A Middle-of-the-Night Medevac

The US Coast Guard once again demonstrated this morning, that the people aboard a cruise ship don't need to have any connection to the US for the US Coast Guard to step in and help them. As we pointed out a couple weeks ago, you usually think of the US Coast Guard being called on by US-based ships and flying in to help an American who boarded in an American port, but the Coast Guard routinely rescues people aboard ships just passing by US coastlines.

Late last night (Monday at 10:45pm), Coast Guard watchstanders received a call from Marella Explorer 2, which most of us will remember as the former 71,500-ton Celebrity Century, asking for assistance medevacing a 29-year-old Filipino crew member who had suffered a heart attack. Marella is the British-based line which used to be Thomson and is now owned by German travel conglomerate TUI.

What makes the operation even more impressive is that the crew had to fly to the ship 50 miles off the coast of St. Coix from their base in Puerto Rico on the moonless night using night-vision goggles with the only light in the area coming from the ship itself. The video below was shot with the same technology. 

Details appeared in the November 26 issue of Cruise News Daily. 

The Original Is Back!

After a two-month dry dock, the newly “amplified” Oasis of the Sea returned to service over the weekend from Miami with a bunch of new and updated features, bringing the ship up to and beyond Royal Caribbean's newest ships.

The complete story appeared in the November 25 edition of Cruise News Daily. 

Ryndam Won't Be “Nieuw”

Another dam ship is on the way. Fincantieri laid the keel for Ryndam at their Marghera yard today and announced they will reuse the name “Ryndam” for it, the previous ship by that name having left the fleet in 2015. This ship will be the third in the Pinnacle-class series and a sister to Koningsdam and to Nieuw Statendam which was delivered last year. Ryndam is scheduled to be delivered in May 2021.

The first block that was lowered into the dry dock at the ceremony today will be a 500-ton part of the ship's midsection that measured 14 meters long by 35 meters wide. There will be a total of 85 blocks that make up the ship.

The complete story appeared in the November 21 issue of Cruise News Daily. 

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

The Restaurant Where Your Food Can Look Back at You

When choosing the dining experiences for Mardi Gras which will debut next summer, Carnival wanted something new and different for their customers that would be as sophisticated as their steakhouses, and that's when they settled on a seafood restaurant.

Since Carnival is all about fun, who better to create the restaurant, they reasoned, than master chef Rudi Sodamin whose most recent cookbook (the latest of a dozen) is “Food Faces,” which is about making your food into edible “portraits” (faces)?

Details appeared in the November 21 issue of Cruise News Daily.

NCL Adds Silver Cove to GSC

Norwegian Cruise Line was the first to have a private island (Great Stirrup Cay). Then they were one of the first to embrace the ship-within-a-ship concept. Now they seem to be taking that concept one step further by having a private-island-within-a-private-island.

The line, this week, unveiled their new Silver Cove resort area of Great Stirrup Cay. In addition to an exclusive 1,500-foot beach, its main feature is 38 beachfront villas in addition to a Mandera spa, a new Moet Bar and the Silver Cove Restaurant and Bar.

The video below takes a look at the entire upgraded Great Stirrup Cay.