May

USAtoday
The MSC Cruises ship that lost power in the Baltic earlier this month has been detained in the UK for safety code violations. In a statement issued today, the UK's Maritime and Coastguard Agency said inspectors discovered multiple "defects" aboard the 1,756-passenger MSC Opera on Wednesday after it arrived in Southampton, England. "Various defects were found (that) meant that the ship was not fully compliant with international maritime safety regulations," the agency says in the statement, which is posted on its website. "As a consequence the MCA decided that it was necessary to detain the vessel in Southampton until such time as the owners were able to demonstrate compliance." more...

Vancouver, B.C.
Royal Caribbean International’s Radiance of the Seas - Video - enters the Victoria Shipyards in Victoria, British Colombia, Canada, to start her 22-day dry dock. The ship will receive a variety of enhancements including a Samba Grill, Giovanni’s Table, Park Café, Boardwalk Dog House, Izumi, as well as 15 new staterooms.

Long Beach,CA
Los Angeles' year-round cruising business is sinking, with two companies reassigning ships that had called San Pedro home - Video - and travelers wary of venturing into Mexico's waters, it was reported today. For the first time in about 15 years, the cruise business in Los Angeles is declining, the Daily Breeze reported. This month, Norwegian Cruise Lines reassigned the Norwegian Star from Los Angeles to Tampa, Fla., and seasonal cruises wrapped up with the Golden Princess' final trip to Hawaii. Royal Caribbean International's Mariner of the Seas, one of the largest passenger ships that had served the West Coast, departed San Pedro earlier this year for more lucrative trips out of Europe and Galveston, Texas.

Salalah, Oman
Salalah is fast emerging as a major destination for cruise ships. An official statistics released yesterday reveals that since the beginning of 2011, as many as 20 cruise ships with 14,982 tourists on board have visited Salalah Port.  Last year, 23 cruise ships with 31,281 tourists on board had visited Salalah. 
In 2009, the number stood at 29 with 20,766 on board, while the number stood at 39 with 25,055 on board in the year 2008. The beauty of the location, facilities offered by Salalah Port Service Company, Royal Oman Police (ROP) and the Tourism Ministry, all combine to attract more ships to Salalah, an official said. more...

LONDON (Dow Jones)
Final bids for V Ships, a ship-management business owned by Exponent Private Equity, are due June 16, a person familiar with the situation told Dow Jones Newswires Monday. The auction is being run by investment bank Lazard Ltd. (LAZ) and has attracted several private-equity firms including Permira and Cinven Group, people said. London-based Exponent bought V Ships for $338 million in March 2007. One person previously told Dow Jones Newswires that the company could fetch as much as $600 million, or 10 times earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization of $60 million. Since its formation in 1984, V Ships has expanded from servicing cargo vessels to providing services for cruise liners, ferries and large yachts. The company is based in Douglas, Isle of Man, and operates through an extensive network of offices located primarily in Europe, Asia and the Americas. The network encompasses 70 offices and 35 countries with the principal places of business Monaco, Limassol, Singapore, Shanghai, Glasgow and London.

Fr.Lauderdale
Discovery Cruise Line, which operates day cruises to the Bahamas, announced that service will be suspended starting Sept. 7.No date was given for when cruises might resume. - VIDEO -
Company representatives could not be reached Wednesday, but Discovery vice president and general manager Hanns J. Hahn said the following in a statement: “While the ship is in safe operational order and complies with all United States Coast Guard and SOLAS requirements, it requires dry docking and refurbishment. A timetable for its return will be announced after further inspections are completed.”
Company representatives could not be reached Wednesday, but Discovery vice president and general manager Hanns J. Hahn said the following in a statement: “While the ship is in safe operational order and complies with all United States Coast Guard and SOLAS requirements, it requires dry docking and refurbishment. A timetable for its return will be announced after further inspections are completed.” Read more

The EIO's ET Europe 300 Carbon Ranking was released on the 26th April 2011. Companies were given a 10 day period in which to appeal against their position if valid grounds were presented under the rules of the Appeal Procedure as described in the document "Carbon Ranking Methodology 2011" available in pdf format by clicking here. The appeal period has now ended. The EIO is pleased to announce that Carnival Corp & plc has filed a successful appeal under this procedure.
The outcome of the Appeal has resulted in it moving up 80 places from 297th to 217th in the ET Europe 300 Carbon Ranking, as well as moving up to 2nd out of 5 in the "Consumer Services" sector. In the ET UK 100 Carbon Ranking Carnival Corp & plc has moved up 28 places to number 72. Carnival Corp & plc responded positively by publishing new data on its company website in the Group Sustainability Section (please click here and read page 6 of its "Corporate Sustainability Summary 2009"), and as a result its status has been changed from the bottom category "no public data" to the second category "public, complete but unverified" in accordance with the EIO Ranking Methodology. James Van Langen, Vice President of Management Systems at Carnival Corp & plc, explained: "This year we had a Corporate Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Inventory Verification performed in accordance with ISO 14064-3 by an independent third party - Ryerson, Master and Associates, Inc. (RMA), a member of the Lloyd's Register Group of Companies. This verification is now essentially complete and we are awaiting RMA’s final report". Mr Van Langen added, "We will also post the verification result on our Corporate website." In response, Michael Gill, EIO Chairman, praised the company, “We commend Carnival Corp & plc for not only taking the trouble to understand and respond to the Appeal procedure, but for acting so promptly in placing this information clearly in the public domain.” 
The EIO hopes that other companies will be encouraged to follow this example.

