On the Celebrity NewsFront

[ocngypz]

Just a couple of things:

 

Parent RCL received $38M from Alstrom regarding the pod suit. Still suing Rolls Royce.

 

Will be installing an auxiliary diesel on the Millennium late 06 early 07. To power the hotel plant, they say. Stay tuned for drydock information when dateis announced.

 

Three Xpedition crew members were fired and turned over to Ecuadorean police after they were caught shark fishing. Ecuador wants to ban Xpeditions from sailing for 60 days. Xpeditions is appealing as the fishing was not company sanctioned.

 

Bookings are brisk!! If you are contemplating 06 sailings.. get those deposits in! At the quarterly meeting Fain states fares are up!

[Texed]

I am so glad you are posting regular again. You always have very good/up to date information.:) Thanks!

[CGTNORMANDIE]

SOOOOOO...do you think any of the 38M will end up in X's hands??? YAH...RIGHT...LOL!!! X will always be the poor orphan at RCI...at least until the debt of the merger is paid off...probably not in my life time...LOL!!!

 

ROSS

[cruisewmn]

Thanks for the update!:)

[Andy]

SOOOOOO...do you think any of the 38M will end up in X's hands??? YAH...RIGHT...LOL!!! X will always be the poor orphan at RCI...at least until the debt of the merger is paid off...probably not in my life time...LOL!!!

 

ROSS

 

Hi Ross & Ocngypz !

 

Actually, the Alstom settlement was annouced a few days ago, when RCI announced their earnings. I posted it somewhere on here, but I probably should have started a new thread on it. It was good that Ocngypz made it more visable. I was surprised there was little discussion of it here.

 

I would like to believe Celebrity will see some of the money, but I also have to wonder how the money will be allocated.

 

FYI... They continue to have a suit pending against Rolls-Royce for the same issue, so RCI/X will probably see additional money, before this matter comes to a conclusion.

[ocngypz]

Problem is...... there are so many companies involved under "Rolls Royce"..... so many different companies.. each making separate bits and pieces.

 

So much for joint EU ventures!

[Andy]

Problem is...... there are so many companies involved under "Rolls Royce"..... so many different companies.. each making separate bits and pieces.

 

So much for joint EU ventures!

 

 

Good Point Ocngypz. I guess we will have to wait and see. I would think ALL parties would like to put this matter behind them.

[canderson]

Will be installing an auxiliary diesel on the Millennium late 06 early 07. To power the hotel plant, they say.

Now that's bizarre. Only on the Millennium, or on all of the M-Class ships? Had never heard that they'd had any power "shortages" from the gas turbine plants on these ships. Really odd.

[ocngypz]

Now that's bizarre. Only on the Millennium, or on all of the M-Class ships? Had never heard that they'd had any power "shortages" from the gas turbine plants on these ships. Really odd.

 

Precisely, my point. But that is the "official" reason. Only Millie was mentioned. Could be because she is the eldest of the three.

[Ericknow32]

SOOOOOO...do you think any of the 38M will end up in X's hands??? YAH...RIGHT...LOL!!! X will always be the poor orphan at RCI...at least until the debt of the merger is paid off...probably not in my life time...LOL!!!

 

ROSS

The money probably is going to RCI. Who do you think had to pay for the problems with the ships when they happened.

[Andy]

Now that's bizarre. Only on the Millennium, or on all of the M-Class ships? Had never heard that they'd had any power "shortages" from the gas turbine plants on these ships. Really odd.

 

Hi Canderson !

 

For now, Only Millennium is the only ship scheduled for this. I believe the reason it, is being done is to save on fuel costs.

[canderson]

Hi Canderson !

 

For now, Only Millennium is the only ship scheduled for this. I believe the reason it, is being done is to save on fuel costs.

I had thought that the price of Jet A1 vs. diesel and relative efficiencies of the two power plants still favored Jet A1 and gas turbine. Haven't looked at the price differential recently, but can't imagine there's been that much divergence in recent history. Hmmm.

[lisiamc]

Precisely, my point. But that is the "official" reason. Only Millie was mentioned. Could be because she is the eldest of the three.

 

Thanks for telling us about this. We're booked on the Millennium transatlantic this autumn. I'd better hold off on buying air tickets until we find out if the date will change!

 

Lisa

[AgSg]

Just a couple of things:

 

Parent RCL received $38M from Alstrom regarding the pod suit. Still suing Rolls Royce.

 

Will be installing an auxiliary diesel on the Millennium late 06 early 07. To power the hotel plant, they say. Stay tuned for drydock information when dateis announced.

 

Three Xpedition crew members were fired and turned over to Ecuadorean police after they were caught shark fishing. Ecuador wants to ban Xpeditions from sailing for 60 days. Xpeditions is appealing as the fishing was not company sanctioned.

 

Bookings are brisk!! If you are contemplating 06 sailings.. get those deposits in! At the quarterly meeting Fain states fares are up!

Where did you get the information on the new diesel plant. I looked through press releases and found nothing.

[AgSg]

Hi Canderson !

 

For now, Only Millennium is the only ship scheduled for this. I believe the reason it, is being done is to save on fuel costs.

