Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Princess is Going to the Dogs (or Are the Dogs Going to Princess?)

Last Friday, Princess Cruises hosted a special group of recent graduates aboard Sea Princess. They wanted to see what their upcoming cruise would be like.

They got to walk around the ship, and had lunch, although some of their companions just opted for a bowl of water, because they were working.

The group was 25 recent graduates of Guide Dogs for the Blind - and their guide dogs.

Princess regularly has groups of blind passengers travel with their guide dogs, and Princess goes out of their way to accommodate their human passengers and their furry assistants as you can see in the video.

Everybody's Talking about P&O's Adonia

There's more to a christening than breaking a bottle. Earlier this week we showed you video from last weekend's christening of P&O's Adonia. Now comes another one that tells more about the ship - not a tour of the ship, but more of what Adonia is about. In it you hear briefly from the godmother, Dame Shirley Bassey, who talks about what it means to her to be the godmother to a ship; P&O's managing director, Carol Marlow, who talks about how Adonia will fit into the P&O fleet; Commodore Steve Burgoine, who will helm the ship; and Marco Pierre White, who will have a restaurant aboard (Ocean Grill) and talks about his concept for Adonia.

Going to a Christening

Have you ever been to the naming of a ship? Earlier this week we showed you a short video of the christening of P&O's Adonia. They have now released a longer one that gives viewers more the feeling that they are there standing on deck enjoying the excitement of the moment. The main difference we noticed in watching the video is basically that you don't have to stand in the sun, but on the other hand, you don't have a waiter bringing you a glass of champagne, either. It's only seven minutes, but that's all it takes to officially bring a new ship into the P&O fleet.

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Video of Radiance of the Seas Entering Drydock

Royal Caribbean International's Radiance of the Seas arrived at the Victoria Shipyard (in Victoria, BC) on May 20, 2011, for her regular drydock. During the 22-day operation, several of the dining venues offered on the line's newer ships will be added to the 2001-built vessel.



This video shows the 85,000-ton Radiance of the Seas arriving at the Victoria facility. It was shot by the same brilliant videographer who produced the time-lapse video we featured on CND Cruiseblogger a couple of weeks ago.



The second video is from Royal Caribbean and shows some of the work starting and gives an overview of the work to be done.

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Weekly Video Cruise News Summary May 21, 2011



This week we have news from the cruise industry about an electrical failure on MSC Opera, the sale of Windstar Cruises, Holland America's Rotterdam, NOAA's hurricane prediction, MSC Musica, P&O Cruises, and Disney Cruise Line's Disney Fantasy.

Additional headlines and links we mentioned are on the CND website at http://www.cruisenewsdaily.com

Video Highlights of the Christening of P&O's Adonia

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Here are highlights from yesterday's (May 21, 2011) christening of P&O Cruises' Adonia with Dame Shirley Bassey. The day's events in Southampton were capped by a giant fireworks display over the harbor.

We mentioned earlier that Dame Shirley was really excited and understands what it means to a ship's godmother. In an earlier interview, her excitement really comes across. That again came through on Saturday.