Celebrity Cruises’ newest ship is on its way. Yesterday, the line announced that the 126,000-ton, 3,052-passenger vessel had successfully made the “conveyance” from Germany’s landlocked Meyer Werft shipyard, a 10-hour journey up the narrow, twisting River Ems to the North Sea. The particulars of geography, river depth, tides, and other considerations required that Reflection make the journey backward so that her stern-mounted propulsion pods could push additional water under the vessel — necessary given that her keel was sometimes only a few inches from the river bottom. Space above and to the sides of the ship was also in short supply, requiring the temporary removal of power lines that normally pass over the river, and requiring that Reflection navigate (with tugboat assistance) through some incredibly narrow passages: When the ship passed through the raised Jann-Berghaus drawbridge, for instance, the space to port and starboard was just a few feet.

Reflection is the tenth ship Meyer Werft has built for Celebrity, going back to 1988's Horizon, which sails now under its same, original name for Spanish line Pulmantur. Meyer Werft also built Celebrity's Zenith, Galaxy, and Mercury (all now retired from the fleet), and current fleetmates Century, Solstice, Equinox, Eclipse, and Silhouette. Reflection will be the most different of the mostly similar Solstice-class ships, with a wider hull and an entire extra deck holding 72 new staterooms, including 32 large AquaClass Suites. She'll also have all the innovations debuted last year aboard Celebrity Silhouette, including new relaxation and dining options at the grassy outdoor Lawn Club, a gourmet beer bar, and a calm "tree house" lounge called The Hideaway.

Following sea trials and the completion of finishing work in Emshaven, Netherlands, Reflection will host a number of preview events for media and travel industry partners before beginning her first cruise, which departs October 12 from Amsterdam.

This is kinda cool, in a Miracle on 34th Street kind of way: Today, Norwegian Cruise Line announced a new partnership with New York’s Radio City Music Hall that, among other things, means that the famous Rockettes dance troupe — all 18 of them (or more, if you count stand-ins and etc.) —  will serve as the godmother(s) of the new Norwegian Breakaway.

Very New York, don’t ya think? That’s by design: As Breakaway will be homeported year-round in New York, NCL has been going whole-hog into NYC iconography, even commissioning pop artist Peter Max to paint the Statue of Liberty and the New York skyline on the ship’s bow.

To represent the Rockettes during Breakaway’s inaugural season, two of the troupe’s number will sail aboard the first six sailings, beginning May 12, 2013. Further bits of the NCL/Rockettes partnership will include:

• Naming NCL as the “Official Cruise Line” of the Rockettes and Radio City Music Hall, and as the “Official Partner” of the Radio City Christmas Spectacular.
• Special fitness classes, photo opportunities, meet-and-greets, and other events featuring two representative Rockettes, conducted during the first cruise of each month.
• A sweepstakes held during this year’s Christmas Spectacular at Radio City Music Hall, which audience members can enter for a chance to win a cruise for four on Norwegian Breakaway.
• A year-round NCL display in Radio City Music Hall’s Grand Lounge, featuring an 11-foot replica of Norwegian Breakaway.

“Norwegian Breakaway is being designed as New York’s ship and we want everyone to know that this is the ‘must-sail’ cruise ship from New York in 2013 and beyond,” said NCL CEO Kevin Sheehan in a press release. “I strongly believe that the Rockettes, one of the most beloved and recognizable New York icons, are the perfect choice to serve as the ship’s Godmothers.”

Breakaway’s christening ceremony will take place in New York on May 8, 2013. On May 12, the ship will begin her summer schedule of 7-night Bermuda cruises. Beginning in October 2013, she’ll switch to a winter schedule of Florida/Bahamas and Southern Caribbean voyages.

I’m a sucker for cruises that visit stark, cold, northerly places instead of warm, sunny, southerly ones, so this got my attention: This coming August, exploratory cruise line Lindblad Expeditions will be offering its first Arctic Quest: Greenland and the Canadian High Arctic cruise aboard the 148-guest National Geographic Explorer, sailing from the waters of western Greenland to the Inuit villages of Baffin Island.

