Ch..ch..ch..changes!!

When we opened Just Cruisin' Plus on Jan. 4, 1988, there were so many cruise lines operating that it was impossible to know which ones went where.  The days of preferred suppliers was extremely important.  As travel agents, we had to be very selective in which cruise lines we would support and which would support us.

Over the years we have seen change and more changes as cruise lines have taken over other cruise lines, completely changing the face of today's modern cruise industry, then some of these going bankrupt.

The first was a shock when Princess Cruises gobbled up Sitmar and changed the names of all the Sitmar ships to "something" Princess.  Then, Royal Caribbean bought Admiral Cruises, followed by Chandris Fantasy, which changed the name of this cruise line to Celebrity Cruises.  Premier Cruises (The Big Red Boat) purchased Home Lines, taking their one ship (Royale) cruise line to three ships.  Holland America Line bought Windstar Cruises, but have sold this arm in the past couple of years.  Majesty Cruises was purchased by NCL and all of their ships were then named Norwegian  "something". Then, NCL went on their buying spree and purchased Royal Cruise Line, Orient Cruises and Royal Viking Line.  The Royal ships were moved into the NCL fleet; the other two cruise lines kept their names, but eventually went out of business.  Then, Princess took over Cunard.  Dolphin Cruise Line was purchased by a holding company, and their ships became Regal Cruises. Carnival got into the buy-out frenzy and now owns Holland America Line, Princess Cruises and The Yachts of Seabourn in North America; P&O Cruises and Cunard Line in the United Kingdom; AIDA in Germany; Costa Cruises in Southern Europe; Iberocruceros in Spain; and P&O Cruises in Australia. Radisson merged with Seven Seas and became Regent Seven Seas.

Then there were others who were not as lucky.....American Hawaii, Commodore, Premier, American Family, Regency, Epirotiki, Delta Queen, Pearl, Sun Line, Bermuda Star, Dolphin, Ocean, Regal, Windjammer, and Renaissance to name a few.  These companies all went bankrupt or just ceased operations.  The Renaissance ships have all resurfaced today as Oceania Cruises, Azamara Club Cruises, and a couple of Princess ships. 

On Saturday,. we got an announcement that another cruise line went bankrupt - Cruise West.  Click on the link to see the details as reported in Travel Weekly today.

If you think it's difficult to keep up with all the changes in your industry, try walking in our shoes.  When we first opened, the changes were occasional.  Now, we see them almost weekly, if not monthly.  But change is good, right?  Right?  RIGHT?