An 81-year-old Italian woman is under investigation for falsely reporting a theft of her jewelry on a cruise ship for insurance money. The senior citizen ended up under investigation after she claimed that her prized possessions insured on around 300 thousand euros had been stolen from her stateroom safe. Last September the woman together with her friend took a Mediterranean cruise from Venice, bringing with her jewelry, gold, and watches, declared to embark.

Viking Ocean Cruises has signed a letter of intent with Vard Holdings, a subsidiary of the Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri, for the design and construction of two cruise ships for, plus two more in option. The vessels, which will be delivered in Norway respectively in the second quarter of 2021 and in the second quarter of 2022, explains a note, will be the first that Vard will realize for Viking Ocean Cruises.

After seven days search for the missing person Royal Cayman Islands Police have finally located the 34-year-old MSC Opera crewmember Yusmaidys Ortiz Perez. The Cuban national left the cruise ship in George Town, Grand Cayman and failed to return back onboard. 

Even the most committed couples can grow apart especially if they are for a long period of time separated. This is the most common issue of married crew members who spent 6 to 8 months away from home and away from their spouses. There are numerous cases when these couples decide to break the wedding vows because they are becoming strangers due to the distance.

Radiance of the Seas 11-Night New Zealand Cruise departing from Sydney, Australia on April 6, will be canceled due to propulsion problems. Royal Caribbean International has released announcement saying that the cruise ship needs to undergo repairs on the Azipod propulsion system, which impacts the ships’ speed and ability to deliver future scheduled cruises.

Heavy fog that lasted for days at the port of Shanghai has forced several ships to cancel their voyages including the cruise ship Norwegian Joy. According to the local media, after passengers have embarked on March 27 onboard the Norwegian Cruise Line ship, specially dedicated to the Chinese market, they were informed that the voyage is canceled. Following this announcement, hundreds of passengers took to the ship’s guest relations desk to protest.

Carnival Horizon has joined Carnival Cruise Line as the 26th cruise ship of the fleet. Horizon is currently sailing to Barcelona where the inaugural 13-day voyage will start on April 2nd. The traditional maritime handover ceremony was held at the Fincantieri shipyard attended by Micky Arison, Chairman of Carnival Corporation, Christine Duffy, President of Carnival Cruise Line, while Fincantieri was represented by the president Giampiero Massolo and the managing director Giuseppe Bono.

A 34-year-old MSC Opera crew member is reported missing in Grand Cayman. The woman identified as Yusmaidys Ortiz Perez from Havana, Cuba was reported missing after she disembarked the ship and failed to come back before MSC Opera departure from George Town.

Princess Cruises has announced that their Director of Guest Culinary Experience, Chef Pierre-Marie Leprince, has been honored with the title Master Chef of France by the prestigious culinary organization, the Association of the Master Chefs of France (L ‘Association des Maîtres Cuisiniers de France). Chef Leprince was inducted into the association at the organization’s 63rd International Congress of Macau on March 12.

The world's largest cruise ship, Symphony of the Seas, was delivered to Royal Caribbean at the STX France shipyard in Saint-Nazaire, France. The latest Royal Caribbean International ship took three years to complete and enlisted the work of 4,700 shipbuilders and crew. Symphony of the Seas takes the title world’s largest cruise ship of her sister ship of the Oasis Class, Harmony of the Seas.