From the imitation is the most sincere form of flattery department

NCL must have decided our blog is a good idea, because their newest "it" girl, Norwegian Gem, now has one at http://www.gemitgirl.com/

While you are there, you can also bowl in the Bliss Ultra Lounge.

Note: Link is valid at time of posting.

From the P&O calling department

The port of Wilmington seldom has a cruise ship call, but when does, it's big news. (A few days ago we noted that Empress of the Seas made an emergency call there.) P&O Cruises' Aurora made a call there over the weekend in lieu of New York or Philadelphia, making it the largest cruise ship ever to visit, at about 76,000 tons.

So what did the British passengers do? About half the passengers took the opportunity to visit the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall, but according to the local ABC TV affiliate, the other half went to a nearby shopping mall. They probably had heard so much about our mall food.

Note: Links are valid at time of posting.

From the you're never far from home department:

And then there was the one about the doctor from Matfen, England who wanted to see the world, so she went to work for P&O Cruises as a ship's doctor. She did that for two years, but then an opportunity came to work for sister company, Cunard Line, and not only that but aboard the most well-known ship in the world, QE2, during its last year sailing for the line. She jumped at the chance thinking of the fabled world voyages aboard the classic liner. She joined QE2 last Saturday for her first cruise, and where will that take her? Around the British Isles, and her first port call takes her up the River Tyne, just a few miles from home.

You can read about Dr. Beth Gregory-Smith in an article in the Hexham Courant.

Note: Link is valid at time of posting.

CND Headlines - Look Out Down Under

After years of being virtually ignored by the cruise industry, except for a few hand-me-down ships, the "contemporary" or "mass market" portion of the industry seems to be discovering there's a market for their products in Australia and New Zealand.

Princess recently started expanding their own programs for the local Australia/New Zealand market (viewed there as an upscale product) while at the same time working with P&O Australia to upgrade theirs. Yesterday Royal Caribbean International announced a major expansion of their own in the market for next year.

Details are in today's edition of Cruise News Daily.

CND Headlines - The Last of the Freedom-Class

It seems like it was just yesterday that we were at the Aker yard in Turku (Finland) and Freedom of the Seas was floating out of the drydock. Today, the float out process began for the last of the three-ship order of Freedom-class vessels, indicating that the work on the hull is
completed.

The intense work inside now begins as we move toward the May delivery date.

When completed, Independence of the Seas will be homeported at Southampton for the summer season, making it the largest cruise ship, at 160,000 tons, ever to be homeported in Europe.

There's a photo on the front page of the CND website of the executives pressing the button that flooded the drydock with 87 million gallons of water. That process will take until tomorrow to complete when the ship can be towed out.

This may be the last of the class to be built, but it will be followed by the even-larger Genesis-class in the fall of 2009.