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Celebrity Cruises to return to Bonaire in 2014 Celebrity Cruises will offer cruises to Bonaire over the winter of 2014-15 after skipping the destination this coming winter. The line says the 2,852-passenger Celebrity Eclipse will sail 14-night "Exotic Southern Caribbean" voyages out of Miami starting in November 2014 that include stops in Kralendijk, Bonaire as well as the nearby islands of Aruba and Curacao. The departure port of Miami also is a change for the ship, which has been offering 14-night winter sailings to the Southern Caribbean out of Fort Lauderdale. Princess Set to Enter Singapore Market with Four-Month Season Princess Cruises is moving the 116,000-ton, 2,670-passenger Sapphire Princess to Singapore for a four-month deployment from November 2014 to February 2015. The ship will operate 15 round-trips to 16 ports in seven countries and expects to carry about 40,000 passengers during its first season. The program is primarily aimed at the Singapore and wider Asia market, as well as other markets including North America, the U.K. and Australia. “Princess Cruises will be the first premium cruise line to have ships based in Singapore for an extended period,” said Alan Buckelew, Princess’ president and CEO. Princess also is expanding its presence in Japan in 2014 with two ships operating from April through October. Princess Names Kate Middleton as Royal Princess Godmother Princess Cruises announced that The Duchess of Cambridge, known to most as Kate Middleton, the wife of Prince William, will name the new Royal Princess June 13 in Southampton, England. The ceremony will include a blessing, a performance by the Royal Marines Band and the pipers of the Irish Guards. The inaugural celebration will end when the ship departs on its maiden voyage on June 16. The 3,600-passenger Royal Princess, a new-generation ship, will feature a larger atrium, a glass-bottomed walkway extending 28 feet over the edge of the ship, poolside cabanas and Chef’s Table Lumiere, a private dining experience that surrounds diners in a curtain of light. The ship will sail “Grand Mediterranean” cruises this summer, followed by Eastern Caribbean cruises starting in the autumn.
Last month, when the Malaysia-based Genting Group acquired the 28-knot fast ferry Superfast VI, observers were left to wonder what their intention was. But since then, the vessel has been renamed Bimini Superfast and it has been announced that she is intended for operation between Florida and Bimini North in the Bahamas, where Genting will open a new casino this December. Editors Note: This is interesting to me, because my very first cruise (over 22 years ago) was a day-cruise from Miami to Bimini. Bimini is a very interesting little island, with quite a history. So... once again you will be able to cruise to Bimini. Interesting. Grand Turk reopens to cruise ships after a thorough cleaning The Grand Turk Cruise Center, a cruise port in Turks and Caicos, has reopened following three weeks of closure. Ships stopped calling at the terminal complex, developed and operated by Carnival Corp., after several cruise lines noticed an increase in the number of passengers reporting symptoms of gastroenteritis following visits to the island in mid-March. The port has since been thoroughly cleaned and sanitized, according to a statement released by the Center, although a task force and related testing throughout Grand Turk did not "conclusively determine that there was a direct link between the reported cases of gastroenteritis and the passengers' visits to the island." Cruiser found with drugs jailed for 12 years Another American who attempted to bring drugs into Bermuda on a cruise ship is facing a long stay in a Bermuda prison. Bermuda's Supreme Court on Thursday sentenced Jane Carmichael, 52, of Hazelburst, Ga., to 12 years of incarceration for attempting to smuggle $369,000 worth of cocaine into the destination on a Celebrity Cruises ship, Bermuda's Royal Gazette reports. Carmichael was caught with the drugs aboard the 2,158-passenger Celebrity Summit in May 2012 after it docked at Bermuda's Royal Navy Dockyard, according to the Royal Gazette. The drugs were strapped to her body inside a girdle, the news outlet says. San Francisco Gains A Year-Round Ship For many decades, San Francisco was known as the headquarters of the famed Matson Lines, whose fabled 26,000-ton passenger liners Lurline and Matsonia maintained regular passenger service to and from Hawaii until the early 1960s, and whose container ships carry on in that trade today. In more recent years, between 1972 and 1994, San Francisco served as headquarters of the famed Royal Viking Line, which had its headquarters in the Embarcadero Center, and was finally absorbed by Cunard Line. Last month, San Francisco was back in the news as a cruise center, when Princess Cruises started year-round cruises from San Francisco with its 2,600-berth Grand Princess. This ship will be the first for decades to be based year-round at San Francisco. While several ships have homeported in San Francisco for round-trip Alaska cruises since 1969, it has only been during the summer season. Grand Princess will offer thirteen voyages to Alaska, two to Mexico and fifteen sailings to Hawaii, as well as a number of coastal cruises to California ports that will turn at Ensenada. The Grand Princess was substantially rebuilt at the Grand Bahama Shipyard in 2011, when her aft “shopping cart handle” was removed and replaced with a much more eye-pleasing arrangement of tiered decks aft. At the time, Princess described this as “the most significant transformation ever of a Princess Cruises ship.” Rescue at Sea According to a statement from Carnival Cruise Lines, yesterday, at approximately 4 p.m., while the Carnival Conquest was approximately 40 miles off the coast of Key West, Fla., the ship spotted a raft with 13 individuals on board. In coordination with the United States Coast Guard, the 13 Cuban nationals were taken on board the Conquest and provided food, water and medical treatment. The ship was is expected to rendezvous with a U. S. Coast Guard cutter later in the evening near Key West to transfer them.
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