Topic: £35m to be spent on a multi-ship Re-spruce

All Leisure Holidays is investing more than £35 million in its ocean and river cruise brands and has revealed plans for two new ships next year. The investment is being spread across the ship's three cruiselines - Voyages of Discovery, Swan Hellenic and Hebridean Island Cruises, which will enter the river cruise market for the first time.



The investment in the operator's ships will include major upgrades of cabins and onboard facilities and create 25 new jobs.

The company's Alexander von Humboldt cruise ship, which it bought in November 2009, is being renamed Voyager and will become Voyages of Discovery's second ship alongside Discovery when it starts sailing in November 2012. In addition, the company's Hebridean Island Cruises brand is chartering a river cruise ship Royal Crown, from Dutch river cruise company Crown, for four itineraries in 2012.

All Leisure Holidays executive chairman Roger Allard said: "We need to plan for the future and customers will migrate to us because they want a better experience. It's pointless whinging about the market, we have to move forward and plan for a better product to attract new customers." More than £10 million is being spent on Swan Hellenic's flagship cruiseship Minerva, which has had its lease extended by eight years to 2021. It will go into dry dock for a refurbishment in November and be back in service in March 2012.
The refurbishment will see six cabins removed to free up extra space, giving the ship a total of 181 cabins. Of these, 32 cabins will have balconies added, bringing the total with balconies to 44.

All cabins will be upgraded with new ensuite bathroom facilities. Public areas of the ship will also be upgraded to include a new observation lounge, expanded Shackleton's Bar, new internet lounge and walk-round promenade deck.

Swan Hellenic managing director Colin Stone said: "We don't want to change what we offer, just improve it. The plan is to utilise the ship better. "Most importantly 23% of cabins will now have balconies. It's an area of the business that's important to us and has been missing for a few years."

Voyages of Discovery's new Voyager ship is smaller than its existing ship Discovery, with capacity for 550 passengers in 278 cabins; 35 are suites and of these 30 have balconies.
This follows investment of more than £23 million to date on new balcony cabins and public areas, with more upgrades yet to be announced.

It will offer flexible, less formal dining options, also planned for Discovery for 2013, and aims to attract a younger market of 45 to 55 year olds as well as giving existing customers a new product to experience.

Managing director Alan Murray said: "We will continue with the same ethos but the big difference will be that this is a modern ship and we can offer open dining which has been an issue on Discovery. I personally believe it will give us the opportunity to lower the age range and appeal to a younger market." Voyager's inaugural cruise to Istanbul out of Portsmouth will be in November 2012 when Discovery is in dry dock for a three- month refurbishment of decks, cabins and furnishings until spring 2013.

It will then move to the Caribbean before offering itineraries in central and south America. Prices will lead in from £1,399 for a two week cruise including a longhaul flight.
Hebridean Island Cruises' new 42-cabin river cruise ship Royal Crown will offer four itineraries on the Rhine and the Danube in the spring and autumn of 2012.

Like the company's other ships, prices will include all excursions, gratuities, and guest speakers. Prices start from £2,995.

Source: TravelWeekly

I do hope you've got the dates wrong for Minerva's refurbishment, as I'm booked on her in February 2012! Could it possibly be a year later?
Good news, though!

QUOTE:

I do hope you've got the dates wrong for Minerva's refurbishment, as I'm booked on her in February 2012! Could it possibly be a year later?
Good news, though!

I'm sorry to tell you it IS true. My wife and I were booked on a six week cruise which straddles the date of dry docking (23 November 2011), but Swan Hellenic haven't had the courtesy or decency to contact us (or anyone else affected between November this year and March 2012, presumably). I telephoned today, having read this item, and there was nothing they could add except that letters were being prepared and would be sent out some time next week.

It is a disgrace that they would plan such a thing in the midst of fully booked cruise, rather than allowing a lead time sufficient to ensure no-one was affected (by planning it beyond the existing cruise programme). It is also disgusting that they released the news via a press release on 1 September before telling their own customers. On top of that, it has not seemingly struck them to have someone in authority available to field calls today (there was only one person at work, and she had just returned to work, and all she knew was what I have put above).

We booked this cruise 16 months ago having just had our previous cruise cancelled by the ash cloud problem, and this in turn replaced one affected by a previous dry dock for emergency repairs. In total, we have been trying to sail on Minerva for almost three years without actually getting on board! Now the same is happening again! Furthermore, we have booked our own flights and accommodation, so stand to lose the cost of this as neither (nor our train fares) are refundable.

We have rolled forward three years of holidays for this cruise, and just cannot take in what has happened. At least the previous cancellations were beyond Swan Hellenic's control - this most certainly is not. They do not deserve to have any customers the way they treat them!!