Host Andy,

 

Here is the section from the RCL earnings announcement that mentions the settlement:

 

In late January 2006, the company partially settled its previously announced lawsuit against Rolls Royce and Alstom Power Conversion, co- producers of the Mermaid pod-propulsion system on its Millennium-class ships, for the Mermaid pod problems. Under the terms of the partial settlement, Alstom paid the company $38 million, or $0.16 per share, and the company released Alstom from the suit which remains pending against Rolls Royce. The partial settlement will be recorded in the first quarter of 2006.

 

But there is no mention of a drydock. We were on the TA last November and went through the delays associated with that drydock. We are booked for this November's TA and are not in the mood for a repeat performance.

 

We are really curious where you all got the drydock information.

 

Albert

[c-legs]

Good afternoon,

 

The idea behind the auxilliary diesel engine was talked about earlier.I suspect only Millie for now will get it; sort of a '' test case''...If reality bears out what the theory is behind this manoeuvre, then you get bet the other three in the class will get the diesel as well, in turns.

Gaz turbine propulsion, with all its upsides, has turned out to be an expensive system in its consumption. RCCL also has GT in some of its classes, and obviously will apply the auxilliary diesel engine concept if it works out as predicted for Millie.

The main point seems to be that using the diesel for hotel power plant ''saves'' the GT by limiting it to propulsion duties, thus ensuring that its appetite for fuel is restricted .

 

It'll be interesting to watch how it all pans out...

 

Cheers

CG

;)

 

:)

[AgSg]

Good afternoon,

 

The idea behind the auxilliary diesel engine was talked about earlier.I suspect only Millie for now will get it; sort of a '' test case''...If reality bears out what the theory is behind this manoeuvre, then you get bet the other three in the class will get the diesel as well, in turns.

Gaz turbine propulsion, with all its upsides, has turned out to be an expensive system in its consumption. RCCL also has GT in some of its classes, and obviously will apply the auxilliary diesel engine concept if it works out as predicted for Millie.

The main point seems to be that using the diesel for hotel power plant ''saves'' the GT by limiting it to propulsion duties, thus ensuring that its appetite for fuel is restricted .

 

It'll be interesting to watch how it all pans out...

 

Cheers

CG

;)

 

:)

The idea of limiting GT to propulsion makes sense. Diesel is not the pollution culprit it used to be so they can still push their non-polluter line. I am just wondering if there has been any official release of this plan by RCL. I can’t find it anywhere. I have searched the investor press releases and well as on the travel agent site CruisingPower. I have also had some discussion with our Celebrity regional rep and she knows nothing (or playing dumb).

 

Albert

[canderson]

The idea of limiting GT to propulsion makes sense. Diesel is not the pollution culprit it used to be so they can still push their non-polluter line.

Tell THAT to the folks on the Sky Deck of any of the C-Class ships!

[AgSg]

Tell THAT to the folks on the Sky Deck of any of the C-Class ships!

Are you trying to tell us that you can smell diesel fumes on the sky deck????

[Andy]

Host Andy,

 

But there is no mention of a drydock. We were on the TA last November and went through the delays associated with that drydock. We are booked for this November's TA and are not in the mood for a repeat performance.

 

We are really curious where you all got the drydock information.

 

Albert

 

Hi Albert !

 

I think you may have misread my posts, or confisued it with someone else's. I never gave any specific dates for Millennium's drydock, as I do not know when this work will be done. However, I believe that Millennium will be taken out of service to make these changes, as it seems pretty extensive.

 

As for when it will be done ? I do not believe Celebrity has announced any dates yet.

 

I hope that clears things up a bit.

[iandjm]

I hope they dont cancel our 10 November Med cruise :confused:

 

A diesel power plant addition seems a little odd, as all the problems associated with vibration suddenly rear their ugly head. One of the major plus points of the 'M' class is the lack of vibration onboard. The Diesel Generator will enable the ship to run with only one Gas Turbine, and the single steam turbine tho, where as at present they tend to use both at once, limiting maintainence time.

 

Ian

[canderson]

Are you trying to tell us that you can smell diesel fumes on the sky deck????

There's often an issue of soot up on the Sky Deck suites. It drifts back down from the stacks above. There's quite a power plant up there, and sometimes it runs quite rich.

[iandjm]

Hey,

 

As far as I know the 'M' class ships use normal marine diesel for the gas turbines not Jet fuel. This is normal practice I believe. Any diesel generator set added would more than likely use heavy fuel oil, which is much cheaper. Althougits possible and easier for the new plant to use the already carried marine diesel.

 

Ian

[AgSg]

I hope they dont cancel our 10 November Med cruise :confused:

 

A diesel power plant addition seems a little odd, as all the problems associated with vibration suddenly rear their ugly head. One of the major plus points of the 'M' class is the lack of vibration onboard. The Diesel Generator will enable the ship to run with only one Gas Turbine, and the single steam turbine tho, where as at present they tend to use both at once, limiting maintainence time.

 

Ian

Ian,

 

The Nov 10th sailing is still open for bookings. We are on the TA following your cruise. At this stage, we also hope they don't fool around with the schedule.

 

Albert

[AgSg]

There's often an issue of soot up on the Sky Deck suites. It drifts back down from the stacks above. There's quite a power plant up there, and sometimes it runs quite rich.

That is interesting. We have not sailed the C-Class, only the Galaxy and Millennium class vessels. I wonder if they are going to try and correct this issue when they refurbish Century.

Albert