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Mother-daughter
duos from TV to christen Princess ships
The
mother-daughter stars of two 1970's TV classics will be the
godmothers of Princess Cruises' two newest ships in a dual naming
ceremony on Mother's Day weekend in Santorini, Greece, Princess said.
Florence
Henderson, best known as Carol Brady on "The Brady Bunch,"
and Marion Ross, who played Marion Cunningham on "Happy
Days," will name the larger Emerald Princess, while their TV
daughters, Susan Olsen, who played Cindy Brady, and Erin Moran, aka
Joanie Cunningham, will christen the smaller Royal Princess.
Quest
to pioneer new Europe ports for Celebrity
Celebrity Quest,
the 710-passenger vessel that will join Celebrity Expeditions later
this year, will pioneer 25 new ports in Europe for the Celebrity
brand in 2008.
‘Our
itineraries feature destinations that are likely to be new
discoveries for even the most experienced European travelers,’
said Celebrity president Dan Hanrahan.
The ship’s
inaugural Europe season opens with a 14-night trans-Atlantic voyage
that departs Miami on April 12, 2008, with maiden calls in Alicante
and Gijon in Spain, and Bonifacio in Corsica.
Celebrity Quest
then presents a 14-night ‘Best of Italy’ cruise from
Civitavecchia with overnights in Sorrento, Venice and Livorno (for
Florence/Pisa), with visits to Monopoli, Ravenna, Sardinia and
Taormina, as well as Split in Croatia.
The ship will be
in Cannes for three nights during the film festival on a May 10
cruise roundtrip from Civitavecchia. From May to September, 14-night
sailings roundtrip from Civitavecchia feature overnights in Livorno
and Barcelona, and visits to Sorrento, Portofino, Malta, Tunisia,
Monte Carlo, Marseilles and Sete.
A pair of two-week
Black Sea cruises, from Civitavecchia to Piraeus, will overnight in
Kusadasi and Istanbul, with visits to Sinop, the Ukraine ports of
Yalta, Sevastopol and Odessa, and Bulgaria’s Varna. Other
two-week voyages will chart destinations in Turkey, Greece, Cyprus,
Egypt and Italy.
NCL,
Maui school system educate students on cruise careers
NCL America will
launch a pilot educational program in Maui's public schools system to
expose the future workforce to career opportunities on cruise ships,
the first career education program of its kind in the cruise
industry, NCL said.
The cruise line
signed an agreement with the and the Hawaii Dept. of Education to
begin a program called "Navigating Through a Sea of Opportunities."
NCL said that over
the next two weeks 400 eighth-grade students from Maui Waena
Intermediate School, Lahainaluna High School, Samual Enoka Kalama
Intermediate School, Maui High School and Maui Community College,
will tour one NCL's three U.S.-flagged ships, the Pride of Aloha, the
Pride of America, and the Pride of Hawaii, meet the crew, and learn
about the jobs available in the cruise industry.
Crew members from
all areas of the ship, including the front desk; shore excursion
department; hotel management; the galley, food-and-beverage and wait
staff; housekeeping; and deck, engine and environmental departments,
will meet with the students to explain what it is like to work and
live on a cruise ship, NCL said.
Liberty
of the Seas to offer new programs in ship's debut
Royal Caribbean
International's newest ship the Liberty of the Seas will introduce
new health and wellness programs, "adventure" weddings and
enhanced offerings for its youngest guests.
The vessel will
employ sister ship Freedom of the Seas' innovations such as the
FlowRider surf machine and cantilevered whirlpools, but the new
offerings onboard the Liberty of the Seas are all about enrichment,
according to the cruise line.
When the ship
debuts in May, its Vitality program will promote an "invigorating
and rejuvenating vacation", Royal Caribbean said, through a
balanced regimen of food, fitness, spa and shore excursion offerings
that include Tai Chi, acupuncture and wellness seminars.
Its Explorer
Weddings will be an "alternative and adventurous extension"
of the line's existing wedding and vow renewal program. Guests can
get hitched on an Alaskan glacier, in a hot-air balloon, while
surfing on the Liberty's FlowRider, or while SCUBA diving on the
ocean floor, Royal Caribbean said.
