Cunard Vista Class?

[NapTown Jim]

I was surfing the net the other night and ran across this...

 

http://www.cunard-queen-victoria.us/

 

Cunard's new liner 'Queen Victoria' looks a heck of alot like HAL's Vista class ships. I'm wondering if Cunard is trying to save money on an all new ship and simply ordered an established design or if HAL had an option for a 5th Vista class that Cunard picked up.

[NapTown Jim]

D'oh!! Maybe if I read that article more closely I might have had my answer!

 

From the article...

But that ship had been originally ordered as the fifth in a series of five 'Vista' class ships for sister company Holland America, and the contact was signed over to Cunard with Holland America then ordering a further ship for delivery in 2006. (The lead ship in the series, Zuiderdam, entered service in December 2002.)

 

[Krazy Kruizers]

A Vista class ship for Cunard - interesting. I wonder if they will change some of the interior - like have 2 passageways to the dining room??

[RedmondCruiser]

I've heard that Carnival would like to build several cookie cutter ships, for it's subsidiaries, so that they can easily be transferred from one line to another with as little modification as possible. That sounds like like the corporate brain at work and it makes sense.

 

I forgot were I heard it but was'nt the Victoria addition to Cunard cancelled and the ship was to go to another line ??

[bepsf]

Yes, it went to P&O as Arcadia

 

Cunard wasn't satisfied that the Vista ship was sufficiently different from HAL to work well as a Cunarder, so they started from scratch with a new hull.

[noblepa]

It is my understanding that HAL's Vista class uses the same design as Carnival's Spirit class, so extending it to Cunard is no big deal. I don't know whether CCL's Spirit or HAL's Vista class ships came first, so I don't know who is copying whom.

 

Paul Noble

[dougnewmanatsea]

Yes, this is basically a Vista-class ship for Cunard... With some changes.

 

The rendering shown there is actually of the ship that is now P&O's ARCADIA. This was originally ordered as the fourth of six Vista-class ships for HAL. The first three became ZUIDERDAM, OOSTERDAM, and WESTERDAM. The fourth was to go to Cunard and become QUEEN VICTORIA. The fifth became NOORDAM. The sixth was cancelled in favor of something different (not a Vista-class) for Carnival or Costa or Princess or one of the other Carnival brands.

 

The first QUEEN VICTORIA was supposed to be introduced in 2005. Large portions of her design were already "frozen" and only a limited number of modifications could be made. Aside from some decorative changes, the only real change was the addition of an additional alternative restaurant, forward of the funnel atop the ship.

 

After Carnival and P&O Princess merged, Carnival decided that P&O Cruises needed a new ship quickly, so the got what was supposed to be QUEEN VICTORIA. She became ARCADIA and entered service last year. A new QUEEN VICTORIA was then ordered; this is also a Vista-class derivative (she will not be a totally new design) but she will supposedly have far more substantial revisions to turn her into a Cunarder. At the very least, Cunard will be able to choose her interior decor, which they could only do to a limited extent with the previous ship.

 

QUEEN VICTORIA is supposed to enter service in December of next year. Only time will tell what she will wind up like. Certainly she should be less like a HAL ship and incorporate more Cunard elements than the original QUEEN VICTORIA (current ARCADIA) did. As both a Cunard and HAL passenger I can say that the two are very different and having been on a Vista-class ship and on both current Cunard ships, I think the original VICTORIA would have made an absolutely awful Cunarder. Hopefully the new one will be more in tune with the Cunard product and with what Cunard passengers expect.