October

Isola Giglio
The Costa Concordia salvage operation is the largest marine salvage operation of its kind and the ship was successfully righted mid September of this year. Upon righting the ship, scanning of the starboard hull with Sonar and Laser commenced with the expert guidance of the ADUS team.
2G Robotics’ mobile scanning team was deployed to accompany ADUS Deepocean as their underwater laser scanning specialists. The newly developed ULS-500-Profiler was used to capture detailed point cloud data, while mounted to a dynamic platform. For this project, ADUS Deepocean attached the ULS-500 Profiler Laser to a survey pole extending beneath the water surface. Using a POS MV positioning solution, each profile was aligned relative to each other to create the complete 3D model of the damaged portion of the ship.

Credible, 3D surveys like those conducted by ADUS, provide engineers with the detailed data needed to move a project forward with confidence. Congratulations ADUS Deepocean on your 3D survey of the Costa Concordia.

Titanic II is scheduled to be launched from its construction base in China in late 2016, before the maiden passenger voyage retracing its original journey from Southampton to New York.
Mr Palmer said overwhelming global interest in Titanic II since the project was announced had prompted him to lodge an application to trademark ‘Palmer Pictures’.
“My father George had Palmer Pictures originally back in the 1920s and he made two silent films in Australia,” he said. Mr Palmer said there were plans for a blockbuster motion picture as well as a documentary on the maiden voyage of Titanic II,” he said. “The script is still being worked on and of course we would be seeking major Hollywood stars and production people to be involved in the movie project. The world is waiting in anticipation for Titanic II. We have had more than 50,000 people register to go on the maiden passenger voyage and there will be hundreds of thousands of people lining the shore when Titanic II reaches New York and global media interest.”

“Titanic II finally completing the journey to New York will be one of the greatest events of this decade, if not the 21st century. Titanic II will be the ship where dreams come true. It will also be the peace ship and a ship full of love, bringing the people of the world closer together,” he continued. “It is a project that I believe will unite the three continents of Europe, America and Asia in a symbol of peace and love”.

Breda, Netherlands
Dockwise, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Royal Boskalis Westminster N.V. (Boskalis) has been awarded the contract to load and transport the Concordia wreck from Isola del Giglio onboard the Dockwise Vanguard. The contract was awarded by Costa Crociere S.p.A. (the client).
Following the successful parbuckling of the Concordia, and in anticipation of the pending refloat, Dockwise and the client have been in discussion to seek a safe solution to remove the Concordia wreck from Isola del Giglio in Italy. In a unique operation the Concordia can be loaded as a whole onto the Dockwise Vanguard and safely transported to a location where she can be scrapped. The client has yet to make a decision in agreement with the local authorities on the final destination. Alternatives under review include scrapping the vessel in Italy.

As part of the contract, certain modifications will be made to the Dockwise Vanguard to accommodate the loading of the Concordia in her current state. The operation is planned to take place around mid-2014 and contract value of the work scope as described amounts to approximately USD 30 million. more...

During its first year, M/S Viking Grace has reached a distinguished cruising landmark – one million passengers. The one-millionth traveller boarded the ship on 30 September 2013 in a festive atmosphere. Viking Line has been satisfied with the ship’s initial venture and the wide attention it has gathered. The rate of utilization has been quite positive and the vessel has inspired considerable interest – internationally as well.
With Viking Line’s newest boat, M/S Viking Grace broke the magical limit of one-millionth passenger yesterday, 30 September 2013. During a period of eight months, those on board have already managed to enjoy Turku’s beautiful archipelago as well as the ship’s unprecedented design, new services and restaurant concepts in addition to, of course, top-class entertainment. The ship’s personnel have taken care of the comfort of its travellers no matter how young or old, and this bold pioneer on the Baltic Sea has also attracted a completely fresh group of newcomers to join its multitude of veteran cruise enthusiasts.

“The green values respected by Viking Grace as well as its new type of design in particular has brought an impressively large number of new passengers on board. Internationality has also been seen amongst the visitors, and some very prestigious individuals have also been seen on these cruises, such as former Finnish president Mauno Koivisto,” Johanna Molin, Viking Grace Product Manager, glowingly relates.

Millionth passenger given a hero’s welcome!
The millionth customer was given a festive reception already at the terminal, complete with a gift of flowers and an award. The atmosphere befitted such an event also during the cruise, with the millionth passenger publicly honoured in splendid fashion at Club Vogue and a VIP table decked out with sparkling beverages that was reserved for the star of the occasion.

“We’ve been excited about breaking the record with the millionth Grace customer since the outset of September, and now as the number’s being reached we wanted to provide everyone on board – and particularly our millionth traveller – with an unforgettable cruise," says Viking Grace Product Manager Johanna Molin enthusiastically.

This came as a complete surprise. My niece did mention to me that the one-millionth passenger would embark on this cruise. I’m very glad, because this is my first trip on this new cruise ship, describes the millionth passenger, Paula Riihisaari from Turku, her feelings M/S Viking Grace is continuing on its way with speed and vigour to its next important milestone – the ship’s first anniversary in January. There is an ongoing attempt to develop services continuously, and new concepts will be boldly introduced on board in addition to testing their suitability for the marine tourism environment. The purpose is to offer increasingly more attractive adventures and pleasant experiences for Viking Line customers in the future as well.

Tui Cruises’ Mein Schiff 2, which takes 1,900 passengers and does Malta to Malta cruises is being replaced with a brand new ship - the Mein Schiff 3, that will take 2,500 passengers. The 295 metres long liner will, like its predecessor, use Malta as its home port. It will start to be used on June 29. 2014
Among other amenities, the Mein Schiff 3 has 11 restaurants, 12 bars and a 25-metre outdoor pool. Tourism Minister Karmenu Vella told a news conference this afternoon that Tui Cruises was getting 2,000 Germans to Malta by air each week. They would then go the company’s cruises. The sector, he said, was evolving and Malta was becoming more of a home port. Mediterranean cruises, he said, had suffered last year because of the economy and fuel prices and it was positive that Malta was associated with such an excellent cruise company name.

He noted that Tui Cruises were using Malta as a home port for the fourth year when companies usually relocated every three years.

Germany, he said, was Malta’s number one trading partner when it comes to cruises and a total of 7,000 Maltese passengers took cruises on  the Mein Schiff in the past four years.

German Ambassador Klaus-Peter Brandes said that from 609,000 cruise passengers who came to Malta in 2002, 158,000 were German.

He looked forward to more German cruise tourists this year saying cruise passengers were ambassadors of the countries they visited.