Norwegian Epic Returns to Service with New Features

After a three-week dry dock, Norwegian Epic returned to service in Barcelona on Monday looking refreshed in most areas, sporting new features and with improved hydrodynamics under the water. She will now wow European travelers for a final year in the Mediterranean before relocating to Port Canaveral next fall.

The most important reason for a dry dock - when the ship is taken out of the water - is the work that goes on under the waterline which is normally inaccessible.

Projects were complete both above and below the waterline while it was out of the water. The complete story appeared in the October 20 edition of Cruise News Daily.

Australia Strikes Gold

Golden Princess made her maiden call in Australia on Sunday when she arrived at Sydney. She arrived after a 28-day cruise from San Francisco, and later Sunday departed on a 10-day South Pacific cruise.

The 108,000-ton ship is joining four other Princess ships during the line’s biggest-ever summer season in Australia. Golden Princess is also the first in the Princess fleet to feature the “Crafted by Curtis” menu items in its main dining rooms. They were created by Australian chef Curtis Stone.

Golden Princess at Circular Quay on her maiden visit to Sydney on October 18, 2015

Photo courtesy of Princess Cruises and Damian Shaw. All rights reserved. May not be copied or used without permission.

Your Own Collectors’ Item

OK. AIDA has taken a clear lead in the race  among the world’s cruise lines to have the coolest geeky feature.

Why come home with just a photo of yourself in a formal portrait when you could have a 3-D action figure? Exactly. You must have that action figure.

Well, actually they call them “3D portraits,” and right now they are only available aboard AIDAbella, but we see geeks across the cruise world lining up for these.

The complete story appeared in the October 19 edition of Cruise News Daily.

AIDA's Captain Adrian in the scanner, and General Manager Hendrik Van Dillen klein with his 3D portraits.

Photos courtesy of AIDA Cruises. All rights reserved. May not be copied or used without permission.

Many Are Invited but Few Are Chosen

Meyer Werft is planning to handover Norwegian Escape to Norwegian Cruise Line on October 22, so Meyer still owns the ship. And what did they do with it over the weekend? They had a party on it and invited all the employees.

In addition to all Meyer’s employees, employees of their subcontractors were also invited to the event which was held where the ship is docked in Bremerhaven. In all, 20,000 people were invited on Saturday evening.

Details appeared in the October 19 edition of Cruise News Daily.

Norwegian Star Back on Track

Norwegian Star ran into a bit of trouble on its transatlantic crossing that required an itinerary change at the very end of the trip. A technical issue arose in the Azipod propulsion system, and it was decided to bypass the Miami stop on Saturday and proceed directly to Tampa, where the ship was supposed to arrive on Monday.

The complete story appeared in the October 19 edition of Cruise News Daily.