Hiring canal boats in London costs more than supertankers earn from shipping Saudi Arabian crude to Japan as a glut of the oil transporters cuts freight rates on the industry’s most important trade route. Returns from the 1,000-foot long tankers plunged 99 percent to $585 a day over the past year. By contrast, hiring a canal boat remains an attractive proposition for tourists from around the world, said Barry Peters, managing director of Holidays in the U.K. “Traveling slowly along the network of canals in a narrow boat - VIDEO - and stopping at pubs and attractions is an unmatched experience,”.

Scotland
The waterway that slices across Scotland proved a challenge to build – but it is now a priceless asset for the 21st-century traveller. Two centuries ago, before the railway age, work began on a wide, deep channel connecting the west coast of Scotland with the east; it took 21 years to complete. The Caledonian Canal - VIDEO - stretches for 60 miles along the Great Glen, the "rift valley" that forms the boundary between the Grampians and the West Highlands. It begins in Fort William below the towering bulk of Ben Nevis and aims for Inverness, where it sneaks beneath the Highland Railway just before meeting a sea lock on the shore of the Moray Firth. In between, the canal carves through an extraordinary range of terrain, from fen to forest and marshland to mountains. more...

Havanna/cubastandard
Mexico-based cruise operator Cruceros Ocean Star would like to include Cuba in a new Gulf of Mexico itinerary, Mexican Tourism Minister Gloria Guevara told her Cuban counterpart Manuel Marrero during the FITCuba tourism fair in Havana, according to Mexican daily La Jornada. The startup cruise line began operating one 520-cabin ship along the Mexican Pacific Coast in April. The Ocean Star Pacific, home-ported in Acapulco, offers seven-day cruises from Acapulco to Cabo San Lucas and back. The launch of the undertaking was disastrous. Two days into the inaugural cruise on April 16, a generator fire knocked out power on the ship, forcing the evacuation of 522 passengers and 226 crew members at the port of Huatulco. more...

National Geographic Traveler has named Quark Expeditions’ “Three Arctic Islands: Triple the Adventure” as one of 2011’s 50 “Tours of a Lifetime.” To qualify for the honor, an expedition must be authentic, innovative, immersive, well-guided and sustainable. The 13-day cruise is exclusive to Quark Expeditions, a Vermont-based, polar tour operator specializing in the polar regions since 1991. The cruise visits Iceland, Greenland and Spitsbergen aboard the Akademik Sergey Vavilov, which is designed for hydrographic research. The ship is equipped for Zodiac cruising in ice-strewn waters. It carries a maximum of 107 guests in a variety of cabin categories

Carnival has ranked in the bottom ten of Europe’s 300 biggest companies for its carbon emissions, a new green report released today has revealed. The Europe 300 Carbon Ranking was published by Environmental Investment Organisation, a UK-based independent non-profit research body, which ranks companies on their public reporting of emissions. It highlights the best and worst of the continent’s top businesses, focussing on emissions as well as levels of disclosure and verification. Carnival, which owns P&O Cruises, Princess, Cunard, Seabourn and Costa Cruises ranked at 298. Sam Gill, Operational Director of the EIO, said: “Despite most companies producing corporate social responsibility reports there remains a remarkable lack of transparency and clarity in Greenhouse Gas emissions reporting.

The FlowRider - VIDEO - is a surfing simulator that uses powerful jets of water to create an artificial wave for guests to (try to) surf on. Inevitably, guests fall and the rush of water pushes the person to the back where the participant strikes a padded wall.  After a good laugh, they give it another try or let someone else go.  FlowRiders have been part of Royal Caribbean ships for years now but a recent court case may raise a question about their safety. The case of Charlene Johnson vs. Royal Caribbean Cruises, Ltd., tells the story of Charlene Johnson took a private lesson on the FlowRider but when she fell, she claims she was violently thrown against the wall and injured herself. The Federal Judge in the case ruled that despite what Royal Caribbean did, the waiver of liability Ms. Johnson signed before riding cleared Royal Caribbean of any wrong doing and dismissed the case against Royal Caribbean. So is the FlowRider dangerous?  Judge Moreno, the Chief Judge in the Southern District of Florida, called the FlowRider “inherently dangerous” but the waiver guests sign is enough to proect Royal Caribbean.

Perhaps nothing -- not even for-fee main dining room steak -- angers cruise travelers like a perceived "bait-and-switch" deal. So whenAzamara Club Cruises offered a deal for 50 percent off shore excursions, then pulled the offer before travelers could take advantage of it, Cruise Critic members were outraged. Yet, through their collective efforts and a cruise line willing to listen, they've managed to put things right. Here's how...