Friday, March 2, 2018

Traveling Deep with Princess

You may remember that Fathom, Carnival's brand without a ship, developed a group program which sailed to the DR in January aboard Crown Princess to continue their people-to-people humanitarian work. That trip was so successful, they immediately scheduled two more in March and May.

Those booked out so successfully, Fathom has now scheduled four more through the rest of 2018 aboard Caribbean and Royal Princess.

The Fathom sailings now have been branded “Travel Deep” sailings.

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

A One-Time Opportunity

Costa's next ship, the 135,500-ton Costa Venezia, is under construction at Fincantieri's Monfalcone shipyard, and it will be delivered in the first quarter of 2019. The ship is being built specifically for the Chinese market.

Once built in Italy, it still has to get to Asia, and Costa will sell the ship's positioning cruise from Italy to Asia as a spectacular 53-day inaugural, the only time the ship will be available for sale to western passengers. Once in China, it will be limited to local sale only.

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

Thursday, March 1, 2018

A Queen Will Name Carnival Horizon

A queen will name Carnival Horizon. Queen Latifah has agreed to be the godmother to Carnival's next ship.

The award-winning musician and actress will name Carnival Horizon in New York on May 23.

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

Disney Keeps Things Moving

Disney just announced their summer 2019 programs, and like usual, some of their ships will be moving and some will be making itinerary changes just to keep things fresh for their regular customers - and so they can sail to new places without having to leave the Disney family.

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

Wednesday, February 28, 2018

Cunard Expands Down Under

Australians have a love affair with Cunard. Each year when the ships go Down Under, the market gets stronger and it seems the Australians can't get enough. And each year in response, Cunard comes up with new itineraries to give Australians more reasons to sail again. Australia is one of the luxury brand's strongest traffic generators.

The line is expanding their Australian season but next year and again the following.

The complete story appeared in the February 28 edition of Cruise News Daily. 

Tuesday, February 27, 2018

Havana Plus

How convenient! During 2019, Carnival Sensation will be sailing year round from Miami on short cruises (four- and five-nights) to two or three ports of call. Carnival has permission from the Cuban government to replace one of the ports with Havana about every three weeks or so - 17 times during 2019.

These will each feature a daylong call at Havana, and they are Carnival Cruise Line's first cruises scheduled from Miami to Havana.

Details appeared in the February 27 edition of Cruise News Daily. 

One More, Please

Carnival Corp today ordered a third next-generation ship from Meyer Werft for their AIDA brand.

The 180,000-ton ship will be the third in the series that begins with AIDAnova, which is fully LNG-powered, and will be delivered this December. The ship ordered today is scheduled for delivery in 2023.

The complete story appeared in the February 27 edition of Cruise News Daily 

Looking over Symphony of the Seas

STX France will deliver Symphony of the Seas to Royal Caribbean next month. The yard provided a unique look around (and under and over) the new ship through the eyes of a drone in the video below.


Monday, February 26, 2018

Reaching out and Not Just Touching but Locked on and Streaming

Carnival demonstrated their super-fast mucho-bandwidth MedallionNet for the trade media today via a virtual press conference (in the olden days we called them conference calls) using the connectivity from Regal Princess as it was anchored just off Princess Cays.

Oddly, you could tell how well it worked, because there was nothing special about it, it was just like a normal phone call.

The complete story appeared in the February 26 edition of Cruise News Daily. 

Records Are Breaking at Southampton

Cruise business is booming at Southampton.

The port saw two million passengers pass through in 2017 on more than 500 ship calls.

Details appeared in the February 26 edition of Cruise News Daily.