Liberty of the Seas and Costa Serena Leave Dry Dock, Hitting Water for the First Time
It's an iconic moment when a ship hits the water for the first time. In the old days, ocean liners used to be slid down massive greased "ways" or, more weirdly, just sort of "tipped" over into the water. Nowadays things are less dramatic but a helluva lot more sensible, as ships are built in massive dry-docks which are then flooded, allowing the ship to gradually float up in place, then be towed out.
On August 4, not one but two big new ships made the journey from dry land to water.
At Aker Yards in Turku, Finland, a group of Royal Caribbean and Aker Yards executives turned the valve that sent 87 million gallons of water into the wet dock area, allowing the 160,000-ton, 3,634-passenger Liberty of the Seas to float free and be moved to a wet dock, where construction of her interiors can continue. A sister-ship to the current biggest in the world, Freedom of the Seas, she's scheduled to debut in May 2007. A third Freedom-class is also scheduled to debut in 2008.
Meanwhile, a similar story was taking place at Fincantieri's Sestri Ponente shipyards in Genoa, Italy, where officials of Costa Cruises were on hand to witness the float-out of the 112,000-ton, 951-foot Costa Serena. A sister-ship to Costa Concordia, which entered service just last month, she's also the fifth new Costa megaship to hit the water in the last four years. The ceremony included a blessing by Monsignor Luigi Molinari of the Archdiocese of Genoa. A third sister to the Concordia and Serena is already in the works, with a planned delivery date of spring 2009. Another new vessel, this one 92,700 tons, will also be delivered that season, and Costa has retained an option for a sister ship to enter service in fall 2010.
Carnival Fascination Going Under the Knife for Multi-Mil Renovation
Carnival's Fantasy-class ships were among the first wave of what we now call modern cruise ships, huge (for their time), glitzy (still are), and sporting a design theme that unifies each vessel. But, now they're old -- for cruise ships, anyway -- and over the past six years Carnival (tel. 800/327-9501; www.carnival.com) has moved most of them off its bread-and-butter weeklong Caribbean routes and into short-cruise service, offering 3-, 4-, and 5-night service to the Bahamas and other close-in destinations.
But that doesn't mean the company's giving up on them. Instead, the Fun Ship line has begun a program of large-scale refurbishments. Whereas a ship's annual dry-dock usually includes a cosmetic make-over, patching the year's wear and tear and replacing worn carpets and soft goods, now that dry-dock might include the complete rebuilding of certain interiors, replacing what was chic in the early '90s with something a little more 21st century.
So it is this year with the 70,367-ton, 2,040-passenger Fascination, originally launched in 1994 and currently sails year-round from Miami, visiting Nassau on 3-night cruises and Key West and Cozumel on 4-nighters. In September, the ship will go in for a 35-day dry-dock that's scheduled to include the following lid-lifts, tummy tucks, and implants:
- A new nine-hole miniature golf course on Sun Deck
- A new Café on the Way patisserie serving specialty coffees and sweets, located along the ship's Promenade Deck
- A new teen club
- A new 1,600-square-foot Children's World play area
- A new Atrium Bar
- A newly-designed Internet café
- A new 1,200-square-foot conference room
- New treatment rooms at Spa Carnival
- Updated exercise equipment in the gym
- New decor and completely remodeled bathrooms in cabins and suites
- New flat-screen TVs in cabins and suites
- A new photo gallery
The ship is scheduled to return to service in early October.
Royal Caribbean Launches Gift Certificate Program
Gift certificate to the local bookshop or day-spa not quite enough for Aunt Katie? How about one for a cruise? This week, Royal Caribbean began offering gift certificates in denominations of $50, $100, $250, and $500, which can be put toward the price of a cruise or used as onboard credit at the spa, casino, gift shops, restaurants, and lounges.
Gift certificates can be purchased by visiting www.royalcaribbean.com or calling tel. 800/722-5970.
easyCruise Begins Holland/Belgium Season, Announces Winter Caribbean Route
For most cruise lines, the business model is pretty consistent: keep developing more and better cabin amenities, dining venues, kids programs, and entertainment options, and sail weeklong cruises that call at three or four ports and spend the rest of the time at sea. But easyCruise has a different strategy: focus on destinations during an ultra-flexible port-a-day itinerary, and charge rock-bottom prices that only cover your stay in a very basic 100-square-foot cabin. For anything else -- including food -- you pay extra.
EasyCruise just started up in May 2005, but has already expanded beyond its original itinerary on the French and Italian Riviera. This past winter, the 170-passenger easyCruiseone (the former Renaissance II of defunct Renaissance Cruises) offered Southern Caribbean sailings with stops in Barbados, St Vincent, Martinique, Bequia, Grenada, and St Lucia. Now comes word that the line has completely altered that itinerary for the 2006/2007 season, which operates from December 8, 2006 to April 12, 2007.
"We are incredibly excited about this new itinerary and have spent many months looking into different options, including Miami, the Bahamas, and returning to Barbados where we were last year," said Stelios Haji-Ioannou, easyCruise's founder. "We felt that a new Caribbean itinerary would appeal to repeat customers who have sailed on easyCruise from season to season."
