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.

The Place to Watch

After crossing the Yucatan, Hurricane Harvey has once again regained hurricane strength and is headed toward the Texas coast, expected to arrive late Friday and early Saturday.

The port to watch is Galveston, farther up the coast to the north from where it looks like the eye will come ashore. Still, the Galveston area is expected to be affected.

The complete story appeared in the August 24 edition of Cruise News Daily. 

Other Things You'll Want to Know - June 27, 2017

CND subscribers also read about:

• A race between Queen Mary 2 and four boats from France to New York. 
• A man with a problem

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

Queen Mary 2 and one of the trimarans it is racing to New York

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

When “Nowhere” Might Mean Somewhere

When Carnival Fantasy left Mobile yesterday, it had a propulsion issue and passengers were advised they weren't going to be able to call at Cozumel as scheduled. The cruise was becoming a cruise to nowhere and would remain at sea the entire time.

Passengers were offered some generous compensation (50% refund and 50% future cruise credit), but quite a few decided to disembark and receive a full refund. It turns out they may have made the wrong decision.

The complete story appeared in the April 14 edition of Cruise News Daily. 

Spreading out in Long Beach

Carnival broke ground today on their terminal expansion at Long Beach to better accommodate the larger number of passengers that come with the larger ships they will be operating from there.

The new addition will more than double Carnival's space taking it from about 66,000 square feet to 142,000 square feet. Of course the existing part of the terminal is part of the iconic geodesic dome that used to house Howard Hughes' “Spruce Goose.”

Details appeared in the April 12 edition of Cruise News Daily.  

Fincantieri Floats Silver Muse

Fincantieri floated up Silversea's Silver Muse at their Sestri Ponente yard near Genoa on Friday, signaling the completion of most of the outer construction and that work is ready to move forward on the ship's interior.

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

That New Ship Smell

The Port of Rotterdam is proudly pointing out that this spring they will have three giant newbuilds call at the port fresh from the yard. In April, the port will play host to Royal Caribbean’s Ovation of the Seas. In May, her big sister, Harmony of the Seas, visits. Also in May, AIDA’s long-delayed megaliner, AIDAprima will homeport at Rotterdam for a series of cruises.

Mitsubishi Delays AIDAprima again

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries has again notified AIDA they won’t be able to meet the delivery date for AIDAprima, and instead of entering service in October from Dubai, AIDA is now planning for the ship to enter service in April 2016 from Hamburg.

This, of course, changes AIDA’s inaugural programs again.

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

Cruise News Daily Headlines for March 27, 2014

* Carnival Readying Home for Cat in the Hat
Next month Carnival Freedom will enter drydock to receive all the Fun Ship 2.0 enhancements it can hold along with the upgrades necessary for the complete Seuss at Sea program. Green eggs and ham are so close you can smell them!
   The work will be done at the Grand Bahama Shipyard in Freeport from April 19 to May 3.

* Royal Caribbean Pricing Changes
Royal Caribbean made two little changes the other day that went under most people’s radar. They won’t cost you money, and actually may save you some, but they are important to be aware of. The changes apply to all three RCCL brands: Royal Caribbean International, Celebrity Cruises and Azamara Club Cruises.

* Saving Lives in the Florida Straits
Carnival Ecstasy quite possibly may have saved 41 lives in the Florida Straits on Tuesday night. The bridge spotted a small unseaworthy boat that was grossly overloaded with 41 Cuban nationals that was taking on water. The Carnival captain altered Ecstasy’s course to render assistance, and took the 41 people aboard. It was found that the boat had no life saving or navigation equipment aboard.

The boat Carnival Ecstasy spotted was grossly overloaded with 41 people
and was taking on water.

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

Photo courtesy of US Coast Guard. All rights reserved. May not be copied or used without permission.

Cruise News Daily Headlines for September 6, 2014

* Costa Concordia Ready to Roll
If you haven’t seen Costa Concordia lately, you will be surprised. Most TV networks and newspapers have been using photos and footage that was shot more than a year ago. In them, the ship is lying on its side and looks much like it just lay down on its side for a rest.

In reality, if you see the photos taken in the last couple of months, you’d notice the ship is rusting, but the biggest change is that the exposed (port) side of the ship is almost completely obscured by the giant boxes (sponsons) affixed to it, which, once the ship is righted, will be filled with air and refloat the ship.