For its youngest
customers, Royal Caribbean is introducing the Crown & Anchor
Society Youth Program that will offer frequent-cruiser rewards. The
ship will also have an enhanced Adventure Ocean program with new
features by the Adventure Theater by Camp Broadway, a New York City
children's theater group, designed to introduce children and teens to
theater, music, and dance, and Scratch DJ Academy, which will host
classes that will put kids on turntables.
MSC
Orchestra to be christened in May
MSC Cruises’
newest ship, the MSC Orchestra, will be christened in the port of
Civitavecchia, Italy, on May 14.
The second of the
line’s Musica class of ships, the Orchestra will sail
Mediterranean itineraries from Venice in the spring and summer and
from Genoa in the fall and winter.
Its inaugural
sailing on May 16 will be a short cruise from Rome to Venice. Then
the Orchestra will depart every Saturday from Venice until Oct. 27,
sailing seven-day eastern Mediterranean itineraries. The Orchestra
will stop in Bari, Italy; Katakolon, Greece; Izmir and Istanbul,
Turkey; and Dubrovnik, Croatia.
The ship will be
based out of Genoa in November and alternate 11- and 12-day
itineraries. One cruise goes to Katakalon, Heraklion, Rhodes, and
Athens, Greece; Alexandria, Egypt; Limassol, Cyprus; Marmaris,
Turkey; and Naples, Italy. The other sailing goes to Barcelona,
Spain; Casablanca, Morocco; Tenerife, Canary Islands; Funchal,
Madeira Islands; Malaga, Spain; and Civitavecchia, Italy.
Kathy
Ireland christens Carnival Freedom
Super-model turned
super-mogul Kathy Ireland named Carnival Cruise Lines' 22nd ship, the
Carnival Freedom, in a ceremony in Venice March 4, one day ahead of
its inaugural cruise to the eastern Mediterranean.
The 110,000-ton,
2,974-passenger vessel will introduce Carnival's first sailings to
Greece and Turkey on 12-day itineraries from its homeport of
Civitavecchia (Rome) on March 14.
The ceremony, held
in the ship's Victoriana theater, also marked a decade of
shipbuilding by Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri for Carnival Cruise
Lines. After an hour-long delay due to problems with the theater's
sound system, Bob Dickinson, Carnival Cruise Lines CEO and president,
noted that 10 years ago Fincantieri delivered the first Carnival
vessel, the Destiny, in Venice. There are now eight Fincantieri ships
in service for Carnival, and three on order.
It's safe to say,
we like their work," said Dickinson.
Ireland, on hand
with her husband, three children and parents for the inaugural
cruise, is CEO and chief designer of Kathy Ireland Worldwide, a
Los-Angeles based company whose mission is "finding solutions
for families, especially busy moms."
"Cruising is
a magnificent solution for families," she said to the packed
theater. 'It brings the world to families."
Front
Row for America's Cup
This summer when
Switzerland's Team Alinghi defends America's Cup, Silversea
passengers will have front row seats as Silver Whisper positions
itself right alongside the race course for the first five race days
in the best-of-nine regatta.
Silver Whisper's
unique 8-day voyage will sail from Barcelona to the waters off the
coast of Valencia for the races combined with Silversea's ultra
luxury experience and an opportunity for first-hand insights from
noted racing experts aboard for the occasion.
Time
for a Change
When Carnival
Freedom set sail March 5th on its first revenue cruise, it did so
with a new version of the "Spa Carnival Fare," a
gourmet approach to dining for their health-conscious passengers.
The new selections
debuted with Carnival Freedom, but they will roll out across the rest
of the fleet, ship by ship, over the next few months.
RCI
outlines 7-ship Europe lineup in ’08
Royal Caribbean
International’s seven-ship Europe lineup next year, its largest
ever, will provide itineraries ranging from four to 14 nights, the
new Independence of the Seas, two Voyager-class ships and year-round
operation by Brilliance of the Seas from Barcelona.
