On 25 February 2003, after a relevant invitation to tender, ATHENS 2004 signed berthing agreements with Royal Olympia Cruises for cruise ships…
On 25 February 2003, after a relevant invitation to tender, ATHENS 2004 signed berthing agreements with Royal Olympia Cruises for cruise ships Olympia Explorer, Olympia Voyager and Olympia Countess, which were going to be used as floating hotels to meet accommodation needs during the Olympic Games (ATHENS 2004 has not entered into any other agreement concerning other cruisers of the same company)
As soon as it was made known that the above ships had been placed under seizure by credit institutions in foreign ports, ATHENS 2004 gave notice of termination for the corresponding agreements on 11 February 2004, and proceeded to recover the total sum of the advance payments made to ROC, as the letters guarantee obtained by ATHENS 2004 were forfeited.
In order to meet the resulting needs, alternative solutions were sought, which were subsequently proposed to the parties concerned and were accepted, while finalisation and signing of the relevant agreements is expected to take place very soon.
Following the above:
1) The French NOC, which had made reservations for 105 cabins, will be accommodated on the OCEAN EXPLORER I cruise ship, together with French Rights-Holding Broadcasters.
2) The United States Olympic Committee (60 cabins) will be accommodated on the Oosterdam cruise ship.
3) NOCs of 18 countries, which have reserved a small number of cabins each (81 cabins in total), will be accommodated in hotels that have signed the Olympic Hotel Agreement with ATHENS 2004.
4) An answer is expected concerning the reservations made by the Italian National Olympic Committee and by the Torino 2006 Organising Committee for the Winter Olympic Games, pending examination of two proposals submitted (reservations had originally been made for a total of 66 cabins).
Once the new allocation of the above accommodations is finalised, ATHENS 2004 will have fully met its contractual obligations to the members of the Olympic family, who had reserved cabins in ROC cruisers.
It is worth noting that 90% of cabins and suites aboard the QUEEN MARY 2 have already been allocated. Some cabins and suites are still available on the Ro
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