Departing August 24, 2013, the cruise will kick off in Kangerlussuaq at the head of the 100-mile Kangerlussuaq Fjord, then spend three days exploring Greenland’s coast before sailing west to Baffin Bay and the Canadian High Arctic. There, National Geographic Explorer's guests will be able to visit traditional Inuit hunting and fishing grounds, contemporary Inuit villages, and archaeological sites of the Thule people (ancestors of the modern-day Inuit), and, with luck, spot walrus, polar bear, and other Arctic wildlife. Other expedition highlights will include:

• The chance to travel with a special guest, former Canadian Prime Minister Kim Campbell, Canada’s first and only female prime minister
• A Zodiac cruise in the Ilulissat Icefjord, a UNESCO World Heritage Site
• A visit to the ruins of the Viking village of L’Anse aux Meadows, established in 1000 and discovered in 1960
• A chance to meet Inuit artisans and learn about their carving and weaving traditions

The not-inconsiderable rates for this cruise start at $13,470 per person, double occupancy. But, if you book by December 31, 2012, they’ll throw in free charter airfare from Ottawa to Kangerlussuaq, a value of $1,200 per person.

A panel of experts examining last January’s capsizing of the Costa Cruises vessel Costa Concordia has presented a large dossier of findings to an Italian court, and reports published earlier today by the daily newspaper La Repubblica show the dossier lays principle blame at the feet of the ship’s captain, Francesco Schettino, and on the cruise line itself.

According to reports, the panel, led by Admiral Cavo Dragone, Rear Admiral Francesco Carpinteri, and engineers Enzo Dalle Mese and Mario Maestro, said that Costa Concordia was travelling at 15.4 knots as it attempted a sail-by salute to the island of Giglio — far too fast for such a maneuver, especially at night. The panel noted that in the aftermath of the collision with undersea rocks, there was “an almost complete omission of the entire sequence of [emergency] messages that should have been expected," and that neither Capt. Schettino nor Costa Crociere reacted quickly enough considering the gravity of the situation.

While Schettino gets the lion’s share of blame, both for attempting the maneuver and for delaying the abandon-ship order for more than an hour, the experts also noted problems with Costa’s on-shore crisis coordination team and with the crew, including possible deficiencies in their emergency training and possible language difficulties between the captain and an Indonesian helmsman.

Costa Concordia struck rocks off the coast of Giglio, Italy, on January 13, and capsized hours later. The disaster claimed the lives of 32 passengers and crew.

I tend to look at things from an historical perspective, so when I received a press release today titled “Successful Inaugural Season in Alaska for American Cruise Lines,” my first thought was, Ah, the latest fruits of Cruise West’s bankruptcy.

It was almost exactly two years ago that venerable small-ship cruise line Cruise West closed its doors, following months of shaky financials and a fruitless scramble to secure new investment. In the wake of the line’s shuttering, several established and new small-ship lines announced plans to try and scoop up some of the business in Alaska and elsewhere that Cruise West — with its well-established client base, strong name recognition, and relatively large small-ship fleet — had always monopolized.

Among those new competitors in the Alaska market was Connecticut-based American Cruise Lines, until then an entity associated solely with east coast cruises. In April 2011, ACL announced plans to visit Alaska for the first time, and now they’ve done so — successfully, by their estimation — for an entire season, and are looking forward to number two.

I haven’t sailed the route with them myself, but the ASC product seems a good successor to Cruise West. While both companies attract/attracted an older clientele and focus/focused on natural history and regional history, it’s advantage ASC in terms of hardware: Whereas Cruise West’s ships were uniformly aged and perpetually in need of freshening up, ASC’s vessels — including 100-passenger, 2005-launched American Spirit, which spent this summer in Alaska and will do so again next year — are newer, larger, more spacious, and more up-to-date, with the largest cabins in the small-ship segment.

ACL will begin its 2013 season of Alaska Inside Passage cruises on June 1, but before that happens, American Spirit will offer ten weeks of sailings in another new ACL destination: Washington’s Puget Sound & San Juan Islands. Sailing round-trip from Seattle, the 7-night cruises will troll the San Juans and Puget Sound and visiting the Washington ports of Anacortes, Friday Harbor, Port Townsend, and Poulsbo. Rates for those cruise start at $3,695 per person, while 2013’s 7-night Alaska cruises from Juneau start at $5,320 per person, including a complimentary shore tour package and pre-cruise hotel stay.

