Most Lines Reschedule Mediterranean Sailings

Two and a half weeks after the start of the Persian Gulf War, more than half of the major cruise lines with previously announced Mediterranean sailings have pulled at least one ship back into North American waters for the coming season.

In fact, 10 out of 16 lines marketing Mediterranean cruises to North American travelers have announced major itinerary revisions for the upcoming spring and summer.

For example, Los Angeles-based Princess Cruises has decided to keep its big new Crown Princess in the Caribbean rather than reposition it to Europe as originally scheduled.

Rick James, the line’s senior vice president of sales, said the ship was staying in North America because of a lower demand for European cruises rather than security fears.

“Under the current circumstances,” he said, “it became clear that the demand just would not be sufficient to support having two big ships in the European market this year.”

Princess’ Royal Princess is still scheduled to make its previously announced Northern European and Western Mediterranean cruises, James said. However, a new call at Malaga, Spain, has replaced the Moroccan ports of Casablanca and Tangier on the itinerary. .

(Cruise operators make a sharp distinction between Eastern Mediterranean sailings closer to the Gulf War--those going to Turkey, the Greek Islands, Egypt and Israel--and Western Mediterranean cruises touching at ports in Italy, France and Spain.)

The Greek-registry Stella Solaris from Sun Line, presently sailing in South America, in late January also announced a cancellation of early-summer Mediterranean sailings.

Sun Line was one of the few cruise lines to keep all of its ships in the Mediterranean in 1986 despite a sharp drop in bookings because of the Libyan crisis, the Achille Lauro incident and airport bombings by terrorists.

“After careful consideration of the current political situation, Sun Line has decided to delay the Stella Solaris’ scheduled return to Piraeus (Greece) and to continue operating her in the Western Hemisphere,” Alex Keusseoglou, the line’s vice president, said recently in New York City.

Beginning in April, the ship will make a series of 10 seven-day Caribbean cruises from Galveston, Tex., before sailing to Europe July 6 for privately chartered cruises.

Sun Line spokeswoman Meg Hickey said that the company is, for the moment, leaving its two smaller ships, Stella Oceanis and Stella Maris, in Greece. “We have some bookings, believe it or not,” she said. “Some of them are Americans, but most are Europeans.”

Los Angeles-based Crystal Cruises’ Crystal Harmony, the Japanese-owned line’s only ship, has canceled its entire European season to keep the ship in North America. New itineraries include three spring Mexican Riviera cruises from Los Angeles, to be followed by a series of 12-day round-trip Alaska cruises from San Francisco, then a previously announced fall series of New England and Canada cruises between New York City and Montreal.

Crystal President Art Rodney said that while the line was “deeply disappointed” to cancel its inaugural European season, “we believe it is not safe to sail in Europe at this time.”

San Francisco-based Royal Cruise Line, once Greek-owned but now part of Kloster Cruises Ltd., announced last week that its 450-passenger Golden Odyssey will remain in North American waters instead of returning for its normal eight-month European cruise schedule.

In addition to 12 Alaska cruises between Anchorage and Vancouver and six Canada/New England fall sailings, the Golden Odyssey will add a Caribbean itinerary, several Panama Canal transits, a Mexican Riviera program and two coastal sailings between Los Angeles and Vancouver. Discounts from 30% to 50% are now offered on the new sailings, according to Carol McRonald, RCL’s vice president of marketing.

However, no changes have been announced so far for the line’s Crown Odyssey, which has a full summer of European sailings scheduled, most of them in Scandinavia.

Cunard’s QE2, which set out on its around-the-world cruise from New York City in late December and received information on the outbreak of war after its Panama Canal transit, announced earlier this week that the ship will not sail through the Suez Canal nor call in previously scheduled Mediterranean ports in Egypt, Israel, Greece, Turkey, Italy, Monaco and Spain.

Instead, the QE2 will sail around Africa via Durban and Cape Town to the Canary Islands and Gibraltar, arriving in Southampton as scheduled April 3.

One unnamed group that had chartered Cunard’s small luxury ship, Sea Goddess I, for eight weeks in the Mediterranean changed its plans and asked to cruise the Caribbean instead, according to Susan Brady, a Cunard spokeswoman. Following that late spring charter, the ship will be repositioned to Alaska.

Sister ship Sea Goddess II, scheduled to sail from Asia to the Mediterranean through the Suez Canal in early April, has substituted the Egyptian port of Alexandria for Haifa, Israel, and will call at several Greek Islands en route to Rome. And instead of remaining in the Eastern Mediterranean, Sea Goddess II will pick up the Scandinavian and Western Mediterranean sailings originally assigned to the Sea Goddess I.

