Tag Archives: Mediterranean Deployment

Viking ocean liner to winter in Mediterranean

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Viking ocean liner to winter in Mediterranean

By Tom Stieghorst
Viking Cruises said its first ocean-cruising ship, Viking Star, will stay in the Mediterranean for the winter season of 2015-16.

Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri is constructing the ship, which is scheduled to enter service in May 2015. Viking had announced a limited number of maiden voyages, which are nearly sold out, according to the company.The winter cruises will be eight-day sailings between Barcelona and Rome, or 15-day roundtrip cruises from Barcelona.

Royal Caribbean ‘could base Oasis-class ship in Mediterranean’

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Royal Caribbean ‘could base Oasis-class ship in Mediterranean’

By Jane Archer

Royal Caribbean International has refused to rule out basing one of its mega Oasis-class ships in the Mediterranean when a third vessel launches in 2016.

The line’s president and chief executive officer Adam Goldstein refused to discuss plans for the new vessel, dubbed Oasis 3, but said the cruise line was ‘pleasantly surprised’ by the reaction to Oasis of the Seas’ micro-season in the Mediterranean next autumn.

Oasis, which holds 6,400 passengers when full, will be operating two five-night cruises from Barcelona and a seven-night voyage from the Spanish port to Rotterdam in September 2014. It will be the first time an Oasis-class ship has sailed in Europe.

Oasis returns to Port Everglades in Florida on a 13-night cruise from Rotterdam on October 14, also embarking passengers at Southampton on October 15.

Speaking today at a steel-cutting ceremony for Oasis 3 at the STX Europe shipyard in St Nazaire, France, Goldstein said bringing Oasis to Europe had been an ‘experiment’ but demand had been ‘quite promising’.

He added: “We always felt demand would be high but we needed to do it in real life to be sure. We are offering attractive itineraries so we already feel we have the ports we need for Oasis to operate in Europe.”

Because of its size, Oasis will fit into a limited number of ports. The five-night Mediterranean cruises will call at Civitavecchia (for Rome) and Naples, while the seven-night voyage to Rotterdam stops at Malaga and Vigo in Spain. Goldstein confirmed 2015-16 itineraries would be revealed in early 2014.

The keel for Oasis 3 will be laid at the end of April 2014, with delivery set for spring 2016. The 227,700-ton ship will hold 6,360 passengers when full.

Royal Caribbean Cruises chairman and chief executive officer Richard Fain refused to comment on planned features but said the new ship will be ‘fundamentally’ the same as Oasis and Allure of the Seas.

It will be the biggest cruise ship built at STX’s St Nazaire shipyard, where Queen Mary 2 was built a decade ago.

Carnival Sunshine was set back by vandalism, reveals CEO

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Carnival Sunshine was set back by vandalism, reveals CEO

By Tom Stieghorst
When the Carnival Sunshine was delivered after a two-month, $155 million drydock, a large group of cabins wasn’t fully ready for passengers.

On Saturday, Carnival Cruise Lines CEO Gerry Cahill revealed the reason why.

He said vandalism to the plumbing and electrical systems “very late in the process” of building new cabins for Sunshine left damage that had to be fixed.

“Because of that, they were not delivered to the crew until almost the day before passengers were sailing,” Cahill said. “We did not realize then there was all this damage done to the cabins. We were caught by surprise, quite frankly.”

Cahill disclosed the incident in a question-and-answer session for media on the Sunshine, which is doing a nine-day cruise in the Mediterranean.

He would not talk about who was responsible for the damage. When it was suggested that only construction contractors would have had access to the ship, Cahill responded, “Right,” but declined to elaborate.

The work on the Sunshine was done at the Fincantieri shipyard near Venice, where about 3,000 workers transformed the former Carnival Destiny into a substantially different ship. But a group of cabins in the forward section of decks 9 through 12 near the spa area weren’t ready.

It took several cruises before all the workmen were off the ship, and Carnival had to displace passengers to make room for those contractors.

The WaterWorks area with water slides and other aquatic features also was unfinished, an issue Cahill attributed to heavy rains, which made it hard for the deck coatings beneath the slides to cure.