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As more and more people look to the unique experience of cargo cruising traveling from port to port aboard a container ship, the French company CMA CGM now offers the option on one of its largest vessels, the Marco Polo, which will carry 16,000 TEUs (20 foot equivalent units).
A world away from conventional cruises, cargo cruises allow passengers to travel to the beat of international trade in accommodations that put most traditional cruise ships to shame.
The Marco Polo, for example, has five passenger cabins, each with its own bath and living room area. All passengers have access to the audiovisual salon, the ship’s library, gym and swimming pool.
Passengers join the captain at his table for meals prepared by the ship’s chef and served by the maitr d’. In addition to the food, there’s the peace and quiet of solitary cruising.
But the main advantages to traveling by cargo ship are the diversity of ports and the flexibility.
Travelers can create a tailor-made trip, whether it’s sailing into New York Harbor, through the Panama Canal or into the great ports of Europe or China. They can combine different shipping lines to create trips of a few days or a few months, debarking for a stay and boarding another vessel to continue their trip.
The average price, according to the shipping line, is around $135 per person per day, including all meals.
For cargo cruise booking and price information, contact Alexandra Beaumont at mrs.abeaumont@cma-travellers-club.com.
A fourth set of locks for canal?
When the Panama Canal opens its new locks to shipping traffic in early 2016, it’s expected to be able to handle most of the world’s container ships. But that isn’t stopping the canal authority from looking at another expansion in the future, according to the Journal of Commerce’s Peter Leach.
Now under construction, the canal’s third set of locks will be 1,400 feet long, 180 feet wide and 60 feet deep and will be able to accommodate ships up to 1,200 feet long and carrying up to 13,000 TEUs. By comparison, Leach noted, the existing locks are 1,000 feet long, 100 feet wide and 42 feet deep, able to handle ships up to 965 feet in length carrying fewer than 5,000 TEUs.
By the time the new locks open, more new ships ranging from 14,000 to 18,000 TEUs will be sailing, as carriers look at lowering fuel costs
With some shipping analysts predicting 24,000 TEU ships in the not-so-distant future, the Panama Canal Authority is already studying the possibility of building even larger locks down the road.
“We will only build a bigger fourth set of locks if the demand is there,” Panama Canal Administrator Jorge Quijano told the Journal of Commerce last month.
United Arab moving office
Ocean carrier United Arab Shipping is consolidating its Savannah office and several others into a single office in Norcross, just outside of Atlanta.
Also moving will be offices in Chesapeake, Va., Cranford, N.J., and Baltimore, according to the Virginian-Pilot.
In Savannah, UA export customer service representative Stephanie Edwards said she leaves for Atlanta in a few days to help with setting up the new office.
The Savannah office will close Aug. 29, she said, adding that local customers will still receive the services they get now.
Edwards said everyone in the Savannah office was given the option to move.
“I know at least eight of us are going,” she said.
Senior business reporter Mary Carr Mayle covers the ports for the Savannah Morning News and savannahnow. She can be reached at 912-652-0324 or at mary.mayle@savannahnow.com.
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