Like all easyCruise itineraries, the new route will sail a circular pattern, allowing guests to book whatever length of trip appeals to them, embarking and debarking wherever there's an airport to get them to and from. In the Caribbean, easyCruiseOne will sail from St. Maarten each Friday, calling at St. Barts on Saturday, Anguilla on Sunday, and then back to St. Maarten on Monday. From there it will visit St. Kitts on Tuesday, Antigua on Wednesday, and Nevis on Thursday. Passengers can begin and end their cruises in St. Maarten or Antigua.
Prices start at easyCruise's usually startling $17 per person, per night (double occupancy), excluding taxes and fees (which brings it closer to the $30 t o$40 range). Several promotional cabin rates are available, including:
- A 3-night weekend break (Fri-Mon) starts at $187; when booking enter promotional code smac31
- A 4-night midweek break (Mon-Fri) starts at $168;enter promotional code smac41
- A 7-night trip (from Fri, Mon, or Wed) starts at $338; enter promotional code smac71
EasyCruiseOne, the line's first ship, will undergo a three-week makeover to correct features that got the thumbs-down from passengers during the ship's first year. The overwhelming, just-about-everywhere orange color scheme will be ditched in favor of a new graphite grey livery with orange trim; a new cafe, bar, and restaurant will be installed; and (most importantly) windows will be added to sixty cabins that were heretofore windowless. Live and learn.
In the nearer term, easyCruise is about to begin operations of its second vessel, easyCruiseTwo, a 100-passenger river cruiser owned and operated by Boonstra River Line as a franchise of easyCruise. The vessel will sail a weekly itinerary on the rivers of Holland and Belgium August 11 through November 4, visiting Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Antwerp, and Brussels.
"EasyCruiseTwo has been designed in answer to our customers' requests," said Haji-Ioannou. "The orange that was so prominent on easyCruiseOne has gone and every cabin has a window and the facilities we now offer allow guests to have as much fun on board the vessel as they do on land."
easyCruiseTwo offers a large canopied sun deck and two hot tubs; a 90-seat cafe serving a la carte breakfast, lunch, and dinner; a bar which a wide selection of beverages, including local beers; a fully equipped gym; and a resident DJ.
Prices for easyCruiseTwo's river cruises start from $13 per person, per night, plus taxes and fees.
Holland America to Offers Art-Tour Podcasts
Holland America Line (tel. 877-724-5425; www.hollandamerica.com), not usually known as an innovator in the cruise biz, caught the wing of a shoreside trend this month when it announced it would be offering self-guided iPod tours of its onboard art collections.
Narrated by California-based radio travel hosts Paul Lasley and Elizabeth Harryman, the 40- to 50-minute tours include walking directions, interviews with artists, background music, and photo images displayed on the iPod screen to help guests locate each piece. Tours also include commentary from Frans Dingemans, the architect/designer behind all of Holland America's interiors.
Guests can sign out an iPod free of charge from the ship's guest relations desk, take the tour at their leisure, then return the device when they finish. Tours will also be available from the HAL website for download to passengers' own iPods or home computers. The first tours will be available on Westerdam beginning this month, with the program expected to roll out fleetwide by year's end.
MSC Cruises Announces 2006/2007 Caribbean Baseball Cruises
For the third straight year, Italian line MSC Cruises (tel. 800-666-9333; www.msccruises.com) will be offering a series of baseball cruises on its winter Caribbean itineraries, sailing from Ft. Lauderdale November through April. Players already signed up for the season include Hall-of-Famer Bob Feller, slugger Ken Griffey, and former Yankees Graig Nettles, Frank Howard, and Stan Bahnsen (Nov. 26); and Earl Weaver, Stan Bahnsen, Randy Hundley, Cito Gaston, and four-time All-Star Vida Blue (April 18). Both cruises are eleven nights, offered aboard the 1,586-passenger Lirica. The November cruise visits Ocho Rios (Jamaica), Cartagena (Colombia), Cristobal and the San Blas Islands (Panama), Puerto Limon (Costa Rica), and Roatan Island (Honduras). The April cruise calls at San Juan (Puerto Rico), St. Maarten, Grenada, Barbados, St. Lucia, Tortola (BVIs), and Samana (Dominican Republic).
Each baseball theme cruise includes free interactive passenger/player activities, including a player-hosted trivia game, question-and-answer sessions, a story-telling session, an autograph session, and player-hosted pitching, hitting, and defensive strategy clinics.
The World Is a Sellout
Well, that's it. You missed your chance. The chance, that is, to own a stratospherically priced residential suite aboard the world's first condominium cruise ship. That's right, The World, launched in 2002, has finally sold out, having found buyers for the last of its 165 homes at sea. The vessel is now owned outright by its residents. Of course, some of the units may come up for sale later, but in the meantime, vacationers can still sample the lifestyle of the rich and sorta-secretive via the ship's rental program. Guests may rent private residences aboard for a minimum 6-night stay, with rates ranging from $1,200 to $5,000 per residence, per night (including most meals and beverages, port charges, gratuities, and taxes). For inquiries about rentals, call tel. 800/970-6601 or click on www.aboardtheworld.com.
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