‘Our
increased capacity in Europe reaffirms Royal Caribbean’s strong
commitment to the region, which has shown tremendous growth in the
recent years,’ said RCI president Adam Goldstein, who recently
announced the 158,000gt Independence of the Seas would sail
its inaugural season from Southampton.
From Harwich, Jewel
of the Seas will operate 11- to 13-night voyages to Norway and
the Baltic. The ship will also sail three- and four-night North Sea
cruises from Amsterdam, Oslo and Hamburg, calling at one major city,
such as Copenhagen or Brussels, per cruise.
Navigator, Voyager
and Brilliance of the Seas will homeport in Barcelona,
offering four- to 12-night itineraries throughout the Mediterranean.
Navigator’s four- and five-night sailings, aimed at first-time
cruisers, begin in April. In addition, Navigator also offers 10- to
12-night cruises to Greece and Turkey, some with an overnight in
Istanbul. In July, the ship will embark on seven-night voyages from
Civitavecchia to the Eastern Med.
Voyager follows
the French Riviera to Sicily on weekly sailings through November.
Deployed year-round at Barcelona, Brilliance offers 10- and 12-night
voyages that combine Italy with the Greek Isles, or with the
Dalmatian Coast. Adriatic routes include two days in Venice.
From Venice, Splendour
alternates roundtrip Turkey/Greece and Greek Isles voyages
ranging from six to eight nights. On the eight-night option, Crete is added.
Legend of the Seas
alternates 12-night Greece and Eastern Med and 13-night Italy/Croatia
itineraries, both roundtrip from Civitavecchia. The 13-night voyage
will give two full days in Livorno (for Florence/Pisa) and Venice.
Carnival
debuts ‘Family Fun Tours’
Carnival
Freedom’s inaugural 12-day European cruise program will offer
more than 150 shore excursions, including new ‘Family Fun
Tours’ in Turkey.
Also featured are
several new excursions, including a wine cellar tour in Barcelona,
and a land/sea adventure in Dubrovnik, a driving tour of France’s
Provencal villages, and a visit to Florence’s Uffizi Gallery.
Among the
‘Family Fun’ options are ‘Ancient Past & Modern
Istanbul’ which includes city highlights, a stroll along a local
café-lined street, traditional Turkish lunch and a ride on an old-time
trolley. From Izmir, ‘Ephesus and The Train Museum’
combines the ancient Greek city of Ephesus with a visit to Hadrian
Temple and a stop at Camlik for its open-air Train Museum.
Costa
Serena put through her paces
Costa Serena left
Fincantieri’s yard in Sestri Ponente (Genoa) March 9th, sailing
across the Tyrrhenian Sea to the builder’s Palermo shipyard for
cleaning and hull coating. On the return voyage to Sestri the vessel
will undergo technical sea trials. During the endurance test
Costa’s new flagship will sail at a top speed (in excess of 23
knots) for eight hours non-stop.
After her sea
trials Costa Serena will undergo further outfitting prior to being
delivered on May 15. The vessel will make her first official public
appearance on May 19 with the naming ceremony in Marseilles. The
112,000gt ship will be based in Venice throughout the summer offering
weekly cruises in the East Med.
Oceania's
Regatta to get $6 million spruce-up in April
Oceania Cruises is
sending the Regatta into drydock for a $6 million renewal scheduled
from April 5 to 16 in Marseille, France.
Onboard the
684-passenger Regatta for a luncheon with travel agents and
prospective clients in Miami this weekend, Robin Lindsay, Oceania's
senior vice president of vessel operations, said that the Regatta
would be brought up to the standards of its sister vessels, the
Insignia and the Nautica, which have gone in for more recent renovations.
The Regatta,
Oceania's first ship, will be refurbished but will retain its current
style, Lindsay said.
The 9-year-old
vessel's owner's and vista suites and its Toscana specialty Italian
restaurant will be "stripped to the steel", Lindsay said,
while the rest of the ship will get refreshed soft goods.
Toscana, which
still has its original Renaissance ship decor (the ship formerly
sailed as Renaissance Cruise's R1), will be refurbished in "rich
Tuscan earth tones."
