Cruise News Wrap-up: November 14, 2008

The big news this week is the christening ceremony for the brand new Celebrity Solstice in Ft Lauderdale. This is the first of a whole new class of ships not only for Celebrity, but also the first for any major cruise line in several years. The ship is 122,000-tons displacement and holds 2850 passenger berths. On average, the staterooms are 20% larger than on previous Celebrity ships.

Solstice will sail a series of short “get acquainted” cruises with media, cruise agents and other people of interest until its first scheduled 7-day revenue cruise on November 23. The ship will then sail on a series of seven-night Eastern Caribbean cruises roundtrip from Fort Lauderdale. In spring 2009, the ship will offer a series of 10- and 11-night Mediterranean sailings roundtrip from Rome.

Celebrity plans to introduce four Solstice-class ship between now and 2012.

Earlier this week, Saturday 11-8, Ruby Princess was officially “named” in a champagne bottle shattering ceremony also in Fort Lauderdale. Presiding over that celebration were Ryan and Trista of the “Bachelorette” reality television series. Fittingly, Gavin McLeod, the actor who played the Love Boat’s Merrill Stubbing, was also in the ceremony.

The 3080-passenger Princess mega-ship comes in at 113,000-tons. During her inaugural season she will make seven-day weekly sailings from Fort Lauderdale to the Western Caribbean. Calls include Ocho Rios, Jamaica; Grand Cayman; Cozumel and Princess Cays in the Bahamas. Next spring the ship will move to Europe for 12-day sailings in the Mediterranean and Greek Islands.

As a point of interest - British ships are “named” as opposed to being “christened” — although the ceremony of breaking a champagne bottle on the bow, and saying the same traditional words, “We name this ship ____, God bless her and all who sail upon her” remains the same. The reason is the original Church of England wanted to draw a distinction between their ceremony and the one once performed by the Catholic Church.

The grand ocean liner, Queen Elizabeth 2, or QE2 for short, is now on her final voyage ever. She is en route to Dubai where she will be permanently moored and operated as a hotel in the growing Middle Eastern tourist destination.

Cunard Lines sold the ship to the Emirate for $500 million, considerably more than they got for the original Queen Mary, which is now a hotel in Long Beach, California. QE2 made her final call to her British homeport, Southampton, on Sunday, October 12. While she was there the Duke of Edinburgh, husband of the living Queen, inspected her and visited with the crew.

Yet another equally significant passenger vessel left service in the last week - the Delta Queen Steamboat. Steamboats opened up America by plying the nation’s rivers. Before railroads, paddlewheel steamboats were the number one method of commerce in America. Sadly, there was barely a media blip as the last one disappears - possibly forever (stay tuned).Other Cruise News

NCL announced that one of their older ships, Norwegian Spirit, will receive a multi-million dollar makeover. NCL also announced they are ending the fuel supplement charges they have imposed on cruise buyers for the last year. Certain conditions must occur before existing customers get a rebate in the form of an onboard credit on any surcharges already paid. The price of oil must remain below a certain point for several weeks in a row. As with Carnival and Royal Caribbean, don’t worry about trying to figure out if you will qualify, they will let you know.

Final note: we are currently seeing unprecedented cruise bargains due to economic conditions. We see 7-day Caribbean cruises as low as $279 per person, and Mexico cruises for under $400/week. The key is to look for “close-in” cruises - those that sail within the next two to three months.

CruiseMates Cruise news.

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