Carnival Adds Gas Cleaning Systems to 60 Cruise Ships

Carnival Corporation the world’s largest cruise operator announced yesterday it has installed Exhaust Gas Cleaning Systems (EGCS) on 60 ships across its 10 brands. The company is planning to deploy the cleaning systems to 85 ships of its fleet through 2020 in its effort to improve the quality of air emissions and reduce the environmental impact of their ships. The investment is about $400 million to date. Continue reading

Royal Caribbean to Cancel Turkey Cruise Calls

Royal Caribbean has canceled all calls to Turkey in 2017 due to security concerns.

Royal Caribbean International is the latest cruise line that will remove all calls to Turkey from its itineraries for the remainder of the 2017. Carnival Corporation’s Cunard Line and P&O Cruises are among other cruise lines that decided to stop sailing to the Mediterranean nation through at least the end of this year. Continue reading

Royal Caribbean Adds Lifeguards to its Ships

Royal Caribbean International is adding licensed lifeguards to all of its cruise ships starting this weekend. 

The lifeguards will be part of a new water safety program introduced by Royal Caribbean that includes water safety instruction and signage around the pool areas. Every ship of Royal Caribbean’s fleet will implement the new program over the next few months. Continue reading

Four Next-Generation Ships Ordered by Norwegian Cruise Line

Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings announced it signed an agreement with Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri for four new ships for delivery in 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025, with an option for two more vessels 2026 and 2027.
Each of them, 140,000 gross-ton cruise ship, will carry about 3,300 passengers and cost around $800 million. They will feature energy-efficient design, based on Norwegian Cruise Line’s newest Breakaway-Plus Class ships, which include  Norwegian Escape, Norwegian Joy and Norwegian Bliss.Yet, the new cruise ships will be significantly smaller than the Breakaway Plus Class. They will be 23,000 tons smaller and will be able to carry around 1,000 fewer passengers.

Yet, the new cruise ships will be significantly smaller than the Breakaway Plus Class. They will be 23,000 tons smaller and will be able to carry around 1,000 fewer passengers.
Norwegian Escape debuted in October 2015 and is currently sailing from Miami to the Caribbean. Norwegian Joy, the second in the class, debuts to the Asian cruise market in only a few months, and Norwegian Bliss comes out in spring 2018. The fourth as-yet unnamed Breakaway-Plus ship is scheduled to debut in winter 2019.

Although no further details of the prototype design of the new vessels have been released by the company, there is no doubt that some of the key priorities will be energy efficiency while optimizing fuel consumption and reducing the impact on the environment by reducing the intensity of carbon emissions.

Each of the four new cruise ships will cost approximately $853 million, said from the company, and the majority of funding would come from export credit financing.
Frank Del Rio, president and CEO of Norwegian Cruise Line said in a press release that the new class of ships will “continue Norwegian Cruise Line brand’s legacy of introducing meaningful innovation to the cruise industry.”

 

 

Read more here.

Majesty of the Seas Held at Port Canaveral

The Majesty of the Seas remains docked at Port Canaveral after Coast Guard inspectors find out ‘multiple’ safety issues on board the ship.
The issues were discovered Monday during a routine annual safety inspection aboard the Royal Caribbean cruise ship, Coast Guard spokesman Ryan Dickinson said. He added the delay had to do with the life-saving equipment aboard the ship, not the engine. Continue reading