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Crown Princess investigation continues
There are still no public answers about what
caused Crown Princess to roll suddenly on Tuesday afternoon as the
ship sailed about 11 miles outside of Port Canaveral.
Speculation has focused on a possible malfunction
in the steering mechanism or autopilot, but investigators are not
giving anything away.
‘It will be quite some time before we can
determine a cause,’ said Keith Holloway, spokesman for the
National Transportation Safety Board, which is jointly investigating
the incident with the U.S. Coast Guard.
‘We are still in the beginning stage of this
investigation,’ Holloway said. ‘At the moment, there
isn’t one thing in particular the investigation is focusing on.
We are looking at everything and until we have gathered the data and
information we need we will not rule anything out.
Princess Cruises spokeswoman Julie Benson said
the company has not been given a timeframe when the inquiry might be
concluded or the results announced. ‘We are reiterating,
however, that the Crown Princess has no ongoing mechanical or
operational issues, and the ship is safe for passengers and
crew,’ she said.
Cleared by authorities to sail from Port
Canaveral on Thursday, the ship deadheaded (sailing with no
passengers) to New York where she embarked passengers on Saturday for
a revised seven-day voyage.
Carnival endows Miami Performing Arts Center
Miami’s new downtown performing arts center,
nearing completion, will be named Carnival Center for the Performing
Arts in honor of a $20m aggregate gift from Carnival Corp. The gift
is the largest received to date by the Miami Performing Arts Center Foundation.
Seabourn promotes ‘Writers’
Circle’ sailings
Seabourn Pride will host two ‘Writers’
Circle’ Caribbean cruises with authors who are contributing
editors at Travel + Leisure magazine. Both sailings are roundtrip
from Barbados.
Journalist Michael Gross will join the Nov. 25
cruise to talk about his latest book, ‘740 Park,’ billed as
the inside story of New York’s richest, most prestigious and
secretive cooperative apartment building and the people who live
there. Gross also wrote ‘Model: The Ugly Business of Beautiful
Women,’ a New York Times bestseller.
‘Investigative humorist’ Henry Alford
will sail on the Dec. 9 cruise. His works include ‘Big Kiss: One
Actor’s Desperate Attempt to Claw His Way to the Middle.’
Princess maps out Panama Canal routes
2007 will mark the 40th year that Princess
Cruises operates in the Panama Canal, and the company continues as a
market leader in canal sailings. In 2007-08, Princess will offer
nearly 40 canal departures on two ships with a variety of itineraries
and full or partial transits.
Coral Princess will again provide roundtrip
voyages from Fort Lauderdale, with a revised route that includes a
return to Cartagena and Aruba. The ship will operate 19 departures of
this 10-night itinerary which also includes a partial canal transit,
Cristóbal, Limón (Costa Rica) and Ocho Rios. Two full
transits are scheduled on 15- and 17-day cruises between Fort
Lauderdale and San Francisco or Vancouver.
Sister ship Island Princess will operate full
transits, including 10-, 11- and 15-day cruises, plus a 19-day West
Coast itinerary. The 10- and 11-day routes between Acapulco and San
Juan call at Huatulco, Puerto Quetzal (Guatemala), Puerto Corinto or
San Juan del Sur (Nicaragua), Puntarenas, Cartagena and Aruba, with
Curaçao added on the 11-day option.
NCL rolls out Hawaii, NY promotion
NCL Corp. is rolling out a promotion for NCL
America voyages in Hawaii and Norwegian Cruise Line sailings from New
York. The ‘Mahalo Days’ promotion, which means ‘thank
you’ in Hawaiian, applies to bookings made from now until Aug.
20. Rates start at $449 for New York cruises and $649 for
Hawaii sailings.
Port Everglades orders new master plan
Port Everglades said it has retained DMJM Harris,
an engineering/planning/economic analysis consulting firm, to prepare
a comprehensive five-year master plan and 10- and 20-year vision plans.
Costa introduces 'exclusive' dining options
Exclusively Costa is the name of a new
gastronomic concept introduced by Costa on-board seven of its ships
including new flagship Costa Concordia which entered service earlier
this month.
Instead of simply offering an alternative menu
with choices created by a famous chef (with a cover charge) Costa has
added a 'Grande Carte' option of set prices for individual dishes.
Both menus feature recipes inspired by Costa's partner chefs
including Gustavo Marchesi, Zeffirino and Ettore Bocchi, the
Michelin-starred chef from Villa Serbelloni in Bellagio, who
supervises the Concordia Club, recently launched on Costa Concordia.
