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Quantum of the Seas Floats Out in Big Test

8/18/2014

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Royal Caribbean's Quantum of the Seas was successfully floated out last week at the Meyer Werft shipyard in Papenburg, Germany.
By John Roberts

It floats!

That's a big check mark in the progress for the next big cruise ship revolution.

Royal Caribbean's Quantum of the Seas floated out last week.

When it debuts, the 4,180-passenger ship will feature several first-in-industry amenities to entice adventurous travelers, such as a skydiving simulator, bumper cars, SeaPlex activities area and North Star ride, as well as the ever-popular FlowRider surfing simulator and rock-climbing wall.

Quantum of the Seas glided out of its indoor slip at Meyer Werft's shipyard in Papenburg, Germany, last week with no apparent problems. The shipbuilder will add the finishing touches to the onboard spaces during the next two months before Quantum debuts November 2 and makes its way across the Atlantic Ocean to Cape Liberty in Bayonne, N.J., for its first six-month season sailing the Caribbean. After that, Quantum will be relocated to sail out of Shanghai, China, beginning in May 2015.

Elsewhere, I see a couple of cruise lines with adventurous itineraries offering nice promotions.

Un-Cruise Adventures, a small-ship adventure line, is offering a $400 discount per couple for cruises booked by September 30 on a Sea of Cortes, Mexico, voyage on the 84-passenger Safari Endeavour. You'll pay $2,800 per person for a weeklong sailing between November 2014 and March 2015 from San Jose del Cabo through the Sea of Cortes, a UNESCO World Heritage site.

The inclusive trip includes all adventure activities -- snorkeling, hiking, skiff excursions, paddle boarding, beachcombing, a burro ride into the arroyo and snorkeling with sea lions. The price also includes meals, wine, premium spirits, microbrews, hot tub, sauna, exercise equipment, yoga on deck and a massage. For details, contact  Un-Cruise Adventures at 888-862-8881 or sales@un-cruise.com.  

Celebrity Cruises' onboard booking program, Celebrity Future Cruise Vacations, is giving cruisers the chance to use an instant onboard credit of up to $500. Book a future Celebrity cruise while onboard a Celebrity sailing, and you can immediately receive the credit to spend during your current cruise. Or you could use that $500 credit on a future cruise. The offer, available on the majority of Celebrity's ships, also is combinable with one of the benefits from the year-round Evergreen 123Go! promotion -- a choice of a free Classic Beverage Package, free gratuities or up to an additional $300 in onboard credit.

We have used these combinable promotions -- the incentives are especially good when you book a future cruise while onboard a sailing for most lines -- and secured a load of discounts on a Celebrity sailing we have scheduled for the Panama Canal in 2015, so I know this is a great way to save.

For you fans of classic TV, a fun note. Princess Cruises will celebrate its 50th anniversary year in 2015. So, the line honored the key role of the hit TV show The Love Boat by tapping the show’s cast members to serve as godparents for the beautiful new ship Regal Princess. All six Love Boat primary cast members -- who played the roles of Captain Stubing, Gopher, Isaac, Doc, Julie and Vicki -- will reunite to christen the ship on November 5 in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

The ceremony will officially launch the golden year anniversary celebrations for Princess Cruises, which will celebrate five decades of operation throughout 2015.

The actors include Gavin MacLeod (Captain Stubing), Fred Grandy (Gopher, the chief purser), Ted Lange (Isaac, the bartender), Bernie Kopell (Doc, the ship's doctor), Lauren Tewes (cruise director Julie) and Jill Whelan (Vicki, the captain's daughter).

As always, thanks for reading,

JR

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Regal Princess Debuts; Quantum of the Seas Schedules 53-Day Voyage to China

5/26/2014

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By John Roberts

Princess Cruises sent 3,560-passenger Regal Princess on its inaugural sailing last week in the Mediterranean. The maiden voyage for the sister ship to Royal Princess started May 20 in Venice. We will get onboard Tuesday in Athens for a seven-day trip. Check back often for our reviews and updates on the ship and its port stops. Follow our progress on Twitter @InTheLoopTravel with hash tags #RegalPrincess and #ComeBackNew.

