So the cruise ship industry may be able to offer the lowest prices in 20 years, but one thing that they cannot control is the weather and unfortunately passengers usually have to find this out the hardway.  Well that was the case anyway for the some 300 passengers aboard the CTMA-Vacancier that got stuck in thick ice for nearly 24 hrs in the mouth St. Lawrence River.  Canadian Coast Guard ice breaker “Terry Fox” finally made it to the stranded cruise ship following getting stuck itself in the thick ice.

Further reports are saying that two more vessels, including a ferry and cargo ship, have been stuck in the thick ice as well.  As for the passengers aboard the Vacancier, they don’t seem to mind the short delay and have said that “it’s a 24-hour party on board.” [Continue Reading →]

Amazing planet brings us How To Stretch A Ship – Creating A Bigger Cruise Ship. Click HERE to view the photos.

While this may photo look troubling to some unknowing future vacationers, the process of lengthening a ship is in fact perfectly safe and now more commonly used in order to quickly meet increasing demand at lower costs than producing new ships altoghether.  The photo above is of Royal Carribean’s Enchantment of the Seas and was the third ship in their fleet to be lengthened and the largest ship ever to go through the process.

Royal Carribean explains the lengthening process:

Royal Caribbean teamed with two European shipyards to stretch the eight-year-old Enchantment Of The Seas. Aker Finnyards of Finland, which built the original ship, was given overall responsibility for designing, building and installing the mid-body section. Aker asked Keppel Verolme of Rotterdam, The Netherlands, to split the ship in two, insert the midsection, and reassemble the parts. When again whole, Enchantment Of The Seas will return to sea for sea trials and soon afterwards will resume service on July 7, 2005.

Planning among the three teams began more than a year ago.  Construction started on the mid-body last September, and the finished mid-body sailed the Baltic and North seas by barge 2,300 kilometers (1,430 miles) to Rotterdam earlier this month. Meanwhile, Enchantment Of The Seas arrived May 15 at the Keppel Verolme yard and entered dry dock, where the mid-body was waiting. The size of the dry-dock bay, one of the largest in the world, allowed the ship and mid-body to sit side-by-side, and allowed for use of an advanced and faster lengthening process. [Continue Reading →]

December 10, 2007 – Upon departure from Montevideo on The Rio de la Plata, the M/V Norwegian Dream fully loaded with passengers on a 23 day cruise, collided with an adrift container barge.  Despite valiant efforts the collision could not be avoided.

Both vessels suffered severe damage.  The barge lost multiple autos and containers overboard with loss and damage estimated in the millions.  The M/V Norwegian Dream suffered a four-by-four foot hole in the bow about five feet above the water line, and was quickly returned to Montevideo for repairs.

As for the passengers, they were offered some compensation for the mishap but continued on after the repairs were made.

More information on this incident can be found at CargoLaw.

Another interesting note… The Norwegian Dream is now a two-time Incident Photo of The Week’er.  Check out the first incident HERE.

Every wonder what happens if you need to be helicoptered off a cruise ship? The USCG has released this video of a medivac operation off the coast of Mexico. The Press release states;

SAN DIEGO, Calif., (November 16, 2007) Crews from Air Stations San Diego and Sacramento conducted a medevac of a 72 year-old-male from a cruise ship 70 miles east of Isla De Guadalupe, Mexico. The C-130 from Air Sta Sacramento flew overhead coverage as the HH-60 from Air Station San Diego hoisted the man from the ship. The man was taken to Air Station San Diego where he was transferred to local EMS.

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David Hindin, a gCaptain reader from the San Francisco Bay Area pointed us to this image and audio file from the New York Times. They tell us;

A small, historic cruise ship with an imperfect security record was listing dangerously after it struck ice in Antarctic waters today, with 154 passengers and crew members evacuated in a flotilla of lifeboats and inflatable boats, the cruise operator and coast guards said.

Late into the day, the small red and white ship — named the Explorer but known affectionately as “the little red ship” — was listing steeply to starboard, nearly on its side, awash in ice floes and steely gray water. The vessel — on an expedition to trace the doomed route of the explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton — sent out a distress signal in the middle of the night (5:24 a.m. Greenwich Mean Time) after it began to take in water through “a fist-sized hole,” said Dan Brown, a spokesman for G.A.P. Adventures, the Toronto-based tour operator that owns and operates the ship. He said the “running assumption” is that it hit an iceberg. Water began to trickle into a cabin and eventually flooded the engine room, causing the ship to lose power.

The accident occurred well north of the Antarctic Circle in an island chain that is part of the Antarctic peninsula, which juts close to South America and has seen sharp warming of temperatures in recent years.As the satellite distress signal was being picked up by coast guard stations in Britain; Norfolk, Va.; and Ushuaia, Argentina, the ship’s 100 passengers — 14 of them American, 24 British, 17 Dutch, 12 Canadian and a smattering of other nationalities— were awakened and told to don warm clothes and life preservers, said Mark Clark, a spokesman for Britain’s Maritime and Coastguard Agency, which was one of the first authorities to receive the distress signal. They clambered down ladders on the ship’s side to board lifeboats.

