It’s been one other busy week for cruise information and Cruise Hive has all of the tales you might want to learn about. We’ve acquired protection this week on Carnival Cruise Line, P&O Cruises Australia, Villa Vie Residences, efforts in Juneau and Bar Harbor to cap cruise guests, and a post-cruise viral outbreak.
Cruise Information Replace
It’s time for Cruise Hive’s weekly round-up of the massive cruise information improvement of the week.
Tales this week cowl Carnival Cruise Line’s plan to soak up two P&O Cruises Australia ships into its fleet; Villa Vie Residences’ delayed launch of Villa Vie Odyssey’s first world cruise; an Alaska city’s restrict on day by day cruise visitor arrivals; what to do along with your soiled buffet plate on Carnival Cruise Line ships; Bar Harbor companies searching for to cease the city’s cap on cruise guests; and the United Airways flight that was impacted by cruise friends who suffered a viral outbreak onboard the aircraft.
Carnival Cruise Line to Soak up P&O Cruises Australia
Carnival Company, the business powerhouse that operates 9 main cruise strains, introduced it’ll retire its P&O Cruises Australia model and switch two of the model’s three ships — Pacific Journey and Pacific Encounter, to Carnival Cruise Line inside the subsequent yr.
Plans for the third ship, the two,000-guest Pacific Explorer, haven’t been revealed however it seems the 27-year-old vessel is prone to be scrapped or offered.
The choice to maneuver the ships to the Carnival Cruise Line model is predicated on sturdy demand for the Enjoyable Ship product. Carnival Company lately has transferred three ships from its Costa Cruises model to Carnival Cruise Line: Costa Luminosa, Costa Venezia, and Costa Firenze, in 2022, 2023, and 2024, respectively.
Following the P&O Cruises Australia ship transfers, Carnival Cruise Line will function 29 ships. The road additionally has two Excel-class ships on order and anticipated to enter service in 2027 and 2028.
The two,600-guest Pacific Journey and three,000-guest Pacific Encounter are based mostly within the South Pacific and Carnival Cruise Line will proceed to function each ships within the area. Carnival Company has a robust maintain on the South Pacific area, with its numerous manufacturers crusing 18 ships within the space and controlling about 60% of the market.
World Cruise Ship Once more Delayed in Dry Dock
Villa Vie Residences has once more delayed the launch of Villa Vie Odyssey, its 929-guest world cruise ship that’s present process a renovation at a Belfast shipyard. It’s the second delay introduced inside every week.
The ship is at the moment scheduled to depart the Harland & Wolff shipyard on June 15, 2024. She was initially slated to exit dry dock on Might 21, 2024, and depart on her maiden voyage on Might 30, 2024. The delay is tied to the ship’s rudder shares, a key element in adjusting the rudder for navigation functions.
The sooner delay was as a result of steelwork in one of many ship’s grey water tanks, impacting how the vessel processes wastewater. That was a minor restore slated to take only some days to appropriate. Earlier than the rudder situation developed, the ship was set to depart dry dock on June 3, 2024.
The Villa Vie Residences model, whose enterprise mannequin is predicated on working steady world voyages, every with a period of three.5 years, purchased the ship in March 2024. The vessel, in-built 1993, was previously named MS Braemar and was final owned by Fred. Olsen Cruise Traces. Earlier than that it was operated by Cunard, as Cunard Crown Dynasty.
Villa Vie Residences is working to accommodate friends who had already made journey plans to affix the ship in Belfast.
Main Alaska Port Caps Every day Cruise Ship Arrivals
Juneau, Alaska, the capital metropolis of the Final Frontier State and a serious cruise port, has set a day by day restrict of 16,000 cruise ship passengers allowed to disembark within the vacation spot Sundays to Fridays, and a 12,000 cap on Saturdays, efficient instantly.
In search of to ease the cruise business’s environmental impression on Juneau, the town carried out the caps by way of a Memorandum of Settlement it signed with Cruise Traces Worldwide Affiliation, the commerce group that represents the varied cruise manufacturers working within the area on a seasonal foundation.
Juneau, positioned in Southeast Alaska simply east of the area’s prime cruising grounds in Glacier Bay Nationwide Park, moved to implement the cruise visitor restrict after 1.6 million arrivals visited the vacation spot in 2023, a 23% spike versus the pre-pandemic file in 2019.
The 2024 cruise season in Juneau is poised to interrupt data, with 660 port calls scheduled by September. Passenger numbers had been projected to succeed in 1.7 million in 2024.
