is this the official end of Cunard Line LTD?

[Rob.London]

New ATOL Number & ABTA Membership On 31 May 2005, Cunard Seabourn Limited, trading as Cunard Line, transfers its business to its parent company, Carnival plc as part of an internal restructuring. From this date Cunard Line will mean Carnival plc trading as Cunard Line. This will have no effect on voyages and crossings purchased before this date or the consumer protection available to passengers through ATOL and the Passenger Shipping Association. However, you will notice that our ATOL number changes (to that of Carnival plc - 6294) and that we will take advantage of Carnival plc's existing membership of ABTA by becoming a member under ABTA number V8764.

 

This disclaimer was taken from the May edition of Voyager the Cunard MAg for travel agents.

[cruisin'fool2]

I'm not sure I understand what all that means. Could you explain it in layman's terms? Thanks.

 

Mike

[dougnewmanatsea]

Sounds like a load of legalese to me!

 

In essence, what I think it's saying is that they're closing a legal entity called Cunard Seabourn Ltd. which was apparently the company known in the UK as Cunard, and that officially Cunard will now be Carnival plc (fka P&O Princess Cruises plc).

 

Nothing more than a legal change which I doubt has any real implications. Probably a legal/tax/insurance sort of thing.

 

The "real" Cunard was established in 1840 as the British and North American Royal Mail Steam Packet Company (how's that for a long name!) and I suspect it hasn't existed for a very, very long time.

 

Whatever this Cunard Seabourn Ltd. is, it can't be more than seven years old, since Cunard and Seabourn weren't the same company before that.

[guernseyguy]

Prompted by much waffle on this board about how 'Princess is ruining Cunard' (before it was Carnival...but then they built the QM2, so that didn't work anymore...) I've checked QE2 (Captain Ronald W Warwick, Norton, London, third ed., 1999) for the official word;

 

The summer of 1971 saw a fundamental change in the ownership of the Cunard Steamship Company Limited. Cunard, after an independent existence of 132 years, was the object of a successful take over bid by the British Company Trafalgar House Investments Ltd. (p.86)

 

In April 1996 Kvaerner bought Trafalgar House for their construction and engineering elements, and got Cunard as well, which was then sold to Carnival two years later in April 1998, and Cunard merged with Seabourn at the same time, forming 'Cunard Line Ltd.'(pp169-170).

 

So there we have it. Cunard RIP 1971. The rest is just legalise (and if I wanted some one to sue, Carnival has much deeper pockets than a notional 'Cunard').

 

Peter

[Ab Ovo]

"A notional 'Cunard.'" Right on! That's all we have now, an idea of how things shoud be.

 

Cunard has not been Cunard since Trafalgar and the breaking of the unions. Sad. But what else do we have now?

 

Two ships carry the loved Cunard badge; we hold on, still go on, fuss and hope for the best.

[CupCaked]

So there we have it. Cunard RIP 1971.

Peter

 

So true, Cunard hasn't been Cunard for a very long time, just as HAL has not been a Ducth company for a while. At least with the Carnival Corp $$$, they are both still around in some form, though, and that's a Good Thing.

 

Karen