening News and many other news broadcasts. He has been guest lecturer aboard over 50 different liners, sailing with the likes of Crystal Cruises, Cunard, Carnival, Holland America, Princess, Radisson-Seven Seas, Saga Cruises and others. Miller was a public school teacher, in middle school and for social studies, for 32 years. He was named "Teacher of the Year" in 2002.
A native of Hoboken, New Jersey, the once busy port just across the Hudson River from New York City, Miller was named Outstanding American Maritime Scholar in 1994, received the United States Maritime Preservation Award and also the Ocean Liner Council's Silver Riband Award, both in 2004. Also, he has been chairman of the Port of New York Branch of the World Ship Society, deputy director of the New York Harbor Festival, served on the selection committee for the American Maritime Hall of Fame, created the passenger ship database for the Ellis Island Museum and currently serves as Curator of 20th Century Maritime History at Manhattan's South Street Seaport Museum. He has also organized a 14-week college course on liners, and helped to create & then served as historian at the US Merchant Marine Museum. His private collection includes 4,000 books on ships, over 15,000 photos and some 1,500 miniature ship models, most of them being passenger ships.
By 2011, Miller had 10 new books in the works, was curator to Decodence (an exhibit at the South St Seaport on the design & décor of the grand French liner Normandie) and himself was the subject of a one-hour film documentary aptly titled Mr Ocean Liner. In 2011, he hosted Cinematic Crossings: Ocean Liners on the Big Screen, a 5-day film festival at Manhattan's Lincoln Center. Currently, he spends some 200 days a year lecturing onboard ocean liners & cruise ships.
Follow Bill's look back at ship's of yesteryear..
Heard Along the Boat Deck
And his current and past cruise experiences...
Scribblings |
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William Miller Books!
Busy scribbling! Our good friends Anthony Cooke & John Maxtone-Graham have new titles out on the shelves. London-based Anthony has just released Favourite British Liners with 216 pages & 216 photos (96 of them in color). Check through Mainmast Books in the UK. Meanwhile, Manhattan-homeported John has just finished a new title on the immortal Titanic. It was published by W W Norton & Company.
In the works! The presses are rolling over in England, at the History Press. I've penned a short, 10,000-word overview of passenger ships entitled The Great Liners. It should be out soon. It will be followed, at the same publishing house, by Great Passenger Ships 1910-20 and then Great American Passenger Ships. Happily, my finger keeps on typing ... and happily, there are still photos and anecdotes and maybe something new to be shared.
Another new book project! Happily, I have been signed to do another edition of the Classic Liners series for the History Press over in the UK. In the wake of our book on the Caronia, Cunard's "Green Goddess," this project will deal with two of the most popular, most beloved post-Second World War French liners, the Ile de France & Liberte. The Ile was built for the French but back in 1927; the larger Liberte came to them as post-war reparations, having been the German Europa of 1930. The Ile sailed the Atlantic between 1949 and 1958; the Liberte ran between 1950 and 1961. They transported thousands on the regular run between New York, Southampton or Plymouth and Le Havre, and even had occasional cruises. They were of course predecessors to the much larger, faster France, commissioned in 1962. If any of our readers has anecdotes, reflections, comments and shared materials on these great liners, please contact me through Ocean & Cruise News.
On the horizon! Brian Hawley is penning a new book, filled with lots of photos, about the Olympic, the White Star liner completed in 1911 and sister to the infamous Titanic
Ocean liners in words & pictures! An updated list of my published ocean liner books ... and available thru bmce48@yahoo.com.
Great Passenger Ships 1910-1920
It was an age of evolution, when size and speed were almost the ultimate considerations. 'Bigger was said to be better' and ship owners were not exempted from the prevailing mood. While the German four-stackers of 1897-06 and then Cunard's brilliant Mauretania & Lusitania of 1907 led the way to larger and grander liners. White Star Line countered by 1911 with the Olympic, her sister Titanic and a near-sister, the Britannic. The French added the France while Cunard took delivery of the beloved Aquitania. But the Germans won out -- they produced the 52,000-ton Imperator and a near-sister, the Vaterland, the last word in shipbuilding and engineering prior to the First World War. They and their sister, the Bismarck, remained the biggest ships in the world until 1935.
But other passenger ships appear in this decade --- other Atlantic liners, but also ships serving on more diverse routes: Union Castle to Africa, P&O to India and beyond, the Empress liners on the trans-Pacific run. We look at a grand age of maritime creation, ocean-going superlative, but also sad destruction in the dark days of the First War. It was, in all ways, a fascinating period.
Last Atlantic Liners: Getting There is Half the Fun (Amberley Publishing, Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK, 2011
RMS Caronia: Cunard's Green Goddess
(co-authored with Brian Hawley) The History Press Ltd, Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK, 2011
Floating Palaces: The Great Atlantic Liners(Amberley Publishing, Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK, 2011
Great British Passenger Ships (The History Press Ltd, Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK, 2010)
SS Nieuw Amsterdam: The Darling of the Dutch (Amberley Publishing, Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK, 2010)
Cunard's Three Queens: A Celebration (Amberley Publishing, Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK, 2009)
Under the Red Ensign: British Passenger Liners of the '50s & '60s (The History Press, Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK, 2009)
SS United States: Speed Queen of the Seas (Amberley Publishing, Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK, 2009)
And yet to come.....
Great Passenger Ships 1910-20 (The History Press Ltd, Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK, due Sep 2011)
I Was Born in Hoboken: Memories of the 1950s & '60s (Hoboken Historical Museum, Hoboken, NJ, due fall 2011)
Along the Hudson: Great Passenger Ships at New York in Photos (Amberley Publishing, Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK, due 2012)
The Last Great Dynasty: The Royal House of Windsor (Amberley Publishing, Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK, due 2012)
Great Atlantic Liners of the 20th Century in Color (co-authored with Anton Logvinenko; Amberley Publishing, Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK, due 2012)
Great American Passenger Ships (The History Press Ltd, Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK, due 2012)
The Cunard Yanks (co-authored with Ian Wright; pending but due 2012)
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