August

Turku/USA
The bigger the ship, the more delays there are during boarding. But Royal Caribbean executives say the much-ballyhooed Oasis of the Seas will be an exception to the rule. On port call days, the line will conduct security screenings on passengers reboarding the ship before they reach the gangplank, while they are still on land. Also: Among the most notable changes, the addition of "universal waivers" for activities on Oasis. Mobile cash registers. Waiters on Oasis will carry around small tablets on which passengers can sign for drinks electronically -- eliminating the need to print out paper receipts for signing.  more...

STX Europe Lifecycle Services expects the retrofit and conversion market to lead cruise ship yards out of the current recession, says Vesa Marttinen, General Manager of STX Europe Lifecycle Services. However, the demand decreased by half from the summer of 2008 to this summer. "After the successful deliveries of GAP's Expedition and Finnlines two ferries conversions in last spring the situation seemed to be serious. Demand had decreased and we needed to take actions to live over this situation. The demand on lifecycle services market has decreased to half of it's value from last summer.

London
Voyages of Discovery, the British destinational cruise specialist, has become the first cruise company to launch online video itineraries for individual cruises. The videos capture the magic of each of the winter cruises using footage and images taken from onboard Discovery and from excursions at every destination. Each video is roughly 1 minute 30 seconds long and makes up a chapter from a film of the entire winter programme

Silversea slashed prices for every single cabin on all of its 2010 sailings. The first guest in a cabin gets 20 percent and the second guest sails for free. That averages out to a 60 percent discount. Most of Silversea’s sailings include free round-trip economy airfare from 22 cities in the US and Canada. 
Bookings must be made by Dec. 31 this year. This deal is capacity-controlled, which means that the cruise line may revoke the discount once a certain capacity is reached on a given sailing, says Perrin Post. Silversea was voted one of the top five small ship cruise lines for several years now by Conde Nast Traveler.

Miami
Norwegian Cruise Line has managed to make a financial turnaround, posting a net profit in its second quarter results for the three months ending June 30. NCL said its net income increased to $15.4 million compared to a net loss of $27.0 million. The profit was attributed to lower fuel costs across the fleet, lower crew payroll costs per Capacity Day and other cost reduction measures. Fuel costs during the quarter dropped 38.2 percent to $356 per metric ton compared to $576 per metric ton last year. “Despite the weakness in ticket pricing, we are continuing to achieve improvements in our earnings and have begun to demonstrate consistency in our performance” said NCL chief executive Kevin Sheehan. “Our continuing razor focus on all aspects of our operation, from revenue management to shipboard and shoreside operations, has resulted in record-setting EBITDA for the quarter and an enormous turnaround from our performance just a year ago”

Philadelphia
Local philanthropist H.F. "Gerry" Lenfest has pledged a $300,000matching grant to help a nonprofit purchase the SS United States, the iconic Cold War-era ocean liner docked in South Philadelphia. The record-setting 990-foot vessel, which has languished at Pier 82 for more than a decade, was offered for sale in January by Norwegian Cruise Lines for an estimated $20 million. A spokesman for the SS United States Conservancy was not immediately available yesterday to elaborate on the nonprofit's matching-grant announcement or say how much has been raised.

Vancouver, B.C.
The whale that rode into Vancouver's downtown harbour impaled on the bow of a cruise ship was dead before the Sapphire Princess struck it somewhere between Alaska and Vancouver. Scientists, citing the "red-orange colouration" of the fin whale's skin and the lack of hemorrhaging, said that it wasn't killed on impact. "The necropsy indicated the animal had been dead five to seven days," said Paul Cottrell of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. more...

Juneau
How many jewelry stores does a small town like Juneau, Alaska need? Definitely not 26 in an area of a few short blocks, says one prominent resident. In an opinion piece published Tuesday in the Juneau Empire, Greg Fisk, the vice chairman of Juneau's Docks and Harbors Board and a board member of the Juneau Economic Development Council, argues the cruise boom of recent years has brought a "yuck factor" to the mountain-fringed Alaskan capital that needs to be reversed. more...

Miami
NCLs newest cruise ship ms EPIC is trying something new.
They will have one large, luxurious, communal living room and around it there will be 128 very small, studio cabins designed for young cruisers. The studio will be quite small, only 100 square feet. They will have a TV, pillows, and bolsters that turn around into a bed. The small room will have several lighting options and the living room will be available only to studio passengers. Norwegian is attempting revolutionary new ideas to try maximize uses of small amounts of space. This concept is already making waves across the industry. With many cruise lines trying new, innovative ideas to accommodate budget travelers and to maximize ways of using small amounts of space, Norwegian Cruise Lines is re-asserting its role as an industry leader.

Douglas Island, Alaska
The body of a woman was discovered during a search for a passenger presumed to have gone overboard from a Holland America cruise ship sometime after midnight Monday, according to the U.S. Coast Guard. The Coast Guard, joined by civilian vessels and aircraft, launched a massive search of the 80-mile stretch of glacial-fed water with a temperature of about 57 degrees between Juneau and the park. "The search is continuing," Coast Guard Petty Officer Jon-Paul Rios said. "We do not know for sure if that's the body; however it is a female and she was found within the search area." more...

Marseilles/Reuters
The majority of passengers on a cruise ship carrying dozens of possible flu victims were allowed to disembark on Saturday after health tests, the local government's office said. But 146 people -- both passengers and crew members, some of whom showed signs of flu remain in quarantine, a spokesman for the local government department said. The Voyager of the Seas, carrying some 5,000 passengers and crew, had been sailing in the Mediterranean as part of a 7-day tour. It left Barcelona on July 26 . It docked in the French port city of Marseilles on Friday and there were contradictory reports about whether the possible flu victims had the H1N1 strain, also known as swine flu, or more common flu symptoms. more...