Cruise Hive has you covered with all the major cruise news from the past week, as more requests for cruise amenities for passengers resulted in high bookings for Carnival, impressive numbers from one of the busiest cruise ports in the US and new ship developments from Norway. Cruise Line and Royal Caribbean.
Cruise news update
A mixture of sailing news in the past week, and depending on the cruise line, it can be good or bad. In this week’s roundup, we’ve canceled more sailings for the second Prima-class cruise ship, meaning the ship’s debut will be delayed again, more cruise lines are relaxing their requests, but Disney, not so much than others.
There are also some impressive numbers coming from a major US homeport, bookings skyrocket for Carnival Cruise Line and Royal Caribbean takes us behind the scenes at the construction of the new Icon of the Seas cruise ship.
More Norwegian Viva cruises cancelled
Norwegian Cruise Line has begun notifying booked guests that its upcoming ship, Long live NorwegianWILL cannot make its initial voyages as planned in July and August 2023, due to global supply chain constraints affecting industries worldwide, including the maritime industry.
Due to this, sailings from 3 July to 17 August have now been cancelled. until Long live Norwegian was launched at the Fincantieri shipyard in Italy as planned on August 2, 2022, this only indicates that her exterior construction has been completed.
The ship’s interior construction and outfitting will take months to complete, and with further supply chain delays, the ship will not be able to join Norwegian Cruise Line’s fleet in time.
This is the second delay for the second Prima class ship. Long live Norwegian was previously scheduled to debut in mid-June 2023, but her maiden voyages were canceled earlier this summer.
Global supply chain constraints were also cited as part of the reason for that initial delay, which canceled two sailings for the ship. Now, six additional cruises have been canceled, bringing the total number of canceled cruises to eight.
With the cancellation of these additional sailings, Long live NorwegianIts new inaugural voyage is scheduled to set sail on August 26, 2023. The new ship will spend several weeks sailing a series of Mediterranean itineraries before repositioning in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in December 2023 for the Caribbean winter season. Long live Norwegian will return to the Mediterranean in spring 2024.
Carnival cruise line bookings almost double
Carnival Cruise Line announced on Friday, August 12, 2022, that it is pre-sailing test requirements will be simplified, completely removing the mandate for vaccinated passengers on cruises of 15 nights or less, depending on the destination. The updated protocols will enter into force on September 6, 2022
On Monday, August 15 – the first full day of booking business after the announcement – the cruise line saw an overwhelmingly positive response to the change. on Monday bookings were almost double the level for the equivalent day of 2019, well before the start of the pandemic.
Mid-summer booking activity is historically a slow period, as families have already booked their annual vacations during school terms and are not yet planning for future trips. However, Carnival said guests are responding very well to the updated protocols, despite mid-August typically being slow for bookings.
Guests have many amazing opportunities to come for Carnival cruises still in 2022, with Bright carnival scheduled to join the fleet in November, quickly followed by the debut of the cruise line’s second Excel-class ship, Carnival celebrationwhich will sail on its maiden voyage from Miami on November 21.
Netherlands America removes requirements
Following similar moves last week by sister cruise lines Cunard Line, P&O Cruises, Carnival Cruise Line and Princess Cruises, Holland America Line has announced a relaxation of its pre-cruise health and safety protocols. The cruise line is waiving pre-cruise testing for vaccinated passengers on most cruises and allowing the unvaccinated to sail as long as they meet any testing requirements.
As of September 6, 2022, vaccinated guests will no longer need to present a negative pre-cruise test to embark on the cruise. The new directions, while not very universal, make navigation much less complicated for most guests.
While this is indeed welcome news for test-weary travelers and those looking forward to a greater return to normalcy in sailing, there are still itineraries that require pre-sailing testing.
At the moment, all cruises visiting Australia, Canada and Greece must still have passengers screened before sailing. Out of an abundance of caution, Holland America Line is also requiring pre-sailing tests for all passengers on cruises of 16 nights or longer.
In another update to protocols, guests who are unable to be vaccinated can again sail with Holland America Line on cruises shorter than 16 nights.
Prior to this update, all guests age 12 and older were required to be fully vaccinated at least 14 days prior to sailing.
Unvaccinated guests, however, will need to present a negative antigen or PCR test result before boarding the ship. Tests can be performed up to 72 hours before sailing.
Port Canaveral’s impressive numbers
July 2022 will go down in the books as one of the busiest months in Port Canaveral’s history. With ships operating at more than 100% occupancy rates, the numbers are much higher than the port anticipated seeing for the fiscal year.
Last year, the Port Authority projected operating at about 50% frequency for the first three months of 2022, ending at about 75% for the rest of the year. With the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, Port Canaveral expects to carry 25% more cruise passengers than last year’s budget.
So far, in the last ten months, Port Canaveral handled 674 calls from cruise ships with more than 3.2 million multi-day passengers. In the previous six weeks, more than 100,000 guests sailed from the port each week, with more than 120,000 during the last week of July.
With 112 more homeport calls in 2023 than in 2022 and 99 calls from ships making day visits, Port Canaveral will be busier than ever next year, totaling 909 multi-day calls.
Carnival Cruise Line and Royal Caribbean will make extensive use of Port Canaveral next year, both planning three permanent and one seasonal ships. For Royal Caribbean, this includes the world’s largest cruise ship, The miracle of the seas.
Disney update protocols
Following similar announcements in recent days from other cruise lines, Disney Cruise Line has updated its pre-cruise testing and vaccination protocols starting September 2, 2022. This includes new age-specific vaccination guidelines, as well as exemptions for day-of-boarding testing for vaccinated guests.
While Disney Cruise Line’s current protocols require all guests age 5 and older to be fully vaccinated before sailing, this age requirement will be changed for cruises departing September 2nd and later. At that time, only guests aged 12 and over must be fully vaccinated to sail.
However, the cruise line says it highly recommends that visitors age 11 and older be fully vaccinated before sailing. If fully vaccinated, guests can take a pre-cruise test 1-2 days before sailing on any Disney ship from a US or Canadian home port.
Guests who have not been vaccinated or who are unable to submit the correct vaccination records prior to the day of departure must take a NAAT or PCR test 1-3 days prior to departure.
Building the seas icon
Following a trailer released earlier this month, Royal Caribbean International has now the first full episode is released of the Making an Icon video series.
At just under eight minutes long, the short video is still packed with behind-the-scenes footage and amazing insights about the upcoming ship.
The first episode, titled “Imagining an Iconic Vacation” explores the early days of the new ship’s conception, the brainstorming and the ideas now being brought to life at the Meyer Turku shipyard in Finland.
Short quotes and descriptive phrases from naval architects and interior designers to industrial engineers, food and beverage directors, artists, executives and more add to the well-deserved buzz surrounding the new ship.
The video clips show various steps in the ship’s initial construction, including the steel-cutting ceremony on June 16, 2021, as well as previous brainstorming sessions and team meetings as the ship was being developed and look throughout the construction process, as p .sh. bringing the mysterious sphere aboard the ship.
This first episode ends with a tease that the next episode will feature inside looks at the design and construction, with tight timelines to stay on track for a planned fall 2023 debut Icon of the seas.
More Cruise Titles
These were just a handful of the cruise news headlines from last week, we’ve got all the full coverage, including Princess Cruises introducing a new tender program in the new roomCarnival Cruise Line launch details on her 23-day journeylost luggage becoming a growing problem for cruise ship passengers, a new wharf and terminal coming to San Juan cruise port, new activities appeared across US-based MSC cruise ships, large funding for Virgin Voyagesor Rescue made by a Norwegian cruise ship in the Caribbean and many other stories.
