FORT
LAUDERDALE may become the homeport for Royal Caribbean
International's two $1.2 billion, 5,400-passenger Genesis-class
ships when they debut in 2009 and 2010. Port Everglades would have
to undergo a $37 million expansion of Terminal 18 in order to
accommodate the megaships and would ask Royal Caribbean to foot
that cost, port spokeswoman Ellen Kennedy said. The port predicted
that the ships' year-round presence at the port would create 3,800
jobs, producing total income of $172 million. Terminal 18 is
currently being renovated to accommodate Royal Caribbean's
3,114-passenger Navigator of the Seas.
FRED OLSEN
CRUISE LINE's ship the Black Watch left Dover, England,
last week on a 10-day voyage to Morocco and Iberia, its first
sailing since two passengers from the vessel tested positive for
Legionnaires' disease on July 30, during a Baltic cruise. British
health officials cleared the vessel to depart following the health
scare, and the line said that an investigation was underway to
determine where the infection may have been contracted. The ship
had visited five ports in northern Europe before arriving in
Stockholm, where the passengers were diagnosed.
BLAME THE
ECONOMY, not the Caribbean, for softer demand in the
region over the past year, said Vicki Freed, Carnival Cruise Lines'
senior vice president of sales and marketing. In a statement from
Carnival, which said the line would carry a record 2.9 million
passengers in the Caribbean region this year, Freed said that the
slowdown was "not a reflection of the region's popularity or
desirability" but "economic factors that have affected consumers'
discretionary purchasing." Freed said that Caribbean bookings were
up in the second half of 2007 and in early 2008. "Consumers are
unquestionably responding well to the strong value appeal inherent
in a cruise," she said.
DELTA
QUEEN will sail for the last time as an overnight
passenger vessel next year, operator Majestic America Line said,
after Congress denied the Delta Queen a seventh exemption from a
1966 law banning passenger vessels with wooden superstructures. In
2008, the Delta Queen is scheduled to run 24 departures through
November while celebrating a series of special commemorative
events.
OVERNIGHTS
IN PORT AND LONGER ITINERARIES spurred record demand for
Oceania Cruises' winter 2008-2009 sailings, the line said. Oceania
said it set a record for reservations, taking more than 400 new
bookings in the first few hours of Aug. 1 after opening the books
on the new cruises at 8:00 a.m. By the end of the day, Oceania said
it had bested its previous record by almost 30%; some sailings were
50% sold. The new itineraries feature sailings to Asia, Australia,
the Caribbean and South America, with overnight stops in places
such as Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, Hong Kong and
Sydney.
Cruise
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