Cruise & Maritime Voyages expands fleet

Posted on 4 November, 2014 by Spacejunkie2

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.

Disney to cruise Norwegian fjords

Posted on 26 March, 2014 by Spacejunkie2

By Jerry Limone

Disney Cruise Line will for the first time sail the Norwegian fjords on three cruises departing Copenhagen, Denmark, in June 2015.

A seven-day cruise on the Disney Magic visits Stavanger, Alesund, Geiranger and Bergen, Norway. A nine-day cruise calls at the same Norwegian ports, plus Molde and Olden.

An 11-day cruise includes calls in Kristiansand and Stavanger, Norway; Akureyri and Reykjavik, Iceland; and Torshavn, Faroe Islands. The cruise ends in Dover, England. The Reykjavik call is an overnight visit.

In addition to the Norwegian fjords itineraries, Disney is returning to the Baltic for all-new itineraries, including sailings from Copenhagen to St. Petersburg, Russia.

Cruises to the Mediterranean, Alaska, Caribbean and Bahamas also are also in Disney’s summer lineup.

Bookings open to the public on March 27.

Hurtigruten touts five-day sale as year’s best

Posted on 4 February, 2014 by Spacejunkie2

By Tom Stieghorst

Hurtigruten, the specialist in Norwegian coastal cruises, is holding a five-day sale with fares on 2014 voyages discounted by up to one-third.

The sale, from Feb. 4-8, will provide the best prices of the year, Hurtigruten said.

In an email to agents, Hurtigruten said best bets for potential passengers on its cruises are past Alaska clients, past European river cruisers and small-ship fans.

Norwegian coastal cruises stop at 34 ports and are available in six-, seven-, 11- and 12-day lengths. Hurtigruten said an example of the savings is a peak season six-day cruise in August that starts at $1,595 per person this week, compared with the standard rate of $2,381.

In addition to cruising along the coast and fjords of Norway, Hurtigruten offers “explorer” cruises to Greenland, Iceland, Antarctica and Spitsbergen.