What I was trying to say is that Carnival should wait until the pandemic was over to transfer the Golden Princess and Star Princess to P&O Cruises Australia, because the markets would be improving and getting better. Transferring and repainting the vessels during the pandemic seems like a waste of money. I stll support Carnival and other lines, it just made me upset when they did this during these times of trouble. Also davidships, stop removing my replies. Thank you.
This pandemic will pass and once it does, cruise lines must already be in a position to recover their losses as soon as possible. That means getting ships ready and postioned, able to operate at the push of a button. They can't wait until everything is over and then start their analysis, decision making and resulting scheduling. If they did that they might as well call it quits now and invest their funds elsewhere. If Carnival isn't ready to resume their operations in every region, I assure you that MSC, NCL and Royal Caribbean most certainly are.
The financial institutions keeping Carnival afloat during this time aren't saying "Meh, let's wait and see what happens". They are demanding operational plans for the next couple of years, as well as alternatives and contingencies on those plans.
Any cruise line that only plans for the next 6 months will fail. Cruise lines, like all industries with expensive assets like ships, are thinking on timelines as long as 20 years.
I'm sorry it makes you upset that Carnival is planning ahead, but these decisions are not made on feelings but are based on in-depth data analysis, financial models and risk analysis by industry experts with hundreds of years' experience shared among them. With billions of dollars at stake, they aren't going by gut feelings.
Quite frankly, I don't understand your concern over where Carnival puts their ships. At the end of the day, all the brands roll up financially into Carnival Corporation and it makes no real difference what house flag the ships are flying. The only difference is product differentiation and marketing.
When all our fondness of ships and the associated excitement are set aside, a ship is an asset used to generate revenue. The same return on investment calculation that is done on a manufacturing plant or mutual fund, is also run on a ship.