I am appalled! I booked my long-haul cruise plus post-cruise add-on when I was on Minerva last November - so 15 months in advance. I've been saving up for it and looking forward to it ever since! I hope they have a good line of chat when they finally get around to letting us know, as even dedicated Swanners will be outraged at this.

QUOTE:

I am appalled! I booked my long-haul cruise plus post-cruise add-on when I was on Minerva last November - so 15 months in advance. I've been saving up for it and looking forward to it ever since! I hope they have a good line of chat when they finally get around to letting us know, as even dedicated Swanners will be outraged at this.

Swan Hellenic have just put the following brief announcement on their website (the first news of any description on the 'News' page since 7 November 2010):

03.09.2011 - Minerva cruises departing between 23 November 2011 and 7 April 2012.

It has just been announced that Minerva will undergo a major multi-million pound upgrade of her hotel facilities and improvements to her technical efficiency.

This will, regrettably, cause disruption to cruises that commence between 23 November 2011 and 7 April 2012. For those passengers travelling between the dates above, an information pack, with full details of options available, has been sent to your designated address or travel agent.

It's a bit curt and not very apologetic, nor does it offer any explanation as to why they are doing this now. The phrase "cause disruption" understates the situation somewhat! I note that they say information packs "have been sent out": this does not agree with what they said yesterday by telephone, and I certainly haven't received one.

I hope they get the bad publicity and lost customer support they deserve.

Thanks for the info, just found it on their site. Will wait and see what they say, but can't see how it can be acceptable no matter what. Obviously not many Swanners use this site, as I'm surprised there has not been a deluge of replies to this post!

QUOTE:

All Leisure Holidays is investing more than £35 million in its ocean and river cruise brands and has revealed plans for two new ships next year. The investment is being spread across the ship's three cruiselines - Voyages of Discovery, Swan Hellenic and Hebridean Island Cruises, which will enter the river cruise market for the first time.



The investment in the operator's ships will include major upgrades of cabins and onboard facilities and create 25 new jobs.

The company's Alexander von Humboldt cruise ship, which it bought in November 2009, is being renamed Voyager and will become Voyages of Discovery's second ship alongside Discovery when it starts sailing in November 2012. In addition, the company's Hebridean Island Cruises brand is chartering a river cruise ship Royal Crown, from Dutch river cruise company Crown, for four itineraries in 2012.

All Leisure Holidays executive chairman Roger Allard said: "We need to plan for the future and customers will migrate to us because they want a better experience. It's pointless whinging about the market, we have to move forward and plan for a better product to attract new customers." More than £10 million is being spent on Swan Hellenic's flagship cruiseship Minerva, which has had its lease extended by eight years to 2021. It will go into dry dock for a refurbishment in November and be back in service in March 2012.
The refurbishment will see six cabins removed to free up extra space, giving the ship a total of 181 cabins. Of these, 32 cabins will have balconies added, bringing the total with balconies to 44.

All cabins will be upgraded with new ensuite bathroom facilities. Public areas of the ship will also be upgraded to include a new observation lounge, expanded Shackleton's Bar, new internet lounge and walk-round promenade deck.

Swan Hellenic managing director Colin Stone said: "We don't want to change what we offer, just improve it. The plan is to utilise the ship better. "Most importantly 23% of cabins will now have balconies. It's an area of the business that's important to us and has been missing for a few years."

Voyages of Discovery's new Voyager ship is smaller than its existing ship Discovery, with capacity for 550 passengers in 278 cabins; 35 are suites and of these 30 have balconies.
This follows investment of more than £23 million to date on new balcony cabins and public areas, with more upgrades yet to be announced.

It will offer flexible, less formal dining options, also planned for Discovery for 2013, and aims to attract a younger market of 45 to 55 year olds as well as giving existing customers a new product to experience.

Managing director Alan Murray said: "We will continue with the same ethos but the big difference will be that this is a modern ship and we can offer open dining which has been an issue on Discovery. I personally believe it will give us the opportunity to lower the age range and appeal to a younger market." Voyager's inaugural cruise to Istanbul out of Portsmouth will be in November 2012 when Discovery is in dry dock for a three- month refurbishment of decks, cabins and furnishings until spring 2013.

It will then move to the Caribbean before offering itineraries in central and south America. Prices will lead in from £1,399 for a two week cruise including a longhaul flight.
Hebridean Island Cruises' new 42-cabin river cruise ship Royal Crown will offer four itineraries on the Rhine and the Danube in the spring and autumn of 2012.

Like the company's other ships, prices will include all excursions, gratuities, and guest speakers. Prices start from £2,995.

