Cunard Is DUMPING Queen Anne After Just 2 Years — Transcript

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1. 0:00Well, I didn't have this on my bingo
2. 0:01card. Queen Anne is leaving Cunard and
3. 0:03Arcadia is leaving P&O Cruises. Queen
4. 0:06Anne will be extensively redesigned,
5. 0:08renamed, and transferred to P&O Cruises
6. 0:10in 2029, while Arcadia will head in the
7. 0:13direction of Holland America. And having
8. 0:16spent most of today looking through the
9. 0:17announcements, there is one phrase from
10. 0:20Carnival UK that keeps coming up, guest
11. 0:23demand. Carnival says that these
12. 0:24decisions follow a careful review of
13. 0:27where the strengths of individual ships
14. 0:29can best support guest demand and the
15. 0:31future direction of its cruise lines.
16. 0:33Paul Ludlow says Queen Anne has a
17. 0:35natural affinity with P&O Cruises and
18. 0:38that her departure will leave Cunard
19. 0:40with a more closely unified fleet of
20. 0:43Queen Mary 2, Queen Victoria, and Queen
21. 0:45Elizabeth. I'll tell you now, that is
22. 0:47quite something for him to say about a
23. 0:49ship which only entered service in 2024.
24. 0:53I mean, after all, Queen Anne was
25. 0:54presented as the future of Cunard. In
26. 0:57May 2029, after completing her world
27. 1:00voyage, that future will be painted a
28. 1:03different color and given a different
29. 1:05name. But, we think Carnival has made
30. 1:08the right decision. We also think the
31. 1:10fact it has become necessary represents
32. 1:13an almighty cock-up. They took a big
33. 1:15risk with Queen Anne. Cunard has a
34. 1:17customer base many cruise lines would
35. 1:19kill for. There are people who have
36. 1:21sailed with them for decades and they
37. 1:24have a clear idea about what they enjoy
38. 1:27about Cunard. Queen Mary 2, Queen
39. 1:30Victoria, and Queen Elizabeth all offer
40. 1:32something increasingly unusual in
41. 1:34cruising. Despite all the cuts and
42. 1:37despite the fact that they are not as
43. 1:38good today as what they were 10, 20
44. 1:41years ago, you will still find
45. 1:44formality, tradition, maritime heritage.
46. 1:47You will still see ballroom dancing,
47. 1:50afternoon tea, and you get a genuine
48. 1:53sense of occasion. That is the
49. 1:55attraction with many of Cunard's most
50. 1:58loyal customers. What Carnival tried to
51. 2:00do is make Queen Anne
52. 2:03as some sort of interpretation of
53. 2:05Cunard. A bit like asking IKEA to
54. 2:07redesign Downton Abbey. The Queen's Room
55. 2:09has always been one of the most
56. 2:11criticized features
57. 2:13on Queen Anne. Compared with the
58. 2:15magnificent Queen's Rooms on the other
59. 2:18ships, we think Queen Anne's is
60. 2:19completely ridiculous. And also, this
61. 2:22space is done so much better on Holland
62. 2:25America ships. BB King's Blues Club
63. 2:29is stunning. It's where we got married.
64. 2:31But I mean, even the naming ceremony was
65. 2:34set out to divide opinion amongst
66. 2:36Cunard's customers. Queen Mary II and
67. 2:39Queen Elizabeth were named by Queen
68. 2:41Elizabeth II. Queen Victoria was named
69. 2:43by the then Duchess of Cornwall. For
70. 2:45Queen Anne, Cunard made the city of
71. 2:48Liverpool the ship's godparent,
72. 2:51represented at the ceremony by five
73. 2:54Liverpudlian men. Now, personally, I
74. 2:56don't give a stuff, but it's quirky and
75. 2:58unconventional, and it's not very
76. 3:01Cunard. There are plenty of passengers
77. 3:03who love Queen Anne, and we're not
78. 3:05pretending otherwise. We've always said
79. 3:07she is a beautiful ship, but we have
80. 3:10always wondered whether Carnival had
81. 3:12underestimated quite how attached Cunard
82. 3:15passengers were to the product they
83. 3:18already had. Look at Jaguar's recent
84. 3:20rebrand. That went down like a cup of
85. 3:23cold sick with plenty of its traditional
86. 3:25customers. Why? Because people who liked
87. 3:29Jaguars generally liked them because
88. 3:31they were Jaguars. They wanted the
89. 3:32heritage, the design, the character.
90. 3:35They didn't necessarily want the whole
91. 3:37thing reinvented around whatever
92. 3:39marketing department had decided was
93. 3:42modern and progressive. And that is the
94. 3:44danger Cunard ran into with Queen Anne.
95. 3:47I'll tell you now, customers have a
96. 3:49remarkably effective way of
97. 3:51communicating that. They stop buying it.
98. 3:54Now, we don't have Cunard's ship-by-ship
99. 3:56occupancy figures. There's no public
100. 3:58information to show how profitable each
101. 4:00ship and sailing is, but what we have
102. 4:03seen repeatedly is extraordinarily cheap
103. 4:07Queen Anne sailings. I bet you have too.
104. 4:09And there have been occasions when we've
105. 4:11looked at what Cunard is charging to
106. 4:13sail aboard its newest ship compared
107. 4:16with the established Queens
108. 4:18and wondered what on earth was going on.
109. 4:21Let's hear from Paul Ludlow in his
110. 4:23unmissable seasonal update.