* This May Make You “Crane” Your Neck
You don’t usually see them in the pictures from the shipyards because they’ve been cropped out, but without them most pictures you see from the yards wouldn’t be possible. They stand on two giant legs straddling the dry docks and lifting the huge blocks of the ship into place.

These cranes are major pieces of the yards’ equipment. Because of their height (they need to stand at least several stories taller than the ships), they can be seen from the locale surrounding the yard and become something of symbols of the shipyard.   More


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

RCCL Orders Third Oasis-Class Ship

Royal Caribbean Cruises ordered a third Oasis-class vessel for their Royal Caribbean International brand today from STX France.

The ship will be built at the STX France yard in Saint Nazaire for delivery in mid-2016.

Details and analysis appeared in the December 27, 2011 edition of Cruise News Daily.

UK Reports: QE2 Sold for Scrap - Updated

Update below original story

According to UK newspaper reports, The classic Queen Elizabeth 2 has apparently been sold for scrap to a Chinese yard.

The oceanliner has been sitting in a port at Dubai since its purchase by resort interests there in 2008. The original plan was to convert it to a luxury hotel for use there, but that plan was shelved when world financial markets tightened. A crew of 40 to maintain the vessel has been constantly aboard since the handover.

The UK reports say QE2 was sold to Chinese interests for 20 million pounds. It's original sale price was 64 million pounds, and it has been running up fuel and docking fees since.

The reports say that a crew of 20 Chinese replaced the original crew last Friday, indicating a change of ownership. The rumor is that the ship will be going into drydock before leaving for an undisclosed destination in Asia. That would seem to point to it ultimately being scrapped.

Reports from the UK are notoriously unfounded, but this one seems to have a lot of detail with it, and it's quite possibly true.

British interests had been negotiating to purchase the ship and bring to back to the UK for use as a hotel, but those hopes would now seem to be ended.

Update:
In an unusual move, Cunard has issued a statement saying they have been in contact with "Dubai" regarding the stories published in British newspapers "and to the very best of our knowledge this story is pure speculation."

This is unusual in that in the past Cunard has never wanted to comment on their former vessel. The attitude seemed to be that it was no longer theirs, so anything to do with it was no longer their business.

Beyond that, while it is reassuring what Cunard said, they actually have no more information than anyone else. If the Dubai owners aren't ready to confirm the sale to anyone else, they aren't likely to confirm it to Cunard, since Cunard has no interest in the project, past or present.

As we mentioned in the original article UK media often runs with reports without verification, and they were saying the Dubai owners were not commenting, but this does have a lot of detail, and the Dubai owners were not denying the story either. If they have no interest in selling the ship, logic would say they'd be very quick and very public about denying the reports. There seems to be a lot of smoke for no fire. One explanation may be that a sale may not have closed yet, but it could in the near future. Time will tell.

By the way, Cunard has commented to CND in the past that they have absolutely no interest in reacquiring the vessel.

Monarch of the Seas Passenger Arrested with Child Porn

A passenger returning from a cruise aboard Royal Caribbean's Monarch of the Seas was arrested when it was discovered that his laptop computer contained more than 1,100 images and video believed to be child pornography.

According to the complaint filed in federal court, the pictures included toddlers and babies being sexually abused. Authorities said about 350 of the children in the material have been identified by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

The man has now been indicted by a federal grand jury on child pornography charges. The alleged pornography was discovered when the man returned from his cruise on December 10, 2012.

Royal Caribbean to Sell Specialty Dining Packages

Royal Caribbean International said today in addition to traditional pay-as-you-go dining for their specialty restaurants, on four ships the line will also sell packages of specialty dinners in specific combinations of restaurants. The packages offered will vary depending on the ship, because each ship has different combinations of restaurants. The package price will represent an approximate 25% discount off the individual prices.

RCI will also begin to offer reservation-only pre-paid parties in some of the line's casual restaurants.

The specialty restaurant plan is similar to one sister-line Celebrity began offering a couple of months ago.

In the complete CND article, we also looked at RCI's motivation behind offering the new rates.


The complete article appeared in the December 5, 2011, edition of Cruise News Daily.

Carnival Brands Readying UK Expansion

From some corporate changes at Carnival Corp in the UK, it appears three of the company's US-based brands are positioning themselves for higher visibility and significant penetration of the UK source-market.

Until now, the Carnival Cruise Lines, Holland America and Seabourn brands have all shared small joint facilities and staff in the UK and have been represented to the public and the trade via general sales agents. Holland America and Seabourn will now share operations as they do in North America, and the Carnival brand will have its own facilities. Both are transitioning away from general sales agents in favor of their own staff.

