Tag Archives: Cruise & Maritime Voyages

Cruise & Maritime Voyages adds new vessel to fleet

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Cruise & Maritime Voyages adds new vessel to fleetThe 600-passenger ship Astor has been acquired by Cruise & Maritime Voyages.

The vessel, which was built in 1986, was refurbished four years ago and has been bought from bankrupt German owner, Premicon Hochseekreuzfahrt.

CMV, which had been chartering the 21,000 tonne vessel, is reported to be in the final negotiations of the purchase agreement.

Astor will return to Australia for its 2015-16 season, which will be its third year based at Fremantle.

The season will include an Asian cruise from Fremantle to Hong Kong with stops in Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, Sabah, Philippines, Vietnam and Indonesia.

Astor originally joined the CMV fleet in December 2013 under a charter with ship management services provided by CMV’s majority shareholder, Global Maritime Group, which has acquired the vessel.

Astor will operate under long-term charter to CMV.

Christian Verhounig, chief executive and chairman of CMV, said: “The acquisition of the Astor is another important milestone in the strategic development of the group’s presence in the international markets.

“Astor has a fine pedigree and provides an important smaller ship premium option within our cruise portfolio,”

CMV commercial director Chris Coates said: “Astor has added 22,000 passengers to our global carryings and since her introduction has proved a firm favourite with high levels of customer satisfaction and repeat business being achieved.

“Next year we have programmed a special eight-night ex-London Tilbury round Britain cruise before Astor starts her German market season and forward booking levels are very encouraging”.

Astor arrived in Fremantle on Saturday following a 38 night re-positioning voyage from Tilbury and will continue to operate cruises under the CMV brand for the Australian market during the southern hemisphere summer season.

The ship will then reposition to Europe in April 2015 to operate a summer season of ex-Kiel and Bremerhaven sailings for the German market under the TransOcean brand.

Cruise & Maritime Voyages expands fleet

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Cruise & Maritime Voyages will add the Grand Holiday cruise ship to its fleet next spring and will change the vessel’s name to Magellan.

The 29-year-old ship currently sails for Ibero Cruises, a line owned by Carnival Corp. It entered service in 1985 as the Carnival Holiday.

At 1,250 passengers, Magellan will become Cruise & Maritime Voyages’ largest ship. It will operate adults-only cruises (age 16 and over), its first being a 12-night sailing to Iceland and the Faroes from the Port of Tilbury near London on March 15.

U.K.-based Cruise & Maritime Voyages currently has two ships, the 800-passenger Marco Polo and the 600-pasenger Astor. The 550-passenger Azores also will join the fleet in 2015.

John Dennis, the cruise line’s vice president of sales and marketing, said the Magellan “will be very well suited to our U.S. and Canadian guests sailing from the U.K. throughout Northern Europe.”

“Having already sold 65% of capacity for next year, we remain confident that Magellan will help satisfy the growing demand for our product,” he said.

MS Marco Polo Runs Aground in Norway

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MS Marco Polo Runs Aground in Norway

Cruise ship MS Marco Polo has run aground with 750 passengers on board while manoeuvring to anchor near Leknes in Norway’s northern Lofoten Islands.

Cruise & Maritime Voyages (CMV), a passenger shipping company headquartered in Essex, UK  informed that due to adverse wind conditions experienced by their cruise ship MS Marco Polo when approaching her berth in Leknes (Lofoten Islands), Norway, it was decided, in the interest of safety, to take anchor.

“Whilst manoeuvring and as the tide was retreating, the ship touched a mud bank and became lodged. A subsequent inspection by divers has revealed that there has been no damage to the vessel’s hull or propulsion systems,” the company said in a release on Saturday, November 1st.

According to CMV, Marco Polo has been successfully manoeuvred off the mud bank with the assistance of the evening high water tide and resumed her 14 night voyage to Norway and the Land of the Northern Lights en-route to Alta.

There has been no oil pollution arising out of the incident and none of the 763 mainly British passengers or crew have been injured.

“Passengers wishing to go ashore were transferred by tender and the local tour programme continued as scheduled,” the release added.

Chris Coates, Commercial Director of CMV commented, “The comfort and safety of our passengers is our top priority and our passengers have been kept fully updated of the situation.”