It's official: Carnival Corporation (www.carnivalcorp.com) now owns almost everything.
At meetings held on April 14 and April 16, Carnival and P&O Princess shareholders approved Carnival's takeover bid, which had earlier received approval from American and European Commission antitrust regulators.
In number terms, the merger is stunning, creating a company that operates 66 ships with a further 17 on order, able to carry over 142,000 passengers in total. In addition to Princess and its parent company P&O--the largest cruise operator in the UK, Australia, and Germany, operating the Princess, P&O Cruises, Swan Hellenic, and Aida Cruises brands--Carnival Corp. also own Holland America Line, Cunard, Costa Cruises, Seabourn Cruise Line, and Windstar Cruises.
From a consumer perspective, expect little change in the P&O and Princess brands, which will continue to operate as a separate company and maintain their own personalities, as has been the case in previous Carnival takeovers.
The purchase ends a saga that began in November 2001 when Royal Caribbean and Princess announced merger talks, in an attempt to supercede Carnival as the world's largest cruise operator. A Carnival counteroffer, made on December 16 of that year, was initially spurned by P&O's board.
Industry Group Adopts SARS Screening Guidelines
On April 25, the International Council of Cruise Lines (www.iccl.org), an industry regulatory and policy group that represents 16 of the largest U.S. operators, adopted a set of uniform guidelines designed to screen embarking passengers for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).
Though there have been no reports of SARS on any of the group's member lines, Asia-based Star Cruises hospitalized two crewmembers in Malaysia and Singapore earlier this month after they displayed symptoms consistent with the disease. Thirteen other crewmembers were quarantined and two cruises cancelled as a precautionary measure.
The new ICCL guidelines include:
- Screening of all passengers, crew, and visitors to determine whether any have been in CDC-identified SARS travel-alert areas (currently mainland China and Hong Kong; Singapore; and Hanoi, Vietnam) within the past ten days, and denying boarding as appropriate.
- Denying boarding to passenger and crewmembers who have had contact with a confirmed or suspected SARS patient.
- Rerouting inbound crewmembers and vessel itineraries away from locations for which there are current CDC SARS travel alerts.
ICCL's member lines include Carnival, Celebrity, Costa, Crystal, Cunard, Disney, Holland America, Norwegian, Orient, Princess, Radisson, Royal Caribbean, Royal Olympic, Seabourn, and Windstar.