I love all things Cruise and add that to my hobby Photography I’m in dreamland, I’m an exTravel agency owner with the inside contacts, so I will try to keep you updated in all things travel related with a side serving of images and other maritime stories.
MSC Cruises has announced plans to extend its current season in the Arabian Gulf after the destination proved to be “particularly attractive” to its customers this winter.
Bellissima will finish its planned Red Sea itineraries homeporting in Jeddah on 26 March and then move to the Arabian Gulf to take over from Virtuosa on 2 April.
The vessel will then offer additional seven-night cruises calling in Dubai, Sir Bani Yas and Doha from 2 April through to 25 June.
Virtuosa, which has sailed the region since November 2021, will sail back to Europe to homeport in Southampton for the summer season.
In July, Bellissima will move to the Far East to perform its itineraries in Japan and China. Sales for the additional Bellissima cruises opened today.
The line said its Arabian Gulf sailings have proven to be “particularly attractive” to guests this winter, thanks to the “appeal of the itinerary” with extended stays in port and two overnights in Dubai.
Gianni Onorato, chief executive of MSC Cruises, said: “We have seen that the itineraries in the UAE and Qatar have been very popular with our guests and so to respond to this demand we have decided to extend our presence in the region.
“The decision to deploy MSC Bellissima for this extended part of the season was taken because this is a highly popular and well-appreciated ship with a richness of features, entertainment and dining as well as offering the MSC Yacht Club.”
Royal Caribbean International’s Spectrum of the Seas will sail a program out of Singapore starting from April 2022, which is six months ahead of the previous schedule. This was reported by the Singapore Cruise Society.
The 4,200-passenger Quantum Ultra-class ship was originally poised to begin the Singapore-based season in October 2022. It was last engaged in a season of short domestic sailings to nowhere, exclusive for Hong Kong residents. But, after a mid-January update to local COVID-19 prevention policies by local authorities, the cruise line started cancelling Hong Kong voyages onboard the Spectrum.
According to Singapore Cruise Society, Spectrum’s older fleet mate, the Quantum of the Seas, which was most recently operating sailings out of Singapore, will be redeployed for a season of voyages in Alaska, starting in May.
“Where there are particularly large refits or complex ones, we provide project management resources to support the brands,” said Chris Millman, vice president of corporate marine technology at Carnival Corporation.
Perhaps the biggest project coming up for Carnival Corporation is a battery system retrofit for AIDA Cruises, as the German brand will get a 10MW battery installation with the goal to manoeuvre into port, hook up to shore power, and then sail out of port, all with zero emissions.
“The impact of that will be zero emissions for a port call, which is something we are looking at,” Millman said, adding that a fuel cell installation was also happening in the near future on an AIDA vessel.
Long-term planning is centred around fewer emissions with the eventual goal of finding the zero-emissions fuel of the future.
Varying Projects
Many of the ideas and project topics come from the brands themselves, noted Mike Kaczmarek, vice president of corporate shipbuilding.
Thus, those projects can turn into company-wide refit projects, energy-efficiency initiatives and help lend resources and support to prototype future technologies.
“We have been running a technical prototype initiative whereby we are assessing the impact of different technologies on the ships,” said Millman, pointing to variable speed pumps, fan controllers, different hull coatings and LED lights.
“We’ve developed a recommended package for all our ships … it brings all the ships into line with technologies we’ve identified as being effective at improving energy efficiency and waste management,” he said.
After seeing the results of an air lubrication system on a pair of newbuilds, that technology has now been retrofitted to a handful of existing ships, where Carnival first equipped the ships with the fastest itineraries in the fleet that would benefit the most.
Hull Coating
““Following the pause period, and with ships returning to service, they needed hull cleaning and we needed to understand which ones needed it the most,” Millman explained.
New is a remote hull cleaning drone that also collects all the fouling of the hull, alleviating concerns from port authorities and letting Carnival evaluate what was on the hull.
With no shortage of hull coating options available, different water temperatures ship speeds and itinerary patterns, the company is constantly evaluating new hull paint.
Carnival ships are sailing globally with different hull coatings, and test patches of new coatings.
“In one case we coated a whole hull with completely new paint. It has proven to be very successful,” Millman said. “We haven’t seen it through to the end of five years yet but we are moving to do another couple of trials.”
Support
Supporting initiatives include a host of subject matter experts at the corporate level – whether it’s a hydrodynamics wizard, a waste heat genius or other top minds in specific fields.
“The background assistance is there for the brands,” said Millman.
Getting pitched all the time with the latest emissions-saving gadgets, the corporate technology team goes through potential projects, brings in subject matter help and then evaluates proposals.
“We would then prioritize what to trial depending on what we feel would bring the best ROI on improving energy efficiency,” Millman said. “Then run the trial and report back.”
Company-wide, a technical team gathers twice a year for two to three days, going through all the projects, providing updates and making decisions on where the future focus should go.
“The biggest (future) tech initiative will be on alternative fuels … that is a major way to decarbonization.”