Carnival
in $45m Roatán development
Carnival Corp. is
moving ahead with a new two-berth cruise dock and landside
development at Mahogany Bay on the Honduran island of
Roatán. The terminal will be called Mahogany Bay
-- Roatán.
The $45m project
will include a 20-acre land site and facilities to serve up to 7,000
passengers on peak days. Construction is due to start in the autumn,
with the grand opening planned for Summer 2009.
Adjacent to the
berths will be a transportation center and a destination retail
village with approximately 50,000 square feet available for shops and
a restaurant/bar. An over-the-water duty-free shop, a lighthouse, a
lagoon fed by waterfalls and a nature walk themed on the flora and
fauna of Central America are also planned.
Carnival will
partner on the project with Jerry Hynds, owner of a resort property
called Coral Cay, which is adjacent to the proposed project. Hynds
also is a member of the Honduran Congress.
Tobago
earmarks $74m for cruise piers
Tobago has
completed a $15m expansion of its cruise pier in Scarborough and will
invest a further $59m to extend the pier in Charlotteville, according
to tourism secretary Neil Wilson.
‘We’re
ready to get involved in the cruise industry in a pretty big
way,’ the secretary said.
Passenger count
climbed from 9,000 in 2001 when Wilson took office to 53,000 in 2005
then dipped below 15,000 in 2006 while the Scarborough pier work was
underway. Now that the project is complete, the secretary hopes to
see a return to growth.
Curaçao
in planning for second mega-pier
With cruise
numbers on the rise, the Curaçao Ports Authority is moving
forward with a master plan for the island’s second mega-pier.
Calls are forecast
to rise a whopping 34.6% this year, to 276, up from 205 in 2006. The
passenger count is expected to climb more than 8%, to 353,277, up
from 326,885.
The island
continues to attract new ships. On Feb. 18, Curaçao marked the
maiden call of Club Med II of Club Med Cruises, and Holiday Dream of
Pullmantur Cruises is scheduled to make its first visit on May 29.
The Curaçao
Ports Authority pledged to continue to improving facilities and
services for the cruise sector, while also marketing the island as a destination.
Fred.
Olsen Cruise Lines to send Balmoral to Miami for winters
British company
Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines will base its fifth ship, the Balmoral,
in Miami beginning with the winter 2008 cruise season, making the
Balmoral its first ship to be based in the US.
The 34,000-ton,
987-passenger Balmoral is currently sailing as Norwegian Cruise
Line's Norwegian Crown and will transfer to the fleet in
October and undergo an extensive refurbishment to transform it into
an "opulent British country house," Fred. Olsen said. The
line will also remove the ship's casino, turning it into a lounge,
and will remove the fitness center from the top of the bridge.
Beginning March 3,
2008, the ship will begin its inaugural season from Miami, sailing
10- and 11-day cruises to the Caribbean and Central America. Stops
will include Antigua, Belize, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico and the Turks
and Caicos.
New
Owner, Old Names, No Ship
Almost a year ago
to the day Carnival Corp said Minerva II would be transferred from
their British niche brand, Swan Hellenic, to Princess, effectively
shutting down Swan, since Minerva II was its only ship. They said
they would be looking for a buyer for the brand, and at the eleventh
hour just before the brand becomes a line without a ship, one has
been found, and an old friend at that.
Carnival announced
last week that Lord Sterling, the former Chairman of P&O and life
president of P&O Cruises, would be purchasing the assets of Swan
Hellenic. That includes the trademarks and marketing database, but no ship.
Disney
enhances show, sail-away parties
Disney Cruise Line
is revamping one of its longest running shows with new characters and
special effects while also enhancing its sail-away parties by making
more use of the ships’ poolside jumbo screens.
Snow will fall in
the Walt Disney Theatres on Disney Magic and Disney Wonder for
‘Disney Dreams &ldots; An Enchanted Classic.’ Lasers will
generate pixie-dust trails, and Timon and Pumbaa of Disney’s
classic film ‘The Lion King’ will make their first
appearance at sea. The revitalized show will debut on Disney Wonder
next Wednesday and on Disney Magic in time for its inaugural season
in the Mediterranean in May.
