Tag Archives: cruise ships

Qatar to charter cruise ships to host World Cup supporters

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By Phil Davies


Cruise ships are to be chartered to help accommodate football supporters at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.The Qatar Tourism Authority announced at the Cruise Shipping Miami convention that it would be contracting rooms from cruise companies as a “means of additional accommodation”.

The QTA said: “Over the past few years, QTA established a number of strong relationships with international cruise operators as well as with other specialists involved in the industry.

“This has proved to be of great importance especially that Qatar will be extensively benefiting from cruise ships over the 2022 World Cup, as a means of providing additional accommodation supply for fans and visitors over the period.

“QTA will be contracting a minimum of 6,000 rooms on cruise ships for the 2022 tournament, and is building its knowledge base to develop this sector of the maritime industry.”

The Gulf state said it would have 100,000 hotel rooms available for fans, more than the minimum 60,000 required by Fifa, as part of its bid to host the tournament.

Temporary accommodation such as cruise ships could help the QTA hit the 60,000 figure and alleviate the potential for thousands of unoccupied rooms once the tournament comes to a close, City A.M. reported.

The future of onboard pools

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Norwegian Star Pool and Slides
By Tom Stieghorst

As a kid, it was hard to keep me out of a pool, but now as an adult I’m less and less inclined to go for a swim.

I was thinking about this on a cruise aboard the Viking Star, the new ship from Viking Cruises, which has three pools. The main pool is midship; there is an infinity pool aft and a counter-current pool in the ship’s spa.

I can’t vouch for the third pool, but the other two did not get a lot of use that I could see. Several passengers I talked to agreed, and they had a variety of theories about why.

One was the cool April temperatures, in the 50s for the most part. The Mediterranean will heat up as summer arrives, and that alone might spur more use of the outdoor pools.

Another factor, one older woman confessed, is that she wasn’t too happy with her appearance in a bathing suit. A man said that the pools are overflow dining areas, and the presence of diners inhibited people from swimming.

The main pool on the Viking Star. Photo Credit: Tom Stieghorst
    The main pool on the Viking Star. Photo Credit: Tom Stieghorst

Unmentioned, but undoubtedly a factor, is that Viking does not encourage children as passengers. The 633 guests on my 10-day cruise between Istanbul and Venice were mainly in their 60s and 70s.

I have to think a ship operated by Carnival Cruise Line or Royal Caribbean International in the same timeframe and location would have more pool users based on demographics.

Which leads to the interesting decision by two cruise lines to get rid of swimming pools. Crystal Cruises planked over one of two pools on the Crystal Serenity in favor of a new dining area. And Windstar Cruises recently announced that it will remove the pool on the three ships it is acquiring from Seabourn, also for expanded restaurant space.

No one uses the pool, Windstar CEO Hans Birkholz said bluntly, in announcing the change at Cruise Shipping Miami in March.

It is tempting to think there will always be a pool on cruise ships. Windstar is adding a counter-current pool for exercise even as it eliminates the more traditional pool area.

Viking, which has no pools on its river cruise ships, opted for two outdoor pools on the 930-passenger Viking Star. And on large, activity-jammed ships in the contemporary segment, pools are an integral part of their appeal.

But on smaller ships that cater to mainly to older guests, there’s already been some erosion of the pool’s primacy. It leads me to wonder how much further the trend might go.

MSC Cruises – MSC Meraviglia the start of construction

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Thanks to; Cruise practice

Since 2004, the capacity is MSC fleet grew by additions of ships by 800 percent. In 2014, 1.67 million passengers traveled on MSC ships. Until 2022, the company expects to achieve a doubling of passenger capacity with the use of 7 new ships. Growth is expected to be transported mainly by two new generations of ships, namely by ships of the Vista-class and the Seaside generation . A total of 5.1 billion euros will be invested.

msc meraviglia pool deck

MSC Meraviglia pool deck – Photo: MSC

On April 20, 2015 then served in the STX France shipyard in Saint-Nazaire, the first steel-section for the MSC Meraviglia, the first ship of Vista-class made. “Meraviglia” in Italian means as much as “miracle”.The “miracle” is to be measured with 167,600 gross tons and have 5,700 guests. The MSC Meraviglia is traveled routes in the western Mediterranean in their first summer. As the central entry and exit ports of Genoa, Marseille and Barcelona are provided.

Regarding the size of the new Royal Caribbeans has just asked in service Anthem of the Seas to compare.The 163 000 tonnes measured Norwegian escape , she takes in October 2015, the service on, ranked in a similar order of magnitude. Both ships created / caused by MEYER shipyard in Papenburg / Ems. These ships offer a wealth of technical finesse. Nevertheless, it is MSC Crociere checked if the company full-bodied speaks of the largest and most innovative cruise ship that has ever been built by a European shipping company.

STX France takes to rebuild that since March 2014, more than 400 employees of various teams have been working to define the characteristics of the ship. The MSC Meraviglia should be one of the greenest, safest and most technologically advanced ships in the industry. Stresses the shipping company that ships Vista-class thanks to its extremely flexible to easily create in each cruise port in the world. Identification of the vessel will be a three-deck-reaching, covered promenade.

In May 2017, the ship should be adopted. The second ship of this class is 2019 operation. Two other ships of the class could Bauorder to join until 2022. In the implementation is still a second new generation of cruise ships, the Seaside class. Such vessels shall be 154,000 gross tons and 323 meters in length slightly smaller than the Vista-class ships. They should go in November 2017 and in May 2018 service.