August

Athens
The Greek parliament has formally approved a law lifting cabotage restrictions on cruise vessels. The international cruise industry and the Greek cruise industry in particular, have tried for years to get this accomplished, and experts believe the results will prove economically positive for the local cruise and tourism industries.  The new law is effective immediately and allows international cruise companies to embark and disembark passengers at Greek ports once they have signed a formal three-year contract with the government submitting to certain conditions. more....

Genova
Seabourn Quest (sBlog) reaches T.Mariotti Genova Quay showing all her steel superstructures. 
She is the third Ultra Luxury Cruiseship built by T.Mariotti for Seabourn Cruise Line (the Ultra Luxury Brand of Miami based Carnival Corporation & PLC) for a total order of 550 million Euros. The 198m long and 26m wide hull and superstructures, bout 7500 GRT (hull5000 tons, superstructures 2500 tons, for a 32000 GRT Ultra Luxury Ship to be delivered May 2011) was built at Ci.Mar. Costruzioni Navali in San Giorgio di Nogaro (Udine), the Company formed by T.Mariotti and Cimolai Group for Naval Steel Works. At San Giorgio di Nogaro the fore and aft of Seabourn Quest were built separately, then positioned and aligned at Rijeka (Croatia) floating dock. All the steel work was done and now Seabourn Quest comes to Genova with all her 12 decks, main engines and major equipment already installed.
The completing and final outfit at T.Mariotti Genova building site, she will sail on May 2011

Carnival Cruise Lines and Razorfish have announced the launch of a groundbreaking new social commerce Facebook application that allows users to easily view, compare, select and share Carnival cruises with their Facebook friends. The application, the first of its kind in the cruise industry. The application, available on Carnival’s official Facebook fan page enables the user to explore all available Carnival cruise options without leaving Facebook by providing the functionality to sort cruises by date, duration, port of call, and accommodation type. Once users decide on a particular cruise, they can share the detailed cruise information with their Facebook friends by simply clicking a button. Users can also customize their newsfeed messages, which include a link to the cruise, to invite friends to book the trip as well.

Port Canaveral/Costa Maya
A dance club brawl aboard a Carnival Cruise ship last week ended with 10 passengers being kicked off the vessel during a stop in Mexico, officials confirmed today. The incident happened late last week near the western Caribbean Mexican port of Costa Maya aboard the Carnival Dream — a 3,600-passenger ship based in Port Canaveral, officials said. “A fight occurred on the vessel. It was broken up by ship’s security and the cause of the fight was investigated which resulted in 10 guests being disembarked in Mexico,” according to a statement released by Carnival. more...

Falmouth/USAtoday
There's been a lot of talk over the past couple years about a big makeover for Falmouth, Jamaica, which the country is touting as its next major cruise destination. But with just two months to go until the first ships are scheduled to arrive, the historic commercial capital still is far from ready for tourists. That's the word this week from the Jamaica Gleaner, which reports the development agency given the task of readying the town for cruise ship arrivals is only now completing consultations with stakeholders on plans for improvements. "The town is in a deplorable condition," the news outlet says in a lengthy story on the progress (or lack thereof) of Falmouth's long-awaited overhaul. "The streets are dirty, (and) the courthouse that will greet cruise passengers on arrival is shabby and in need of an urgent facelift." more...

Some 800 passengers refused to disembark a cruise ship for two and a half hours yesterday in Keelung because they were not happy with the offer of a 50 percent refund after their journey was cut short by a typhoon. The protesters believed they were entitled to a full refund as Star Cruises had ended their four day trip onboard the SuperStar Libra from Keelung to Naha, Japan, a day early because of safety concerns as Typhoon Dianmu edged towards Japan. They were also not satisfied by the company's decision to keep them inside the ship during the whole trip because of the storm. more....

Rotterdam
The voyage on the ROYAL CROWN starts in Budapest on June 26 and ends in Rieu’s hometown of Maastricht on July 18, 2011. Rieu has sold more than 30 million albums. Together with his Johann Strauss Orchestra, he and performs before more than 700,000 people around the world every year. The tour includes admission to two Rieu concerts, given in Vienna, Austria, and Maastricht. After the concerts, guests on the river cruise will have the opportunity for a personal meeting with Rieu. The Royal Crown can accommodate 90 passengers in 45 cabins. The ROYAL CROWN is owned by the Dutch Company EuroShipping Voyages, who owns 4 more River Ships which ply the Rhine, Mosel and Danube.

Ashdod, Israel
The Mavi Marmara, the Turkish passenger ship that participated in the Gaza aid flotilla and on which the IDF raid which left nine Turkish citizens dead took place on May 31, was towed out of the Haifa port on Thursday. The ship was towed a large Turkish tug boat which had been sent to collect it. The return of the Marmara was enabled following an agreement that was reached between Turkey and Israel. more...

Ambassadors International shareholders approved a reverse stock split aimed at raising the price of shares to enable the company to meet the NASDAQ’s $1 minimum bid listing requirement. But the parent of Windstar Cruises has notified the market that it likely will not meet a rule requiring stockholders’ equity of at least $10m when the company reports its second quarter financial results. In a filing, Ambassadors said it expects to receive a notice from NASDAQ about the deficiency. The company said its management and board are discussing how to address the anticipated non-compliance. The split is intended to enable Ambassadors to increase the trading value of AMIE, allowing it to meet the NASDAQ’s minimum bid requirement. AMIE closed at 43 cents on Wednesday.

Tunisian state-owned company commissioned at the Korean shipyard a 56,000 tons ferry, to be delivered in 2012 South Korean shipyard, Daewoo Shipping & Marine Engineering (DSME) announced the new order received by CoTuNav, Tunisian state-owned ferry company operating intra-med freights and passengers' services. The newbuilding, one of the largest ever built after the Stena Hollandica (62,000 GT), to be delivered in 2012 first semester, will be 210 meters in length, 30 in breadth, 56,000 GT, will board 3,200 passengers and over 1,000 cars, will boast a cruising speed of 27.5 knots and is worth $261m. By then, CoTuNav cruise ferries' fleet will be counting 4 units (currently the Carthage, Habib and Venizelos link Genoa and Marseilles to Tunisian terminal La Goulette di Radès), while the new ferry will be engaged on scheduled routes during high-season and committed in cruises for the time left.

Brooklyn, N.Y.Post
Thousands of cruise tourists ran aground amid four-hour baggage handling delays last Thursday because dozens of longshoreman didn’t bother to show up for work on a hot day. “It was the worst day at the terminal so far,” Red Hook cruise ship terminal General Manager David Alvarez admitted in a post on the “Cruise Critics” message board, which broke the story of how just 24 workers struggled to load and unload around 15,000 pieces of luggage for 3,000 disgruntled cruisers boarding the Caribbean Princess.

Genoa
Costa Crociere, which is part of the Carnival Corp & PLC group, has teamed up with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) to monitor the movements of whales from one of its ships to avoid collisions between them and whales.Costa Pacifica is the first cruise ship in the world to install REPCET(www.repcet.com), a trial programme designed to help reduce the risk of whale strikes while plotting the movements of these giants of the ocean,” the company said in a statement. The REPCET programme uses a global satellite network and the reports of sightings sent by participating ships in order to transmit warnings to passenger and commercial vessels whose routes are likely to take them close to the animals. Collisions between cruise liners and whales made headlines earlier this week when Sapphire Princess that belongs to Princess Cruises, which also is a Carnival gruop member, hit a whale in Alaska. The animal remained caught in the bow of the vessel following the collision.