The Greek-flag Epirotiki Lines had not announced a decision at press time about its eight Piraeus-based ships that normally operate in the Mediterranean in summer. Earlier, the line was forced to cancel an announced series of winter 1990-91 Red Sea sailings because of the Persian Gulf situation, according to Arthur Lubin, president and chief executive.

Al Wallack, senior vice president of Chandris Fantasy and Chandris Celebrity Cruises, said that the ships in Chandris’ European fleet will remain in Europe. “We may operate our European program with some itinerary changes, but our first European cruise isn’t scheduled until May,” Wallack said.

Chandris Fantasy usually operates the Azur and the Romanza in the Mediterranean in summer, while its Amerikanis, The Victoria and Britanis remain in the Caribbean. Neither of its Celebrity Cruises vessels, Meridian and Horizon, have ever been scheduled for Europe.

At Costa Cruise Lines, spokeswoman Jennifer Lawrence said, “Our first Mediterranean cruise isn’t until May. Right now we are keeping our eyes on what happens, but there’s no official move to change our Mediterranean cruises yet.”

Italian-flag Costa operates four ships--the CostaRiviera, CarlaCosta, Daphne and CostaMarina--in the Caribbean in winter, and the CostaRiviera and CarlaCosta in summer as well. Four ships--EugenioCosta, EnricoCosta, CostaMarina and Danae--sail in the Mediterranean in summer. The company’s Daphne is scheduled for Alaska cruises.

Windstar Cruises’ 148-passenger Wind Star has replaced its scheduled Greek Islands sailings this summer with seven-day round-trip cruises from Nassau to Andros Island, Green Turtle Cay, San Salvador, Little San Salvador, Grand Bahamas Island and Bimini, all in the Bahamas.

“For the time being,” said Rich Skinner, spokesman for Holland America Westours and Windstar Cruises in Seattle, “(sister ship) Wind Spirit is still scheduled to sail between Rome and Venice. Obviously, we have contingency plans if the situation changes.”

Meanwhile, the Cunard Princess, under charter for six months to the U.S. Department of Defense for rest and recreation of military personnel in the Persian Gulf, is scheduled to resume its regular cruise itineraries July 13 in the Black Sea.

No changes are anticipated at this time for the Cunard Princess or Cunard’s Vistafjord, scheduled to return to Europe with a transatlantic crossing April 14. Both ships normally carry a large percentage of European passengers.

Club Med 1 is also expected to return to the Western Mediterranean for the summer as previously scheduled.

Some announced Mediterranean itineraries were canceled before the war began for reasons unrelated to the conflict:

--Royal Viking Line’s Royal Viking Sea, originally scheduled for a full summer of Mediterranean cruises, will leave service at the end of April to undergo a $30-million refurbishment. The vessel will return as Royal Cruise Line’s new Royal Odyssey, with an inaugural cruise out of Singapore set for Dec. 10.

--And Royal Caribbean Cruise Line’s Sun Viking, originally scheduled to sail to Europe this summer, was slotted to replace another ship on Mexican Riviera and Alaska sailings when a shipyard fire delayed the delivery of its new Monarch of the Seas.

Renaissance Cruises, which earlier had canceled its Eastern Mediterranean programs and reworked the Western Mediterranean cruises to venture no further east than Venice, is offering two programs this year to lure passengers to European waters.

The first, called AssurancePlus, permits passengers to book on any European cruise with a $100 deposit, and with a full refund promised if the cruise is canceled by the passenger 60 days or more before departure date. The plan also insures each passenger for $1 million for the full tour.

The second program offers a Cruise Satisfaction Warranty at no extra cost, promising that on any European cruise where more than half the passengers rate the experience less than 80% satisfactory, every passenger will be given a 50% discount on a future Renaissance cruise.

Although much of the world’s attention is on the war in the Persian Gulf, conflicts in Eastern Europe and India are also causing itinerary changes.

Ocean Cruise Line announced this week that its Ocean Pearl is canceling its India and Africa sailings through April in response to the Jan. 24 U.S. Department of State travel advisory recommending that U.S. citizens defer all nonessential travel to India.

The four cruises scheduled to depart in late February, March and early April were fully booked, according to Ocean Cruise spokesman Gary Gerbino. Passengers will be offered either Australian and Indonesian programs, a full refund or a future booking on an Indian itinerary.

Gerbino also said that Ocean Cruise Lines President Bob Iverson and vice president of sales Deborah Natansohn were in France meeting with officials of their Paris-based parent company, Accor, and sister company, Paquet Lines, to review upcoming European itineraries on Paquet’s Mermoz and Ocean’s Ocean Princess. Scheduled port calls considered for possible cancellation include Tallinn in Estonia and Riga in Latvia.