Entitled “Best of the Red Sea,” the sold-out maiden cruise departed from the Jordanian city of Aqaba and also included visits to ports in Egypt and Israel.
With over 100 guests travelling on the ship’s 50 suites, the eight-day itinerary sailed to the resort towns of Hurghada, Sharm el-Sheikh, and Eilat before returning to Aqaba for an included guided tour of UNESCO World Heritage-listed Petra.
During the summer, the 10,000-ton vessel offered a series of itineraries in the Adriatic and the Eastern Mediterranean visiting destinations in Greece, Croatia, Italy, Cyprus and more.
Later this year, the vessel is set to debut in the Caribbean, offering eight- to 19-day cruises to varied ports in the region, including Puerto Rico, Panama, Saint Vincent and Martinique.
According to Emerald Cruises, the vessel offers modern suites and staterooms, 88 per cent of which have balconies.
The yacht also features a large infinity pool, a spa with an infrared sauna and a gym. Designed for cruising in warm waters, the Azzurra is also equipped with a retractable marina platform, that offers SEABOBs, paddleboards, snorkelling equipment and a water trampoline.
A fleet of electronic bikes from Gocycle is also available onboard and can be used “for local village trips and active explorations,” Emerald said.
The vessel is set to be followed by a sister ship in 2023 as the Emerald Sakara debuts in the Mediterranean in August.
Luxury cruise brand Cunard has unveiled over 150 new international voyages, sailing on its three ships between Apr. 23 and Dec. 15, 2023.
According to a press release, Queen Elizabeth, Queen Mary 2 and Queen Victoria, will call at 120 ports in 35 countries, with 23 late evening departures and 15 overnight stays with voyages between two nights and 37 nights in duration. The Queen Mary 2 will sail a program of 18 Transatlantic Crossings, with departures from both Southampton and New York.
Some of the highlights are a Mediterranean fly-cruise season from Barcelona, a series of 10-night roundtrips in Alaska, an Independence Day sailing calling in Boston, a 16-night Baltics voyage with an overnight call in St Petersburg and a 14-night Canada and New England voyage offering three full days in Quebec.
“We’re thrilled to launch such an exciting programme of new itineraries, giving the opportunity to those new to Cunard – or new to cruising in general – the chance to visit the places they’ve always dreamed of, escape, unwind and feel special,” said Carnival UK President, Sture Myrmell. “From famous city destinations to breathtaking natural wonders, the Cunard 2023 New Voyages offer the perfect way to rediscover the joy of exploration while enjoying our signature White Star Service and all the other special touches that set a Cunard cruise apart from the rest.”
Key itineraries of The World Awaits 2023 program include:
The Canary Islands: The volcanic terrain of Tenerife’s Teide National Park and Sintra’s Moorish palaces (tours from Lisbon) are the UNESCO World Heritage sites that will be visited on this 12-night voyage of Spain and Portugal. Queen Victoria departs Southampton on Apr. 27, 2023. Inside staterooms start from 1,299 British pounds per person.
North Cape Discovery: North Cape Discovery presents “a land of forest and water, where ancient wooden houses decorate the streets, waterfalls spill from verdant gullies, and soaring mountains reflect in mirror-like fjords,” according to the press release. Queen Victoria departs Southampton on June 6, 2023. Inside staterooms start from 1,699 British pounds per person.
Transatlantic Crossing, New England and Canada: This roundtrip itinerary from/to Southampton will take guests to New York via Transatlantic Crossing, before embarking on an exploration of New England and Canada that includes three days in Quebec. The Queen Mary 2 departs Southampton on Sept. 22, 2023. Inside staterooms start from 3,299 British pounds per person.
Mediterranean Highlights: Pisa’s UNESCO World Heritage-listed leaning tower, the Sistine Chapel in Rome, and Gaudi’s architectural legacy, the Sagrada Familia, are all part of this 14-night voyage sailing from Southampton. The Queen Mary 2 departs Southampton on June 9, 2023. Inside staterooms start from 1,999 British pounds per person.
Alaska: Guests will see the colourful totem poles in Ketchikan and Alaska’s tall glaciers and icy fjords, as well as looking for humpback whales. Queen Elizabeth departs Vancouver on June 8, 2023. Inside staterooms start from 1,499 British pounds per person.
