WorldTraveler151208

It looks like the new ship for Cunard will be delayed until 2023. This is a sad news because I think that Cunard really needs something new in the fleet. I wonder why Cunard doesn't consider building another ocean liner.  They say that Queen Mary 2 will be the last ocean liner in history. And as far as I know there is (or at least before the pandemic there was) a huge interest in QM2 cruises, even though they are rather expensive.  No other ship ever draws such crowds of onlookers when it enters a port. The QM2 is an icon, as people can embrace the atmosphere of 20th century luxury liners while having the comfort and amenities of the 21st century cruise ship. I believe that a second similar liner of the QM2 type could be a great success on the cruise market. What do you think?

Does anyone have any verified and certain information about the Clive Palmer’s project to build a replica of the Titanic? This controversial project has already been pushed back so many times. In the Internet you can find news that the project is not canceled, and the ship will enter into service in 2022. However, there are no official statements from the Blue Star Line and there is no contact with the company. It all looks suspicious.  If the ship is supposed  to be ready in 2022, the construction would probably already be in progress, right?

I am very happy that more and more ships are starting to sail in Europe, yesterday evening, for example, Costa Smeralda set sail from Savona, becoming the third Costa ship at sea. She is also the largest ship sailing at this moment. 
However, I am very disappointed and annoyed with the lack of any information and updates from MSC. Of course I realize that the situation is changing very quickly and it is difficult for the cruise lines to make decisions about restart, but I think they should give at least a general plan for the rest of 2020. Costa and Aida have already provided details about which ships will start operating in the coming months. I would like to go on a cruise in the coming months, but people are working and it’s impossible to plan anything in advance, due to the lack of information. They should at least officially cancel cruises that will definitely not take place. I suspect that MSC this year will focus only on Europe, in the best case maybe also on the Middle East, but I do not believe that cruises in America or Asia Pacific will take place.

38 minutes ago, drsel said:

Cruises will take place in December in the UAE

Thank you for your answer, but if I may ask, how can you be so sure?  Do you have any specific information? I know that the cruise is not canceled at the moment, but so far Msc has not officially canceled any cruises in the Christmas time.

I have reservations for a New Year's Eve cruise from Dubai on Msc Fantasia (originally on Msc Seaview but the ship was changed for obvious reasons). This week, Msc canceled all cruises on Fantasia until December 5th.  Do you think there is a chance that the cruise on December 26 will take place? Does anyone know if there is a no sail order in the Persian Gulf region and the UAE at the moment?

Waiters wear face shields probably because it's just more convenient when you work all day, but at the same time it solves the problem described above.  
It looks like the shields are treated as a mask substitute.  Honestly, I have never seen anyone who had both a mask and a shield at the same time. 
The shield is in fact less “hermetic” than a regular mask, but it actually provides comparable protection and it also has advantages. The face shields do not need to be changed often and it is easy to disinfect them. It also covers the eyes, so it is an additional protection for the person who wears a face shield.

49 minutes ago, cruiser man 60 said:

Just a point the  excursions on these cruises are fairly cheap I saw mentioned 100 euros for 3 plus some free ones are included in price.

stilll idiotic and I would loved to have heard the conversation when they were told they were not coming back in board!!

Yeah, I would love to hear that too. What about their luggage in that case?  Because I understand that they were not allowed to get on the ship after returning to port.  The crew had to pack their luggage and bring it out of the ship?

25 minutes ago, drsel said:

On this Cruise, MSC Grandiosa, a family was thrown out of the ship, for abandoning their paid MSC ship tour.

That’s interesting. Probably Msc was afraid that the family might bring the virus on board because in such a case the cruise line does not know where they went and with whom they were in contact. The point of those organized excursions is that Msc wants to have control over the passengers when ashore.

By the way, Costa has announced the itineraries for the first cruises.

Deliziosa starts on September 6th from Trieste to Bari, Brindisi, Corigliano-Rossano, Siracusa and Catania.

Diadema starts on September 19th from Genoa to CIvitavecchia, Naples, Palermo, Cagliari and La Spezia.

I especially like the first one, it's something new, something different than the invariable itineraries Msc and Costa have had for years. I hope they will introduce this itinerary permanently in the future. 
It is a shame that these cruises are only for Italians.

19 minutes ago, Fogfog said:

As far as "risk"-- we don't know where everyone is from or where they have traveled...

Are they only Italians?

The Mein Shiff ship only sailed with Germany/Austria/Swiss (?) and I believe had no port stops.

From what I heard on this Msc Grandiosa cruise about 90% of the passengers are Italians, 10% from other EU countries.

And as for the Mein Schiff cruises, those are indeed cruises without ports, they only do 3-7 nights “panormaic cruises” to Norway, Sweden and Finland. I think the reason is that most Scandinavian and Baltic countries still do not allow cruises. For this reason for example, Tui had to change some itineraries recently, because Norway has banned even panoramic cruises. In the case of Tui, you can only embark and disembark in one port: in Kiel for Mein Schiff 1 and in Hamburg for Mein Schiff 2. It will be different on the 3rd ship which Tui adds in September.  Mein Schiff 6 will have cruises to Greece from Crete, with port stops and shore excursions on similar terms as Msc Grandiosa.

