Southampton v Liverpool

[anniegb]

I was waiting for a Southampton area cruiser to post this.

Peter Shanks of Cunard apparently has been quoted in the British press as saying that Cunard may one day offer cruises from Liverpool.

Allegedly, the alarm bells are ringing in Southampton.

I am unaffected as I would not fly to SOTON only to sail via the Bay of Biscay and I cannot see me cruising Cunard because of the dress code.

Interesting times.

Annie

[kandajones]

A little competition never did anyone any harm and offers the consumer more options. We already have Southampton, Portsmouth, Dover, Harwich and Newcastle that I am aware of operating as turnaround ports, so one more in this rapdily expanding market isn't going to do much harm.

I would be more interesting in knowing why the lines stopped operating out of Liverpool in the first place, and how pax flying into Heathrow will take a 4 hour transfer to Liverpool after a long flight as opposed to a 2 hours to the existing ports.

Hopefully Liverpool will pay back the public monies that they were given amd the path will then be open.

Alan

[anniegb]

I wondered Alan if they were trying to appeal to the UK population who live north say of Birmingham? Not sure how many are cruisers? Also Manchester is a major airline hub with Liverpool nearby.

As a Northener, all the southern ports you mentioned are unattractive.

For the Baltic, I sailed from Copenhagen and for my upcoming East Med cruise I will fly to Istanbul.

UK ports just don't work for me.

Annie

[kandajones]

The udea may hold some attraction to cruises headnig North or TA, but less likely to those heading South.

What we can see working is something like QM2 operating occaisional TA voyages with flights into Manchester, although how mcuh Liverpool itself can benefit from pre or post cruise packages will have to be seen. That is something that Liverpool tI marketing should target. None of the South's ports seem to bother as any packages tend to be in London.

I am sure Fred,Olsen will be interested, as they do use the port now & then, and if the port costs are are minimised, then the other lines will surely keep a watching brief.

Alan.