For Doug: AIDA cruises

[caviargal]

Doug,

 

I see these ships whenever I am in Europe and they also popped in the Caribbean. I know they are owned by Carnival.

 

Are these new builds? Have you heard about them?

 

Web searches have not been very helpful and Carnival does not have a clue. Thought you might know something. They certainly have an interesting look.

[dougnewmanatsea]

Aida is a German-market brand of Carnival, inherited from P&O Princess who bought Aida's former German owner, Seetours. Today, Aida is under the control of the Costa Crociere subsidiary, not P&O Princess (part of a market realignment which put all of the Continental European brands under Costa control).

 

Aida has a very casual "club ship" concept - think of it as Freestyle cruising on steroids. There are two big buffet restaurants, and only one smallish (~100 seat) waiter-service restaurant, though all food is included in the fare. Quality is reportedly very good and in the normally ultra-traditional German market, Aida came as a breath of fresh air - it is now the largest German-market cruise brand (Germany is the third-largest cruise market after North America and the UK). Rather than experienced cruisers, Aida has attracted people who used to take inclusive-tour holidays on land, and it became one of the most notable cruising success stories of the past decade.

 

Of the four Aida ships, three of them - AIDACARA, AIDAVITA and AIDAAURA - are newbuilds. The fourth, AIADABLU, is the former CROWN PRINCESS. A few years back, Seetours started a more upscale version of Aida called A'Rosa. CROWN PRINCESS was heavily rebuilt as A'ROSA BLU. Unlike Aida, A'Rosa was not a success and last year their sole ocean-going ship has become a regular Aida ship, AIDABLU.

 

Aida was such a popular concept that P&O launched a UK version of the product, Ocean Village Holidays, using the former STAR PRINCESS/ARCADIA (not to be confused with the current ships of those names), now renamed OCEAN VILLAGE. The sisterhsip of AIDABLU, REGAL PRINCESS, will join Ocean Village in 2006.

 

Meanwhile, two new, much larger ships, codenamed Project Sphinx, are being built at Meyer Werft for Aida, rapidly expanding as ever.

 

More information on Aida can be seen at their official site here - it is in German, but if you can decipher a few words, you can get to great virtual tours of the ships which showcase their unique interiors. As an indication of Aida's huge popularity, there are also a lot of Aida fan-pages out there (all in German of course).

[caviargal]

Thank you, Doug.

 

She looked like a very new and clean ship when I was next to her in port. And the passengers were so obviously having fun!!!

 

I just might give the line a try one day.

 

CG

[dougnewmanatsea]

I just might give the line a try one day.

I think it could be a lot of fun if you speak German.

 

If not... not. Unlike the fully-bilingual DEUTSCHLAND (Peter Deilmann) and the quasi-bilingual Hapag-Lloyd ships, Aida makes no accomodations for non-German-speaking passengers.

 

But if you speak at least some German, it might be worth a try.

[caviargal]

I think it could be a lot of fun if you speak German.

 

If not... not. Unlike the fully-bilingual DEUTSCHLAND (Peter Deilmann) and the quasi-bilingual Hapag-Lloyd ships, Aida makes no accomodations for non-German-speaking passengers.

 

But if you speak at least some German, it might be worth a try.

 

I attended Univ. of Salzburg and was fluent by the age of 16. Of course, that is no longer the case but I am still good at comprehension and it would not be hard to refresh.

 

I was just on MSC as one of only 30 Americans and the rest European. I got to use my Italian and my German, at least to the best of my ability. It added to the adventure!

 

CG