It’s time for an additional weekly round-up of cruise information from Cruise Hive, your go-to supply for developments throughout the cruise business. Our recap this week highlights tales from Princess Cruises, Carnival Cruise Line, MSC Cruises, and the town of Barcelona.
Cruise Information Replace
It’s been a busy week for cruise information, so let’s dive into the tales behind the headlines. Our protection this week contains Princess Cruises asserting it won’t open two areas on Solar Princess; Barcelona proposing to hike its cruise visitor tax; Carnival Cruise Line ordering three extra mega-ships; MSC Cruises detailing new out of doors areas aboard new-build MSC World America; Princess Cruises including capability to its 2026 Alaska schedule; and Carnival Cruise Line beefing up its on-line safety measures.
Cruise Line Nixes Two Journey Areas on Solar Princess
Princess Cruises has put the kibosh on two journey actions initially deliberate for Solar Princess — the RollGlider and the Coastal Climb ropes course.
Each options had been put in on the 4,300-guest ship, which entered service in February 2024, however had been by no means opened to friends.
The cruise line gave no motive for the everlasting closures, nor did it point out whether or not any new experiences would finally exchange the 2 options. The RollGlider was described as a glider-style zip-line connected to an overhead monitor. It was to offer thrilling sea views for all ages.
Coastal Climb was to be a two-deck ropes course with difficult options akin to bridges, nets, and planks. At its prime, a vacation spot known as The Lookout was slated to be an commentary deck providing 360-degree ocean views.
Each actions had been a part of the ship’s Park19 area, a vacation spot that continues to supply loads of different experiences, akin to Infinite Horizon, a viewing platform space with cantilevered partitions that reach over the perimeters of the ship.
Park19 additionally has the Splash Zone, for water-based enjoyable, and the Leisure Court docket, providing video games akin to corn gap, shuffleboard, and ping pong. A jogging monitor is also present in Park19.
Barcelona Eyes Enhance in Cruise Visitor Tax
Cruise friends on ships calling at Barcelona already pay €7 per day to enter the town, however that quantity is more likely to rise as metropolis officers reply to native issues in regards to the continued rise in tourism.
Barcelona Mayor Jaume Collboni revealed the town’s plan to bump up the cruise vacationer tax. He provided no certain amount however indicated the brand new charge shall be considerably larger.
The vacation spot on the Spanish Riviera is a serious embarkation port for cruise ships in addition to a preferred port name for ships crusing the Western Mediterranean. The port broke data in 2023, when 803 cruise ships visited, delivering 3.5 million cruise arrivals.
The info displays an almost 14% spike from pre-pandemic arrival ranges. The file is predicted to be damaged once more in 2024.
Barcelona in 2023 enacted a ban on cruise ships docking within the metropolis’s World Commerce Middle space and on the Muelle Barcelona Norte, forcing them to as an alternative dock on the Moll d’Adossat pier, which is farther from the central vacationer areas.
The mayor is also contemplating limiting the variety of cruise ships and friends getting into the town. At present, the port of Barcelona can accommodate 10 ships every day, and officers have proposed decreasing the quantity to 7.
In latest weeks residents of Barcelona made headlines once they attacked vacationers by spraying them with water and throwing particles at them.
Carnival Cruise Line Locations Three-Ship Order
Carnival Cruise Line ordered the development of three “subsequent technology” mega-ships that can type a brand new, as but unnamed, class of ship, with the vessels slated for supply in 2029, 2031, and 2033.
Italian shipyard Fincantieri will construct the ships, every of which may have 3,000-plus staterooms with double occupancy capability of about 6,000 friends and room for as much as 8,000 friends with all berths occupied.
The ships will weigh in at 230,000 gross tons, placing them at roughly the identical weight as Royal Caribbean’s Oasis class. Whereas particulars in regards to the new class are but to return, Carnival Cruise Line revealed that the ships shall be powered by liquified pure fuel (LNG) and be outfitted with energy-saving and environmentally-responsible programs.
The brand new ships would be the largest ever constructed by Fincantieri and the most important to be constructed at any Italian shipyard.
The brand new ship order provides to capability the cruise line already has within the pipeline. Two extra Excel-class ships are on account of enter service in 2027 and 2028, and two further ships will be part of the fleet in 2025, when Carnival Cruise Line absorbs Pacific Journey and Pacific Encounter from the P&O Cruises model, which is being dissolved.
Carnival Cruise Line promised that the brand new class of mega-ships will introduce new options and provide many Enjoyable Ship favorites, too.
