ORIENT Lines has frozen prices for summer 2000 because its capacity will more than double following the introduction of a second ship.
The 1,050-passenger Norwegian Crown – soon to be renamed Crown Odyssey – will join Orient Lines on May 8 next year. Orient Lines’ existing ship, Marco Polo, carries 850 passengers.
The latest Mediterranean and Scandinavia Cruise Holidays 2000 brochure includes a total of 71 cruises, compared with 30 in this year’s programme.
Sales and marketing director Paul Ellerby said: “We want to keep prices on both ships as competitive as possible in order to fill them.”
He said that some prices in the low season were even being reduced slightly. The programme’s overall lead-in rate for 2000 is £875, down from £895 in 1999.
The new brochure features an inaugural 12-night cruise on Crown Odyssey from Istanbul to Barcelona. Prices start from £1,350 per person.
Both Crown Odyssey and Marco Polo will sail on nine-night Aegean and Holy Lands’ cruises in 2000 to mark the millennium. The voyages, taking in Jerusalem and Galilee, start from £1,150.
Marco Polo will spend between the end of May and the end of August carrying out cruises in the Baltic and Norwegian fjords from its base in Copenhagen.