There's No Time to Enjoy the View

Oasis of the Seas is one of the world's largest cruise ships. On its eastern Caribbean itinerary, one of the ports of call is St. Thomas. With a very narrow channel, sailboats anchored in the harbor, a tight turn and just six feet of water below the keel, it's very challenging to maneuver the giant ship into “everyone's favorite port.” In the video below, the master explaining just how it's done every time the giant ship arrives.

Other Things You'll Want to Know - January 9, 2018

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• Carnival has created four new beers which will be brewed aboard Carnival Horizon
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• Carnival returned to St. Thomas today when Carnival Glory visited St. Thomas. 

Details appeared in the January 9 edition of cruise News Daily. 

Ships Flocking Back to St. Thomas

Ships are hurrying back to “everybody's favorite port,” St. Thomas. Reopening to regular traffic on November 3 following repairs to damage from the September storms, the port finds 25 ships have scheduled calls during the balance of the month.

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

Return to Normal

Royal Caribbean has set dates to return to San Juan and St. Maarten in addition to St. Thomas, which they announced plans for earlier. They also updated the status on a couple of ports that still aren't ready for their return.

Details appeared in the October 25 edition of Cruise News Daily. 

The Caribbean Is More Open for Business

Carnival has been working to get the message out that there was little storm damage in most of the Caribbean. But today, Carnival said they now have specific plans when they will return to islands where there was severe damage.

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

Back to the Caribbean

The cruise lines have turned up the volume in their campaign to let everyone know that despite the perception the mainstream media is giving, the Caribbean is still open for business, and the vast majority of it was not damaged by the recent series of hurricanes. But our readers already knew that.

The Florida Caribbean Cruise Assn held a conference call today with Adam Goldstein and Arnold Donald to get the word out that the Caribbean is still open, and to launch their new website CaribbeanIsOpen.com that is aimed at getting that message out there.

The complete story appeared in the October 16 edition of Cruise News Daily. 

A Perfect Solution

In the 21st century, when the National Guard moves in to help, they don't live in tents (a la M*A*S*H). They live on a cruise ship, which turns out to be a perfect solution for the situation.

FEMA has chartered Grand Celebration from Bahamas Paradise Line to house the National Guard and other first responders at St. Thomas as they work to rebuild the island's infrastructure after Hurricane Irma and now Hurricane Maria.

Details appear in the September 19 edition of Cruise News Daily. 

Windfall

You will remember that last week we told you how Royal Caribbean delayed the turnarounds of two ships because of the blizzard in the Northeast. Of course every day they delay, it shortens the next cruise by a day, and that means they probably can’t stay with the original itinerary either.

Even through the winter storm is long gone (but not the snow), its effects are continuing, even far down in the Caribbean.

Details appeared in the January 29 edition of Cruise News Daily.

Cruise News Daily Headlines for December 9, 2014

* How It Should Be Done
St. Thomas is, as the saying goes, everybody’s favorite port. If that’s the case (and it seems to be, given the number of ships that dock there every day of the week), they are expecting traffic to just keep growing. To keep up with the expected growth - and the other Caribbean ports - two more berths will be built there to handle megaships.
   WICO (West Indian Company Ltd), the operator of the port, announced last week they plan to build a new pier with two berths to handle ships as large as Royal Caribbean’s Oasis-class, currently the largest ships sailing - and it will be ready in time for the 2017-2018 winter season.

* Other Things You’ll Want to Know
CND subscribers also read about Carnival being beneficial ... and paying out.

The complete articles appeared in the e-mail edition of Cruise News Daily delivered to our subscribers.