Carnival Launches Special Website and Updates for Carnival Luminosa

Posted on 7 July, 2022 by Spacejunkie2

Carnival Cruise Line fans can now register to be the “first to know” about Carnival Luminosa’s itineraries and special sale promotions at www.carnival.com/carnivalluminosa.

The Costa Luminosa will join the Carnival fleet in September and will start guest operations as Carnival Luminosa in November 2022 from Brisbane, Australia.

The Carnival Luminosa will operate seasonally from October through April from Brisbane, then reposition to Seattle, where it will sail Alaska itineraries from May through September, before returning to Brisbane, according to a press release.

Cruises out of Brisbane will be announced shortly, and Carnival will sail a variety of itineraries that will initially include visits to Australian favourites such as the Great Barrier Reef and Airlie Beach, and, as destinations open over time, ports of call such as Noumea and Lifou Isle in New Caledonia, Port Vila and Mystery Island in Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea and Fiji.

The Luminosa is a sister ship to the four other Spirit-class ships that already sail for Carnival. Given the short timeline to get the Carnival Luminosa ready for service, the ship will go through some modest updates to change over from Costa to Carnival over the next few months ahead of the November service start-up.

Princess Cruises has reported its “biggest ever” booking day

Posted on 30 June, 2022 by Spacejunkie2

The line saw strong demand for its 2023 roundtrip Southampton cruises (Credit: Princess Cruises / TravMedia)

Bookings were up by 13% compared to the line’s previous strongest booking day in 2019. The line saw strong demand for its 2023 roundtrip Southampton cruises on Sky Princess alongside an increase in demand for fly-Mediterranean voyages and long-haul destinations such as Alaska, the Caribbean and Australia.

Eithne Williamson, vice president of Princess Cruises UK and Europe, thanked the company’s agent partners for helping the line achieve its record-breaking day.

“It is thanks to their unwavering commitment and hard work that we were able to surpass our previous best booking day and we’re extremely grateful for their continued support,” she added.

“The demand for cruise holidays is evidently back and better than ever and we are sure agents will agree that it is fantastic to see holidaymakers once again being able to plan ahead for future holidays in destinations both close to home and further afield.”

Norwegian Cruise Line Could Be Set To Move Some Asia Capacity

Posted on 13 May, 2022 by Spacejunkie2

With uncertainties still surrounding operating cruises in parts of Asia, Norwegian Cruise Line could be poised to redeploy ships in the near future, according to NCLH President and CEO Frank Del Rio, speaking on the company’s first-quarter earnings call.

Despite what Del Rio said were cruises selling at very high prices, there is still a risk.

“And so we will likely take some chips off the board in the coming weeks to balance that risk-reward, likely at the Norwegian brand, which has more flexibility in where it can achieve good pricing and accelerate the bookings, much faster than Oceania and Regent can, because of the longer booking curve there,” Del Rio said.

The Norwegian Sun has a scheduled Asia program for the 2022-2023 season, while the newly-refurbished Norwegian Spirit is scheduled to sail in Australia and New Zealand.

“The good news is that we heard from the Minister of Tourism in New Zealand that they expect New Zealand to open up no later than October to cruising. That opens up that whole Australasia area for us (including) Australia, New Zealand, Tahiti. And we hear good commentary coming out of some Asian countries, some Asian ports, (but) not China. And we’re not very big in China as you know,” he continued.

Del Rio said he was hopeful for Asia and also South America, where Argentina, Uruguay and Chile will be open to ships.

“The world is reopening perhaps at different paces. But it is reopening. And that’s good news for us.”