Being watched

Queen Elizabeth's arrival in Southampton is a really big deal locally with a tremendous amount of civic support and public interest. A local excursion company is actually running excursion boats (for a price), shown above, around the ship just so people can get close. It's interesting that as tight as security is, there doesn't seem to be a security zone around the ship from the water.

Making Chefs at Sea

Beginning this fall, home cooking aficionados can brush up their skills and learn new ones in the galleys aboard Liberty of the Seas and Freedom of the Seas.

The new cooking programs are presented by Chefmakers Cooking Academy, and seem to be a step above the cooking demonstrations by the chef, even the ones on some lines, where they are presented in small groups, because Chefmakers' are actual hands-on experiences and in the ships' galleys. They do seem to be for slightly-above-novice cook, but not really for the already-accomplished.


Complete details were in the article in the October 8, 2010, edition of Cruise News Daily.

iCarly Stars to Join Nickelodeon Cruises

iCarly is one of Nickelodeon's top shows. It's therefore only natural that two of iCarly's stars are going to be showing up on Nick's All Access Cruises aboard NCL.

Jennette McCurdy (who plays Sam Puckett) will appear on the All Access Cruise aboard Norwegian Jewel on February 20 (from New York), and Nathan Kress (who plays Freddie
Benson) will be aboard Norwegian Epic's sailing on July 24 (from Barcelona) to meet his fans.


The complete article appeared in the October 8, 2010, edition of Cruise News Daily.

Swan Hellenic Owner Makes a Stink, Debit Cards on Cruise Ships, RCI Expands, Vancouver Confused

CND subscribers read about some stinky comments made by the head of Swan Hellenic Cruises ... some questionable debit cards being used aboard cruise ships ... Royal Caribbean expanding their call center ... the Port of Vancouver being confused about why their cruise business is down ... and some cool new MSC ads.


Details appeared in the "Other Things You'll Want to Know" column in the October 8, 2010, edition of Cruise News Daily.

MSC's Clever New Ad Campaign

When we sail aboard MSC, we often comment on the European styling of the furnishings. The difference is subtle, but distinctive. That difference is coming across in some new ads the line has produced which are beginning to appear around the world. The series of 14 scenes was shot aboard MSC Splendida and feature real MSC employees. The scenes each focus on one element of the cruise experience (such as dining, glamorous cocktails, wellness, fun for the kids, entertainment) where some part of the scene forms one of the letters of MSC and the others are superimposed on the screen. As part of the MSC “employee” family, having christened eight of the eleven ships, Sophia Loren provides the voiceover for the TV spots. A couple of examples are seen below:

AIDA Innovates with AIDAsol

Most of our readers will probably never sail aboard Carnival's AIDA brand, since it markets exclusively to German-speaking customers. Their ships seem to be extremely innovative, and the line keeps coming up with cool features that we don't really see imitated by US brands.

The line's eighth ship, AIDAsol, is currently under construction at Meyer Werft, and the line is just beginning to release details of the ship's features.


The complete article appeared in the October 7, 2010, edition of Cruise News Daily.

Saturday Night Will Come More than Once a Week on Liberty of the Seas

Last May, Lisa Bauer, Royal Caribbean's SVP of Hotel Operations, told us about enhancements Liberty of the Seas would be getting to bring some of the passenger-experience into line with the experience aboard the line's two Oasis-class ships. Installation will begin during the ship's drydock in January.

One of the new features will be a Broadway-style musical production. Oasis has "Hairspray," and Allure will have "Chicago." Today she announced Liberty will have "Saturday Night Fever: The Musical."


Details appeared in the October 7, 2010, edition of Cruise News Daily.

Logistically Unusual Medevac from Coral Princess

Most medevacs from cruise ships have become rather routine, even though they require a great deal of expert flying on the part of the Coast Guard air crew and careful seamanship by the officers of the ship to coordinate the operation. Occasionally, the logistics of the operation take it out of the routine, however.

Coral Princess had one of those emergencies on Monday night as it was sailing from Aruba to Port Everglades.


Details appeared in the October 7, 2010, edition of Cruise News Daily.

Princess Cruises is First Customer for San Francisco Shore Power

This morning, Island Princess became the first ship to plug into the Port of San Francisco’s new shore power, which is also the first port in the state to offer the facility.

"Cold ironing" allows a ship to plug into the city’s power grid and shut down their engines while in port, thus reducing air emissions.

