Clever Cruiser

Kansas.com:

Nearly a dozen new cruise ships, some designed to carry from 3,000 to 4,000 passengers apiece, will be debuting this year. They will add more than 20,000 new berths a week, more than a million such berths a year. And they will be less like ships than like frantic amusement parks with bells clanging, lights flashing and crowds rushing from one spectacle to another.

On a recent broadcast of my Sunday Travel Show, a guest expert described all the new gimmicks we can expect. “They will be like nothing you have ever seen before,” she announced, and with enthusiasm in her voice, she ticked off the advances:

The Queen Victoria and the Celebrity Solstice, in particular, will have “circus-training programs,” “bungee jumping” and “clown acts.” These will be added, presumably, to the rock-climbing walls, boxing rings, bowling alleys and vertiginous Jacuzzis jutting out from the top deck and hanging perilously over the sea (the latter have become standard on some ships, but not necessarily on the Queen Victoria or Solstice). But let me repeat those outstanding new features: “circus-training programs,” “bungee jumping” and “clown acts.”

On a new ship of Costa Cruises, expect every conceivable game, sport and competition. What’s more, Costa will introduce new, extra-charge “spa cabins” so close to fitness rooms that those staying in them can walk to the showers in their bathrobes. People booking the new spa digs will have exclusive access to that spa and to their own spa restaurant.

On some of the new ships, the democratic, one-class policies of cruising will be totally jettisoned. There will be a “ship within the ship” — an area enjoyed solely by passengers paying higher fares, a number of restaurants to which they alone will be admitted, lounges set aside for the elite. On a new ship of Norwegian Cruise Lines, elite passengers will have special suites, special sun-deck areas to use and special swimming pools for them alone.

Photo from Stock.xchng

MiamiHerald.com:

Port Everglades got a taste of royalty Wednesday as the gleaming new 90,000-ton Queen Victoria — Cunard Line’s latest luxury liner on her inaugural voyage around the world — sailed into Fort Lauderdale’s fast-growing cruise port, anchoring beside the grand old QE2.

The two queens arrived from New York, where they had been joined by the third ship in Cunard’s fleet, the Queen Mary 2, marking the only time the three vessels will ever meet.

The Queen Victoria, built in Italy by Fincantieri, is bound for Aruba after which she’ll transit the Panama Canal, head for Costa Rica and then on to Acapulco, Los Angeles, Hawaii and points beyond.

The price for the 105-day voyage, which began in New York and will end in Southampton, England, ranges from $20,000 for an inside cabin to $203,000 for a master suite. Fares for shorter trips, such as a 12-day voyage departing Barcelona, Spain, on Aug. 25, start at $2,395, Cunard said.

e-Travel Blackboard:

New Zealand needs to improve its port infrastructure, while Australia should ease the stringent Customs regulations that create hurdles for cruise lines trying to import provisions for their ships, according to senior officers aboard Celebrity Cruises’ vessel Mercury.

Mercury, currently in Melbourne, is operating a series of cruises that combine both of New Zealand’s main islands with the Australian cities of Melbourne, Newcastle and Sydney. At 77,713 tons and 264 metres in length, Mercury is the largest passenger ship ever to visit Newcastle.

Passengers just love New Zealand and Australia, reports Captain Costas Patsoulas, master of the Mercury and one of Celebrity Cruises’ senior captains.

“But New Zealand is not very well prepared yet,” Patsoulas adds. He says many New Zealand ports have difficulty accepting two big passenger ships at once and the relatively narrow, open-air gangways provided prove a major challenge for elderly or disabled passengers.

Speaking yesterday aboard Mercury, Patsoulas said New Zealand piloting and port operations were good and reliable.

“They show very good seamanship and they know where and when a tug is needed and when it is not needed. But most of the ports, in relation to the size of the ship, are very small. In bad weather conditions, it is tough to bring the ship alongside.”

Cruise Critic Cruise News:

Italian line Costa Cruises, which has earned a reputation of late as the industry’s pathfinder, is continuing its exotic expansion by doubling capacity in Dubai — and adding yet another revolutionary departure port, Mauritius, to its roster.

While cruise ships do visit Dubai as a port of call, Costa’s decision to deploy Costa Classica there for a full season last winter was a first in modern-day cruising. This year, Costa Romantica and Costa Europa are sailing a total of 25 cruises (15 and 10 respectively) from Dubai throughout the winter season. Both ships will operate the same seven-night itinerary Costa Classica did last winter, calling at Muscat (Oman), Fujairah and Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates), and Bahrain.

Meanwhile, Costa Marina began sailing 14-day Indian Ocean cruises from Mauritius — an island nation off the coast of Africa in the southwest Indian Ocean — on December 21, marking that port’s debut as an international cruise destination. Costa Marina will set sail from Mauritius every Saturday on six sailings. The ship overnights in Mauritius’ Port Louis before departing; ports of call include the Seychelle’s Mahe (two days), Kenya’s Mombassa, Mayotte in the Comoro Islands, Madagascar’s Nosy Be and Tamatave, and St. Denis on Reunion Island.