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MSC's newest ship, MSC Divina, is due to be joined by a new batch of big vessels as the fleet rapidly expands.

MSC makes no secret of its growing ambitions. And growing it is. The line announced two more new ship builds on the books last week. Orders for two vessels -- and an option for a third --
 from Fincantieri shipyard come close on the heels of MSC signing a letter of intent in March for two giant cruise ships -- with an option for two more -- from STX France. The two ships from STX France are due in 2017 and 2019 and are planned to have a maximum passenger capacity each in excess of 5,000. 

The new orders last week from Fincantieri for MSC's Seaside-class vessels will mark the largest cruise ships built by the 200-year-old Italian shipbuilder. The ships will have a maximum passenger capacity of up to 5,300 and are due for delivery in November 2017 and May 2018. 



"The Seaside prototype presents unique features such as a sea-level promenade that circumnavigates the sides of the ship with outdoor spaces, shops and restaurants. In addition, Seaside will also feature a splendid and spacious theatre, a terraced balcony and panoramic lifts with sea views," MSC said in its release announcing the plans.

MSC has a 12-ship fleet but is on the way to rapidly doubling the number of cruisers it can bring to the seas.

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Royal Caribbean International rendering
Royal Caribbean's Quantum of the Seas is just months away from its November debut in North America. We know the revolutionary vessel's stay in Cape Liberty will be a short one since Royal Caribbean announced the bold plan to relocate Quantum to Shanghai, China, in 2015 in a bid to take advantage of the burgeoning Asian cruise region. Now, we also know when the ship will depart and all the stops it will make along the way as part of an epic 53-day voyage to Shanghai.

From the line's release: "Kicking off on May 2, 2015 in the New York area, the sailing will include a trans-Atlantic crossing to the Mediterranean followed by passage through the Suez Canal to the Persian Gulf, Indian Ocean and Asia. Along the way, the 4,180-passenger vessel will call at nearly two dozen ports including Barcelona; Aqaba, Jordan; Dubai; Cochin, India; Muscat, Oman; Penang, Malaysia; Singapore; and Hong Kong."

Got a couple of months set aside for a dream cruise? Must be nice. Well, if you can't do the whole journey, several segments are available to book, too. You can sail any of these portions: 

  • Leaving Cape Liberty in Bayonne N.J., on May 2, 2014, for an 11-day transatlantic to Barcelona, stopping at Ponta Delgada, Azores; and Cartagena and Palma De Mallorca, Spain.

  • A 16-night cruise through the Suez Canal to Dubai, leaving May 13 from Barcelona and making calls at Rome and Napes, Italy; Athens, Greece; and Aqaba, Jordan.

  • A 14-night sailing, leaving May 29 from Dubai and visiting Cochin, India; Singapore; Muscat, Oman; and Penang, Malaysia.

  • A three-night Singapore round-trip, leaving June 12 and visiting Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia before returning to Singapore.

  • A nine-night cruise departing June 15 from Singapore and hitting ports in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; and Xiamen and Hong Kong, China; before reaching Shanghai.

The trips are now available for bookings.

Norwegian Cruise Line unveiled big plans to renovate its fleet. A $250 million enhancement program called Norwegian Next aims to bring many of the features of the Breakaway-class ships to all the vessels by 2015. For example, the ships will get new menus, O'Sheehan's Bar and Grills and Carlo's Bake Shop goodies. Also, the Sugarcane Mojito Bar will be placed on all ships (it originated on Getaway).

The line also is developing new game shows, entertainment, kids activities and shipwide parties. The onboard app iConcierge also will be expanded to all ships, as well as touch screens and digital signs.  

Holland America is sending two of its ships over to P&O Cruises to be part of that line's Australia fleet. Both lines are part of Carnival Corp. HAL's Ryndam (1,266 passenger capacity) and Statendam (1,260) will be send to Australia in November 2015 months before the debut of a yet-to-be-named new Holland America 2,660-passenger ship.

