Royal Caribbean has confirmed Anthem of the Seas will call Southampton home when it comes into service in 2015, as revealed by Travel Weekly earlier today (Thursday, November 21).
The ship will go head-to-head with P&O Cruises’ Britannia, which will also sail from Southampton in 2015.
Announcing the news to representatives from the UK trade and press at a special event at the Heron Tower in London, Stuart Leven, UK and Ireland managing director, said: “Bringing a ship like Anthem to Southampton is proof of how close we are working with our trade partners.
“In the past four weeks in the role, I have taken away the strength of the relationship with the trade and the deployment of Anthem to the UK will mean we’ll develop an even stronger relationship.
“Had we have not have had the support of our travel agents, we wouldn’t have suggested having Anthem in the UK.”
Responding to P&O Cruises’ bold statement that it wanted to own the ex-UK market and didn’t want “Royal Caribbean parking its tanks on our lawn”, Royal Caribbean chief executive Adam Goldstein said: “There’s nothing wrong with a good bit of competition”.
He said he would argue the line is the “most global cruise line”, and added:
“We are used to competing in different parts of the world with major cruise lines and we have been in the UK for a long time, we didn’t just arrive.
“We think it’s a great thing for the British consumer to have choice of cruises – there should be different kinds of cruise lines offering different experiences. There is clearly a role in the market here for a traditional experience but we aren’t offering that. We are offering an innovative and fresh experience which is a powerful attraction for multi-generational families. The fact other cruise lines take a different approach is a good thing. “
He pointed out that Royal had a long history of working in the UK and that Independence of the Seas had enjoyed great success since first sailing from the UK in 2008. Independence of the Seas is being redeployed, while Adventure of the Seas will maintain its sailings from Southampton.
Goldstein added: “Our business has a long history with the port of Southampton, and over the last 10 years we have annually increased the number of cruise opportunities from the port.
“We are now eyeing more growth with the introduction of Anthem of the Seas to the UK market in spring 2015. Our commitment to providing unrivalled holiday experiences onboard the world’s most advanced and activity-packed ships is unwavering.”
Dominic Paul, Vice president international, said the cruise line had experienced tremendous success in the UK.
He added: “The announcement we are making (to base Anthem in Southampton) is the next step in our investment to the market. It’s incredibly exciting and it will really cement our reputation in the marketplace and it will help us to get a wider group of customers.
“Our trade partners will be essential to our success. Wer have talked about the three brand teams we have created and we have three really high quality teams in place to make sure we continue our success. We did this and then we said we would be investing further in the UK, and this is an example of our further investment. For us it is an incredibly exciting time.”
Paul said bringing Anthem to UK soil was an even bigger reason for the trade to get behind the company and for guests to want to cruise with Royal Caribbean.
The ship, which is currently being built in the Meyer Werft shipyard in Papenberg Germany, will arrive in Southampton in spring 2015.
The line’s bosses would not however be drawn on the itineraries that Anthem will be sailing.
Sister ship Quantum of the Seas, which will debut next autumn, will sail out of New York from her homeport of Cape Liberty.
More than 80,000 people will holiday on the ship, embarking in Southampton, in 2015 alone and this is expected to deliver around £50 million in knock-on economic impacts to the surrounding area.