My first reaction on seeing the press release headline “Royal Caribbean International And Barbie® Set Sail Together To Offer First-Ever Barbie(TM) Experience At Sea” was to think, “SHUDDER! A theme cruise for those creepy middle-aged guys who collect Barbie Dolls.” But apparently I was wrong in at least two ways: (a) because it’s not just a theme cruise, but an option available on every Royal Caribbean cruise, and (b) because it’s for little girls, since (as the press release says), Barbie “is everywhere girls are today, so it only makes sense that girls can now find her at sea exclusively aboard Royal Caribbean's fleet of world-class ships."

Yuh-huh. So here’s the deal: The “Barbie Premium Experience,” available for $349 starting in January, will be “the ultimate indulgence for Barbie enthusiasts,” says RCI. It will include:

• A very pink “Barbie stateroom,” occupied upon arrival by a Barbie doll and her clothes, plus keepsakes such as a Barbie blanket and pillowcase, tote bag, toothbrush, and toiletries bag.
• Invitation to a “Tiaras & Teacups party,” where participants can dine on pink pastries and pink lemonade while learning table etiquette.
• A mermaid dance class where girls can learn movie tie-in dance moves from the clunkily named Barbie in a Mermaid Tale 2.
• A fashion designer workshop where girls can sketch and create Barbie doll fashions.
• A fashion show where girls can walk the pink carpet, dance, and show off the Barbie dresses they’ve made.

Cost-included Barbie-themed activities such as Barbie Movie Night and Barbie Story Time will also be available as part of the ships’ “Adventure Ocean” youth program, and Barbie movies will be shown on in-cabin TVs.

Barbie will start doing her thing aboard a few Royal Caribbean ships this coming January, and will go fleetwide by March 2013.

Taking ship “across the pond” from the US to the UK (or reverse) used to be a part of everyday life. Even if you hadn’t done it yourself, it was there in your consciousness, just like the fact of air travel is part of everyone’s lives today. And with most air service getting so . . . what’s the word? . . . uncomfortable? unbearable? chintzy? insulting? . . . maybe we’re all primed to start going by sea again, even if it does take the better part of a week.

On that note, there’s this: Beginning yesterday and running though September 10, Cunard is offering a sale on six transatlantic crossings, bringing the base price down as low as $649 per person.

Here’re the dates and rates:

• October 28, 2012: 7-night New York – Southampton sailing aboard Queen Mary 2. Rates from $749 for an inside cabin, from $849 for an oceanview.
• November 20, 2012: 7-night Southampton – New York sailing aboard Queen Mary 2. Rates from $699 for an inside cabin, from $799 for an oceanview.
• November 27, 2012: 7-night New York – Southampton sailing aboard Queen Mary 2. Rates from $699 for an inside cabin, from $799 for an oceanview.
• December 15, 2012: 7-night Southampton – New York sailing aboard Queen Mary 2. Rates from $649 for an inside cabin, from $749 for an oceanview.
• January 3, 2013: 7-night New York – Southampton sailing aboard Queen Mary 2. Rates from $649 for an inside cabin, from $749 for an oceanview.
• January 10, 2013: 7-night Southampton – New York sailing aboard Queen Victoria. Rates from $649 for an inside cabin, from $749 for an oceanview.

The “Cross the Pond” deal also includes onboard spending credits that run up to $150 per stateroom, though that’s for Queens Grill and Princess Grill suites. Credits for standard inside and outside cabins are much lower. Cunard has also reduced the deposit requirement for these voyages by 50%, meaning you only have to put 12.5% of your fare down when you book.

More fine print: Government fees and taxes of $25 to $45 are additional. Offer is available to residents of the 50 United States (plus DC and Puerto Rico), Canada, and Mexico. Reference promotion code R5I when inquiring.

