What Do You Buy a Cruise Line for Their 50th Anniversary?

It's only a matter of days until the holidays and you know what that means? Right. It's time to start thinking about Alaska. No, not next summer, silly - in 2019.

It's going to be a special year because it's Princess' 50th anniversary there, and they are making it their largest deployment ever.

The complete story appeared in the December 8 edition of Cruise News Daily. 

Other Things You'll Want to Know - December 8, 2017

CND subscribers also read about:

• Silver Cloud makes first expedition call at Antarctica
• "The Greatest Showman" made its world premier aboard Queen Mary 2 tonight. Video from the red carpet is below.
• Last night, MSC and Port Miami celebrated the completion of the new Terminal F which will be used by MSC Seaside when it arrives in its new home port on December 21 and by MSC Divina. 

Details appeared in the December 8 edition of Cruise News Daily.



Video courtesy of Cunard Line. All rights reserved. May not be copied or used without express permission.

Fanning the Flames

It's been no secret that at first it was kind of a bumpy ride for Carnival Cruise Line in Charleston. In general, the community welcomed them with open arms and is supportive and appreciates the positive impact they have on the region. There is a very vocal minority in Charleston that doesn't want cruise ships there, citing primarily the traffic, the noise, the pollution, the negative impact on tourism, and so forth, because of all the extra people in town on cruise days.

On the other hand, the Charleston market has been a very strong one for Carnival. Despite the haters, lots of people within driving distance of the city like to cruise. With that in mind, Carnival lobbed a bomb into Charleston today when they announced that is thrilling cruisers and most people that appreciate Carnival's impact, but it's sure to inflame the haters. In May 2019 Carnival will be replacing Carnival Ecstasy with the significantly larger (and more feature-rich) Carnival Sunshine.

The complete story appeared in the December 7 edition of Cruise News Daily. 

Other Things You'll Want to Know - December 7, 2017

CND subscribers also read about:

• Royal Caribbean declaring a quarterly dividend
• Carnival going to the Melbourne Cup
• NCLH moving to the NYSE

Details appeared in the December 7 edition of Cruise News Daily. 

Floating near Venice

Fincantieri launched Holland America's Nieuw Statendam today at their Marghera yard near Venice.

A number of ceremonial events occurred today in anticipation of the ship actually being towed out of the dry dock on December 21.

The complete story appeared in the December 6 edition of Cruise News Daily.

Anne Marie Bartels, one of the line's most traveled passengers, was chosen as the madrina.

The madrina christened the ship before flooding the dry dock.

Water rushing into the dry dock and touching the ship's hull for the first time.

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

Other Things You'll Want to Know - December 6, 2017

CND subscribers also read about:

• Cunard webcasting the red carpet events from Queen Mary 2 preceding the world premier of the film "The Greatest Showman" aboard the ship. 
• Seabourn adding K+M chocolate to their nightly turndown service. 

Details appeared in the December 6 edition of Cruise News Daily. 

For Those Who Want to Stay Closer to Home

Princess must finally have enough ships. It used to be that when asked why they don't have a summer Caribbean program, they would say they don't have enough ships to leave any there year round. They must therefore finally have enough ships, because the line announced to that they will again have a summer Caribbean program in 2019.

Details appear in the December 5 edition of Cruise News Daily. 

I Love a Parade

Carnival Cruise Line is turning the clock back a bit and reviving a cruise ship tradition and bringing back something passengers have missed over the last few years. The Baked Alaska Parade is coming back to main dining room. It was a tradition that was set aside when the flexible dining options were introduced a few years ago. Now the special dessert will return to the menu and be paraded through the dining room by a line of waiters before it is presented to the passengers and devoured within a minute or two.

That's only one item of a host of dining updates Carnival is rolling out across their fleet.

The complete story appeared in the December 5 edition of Cruise News Daily. 

Something Extra for NYC

It was previously announced that MSC would expand their presence in the US market and the Caribbean during the winter of 2019 by bringing MSC Meraviglia to Miami. Today the line announced that on the way to Miami, MSC Meraviglia will visit New York and have three sailings from there during the fall of 2019.

Two will mark MSC's first-ever fall foliage cruises to the Northeast, and the last will cruise to the Caribbean and reposition the ship to Miami. They will also mark MSC's first-ever sailings from New York.

The complete story appeared in the December 4 edition of Cruise News Daily. 

Other Things You'll Want to Know - December 4, 2017

CND subscribers also read about:

• Who are the Scared Weird Little Guys and where can you see them
• MSC Seaside left Trieste and is currently making its way to Miami. MSC sent us some B-roll of the ship's sea trials and a quick walk around the ship's stunning interior. We edited it into a video so you can see just how striking this ship is - inside and out. The video is below. (There is no audio.)

Details appeared in the December 4 edition of Cruise News Daily.



Video courtesy of MSC Cruises. All rights reserved. May not be copied or used without express permission.