As soon as once more, it’s time for Cruise Hive’s weekly recap of the foremost cruise information tales of the week. We’ve got all of it lined, with articles from Carnival Cruise Line, Azamara, Disney Cruise Line, Fred. Olsen Cruise Strains, and Royal Caribbean.
Cruise Information Replace
It’s been one other busy week for cruise business information. Let’s get going with Cruise Hive’s protection of Carnival Cruise Line’s references to eating rooms versus eating places; cruise visitors unable to get a refund from a Greenland tour firm; Azamara visitors having fun with their ship’s prime suite after successful an improve; Disney Dream having to cancel an Iceland name attributable to work taking place on the port; Fred. Olsen Cruise Strains providing three segments of its upcoming world cruise; and a Royal Caribbean ship leaving port early to keep away from sharing house with a cargo ship.
Eating Room or Restaurant: It’s a Cruiser’s Alternative
It is perhaps only a matter of semantics, however some Carnival Cruise Line executives need model ambassador John Heald to cease referring to the fleet’s principal eating rooms as eating rooms. They need him to confer with them as eating places as a substitute.
“I’m at all times beneath stress from a couple of beards to cease calling the dinning room a dinning room and transfer to the ‘official’ time period of restaurant,” Heald defined on his well-liked Fb web page. And no, that’s not a typo — Heald additionally spells eating room with an additional “n,” as in dinning room.
That tendency additionally prompted a visitor to lately put up on the web page: “Why do you insist of(sic) spelling eating room as dinning room. Don’t inform me it’s the English means as that’s false. I’ve checked. It’s infuriating,” the visitor wrote.
Heald responded that his father at all times wrote the phrase that means, and he does, too.
One might say that Heald’s apply of referring to the venues as principal eating rooms is logical, since Carnival Cruise Line’s web page refers to them as such, and never as “eating places.”
Some ships do name the venues eating places. As an example, the Carnivale Restaurant and Festivale Restaurant are the 2 principal eating venues onboard Carnival Celebration, and Carnival Legend calls its principal venue Truffles Restaurant.
It might be that the phrase “eating room” conjures an old style house, whereas “restaurant” is a extra contemporary-sounding choice.
Cruiser Loses Battle For Shore Tour Refund
A Carnival Cruise Line visitor is out greater than $400 due to dangerous climate and a cancelled port name in Greenland. The incident occurred throughout a September 2023 voyage aboard Carnival Cruise Line’s Carnival Legend.
The 14-night cruise roundtrip from Baltimore was scheduled to name at Nanortalik and Qaqortoq, Greenland, and three ports in Canada. When cruiser Jill Reiter discovered that the cruise line was not providing any land excursions in both of the Greenland locations, she reached out to Sandra’s Cruise Excursions, an area agency providing an iceberg boat tour.
Sandra O’Leary ran the agency, and Reiter booked the tour for her household at a value of $424. Nonetheless, dangerous climate pressured the ship to cancel each Greenland port calls. Carnival Legend offered a $400 per stateroom credit score to assuage visitors’ disappointment, however when Reiter tried to get a refund from O’Leary, she was advised the tour was non-refundable.
Reiter says the corporate’s web page was modified after the very fact to point the excursions had been non-refundable. Company who disputed the charged with their bank card corporations had been disenchanted when the claims had been denied.
“All of a sudden, we observed that the phrases and situations on her web site had modified. Now it stated one thing about how the distant nature of the placement allowed the tour operator to maintain the cash,” Reiter stated.
Sometimes, the one solution to assure a shore tour refund if a cruise line cancels a port name is by reserving the land tour by means of the cruise line. That wasn’t doable on this case.
Bingo Winners Get pleasure from a Main Suite Improve on Azamara
Many hundreds of individuals now know what the World Proprietor’s Suite onboard Azamara’s Azamara Quest seems to be like, due to a TikTok put up that describes it intimately. The truth is, because it was posted on June 29, 2024, greater than 688,000 viewers have seen it.
The story started when Garett Talcott and husband Michael Rivera boarded Azamara Quest in December 2023 for a 20-day Antarctica cruise journey. On the second day of the voyage, Talcott gained Blackout Bingo and the grand prize was an improve to the World Proprietor’s Suite.
So Talcott and Rivera spent the rest of their voyage within the lap of luxurious, because the suite is the highest lodging of all 361 staterooms on the 710-guest ship.
Within the viral video, Rivera exclaims: “Superior job successful Bingo, child,” as he high-fives his smiling accomplice. “We’ve got a butler, we’ve got web, we’ve got all of the eating companies. Thanks, Azamara!”