111. 4:25>> Hello and welcome to the autumn update.
112. 4:27Wow, what a busy summer it's been this
113. 4:30year.
114. 4:30>> Oh, it certainly has, Paul. I know what
115. 4:32you mean. I mean, making people
116. 4:34redundant, restructuring Carnival, uh
117. 4:37combining roles, taking over Cunard,
118. 4:39giving Katie the boot, and working out
119. 4:42which ship belongs to which cruise line.
120. 4:44All right, I'm taking the mickey a bit,
121. 4:46but the redundancies themselves aren't
122. 4:48funny. Let's see what Paul says about
123. 4:50Queen Anne.
124. 4:51>> As you know, Queen Anne currently sails
125. 4:53within the Cunard fleet, but in 2029, we
126. 4:56will welcome a reimagined and renamed
127. 4:59Queen [music] Anne into the P&O Cruises
128. 5:01fleet. I'm really excited to announce
129. 5:04that she's going to be joining P&O
130. 5:05Cruises because I think she's going to
131. 5:06be an amazing addition to the P&O
132. 5:09Cruises fleet and a ship that P&O
133. 5:11Cruises guests will really love.
134. 5:13>> And I agree with him. I think Queen Anne
135. 5:16could make a bloody good P&O ship.
136. 5:19Contemporary design, huge choice of
137. 5:21restaurants, entertainment, and flexible
138. 5:23public spaces all fit quite naturally
139. 5:26with the direction P&O has taken with
140. 5:29its newer ships. It was always more of a
141. 5:32P&O or Holland America ship than a
142. 5:33Cunard one. So, I'm not entirely sure
143. 5:36why Carnival ever thought this was the
144. 5:38right recipe for Cunard. I think it's
145. 5:41perfectly reasonable
146. 5:43to speculate that these people at the
147. 5:45top of Carnival haven't got a clue what
148. 5:49they're doing. What a costly experiment
149. 5:52this has turned out to be. However, I
150. 5:55think this is a big win for P&O fans,
151. 5:58but I am very curious to see what
152. 5:59happens to the grills. Guarantee you
153. 6:02they generate money from the grill
154. 6:03spaces somehow. Will she be adults only
155. 6:06and assume Arcadia's role, or will P&O
156. 6:09open her to families?
157. 6:11My money is on families. I would be
158. 6:14amazed if she were to become adults
159. 6:17only. Before we dive deeper, if you
160. 6:18enjoy this kind of independent cruise
161. 6:20news and analysis, give the video a
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164. 6:26member from just 99 p a month. It helps
165. 6:29us keep making videos like this, and it
166. 6:31also allows us to explore other types of
167. 6:34content. Now, let's talk about Arcadia.
168. 6:37I've always thought Arcadia was boring.
169. 6:40I'm sorry to say it, but she is the ugly
170. 6:43duckling in the P&O fleet. She has not
171. 6:46received the amount of investment over
172. 6:48the years as her more popular sisters.
173. 6:51And that might be because P&O was never
174. 6:53her true home. The ship was originally
175. 6:56ordered for Holland America. Carnival
176. 6:58subsequently allocated the hull to
177. 7:00Cunard, where she was intended to become
178. 7:03Queen Victoria. During construction, the
179. 7:05plans changed again, and she became P&O
180. 7:08Cruises Arcadia. And 24 years after
181. 7:11Arcadia entered service, Carnival is
182. 7:13finally sending her to the cruise line
183. 7:15for which she was originally intended.
184. 7:18Someone at Carnival has really chosen to
185. 7:21go round the houses, haven't they? But
186. 7:23this is hugely exciting for Holland
187. 7:25America.
188. 7:26As a Hal fan myself, I can't wait to
189. 7:29sail on Arcadia under Holland America's
190. 7:31livery. Holland America describes
191. 7:33acquiring her as faster path to growth.
192. 7:36What a very human statement. Arcadia's
193. 7:38exact changes haven't been decided yet,
194. 7:40but this is the first time in years that
195. 7:43I have felt genuinely excited about this
196. 7:46ship. Holland America understands a
197. 7:48Vista class ship. It fits neatly
198. 7:50alongside the other four ships that they
199. 7:52already operate. It wants the extra
200. 7:55capacity, it has an established
201. 7:57refurbishment program ready for her, and
202. 7:59it says demand is strong enough to
203. 8:01justify the expansion. I'm telling you
204. 8:04now, Arcadia
205. 8:06with Holland America, she'll be the best
206. 8:08she's ever been. The loser in all of
207. 8:11this is Cunard, stagnating and going
208. 8:14back to three ships. Queen Anne is the
209. 8:17failed experiment. The four queens era
210. 8:20will be remarkably short, and Carnival's
211. 8:23own explanation tells us Queen Anne fits
212. 8:26another brand better. And shareholders
213. 8:29won't be happy about all of this expense
214. 8:32with all the chopping and changing. If
215. 8:34Queen Anne flourishes at P&O Cruises,
216. 8:36Arcadia finally gets the investment she
217. 8:38deserves at Holland America, and Cunard
218. 8:40builds its future around what its
219. 8:42passengers actually value and expects,
220. 8:45and Paul Ludlow does a little less
221. 8:47tinkering, this chaotic game of pass the
222. 8:50ship might eventually work out rather
223. 8:52well for everyone. Just perhaps not in
224. 8:54the way Carnival originally planned.