Hapag-Lloyd Cruises, one of the leading German cruise lines, is a very old name in passenger shipping — or rather, it's two very old names: The line as we know it today was actually created in 1970 as a merger between the Hamburg-Amerikanische Packetfahrt-Actien-Gesellschaft (Hamburg-American Line, or Hapag) and Norddeutscher Lloyd (North German Lloyd), which had been around since 1847 and 1857, respectively. Now owned by the large travel company TUI AG, Hapag-Lloyd Cruises operates four small and midsize ships, has another on the way, and has a new outlook on its future.

To date, Hapag-Lloyd has been all over the map in terms of its product focus, with the 408-passenger Europa serving the ultra-luxury market, the 684-passenger Columbus 2 (chartered from Oceania Cruises, where she sailed as Insignia) operating premium mainstream cruises, and the 184-passenger Hanseatic and 164-passenger Bremen offering expedition-style cruises. This morning, though, the line announced that from here forward it will concentrate all its efforts on luxury and expedition cruising, and will also work to expand its presence beyond its German-speaking base to draw passengers from the U.S., UK, and other English-speaking markets.

“By consistently focusing on these two pillars [luxury and expedition], we strive to strengthen our leading position in these segments, and at the same time we will address new markets,“ said Dr. Wolfgang Flägel, Hapag-Lloyd Cruises’ managing director, in a press release.

All cruises aboard the new Europa 2 (currently under construction at the STX France shipyard in Saint-Nazaire, and due to debut in May 2013) and select cruises on the vessels Europa, Hanseatic, and Bremen will be German-English bilingual and cater to the English-speaking market.

Hapag-Lloyd will produce an English-language brochure this fall.

Norwegian Cruise Line has big plans for Pride of America, the 2,124-passenger U.S.-flagged vessel that has sailed year-round in the Hawaiian islands since its 2005 debut. Next March, the ship will undergo a 14-day, $30 million dry dock refurbishment that will bring its features and amenities more in line with NCL’s more recent vessels. Additions and enhancements will include:

• Twenty-four new luxury suites, including two 566-square-foot Deluxe Owners Suites and 22 Family Suites ranging from 363 to 416 square feet, most sleeping up to six guests
• Four new Studio Staterooms designed (and priced) for solo travelers
• Four new inside staterooms, which have been added in underused space on Deck 13
• Upgraded flat screen TVs in all guest and crew staterooms, broadcast on a digital signal
• Pervasive WiFi throughout the ship, including crew areas
• Replacement of carpet in all guest staterooms and public areas
• Video, sound, and light enhancements throughout the ship
• Upgrades to fitness center equipment
• Decor updates in the Aloha Cafe, the ship’s buffet restaurant
• Transformation of Lazy J’s Steakhouse into NCL’s signature Cagney’s steakhouse
• Updated signage throughout the ship
• Renovations to Photo and Art Gallery

The dry-dock will take place in Honolulu, beginning on March 23, 2013. Pride of America will return to her regular 7-night Hawaii itinerary in early April 2013.

As noted here last October, Norwegian Cruise Line has commissioned prolific pop artist Peter Max to paint the bow and forward hull of its newest vessel, the 144,017-ton, 4,000 passenger Norwegian Breakaway. That’s about 40,000 square feet of steel, and today NCL spilled pix of how it'll all look. Viz:

Beyond the fact that Max is known for his Statue of Liberty paintings (of which he has produced one annually since 1976), the ship’s iconography references the fact that Norwegian Breakaway will be homeported year-round in New York, sailing to Bermuda, Florida/Bahamas, and the Southern Caribbean.

“The artwork is a composite of New York City and cosmic imagery — the Statue of Liberty, the Manhattan skyline, a giant sunburst, planets, stars, and musical notes,” said Max in an accompanying press release. “That’s my New York! And now Norwegian Breakaway is my New York cruise ship ‘canvas.’”

Norwegian Breakaway is currently under construction at Germany's Meyer Werft shipyard, with delivery expected in April 2013. The ship will commence her summer schedule of 7-night Bermuda cruises on May 12, 2013. Beginning in October 2013, she’ll switch to a winter schedule of Florida/Bahamas and Southern Caribbean voyages.