Royal Princess to Leave Princess Fleet

Carnival Corp announced today that Royal Princess will be transferred from their Princess brand to the P&O brand in the spring of 2011. P&O will rename the ship Adonia.

The change will cancel five previously scheduled Princess sailings in April and May 2011.

The change will also have the affect of further reducing berths in Alaska in the summer 2011 season. Royal Princess is operating in Alaska during the summer of 2010, and Princess has no plans to redeploy a replacement ship there in 2011.

Details will appear in today's edition of Cruise News Daily.

Azamara Upgrades

As part of a new identity - Azamara Club Cruises - the line is becoming much more inclusive. With that in mind beginning Monday (December 14) the pricing will begin to reflect that with a price increase to take effect that day.

Passengers booked before Monday will sail with the new program at the previously confirmed rates.

Details of the new program will be in today's edition of Cruise News Daily.

Coast Guard Medevac from Monarch of the Seas

The US Coast Guard medevaced a 14-year-old boy from Royal Caribbean's Monarch of the Seas yesterday afternoon (December 3) while it was off the Florida coast. The boy was suffering from "appendix-like symptoms" and was airlifted to a Miami hospital for treatment.

In this short Coast Guard video, shot from a second helicopter, you can see the Coast Guard MH-65C Dolphin helicopter hovering above Monarch's upper deck just aft of the skylight into the ship's atrium. As the video concludes you can see the stretcher being raised under the aircraft.

Monarch of the Seas was on a 4-night cruise to the Bahamas which left Miami on November 30.

Carnival Orders Ship

Carnival Corp has ordered an additional 130,000-gt Dream-class vessel from Fincantieri for their Carnival Cruise Lines brand.

The 3,690-passenger vessel will be the third in the series and is scheduled to enter service in the spring of 2012.

Overboard Silver Shadow Passenger Rescued

A passenger went overboard early this morning (November 22) from Silversea's Silver Shadow as the ship was approaching Ft. Lauderdale. The Coast Guard received the call from the ship approximately 3am when it was about 20 miles east of Miami.

The ship had already put rescue boats into the water and was remaining on the scene to search for the 62-year-old man. Approximately 7:45am he was located swimming about 20 miles southeast of Governor's Cut (near Miami). A Coast Guard MH-65 Dolphin helicopter crew from Miami flew to the position and lowered a rescue swimmer, who helped the man into the ship's rescue boat.

The 28,500-ton Silver Shadow is turning around today at Ft. Lauderdale at the completion of a 9-day cruise from Barbados and before starting a 10-day eastern Caribbean itinerary this evening.

Below is the Coast Guard-supplied video of the scene.