Carnival ship’s transformation put on hold

Posted on 26 March, 2020 by Spacejunkie2

The Carnival Victory will become the Carnival Radiance, but not in late April as previously planned.

Carnival Cruise Line is suspending work on the Carnival Victory’s refurbishment in Spain. After a $200 million overhaul, the ship is to be renamed Carnival Radiance.

The ship is drydocked in the city of Cadiz. Carnival said that travel restrictions have made it difficult to secure workers.

The Carnival Radiance’s four European sailings and transatlantic crossings have been cancelled and guests are being notified. The Radiance had been scheduled to make its debut on April 29 with a 10-day Mediterranean sailing from Barcelona.

Carnival said affected guests will receive a refund or can rebook and receive a $600 onboard credit.

Carnival has not cancelled a naming ceremony currently scheduled to take place on June 24 in New York City, followed by a four-day cruise to Bermuda.

The Destiny-class vessel is to get 115 additional cabins and new bars, restaurant and kids clubs. The ship will accommodate 2,998 passengers at double occupancy when the work is done.

Carnival Corp. offers the use of ships as floating hospitals

Posted on 19 March, 2020 by Spacejunkie2

Carnival Corp. offers use of ships as floating hospitals

Carnival Corp. has offered the use of its ships as temporary hospitals for non-coronavirus patients to free up space at land-based hospitals to treat patients with Covid-19.

President Trump announced at a press conference on Thursday that he had spoken with Carnival Corp. chairman Micky Arison on Thursday morning. “He’s going to make ships available,” he said.

The president has already ordered that two Navy hospital ships are deployed to areas hits hard by coronavirus. The USNS Comfort will head to New York Harbor and the USNS New York will be dispatched to a location on the West Coast. If needed, the Carnival ships could supplement those efforts.

“In addition to the big medical ships that you have coming, if we should need ships with lots of rooms, they will be docked at New York and Los Angeles and San Francisco, different places, so I want to thank Micky Arison. That’s Carnival Cruise Line,” the President said.

In a statement shortly afterwards, Carnival Corp. said that select ships from its many brands — including Carnival Cruise Line, Holland America Line, Princess Cruises and P&O Cruises Australia — would be made available to help with a possible shortage of land-based hospital beds.

“As part of the offer, interested parties will be asked to cover only the essential costs of the ship’s operations while in port,” the company said.

“If needed, cruise ships are capable of being quickly provisioned to serve as hospitals with up to 1,000 hospital rooms that can treat patients suffering from less critical, non-Covid-19 conditions,” Carnival Corp. said.

Temporary cruise ship hospital rooms can be quickly converted to accommodate remote patient-monitoring devices over the ship’s high-speed WiFi network, the company said. The ships would be capable of providing cardiac, respiratory, oxygen saturation, and video monitoring capabilities. Rooms have bathrooms, private balconies and isolation capabilities if needed.

The company said the ships would be able to provide up to seven intensive care units in their onboard medical centres with central cardiac monitoring, ventilators and other medical devices.

Carnival said various decks could house multiple medical functions, the company said.

Seattle: Alaska Drives Demand

Posted on 23 January, 2020 by Spacejunkie2

Quantum of the Seas in Seattle.

While moving ahead with plans to build a third terminal, the Port of Seattle set another record last year with 1,210,000 passengers on 211 calls and is forecasting a further increase this year to 1,380,000 passengers on 225 calls.

“We are also extending our season starting as early as April 1 with the Grand Princess and closing on Oct. 19 with the Ruby Princess,” said Michael McLaughlin, director of cruise and maritime operations. “Norwegian Cruise Line will also bring a third ship, the Norwegian Sun, joining the Bliss and the Encore at Pier 66. The Sun will sail 11-day Alaska cruises.

“Next year, the new Norwegian Encore will replace the Joy,” he continued. “It is a good example of how Norwegian is keeping their newest and best products in the market.

“Also in 2021, Carnival will replace the Spirit with the larger Freedom.”

Last year marked Seattle’s 20th year as a cruise port, during which it has seen nearly 14 million passengers.

“What stands out over those two decades,” said McLaughlin, “is that even during the recession we continued to grow our market share year-over-year. There was some flattening out in Alaska when that head tax was put into place, but it had less effect on Seattle in that we had entered into berthing agreements with the brands where they needed to meet their annual guarantees. So when they decided to pull ships out of the market as a result of the taxation in Alaska, it had less effect on Seattle.

“Over the long run, the growth trend has been really positive.”

Having released a Request for Proposals (RFP) for a new terminal last summer, the port has announced three groups that were shortlisted. They were the so-called Cruise Industry Leaders Group, with Royal Caribbean, MSC Cruises, Carnival Corporation and SSA Marine, a Seattle-based stevedoring company; Global Ports Holding and Miami-based Civil & Building North America; and Ports America, teaming up with Jacobs Engineering Group, headquartered in Dallas.

With the goal of having the new terminal ready for the 2023 season, it means Seattle will have three cruise terminals and four berths: Terminal 46 with one berth; the Bell Street Terminal at Pier 66 with one berth, and the Smith Cove Terminal at Pier 91 with two berths.