Back to Havana

Royal Caribbean International has been approved for a summer and fall series of calls at Havana with Empress of the Seas, and they have now opened them for sale.

Details appeared in the February 3 edition of Cruise News Daily.

Long Arm of the Law Still Reaching

Back in December we updated you on the story about the three women who were recruited by a fourth to go on a free cruise to Jamaica aboard Freedom of the Seas. All they had to do was receive a gift of clothing and wear it home. Of course the “gift” had cocaine sewn into it. The three women all claimed not to realize what was going on until they received their “gift.”

In December we reported a fifth woman, who worked for the DC Public Schools, had been arrested. She had apparently recruited the first woman and coordinated the whole thing. She has now decided to plead guilty to being the mastermind behind the whole thing.

The complete story appeared in the February 3 edition of Cruise News Daily. 

Get Ready to Be on the Edge

It used to be cruise lines would announce a new ship and then reveal all its wonders. As the ships became larger, cruise lines began to split the announcements up and began to have a series of reveals. That device has begun to lose its luster, and now Celebrity Cruises has a new way to breathe some life back into the series of reveals: the Design Ambassador.

The complete story appeared in the February 2 edition of Cruise News Daily. 

Fincantieri Begins MSC Seaview Construction

Construction of the 154,000-ton MSC Seaview began today at the Fincantieri shipyard in Monfalcone when the first block of the keel was laid in the dry dock.

The complete story appeared in the February 2 edition of Cruise News Daily.

The first block of MSC Seaview is lowered into place at Fincantieri's Monfalcone yard.

Photo courtesy of Fincantieri. All rights reserved. May not be copied or used without express permission. 

Other Things You'll Want to Know - February 2, 2017

CND subscribers also read about:

• Silver Muse homeporting at Port Everglades
• Cunard sponsoring the 2017 Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show

Details appeared in the February 2 edition of Cruise News Daily.

“Good Spirits” Becomes Fourth Carnival-Produced Show

“Good Spirits” is not about friends of Casper the Friendly Ghost. It's a new series Carnival Corp is producing for the A&E Networks about cocktails. Really.

The complete story appeared in the February 1 edition of Cruise News Daily.

Other Things You'll Want to Know - February 1, 2017

CND subscribers also read about:

• Royal Caribbean tipping their hand and revealing some potential names of their upcoming ships
• Are cruise passengers being affected by the president's executive order restricting entry into the US of some foreign nationals?

Details appeared in the February 1 edition of Cruise News Daily. 

Seabourn Encore makes its maiden arrival at Sydney this morning.

Photo courtesy of James Morgan and Seabourn Cruises. All rights reserved. May not be copied or used without express permission. 

Seafood for Everyone! (Not Quite Everyone)

Carnival Cruise Line has expanded their Seafood Shack, which debuted aboard Carnival Vista, to seven additional ships.

The casual, a la carte restaurant is located within the ships' Lido buffet restaurants.

The complete story appeared in the January 31 edition of Cruise News Daily. 

Norwegian Enhances Loyalty Program

Norwegian has added perks across many levels of their Latitudes loyalty program, and they have added two new top levels for their most loyal customers.

Details appeared in the January 31 edition of Cruise News Daily. 

It Must Have Been a Royal Caribbean Key Chain

The wheels of justice turn slowly. About a year ago when a couple of men went to court in South Florida, we told you about a serious situation that developed a few months earlier when a family sailed aboard Independence of the Seas with their 11-year-old daughter.

Things didn't go too well, and the man was back in court last Friday for sentencing for, in a way, defending his daughter's honor.

The complete story appeared in the January 31 edition of Cruise News Daily.

Ecstasy in Charleston

Carnival Ecstasy has returned to Charleston but looks different from when she left. The ship has four new drinking and dining venues after a two-week multi-million-dollar dry dock.

The new venues are all still part of the FunShip 2.0 program, so they are familiar to those of us who watch the Carnival fleet, but they are some of the most popular and will be exciting to people who sail from Charleston (almost) exclusively.

The complete story appeared in the January 30 edition of Cruise News Daily. 

Other Things You'll Want to Know - January 30, 2017

CND subscribers also read about:

• A Fairstar reunion
• Windstar is perfect
• The World achieves a world record for southerly navigation

Details appeared in the January 30 edition of Cruise News Daily.