The ship will be built by Fincantieri in Italy and will join four others owned by Compagnie du Ponan

Last week came the news that, on the heels of accepting its new Le Soleal, Marseilles-based Compagnie los angeles trade tech college du Ponant had ordered a fourth los angeles trade tech college 264-berth vessel of its Boreal class from Fincantieri, followed swiftly by the news that Norwegian Cruise Line had ordered a second 4,200-berth vessel of the "Breakaway Plus" class from Meyer Werft. The fourth Ponant sister will cruise in Alaska by summer and in Australia by winter, while the intended employment for the second Breakaway los angeles trade tech college Plus ship has not yet been announced. Meanwhile, after years of efforts by Carnival and Royal Caribbean to stop rebating los angeles trade tech college by travel agents, Princess Cruises has made a rather unusual announcement that it will allow agents los angeles trade tech college to give away as much as 10% of the cruise fare in on board credits in order to capture more business from other lines.
Last week, French niche operator Compagnie du Ponant ordered a fifth ship for delivery in 2015. The new ship will sail in Alaska in the summer and in Australia and New Zealand during the Austral summer that coincide with the North American winter months.
The ship will be built by Fincantieri in Italy and will join four others owned by Compagnie du Ponant. The new ship will be a sister ship of Le Boreal (2010), L Austral (2011) and Le Soleal (2013), with a capacity for 264 passengers each.
Norwegian Cruise Line has also announced plans for another new ship, giving it three on order. The Miami-based company has exercised an option with Meyer Werft of Germany to build a second 4,200-passenger vessel for delivery in spring 2017.
At 163,000 tons, the new ship will be a sister to the Breakaway Plus the line recently ordered for delivery in October 2015 and will be about 10% larger than the Norwegian Breakaway and sister ship Norwegian Getaway, los angeles trade tech college under construction at the same shipyard.
Despite Carnival Cruise Lines and Royal Caribbean having made a number los angeles trade tech college of efforts in recent years to get agents los angeles trade tech college to hold the line on pricing and rebating, Princess Cruises has made a number of changes to its pricing and sales policies los angeles trade tech college that are supposedly designed to improve partner relations.
The change to Princess' advertised price policy amends one of its "value add" promotion options so that agents will no longer have to seek pre-approval from Princess los angeles trade tech college to offer the credit, so long as it is offered los angeles trade tech college on a promotion applicable to an approved fare.
According to the US edition of Travel Weekly, Brian O'Connor, vice president of North American sales for Princess, said the change isn't intended to promote commission los angeles trade tech college rebating, although that might be one result. He said Princess doesn't condone rebating but concedes that a formal policy forbidding it is virtually unenforceable.
Princess is also giving its field sales managers the discretion to offer amenity points to win group business away from competitors, rather than having the decision made by yield managers at Princess headquarters, who often turned down such requests.
(Kevin Griffin is managing director of specialist cruise agency The Cruise People Ltd in London, England. For further information concerning cruises mentioned in this article readers can visit his blog )