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MSC Cruises receives record 400,000 bookings in October

Details: Written by Teijo Niemelä Teijo Niemelä; Category: More News More News; Published: 10 November 2022 10 November 2022

MSC Cruises said that October 2022 was the company’s best ever month for bookings with them as they received a record 400,000 bookings throughout the month. The company said in a statement they have also noticed a strong uptick in advance bookings especially for the winter 2022/23 and summer 2023 seasons.

Antonio Paradiso, MSC Cruises MD UK & Ireland commented: “The Naming Ceremony of MSC World Europa has been a brilliant event celebrated with our UK & Ireland trade partners. MSC World Europa is our most innovative, environmentally advanced and exciting ship to date.”

“We’re already seeing a surge in bookings on board MSC World Europa and it is proving to be the most popular ship for UK guests following MSC Virtuosa which is based in Southampton year-round," he continued.

“Winter cruises in the Middle East have always been a success with our UK guests and in recent years we have expanded our offering in this popular region. We have developed new itineraries that include Qatar, Oman, Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia as well as, of course, Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, and we have also increased the number of ports of embarkation.”

Viking takes delivery of Viking Neptune

Details: Written by Teijo Niemelä Teijo Niemelä; Category: More News More News; Published: 10 November 2022 10 November 2022

Viking Neptune, the newest ocean cruise ship which Fincantieri has built for the shipowner Viking, has been delivered today at the shipyard in Ancona. The unit is placed in the small cruise ship segment. As its sister ships, she is about 47,800 tons, with 465 cabins to accommodate up to 930 passengers.

Viking Neptune, ninth of this class, marks a quantum leap in the longstanding cooperation between Viking and Fincantieri for designing, delivering and operating environmentally considerate cruise vessels. The two companies, indeed, keep on cooperating for developing pioneering applications based on hydrogen fuel cells, aiming to achieve an increasing reduction of GHG emissions.

Viking Neptune embodies the first result of such cooperation, as a hydrogen fuel cell module, with a nominal power of 100 kW, has been fitted on board as a test. Such installation is particularly important for tuning technological devices and developing rules and regulations for use of hydrogen on board a cruise vessel.

This year Viking and Fincantieri have also strengthen their collaboration going beyond the joint R&D activity and aiming to develop large scale hydrogen applications, significantly contributing to the reduction of GHG emissions of the vessels. As a first step the two companies have designed an enlarged vessel configuration (to be applied to the vessels to be delivered after 2024), defining spaces and arrangements for accommodating the increased size of hydrogen tank, the fuel cell systems and relevant auxiliaries. The second step will be the development of a hydrogen-based generation system with a total power of about 6-7 MW, (the largest size ever tested on board a cruise vessel) and able to ensure smokeless port operation and slow steaming navigation. Such systems, once finalized, could be installed on the vessels under construction and, as far as possible, retrofitted on the vessels already delivered.

With such joint project of cooperation, Viking and Fincantieri aim to maintain a position of technological leadership and to contribute to the future development of even more environmentally considerate cruise vessels

Queen Anne to be delayed by four months

Details: Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen; Category: More News More News; Published: 10 November 2022 10 November 2022

Delivery of Queen Anne, the fourth ship of Carnival Corporation & plc group member Cunard, will be delayed by four months to the beginning of May 2024, it has beeb reported. The ship is under construction at Fincantieri in Italy.

Royal Caribbean Group leads recovery of results among listed majors

Details: Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen; Category: More News More News; Published: 09 November 2022 09 November 2022

As all three major listed cruise shipping companies have now published their third quarter interims, it has emerged that Royal Caribbean Group (RCG) leads the recovery of results among the three.

It was the only one to report a net profit for the third quarter and its net loss for the first nine months of the year was smaller than its two peers, Carnival Corporation & plc and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. (NCLH).

Third quarter net results

3Q22 v 3Q21

Carnival -770 -2,836

RCG +33 -1,430

NCLH -295 -846

All figures in millions of dollars.

Carnival group’s figures to 31 August.

Source: Carnival Corporation & plc, RCG, NLCH

First to third quarter net results

1Q-3Q22 v 1Q-3Q21

Carnival -4,995 -6,881

RCG -1,666 -3,903

NCLH -1,787 -2,934

All figures in millions of dollars.

Carnival group’s figures to 31 August.

Source: Carnival Corporation & plc, RCG, NLCH

Former Fincantieri CEO Giuseppe Bono has passed away

Details: Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen; Category: More News More News; Published: 08 November 2022 08 November 2022

Giuseppe Bono, former CEO of the Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri, has passed away. He was 78.

“Italy mourns the death of Giuseppe Bono, historical guide of Fincantieri and a leading figure in the Italian industry. A painful loss for the whole nation. I extend to his family the most sincere condolences from me and from the Italian Government," Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni wrote on Twitter.

Bono received several honours, including one of Legion d’Honneur in France, an Italian news agency report said