Some pictures from Shipspotting. One more and video after the break below:

Link to Video

My thoughts: I mean it seems weird to charge guests to do this, but if it keeps them onboard, then not only do they get the revenue from the tender charge, they get revenue from whatever they do while onboard. So while its bad for the customer, the lines profit, possible leading to lower fares ? Hopefully CCL, NCL and RCI don’t hear about it (maybe I shouldn’t be posting about it!). I can realistically see lines charging for tenders to go ashore on private islands, Great Stirrup Cay, Coco Cay, Princess Cay, etc. There, the lines foot the bill for all costs involved in the island so, to me, it would make sense, as opposed to Grand Cayman which makes a ton off of cruise ship visits.

But then again, if its that small of a fee, why not just build it into the total cruise fare so that you can say you don’t charge excess fees and avoid negative press, like this post!

On the other side of the pond, I’m referring to England, John Honeywell has the excellent blog, Captain Greybeard. Today he highlights the additions of new ship deployments from “down under.”

See Here

CruiseNewsDaily Posts an interesting photo from their archives.

This is how she was intended to be. And this is how she came out:

Intending to be around 80,000 grt she turned out to be only 40,000grt. I never did get a clear explanation of what when wrong and how she came out so different. But I guess that is the way of concept ships. Remember she is the first ship to try this out.

But hey, at least they will never get any money to build the Freedom Ship.

source Cruise News Daily

Top photo CND

Bottom photo Shipspotting

• The Carnival Pride needs to enter its scheduled drydock early and has cancelled 2 cruises.
• The Alaska Head Tax has some “funny math.”
• The Famed SS United States may have been saved from the scrapyard.
• A Carnival Ship temporarily lost power.
• Carnival adds two new ships to both Galveston and NOLA.

Originally scheduled for January, the Carnival Pride will instead sail into a drydock in November. Every 2-3 years ships will routinely head to a drydock for 2 weeks. Workers will replace carpets, update cabins, thoroughly clean all areas of the ship. Machinery may be replaced or overhauled. Things of that nature. Some of the more ambitious drydocks have included altering the ships exterior profile with the addition of balconies, cabins, lounges, pools and even waterparks. Sometimes entire engines are replaced.

This drydock for the Pride seems to be just a routine but the need to accelerate it 2 months seems odd.

Carnival Spokesperson states:

"Carnival Pride isn’t experiencing any problems, but after evaluating the work that we need to get done by a certain time, we decided to slightly accelerate the routine dry dock from January to November. Thus we’re having to cancel two sailings in November."

He refrained to comment on the exact nature of the changes that will take place in the drydock.

The two sailings that will be cancelled are the Pride’s November 7th and November 14th voyages out of Baltimore.

If you are on the sailing, here are your options:

• You can have your deposit or fare paid applied to another Pride sailing. Carnival stated that they are protecting rates on nearby sailings.
• You can rebook on any other Carnival cruise leaving prior to April 2012 and receive $50  per person in onboard credit. This option may include a higher fare than a cruise on the Pride though.
• If you chose not to go, you can get a full refund of all fare paied or deposits paid. Plus Carnival will refund up to $200 per person in air fare, as onboard credit, if the airline requires change fees.

Subsequently, Carnival will be adding two cruises to take place during January, when the ship was supposed to go into drydock. Scheduled for January 23rd and the 30th, the voyages will sail to the Bahamas round trip out of Baltimore.

Basically locals were getting annoyed that lines were sending more and increasing larger ships to their ports. Passengers were overwhelming tiny port towns and ruining the waterfront. The ships were also ruining the environment both above water, exhaust fumes, and below water, legal and illegal discharging.

The solution was a recent tax on every passenger (head tax) that called in each Alaska port. The lines couldn’t afford to pay this for the passenger so they passed it along to the passenger.

Then it was realized last year, the first year of the tax, that the Alaska cruise market was down as lines didn’t send as many ships there and people weren’t booking as many trips up there.

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So then came last March when Alaska officials came down to Miami for the annual cruise convention. Cruise executives lobbied the Alaskan government to help them out saying how great the industry was for then economy. Alaskan officials listened, and as of last Friday, AP is reporting that the cruise lines, in  a shocking partnership between Carnival and Royal Caribbean, dropped a lawsuit against the state. They said they would drop the suite if and only if the state passed a law that lowered the head tax. Which they did. [See Update]

Is this a win-win? They lines get a lower tax price, and the state gets money to (hopefully if its used right) clean the harborfront and environment.  It may seem so. But its is really up to the lines and passengers to be responsible and the state to use the tax money on nothing else other than what needs to be helped out in the fragile environment of Alaska.

An ironic saying goes something like: The lines were polluting the very nature they were selling.

UPDATE: Uber-Cruise-Website CruiseCritic is reporting the details on the law. This just seems like a sketchy deal, but these things happen:

Although the base head tax will only be lowered to $34.50 per person, Terry Harvey, a spokesman from State Rep. Cathy Munoz’s office, says cruise lines will be reimbursed [emphasis CruiseInd’s] an additional amount each time a ship calls in Juneau, Ketchikan or both. Refunds will total $7 per person for calls in Ketchikan and $8 per person for calls in Juneau; if a sailing calls in both ports (which 75 percent of Alaska cruises do), $15 per person will be refunded to the line, thus reducing the amount from $34.50 to $19.50 per person.

source: AP via MSNBC

updated: Cruisecritic

Dear Conservancy Members and Supporters:

As many of you already know, the SS United States Conservancy made an important announcement at our July 1st National Flagship Celebration.  Philadelphia philanthropist H.F. (Gerry) Lenfest has pledged up to $5.8 million to the SS United States Conservancy.  These funds will be used to purchase the vessel from its current owner, Norwegian Cruise Line/Genting Hong Kong and maintain the ship in its current berth for up to 20 months while redevelopment plans are solidified.  To read the Conservancy’s media advisory containing the key details on this important development, please CLICK HERE. 

On this Independence Day, we are celebrating several important milestones.  We are paying tribute not only to the spirit of our great country, but also to the 58th anniversary of the maiden voyage of our national flagship.  We would like to express our gratitude to everyone, from Gerry Lenfest to our newest Plank Owner, for the spirit of unity and commitment which made our recent public announcement possible. 

To all of our supporters, we convey our deepest gratitude and ask for your continued faith and support as we work to redevelop the SS United States. While we are deeply relieved that our national flagship has been granted an 11th hour reprieve, the Big U has not been saved.  She has been granted a crucial 20-month stay of execution.  Her story is far from over.  We have a long and complicated journey before us, and there are no guarantees that our dreams for the ship will be fulfilled.  We need your support now more than ever if we are to achieve our goal of securing the ship’s future for generations to come. 

In gratitude,

SS United States Conservancy Board of Directors

source ssunitedstatesconservancy.org

I should have noticed something was up today when I checked the Galveston cam and saw that the Ecstasy was in Galveston on a Friday. Being able to see the Ecstasy walking to class and around campus at my alma mater, every Saturday, Monday, or Thursday, you gets used to associating those days with that vessel.

The reason: Galveston pilots refused to board her. Hurricane now tropical storm Alex has been pounding this area with rain and some wind. The storm is well south but the north part is carrying quite the punch. It is even effecting the oil spill in LA.

Carnival is providing assistance to those onboard last night and those stranded on the Island. They also are giving those that were supposed to have boarded the option to cancel.

Carnival offered guests that were on the propulsion-less cruise a 20% discount on a future cruise up to 5-Nights. Nice gesture!