Carnival Cruise Lines announced that it will add Carnival Miracle to its West Coast program, sailing seven-night itineraries to the Mexican Riviera. Carnival also will send Carnival Legend on cruises to Alaska departing from Seattle. Miracle and Legend also will be used for a batch of Hawaii sailings in the 2015-2016 season. 
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Quantum of the Seas Moving to China

4/21/2014

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Royal Caribbean rendering
By John Roberts

Royal Caribbean dropped the huge news last week, announcing that its highly anticipated and revolutionary new megaship Quantum of the Seas would be homeported in China after its initial debut period in Bayonne, N.J.'s Cape Liberty cruise port. The news received mixed reviews, as many in the New York area were disappointed to learn that they would be losing the ship after a six-month sailing season.

Royal Caribbean says the move of the 4,180-passenger Quantum of the Seas helps the line "accelerate the growth of this vital market" in Asia. Quantum will sail out of Shanghai beginning in May 2015 after a six-month season sailing to the Caribbean from Cape Liberty beginning in November.

Quantum of the Seas will feature an industry first with its "Dynamic Dining" concept of no traditional main dining room. To make up for the loss of Quantum in the New York area, Royal Caribbean will bring Liberty of the Seas to Cape Liberty for the 2015 summer and fall seasons, and the new Anthem of the Seas, which launches in April 2015 and is the sister ship to Quantum will sail from Cape Liberty in winter 2015-16 after an initial season in Southampton, England.
  

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Carnival Cruise Lines' Carnival Live concert program got off to a rocking start with performances by Styx onboard Carnival Fantasy and Carnival Fascination. The band performed one show on each ship during port stops in the Bahamas in the first week of April. The concert series allows cruisers to watch music stars perform in intimate settings in ship show lounges. There are 49 shows scheduled for 2014, including performances by Gavin DeGraw, 38 Special, Jewel, Chicago, Jennifer Hudson, Olivia Newton-John, Kansas and more.  

Carnival last week unveiled a revamped and rebranded kids program. Camp Ocean, a marine-based program for children ages 2 to 11, replaces Camp Carnival on all 24 ships in the fleet. The program will debut of Carnival Freedom on May 24. Camp Ocean, which aims to immerse kids in the wonders of the sea through educational activities, also will be rolled out on Carnival Magic, Breeze and Triumph by the end of the year and fleetwide by 2016. The line's tweens and teens programs remain the same. 


Norwegian Cruise Line wants to give you a lift. More cruisers from the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic area can use an expanded bus-transport service from Norwegian to get to their ships leaving out of New York. NCL has arranged with Academy Bus to offer more service to passengers sailing on Norwegian Breakaway and Norwegian Gem. You can buy transfers right to the Manhattan Cruise Terminal, without having to worry about driving into the city or finding and paying for parking. A range of new routes add to the line's current program with Yankee Trails World Travel.

Beginning May 3, cruisers from Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Hampshire can get direct motor coach service from 11 New England departure cities, including Warwick, R.I., New London, Conn., New Haven, Conn., Bridgeport, Conn., Braintree, Mass., Worcester, Mass., Springfield, Mass., Hartford, Conn., Woburn, Mass., Framingham, Mass., and Salem, N.H. As of May 31, service opens from Arlington, Va., Baltimore, Wilmington, Del., Philadelphia, and East Brunswick, N.J. The transfers cost $110 roundtrip per adult and $75 per child.

Crystal Cruises will have your legs spinning with 16 cycling adventures available on European sailings on the luxury line's ships. Half- and full-day excursions from Crystal Symphony and Crystal Serenity take you past some of the world's most stunning architecture, beautiful villages and brilliant seaside sights -- all viewed from your bike seat as you glide along on routes ranging from 5 to 13 miles. Choose from outings in Copenghagen, Tallinn, Bordeaux, Malta, Barcelona and more. 

"Many guests have become increasingly interested in more athletic pursuits that allow them to enjoy a destination in a more up close and personal way," says John Stoll, Crystal's vice president of land programs. "The bicycle excursions not only foster personal connections with the scenery and surrounding cultures, but also with each other. Each cycling group builds a special camaraderie as they share these experiences."
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