HAL adds pillow selection
Holland America Line will enhance its
‘Mariner’s Dream’ bedding with a variety of pillows
that will be available in all suites fleetwide by the end of the month.
The three types of pillows – Support (firm
fiber), Soothe (medium-cluster fiber) and Soft (100% goose down)
– will be placed in verandah suites, superior verandah suites,
deluxe verandah suites and penthouse verandah suites.
Each suite will offer at least two pillows from
each of the three types for a total of six, while eight pillows will
adorn king beds in deluxe verandah suites and penthouse verandah suites.
A pillow display card at embarkation will alert
passengers to the choices; they may choose the types they prefer.
Panama Canal vote set for Oct. 22
Panamanians will go to the polls on Oct. 22 to
decide on a major expansion of the Panama Canal.
Lawmakers approved the referendum on Friday, and
President Martín Torrijos is expected to sign a bill today
authorizing the vote.
The $5.3bn expansion project would build a third
lane and locks to handle larger ships. Completion is targeted for 2014.
The Last Great Ocean Liner
The legendary SS Norway has been in Indian waters
for the past several weeks and is about to be scrapped at the ships'
graveyard: the beaches of Alang. Ship enthusiasts have been praying
for a reprieve since she was removed from service following a boiler
explosion back in 2003, and several plans to return her to service
have been announced, but it now seems that it is too late to save her.
Therefore, we ship enthusiasts must now begin to
mentally prepare ourselves for the inevitable and perhaps a period of
morning. On the other hand, many cruise passengers have probably
never heard of the SS Norway, and some that have may well have
considered her to be an outdated rusty old tub, anyway.
The SS Norway was owned an operated by the
Norwegian Cruise Line for just over two and a half decades. However,
she had a life before this. She entered service in 1962 as the 'SS
France', a grand Ocean Liner and the last 'ship of state' for the
French Line 'CGT' (Compagnie Générale Transatlantique).
She quickly gained a reputation for style and excellent cuisine, as
she operated the transatlantic route between Le Harve and New York.
In 1974 the France was laid up. The era of
intercontinental ocean travel was swiftly coming to an end with the
increasing dominance of the jet liner. This could have easily been
the end of the story. However in 1979 the Norwegian Cruise Line
purchased the France and spent a year converting her into one of the
biggest Cruise ship of the period. In fact she was 50% bigger than
all other ships in operation in the Caribbean.
Carnival extends Mobile service
Carnival Cruise Lines extended its contract with
Mobile for another year, enabling the 1,452-passenger Holiday to
continue operating four- and five-day Mexico cruises from the Alabama
Cruise Terminal.
Carnival launched the first and only year-round
cruise program from Mobile in October 2004. The line said the ship
consistently goes out full, enabling Carnival to carry 125,000
passengers annually from the port.
Cruiseman News Shorts
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Seabourn is all about sharing voyages with
interesting shipmates and celebrating the good things in life,"
notes Seabourn president Deborah Natansohn, "and that includes
good writing." With that in mind, Seabourn has scheduled two
"Writers Circle" cruises in the Caribbean this fall, where
passengers will be able to share their intimate cruise experience
with authors and journalists.
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Steiner Leisure Ltd. renewed its agreement with
Seabourn Cruise Line to provide spa and beauty treatments,
hairdressing and fitness programs for the three-ship line through
Dec. 31, 2008.
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First it was the beds, and everybody had to get
new beds. Now the latest "we've got better ones" marketing
skirmish has moved to the pillows. Holland America says they are
"answering that call" by enhancing the Mariner's Dream
stateroom experience and giving suite passengers a choice of pillows.
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An updated film version of the 1984 classic TV
crime show "Miami Vice" is set to debut in US theaters next
Friday, and Miami being home to Carnival Cruise Lines, the line has
teamed up with Universal Pictures and Bacardi Rum for an onboard
promotion that will have you ready to grow a little facial stubble
and don your shades. For the rest of the summer, or August 31,
whichever comes first, Carnival bartenders have teamed with Bacardi
to be pouring Miami Vice Mojitos for passengers aged 21 and older.
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The U.S. Department of Defense is planning to use
a former Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) cruise ship to help evacuate
American citizens from Lebanon. The Orient Queen, which first entered
service in 1968 as NCL's Starward is expected to arrive off the coast
of Lebanon sometime on Tuesday. Most recently, she has been operating
on 7-day cruises from Beirut to Egypt, Cyprus and Greece for Abou
Merhi Cruise Lines.
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