Other Things You'll Want to Know - June 1, 2017

CND subscribers also read about:

• Oprah taking more friends with her to Alaska
• The Carnival brands in China now accepting China's most popular mobile method of payment
• Just in time for hurricane season, Royal Caribbean has their own meteorologist, as seen in the video below:

This Is the Big One, Elizabeth

STX France officially delivered MSC Meraviglia to MSC Cruises today at the STX yard in Saint-Nazaire (France), and the handover is marked by the changing of the flags on the ship. The flags of the yard are lowered and replaced by those of the cruise line and the country where the ship is registered.

The importance of this handover was elevated because, at 171,598 gross registered tons and a capacity of 4,488 double occupancy (5,714 total), MSC Meraviglia is the largest cruise ship ever built by a European ship owner. (Translation: Royal Caribbean's Oasis- and Harmony-class ships are still larger.)

The complete story appeared in the May 31 edition of Cruise News Daily. 

Just in Time

Last week we told you about AIDA's next generation ship which will be powered by LNG and will enter service in December 2018. As we noted, AIDA will begin taking reservations for the inaugural season tomorrow (June 1), but its name had yet to be revealed.

AIDA took care of that detail this afternoon when it was revealed during a presentation aboard AIDAperla, which just entered service in the Mediterranean. It was revealed when a banner was unfurled at Meyer Werft in Papenburg (Germany) where the new ship and a sister will be built. The new ship will be named AIDAnova.

Details appeared in the May 31 edition of Cruise News Daily. 

Getting Bigger in Italy

Costa and its parent, Carnival Corp, are major brands in Italy, and therefore both major employers and impact the country's economy in several ways. And Costa is set to grow in Italy becoming an even larger employer.

Details appeared in the May 30 edition of Cruise News Daily. 

What If the Ship Isn't Ready?

That's something cruisers would often ask when they had booked the first cruise after a dry dock. Lately, it's hardly been an issue because the shipyards have become much more reliable. But passengers booked on Sunday's sailing of Celebrity Constellation found out what happens.

The complete story appeared in the May 30 edition of Cruise News Daily