The latest Celebrity Cruises ship Celebrity Edge, scheduled to join the fleet in December this year took to the sea for the first test trials this Thursday, July 26, at 5 pm. The 306-meter long liner set sail from Saint-Nazaire, France, and is scheduled to complete the 3-days trials and return to the port on Sunday around 6 am.
In order to attract the younger generation, MSC Cruises has contracted Luciano Spinelli, an 18-year-old teenage influencer, and Youtuber from Monza, Italy as a young ambassador. The youngster has 494.000 fans on YouTube and 1 million followers on Instagram and the idea is to share his passion for the web to youngsters on board the MSC cruise ships. This project aims to create innovative workshops designed to entertain families by creating multimedia content from their vacations.
Carnival Corporation released its eighth annual sustainability report, announcing that in 2017 the world's largest leisure travel company achieved its 25 percent carbon reduction goal three years ahead of its 2020 sustainability projections. The company has reported that it achieved a 26.3% reduction in its carbon footprint as part of its goal to reduce the impact on the environment contained in its 2020 sustainability program.
Virgin Voyages unveiled the name of its first cruise ship set to be delivered in 2020. The first cruise vessel setting sail under the Virgin banner will be named Scarlet Lady.
Two crew members from the Royal Caribbean cruise ship Explorer of the Seas went overboard last night near the port of Victoria, British Columbia. According to the reports ship’s Captain announced “Code Oscar” on the loudspeakers on Thursday evening at around 8:00 p.m. local time. Joint Rescue Coordination Centre reports that the crew was working on a lifeboat when they ended up in the water. Luckily they were wearing life vests and shortly after other boats joined the rescue operation.
Hosting its second annual Pride Party at Sea, Celebrity Cruises celebrated Pride Month across their award-winning fleet. Ambassadors for this year’s festivities were Olympic Bronze Medalist Adam Rippon and Two Time Men’s figure skating Olympian Johnny Weir.
A crew member was arrested by the Croatian Police in the port of Split for sexual assault. According to the Croatian Newspaper 24 Sata, a 26-year-old crew member with Turkish nationality who was working as a cook on a cruise vessel sexually assaulted a 68-year-old woman.
Princess Cruises announced it will host the largest ever slot tournament after signing a deal with American gaming machine and systems innovator Scientific Games Corporation. The cruise line introduced its Monopoly Cruise for Cash campaign with hundreds of cruises this year before the main event in December with a $200,777 slot tournament aboard Regal Princess.
TUI Cruises has announced the expansion of its fleet with an order of two additional new class vessels. The new units, which will be built by Fincantieri in the Italian shipyard in Monfalcone will be significantly larger than the previous new builds in the Hamburg shipping company. The size of 161,000 gross tons clearly exceeds the previous ships of the Tui Cruises fleet. In comparison, the latest “Mein Schiff 1" comes to 111,500 gross registered tons.
Norwegian Cruise Line confirmed the previously announced option to build the fifth and sixth ships of the Leonardo Class with the Italian Shipbuilder Fincantieri SpA.