Western Mediterranean: This seven-night Mediterranean voyage from Barcelona features the French Riviera, Pisa’s UNESCO-listed leaning tower and Ibiza’s old town, Dalt Vila. Queen Elizabeth departs Barcelona on Sept. 25, 2023. Inside staterooms start from 899 British pounds per person.
The World Awaits 2023 New Voyages are available to book for past guests on Feb. 1 and are on general sale from Feb. 2, 2022.
Last year, Dubrovnik received 742,000 passengers on 538 ships.FORT LAUDERDALE — Carnival Corp. CEO Arnold Donald said a new agreement in Dubrovnik, Croatia, illustrates how fears about crowding in favourite tourist areas can be managed by the cruise industry.
Speaking as part of a CEO panel at the Seatrade Cruise Global convention here, Donald took the occasion to disclose that major cruise lines have agreed to coordinate their schedules this summer in Dubrovnik.
That could mean some ships arrive later or depart earlier to keep their time in port from coinciding, or it could mean moving some ships to arrive during the week rather than on weekends.
The walled Old City of Dubrovnik was named a Unesco World Heritage site in 1979, but Donald said its mayor requested a meeting with cruise officials because it had been threatened with delisting by Unesco.
Donald and other cruise officials met several times with mayor Mato Frankovic, most recently in January when an agreement was apparently reached.
“In the end, our guests don’t want to go to a place that’s overcrowded,” Donald said. “If the sites that everybody wants to see are being abused, our guests won’t go. It’s in our self-interest, but it’s also in the interest of the places we go.”
Last year, Dubrovnik received 742,000 passengers on 538 ships. The city recorded about 3.4 million overnight stays, with many visitors drawn by Dubrovnik’s status as a filming location for the HBO series “Game of Thrones.”
Donald said cruise lines need to “listen with empathy for the issue of what some would call over tourism, not necessarily driven by cruise companies but by the fact that we’re a very visible symbol for it; our ships are large, and so forth. We have to listen with empathy to the ports that are out there and make sure we work with them to get the proper infrastructure.”
Dubrovnik’s over tourism concerns are shared by several other destinations in the Mediterranean, including Barcelona, Venice and the Greek island of Santorini.
Travel journalist Peter Greenberg, who moderated the CEO panel, said the World Travel and Tourism Council in a recent study listed “destination degradation” as one of three critical issues facing the travel industry.
Others on the panel took issue with the label “over tourism.”
“I think it’s a misnomer,” said Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. chairman Richard Fain. “What we’re really talking about is sustainable tourism.”
Fain cited Royal Caribbean’s development of Falmouth in Jamaica to offer an alternative to Montego Bay and Ocho Rios, as another successful response to crowding concerns.
After Falmouth opened in 2011, the number of cruise visitors actually rose, but they were more spread out.
“There were more people but less density,” Fain said.
“The opportunity, really, is to work together in these communities,” Fain said. “We work with them, and we find solutions that are to both of our benefits. And those we work with are very happy. You see that over and over again. Those who just want to make headlines, that’s a different story.”
The Celebrity Reflection in Dubrovnik.
Greenberg said that two cities where over tourism has been a hot-potato issue — Venice and Barcelona — are in the backyard of MSC Cruises, which has its headquarters in Geneva and its operations in Naples, Italy.
MSC executive chairman Pierfrancesco Vago said some perspective was in order.
“When you’re talking about Venice’s 30 million visitors a year, the cruise industry is 1 million of that,” Vago said.
He added that unlike the general tourism population, which ebbs and flows individually, cruise tourists come in groups that can be managed.
“We can actually coordinate,” Vago said. “We can actually ensure that there will never be an overflow, and we can control embarkation and disembarkation.”
A 2015 Unesco report recommended that the number of cruise passengers at Dubrovnik should not exceed 8,000 a day, arguing that when more than 8,000 visitors are inside the walls of the old city “tourist blight” becomes inevitable.
Research from the Port of Dubrovnik found that in 2016, arrivals exceeded 8,000 on 18 out of 243 total cruise days and that arrivals exceeded 10,000 on four days that year.
MSC has been looking for new destinations in the Adriatic to supplement hot spots like Dubrovnik. Last year, for example, MSC began calling at the port of Sarande, in southern Albania.
“Nobody knew that in Sarande, there were 10 different Unesco sites,” MSC CEO Gianni Onorato said in a recent interview. “This is the opportunity the cruise industry can give because there are options. That’s the only way to solve this problem.”
Wetravel2u's Weblog 