Panama Canal
When you pay more than $ 30,000 for a cruise through the Panama Canal, you expect to at least be able to see the canal, if not experience it in depth. But that wasn't the case for passengers on a recent Silversea cruise sold as "the Panama Canal Experience." A Silversea spokesperson told Britain's Telegraph the night crossing of the canal was unplanned and beyond its control. While the ship was scheduled to pass through the canal during daylight hours, Panamanian authorities held it back to make way for larger vessels -- an occurrence that the spokesperson says never has happened to Silversea before or since. P&O Cruises’ superliner Ventura is due to set sail for its homeport of Southampton this weekend following its formal handover.
Ventura will be named by Dame Helen Mirren on April 16 before embarking on its maiden cruise to the Mediterranean two days later.
The largest cruise ship built exclusively for British holidaymakers is one of a series of ship launches planned this year for the UK, including MSC Cruises’ Poesia in Dover on April 5, Royal Caribbean International’s Independence of the Seas in Southampton on April 30, Holland America Line’s Eurodam in June in Southampton and Carnival Cruise Line’s Splendor in July.
Ventura will set sail after being officially ‘handed over’ to P&O Cruises by the Fincantieri shipyard in Monfalcone, Italy.
Silversea Cruises has been named the Number-One overall luxury cruise line by high-net-worth consumers in the 2008 Luxury Brand Status Index (LBSI) survey, topping 19 other well-known cruise companies, including traditional, expedition and river cruise lines. The LBSI survey from the independent New York-based Luxury Institute reports that respondents who would recommend Silversea say it is "by far the best in cuisine, service and luxury" and they comment on the "classy personalized experiences."
Said David Morris, Silversea's executive vice president of worldwide sales and marketing: "To receive this exceptional recognition from wealthy consumers is further validation that we are succeeding in our efforts to deliver an ultra-luxury vacation experience of unsurpassed quality." Cograts! 
........17 ex-UK cruises on Van Gogh citing failure to obtain ABTA (Association of British Travel Agents) membership resulting in a lack of new bookings. Following the collapse of the ship’s previous operator, Travelscope Holidays in late December owner Club Cruise, in conjunction with ABTA, stepped in to save the Round the World Cruise, which departed from Falmouth on January 4, 2008.
on April 5 following a world cruise.' In total 17 cruises out of the ‘After careful consideration we took the decision to cancel the summer schedule of cruises upon the return of the ship due to arrive in FalmouthUK ports of Harwich, Falmouth and Hull have been cancelled. All passengers due to travel on the Van Gogh during this period will be contacted immediately, in cruise departure date order, and advised. Whilst the vessel is non-operational it will go into dry dock to complete work related with Solas 2010 requirements which were originally planned for later this year. Van Gogh is scheduled to commence cruising on the British market again on November 22 and a new 2008/09 programme will be released later. 
MIAMI
Offering travelers more choices to experience multiple destinations throughout Europe, Royal Caribbean International (RCI) and a variety of transatlantic sailings in 2009. Bookings are available immediately for Royal Caribbean's 2009 announced the planned deployment of a record eight ships to the region for the 2009 summer and fall seasons. Vacationers can select from itineraries ranging from four to 14 nights aboard some of the world's most innovative cruise ships: Independence of the Seas, Royal Caribbean's newest Freedom-class ship; two Voyager-class ships, Navigator of the Seas and Voyager of the Seas; as well as Brilliance of the Seas, Jewel of the Seas, Legend of the Seas, Splendour of the Seas, and Vision of the Seas. Totaling 70 distinct itineraries and 87 ports of call in 32 countries, RCI will offer unprecedented choices throughout the Mediterranean Sea, Northern and Western EuropeEurope cruises and cruise- tours aboard all ships except for Vision, which will be opened in April 2008.
Five Celebrity Cruises ships will sail in Europe in 2009, including two ships currently under construction, Celebrity Solstice and Celebrity Equinox. Joining them are Celebrity Century, which underwent a $55-million makeover in 2006, Celebrity Constellation, built in 2002, and Celebrity Summit, which launched in 2001.
