Cruise Hive has you coated with all the most important 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 combination of cruise news in the past week, and relying on the cruise line, it could possibly be good or unhealthy. On this week’s round-up, we’ve bought additional cruises canceled for the second Prima-class cruise ship, which means the ship’s debut can 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 significant 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 be able to make her initial sailings as deliberate in July and August, 2023, attributable to international provide chain constraints impacting industries worldwide, together with the maritime trade.
Due to this, cruises from July 3 by means of August 17 at the moment are canceled. Whereas Norwegian Viva was floated out on the Fincantieri shipyard in Italy as deliberate on August 2, 2022, this solely signifies her exterior building is full.
The interior building and outfitting of the ship will take months to finish, and with additional provide chain delays, the ship won’t be able to hitch 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 have been canceled earlier this summer time.
World provide chain constraints have been additionally cited as a part of the explanation for that preliminary delay, which canceled two sailings for the vessel. Now, six extra sailings have been canceled, bringing the full of canceled cruises to eight.
With the cancelation of those extra 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 a wide range 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 Nearly Double
Carnival Cruise Line introduced on Friday, August 12, 2022, that its pre-cruise testing requirements would 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 great constructive response to the change. Monday’s bookings were nearly double the level for the equal day in 2019, properly 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 should 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 wonderful choices to come back for Carnival cruises nonetheless in 2022, with Carnival Luminosa scheduled to hitch the fleet in November, adopted shortly 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 announced a leisure 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 now not have to current a damaging pre-cruise check in an effort 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 better 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 also be nonetheless requiring pre-cruise checks 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 have been required to be absolutely vaccinated a minimum of 14 days earlier than crusing.
Unvaccinated friends, nevertheless, will nonetheless have to current a damaging antigen or PCR check outcome earlier than embarkation. Exams 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 means of than final yr’s finances.
Up to now, within the final ten months, Port Canaveral has handled 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 last 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 can be busier than ever subsequent yr, totaling 909 multiday calls.
Carnival Cruise Line and Royal Caribbean can be utilizing Port Canaveral extensively subsequent yr, each scheduling three ships completely and one seasonally. For Royal Caribbean, this contains the world’s largest cruise ship, Marvel of the Seas.
Disney Updates Protocols
Following related bulletins in current days by different cruise traces, Disney Cruise Line has updated its pre-cruise testing and vaccination protocols starting September 2, 2022. This contains 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 each one friends age 5 and older be absolutely vaccinated earlier than crusing, that age requirement can be modified for cruises departing September 2 and later. At the moment, solely friends age 12 and older should be absolutely vaccinated in an effort to sail.
The cruise line does state, nevertheless, that it extremely recommends that Company ages 11 and youthful be absolutely vaccinated earlier than crusing. If absolutely 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 should 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 released the first full episode of the “Making an Icon” video sequence.
At slightly below eight minutes lengthy, the brief video remains to be full of behind-the-scenes views and tantalizing insights in regards to 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 delivered to life on the Meyer Turku shipyard in Finland.
Temporary 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 completely different steps within the ship’s preliminary building, together with the metal slicing ceremony on June 16, 2021 in addition to earlier design brainstorming classes and staff conferences because the ship was being developed and glimpses all through the development course of, reminiscent of bringing the mysterious sphere aboard the ship.
This primary episode ends with a teaser that the subsequent episode will characteristic insider seems to be at design and building, with tight timelines to remain on monitor for the deliberate fall 2023 debut of Icon of the Seas.
Extra Cruise Headlines
These have been only a handful of the cruise information headlines from the previous week, we’ve bought all the complete protection, together with Princess Cruises introducing a new stateroom bidding program, Carnival Cruise Line releasing details on its 23-day voyage, misplaced baggage becoming a growing problem for cruise ship passengers, a new pier and terminal coming to the San Juan cruise port, new activities rolled out throughout MSC cruise ships primarily based within the US, enormous funding for Virgin Voyages, a rescue made by a Norwegian cruise ship within the Caribbean and lots extra tales.
