by Kevin Griffin
This weekend at Southampton was one of the busiest of the season seeing five cruise ship visits on each of Saturday and Sunday, for a total of ten ships over the weekend, plus a passenger-carrying container ship on Sunday. Elswehere, we look at fleets that feature one smaller ship in addition to their main fleet of larger cruise ships. Finally, Crystal Cruises has returned to Dover after a two-year absence.
Cabin space is still available for the winter 2017 holiday season on small-ship cruises to such coveted destinations as Antarctica, Baja California, Costa Rica, the Galapagos and Cuba, reports AdventureSmith Explorations, the company that brings cruise guests into intimate contact with seldom-visited shorelines around the world.
The first new-build of Crystal’s ambitious river cruise expansion program — Crystal Bach — was christened today in Rudesheim-am-Rhein, Germany by renowned soprano Anna-Maria Kaufmann. (cruisecritic.com)
At least two cruise ships have been rerouted to avoid what initially was Tropical Storm Harvey, moving toward the Western Caribbean, but is now remnants with a 50-percent chance of redeveloping into a cyclone within the next 48 hours. (cruisecritic.com)
The Intrepid Group has announced a strategic partnership with Polar and Latin American specialist, Chimu Adventures. Intrepid has taken a 50 per cent stake in the Australian-owned company to meet a growing demand for sustainable travel experiences from increasingly adventurous travellers. (expeditioncruising.com)
The estimated number of visitors to Japan in July grew 16.8 percent from a year before to 2,681,500, a record high on a monthly basis, the Japan National Tourism Organization said Wednesday. (the-japan-news.com)
Motorists are being warned to expect delays as 10 cruise ships arrive and depart Southampton over the weekend. About 55,000 passengers are set to travel through the port on Saturday and Sunday. (bbc.com)
Canadian far-right media group Rebel Media won’t be sailing out of Miami for a week-long conference aboard a Norwegian cruise ship scheduled for November. (miamiherald.com)
Laura Byrne with the city of Mobile confirms that a Carnival cruise ship will be returning to port today after a medical emergency onboard has caused the ship to return. The cruise has reportedly NOT been canceled. (local15tv.com)
Sleep deprived cruisers heading to a Celebrity ship will soon be able to get some help getting shut eye with a series of four sleep-themed spa treatments created in partnership with Canyon Ranch SpaClub. (cruisecritic.com)
Royal Caribbean International is teaming up with award-winning actress and avid traveler Shay Mitchell to be the brand’s Adventurist ̶ an adventure adviser and storyteller for the world’s most adventurous cruise line.
Centuries ago intrepid explorers plied the oceans “under sail” on tall ships propelled by the wind. Today’s cruisers can take a sailing vacation that’s romantic, nostalgic and just plain fun without “roughing it.” (travelagentcentral.com)
Reflecting the growth of international interest in Latin America & the Caribbean as cruise destinations, French Luxury & Expedition cruise line PONANT has released an extensive range of voyages covering the period October 2018 – April 2019. (expeditioncruising.com)
The home-based travel agent industry is thriving, according to home-based travel agencies Dream Vacations, CruiseOne and Cruises Inc. The three brands, which are part of World Travel Holdings, have been included on the annual Top Private Companies lists for South Florida Business Journal and Florida Trend. (travelagentcentral.com)
Virtuoso honored its top destination, cruise, lifestyle, member and advisor partners at Virtuoso Travel Week. The event is running August 12 to 18 at the Bellagio Resort & Casino, ARIA Resort & Casino and Vdara Hotel & Spa in Las Vegas, drawing a record-breaking 5,760 travel professionals from 103 countries, a 7 percent increase in attendance. (travelagentcentral.com)
The Puerto Vallarta Tourism Board announced that the city has reported an increase of over 6% in hotel occupancy for the first 6 months of the year, with an average occupancy rate for January to June of close to 90% compared to 73% in 2016 and 70% in 2015. (cruiseindustrynews.com)
Japan and Russia are considering the possibility of organizing cruises for tourists around the South Kuril Islands as part of joint economic activities in the area, Kyodo news agency said on Tuesday with reference to diplomatic sources. (tass.com)
With three intimate ships, Coral Expeditions and its ownership group in Kallang Capital Holdings like what they are seeing in the expedition cruise market. “We have grown every year, and this will be the biggest year ever,” said Paul Chacko, managing director. (cruiseindustrynews.com)
Regent Seven Seas Cruises has announced the promotion of Carol Herron to vice president of field sales. In her new role, Herron will help drive the cruise line’s sales strategy with a team of sales and marketing directors who work with travel advisors to grow their businesses. (travelagentcentral.com)
Oceania Cruises unveiled their latest epicurean masterpiece, La Cuisine Bourgeoise, by Jacques Pépin. An elegant seven-course affair, La Cuisine Bourgeoise, is rooted in fresh, seasonal ingredients, time-honored flavors and celebrates the rituals of the table and sharing a meal with friends, and family.
Following strong response to its first-ever cruises to Cuba announced earlier this year, Carnival Cruise Line has added five more voyages featuring extended calls in Havana in 2018.
Saga Cruises has revealed details of what dining and drinking spots passengers can expect on its new-build ship, Spirit of Discovery. (cruisecritic.com)
Speedcast International announced that the company has been selected by Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines to provide end-to-end communication services for voice and data onboard its fleet. Speedcast will leverage satellite very small aperture terminals (VSAT) and land-based 4G/LTE connectivity to deliver communications for Fred. Olsen guests and crew onboard its fleet of four cruise ships. (cruiseindustrynews.com)
Hapag-Lloyd Cruises has re-introduced to the international marketplace its popular Summer Specials campaign – applying to five EUROPA 2 Asia and Middle East cruises selected in April and May 2018 – with its own dedicated website at www.europa2-summer-specials.com, where the relevant cruises are detailed.
Hapag-Lloyd Cruises’ 4-star expedition cruise ship, the 155-passenger MS BREMEN has become one of the first passenger ships in the world to receive the Polar Ship Certificate which will be mandatory for ships operating in the polar regions.
Regent Seven Seas Cruises has unveiled its new 2019-20 voyages season, comprising 118 new sailings, departing from March 2019 through June 2020 aboard four luxury cruise ships: Seven Seas Explorer, Seven Seas Mariner, Seven Seas Voyager and Seven Seas Navigator. (travelagentcentral.com)
Polar adventure specialist, Aurora Expeditions, is celebrating World Photo Day on Saturday, 19 August 2017 with an array of spectacular savings of up to US$1,500 per person on their up-coming photography expeditions to Antarctica and the European Arctic.
Apollo Global Management, LLC, the Genting Hong Kong owned Star NCLC Holdings Ltd. and certain funds affiliated with TPG Global, LLC intend to sell 15 million shares in Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings lts, the world’s third largest cruise shipping company. (cruisebusiness.com)
Luxury cruise brand Cunard, is honoring the 50th anniversary of its longest serving ocean liner, Queen Elizabeth 2, with a special voyage onboard the luxury cruise liner Queen Elizabeth (Q729).
Windstar Cruises has announced five new cruise dates in fall 2018 on the 212-guest Star Legend running September to November and has added to its offerings in Asia for 2017 and 2018 on 18 different itineraries with 25 different departure dates spanning 7 to 34 days. (travelagentcentral.com)
