Will a Princess Cruise itinerary decision impact the deployment of Nieuw Statendam?

CC posted on the Princess Message Board the news that Princess has decided to deploy their new Majestic Princess to Australia starting September 15, 2018 until March, 2019. This was unexpected. Majestic Princess was built for year round sailings from China, as I understood the plans.

Since Nieuw Statendam is due to enter service during November, 2018, I wonder if, after a few initial sailings in the Mediterranean, she will be sent to Australia/New Zealand waters to compete with Majestic Princess?

Holland America has a much smaller brand identity amongst travelers from the greater UK and Ireland as well as Aus/NZ as compared to Princess, which is what drives Princess to have so much capacity in the Aus/NZ market. I do not foresee them sending Nieuw Statendam to Aus/NZ. I think the Nieuw Statendam will replace either Eurodam or Nieuw Amsterdam from FLL for the winter 2018/19 season. There will be a trickle down in the fleet as a result with most likely seeing the Maasdam or Veendam (or both) leaving the fleet, or being redeployed to new cruising regions.

Princess decision to not keep Majestic Princess in China year round seems to echo RCCL's decision on the Quantum. This may signal that both companies see an over saturation of the Chinese market in the short term.

HAL won't send a newbuild outside Europe/Caribbean initially.

The remaining S class likely go to Australia though. ;)

Might be that winter is not the best season to sail in China, better to go down where it is warm. EM

CC posted on the Princess Message Board the news that Princess has decided to deploy their new Majestic Princess to Australia starting September 15, 2018 until March, 2019. This was unexpected. Majestic Princess was built for year round sailings from China, as I understood the plans.

 

 

 

Since Nieuw Statendam is due to enter service during November, 2018, I wonder if, after a few initial sailings in the Mediterranean, she will be sent to Australia/New Zealand waters to compete with Majestic Princess?

Compete for what? They are both owned by the same corporation.

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I wish HAL would consider Port Canaveral again. We sailed on the Zaandam and also Volendam out of Port Canaveral many years ago and it was a great location. RCI, Disney, Carnival and NCL all sail out of Port Canaveral. We now sail RCI but would try HAL again if it sailed from Port Canaveral..

Compete for what? They are both owned by the same corporation.

 

 

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So The various members of the Carnival family shouldn't ever be in the same market, anywhere?

Princess and HAL are different cruise lines, with different personalities, and as such have different target markets and loyal followers.

So The various members of the Carnival family shouldn't ever be in the same market, anywhere?

 

 

 

Princess and HAL are different cruise lines, with different personalities, and as such have different target markets and loyal followers.

Never said they both shouldn't be there. It's just not any competition--

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I wish HAL would consider Port Canaveral again. We sailed on the Zaandam and also Volendam out of Port Canaveral many years ago and it was a great location. RCI, Disney, Carnival and NCL all sail out of Port Canaveral. We now sail RCI but would try HAL again if it sailed from Port Canaveral..

I think HAL has found a comfortable niche sailing out of Tampa and that they would rather focus their central Florida efforts from there vs Port Canaveral. Personally I'd rather sail from Tampa over Port Canaveral any day! Tamps does have more limited destination options however

I think HAL has found a comfortable niche sailing out of Tampa and that they would rather focus their central Florida efforts from there vs Port Canaveral. Personally I'd rather sail from Tampa over Port Canaveral any day! Tamps does have more limited destination options however

I agree with you that the destinations are limited from Tampa. We do sail out of Tampa on the Brilliance and Rhapsody but I find navigating Tampa very confusing, despite having done it before. Even my GPS gets confused!! Port Canaveral is a straight shot for us down 95. I don't fly so we drive. Long drive but we do a two day road trip to make it fun!

As the OP, I don't object to the comments about Tampa vs. Port Canaveral being posted. All are appreciated by me. (And maybe by whomever in Seattle monitors this Message Board.) Never have sailed from Tampa, but have from Port Canaveral. Driving to/from Port Canaveral produces no issues; very simple. I look at the AAA map for Tampa and how to get to the Port and my perception is that it is NOT as simple as Port Canaveral.

Returning to the original reason for posting this thread, if anyone in Seattle is reading this, it would be of tremendous help to me in planning my 2018-2019 travel plans if I knew what the Nieuw Statendam's itineraries will be.

Normal announcement time would be this summer.

Fall 2018 to Spring 2019 itineraries will start to be released mid to end of June through mid July most likely, if years past are any indicator. HAL is usually last to market with releasing these Fall through Spring sailings. Prinsendam of course being the exception.

I think a lot has to do with the fact that HAL offer significantly more long cruises than competitors and as a result want to watch booking trends longer before releasing deployments