With six different homeports in Europe for the season, including Amsterdam, Holland; Barcelona, Spain; Harwich and Southampton, England; and Rome and Venice, Italy, Celebrity's ships will sail much of the continent. Itineraries exploring Scandinavia and Russia, the Arctic Circle and North Cape, the Mediterranean, Israel and Egypt, and even transatlantic sailings, will offer guests a number of opportunities to get to know Europe. These include overnight, in-port stays that offer travel enthusiasts the opportunity to more thoroughly explore the culture of eight cities: Alexandria, Egypt; Copenhagen, Denmark; Istanbul and Kusadasi, Turkey; Rome, Italy; Stockholm, Sweden; and Venice, Italy. Miami
(AP) -- Carnival Corp. said Thursday first-quarter profit fell 17 percent due to rising fuel costs, a drag on operations that also led the world's largest cruise operator to lower full-year profit guidance.
Carnival remained in discussions with the Florida attorney general concerning its review of a fuel surcharge and whether it was properly disclosed to passengers. No. 2 cruise operator Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. announced a settlement last week with the state. >>>> Busan
As Korea’s cruise ship PanStar Honey is getting ready for its maiden voyage in April, tourists are showing a lot of interest in the trip.Busan-based ferry firm PanStar Line.Com will operate cruises -- Korea’s South Sea and a Japanese spa tour -- that depart from Busan from April 2.The firm has been plying ferries within and without Korea -- Korea’s South Sea, Busan and Osaka -- since 2002 during the Korea-Japan FIFA World Cup, and now will become the first Korea-based cruise operator.
Read full article >>>>>> Four Narvik based shareholders in Hurtigruten, the Coastal Express ferry and cruise service running along the Norwegian coast – Narvik Energi, Narvig Havn, Sparbanken Narvik and Narvik Kommune – has had a meeting with the bank DNB Nor, that is a large shareholder in Hurtigruten as well as lender, to discuss the company’s negative result development, lack of dividends and decreasing share price, the Norwegian daily Dagens Næringsliv reports. Recently, the company announced a NOK 224 million loss in 2007, against a NOK 2 million loss in 2006. The value of the company has decreased by 40 per cent the last year to NOK 990 million, and last years loss has led to a situation where the company already during the first quarter this year is in breach with the terms in a loan agreement for NOK 3.3 billion with a bank consortia. The Narvik shareholders demand the the Hurtigruten headquarter will remain in Narvik. CRUISE newbuild contracts face heightened pressure from the slumping dollar, but Asian yards could eventually promise relief. Speaking at the Seatrade ‘State of the Industry’ debate, Carnival president Gerry Cahill asserted: “I think all of the cruise companies would certainly be open to Asian yards, especially given skyrocketing prices for cruise ships built in Europe.” Holland America president Stein Kruse conceded that “contracting a North American-brand ship in a European shipyard at current euro-dollar rate is very, very challenging”.
Royal Caribbean president Adam Goldstein said one counterbalancing strategy is to shift tonnage to euro-generating itineraries. “By moving ships to markets that are not dollar-based, we can take advantage of revenue in strong currencies to offset [newbuild] costs in strong currencies.” NCL president Colin Veitch believes Asian yards will turn to cruise orders when their cargo-ship backlog ends. “Asian yard capacity has expanded to build cargo ships, so the
question is how long it will take before Asian yards don’t have enough cargo orders to fill that capacity. Then they’ll look around for value-added projects like gas carriers and cruise ships. I think we’ll see Asian yards opening up to cruise orders out of necessity,” said Veitch. Executives agreed that Asian yards don’t have the cruise subcontractor network in place yet, but they believe this hurdle will be overcome and Asian competition will ultimately lower cruise newbuild prices.
Lloyd's Register Murmansk
On March, 5 Murmansk Shipping Co received a schedule from the Federal Agency of federal estate control due to which the company must return ice-breakers to ROSATOM.
According to the press-service of Murmansk Shipping Co, the company is ready to retune ice-breakers to their owner on August 27. Currently the company operates 9 vessels: “Lenin” (built in 1959), “Artic” (1975), “Siberia” (1978), “Russia” (1985), “Taimyr” (1988), “Soviet Union” (1988), “Vaigach” (1990), “Jamal” (1992.), “50 let Pobedy” (2007). The ice breaker JAMAL is used extensively as an Arctic cruise vessel by several tour Operators. Whether the change will have any implications remains to be seen. English Channel
The famous Cunard liner QE2 - soon to be floating Hotel in Dubai - forced P&O ferry to slow down as the two converged in Dover strait.A UK accident probe has decided no further action need be taken following a “close -quarters situtation” between Cunard’s QE2 and a P&O ferry in the Dover strait. The Carnival owned liner- built 1969 had a near miss with the 30,600-gt Pride of Kent on 15 December in light winds and good visibility, the Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) said. Miami
NCL Corp. laid off an undisclosed number of
employees at its Miami headquarters Friday, citing cutbacks in its troubled Hawaiian operations and a reduction in its fleet size for 2008.