Cruise Line Reveals Thrill Rides, Play Areas on Latest Ship
Water thrill rides, playgrounds for children, zip-line model experiences, and a difficult ropes course all shall be featured in The Harbour, a brand new out of doors area onboard MSC Cruises’ MSC World America.
The cruise line revealed the onboard vacation spot’s particulars as development of the 6,700-guest ship continues on the Chantiers de l’Atlantique shipbuilders in France. MSC World America is slated to debut in April 2025.
Among the many adventures friends can expertise within the Harbour Aquapark are the Cliffhanger, an over-water, motorized swing experience; a raft slide that makes use of digital actuality know-how, a rock-climbing wall; and a twin racing slide.
The Harbour Mild Home Playground shall be modeled on the cruise line’s Ocean Cay MSC Marine Reserve within the Bahamas, with an actual lighthouse that kids can climb. The Harbour shall be located throughout the ship’s Household Aventura zone, an space that additionally shall be house to the Doremiland youngsters space and the Sportsplex.
Doremiland will home the ship’s supervised programming for youngsters and youths, whereas Sportsplex will function varied sports activities programs and different actions for youths and adults.
The 22-deck ship shall be primarily based at PortMiami, providing a collection of Caribbean voyages.
Princess Cruises Bets on Alaska’s Rising Reputation
As Alaska’s recognition as a cruise vacation spot continues to soar within the post-pandemic period, Princess Cruises is including capability to the area in 2026, with eight ships to be deployed together with its latest vessel, the 4,300-guest Star Princess.
Star Princess is below development at an Italian shipyard and can enter service in September 2025. Initially homeported in Fort Lauderdale, the ship will reposition to Seattle in March 2026 for her inaugural season within the Nice Land.
Different ships that can deploy to Alaska in summer time 2026 embrace Emerald Princess, Island Princess, Grand Princess, Royal Princess, Discovery Princess, Ruby Princess, and Coral Princess. The cruise line will open bookings on the market on August 1, 2024.
All advised, the ships will sail 180 departures and go to 19 locations on itineraries starting from 7 to twenty days. Moreover, 20 cruisetours shall be featured for the 2026 season.
Seven- to 20-day cruises alongside the Inside Passage shall be provided from a number of homeports, together with Seattle, aboard Royal Princess and Star Princess; San Francisco, aboard Ruby Princess; and Vancouver, British Columbia, and Los Angeles, aboard Emerald Princess.
The longer itineraries embrace a 20-day Final Alaska Solstice journey on Ruby Princess roundtrip from San Francisco and a 16-day Inside Passage Cruise on Emerald Princess from the Port of Los Angeles.
Cruisetours mix a voyage with a land tour, that includes rail transportation into inside Alaska and lodging at 4 wilderness lodges that Princess Cruises owns.
Cruise Line Boosts On-line Safety Measures for Friends
Carnival Cruise Line has shored up its on-line account safety measures with an eye fixed towards higher safeguarding visitor info.
Friends getting into the road’s web site to handle their reservation should now present extra element earlier than accessing their reserving, akin to their date of delivery, their sail date, and their ship title. This knowledge is along with the visitor’s title and reserving ID quantity, which had been required beforehand.
The modifications observe a latest identification theft case that was extensively publicized on social media after a visitor posted her reserving ID and cabin quantity on the platform. An unknown individual was in a position to log into her reserving and cancel it, inflicting a serious monetary loss for the sufferer, who then shared the story on-line.
Guidelines for accessing bookings on cruise line web sites range by line, with some requiring two-factor authentication codes, textual content message responses, and solutions to safety questions, amongst different measures.
To take care of privateness and preserve fraudsters away from reserving knowledge, cruisers ought to usually keep away from sharing key info on-line, akin to departure date, reserving and cabin quantity, and any logins.
The cruiser who was victimized by sharing her knowledge had booked Carnival Celebration‘s presidential suite at a price of $12,000. On the time of her identification theft, it was too late to assert any refund from the cruise line.
Extra Cruise Headlines
Get much more insights into the week’s cruise information with further protection from Cruise Hive, together with Oceania Cruises unwrapping its vacation sailings by way of 2026; the ultimate ‘Golden Ladies’ theme cruise being held aboard a Superstar Cruises ship in 2025; Royal Caribbean posting an upbeat bookings and earnings report; the Port of Nassau welcoming the inaugural go to of Utopia of the Seas; and a UK cruise line providing behind-the-scenes ship excursions.
