Cruise Hive has you coated with all the foremost cruise information from the previous week as extra cruise ease necessities for passengers, leading to excessive bookings for Carnival, spectacular numbers from one of many busiest cruise homeports within the US, and developments on new ships from Norwegian Cruise Line and Royal Caribbean.
Cruise Information Replace
A mix of cruise information previously week, and relying on the cruise line, it may very well be good or unhealthy. On this week’s round-up, we’ve received additional cruises canceled for the second Prima-class cruise ship, which means the ship’s debut might be delayed once more, extra cruise traces are easing their necessities, however Disney, not as a lot as others.
There are additionally some spectacular numbers coming from a serious US homeport, bookings skyrocket for Carnival Cruise Line, and Royal Caribbean takes us behind the scenes in constructing the brand new Icon of the Seas cruise ship.
Extra Norwegian Viva Sailings Canceled
Norwegian Cruise Line has begun notifying booked friends that its upcoming ship, Norwegian Viva, will not have the ability to make her preliminary sailings as deliberate in July and August, 2023, as a consequence of world provide chain constraints impacting industries worldwide, together with the maritime business.
Due to this, cruises from July 3 by August 17 are actually canceled. Whereas Norwegian Viva was floated out on the Fincantieri shipyard in Italy as deliberate on August 2, 2022, this solely signifies her exterior development is full.
The inner development and outfitting of the ship will take months to finish, and with additional provide chain delays, the ship will be unable to affix the Norwegian Cruise Line fleet on time.
That is the second delay for the second Prima-class ship. Norwegian Viva was beforehand scheduled to debut in mid-June, 2023, however her preliminary sailings had been canceled earlier this summer time.
International provide chain constraints had been additionally cited as a part of the rationale for that preliminary delay, which canceled two sailings for the vessel. Now, six further sailings have been canceled, bringing the overall of canceled cruises to eight.
With the cancelation of those further sailings, Norwegian Viva‘s new inaugural voyage is deliberate to set sail on August 26, 2023. The brand new ship will spend a number of weeks crusing quite a lot of Mediterranean itineraries earlier than repositioning to San Juan, Puerto Rico, in December 2023 for the winter season within the Caribbean. Norwegian Viva will return to the Mediterranean in spring 2024.
Carnival Cruise Line Bookings Virtually Double
Carnival Cruise Line introduced on Friday, August 12, 2022, that its pre-cruise testing necessities could be simplified, dropping the mandate completely for vaccinated passengers on cruises of 15 nights or much less, relying on the vacation spot. The up to date protocols will go into impact on September 6, 2022
On Monday, August 15 – the primary full enterprise reserving day after the announcement – the cruise line noticed large constructive response to the change. Monday’s bookings had been practically double the extent for the equal day in 2019, effectively earlier than the pandemic started.
Mid-summer reserving exercise is traditionally a sluggish interval, as households have already deliberate their annual holidays throughout schools-out durations, and are usually not but planning for future journey. Nevertheless, Carnival did say that friends are responding very favorably to the up to date protocols, regardless of Mid-August usually being sluggish for bookings.
Company have many superb choices to come back for Carnival cruises nonetheless in 2022, with Carnival Luminosa scheduled to affix the fleet in November, adopted rapidly by the debut of the cruise line’s second Excel-class ship, Carnival Celebration, which is able to set sail on her maiden voyage from Miami on November 21.
Holland America Drops Necessities
Following related strikes final week by sister cruise traces Cunard Line, P&O Cruises, Carnival Cruise Line, and Princess Cruises, Holland America Line has introduced a rest of its pre-cruise well being and security protocols. The cruise line is dropping pre-cruise testing for vaccinated passengers on a majority of sailings and permitting unvaccinated to sail so long as they meet any testing necessities.
As of September 6, 2022, vaccinated friends will not have to current a destructive pre-cruise check with a view to set sail. The brand new tips, whereas not fairly common, do make cruising a lot easier for many friends.
Whereas that is welcome information certainly for test-weary vacationers and people eagerly awaiting a larger return to normalcy in cruising, there are nonetheless itineraries that require pre-cruise testing.
For the time being, all cruises that go to Australia, Canada, and Greece should nonetheless have passengers check earlier than setting sail. In an abundance of warning, Holland America Line can be nonetheless requiring pre-cruise exams for all passengers on sailings of 16 nights or longer.