In a memo distributed to affected employees Friday, NCL said ``Due to the downsizing of NCL America and a reduction in overall capacity for 2008, NCL has made a business decision to eliminate certain positions.''
NCL officials declined to discuss the layoffs. ''We don't comment on personnel matters,'' AnneMarie Mathews, NCL's director of public relations, said Friday.
NCL has been hammered with losses in its NCL America unit, which operates unique Hawaii inter-island cruises using U.S. flagged ships and U.S. crew. In February, the company reported its fourth-quarter net loss widened to $133 million from $116 million a year earlier.
Last month, just days after removing one of its three Hawaiian-based vessels -- the Pride of Hawaii -- from the islands, NCL disclosed plans to remove a second ship, the Pride of Aloha, from the islands in May.
Those moves will leave NCL with just one U.S.-flagged cruise ship -- the Pride of America -- to carry out its once-ambitious experiment in inter-island Hawaiian cruises.
NCL renamed the Pride of Hawaii as the Norwegian Jade and switched it /from a U.S. to a foreign flag. It will sail in Europe this summer with a foreign crew.
The 2,000-passenger Pride of Aloha also will switch to a foreign flag.
Dubai
The aggressive initiatives of the Dubai Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM) to promote and market the emirate as an ultimate cruise destination in the region has yielded impressive results with Dubai's state-ofthe-art cruise terminal playing a host to over 120,205 tourists in 2007, far more than the projected 105,000.
Mr. Awadh Seghayer Al Ketbi, DTCM Executive Director of Dubai Cruise Terminal, said: 'The cruise tourism in Dubai is gaining strength each passing year and the year 2007 witnessed performance exceeding the projections. Dubai has emerged as preferred destination of choice for the global cruise liners. Several new cruise liners started using Dubai as a regional hub for their operations successfully. This spectacular performance is a major boost to the growth of
regional cruise tourism.'The ship-shaped Dubai Cruise Terminal, opened in 2001,
measures 3300 square metres and is able to accommodate two ships simultaneously on a 335-metre quay. The Dubai Cruise Terminal is the world's first to receive ISO-9002 certification and also the world's only cruise facility run by the government tourism body, DTCM. DTCM signed an agreement with Cruise operator Costa Crociere. The agreement marks the creation of a full-fledged partnership between Costa Crociere and Dubai, providing for joint marketing initiatives in the next five years promoting both brands worldwide.
During the current winter season 2007-2008, Dubai expects more than 200,000 cruise passengers to visit the emirate, giving a further boost to the booming tourism industry. Dubai handled 32,000 cruise passenger movements in 2006,
up from 23,000 cruise passengers in the previous year. EU environment ministers agreed Monday that European action is needed to tackle toxic shipping emissions asinternational maritime authorities had failed to do enough, a spokeswoman said.
"There was unanimous understanding that the IMO (International Maritime Organisation) wasn't doing enough," said European Commission spokeswoman on the environment, Barbara Helfferich after the meeting in Brussels.
There was general support for a Dutch plan to ask the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, to come up withproposals by the end of the year on how to tackle the problem of NOX (nitrogen oxides) and sulphur dioxide emissionsfrom vessels, she said.
Shipping emissions are not included in a new set of climate-change battling and energy saving proposals put forwardby the European Commission in January, covering everything from emissions trading to CO2 from cars.
Shipping emissions amount to around five percent of the global total and that ratio will only rise if solutions are soughtin other sectors but not on the high seas, said Helfferich. Source : eubusiness On February 28, 2008, investigators from the U.S. Marshals Middle District of Florida and the United States Coast Guard captured Derron Keenan Williams as he attempted to flee the country, onboard Carnival ms Celebration. Read more >>>
Miami/Turku
Aker Yards and Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. have agreed about the basis on which a fourth ship in the 158,000 GT Freedom class could be ordered. If the deal is closed the vessel would be delivered in the second half of 2011. The placement of the order is still subject to a number of conditions, including board approval and finalization of terms and conditions. The third Freedom-class vessel, Independent of the Seas, is in its final stage of outfitting and will be handed over in April. After that two even larger Genesis-ships are to follow.
|
zum Video