The process of connecting the ship’s four, three-and-a-half inch power cables takes about 40 minutes to connect and power down the ship’s engines. (Another 40 minutes is required when the ship is ready to leave.)

Island Princess' connection to shore power is shown below.

Royal Caribbean Expanding Capacity at Spain

Travel trends tend to swing back and forth like a pendulum. As the cruise industry grows and matures in the UK, it too is experiencing these swings of popular trends.

In this CND article we look at how (and why) RCI is capturing the momentum of that pendulum and expanding sailings from Spain for specifically for the growing market from the UK.


The complete article appeared in the October 6, 2010, edition of Cruise News Daily.

Port of Miami Looking Forward to Winter

The Port of Miami is looking forward to a winter with growth and four new arrivals at the port.

They will include Norwegian Epic, Celebrity Eclipse, inaugural activities for Oceania's Marina, and the return of Costa after several years' absence.


The complete article appeared in the October 5, 2010, edition of Cruise News Daily.

Princess Cruises Enters The Blogosphere

* A New Dream Each Week
Where have you always wanted to go? Over the next year someone who has been there may be writing about their experience there on Princess Cruises' new blog, "50 Essential Experiences: The Travel Bucket List." The new story posted each week may also give you some new places to dream about and add to your own "to do" list.

These aren't written by just anyone; they're written by experts. Princess has chosen 50 of their own employees, each with more than 15 years' experience traveling for the
company, to write about one special place they've been, and a special experience there.

The new blog will be updated with a new destination and experience each week and is located at www.50essentialexperiences.com


The complete article appeared in the October 5, 2010, edition of Cruise News Daily.

Addl Seven Seas Voyager Cancellation, Passenger Overboard in Med, Crown Princess Perfect Score, Canadian Medevac, New Terminal for Buenos Aries

CND subscribers read about an additional cancellation by Regent Seven Seas due to Voyager's propulsion problem ... a passenger overboard from a cruise ship off the coast of Israel ... Crown Princess has a perfect Canadian score ... a stunning new video of Cunard's Queen Elizabeth ... a Canadian medevac from Norwegian Dawn ... and Buenos Aries opening a new cruise terminal to handle its exploding number of cruise passengers.


Details of these items appeared in the "Other Things You'll Want to Know" column in the October 5, 2010, edition of Cruise News Daily.

Cunard's Queen Elizabeth - Building to Finished Product

Cunard and Fincantieri have released a video about the new Queen Elizabeth. It covers the building of the vessel through the finished product, with some absolutely spectacular shots. The video is also a magnificent piece of film making on Cunard's part. Enjoy!

Obstructing Sculpture at San Juan Pier Coming Down

* Going, Going ....
On Saturday, the port of San Juan began the removal process of a giant sculpture which has stood at Pier 3 since 2006. With the way new ships are being built, with features protruding over the sides of the hull, the support cables on the sculpture make it impossible for them to use the pier.



The above photo, shows the sculpture at the foot of Old San Juan. If you look carefully, you can see the offensive cabling.



This photo, shot from above the sculpture shows a detail of how close the cables are set to the edge of the pier and why ships with superstructures that extend over the side of the hull find it difficult or impossible to use the pier.


The complete story appeared in the October 4, 2010 edition of Cruise News Daily.

Crystal Releases 2012 Preliminary Itinerary Info

Crystal Cruises has released some preliminary information about their 2012 luxury cruise program that will take its ships to many exotic corners of the globe.

Crystal Symphony and Crystal Serenity will sail 68 different itineraries during the year. Highlights include a 94-day Pacific Rim World Cruise, expansion of late fall options in the Mediterranean, Baltic and Northern Europe, and New England/Canada. Details of the full program will be released on October 30.


The complete story appeared in the October 4, 2010, edition of Cruise News Daily.

Seven Seas Voyager Cancellation, MSC Poesia's Perfect Score, Strike in Marseilles, Ted Koppel Speaks, the Rest of the Story on QM2

CND subscribers also read about Regent Seven Seas Voyager being disabled in Greece ... a perfect score in Canada for MSC Poesia ... labor strikes causing trouble getting to the port in Marseilles ... Ted Koppel joins the list of speakers aboard Seabourn Sojourn's 2011 world cruise ... and there's more to the story than you've probably heard about the prominent couple asked to disembark from Cunard's Queen Mary 2.


Details of these items appeared in the "Other Things You'll Want to Know" column in the October 4, 2010 edition of Cruise News Daily.