The settlement consists of a number of initiatives apart from the disembarkation caps, equivalent to requiring cruise strains to help native companies; contribute passenger charges to fund an growth of the town’s Centennial Corridor; and reduce the offloading of trash from the ships into metropolis landfills, amongst different duties.
The season formally opened on Might 24, 2024, with the arrival of Princess Cruises’ 2,600-passenger Grand Princess on a 14-night voyage.
The Large Buffet Query: What Do Cruisers Do With Soiled Plates?
One of many prime locations onboard Carnival Cruise Line’s Enjoyable Ships undoubtedly is the Lido Market, the all-you-can-eat buffet the place friends can select what they need for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
There are salad bars, carving stations, entrees of all kinds, and scores of desserts, amongst different gadgets, however the burning query is: What ought to I do with my plate once I’m performed?
The query was not too long ago put to Carnival Cruise Line Model Ambassador John Heald by a visitor who needed to know what the correct etiquette is within the buffet space. Ought to plates be left on the desk for wait workers to clear? And what about on the pool space?
Heald replied that almost all friends depart used dishes on their tables, or stash them below a poolside lounge chair. The cruise line, he mentioned, makes no particular request of friends.
He put the query out for remark, and it prompted numerous suggestions. One visitor replied that he leaves plates on the tables, “However we attempt to set up our dishes so they’re simpler to select up.” One other mentioned his group “pushes the plates to the facet in order that the workers is aware of we’re performed with them.”
Within the pool areas, friends indicated that they sometimes take their plates to a grimy dish station when they’re performed consuming, and a few mentioned they carry their used plates to a dish station at one of many poolside eating places.
Companies Proceed to Combat Bar Harbor Cruise Cap
Court docket instances continued to unfold in Bar Harbor, Maine, the place a brand new native ordinance caps at 1,000 per day the variety of cruise ship friends allowed to disembark from their ships throughout port calls to the favored vacation spot.
The ordinance was handed after a majority of native residents voted in favor of the restrict in November 2022. Native companies challenged the regulation however a decide on March 1, 2024 dominated in favor of the city.
Enterprise house owners then appealed that call to the First Circuit Court docket and sought an injunction to stop the city from implementing the cap whereas the enchantment was underway. On Might 24, 2024, the courtroom denied the movement, nonetheless, the enterprise group is now searching for an analogous injunction in District Court docket.
In the meantime, the Bar Harbor City Council is about to carry a public listening to on the ordinance on June 18, 2024, and that assembly is prone to decide whether or not the city will transfer ahead with the day by day passenger cap.
Cruise strains scheduled to name at Bar Harbor throughout summer time and fall are in a wait-and-see mode. Some strains, equivalent to Royal Caribbean and Movie star Cruises, have pulled Bar Harbor from their itineraries and are as an alternative calling at Portland, Maine.
Cruise Visitors Hit With Virus Outbreak on Flight Residence
Greater than two dozen passengers aboard a United Airways aircraft skilled a norovirus outbreak that induced nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea throughout a Might 31, 2024, flight from Vancouver, British Columbia, to Houston.
Between 25 and 30 folks had been affected, and all of them had boarded the aircraft in Vancouver following a cruise trip to Alaska. Upon arrival at Houston, the Boeing 737 MAX-8 plane was met by native emergency responders, who evaluated the in poor health passengers. The aircraft was instantly faraway from service to endure a deep cleansing, which induced its subsequent three flights to be cancelled.
Information studies didn’t determine which cruise ship the sick passengers had disembarked from, nonetheless, Royal Caribbean’s Radiance of the Seas was the one vessel that docked in Vancouver on Might 31. The ship is working seasonal Alaska cruises between Seward and Vancouver.
There have been 163 passengers and 6 United Airways crew members on the impacted flight, and 75 passengers had been on the cruise ship earlier than boarding the aircraft.
The extremely contagious norovirus is likely one of the most typical viruses liable for gastrointestinal signs. It spreads simply by contaminated surfaces and water, and poor hygiene. Frequent hand washing, use of hand sanitizers, and avoiding contact with surfaces might help to keep away from contracting the bug.
Extra Cruise Headlines
These had been simply a number of the massive tales that unfolded. Learn much more thrilling cruise information tales that Cruise Hive coated this week. Take a look at our protection about river flooding inflicting river cruise cancellations in Europe; sturdy winds in Seattle forcing cruise ships to make use of tugboats to convey them into port; Cunard christening its new ship Queen Anne; Holland America Line launching an enormous summer time fare sale; and Carnival Cruise Line nixing a well-liked on line casino perk for loyalty membership members.