12 minutes ago, Dermotsgirl said:

if this is true, I’m not sure, in the current situation, that it’s a good idea to have an ever changing group of passengers mixing with each other (unless they are all in ‘bubbles’)

It has pros and cons.  On the other hand, this makes it easier for them to control the situation during boarding.  The whole embarkation process is now more complicated, due to temperature measurements, health questionnaires, etc and takes therefore more time. If all the passengers of such a large ship were gathered at once in the terminal in Genoa, it would not be safe either. Taking this into account, it is better that boarding is spread over 4 different ports.

3 minutes ago, Formula280SS said:

 

Ate may be able to help with this, but several news articles indicated there would also be passenger embarkations at two other ports.  From an original source, the passenger count was published at 1,500.  However, such can only be clarified with the same source data by port that Ate gave for Genoa.

I’ve also read about approximately 1,500 passengers.  It‘s probably difficult to say exactly because it looks like the guests can embark and disembark in all 4 Italian ports, so it can be variable.

1 hour ago, john_galt said:

Grandiosa is underway to Naples.

 

I can imagine that the sailaway today must have been very exciting and emotional too, as there were 4 other ships docked in Civitavecchia, including Divina, another ship from the Msc family. I hope there will be some videos later.

I found such a photo on facebook.  This is the front of Msc Divina seen from the deck of Grandiosa. Looks like Divina's crew made a welcome banner. Can anyone read all the inscriptions or has a better picture? I can’t read everything.

Please post some photos from the ship, whatever you have. Let us see what it looks like on board.

Did they play Time to say goodbye yesterday when she was departing from Genoa?

Is anyone on board? How is everything going? Who is the captain?

Costa wants to start only with Italian guests. Details in the article in the previous post.

Does this mean that you will need to have Italian citizenship to book a cruise? What, for example, with foreigners living in Italy, and other EU countries citizens?

I saw this morning on MyShipTracking that MS1 and MS2 were playing around together near from Turku in Finland.  It must have looked great when they were so close together.  I wish I could be there and see it. In my opinion, family meetings like this are great and should be much more frequent, but unfortunately, under normal conditions, cruise lines don’t want to waste fuel and time for such things.

24 minutes ago, MarkusToe said:

Got it from a friend, I'll be on MS 1 end of the Month.

Hopefully to Norway then...

I'll write a short report if there is interest here...

Have a wonderful cruise. And if you will find a moment for a short report, or maybe you will have some nice photos, I'll be grateful.

7 hours ago, MarkusToe said:

now they are running 7 day tours, planned to Norway, unfortunately Norway has blocked the 12 miles zone to all cruiseships

so the ships goes to "the Schären" and Finland now

I know and I must admit that I am impressed with the good logistics in Tui Cruises.  Norway refused in the last moment, and yet Tui found alternative destinations to provide some nice views, and not only sail the open sea. I assume that it was not easy to get necessary approvals and find pilots for 2 huge ships for arrival in Stockholm and Turku in such a short time and in such an extraordinary situation. 
By the way, if I may ask, are those your own photos? Are you now on board, on one of the Mein Schiffs? 

8 hours ago, chengkp75 said:

I can't say when cruise ships started to use thrusters, but they came into common service on ships in the 60's.

After further research, it turned out that they probably started using bow thrusters even earlier. MS Astoria, which belonged to CMV Cruises that sadly went bankrupt a few weeks ago, is considered to be the oldest operating cruise ship (built in 1948). On this photo you can see the mark on the hull that would indicate that the vessel is equiped with one bow thruster.
 

Now every cruise ship has bow thrusters and in most cases azimuth 360 degrees propellers, which allow easy maneuvering in ports without the help of tugs. Which cruise ship was the first one with side thrusters? I can't find any infirmation on this topic.  I assume that it must have been in the 70s or 80s because the ships built in that time are already equipped with this solution, but I would like to know more.

10 hours ago, Host Hattie said:

I'm sure they would find a way to keep all the Grille suites occupied and not use the inside cabins.

They will definitely do it.  This is what the German line Tui Cruises has done on its pioneering post-pandemic cruises since July.  They do not sell interior and window cabins at all, only suites and balcony cabins.

42 minutes ago, navybankerteacher said:

On every one  of our Cunard sailings there have been at least a few younger couples enjoying the experience - certainly not the demographic one sees on Carnival or NCL, but certainly enough to put the lie to the notion that Cunard is just for today’s elderly who will take their appreciation of formality with them as they leave the planet.

Of course Cunard is not just for the elderly people and I believe there are many young people who would like to try traditional and elegant cruising.  It is a stereotype that all young people are looking for discos and parties like on Carnival.