Court Reinstates Same-Sex Weddings in Bermuda

Bermuda's Supreme Court struck down the island's Domestic Partnership Act which authorized officially sanctioned same-sex domestic partnerships but not marriage, thus allowing all people to marry, including same-sex couples. This will also allow cruise ships registered in Bermuda to offer same-sex weddings.

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

Hawaiian Whiplash

Remember earlier this week when Norwegian Cruise Line said they were suspending all calls at both ports on the Big Island of Hawaii until further notice? Consider yourself notified.

Norwegian Cruise Line said today that Pride of America will return to its regular schedule with this weekend's sailing on Saturday.

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

Like a High-Stakes Game of Where's Waldo

This story isn't directly about cruising, but it has a visual that explains why so few people going overboard are found, despite hours and hours of searching by the Coast Guard.

On Wednesday morning a 456-foot Liberian-flagged container ship, Vega Sagittarius, docked at Port Everglades at 6:40am. It advised the Coast Guard of a missing crew member, a 25-year-old male, last seen approximately 5:30am.

The Coast Guard launched a 45-foot response boat from Port Everglades and an MH-65 Dolphin helicopter from Miami.

The helicopter crew located the missing man five miles east of Port Everglades and directed the response boat to his location. The boatcrew transferred the man to EMS.

It's not a very interesting story and has nothing to do with cruises, but the photo taken from the helicopter speaks volumes about the difficulty of the job of the Coast Guard in locating people in the water who have gone overboard. Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

How easy would it be to overlook this man in the water, even looking at this photo taken from the perspective of the search helicopter when you know he's there?

This article appeared in the June 8 edition of Cruise News Daily. 

A view from the perspective of the search helicopter showing how difficult it is to see a person in the water

Photo courtesy of the US Coast Guard

Fincantieri Does It a Fifth Time

Fincantieri has delivered Viking Orion, the fifth ship to Viking Ocean Cruises at the builder's Ancona yard.

Like its sisters, it is 47,800 gross tons and has 465 staterooms and suites.

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

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

Carnival Expanding Shore Holdings in Alaska

Carnival Corp made a major move overnight to expand its land operations in Alaska with Holland America Princess Alaska Tours agreeing to acquire TWC Enterprises' White Pass & Yukon Route division, which includes White Pass' port, railroad and retail operations in Skagway, Alaska.

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

AIDAnova Is Smiling

Now you can tell AIDAnova is an AIDA ship. Meyer Werft has painted AIDA's iconic trademark on the line's newest ship, AIDAnova, the first cruise ship completely powered by Liquified Natural Gas.

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

AIDAnova gets its iconic logo at Meyer Werft in Papenburg

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

Princess Scores Nine Times With Coverage of FIFA World Cup

Football (soccer) fans are going to score big if they are sailing on Princess during the FIFA World Cup matches in Russia for a month beginning June 14.

Just because soccer fans are on vacation, doesn't mean World Cup fans going to have to miss the matches. Nine princess ships will be carrying 64 games beginning on June 14 all the way through the final in Moscow on July 15.

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

Who Says You Can't Buy a Perfect Day?

Remember how a few weeks ago, Royal Caribbean launched the Perfect Day concept?

It had lots of enjoyable activities at Coco Cay like Up, Up and Away, the tethered helium balloon that takes you up to 450 feet above the island, or Thrill Waterpark, with the tallest waterslide in North America. Royal Caribbean just opened them for sale.

Details can be found in the June 6 edition of Cruise News Daily.

Norwegian Suspends Big Island Calls

Norwegian Cruise Line has now suspended Pride of America's calls at both Hilo and Kona until further notice. The line said the action was taken due to “uncertain conditions resulting from volcanic activity on The Big Island of Hawaii.”

Details appeared in the June 5 edition of Cruise News Daily. 

Things Are Happening in Brisbane

Carnival Australia announced an agreement with the port of Brisbane to build the Brisbane International Cruise Terminal (BICT) at Luggage Point and have it operating by 2020. At the same time Carnival announced that Carnival Spirit will move its home port to Brisbane year round beginning in 2020.

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

Fincantieri Delivers MSC Seaview

MSC Seaside is no longer as unique as it was just six months ago, because today, Fincantieri delivered its sister, MSC Seaview, and she is every bit as stunning as her sister. It also happens to be the third newbuild MSC Cruises has put into service in just twelve months.

The 153,516-gross ton vessel was delivered at Fincantieri's Monfalcone yard near Trieste. It also now happens to be the largest and most technologically advanced ship ever to be designed and built in Italy.

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

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

Polishing the Crown

Crown Princess “came back new” from a ten-day dry dock in Freeport and headed to the Mediterranean loaded with new features.

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