Exploring Ocean Cay

Anticipation is building for the opening of Ocean Cay, MSC's private island in the Bahamas, in November. The transformation from an industrial sand extraction site to lush marine reserve is nearing completion. The island will be completed with dining and bar facilities to make for a fun day in the sun (and sea) for MSC's passengers.

In the past, we've shown you how the island is being developed, but now MSC has released a video rendering of just what it will all look like as you explore the island.

The complete story appeared in the July 19 issue of Cruise News Daily.

Crew Gratitude

Former Carnival president Bob Dickinson resisted the introduction of restaurant-style seating in the line's dining rooms because he felt the relationship that develops between passengers and their waiter as well as other crew members, such as the stateroom steward whom you interact with regularly, is very important to customer satisfaction.

Today, Bob is in retirement and restaurant-style seating in the dining room has to co-exist with flexible seating, but passengers still develop relationships with the crew members, and Carnival has different type of gratuity system than it used to be where you put cash in an envelope and hand it to your waiter, but something hasn't changed. Crew members still value their customers and appreciate the gratuities.

The complete story appeared in the July 18 issue of Cruise News Daily. 

Other Things You'll Want to Know - July 18, 2019

CND subscribers also read about:

• Carnival Panorama completing sea trials
• Despite ongoing political unrest in San Juan, Royal Caribbean returned to San Juan today for the first time in three day with the scheduled call of Allure of the Seas
• Seabourn announced a new champagne partner

Details appeared in the July 18 edition of Cruise News Daily. 

Carnival Panorama on sea trials this week

Photo courtesy of Carnival Cruise Line. All rights reserved. May not be copied or used without express permisssion. 

Boka Vanguard Lifts Carnival Vista

On Saturday (July 13), outside of Freeport, Boka Vanguard lifted Carnival Vista out of the water and transported it to Grand Bahama Shipyard in Freeport. It will hold it out of the water, acting as a floating dry dock, for servicing of the Azipod propulsion system.



Video courtesy of Bosjakus..All rights reserved.

Alley-OOOOOP!

When Carnival Vista finishes its current cruise, its off to dry dock for repair of its two Azipods, one of which has been keeping the ship from attaining normal cruising speed and has necessitated modifying the itineraries. It will be out of service for a couple of weeks causing the cancellation of three scheduled sailings.

There are few dry docks in the region that can handle a ship the size of Carnival Vista, and fewer that have the expertise to do this kind of work. Normally, the most logical place to have the work done would be Grand Bahama Shipyard in Freeport, but as you may remember, its large dry dock was damaged in an accident when a crane collapsed on Oasis of the Seas several weeks ago.

At the time Carnival announced Carnival Vista's repairs, Carnival said they were working on a repair solution with ABB (the manufacturer of the podded propulsion system). Carnival detailed that solution today and explained how the repair would be accomplished.

The complete story appeared in the July 2 edition of Cruise News Daily.