Source: TravelWeekly

As a previous passenger on Discovery (x 8 cruises most back to back) it is a complete waste of money to do anything to the ship until they fix the engines!
Check out the reviews on this site and you will be stunned by how many times they have failed.
If you cannot guarantee that the ship will reach it's destination, knowing how unreliable the engines are, it is completely riduculous to attempt to do anything else to it as a priority - and yes I have photos of how sadly lacking the cabin decor, decks, seating areas are but prioritise the refit. I may be wrong but the onboard maintenance man ("Mike" for those who have been on her) completely agrees but what does he know?
To me it is irrelevant - I will not be back

Methinks the reason this forum is quiet could very well be due to many passengers still not being aware, and that they will all be in for a bit of a shock.
I've been concerned at the lack of brochures we have received lately - normally a forest but only the occasional postcard promo this year - very odd.

Got my package this morning. Still no apology - just a totally inadequate offer (replacement cruise - which doesn't follow the same itinerary - for the following year at SAME COST, plus 40% reduction on 2011 cruises they're already heavily discounting). Personally I'm taking my money and going elsewhere, but am NOT happy.

QUOTE:

Got my package this morning. Still no apology - just a totally inadequate offer (replacement cruise - which doesn't follow the same itinerary - for the following year at SAME COST, plus 40% reduction on 2011 cruises they're already heavily discounting). Personally I'm taking my money and going elsewhere, but am NOT happy.

Likewise, I got my package yesterday. Bizarrely, it offered me a 40% discount on two cruises I was already booked on! (My cruise was a Grand Tour, and only the second half of it fell the wrong side of the 23 November dry dock date). The document states that, if I cancel my cruise, I can't have the 40% discount, but if I keep the first half of the cruise I still can't have the discount as I'm already on the ship for those sectors! That means I'd be travelling with passengers who paid a lot less than me, even though I had a reduced pro-rata price because of the fact that a Grand Cruise is a series of back-to-back cruises. They haven't really thought the document through properly as it affects this specific case. It also doesn't take account of the possibility of me keeping these segments, and moving the rest to the equivalent cruise next year, even though they agreed that I could do that by telephone, and that is what we have decided to do, as we have already made a lot of arrangements to go this year, and my wife certainly didn't want to have no holiday at all. We have now got essentially the same cruise split over two seasons, with no more than the offer of a 15% discount (only 10% over the normal loyalty discount) off a future cruise in the new brochure as 'compensation'. When our cruise was shortened due to mechanical problems, and cancelled due to the volcanic ash, we were given 20% discount off ANY alternative cruise, and these were issues outside Swan Hellenic's control. This time (other than the two short notice 40% deals which are no good to us, as I explained above) and some other unattractive options, we only have a 15% discount offered on any cruises we would be interested in, and this is when the problem was entirely caused by Swan Hellenic!

Having said that, Colin Stone rang me personally on Monday (as a result of my internet 'campaign' about this) and I was at least able to discuss the options with him directly, and didn't have to wait for the documents to arrive or try to make them fit my particular hybrid circumstances, as this had already been agreed, which put my mind at rest in advance. Colin was very pleasant and amenable to helping all he could, although I wasn't entirely convinced by his explanation of why this all had to happen now, or why passengers weren't informed at the same time as the media. His argument was that this was a last minute agreement with the actual owners of Minerva. Nevertheless, a major amount of planning had already taken place, an advance announcement had been made to the media on 15 August, and clearly a very substantial brochure and other documents had been prepared which already included details of the upgrade. If they hadn't signed the deal until 31 August, as Colin stated, they would certainly have had a lot of brochures to pulp if it hadn't gone through! Furthermore, given that the had prepared all this so far in advance, I cannot see why the corresponding packages could not have been ready to go on the same day, such that customers received them on 1 September, coincidentally with the press release. That would have saved a lot of upset and uncertainty among those customers, such as us, who inevitably found out by accident.

Customers are now faced with some very difficult choices, as you were. Certainly, pushing the cruise back a full year is a major disappointment, and, unless you are in a position to travel on one of the two 40% discount cruises, the remaining discounts on offer are hardly generous, and, even then, presuppose that you have the time, money, and inclination to take one. There can't be too many spaces left o the 40% discounted cruises, so I imagine that, were a large number of passengers to pick this option, they would not be able to accommodate them anyway. Despite this, you are asked to submit your interest by post only (they will not willingly deal with telephone inquiries until these forms are received). This flies against human nature, as most people will (understandably) reason that they need to act urgently in order to secure their chosen option.

The alterations to the ship are better than I feared (I thought its external appearance may be spoiled or that there would be a loss of deck space), and I think it will be an improvement, but I still think it will be a public relations disaster. I remain unconvinced that this could not have been timed for the end of the 2012 brochure season, which would have allowed sufficient lead time as to ensure that no customers were inconvenienced.