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Fincantieri wins new Century refurbishment job
Fincantieri has won the contract to revitalize Celebrity Cruises' Century.
The work, worth around $55million, will be undertaken at
Fincantieri's Palermo shipyard in 2006.
The makeover designed to incorporate on Century a variety of Celebrity's
most popular Millennium-class attributes marks the
line's most extensive refurbishment, and the first time the company
has worked directly with Fincantieri. The Century project will
be the largest cruise ship modification to-date for the Palermo yard.
Century will emerge on June 2, from a five-week drydock period
with 314 new balconies, 14 new suites, 10 new staterooms ranging from
inside to balcony category, an expanded number of ConciergeClass
category staterooms, a new specialty restaurant, and a series of
features and amenities that typify the line's Millennium-class fleet.
The contract with Fincantieri involves Century's major structural
modifications, new balconies and associated stateroom interiors, new
staterooms on deck 12, and regular drydock work. Other interior
outfitting contractors will also handle portions of the work.
Following the revitalization, Celebrity's 'new' Century will sail on
a series of 12-night Baltic and 10- and 11-night Mediterranean
sailings, a 13-night Europe voyage, and a seven-night Norwegian
Fjords cruise. In November the ship will position to Miami sailing
four and five-night roundtrip Caribbean cruises until April 2007.
New Caribbean out island is a ‘10’
With the passenger ratings in from the first ship call at the newly
developed Cayo Levantado, MSC Cruises USA’s Rick Sasso is
calling the Caribbean out island a ‘10.’ This
is going to be one of the better out islands in the business,’
president and CEO Sasso told Seatrade Insider. He said passengers on
last week’s MSC Lirica cruise made glowing comments about the
beach, the water, the food and the facilities.
Developed by Bahia Cruises, a Dominican Republic company, Cayo
Levantado is located off the Samana Peninsula on the island’s
northeast coast. Bahia Cruises holds a long-term lease for the cay
and installed new beach chairs, umbrellas, bars, a dining facility,
toilets and acres of walking paths. ‘It’s been built
up to be a really high-end out island experience,’ Sasso said.
‘This is going to be good for MSC. People are going to rave
about this.’
Sasso outlines Sophia Loren campaign
‘Beautiful. Passionate. Italian. That’s her and that’s
us,’ said MSC Cruises USA president and CEO Rick Sasso in
describing why Sophia Loren is the perfect choice as the
company’s new spokesperson. ‘Beautiful. Passionate.
Italian’ are also the words that will feature in the advertising
copy when MSC Cruises launches its multimillion-dollar national
branding campaign in the U.S. in early 2006, Sasso told Seatrade Insider.
Holland America offers King Tut tickets
As the ‘Official Cruise Line’ of the ‘King Tutankhamun
and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs’ exhibit, Holland America Line
is offering VIP tickets in conjunction with cruises arriving at Fort
Lauderdale while the Egyptian treasures are on display through April
23 at the Museum of Art Fort Lauderdale. Priced at $75 per
person, the VIP tickets admit visitors to the exhibition at any time
during the museum’s open hours and permit front-of-the-line
entry with minimal waiting. Also included is an audio tour narrated
by Egyptian actor Omar Sharif.
Crystal expands golf theme cruises
Crystal Cruises expanded its 2006 golf theme cruises to
provide the opportunity to tee off on as many as six top courses on a
single voyage. In addition to 18-hole championship golf ashore and
special events on board, golfers can compete in Hole-in-One
competitions for a chance to win a free cruise. Crystal
Serenity’s May 25 roundtrip from London (10 days) will
offer play at: Gleneagles King’s Course (Edinburgh), Dornoch
(Invergordon), Royal County Down (Belfast), Royal Dublin (Dublin),
Mount Juliet (Waterford) and St. Mellion (Plymouth).
Crystal reveals details of '07 roster for Symphony, Serenity
Crystal Cruises will return to Asia and call in Israel for the
first time since 1999 in its 2007 cruise lineup for the Crystal Symphony
and the Crystal Serenity. The 2007 roster offers 152 different
ports as part of 63 itineraries that range from seven to 109
days. New to the program are eight maiden calls in Chile,
Lithuania, Mexico, Mozambique, Norway, Russia, Tunisia and Vietnam;
an emphasis on more ports per cruise; more seven-day cruises and
additional overnight stays. Crystal ships will be in port
during events such as Carnival in Rio de Janeiro; the Tall Ships
regatta in Stockholm, Sweden; and the Military Tattoo in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Regal Princess to replace departing Pacific Sky in P&O fleet
P&O Cruises said that the 1,590-passenger Regal Princess
of Princess Cruises will join its Australia-based fleet in
fall 2007, to replace the Pacific Sky, which was purchased by Spanish
tour operator Pullmantur Cruises. The Pacific Sky will
leave the P&O fleet on May 6, and some of the line’s Asian
cruise season will be canceled as a result, according to P&O
Cruises Managing Director Gavin Smith. The Regal Princess
will be tailored to the Australian market before her deployment in
late 2007 to join P&O Cruises’ two other ships, the
1,900-passenger Pacific Sun and the 1,400-passenger Pacific Star, he said.
Wintertime cruising in the Big Apple gets a warm reception
When Norwegian Cruise Lines’ Norwegian Dawn began
homeporting in the Big Apple during the winters, the ship practically
had the New York Cruise Terminal to itself. But with MSC
Cruises entering the market in 2007, NCL is about to get some company
in the Big Apple. In fact, by the time winter 2006-07 rolls around,
four ships will schedule regular winter calls here, making
Manhattan’s west side terminal a little more crowded. CLICK
HERE for the rest of this article.
Baltics see rise in cruise activity
COPENHAGEN, Denmark -- The Baltic region has become the second-most
popular cruise destination in the world after the Caribbean,
according to statistics from the Cruise Baltic Project, a 10-country
partnership made up of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia,
Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Russia and Sweden. Baltic cruising
has grown 16% a year since 2000, outstripping the 7% annual growth
rate of global cruising.
Aruba's cruise terminal to get friendlier
ORANJESTAD, Aruba -- Aruba Cruise Tourism will install four
information and survey kiosks at the island's cruise terminal and
will position cruise greeters at the terminal to offer additional
services to visiting cruise passengers. The kiosks, which will
be equipped with touch-screen access to information, a DVD and video
on the island, and surveys in various languages, are the first of
their kind in the Caribbean. For the first six months of 2005,
cruise ships made 172 calls in Aruba, compared to 153 calls over the
same period in 2004; in terms of people, 302,893 passengers called on
Aruba in 2005, vs. 298,397 in 2004.
HAL offers deal on King Tut exhibit tickets for Fort Lauderdale passengers
As part of its sponsorship of the King Tut exhibit at the Museum of
Art Fort Lauderdale, Holland America is offering VIP
tickets to all of its ships arriving in Fort Lauderdale through April 23.
Priced at $75 per person, the tickets entitle guests to visit the
exhibit any time during the museum’s operating hours and include
front-of-line entry with minimal waiting. The ticket price also
covers an audio tour narrated by Omar Sharif. Transport to the museum
is not covered. |