Also, beginning
this summer, the sail-away parties on both Disney ships will be
enhanced with new music, interactive dances and appearances by Disney
characters on the upper decks. New visual elements are also planned
using the jumbo screens recently installed on Disney Wonder and
Disney Magic.
Caribbean
Princess to sail from New York
Princess Cruises
will return to New York in 2008 for a third season of Caribbean
cruises, this time operated by Caribbean Princess. The ship will
offer two different nine-day Eastern Caribbean routes with a number
of sailings including Bermuda.
Caribbean Princess
takes over for Crown Princess. The ship will sail from the Brooklyn
Cruise Terminal.
Meyer
Werft lays Celebrity Solstice keel
Bernard Meyer flew
back to Germany after a busy week at the Seatrade Cruise Shipping
Convention to preside over a major event at Meyer Werft today: the
keel-laying for Celebrity Cruises’ Solstice.
Also on hand for
the ceremony in Papenburg were Celebrity president Dan Hanrahan and
Harri Kulovaara, evp maritime for Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.
In an unusual
twist on the keel-laying tradition, shipyard and cruise line
executives used rollers to spread green paint on the keel block for
Irish luck on St. Patrick’s Day and also to symbolize the energy
efficiency of the new Solstice class.
Celebrity is going
post-Panamax for the first time with the three-vessel Solstice
series. The 118,000gt ships also will be the largest ever built at
Meyer Werft, though eventually they will be outsized by the 122,000gt
newbuilds for Disney Cruise Line.
When asked how the
builder will manage to get Solstice down the River Ems from the
yard’s inland location, Meyer quipped: ‘Very carefully.’
Are
Alaskan Tax Collectors Ready for the 2007 Season?
Last August
Alaskan voters approved an initiative which will impose new
regulations and taxes on cruise lines and passengers in the 49th
State. You might think that with the passage of the initiative
everything was settled with that vote, but you'd be wrong. The voters
passed only the very essence of what the proponents wanted to happen.
None of the mechanics of how to actually accomplish what was passed
were included in the text of what voters voted on.
So all winter
long, the legislature and various state agencies have been working
out the nuts and bolts of exactly how to implement the laws, and in
the end, some of them could take a very different form from what the
voters thought they were voting on. And there will be surprises for
cruise passengers too.
Left to the
government to figure out were details such as how to calculate the
corporate tax on the cruise lines and the tax on their casinos, and
exactly how they get paid and when.
CLIA
survey reveals Caribbean still ranks high with travel agents
The Caribbean is
still the most popular cruise destination, and travel agents expect
that cruise sales to the region in 2007 will surpass sales in 2006,
according to a poll conducted by the Cruise Lines International Association.
Eighty percent of
more than 500 CLIA travel agents named the destination as the most
popular among their customers, and 88% reported that the total number
of Caribbean cruises sold at their agencies in 2006 increased over
2005; 93% of agents predicted that 2007 sales totals would surpass
2006 levels.
The survey also
showed that customer satisfaction rates had also risen, with nearly
90% of agencies reporting that their clients were very satisfied or
extremely satisfied with their Caribbean cruises, CLIA said.
"Hands down,
cruise vacationers will find the cruise industry's most innovative
ships in the Caribbean," said Terry Dale, president and CEO of
CLIA, in a statement. "The Caribbean is a veritable candy store
when it comes to the array of cruise lines and ships that are
available to travelers."
Other findings of
the CLIA survey included:
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49% noted that a
cruise was the perfect way to sample Caribbean islands that they wish
to visit again by ship or by land.
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53% of respondents
sold western Caribbean itineraries most often, 34% the eastern
Caribbean and 9% the southern Caribbean.
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75% cited
seven-day itineraries as the most popular cruise length, 13% said
voyages of five days or less, and 10% said cruises of eight to 10 days.
Fincantieri
to build new ship for Silversea
Silversea Cruises
has placed an order with Italy's Fincantieri shipyard for a
36,000-ton, 540-person ship, the line's fifth, to be delivered in the
fourth quarter of 2009, according to Amerigo Perasso, president of
the luxury operator. Perasso added that the line also signed an
option for a second vessel.
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