To support those, top management changes have been announced over the last few days. Adolfo Perez will be moving
from Miami to head Carnival Cruise Lines UK operation as managing director of Carnival Cruise Lines UK sales and reservations office in London, while the Holland America/Seabourn operation will be headed by Lynn Narraway as managing director and Wendy Lahmich as director of sales.


The complete story appeared in the December 1, 2011, edition of Cruise News Daily.

Looks Like Snow Again

It happens every year about this time. Snow is forecast for the atrium of almost every ship in the Princess fleet. And the forecast is always 100% correct. It snows each evening around the holidays, and sets the mood for all the special holiday activities Princess has in store for their passengers.

There are so many holiday-themed things going on aboard Princess ships between now and New Year's, on so many different levels, that passengers will wonder if they are on a cruise or in the middle of a holiday spectacular.

The holiday observances will range from religious (Christmas and Hanukkah) to secular, and include everything from decorations throughout the ship (even a Christmas tree on the mast) to special holiday music and entertainment. Special events will include everything from the traditional (holiday meals and a visit from Santa Claus) to whimsical (a gingerbread house building competition and a giant Yule log burning on the huge poolside screen).


The complete story appeared in the December 1, 2011, edition of Cruise News Daily.

New Men at Top of Costa's US Operation

Last month Carnival Corp luminary Maurice Zarmati announced his retirement as president and CEO of Costa Cruises North America. Today, Costa said it's going to take two men to replace him.

Ruben Perez has assumed the new position of general manager of the North American office at Hollywood, Florida, reporting directly to Costa's Genoa headquarters.

Filling the other portion of Zarmati's job will be Scott Knutson who has become the VP of sales and marketing.

Knutson came to Costa three years ago after spending 20 years in sales and marketing with sister brand Carnival Cruise Lines. Perez has been with Costa for the past 28 years.

Zarmati has been retained as a consultant to Costa Cruises for its worldwide sales, marketing and passenger-traffic initiatives.


The complete story appeared in the December 1, 2011, edition of Cruise News Daily.

Ports Increase in Importance to Carnival Corp

Ports have become more and more important to Carnival Corp's business over the years. The company has invested in and built (and operates) a number of ports. Some are high-profile and known to the customers of the company's brands, such as the Grand Turk Cruise Center, or Half Moon Cay in the Bahamas. Others aren't quite as obvious, such as Cozumel or St. Maarten. Some are complete destinations, while others simply guarantee them space at a pier and some amenities for passengers as they leave the terminal.

Until now, the Caribbean ports have been developed and administered in Florida, and the European ports, in Italy. Carnival has now created a new Global Port and Destination Development Group which will have responsibility for port projects and operations worldwide. It will be headed by SVP of global port development, Giora Israel.

That doesn't mean everything will happen in Florida, however. An office will also be created in the UK for the development of strategic port projects in Europe and the Mediterranean.

The new division more or less elevates ports to the same stature within Carnival Corp as another cruise brand.

The complete story appeared in the November 30, 2011, edition of Cruise News Daily.

Ship Blocked by Protesters at Molokai

An anti-cruise group succeeded in blocking - physically - a small ship from American Safari Cruises from docking at Kaunakakai Harbor, Molokai in Hawaii on Saturday morning. The local protesters, who don't like the fact that cruise ships - even though they are small - are coming to Molokai without any community input, blocked the ship's path with surfboards and small boats. The captain continued on to Lanai, the next port of call. The ship did return the next day, without any public announcement, and had docked by the time protesters arrived at the port.

ASC had called at the island twice before in recent weeks and was met by protesters on land, but their demonstrations were ineffective. Two more Molokai calls are scheduled in the next weeks.

Not everyone on Molokai is unhappy about the cruise calls, tour operators and other local businesses were extremely disappointed by Saturday's cancellation.

The incident does have unsettling overtones for the cruise industry in Hawaii, and we looked at the story from several sides - including where the protesters got the idea for blocking the ship's arrival - in the November 29, 2011, edition of Cruise News Daily.

Norwegian to Add Pre-Cruise Services for Suite Passengers

Norwegian Cruise Line announced they are offering a pre-cruise concierge service for passengers booking suites in The Haven, their most luxurious suites aboard Norwegian Epic and their Jewel-class ships.

The concierge desk will handle arrangements for dining, entertainment (especially useful on Norwegian Epic) and other services.

The complete article appeared in the November 28, 2011, edition of Cruise News Daily.