The Cruise People booked their first APL passenger this morning, from Australia to Singapore on the APL Gwangyang, and are starting on their second, a possible 119-day round voyage booking on the APL Danube, serving the Columbus Jax route between Los Angeles and the US East Coast, both ways via the Suez Canal.

Good news has come our way today from CMA CGM, which is instituting a new Southeast Asia service from Southamptoton and Rotterdam. With a 56-day round voyage, typical transit times are 25 days from Southampton to Singapore, 28 days to Laem Chebang, the port for Bangkok. (thecruisepeople.wordpress.com)

With her first passenger sailing in October, the Independent Venture will rejoin the Independent Container Line route between Antwerp and Liverpool in Europe and Chester PA and Wilmington NC in America. The Independent Venture can accommodate up to six passengers in an Owners and two Double cabins, and joins the passenger service on October 4 at Antwerp and October 7 at Liverpool.

New Western Med cruising possibilites are offered by CMA CGM’s Medex service, which serves the Middle East and Sub-Continent. As passengers are not allowed beyond Suez on this route, the CMA CGM Tosca is able to offer a choice of two shorter round voyage itineraries from Malta and Genoa.

With all the ship and route changes occurring at CMA CGM this year two South America-Asia routes that had not recently been available have now been revived. One route (ACSA2) connects Chinese ports, Hong Kong and Taiwan with Mexico, Panama, Colombia, Peru and Chile while the other route (SEAS) connects Singapore, Hong Kong and Chinese ports with Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay.

In April 2016, we announced six new ships, five from CMA CGM, the 10-passenger CMA CGM Bellini and her sister ships CMA CGM Chopin, Mozart, Puccini and Rossini and one from NSB, the 7-passenger MSC Monterey, for the Europe-Australia route from London Gateway via Suez to Australian ports.

The Cruise People is pleased to announce a six-month charter extension on the m.v. Widukind, running from Tilbury via Rotterdam, Dunkirk and Le Havre to the US East Coast, the Pacific islands of Tahiti and New Caledonia and on to Australia and New Zealand.

This spring we announced that CMA CGM had moved its four 12-passenger “Fort” class cargo ships from the French West Indies Line to the Eastern Caribbean Service. Now, however, the same ships are being moved back to the original service for which they were built.

With CMA CGM’s addition of four passenger-carrying container ships to the AAX Singapore-Port Kelang-Fremantle-Sydney-Melbourne-Adelaide-Fremantle-Singapore service and the addition of the Buxhansa to Singapore-Reunion-Tanzania-Maurtius-Singapore service by NSB, more connections are available over the major Southeast Asian port.

NSB Freighter Cruises advised today (May 24th) that the m.v. Buxhansa has joined a new Southeast Asia – Indian Ocean – East Africa – Southeast Asia service, with the following port rotation: Singapore – Tanjung Pelepas – Pointe des Galets, Reunion – Tamatave, Madagascar – Maputo, Mozambique – Beira, Mozambique – Nacala, Mozambique – Port Louis, Mauritius – Singapore.

With an increase in the number of passenger-carrying container ships working CMA CGM’s Amerigo Express Transatlantic service to four, Salerno has become the new exchange port for Israeli-bound passengers from the US.

CMA CGM subsidiary Australian National Line has opened a new Southeast Asia / Australia passenger service using four 5,100 TEU container ships transferred in from the Pacific Express 3 round-the-world service to join the AAX service.

With the annoucement by CMA CGM of its new Columbus PNW service, North America is regaining a regular sea travel connection to Japan. Effective this spring, three French-flag ships will be sailing from Seattle and Vancouver to Yokohama on a regular basis. As other carriers have been turning down Japan-bound travellers this will be a first of a kind for Japan for several years.

Until recently, the well-known Columbus Loop service ran from the North American East Coast to Asia via the Cape of Good Hope and on to Seattle and Vancouver, with return to New York via Asia and Suez.

With two ships being transferred in from its Liberty Bridge service and two more from Pacific Express 3, CMA CGM’s Amerigo Express service is now up to four passenger-carrying ships running between Mediterranean ports and US ports between New York and Miami.

For years now, since Safmarine’s “Big Whites” disappeared, passengers have sought a means of travelling by sea to and from the Canary Islands. But cargo ships have only offered round trip voyages between north Europe and the islands.

Rickmers’ 50,249 dwt tonne Spirit of Lisbon (aside) has recently been added to the CMA CGM Liberty Bridge Transatlantic service and is offering the Owners Cabin (260 sq ft) and one Single cabin (170 sq ft) for passages.

The Cruise People Ltd is pleased to announce a new fortnightly cargo-passenger service from Liverpool to Dublin and Bristol, Leixoes, Algeciras and Setubal with a return call at Leixoes on the northbound voyage. Two Single Suites, £1,210 Each For 14 days.

For those wanting to return to North America this autumn by sea, or sail into the Great Lakes we have an extra sailing by Polsteam’s m.v. Isadora, scheduled from Amsterdam/IJmuiden for Cleveland, Ohio, and Burns Harbor, Indiana, in the second half of Septober.

The latest news from CMA CGM brings good tidings for those looking for a single voyage round the world. Round-the-world voyages will now be available from Houston, Mobile, Miami and Jacksonville, which has not been available since Rickmers stopped carrying passengers through the Suez Canal in 2011.

CMA CGM’s changing deployments are going to add significant passenger capacity to the Transatlantic business, where it is often difficult to get space.