Friday, October 23, 2015

Discussion from Royal Caribbean

Royal Caribbean held their quarterly conference call today to discuss their third quarter earnings. As usual, there were some topics of conversation that went beyond the purely financial aspects of the business and were topics that consumers would find of interest.

The complete story appeared in the October 23 edition of Cruise News Daily.

Minimal Disruption from Hurricane Patricia - So Far

Hurricane Patricia became the strongest hurricane ever recorded in the western hemisphere as it came ashore near Puerto Vallarta.

Details appeared in the October 23 edition of Cruise News Daily.

Thursday, October 22, 2015

Meyer Delivers Norwegian Escape

Meyer Werft delivered the first ship in Norwegian’s Breakaway Plus-class today at Bremerhaven. The 164,600-ton Norwegian Escape will be the largest in Norwegian’s fleet.

Details appeared in the October 22 edition of Cruise News Daily.

Fire aboard Splendour of the Seas Changes Itinerary

An early morning engine room fire in one of Splendour of the Seas’ two engine rooms sent some passengers to their muster stations. Royal Caribbean said the ship’s fire suppression system was activated and extinguished the blaze, and the other engine room was unaffected.

Contrary to some reports, Royal Caribbean said the ship never lost power and never was adrift. Hotel functions continue to operate more or less normally.

The complete story appeared in the October 22 edition of Cruise News Daily.

Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Carnival Partners to Create Domestic Chinese Brand

Just a week after announcing the expansion of two more of their global brands into China, Carnival Corp finalized plans for a joint venture with China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC) and China Investment Corporation (CIC) to create a new domestic Chinese cruise line. But they don’t seem to be finished there.

The goal according to Carnival is “accelerating the development and growth of the overall cruise industry in China, which is expected to eventually become the largest cruise market in the world.”

The complete story appeared in the October 21 edition of Cruise News Daily.

Double the Excitement

The former Statendam arrived today at Sembcorp Marine Admiralty Yard in Singapore to begin its transformation into P&O’s Pacific Eden. In just a few days (October 31) her sister, the former Ryndam will also arrive for her transformation into Pacific Aria.

It will be Singapore’s first-ever double dry dock.

Details appeared in the October 21 edition of Cruise News Daily.

End of the Story

A 24-year-old woman pled guilty in US District Court to a charge of involuntary manslaughter stemming from an incident we reported on back in October 2011. The woman, who was 20 years old at the time, gave birth to an infant while alone in a stateroom aboard Carnival Dream. She then left the child under the bed and told no one.

In a plea agreement, the woman pled guilty to the felony charge and was sentenced Wednesday to two years of supervised release.

The complete story appeared in the October 21 edition of Cruise News Daily.

Tuesday, October 20, 2015

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.

Monday, October 19, 2015

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.