Canyon Ranch is celebrating five years of providing the spa services aboard Cunard's Queen Mary 2, and Cunard reports they have just finalized an agreement to keep them aboard for another year.
To begin the sixth year, Canyon Ranch said they have expanded their services aboard the ship with three new services.
Details are in the June 19 edition of Cruise News Daily.
Friday, June 19, 2009
Royal Princess Returns to Port after Fire
Updated 4pm
Royal Princess returned to Port Said (Egypt) this morning under tow from an Egyptian tug. Reports from the ship say they now have air conditioning and enough electricity to run the toilets in the cabins.
The ship experienced a fire in the engine room Thursday evening as it was sailing from Port Said, and spent an uncomfortable night anchored 5 miles offshore operating on emergency power, with many passengers sleeping on deck due to the lack of air conditioning.
From the reports we are hearing and the photos we posted earlier, people seem very appreciative of the lengths to which the Princess crew members are going to, to make them as comfortable as possible under the circumstances.
Princess has decided to cancel the rest of the current cruise and the June 25 sailing, saying the vessel needs to go to a shipyard for repair. Passengers will be returning home over the weekend.
Princess will provide a full refund for passengers on both sailings and a future cruise credit of 25% of the cruise fare they paid.
The story is still developing. Today's updates will be placed in this blog item. Details will be in this evening's edition of Cruise News Daily.
Please see this item for earlier reports and photos from yesterday.
Royal Princess returned to Port Said (Egypt) this morning under tow from an Egyptian tug. Reports from the ship say they now have air conditioning and enough electricity to run the toilets in the cabins.
The ship experienced a fire in the engine room Thursday evening as it was sailing from Port Said, and spent an uncomfortable night anchored 5 miles offshore operating on emergency power, with many passengers sleeping on deck due to the lack of air conditioning.
From the reports we are hearing and the photos we posted earlier, people seem very appreciative of the lengths to which the Princess crew members are going to, to make them as comfortable as possible under the circumstances.
Princess has decided to cancel the rest of the current cruise and the June 25 sailing, saying the vessel needs to go to a shipyard for repair. Passengers will be returning home over the weekend.
Princess will provide a full refund for passengers on both sailings and a future cruise credit of 25% of the cruise fare they paid.
The story is still developing. Today's updates will be placed in this blog item. Details will be in this evening's edition of Cruise News Daily.
Please see this item for earlier reports and photos from yesterday.
The MSC / Costa Rivalry
Both MSC Cruises and Costa Cruises claim to be Italian - each claiming to be more Italian than the other.
There's an interesting article this week in Lloyd's List about the rivalry and worth reading.
There's an interesting article this week in Lloyd's List about the rivalry and worth reading.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Engine Room Fire Aboard Royal Princess
Princess Cruises confirms there was an engine room fire which broke out at 8:10pm this evening aboard Royal Princess. (1:10pm Eastern Daylight Time) The fire was extinguished without it spreading.
Passengers were mustered, and everyone - all passengers and crew - is accounted for. There were no injuries directly from the fire. One passenger was taken to the medical center with chest pains.
Passengers remained at their muster stations for more than five hours as a precaution but they were permitted to return to their cabins for the night. The ship is operating on emergency power and lighting, and one of the things, understandably, that does not operate on emergency power is the air conditioning.
The incident happened as the ship was sailing from Port Said, Egypt, before it had gotten out to sea, and it is anchored safely about 5 miles offshore. Princess says they plan to bring it back to Port Said on Friday, as early as they can. It is still being determined if it can sail under its own power or if it will need to be towed.
Technical experts, representatives of various regulatory agencies and a Princess Care Team are all en route to the ship and are expected to arrive there Friday evening.
Damage assessment will continue throughout Friday and Saturday.
Princess says they are doing their utmost to make the passengers as comfortable as possible under the circumstances.
Royal Princess obviously will not be leaving Port Said before Sunday, and Princess says they intend to make tours of the area available to passengers once they arrive back at port. They will possibly (probably) be moved to hotels.
Once the assessments are completed on Saturday, Princess says they will have a better understanding of how the rest of this cruise (or any future sailings) will be impacted. At that time they will also know what compensation will be appropriate to offer passengers.
Royal Princess is carrying 733 passengers and 393 crew members. It was on the 5th day of a 12-day Holy Land cruise from Civitavecchia.
The story will continue to develop through the weekend. Princess says that due to the time difference and the length of time necessary for the experts to arrive on the scene, there probably will be no further news until midday (eastern time) on Friday.
Later updates from Friday are on this blog item.
Editorial note: We've only seen two pictures from the ship (below) of passengers at their muster station and sleeping on deck, and conditions do not look as uncomfortable as we might imagine. There is a lack of air conditioning and hot meals, but people seem in good spirits, and they know they will at least be back on shore on Friday.
Apparently due to the lack of air conditioning, most people slept on deck.
Phone numbers have been established for inquiries from family of passengers and crew (only please) currently onboard Royal Princess:
For inquiries about family: 800-693-7222
For inquiries about crew members: 661-753-2804
View Larger Map
Passengers were mustered, and everyone - all passengers and crew - is accounted for. There were no injuries directly from the fire. One passenger was taken to the medical center with chest pains.
Passengers remained at their muster stations for more than five hours as a precaution but they were permitted to return to their cabins for the night. The ship is operating on emergency power and lighting, and one of the things, understandably, that does not operate on emergency power is the air conditioning.
The incident happened as the ship was sailing from Port Said, Egypt, before it had gotten out to sea, and it is anchored safely about 5 miles offshore. Princess says they plan to bring it back to Port Said on Friday, as early as they can. It is still being determined if it can sail under its own power or if it will need to be towed.
Technical experts, representatives of various regulatory agencies and a Princess Care Team are all en route to the ship and are expected to arrive there Friday evening.
Damage assessment will continue throughout Friday and Saturday.
Princess says they are doing their utmost to make the passengers as comfortable as possible under the circumstances.
Royal Princess obviously will not be leaving Port Said before Sunday, and Princess says they intend to make tours of the area available to passengers once they arrive back at port. They will possibly (probably) be moved to hotels.
Once the assessments are completed on Saturday, Princess says they will have a better understanding of how the rest of this cruise (or any future sailings) will be impacted. At that time they will also know what compensation will be appropriate to offer passengers.
Royal Princess is carrying 733 passengers and 393 crew members. It was on the 5th day of a 12-day Holy Land cruise from Civitavecchia.
The story will continue to develop through the weekend. Princess says that due to the time difference and the length of time necessary for the experts to arrive on the scene, there probably will be no further news until midday (eastern time) on Friday.
Later updates from Friday are on this blog item.
Editorial note: We've only seen two pictures from the ship (below) of passengers at their muster station and sleeping on deck, and conditions do not look as uncomfortable as we might imagine. There is a lack of air conditioning and hot meals, but people seem in good spirits, and they know they will at least be back on shore on Friday.
Apparently due to the lack of air conditioning, most people slept on deck.
Phone numbers have been established for inquiries from family of passengers and crew (only please) currently onboard Royal Princess:
For inquiries about family: 800-693-7222
For inquiries about crew members: 661-753-2804
View Larger Map
Coast Guard Suspends Search for Woman Overboard from Carnival's Holiday
The US Coast Guard said they suspended the search Wednesday evening for the 50-year-old woman who went overboard from Carnival's Holiday late Monday evening.
The search lasted for more than 70 hours and covered approximately 3,654 square miles, an area larger than the state of Delaware.
The search lasted for more than 70 hours and covered approximately 3,654 square miles, an area larger than the state of Delaware.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)