Archive

STX Gets the Order it Needed

STX Finland just got a very important order for a ferry for Viking Lines. I normally don’t cover ferry travel but this is important news. No one is building ships anymore. Its just the way things are now. After Allure…

Another Owl…Another Ship

On the heels of Oasis’ rare guest, here is another post that should be on AboutThoseBirds.com but yet it finds its way here. Alastair Greener, of the great wearecunard.com blog, has the story. One story I heard about, but only…

Allure Delivered and Sets Sail Towards Florida

The Allure of the Seas was delivered from STX Finland yards. The only ship with a Starbucks at sea and an GUESS store at sea sailed from the cold Finnish city of Turku. Just like her sister Oasis last year,…

Finance Friday II: NCL Goes Public

You can now own a part of NCL. NCL recently filed an S-1 forum that they wish to create an Initial Public Offering. IPO’s are the first step towards being a publically traded company and then being listed in a…

Finance Friday Part I: RCI’s Q3 Earnings

And they were surprising! For Q3 Revenue of $2.1 Billion [17% increase from last year] Net Income of $356.8 million [55% increase from last year] Net Cruise Costs were down(a good thing) 2.3% and omitting fuel expenses, they were down…

NCL Reaches Agreement With US Justice Dept.

The United States Justice Department and NCL finally reached an agreement to resolve a lawsuit in which NCL violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). This only applies to NCL’s subsidiary NCL America which operates the only US flagged cruise…

New Cruise Line Formed

Alaskan Dream Cruises has just formed and will sail two smallships from the former Cruise West. The Alaskan-based Allen Marine Tours purchased the 78-pax Spirit of Columbia and Spirit of Alaska. They will be renamed the Admiralty Dream and Baranof…

BREAKING: NCL Orders New Ship

NCL finally went public today with their new build plans to build 2 post-panamax vessels in Germany’s Meyer Werft yard. They wil deput in Spring 2013 & 2014. The unnamed ships will be in 143,500 GRT each and have 4,000…

Costa Classica Repaired in 96 Hours

The Costa Classica, that has involved in the collision in china, has been “repaired” in Changxing, China. It took just 96 hours. I say repaired in quotes because, my understanding, she was just made seaworthy. That means they made the…

Costa Classica Collision

Quite the story I came home to. The Costa Classica of Costa Cruises collided this morning with a cargo vessel in China. The incident occured in a deep water channel near the Yangtze River. The 1,300 pax ship was traveling…

Port of San Francisco Tests Out Shore side Power

Princess Cruises Island Princess was the first ship to hook up to shore side power while docked in San Francisco. The ship literally plugs into power cables from the dock. Several of Princess Cruises ships are equipped with the ability…

A Greener Carnival

Cunard Line, Ocean Village Holidays and P&O Cruises will emphasize a reduction in fuel, water, and waste in 2009-2010. These joint lines form a division of Carnival called Carnival UK. This new green strategy comes courtesy of their first sustainability…

Big News in the Bay State

Massachusetts Port Authority, known as Masport, officially opened a new, renovated, section of Black Falcon Terminal. The former World War I warehouse is at the end of an $11 million refurbishment plan that will meet the growing demand of the…

Queen Elizabeth Delivered and Christened

Today we saw the introduction of a new Queen. The Queen Elizabeth was christened by Her Majesty The Queen today in Southampton. The 1,600 invited guests saw the white wine bottle break against the ships hull on the first try.…

Cunard Takes Delivery of Queen Elizabeth

In the above photo, Cunard President Peter Shanks holds the keys to the vessel that he then handed over to the Captain, Christopher Wells. As all my readers know, ships do not use keys to turn the engine on, but…

Wanna Cruise to Cuba?

  The cruise ship Adriana will sail to the embargoed island for the new Tropicana Cruises of Belize. Homeported out of Jamaica U.S. and Canadian passengers can cruise to the island for 7-nights. Prices start at around $1,050 per person.…

Cruise Ship Rejected?

Troubled cruise line Pearl Seas Cruises has yet hit another bump in the road. The way over budget, horribly delayed small ship Pearl Mist, has been “Rejected.” You may remember the tradition in the maritime industry where the line, Cunard,…

Finance Friday: Carnival Q3 Earnings

Carnival Corporation, the world largest cruise line, recently posted their 3rd Quarter earnings report. Lets take a look at the numbers. Total revenue was $4.4 billion. Up from $4.1 billion last year. Total net income was $1.3 billion yielding $1.62…

Disney Dream Floated Out

The Disney Dream has now had her first taste of water. She was successfully floated out at Meyer Werft Shipyard in Papenburg, Germany. The 128,000 grt ship is still on track for a January 26th maiden voyage.    

Resident Ship Utopia Closer to Reality

The all residence ship, Utopia, may be taking a step closer to reality with a rumored contract in the works. The vessel, which would sail for Utopia Residences, would be built by Samsung Heavy Industries in South Korea. This would…

Rare Owl found on Golf Course

You may be saying, “why is this being posted on CruiseInd. Shouldn’t this be posted on a site like AboutThoseBirds.com.” Well if by golf course, I mean the one on Oasis of the Seas, then I believe this is the…

Celebrity Reflection

RCI just announced that the 5th Solstice class ship will be named the Celebrity Reflection. She joins the Celebrity Solstice, Eclipse,  Equinox, and Silhouette. Love the name, hate the name? Sound off in the comments below.

Oasis, meet Dream; Dream, meet Epic; Epic, meet Oasis.

On Tuesday, the three flag ships and largest ships in their rival lines all met in St. Maarten. I am of course referring to the Carnival Dream, Norwegian Epic and the Oasis of the Seas. This unique meet-up was courtesy…