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Costa Firenze floated out at Marghera

Details: Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen; Category: More News More News; Published: 07 November 2019 07 November 2019

Costa Firenze, the second of two 135,500 gross ton cruise ships Costa Crociere to be launched this year, was floated out at the Marghera yard of Fincantieri, the Italian shipbuilder on 6 November, the shipbuilder said in a statement.

It is sister ship of Costa Venezia that was launched at Monfalcone in March. Both ships are intended to serve the Chinese market and they have a capacity of 5,200 passengers each.

Costa Firenze and Costa Venezia are the biggest ship introduced by Costa to the Chinese market, where the Italian company was the first to start operating in 2006 and is currently the leader. They are part of an expansion plan that includes a total of 7 ships being delivered to the Costa Group by 2023, for a total investment of over €6 billion.

Costa Firenze is due for delivery to Costa Crociere, which is part of the Carnival Corporation & plc group, in September 2020.

Saga Cruises to order river cruise newbuilding

Details: Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen; Category: More News More News; Published: 04 November 2019 04 November 2019

Saga Cruises, which is part of the UK based travel to financial services group Saga plc, plans to order a 190 passenger capacity river cruise ship that is scheduled to debut in 2021.

To be known as Spirit of the Rhine, the ship is planned to offer 95 cabins, each with a floor space of 17 square metres. It will be built at the Vahali shipyard in the Netherlands.

The ship will offer cruises in the Rhine, Main, Moselle, Main and Danube rivers. Saga Cruises also offers cruises in the Ukraine, Russia, Spain, Portugal and Italy.

Spirit of the Rhine is the first river cruise newbuilding of the company and it follows two ocean going ships, Spirit of Discovery that entered service this year and Spirit of Adventure that is due to replace the 1981 built Saga Sapphire next summer.

Marella Cruises to offer Caribbean programme in summer 2021

Details: Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen; Category: More News More News; Published: 04 November 2019 04 November 2019

Marella Cruises, the UK focused contemporary market cruise line in TUI AG group, will position the 69,130 gross ton Marella Discovery in Port Canaveral in Florida for a series of summer cruises in 2021.

The 1,830 passenger capacity ship will offer four fly cruise itineraries from May to October. The itineraries are:

“American Dream” that features calls to Charleston, South Carolina; New York and Freeport, Bahamas, with departures on May 2, May 30, June 13, June 27 and July 11.

“Big Apple Adventure” with calls to New York; Norfolk, Virginia and Freeport, Bahamas, with departures on May 16, August 1, August 15, August 29; September 12; September 26 and October.

“Floridian Favourites” features calls to Tampa, Florida; Nassau, Bahamas and Fort Lauderdale, Florida, with departures on May 23, July 25, August 8 and August 22.

“Sunshine State and Sands” offers calls to Amber Cove, Dominican Republic; Grand Turk, Turks and Caicos; Key West and Miami, Florida, with departures on May 9, June 6, June 20, July 4, July 18, September 5, September 19, October 3 and October 17.

The ship will position to Port Canaveral from Montego Bay in Jamaica.

MSC Cruises takes delivery of MSC Grandiosa, first MSC Europa steel cut

Details: Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen; Category: More News More News; Published: 31 October 2019 31 October 2019

MSC Cruises, the Geneva based cruise line, said it has taken delivery of MSC Grandiosa from Chantiers de l’Atlantique in France, while first steel was cut for MSC Europa earlier today.

Earlier in the morning a second event took place with the traditional cutting of the first steel and naming of the first World Class ship, MSC Europa, by MSC Cruises’ Executive Chairman, Pierfrancesco Vago.

MSC Europa is the first of five liquified natural gas (LNG)-powered cruise ships on order and the first LNG ship to be built in France. The two events marked another important step forward in MSC Cruises’ long-term commitment to environmental stewardship both at sea as well as ashore.

In conjunction with the cutting of the first steel ceremony of MSC Europa, MSC Cruises and Chantiers de l'Atlantique unveiled today a groundbreaking R&D project named PACBOAT that focuses on the integration of a new fuel cell technology demonstrator onboard the LNG-powered MSC Cruises ship.

This demonstrator will produce electricity and heat using LNG. The announcement was marked by the signing of the consortium agreement between the various partners involved.

The integration of a Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) technology onboard a cruise ship is a world first.

This technology operates at very high temperature (~750° C) and is more efficient for high-power marine like applications than the low-temperature Hydrogen-based Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC) solutions, used for instance in the automotive sector.

The SOFC technology offers a very good electrical efficiency up to 60%, and as the heat produced can be self-consumed on board, its total efficiency - heat and electricity – can be much higher, resulting in a direct reduction of energy consumption and therefore of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

Meyer Werft hands over Norwegian Encore

Details: Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen; Category: More News More News; Published: 31 October 2019 31 October 2019

Meyer Werft, the German cruise ship builder, said it has handed over the 169,245 gross ton Norwegian Encore to Norwegian Cruise Line, the contemporary market unit of Norwegian cruise Line Holdings Ltd (NCLH).

It was the third and final unit of the Breakaway Plus class and the third delivery of a cruise ship newbuilding from the German yard this year.

The next newbuilding of Norwegian Cruise Line will be a 140,000 gross ton Leonard class ship from Fincantieri, which is due for delivery in 2022. The company has six of these ships on order at the same builder, with the final unit due in 2027.