Meyer Werft Lays Keel for Disney Dream

Meyer Werft laid the first block of Disney Dream's keel today at their Papenburg (map) yard. Disney dream is the first of a pair of 128,000-ton vessels on order for delivery in 2011 and 2012.

As you might expect from Disney, the ceremony was not your typical low-key keel-laying.










Disney's Captain Tom Forberg shows the special Disney "good luck" coin that was set before the first block was lowered onto it. Captain Donald looked on and vowed he would never sail the ship to Peking.

Dominica Cruise Visitors Rise

Dominica News Online reports that the island's number of cruise visitors has increased despite the global financial crisis, according to Dominica's tourism minister. Not only are they expecting an increase in the number of cruise ships calling, but they also expect the number of visitors disembarking to show a whopping 30% increase this winter from 500,000 to 650,000. Another interesting point to note in the article is that Dominica has one of the highest percentages of passengers disembarking of any port in the region.

Oasis of the Seas Fitting Out Continues

Royal Caribbean Chairman Richard Fain was at the STX Europe yard in Turku (map) last week and took some pictures of Oasis of the Seas as its interior moves toward completion. He published the photos on his blog.

Is Enough Enough?

Ship pilots at Galveston have suddenly withdrawn a request for an increase in their rates. They had wanted an overall 5% increase in their net pay, but had earlier agreed to reduce the number of pilots they require on cruise ships from two to one. (They were only charging 50% for the second pilot, by the way.) To compensate for the loss of that income, they were proposing a 7.1% increase on their fees to guide cargo vessels, which would then average out to the 5% increase in the average pilot's paycheck.

The cargo lines then balked at that, feeling they were being treated unfairly when they cruise lines' rates would effectively go down, and they threatened a lawsuit.

Literally minutes before the Board of Commissioners was to vote on the increase, they pilots withdrew their request, saying they didn't want to bear the expense of defending their position in a court battle.

According to the Houston Business Journal, the average pilot made $314,453 in 2008 for 26 weeks' work. Additional coverage is available in the Houston Chronicle.

Passenger Medevaced from Carnival Paradise

A 62-year-old woman passenger was medevaced from Carnival Paradise Sunday (August 23). This Coast Guard video gives a little different perspective than we normally get (from what's happening inside the helicopter).



The operation occurred above Carnival Paradise around 5:15pm Sunday afternoon about 25 miles west of Point Loma (California). The ship had earlier notified the USCG that the woman was suffering from a head injury and needed to be transported to a shoreside medical facility. The Coast Guard dispatched a MH-60J Jayhawk helicopter to meet the cruise ship. After arrival at the hospital, the woman was listed as in stable condition.