Medevac from Carnival Dream

A 49-year-old woman was medevaced from Carnival Dream this morning as the ship was returning to Port Canaveral from St. Maarten. The US Coast Guard says they got the call when the ship was 80 miles north of Cat Island in the Bahamas. It was handled by an MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crew from Clearwater (Florida) that was operating out of a base in the Bahamas. They met the ship and hoisted the woman from Carnival Dream’s aft deck in what they consider a routine operation. In the photo above, it looks like most of the passengers turned out to watch the delicate ballet between the moving ship and helicopter flying overhead which the Coast Guard considers "routine." The photo shows the patient being hoisted to the helicopter just below the door. (Passengers were kept a safe distance away in the ship's central pool area.) The photo was taken by a CND reader who is a passenger aboard the ship. It makes you realize what an extraordinary job the men and women of the Coast Guard do every day, but pass it off as "routine."

Video: Celebrity Silhouette Completes Ems Transit to the Sea

Yesterday Celebrity Silhouette departed the Meyer shipyard on its conveyance down the Ems River to the Sea. This video shows the first part of the difficult and complicated trip. The ship sails slowly backward - stern first for safer maneuverability - down the river choreographed with the tide and the winds. In preparation for the trip power and railroad tracks that cross the river have been removed. In the video, you get a perspective on just how little clearance the ship has as it passes through the locks.



Sometimes seeing behind the scenes is even more enlightening, as you'll see in this raw video taken during the first part of the transit.



This amateur video (below) taken near Leer gives a better impression of what the process is along the 26-mile route as the ship travels down the river - slow, and again how little clearance there is as it passes through the various locks and bridges.

Miami Shows Its Excitement about Carnival Breeze

The Port of Miami is excited by the recent announcement that Carnival Breeze will be homeporting there beginning in November 2012. Most new ships in recent years have been bypassing the port, once considered the cruise capital of the world, and homeporting a few miles to the north at Port Everglades or elsewhere in the country considering the stiff competition for ships. Even though Carnival Breeze won’t arrive in Miami for more than a year, the port has erected a massive 3,000-square-foot billboard welcoming the ship to Miami. It can be seen on I-395 which connects Miami and Miami Beach - or here on the CND blog below:

Celebrity Silhouette Leaves Meyer Werft

Celebrity Silhouette backed out of the Meyer yard this afternoon at Papernburg for its 26-mile journey down the Ems River to the sea. It had to be timed precisely to go with the high tide to ensure maximum depth beneath the ship. In preparation for the trip power lines and railroad tracks that pass over the river were removed, and the ship moved slowly (about four miles per hour) down the river so it could maneuver carefully through all the tight passages in the dams and locks, sometimes with as little as five feet of clearance. By the time you read this the 12-hour overall journey will be completed, and the ship will be safely docked at Eemshaven.

The ship will leave from there on its sea trials, and return to Eemshaven for further outfitting. At completion, it will sail to Hamburg where it will be christened on July 21.

Fincantieri Delivers Costa Favolosa

Fincantieri delivered the 114,500-ton Costa Favolosa to Carnival Corp today at the shipbuilder’s Marghera yard this morning.

Costa Favolosa is the eighth of nine ships that Costa ordered from Fincantieri. The next ship to enter service will be Costa Fascinosa, also under construction at Marghera, to be delivered in the spring of 2012.

Costa Favolosa will be christened on July 2 at Trieste, and will be the largest ship to fly the Italian flag.



Congratulations were in order at the handover ceremony. Shown are Pier Luigi Foschi, Chairman and CEO Costa Crociere SpA, left, and Attilio Dapelo, Fincantieri Marghera plant director.