Friday, October 13, 2017

Two New Restaurants Created for Symphony of the Seas

In a ship the size of Symphony of the Seas, it might be tempting to fill it with new dining concepts, but Royal Caribbean says they are populating it with their tried and true signature restaurants. The twenty eateries aboard will include Wonderland, Jamie's Italian, 150 Central Park, the Park Cafe, and Izumi Hibachi and Sushi.

But they did make a point of announcing they would have two new (for RCI) concept restaurants.

The complete story appeared in the October 13 edition of Cruise News Daily. 

Costa Gets in the Pink

Breast cancer awareness is worldwide. Just like some American-based cruise lines have programs to support breast cancer research, Costa has a program in the Mediterranean.

Unlike the American programs, the Costa program is an annual event, but it makes contact with everyone aboard the ships. Costa's program partners with the Umberto Veronesi Foundation's "Pink is Good" program. This year the events will culminate with an event in Naples on October 16.

Details appeared in the October 13 edition of Cruise News Daily. 

Thursday, October 12, 2017

Symphony Gets Bigger and Boarding Gets Faster

Symphony of the Seas will have the capacity to carry more than 6,800 passengers, and Royal Caribbean has developed a  faster way to get them aboard at embarkation, minimizing the check-in process, and they barely see the terminal.

The complete story appeared in the October 12 edition of Cruise News Daily. 

Weddings for Everyone

You wouldn't think what happens in Malta would affect what happens on ships in the Caribbean, but it does. Thanks to a vote in Malta's parliament, where most of Celebrity Cruises' fleet is registered, same-sex couples can now legally wed aboard the Malta-registered ships.

Details appeared in the October 12 edition of Cruise News Daily. 

Wednesday, October 11, 2017

FEMA Goes Cruising Again

Change of plans: After just announcing that Carnival Fascination will return to San Juan sailings this weekend despite ongoing repairs to the terminal, Carnival announced this afternoon that the ship will instead be chartered to FEMA to house relief workers on St. Croix.

The charter will necessitate canceling the ship's San Juan sailings from October 15 through January 28.

Details appear in the October 11 edition of Cruise News Daily. 

Now You Can Get a Beer with That Barbeque

Passengers love Guy's Burger Joint on many Carnival ships. As a result, Guy Fieri developed the Pig & Anchor barbeque restaurant for Carnival where the meat is smoked right on the ship. It's available on just a couple of ships and only at selected times. Now Carnival has him branching out again.

Guy's Pig & Anchor Bar-B-Que Smokehouse/Brewhouse is more of an evolution to a third brand than just an expansion of the Pig & Anchor franchise. It will debut aboard Carnival Horizon.

The complete story appeared in the October 11 edition of Cruise News Daily. 

Tuesday, October 10, 2017

Nate Takes His Turn

Hurricane Nate turned out to be the least disruptive to turnarounds of the recent hurricanes. Still, it is relatively unusual for hurricanes to keep ships at sea for extra days, but 2017 seems to be the year for it.

The complete story appeared in the October 10 edition of Cruise News Daily. 

MSC Deploys First Man Overboard Detection System

MSC Cruises has become the first cruise line to implement a man overboard detection system in regular operation on one of their ships.

Other lines have tested systems but have found them too unreliable (too many false alarms) to put into regular use.

MSC has developed the system in conjunction with Bosch and Hewlett Packard Enterprise aboard MSC Meraviglia, and they have brought it to the point of 97% accuracy.

Details appeared in the October 10 edition of Cruise News Daily.