Tag Archives: Port Everglades

Pearl Mist sailing marks Port Everglades’ return to Cuba cruising

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Pearl Seas Cruises’ Pearl Mist left Port Everglades on Jan. 17 bound for Cuba, the first ship in recent memory to depart on that itinerary from the Fort Lauderdale port.

“It’s a big deal for us,” port spokeswoman Ellen Kennedy said.

The 10-day voyage will touch seven ports in Cuba, and spend two days in Havana, making it the most destination-intensive Florida-Cuba cruise.

Pearl Seas plans 11 more such voyages before wrapping up its Cuba season in April.

Previously, only one other ship has sailed from Florida to Cuba, Fathom’s Adonia. It departs from Miami.

Later this spring, several other brands are scheduled to make inaugural trips to Cuba from Miami, including Azamara Club Cruises, Norwegian Cruise Line, Oceania Cruises, Regent Seven Seas Cruises and Royal Caribbean International.

Port Everglades enables mobile customs declaration

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Passengers disembarking from cruise ships at Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale will be able to use an app on their smartphones to fill out re-entry forms for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

Airports, including those in Miami and Fort Lauderdale, already have this feature but Port Everglades will be the only U.S. cruise port to offer it, port director Steve Cernak said.

“An added bonus is that [the system] will be in service in time for the arrivals of Royal Caribbean International’s Harmony of the Seas and Holland America Line’s Koningsdam,” Cernak said.

Port Everglades plans to go live with the service on Nov. 4.

The app is currently available for Apple phones and is expected to be available for Android phones later this month.

Developed by Airside Mobile and Airports Council International-North America in partnership with the CBP, the app allows U.S. citizens with a passport debarking a cruise ship to complete their customs declaration using their smartphones or other mobile devices, expediting their clearance process in the terminal.

A physical passport or passport card is still required for re-entry.

The Fort Lauderdale port also recently completed pilot testing of the Automated Passport Control (APC) kiosks in two of its cruise terminals, another CBP initiative to streamline the traveler-screening process.

In an intricate spectacle, Harmony of the Seas christened

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From left, Harmony of the Seas captain Gus Andersson, Royal Caribbean International CEO Michael Bayley and ship godmother Brittany Affolter.

FORT LAUDERDALE — Royal Caribbean International turned the Harmony of the Seas naming ceremony into a technology demonstration, using its robotic bartenders as part of the process.

The ship was christened at Port Everglades by Brittany Affolter, a 23-year-old Teach for America educator in Miami who won a contest for teachers that drew over 1,000 nominees.

Far from a typical christening, Royal Caribbean cooked up a Rube Goldberg-style procedure that started with Affolter and Royal Caribbean chairman Richard Fain on stage in the ship’s open-air Aqua Theater.

An aerialist descended from above on guide wires with a button to activate the process. When Affolter pressed the button, it sent a signal to the robot, which did a spin and punched a second button, which then released a bottle of champagne rigged to the ship’s zipline.

A 3-foot bottle of champagne smashes into the Harmony of the Seas.
A 3-foot bottle of champagne smashes into the Harmony of the Seas. 

The bottle, a 3-foot tall sovereign custom-made for Royal Caribbean by Veuve Clicquot, then whizzed down the zipline course and crashed into a steel nameplate above the ship’s pool deck.

Back at the Aqua Theater, a blizzard of blue confetti was unleashed and singer Jon Secada, who once performed on Royal Caribbean ships, gave a concert.

Witnessing all of the festivities via a giant TV screen in the ship’s Studio B ice skating arena were 500 travel agents from Travel Weekly’s CruiseWorld conference, who were invited to participate in a launch viewing party onboard.

The Harmony entered service last May and spent its first few months sailing in Europe. It arrived in Fort Lauderdale earlier this month, and will sail seven-night Caribbean voyages from the port.