Marella Cruises will offer voyages to Canada

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A new 14-night East Coast Adventure sailing, departing Port Canaveral in October 2023 and calling at Newport, Bar Harbor, Saint John, Sydney, Halifax and Boston, will go on sale on 21 July, along with the line’s full winter 2023 programme. 

Speaking to TTG on Tuesday (28 June), managing director of cruise at Tui UK and Ireland Chris Hackney said the new itineraries will “bring North America to life”.

“It’s a great time of year to go to Canada, and we’re really excited to go there for the first time,” he added.

“We’re going to different parts of the US and offering a nice range of options. It brings to life the different destinations, whether it be the south, the north, it will be very appealing to customers and it will help tick off those bucket-list holidays.”

Discovery will also offer a 12-night Stateside Discovery sailing, departing Port Canaveral and calling at Miami, New Orleans, the Dominican Republic and Barbados.

Meanwhile, the line’s newest ship, Marella Voyager, will offer three Caribbean itineraries from Barbados in winter 2023, including an eight-night Paradise Islands sailing in November 2023, which calls at Tortola, Saint Maarten, Saint Kitts, Antigua and Dominica.

Elsewhere, Marella Discovery II will homeport in Singapore and offer a 14-night Eastern Experience sailing, calling at Laem Chabang, Phu My, Malacca, Langkawi and Patong Bay.

“We have operated in Asia in the past, but this time we will homeport out of Singapore, where the ship will overnight, giving customers the opportunity to experience the destination in the day and the evening,” Hackney added.

“In the past, we have received really good feedback from customers on being in a place like Singapore, where you’re centrally located in such a vibrant city, so we think it will go down really well.

“Everything is really exciting, and these new itineraries allow us to bring in some new destinations, we have a lot of customers who ask when we’re going back to Asia and it’s great to be able to bring it back for next winter for customers to see some fantastic parts of the world.”

Carnival Corporation: On Course for Recovery

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Cash from operations is turning positive and the company has turned the corner of its recovery trajectory, according to Carnival Corporation CEO Arnold Donald, who spoke on today’s second-quarter business update call with analysts.

“We are aggressively ramping up to full operations, driving higher occupancy on our ships, and focused on increasing revenues,” Donald said.

Bookings are expected to continue to improve during the rest of the year and reach historical levels in 2023, according to David Bernstein, executive vice president and CFO. He also said that there is the potential that EBITDA will be greater in 2023 than it was in 2019. The wild card is the cost of fuel. The target for 2023 is to carry 14 million guests.

Contributing to the recovery will also be fleet optimisation, reallocating ships to the strongest markets, such as introducing the new Costa by Carnival brand in North America.

Donald noted that European markets are in many ways more challenging than North America from a consumer standpoint as it relates to travel and added that moving Costa ships was also about right-sizing the Italian brand. A big chunk of Costa’s capacity has been in China, he said, and with that market closed, it made more sense to expand the strong North American market than to put all that capacity in Europe.

Bernstein added that North America and Europe are headed in the right direction, but that the company’s North American brands are doing better than their European counterparts.

As for other headwinds, such as the impact of the recession, Donald said the industry is resilient, offering a strong value proposition and that people feel entitled to their vacations. In addition, there is a tailwind of pent-up demand, he added, and the relaxing of health protocols is also expected to attract more people who may have been on the sidelines.

As for any other allocation moves, Donald said: “We are very pleased with our portfolio of brands but will always have an open mind to do what makes sense for our shareholders.”

He also said that since 2019, the company has shed 23 less efficient ships while adding nine larger, more efficient ships, including more premium-priced staterooms, while reducing operating expenses, including fuel, on a per available guest day basis.

Norwegian Cancels Viva’s Inaugural Cruises

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Norwegian Cruise Line is cancelling the first and second sailings of the new Norwegian Viva.

Citing construction delays, the company said the 3,215-guest ship won’t be ready in time for the cruises, which were set to depart on June 15 and June 24, 2023.

In a statement sent to booked guests, Norwegian informed that the cancellations were a result of “global supply chain constraints impacting industries worldwide and the related downstream construction delays at the shipyard.”

According to the company, impacted passengers will receive a full refund to the original form of payment, with no further actions required on their part.

“We are committed to always putting our guests first. This includes providing information regarding any changes to voyages with as much notice as possible,” Norwegian added.

Opening up the ship’s inaugural summer in the Mediterranean, the cancelled cruises included visits to several countries in Europe.

A one-way, nine-night voyage, the inaugural sailing was set to depart Portugal, calling in various destinations in Spain and France before arriving in Italy.

An open-jaw itinerary as well, the second cruise was set to sail between two Italian ports: Civitavecchia and Trieste.

The nine-night voyage also featured visits to other ports in the country, in addition to popular destinations in Croatia, Greece, Malta and Slovenia.

The Norwegian Viva is being built at the Fincantieri shipyard in Marghera, Italy. Second, in a series of six ships known as the Prima Class, the vessel will be a sister of the new Norwegian Prima.

Set to debut this year, the 142,000-ton vessel is also entering service later than initially planned due to supply chain issues. Norwegian informed guests booked on the ship’s inaugural voyage that their cruise was no longer going ahead.

Also being built in Marghera, the Prima was set to depart on August 17, 2022. Ahead of a christening ceremony in Reykjavik, the vessel was offering an eight-night cruise from the Netherlands to Iceland.