2014
The Russian passenger ship Lyubov Orlova -arrested three years earlier in Canada because of unpaid debts- which was on its way way under tow to the breakers almost a year earlier and broke free during a storm still seems to be afloat. The abandoned ship is inhabited solely by rats and is drifting towards the UK. Update: a couple of months later, a device on the bridge transmitted a signal that the ship was sinking.
UK based Cruise & Maritime Voyages is taking over Trans Ocean Kreuzfahrten from Germany. CMV will continue to operate Transocean’s only seagoing vessel Astor which it already chartered in 2013 from Transocean for cruises around Australia and in Asian waters.
Celebrity Cruises will upgrade the experience for passengers who book suites by providing them apart from their own lounge and restaurant services not found anywhere else on board like complimentary wines chosen by the head sommelier, local food, etc. Also butler service and VIP priority during (dis-)embarkation will be included. Celebrity plans to take the exclusive experience by suite-passengers to a higher level thus increasing the difference with passengers in lower-grades.
Cuba Cruise, which started the first-ever round Cuba cruises will continue for a second season as the Louis Crystal, chartered from Cypriot Louis Cruise Lines was fully booked. Cuba is slowly opening up to tourism and several cruise lines are planning calls at Cuban ports, mostly Havana.
MSC plans to build a new class of ships bigger than anything in its current fleet, even surpassing the ships of the Fantasia-class. They will be the second largest in the world measured by passenger capacity. Only RCCL’s Oasis-class vessels carry more passengers. As usual, they will be built by STX France.
In addition to The Oasis of the Seas and Allure of the Seas, currently the world’s largest cruise ships, and the third vessel currently under construction, RCCL has announced a fourth ship in this series will follow due to the immense succes these ships enjoy amongst cruise passengers. This latest Oasis-class ship will debut in the spring of 2018. As the first ships of this class are already a huge succes, only minor improvements will be added.
Norwegian Cruise Line invests $250 million in a fleetwide renovation and upgrade program called Norwegian Next. As part of the program, the line will copy several fetaures from Breakaway-class ships to the rest of their fleet. This concerns entertainment, dining, on board connectivity like better WIFI but there will also be enhancements to their private islands (a second one off the coast of Belize will be added soon) and environmental friendly upgrades to all of their ships.
The wreck of the Costa Concordia will be raised mid 2014 and will be towed to Genoa -which will take about five days- where it will be scrapped, which is estimated to take more than a year to complete.
The UK remains Europe’s biggest cruise market, with a 27% share of passenger numbers in 2013, according to the CLIA (Cruise Lines International Association). Last year, 1.7 million British passengers took a cruise. Also, Southampton again was Europe’s most busy port with over 1.5 mio passengers (dis-)embarking here. The cruise industry generated more than £2.5 billion to the UK economy in 2013.
River cruise line Haimark will embark into coastal cruising in 2015 with the launch of its first ocean going ship, MS Saint Laurent (formerly Sea Voyager) which will be extensively refurbished beforehand. After a $3.5 million refurbishment of the vessel, the company aims at providing high standard cruises along the North Atlantic Coast and in South and Central American waters.
Louis Cruises will rename their brand to Celestyal Cruises and will operate two of its ships, Louis Crystal and Louis Olympia under the Celestyal banner. Celestyal aims to provide passengers a true Greek experience onbaord its ships, and also want to upgrade to a higher level of luxury and service as seen before on Louis ships.
MCS Cruises will stretch four of its ships, MSC Armonia, Opera, Lirica and Sinfonia at a predicted cost of $270 mio. The vessels will aslo be refurbished in the process. An 80ft section will be added, adding 53 cabins and 193 passengers to their capacity. It will take about 12 weeks per vessel to complete the job.
As a result of its Fleet Fuel Conservation Program, Carnival Corporation & plc, owning over a hundred vessels being the parent company of Carnival Cruise Lines, Aida, Princess, Holland America Line, Costa etc. has improved its fuel efficiency by over 20 % over the last 7 years, resulting in a savings of $2.5 billion in fuel costs. Energy saving on board and fuel-efficient-designed hulls have contributed to this remarkable result.
The U.S. Department of Transportation has launched a website aimed at keeping potential cruisers informed of safety aspects as well as and consumer complaints concerning cruise ships calling at U.S. ports. Information is given related to the Federal Maritime Commission (for consumer complaints) and the U.S. Coast Guard (for ship safety issues).
Celebration Cruise Line had to cancel all cruises on their only ship Bahamas Celebration, a cruise ship that sails two-night voyages from the Port of Palm Beach to Freeport and back, which struck an unknown object in the water while leaving the Bahamas . The ship returned to Freeport where she docked, already listing to port.
Three of Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines’ ships Black Watch, Braemar and Balmoral will have refurbishment work done next year. Black Watch will have 27 cabins on Lido Deck 7 fitted with balconies while both Balmoral and Braemar will have a ‘Café Venus’ installed on board, serving high-quality coffee and luxury chocolates. Other general refurbishment work will also be carried out.
Costa Cruises launched its new flagship at a naming ceremony in Genoa, Italy. The ship built at a cost of €550 million measures 132,500-ton and has a passenger capacity 0f 4,947. She will be the biggest in the Costa fleet and is similar in design to Carnival’s ‘Dream’ class of ships. Designed by main Carnival designer Joe Farcus, new features aimed at emphasizing to passengers they are at sea include split-level rooms overlooking the sea and a large outdoor promenad.
It seems that Aia and foremost China, is on it’s way to become the world’s fastest growing cruise market as the number of Asian cruise passengers will reach 2.1 million next year, and is predicted to to rise to 4 million by 2020, according to the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA). 26 brands operating 52 ships a active in this region. By far most of the cruises in Asia have a duration of 2 to 7 days.
Starting onboard the new Qunatum of the Seas, Royal Caribbean will introduce two new apps which will help passengers plan the details of their cruises. Cruise Planner can bee used before boarding, making it possible to passengers to arrange spa appointments, shore excursions and dinner reservations from their mobile devices. Onboard, passengers can use Royal iQ to plan and keep track of their schedules. The daily Cruise Compass will also be available, and passengers will be alerted if they have planned scheduling conflicts. Royal iQ will also allow passengers to communicate with each other. In addition to this, RCCL plans to hand out each crew member a tablet fleetwide. This can be used for their work onboard and to keep in touch with their relatives at home.
