first look

First Look: Swan Hellenic’s Newest Ship, SH Minerva

Britain’s Swan Hellenic have just taken delivery of their newest vessel, SH Minerva. Lets take a look at her and see what sets her apart. View SH Minerva’s Deck Plans Swan Hellenic started back in the 1950’s as a travel…

First Look: Seven Seas Splendor

Ultra-luxary operator Regent Seven Seas Cruises just took delivery of it’s latest newbuild. VIEW SEVEN SEAS SPLENDOR DECK PLANS The Seven Seas Splendor started sailing earlier this year carrying 750 passengers around Europe. The Italian built ship measures 734ft loa…

First Look: Silver Origin

Ultra-luxary operator Silversea Cruises just took delivery of it’s very first destination-specific newbuild. VIEW SILVER ORIGIN DECK PLANS The Silver Origin was designed exclusively to sail year-round in the Galapagos islands. The all-suite, 100pax ship has just five passenger decks…

First Look: HANSEATIC inspiration

German Hapag-Lloyd Cruises newest ship has just entered service. The HANSEATIC inspiration is the second ship in their luxury expedition class. VIEW HANSEATIC INSPIRATION DECK PLANS Hapag-Lloyd is mainly known for their 222 ‘box ships’. This is their huge fleet…

Take a Tour of the Ultra Luxury Scenic Eclipse

Australian tour operator Scenic tours have always specialized in land based tours since their inception. They then started getting into the maritime market with the 2014 launch of Emerald Waterways, a four-star luxury river line based in Europe. Around the…

First Look: Oceanwide’s Hondius

Netherlands based Oceanwide Expeditions just took delivery of their newbuild Hondius. The delivery of this vessel, in May 2019, marks the start of what will be a busy expedition newbuild period for the industry. She’s a smaller expedition vessel, coming…

First Look: Roald Amundsen

The newest Norwegian expedition vessel has just been delivered. View this post on Instagram A post shared by SmartCruiser (@smartcruiser) on Aug 1, 2019 at 9:16am PDT Hurtigruten started life out in 1893 running mail, cargo, and passengers between remote…

First Look: s/v Flying Clipper now renamed Golden Horizon

Star Clippers

UPDATE 6/29/2020: Tradewind Voyages UK ltd. have renamed the ship Golden Horizon. Her first voyage is being targeted for Spring 2021. UPDATE 6/5/2020: It has been announced that the vessel known as Brodosplit 483 will be chartered to UK based…

First Look: Spirit of Discovery

The first ship in a new class for a cruise lines first newbuild. The Spirit of Discovery has just set sail for England’s Saga Cruises. This is the wholly owned cruise division of the UK’s mega holiday company Saga. They’ve…

First Look: HANSEATIC nature

German Hapag-Lloyd Cruises newest ship has just entered service. The HANSEATIC nature is the first ship in their luxury expedition class. VIEW HANSEATIC NATURE DECK PLANS European tour operator TUI Group’s cruise division contains three divisions: the all German TUI…

First Look: Celebrity Flora

Celebrity Cruises just took delivery of their next vessel, Celebrity Flora, and she’s unlike any other. VIEW CELEBRITY FLORA DECK PLANS 2019 will be the year of the expedition vessel. Of the 25 vessels due out this year, almost half…

First Look: Carnival Sunrise

The new Carnival Sunrise (ex-Carnival Triumph) has just set sail on a series of inagural voyages from the East coast. VIEW CARNIVAL SUNRISE DECK PLANS Background As part of a fleetwide enhancement, Carnival Cruise Lines have turned the Carnival Triumph…

First Look: Coral Adventurer

Australia’s Coral Expeditions took delivery of their largest vessel. VIEW CORAL ADVENTURER DECK PLANS The 120pax purpose build expedition ship was built in Vietnam at VARD. The ship takes its inspiration from the North Sea vessels that VARD has had…

First Look: Costa Venezia

COSTA LOGO

Costa Cruises just started sailing their first purpose built ship for China. Before we begin looking at her public areas, first some background. Carnival Corp designs ships for multi-brand deployment. The Venezia is part of the Vista-class of ships. She…

First Look: MSC Bellissima

The quickly expanding MSC Cruies have just taken delivery of the MSC Bellissima. This ship belongs to the Meraviglia-class and shes an identical sister to her. She comes in at 171,598gt and has an LOA of 1,036ft and beam of…

First Look: AIDAnova

Easily the most anticipated ship to be launched this year is the AIDAnova. She being touted as the first cruise ship to be able to operate with LNG as bunkers while underway. She’s part of the brand new Excellence-class of…

First Look: Introducing Nieuw Statendam

Holland America has just taken ownership of their newest ship the Nieuw Statendam. She’s the second in the Pinnacle-class joining her sister the Koningsdam. Both ships are 99,500gt and can carry 2,650pax double occupancy. The ship will start with a…

First Look: Take a Tour of the Celebrity Edge

We recently took a first look at Celebrity Cruises groundbreaking new 130,818gt ship, Celebrity Edge. Now lets take a tour of the vessel. Outdoor/Pool/Spa Lets start with the most eye-catching feature, the Magic Carpet. [column size=one_half position=first] [/column] [column size=one_half…

First Look: Introducing Celebrity Edge

View a Tour of the Celebrity Edge. VIEW CELEBRITY EDGE DECK PLANS Below Originally Published on: Nov 9, 2018 @ 10:22 Easily the most anticipated ship this year is Celebrity’s Edge. She’s a completely new design measuring 130,818gt. Her most…

First Look: Mein Schiff 1

Mein Schiff 3

The latest flagship for Germany’s TUI Cruises has just set sail. Let’s take a look at her. TUI Cruises is set up as Royal Caribbean Cruises’ German subsidiary. It’s technically a joint venture between the Miami-based RCCL and German tour…

First Look: Seabourn Ovation

Seabourn Odyssey

Seabourn Cruise Line is undoubtedly one of the top cruise lines in the world. They’re nestled in the category of ultra-luxury and definitely live up to it. Their latest flagship, the Seabourn Ovation has just been delivered so let’s take…

First Look: Norwegian Bliss

Norwegian Cruise Line’s newest flagship has just set sail. In our series of First Looks, which replaces the Inaugural Liveblogs, lets take a look and see what sets her apart from her fleetmates. The Norwegian Bliss can trace its lineage…

First Look: Carnival Horizon

Carnival’s newest flagship has just set sail on her inaugural voyage from Barcelona. The 133,596gt ship is the second in the Vista-class family of vessels. These are an enlargement of the Dream-class of vessels. While most of the Horizon will…

Updated First Look: Symphony of the Seas

This post has been updated to include higher-res photos. The world’s largest cruise ship, Symphony of the Seas, has now been delivered to Royal Caribbean. In our series of First Looks, which replaces the Inaugural Liveblogs, lets take a look…