Time-Lapse Video of AIDAmar's Christening

Carnival's German brand, AIDA, christened their new ship, AIDAmar, at Hamburg on Saturday night (May 12, 2012) during the port's 823rd Anniversary Celebration. If that wasn't big enough, AIDA brought AIDAmar's three sisters to be part of the spectacle. More than 1.4 million people attended the christening. You can see the whole evening in a minute in this video:



If that was a little quick for you, AIDA provided these excellent photos and a longer video below:

Video: Carnival Breeze Completes Sea Trials

Carnival Breeze returned from its final sea trials last week, and is now receiving the last of its fitting out at the Fincantieri yard in Monfalcone (Italy). The 130,000-ton vessel will enter service on June 3 from Venice.

This video shows the ship performing during sea trials.

Mother's Day

Our readers are distributed across the country and around the world, which means most of them, unless they live in the Southeastern United States, aren't near a Publix Super Market, so they don't see Publix' television advertising. It's very low-key and until the end, it's not obvious who is sponsoring it, unless you catch how they are using Publix products. Even then, they're not selling food.

We thought that with Mother's Day coming this weekend, all mothers everywhere and their children, no matter what age, would appreciate this message.

Grandeur of the Seas Enters Dry Dock

Royal Caribbean International's Grandeur of the Seas entered dry dock at the Navantia Shipyard in Cadiz, Spain this week for a 5-week $48 million revitalization. The process will add some of the line's newest features to the ship. Grandeur will return to service on May 31, 2012.

Meyer Werft Lays Norwegian Breakaway Keel

Meyer Werft laid the first block of Norwegian Breakaway at their Papenburg (Germany) yard on Friday (May 4, 2012). The block was the first of 73 which will comprise the 144,000 grt vessel (measure of volume rather than weight). The first block itself weighed some 350 tons, and 72 more of these building blocks will be assembled to form the ship.

Norwegian Breakaway is scheduled to enter service in May 2013.