The video gives a tour of the 560-square-foot suite, with its giant, personal balcony, massive front room, separate bed room, giant lavatory with a bath, two TVs, and floor-to-ceiling home windows offering nice views.
The couple had purchased $450 price of bingo playing cards, and it turned out to be a terrific funding.
Disney Dream Cancels One Port Name in Iceland
Company wanting to discover Isafjordur, Iceland, on their upcoming voyage aboard Disney Cruise Line’s Disney Dream must go to that vacation spot another time, for the reason that cruise line cancelled the port name.
The itinerary change impacts the ship’s July 24, 2024 departure on a 12-night Norwegian Fjords and Iceland itinerary.
“The Port of Isafjordur, Iceland, has been present process some work to the port channel. Sadly, the work isn’t but accomplished, and we’re unable to dock,” an e-mail despatched to booked visitors defined. “Subsequently, it is going to be essential to cancel your name to Isafjordur.”
No particulars had been offered in regards to the scope of labor taking place on the Port of Isafjordur.
Cruisers will nonetheless go to Reykjavik, Iceland, when the ship overnights there on July 30, 2024. Calls on the Norwegian ports of Olden, Alesund, and Stavanger aren’t impacted, and since one Iceland port was nixed, the road is including a name to Liverpool, England, on August 3, 2024.
All Isafjordur excursions that had been booked by means of Disney Cruise Line will probably be robotically cancelled and refunded to visitors, and new excursions are being made accessible for Liverpool.
Disney Dream relies at Southampton by means of late October, providing a sequence of Europe cruises, with some as quick as 3 nights and so long as 13.
Cruise Line Provides Three World Cruise Segments
Fred. Olsen Cruise Strains is providing three world cruise segments of various lengths to visitors who wish to discover South America, Australia, and Africa. The 56-night, 29-night, and 21-night itineraries onboard the 1,380-guest Bolette are a part of the ship’s 106-world voyage that sails roundtrip from Southampton, UK, on January 6, 2025.
The 56-night“Exploring South America and the Pacific Islands” begins on embarkation day. Following a transatlantic crossing, the ship will name at ports in Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, and Chile earlier than heading to French Polynesia. The phase ends in Sydney, Australia.
Departing from Sydney on March 3, 2025, Bolette’s 29-night phase, “Australian and South African Discovery,” visits Melbourne, Hobart, and Fremantle, Australia earlier than crusing to South Africa and calling at Port Elizabeth and Cape City.
Setting sail from Cape City on April 1, 2025, the ultimate phase, the 21-day “Scenic Vistas and Numerous Cultures of Africa,” options calls in Luderitz and Walvis Bay, Namibia, and Dakar, Senegal. Land explorations embrace thrilling Huge 5 safaris. The ship additionally visits Santa Cruz de la Palma, Spain, and Funchal, Portugal, earlier than ending in Southampton.
Company can guide cruise-only fares in addition to fly-cruise packages. The ship, which was initially operated by Holland America Line as Rotterdam, is at present homeported in Liverpool, England, and cruising to the Norwegian fjords.
Cargo Ship’s Port Entry Prompts Cruise Ship to Depart Early
When an enormous container ship enters busy Bayonne Harbor, cruise ships at New Jersey’s Cape Liberty cruise terminal are likely to get out of the best way.
That was the rationale behind an earlier departure time for Royal Caribbean’s Symphony of the Seas on July 5, 2024. The road alerted visitors that, moderately than the deliberate 4 p.m. departure time, the ship wanted to as a substitute depart at 3:15 p.m., earlier than an inbound cargo ship entered the port’s channel.
Verify-in on the ship, which is crusing a 7-night cruise to Florida and the Bahamas, was nonetheless set to start at 10 a.m., the common time, however the all-aboard time was pushed ahead to 2:45 p.m. Additionally, visitors who had a late check-in appointment, for two:30 to three p.m., had been requested to reach half-hour forward of their scheduled check-in.
Whereas Cape Liberty has loads of room for a number of ships, container vessels are notably giant, and take time to maneuver. Generally climate and tide currents can have an effect on operations, making it prudent to keep away from having two big ships too shut for consolation. Symphony of the Seas is an Oasis-class mega-ship that weighs 228,081 gross tons.
The change in departure doesn’t have an effect on another facet of the cruise.
Extra Cruise Headlines
Cruise Hive has loads extra cruise information tales from the previous week. Try our in-depth protection of the float-out ceremony for Viking’s Viking Vesta; Florida’s Port Canaveral once more receiving a prestigious “inexperienced marine” award; the distinctive christening ceremony of Seabourn’s latest expedition ship; AIDA Cruises confirming dry dock dates for 2 ships; and Oceania’s new ship marking her float-out from her development bay.
