Archive

NCL and Princess to Seasonally Homeport in Houston

NCL and the Port of Houston Authority announced jointly that they have signed an agreement to base a ship seasonally for three years [2014-2016] with the option for two more [2017,2018]. NCL will sail the Norwegian Jewel. She’ll average about…

The Strangest Travel Gadget of 2012

  While looking at Cruise Critics top pics for Holiday 2012, I stumbled upon this strange device. I guess its designed to help you sleep on planes. I can guarantee when you go to strap this to your chair on…

Norwegian Breakaway To Feature True Ice Bar

  Now this truly is as cool as it gets. Inspired by the original ice hotels in Scandinavia, The SVEDKA Ice Bar is one of only 14 in the world and the only true ice bar at sea. Now I…

TUI Picks up Option for Second Ship

TUI cruises surprised the industry last September when they announced they agreed to build one ship with an option for a second. Well now comes word that TUI and STX Turku have agreed to pick up the option for the…

NCL Q3 2012 Results

Norwegian Cruise Line reported results for the quarter ended September 30, 2012. Operating income increased 8.8% to $174.1 million in the third quarter of 2012 compared to $160.0 million in 2011 with an improvement in operating margin to 25.8% from…

Costa Allegra Seen in Turkish Scrapyards

The Costa Allegra, the Costa vessel that broke down in the Indian Ocean, has finally reached the scrapyard in Turkey. Her sister is currently sailing for South Korea’s Harmony Cruises. Costa had originally tried to sell her to Harmony, but…

Royal Caribbean Q3 Earnings

Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. reported better than expected third quarter results and increased its earnings outlook for full year 2012. “The strong third quarter certainly validates our confidence in our business model,” said Richard D. Fain, chairman and chief executive…

French Ferry Partially Capsizes in Marseille

The French Ferry Napoleon Bonaparte, operating for Nationale Corse Méditerranée (SNCM), was struck by a freak storm while in port. After 60mph winds snapped her mooring lines, she struck an opposite pier. Ripping open a 98 foot gash below the…

Carnival Exploring Selling Older Tonnage

Kari Reinikainen over at Cruise Business has in interesting rumor: Carnival Corp & plc, the world’s largest cruise shipping group, may sell some of the older vessels in its fleet as newbuildings enter service, Chairman and CEO Micky Arison said.…

Royal Caribbean Goes Public with Oasis Option

Via Mikey’s Cruise Blog: “The Oasis of the Seas and Allure of the Seas have proven themselves to be exceptionally attractive ships by generating the highest guest satisfaction ratings in the fleet coupled with very compelling financial returns,” said Richard…

Carnival Orders New Ship (and Holland America)

Hot on the heels of NCL’s shocking newbuild order, industry giant Carnival has placed an order for a 135,000grt vessel for Carnival Cruise Lines. Scheduled to launch in 2016, she will represent a new class of vessel for the line.…

This IS Project Sunshine

After months of speculation, here are architectural models of Royal Caribbean’s Project Sunshine. So its confirmed that Sunshine will be to Oasis, what the Radiance is to Voyager. Although I was kind of hoping for a split superstructure like Oasis.

More Details of Project Breakaway Plus

I was able to dig up some more details of the Breakaway Plus. The ship will cost 700 million euros. NCL was able to get the financing form the German bank, KfW IPEX-Bank. CIN has more detials: The ship’s contract…

Ventura Suffers Major Damage In Storm

Stories have been surfacing the past few days from onboard P&O’s Ventura, that the ship was damaged in a storm off the French Coast in the Bay of Biscay. The worst is the above crack. Said to be wider than 2-in.,…

Introducing Sugar Point Barbados

  Royal Caribbean, along with several local developers, are aiming to develop a new port/terminal in Barbados. Their new website has just gone live. Take a look and see if you like the idea.

Picture of Breakaway Plus

Hard to tell the difference. She’s supposedly larger than Breakaway. Looks stretched in the forward superstructure. I guess we’ll know when they release the deckplans.

BREAKING: NCL Announces Newbuild

Norwegian Cruise Line announced today that it has reached an agreement with MEYER WERFT GMBH of Germany to build a new cruise vessel, for delivery in October 2015, with the option for a second ship for delivery in spring 2017.…