Friday, January 20, 2012

Disney Fantasy Goes Down to the Sea

When a ship is built in the inland yard of Meyer Werft, its first journey is always the conveyance down the Ems River to the Dutch seaport of Eemshaven.

There is a tremendous sense of pride of the Meyer Werft product in the region, and a conveyance is always cause for people to come down to the river to watch the giant ships pass.

The journey is always a slow, methodical trip through narrow locks and drawbridge, and down the shallow river. Because of the treacherous conditions, the timing is always subject to change due to the weather, wind and tide conditions. For that reason, today's conveyance was suddenly moved up almost twelve hours to take advantage of better conditions.


Disney Fantasy left Meyer Werft about 9:00am this morning (January 20, 2012).



While looking at the photos, it's easy to forget how things are actually happening.
Because the ship is traveling backwards down the river, this photo actually shows
Disney Fantasy traveling toward the camera as it passes Weener.


Mickey and Minnie made their first appearance on deck to wave to fans as the ship
passed Weener. The official story with the early departure from the yard was because
Mickey just couldn't wait to get the ship to the sea, but don't be fooled. Our money
is on Meyer taking advantage of the better weather conditions.



Disney Fantasy approaches Leer in the late afternoon.


As Disney Fantasy passes through this drawbridge, note how little clearance
there is on each side of the side of the ship.


The conveyance goes on through the night. Here Disney Fantasy is nearing Emden about
9pm, and still people come down to the river to watch the ship pass.


Photos courtesy of Meyer Werft and vidcaps from live video by NDR TV

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Disney Delays Announcement

Disney Cruise Line had scheduled a major announcement in Miami today, apparently to announce the homeporting of a ship there beginning in December. The line decided to postpone the announcement until an unspecified date.

Although they didn't mention it directly, the delay likely was caused by the mood of the industry surrounding the sinking of Costa Concordia last Friday and the media attention on that.

Monday, January 16, 2012

Costa Concordia Updates

Please note that we are continuing to update information about the Costa Concordia incident in the original article's location so complete information will be available in one place. Latest updates includes information from Monday's press conference in Genoa with Costa CEO Pier Luigi Foschi, and an early morning release of the financial impact on Carnival Corp. Tuesday's updates included updated information on the death toll and the captain's first appearance in court.

That updated article can still be accessed at http://goo.gl/8unOo

MSC Cruises to Relocate to Miami

MSC Cruises announced this morning they would move their South Florida home port from Port Everglades (at Ft. Lauderdale) to the Port of Miami beginning in the fall of 2013.

The complete article appeared in the January 16, 2012, edition of Cruise News Daily.