|
Carnival to revamp Caribbean cruise schedule in 2008
The Carnival Liberty will launch a seven-day Caribbean cruise
schedule from Miami beginning in May 2008, and its upcoming, new
sister ship, the Carnival Freedom, will reposition to Fort
Lauderdale, to assume the Liberty's six- and eight-day Caribbean
cruises, in November 2008.
The Freedom is currently under construction at Italy's Fincantieri
shipyard and slated to debut in Europe March 5.
The Liberty will sail year-round, alternating seven-day eastern and
western Caribbean cruises from Miami. The eastern Caribbean itinerary
will begin May 31, 2008, and through Oct. 18 will feature Grand Turk,
Turks and Caicos; Half Moon Cay, a private Bahamian island; St.
Thomas; and San Juan. Beginning Nov. 1, 2008, the Liberty's eastern
Caribbean itinerary will call at San Juan, St. Thomas and St. Maarten.
The western route, meanwhile, begins May 24, 2008 and calls in
Cozumel, Mexico; George Town, Grand Cayman; and Ocho Rios, Jamaica.
ROYAL CARIBBEAN INTERNATIONAL will name its third
Freedom-class ship the Independence of the Seas when it debuts in May
2008. The vessel is currently under construction at Aker Yards in
Turku, Finland. Along with sister ships the Freedom of the Seas and
the Liberty of the Seas, which will debut in New York in May, the
160,000-ton vessel will carry 3,634 passengers and will share the
title of world's largest cruise ship. Like its sister vessels, the
Independence of the Seas will have amenities that include the
FlowRider surf simulator, the H20 Zone aqua park, cantilevered
whirlpools, an ice-skating rink, a boxing ring and the 1,215
square-foot Presidential Family Suite that accommodates up to 14 passengers.
NORWEGIAN CRUISE LINE made several changes to its North
American fleet rotation. The line will send the Norwegian Sun from
New Orleans to Miami in October, move the Norwegian Spirit from New
York to New Orleans in November and assign the Norwegian Gem, which
debuts in October, to New York beginning in December to sail to the
Bahamas and Florida. In Hawaii, NCL America will lose a ship when the
Norwegian Wind is transferred to parent company Star Cruises' Asia
fleet. Starting in September, the Pride of Aloha will operate 10- and
11-day interisland Hawaii itineraries, with every fourth sailing
including a call at Fanning Island in Kiribati.
Celebrity Expeditions has outlined much-awaited itineraries
for the 710-pax Journey's post-Bermuda season. Starting in October,
2007, she'll take in areas such as Antarctica, Brazil, and the
Chilean Fjords. As expected, Expeditions is taking another
ex-Renaissance ship, now sailing with Pullmantur, under its wing. To
be called Celebrity Quest, she'll feature calls in islands such as
St. Bart's, Guadeloupe, and Dominica starting in October '07;
overall, the two ships add 32 new ports of call for the brand.
CARNIVAL CORP. confirmed an order for a second 130,000-ton
vessel for Carnival Cruise Lines, to be constructed by Fincantieri
and delivered in 2010. The ship would carry 3,652 passengers. The
vessel and its sister ship, an as-yet-unnamed ship to be delivered in
2009, would be Carnival Cruise Lines' largest ships.
SILVERSEA will introduce its first cruise with no formal
nights or receptions next year aboard the Silver Whisper's April 9
cruise from Alexandria, Egypt. Silversea is testing the concept; CEO
Albert Peter said if it is well received, the concept could be added
to other cruises.
SILVERSEA also said that it sold out its 2007 world cruise, a
first for the luxury line. Its 2008 world cruise, meanwhile, will
make several maiden calls, including Majuro in the Marshall Islands,
Pohnpei in Micronesia, Apra Harbor on the island of Guam and Iwo Jima.
Holland America launches a new multimillion dollar magazine ad
campaign this week, designed to provoke "target consumers to
rethink which cruise line is best suited for a vacation."
The key visuals in the ads (a pearl, a pear) are unique for cruise
advertising. The campaign first appears in the January issue of
Vanity Fair, which is on newsstands now.
Can Seattle Kill Alaska's Cruise Industry - and Their Own?
We've seen it before. People in a port city hear about an accidental
discharge from a cruise ship. Some feel the cruise lines need to be
punished. Never mind that there hasn't been any harm to the
environment. They forget all the money the cruise lines pump into the
local economy. Someone stands up and says they can punish the cruise
lines for all the trouble they cause, clogging up the port area with
tourists and polluting the local environment, and make them pay for
using the local services by charging the passengers a $50 tax. (The
best part is neither the cruise lines nor the passengers have a say
in this.) After a couple of years of legal battles there's an
election, and then there's a $50 tax on passengers.
In Seattle, they're still talking about Mercury's errant discharges
of gray water in Puget Sound in September and October 2005. And now
one person has stood and said to the media that he thinks a $50 tax
on cruise passengers, modeled after Alaska's, would be a good idea.
He even pointed out how $4 of it could go to fund a program where
state inspectors ride on cruise ships to make sure they don't do
anything illegal.
If this copycat "me too" tax gets anywhere you can read
about it first here in The Cruiseman Newsletter.
Costa Cruises makes Dubai a homeport for Costa Classica
Costa Cruises became the first international cruise company to
homeport in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, when the Costa Classica
sailed from the port on Dec. 23, Costa said.
The seven-day itineraries from Dubai include two nights in Dubai and
one-day stopovers in Muscat, Oman; Abu Dhabi and Fujairah, UAE; and Bahrain.
The 53,000-ton Costa Classica will depart from Dubai every Saturday
on sailings marketed to Europeans and North Americans. The line
expects to carry about 44,000 passengers this season.
Celebrity Cruises partners with shipboard photo retailer
Cayman Islands-based Image, the largest shipboard photography
concessionaire in the cruise industry, has signed an exclusive,
long-term agreement to provide photo concession services on all
existing Celebrity Cruises ships, as well as the planned
Solstice-class newbuilds beginning in 2008, Image announced last week.
Celebrity's new ships will bring the number of ships operating
worldwide with Image photo concessions on them to 50.
Image said it began working with Celebrity's sister company Royal
Caribbean International more than 19 years ago and recently extended
its contract with the line for an additional five years.
Kenyan gov't cancels plans for new cruise terminal in Mombasa
The Kenyan government has scrapped plans to build a
multimillion-dollar cruise terminal at the Port of Mombasa, according
to a report in Nairobi's weekly newspaper, the East African.
San Juan upgrades cruise piers to handle mega ships
San Juan now has two more piers that can accommodate mega cruise
ships, said Fernando Bonilla, the executive director of the San Juan
Port Authority, last week.
Drainage work was completed on Piers 3 and 4, adding to four already
existing piers in San Juan Bay that have the capacity to handle large
cruise ships.
HAL to sail 46 Mexico cruises from San Diego in 2008
Holland America Line increased to 15 the number of 10-day cruises it
will offer on the Ryndam through Mexico's Sea of Cortez in 2008, four
more than in 2007.
The 1,258-guest Ryndam will operate the itineraries from San Diego in
the spring and fall of 2008; the ship will sail eight cruises
departing from Feb. 5 to April 15 and seven from Oct. 12 to Dec. 11.
The ship will visit Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan, Topolobampo, Loreto,
La Paz and Cabo San Lucas.
|