Mr. Clark said they were taken aboard a small research vessel, the National Geographic Endeavour, that was nearby, before they were transferred to a Norwegian cruise line.

You can continue reading this NYTimes story by clicking HERE.

 

  An interview with Jon Bowermaster, who was on the scene: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Pieter Rijkaart, Holland America Line’s director of newbuilds, just provided this image of Eurodam’s recently installed Azipods.

Eurodam News, the official Holland America blog documenting the building of the cruise ship M/V Eurodam, gives us a sneak peak at the latest in propeller and bulbous bow design.

The Cincinnati Enquirer as us: “As new cruise ships continue to get larger, it begs the question: Is bigger better?”

I admittedly don’t know much about cruise ship operations but quoting a friend… “The only problem with working on cruise ships…. cargo that complains!” The larger the ship the more cargo you have to load.

They tell us a little about these mega-ships including the Freedom of the Seas, pictured above;

Boasting the two largest ships afloat, Royal Caribbean is a leader of mega-ships. Last year, the cruise line rolled out Freedom of the Seas, followed this May by its sister Liberty of the Seas. At 160,000 tons and 1,112 feet long, each ship houses 1,815 staterooms on 15 passenger decks and a crew of 1,360.

Double occupancy pushes capacity to 3,630 cruisers, but the ships are designed to spread people out. Miniature golf, karaoke, court sports, swimming, ice skating, spa services and FlowRider – the industry’s first surf simulator – are just a sampling of the onboard activities.

Norwegian Cruise Line features another industry first: a full-size, four-lane bowling alley onboard the new Pearl and the soon-to-launch Gem. These 93,530-ton ships also incorporate a new style of accommodations with much larger courtyard villas and garden villas, a dozen restaurants, 11 bars and lounges and rock climbing wall.

So what’s on the horizon for these mega ships?

• Cunard rolls out the regal Queen Victoria this December with an elegant Todd English Restaurant.
• MSC’s Poesia is poised for March, carrying 3,013 guests on 13 passenger decks. Amenities include a tennis court, teen club, cigar room, disco and miniature golf.
• Royal Caribbean’s Independence of the Seas makes waves in England in May with a spa and well-being center with thermal caves.
• Next summer, Holland America debuts the 2,104-passenger Eurodam, the largest ever for the line. Innovations include a topside pan-Asian restaurant and a lounge that overlooks the ocean and pool.
• Carnival’s Splendor makes its inaugural cruise next July. The 113,000-ton ship will have a sliding Sky Dome, a 21,000-square-foot health and fitness center and 68 special spa staterooms.
• The 113,000-ton, 3,080-passenger Ruby Princess sparkles in November 2008 with a dramatic piazza-style atrium and performing street entertainers, in addition to its signature Movies Under the Stars.
• The 122,000-ton Celebrity Solstice takes its maiden voyage in December 2008.
• In fall of 2009, Royal Caribbean’s “Project Genesis” ship will set a record as the largest cruise ship on the sea. This whopping 220,000-ton, next-generation ship will carry 5,400 passengers.

If your interested in these new ships then head over to Holland America’s Eurodam Blog for a behind the scenes look at the building of a Mega-Ship.

Read the full Cincinnati Enquirer article HERE.

Photo of the Norwegian Dream after encoutering a sucession of 25+ foot waves in 2005 colliding with the ‘Ever Decent’ while transiting the the English Channel in 1999.

The report: [Continue Reading →]

Today is Blog Action Day and the topic of discussion throughout the blogoshpere is the environment. There are many issues and environmental news stories worth addressing like alternative energy ideas, ship emissions, global warming, or hot topic of the month; the Hawaii Superferry. Considering we get to choose the topic of most interest to us… we bring you this video of the S/S Norway. It’s a look at her glorious past and sad future upon the beaches of Alang, the notoriously dangerous and environmentally unsound shipbreaking port in eastern India.

The director of this documentary tells us;

This is a trailer of the documentary I am making about the last of the great 1000 foot ocean liners, The S/S Norway / S/S France. This ship has a story unlike any other. Built as a transatlantic liner and later being converted into a cruise ship the S/S Norway now rests on the beach in Alang, India. Here it is waiting to be dismantled. This unique footage from on board the ship in Alang will only be shown in this documentary. The documentary will be finished in 2007.

To see the troubling images of the ship’s destruction you’ll have to wait for the documentary but here’s a quick look at what we expect to see;

For more amazing but troubling images from Alang please visit our post; Edward Burtynsky – Shipbreaking Images

IF your looking for more environmental posts from this blog please CLICK HERE