In one other replace to the protocols, friends who’re unable to be vaccinated might as soon as once more cruise with Holland America Line on sailings shorter than 16 nights.
Previous to this replace, all friends age 12 and older had been required to be totally vaccinated not less than 14 days earlier than crusing.
Unvaccinated friends, nevertheless, will nonetheless have to current a destructive antigen or PCR check outcome earlier than embarkation. Checks could also be taken as much as 72 hours earlier than crusing.
Spectacular Port Canaveral Numbers
July 2022 will go into the books as one of many busiest months within the historical past of Port Canaveral. With ships working at greater than 100% occupancy charges, the numbers are far above what the port projected to see for the fiscal yr.
Final yr, the Port Authority anticipated to function at round 50% occupancy for the primary three months of 2022, concluding at roughly 75% for the remainder of the yr. With the fiscal yr ending on September 30, Port Canaveral expects 25% extra cruise passengers to go by than final yr’s price range.
Up to now, within the final ten months, Port Canaveral has dealt with 674 calls from cruise ships with greater than 3.2 million multiday passengers. Within the earlier six weeks, greater than 100,000 friends sailed from the port every week, with greater than 120,000 over the past week of July.
With 112 extra homeport calls throughout 2023 than throughout 2022 and 99 calls from ships visiting the port on one-day visits, Port Canaveral might be busier than ever subsequent yr, totaling 909 multiday calls.
Carnival Cruise Line and Royal Caribbean might be utilizing Port Canaveral extensively subsequent yr, each scheduling three ships completely and one seasonally. For Royal Caribbean, this consists of the world’s largest cruise ship, Surprise of the Seas.
Disney Updates Protocols
Following related bulletins in current days by different cruise traces, Disney Cruise Line has up to date its pre-cruise testing and vaccination protocols starting September 2, 2022. This consists of new age-based vaccination tips, in addition to exceptions for embarkation day testing for vaccinated friends.
Whereas Disney Cruise Line’s present protocols require that every one friends age 5 and older be totally vaccinated earlier than crusing, that age requirement might be modified for cruises departing September 2 and later. At the moment, solely friends age 12 and older have to be totally vaccinated with a view to sail.
The cruise line does state, nevertheless, that it extremely recommends that Company ages 11 and youthful be totally vaccinated earlier than crusing. If totally vaccinated, friends might take a pre-cruise check 1-2 days previous to crusing on any Disney ship from a US or Canadian homeport.
Company who are usually not vaccinated or who’re unable to current applicable vaccination data previous to embarkation day should take a NAAT or PCR check 1-3 days previous to embarkation.
Icon of the Seas Development
Following a teaser trailer launched earlier this month, Royal Caribbean Worldwide has now launched the primary full episode of the “Making an Icon” video sequence.
At slightly below eight minutes lengthy, the brief video continues to be full of behind-the-scenes views and tantalizing insights concerning the upcoming vessel.
The primary episode, titled “Envisioning an Iconic Trip” explores the very early days of the brand new ship’s conception, the brainstorm and ideation that’s now being dropped at life on the Meyer Turku shipyard in Finland.
Transient quotes and descriptive phrases from naval architects and inside designers to industrial engineers, meals and beverage administrators, artists, executives, and extra add to the well-deserved hype surrounding the brand new ship.
Video clips present totally different steps within the ship’s preliminary development, together with the metal reducing ceremony on June 16, 2021 in addition to earlier design brainstorming periods and group conferences because the ship was being developed and glimpses all through the development course of, equivalent to bringing the mysterious sphere aboard the ship.
This primary episode ends with a teaser that the following episode will function insider seems at design and development, with tight timelines to remain on monitor for the deliberate fall 2023 debut of Icon of the Seas.
Extra Cruise Headlines
These had been only a handful of the cruise information headlines from the previous week, we’ve received all the total protection, together with Princess Cruises introducing a new stateroom bidding program, Carnival Cruise Line releasing particulars on its 23-day voyage, misplaced baggage changing into a rising downside for cruise ship passengers, a new pier and terminal coming to the San Juan cruise port, new actions rolled out throughout MSC cruise ships based mostly within the US, big funding for Virgin Voyages, a rescue made by a Norwegian cruise ship within the Caribbean and many extra tales.
