American Cruise Lines’ newbuild American Constitution successfully passed her set of sea trials in the first half of April in Chesapeake Bay. The 175 passenger capacity vessel’s maiden cruise departed from Baltimore on 18th April, a new 10 night cruise around Chesapeake Bay. For the remainder of 2018, the new ship will stay on the East Coast, where she will run a series of trips in the summer and autumn from Boston and New York.

Celebrity Cruises’ 122,210gt/2011 built Celebrity Silhouette arrived at Southampton on 28th April to begin her first season at the port (above). The 2,886 guest cruise ship replaces the popular 121,878gt/2010 built Celebrity Eclipse which sailed from Southampton for eight summers since her launch in 2010 and has moved to Dublin for summer 2018. Following a two-night sailing to Le Havre the Celebrity Silhouette offered 8-14 night holidays to the Canary Islands, Spain, Italy, the Norwegian Fjords and Iceland.

CMV’s 16,144gt/1948 built Astoria made her maiden call to the Highlands (Fort William) on 25th April as she embarked on a 14-night cruise itinerary visiting the Scottish lochs and islands before heading to Ireland. The occasion was marked with an exchange of plaques between Cruise & Maritime Voyages, and local councillors. The Astoria also visited the Orkney Islands, Stornoway, Belfast, Dublin and the Holy Loch before returning to Tilbury on 5th May.

Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines commenced its 2018/19 cruise season from the ports of Newcastle and Liverpool on 26th April. The 1,350 guest flagship Balmoral departed Newcastle on a seven-night ‘German Cities & the Kiel Canal’ cruise whilst the 28,613gt/1972 built and 804 guest Black Watch departed from Liverpool on an eight-night ‘Fjords, Mountains & Glaciers’ itinerary around Norway.

The 43,537gt/1988 built Balmoral has a record 15 voyages from the Port of Tyne, Newcastle in 2018, an increase on the 13 departures offered in 2017. The Black Watch will be offering a record 18 departures from Liverpool between April and November 2018.

Genting Hong Kong has confirmed that the 42,275gt/1988 built SuperStar Libra is to end her public cruise operations for Star Cruises on 27th June 2018. The vessel is deployed in Southeast Asia, offering a triple homeport programme with the option to embark in Port Klang, Penang or Phuket. She will be redeployed to meet the Group’s requirements. The 1,480 guest capacity ship was originally built for Norwegian Cruise Line by the Wartsila Shipyard in Finland as the Seaward, and was later renamed the Norwegian Sea before moving to Star Cruises in 2005.

Hurtigruten has revealed a major investment in environmentally-friendly propulsion. Together with Rolls-Royce, it will retrofit as many as nine of its conventionally-powered ships with LNG-fuelled hybrid propulsion systems. The agreement is among the largest such projects for LNG propulsion ever announced in the passenger vessel sector. Hurtigruten’s arrangement with Rolls-Royce includes hybrid power systems, battery packs and LNG-fuelled engines for six existing vessels, with an option for a further three. The upgrade will enable the former diesel powered ships to reduce their CO2 emissions by at least 25%. The company was recently awarded licenses by the Norwegian government for seven out of 11 coastal ferry routes. One of the key requirements was a reduction in emissions. With its plans for a major upgrade, Hurtigruten will be able to continue operating its existing fleet on the route and meet these environmental standards at the same time. The new contract for the coastal route starts on 1st January 2021. The agreement includes two of Rolls Royce’s LNG main engines for each ship. The work will also include the installation of the Rolls-Royce Promas system, which combines rudder and propeller into one unit for efficiency gains of 2-8%, depending upon vessel type and speed.

NCL took delivery of the new the third Breakaway Plus Class ship Norwegian Bliss on 19th April (see Newbuild of the Month). On 27th April parent company Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. celebrated the ground breaking of the new and dedicated Norwegian Cruise Line terminal at Port Miami. The Miami-Dade County Board of Commissioners approved the project on 10th April, 2018, with construction beginning 1st May. The 145,655gt/2013 built Norwegian Breakaway became the largest vessel to date to enter Portland Port’s inner Harbour on 26th April and made her second visit to Southampton the next day. She then proceeded to Damen Shiprepair’s Brest facility for overhaul.

P&O Cruises Australia’s 55,877gt/1994 built Pacific Aria (above) will not be based in the Port of Cairns in 2019, with P&O Cruises instead sending the vessel to Brisbane and Sydney. The ‘Aria was set to be the Port of Cairns’ most regular visitor in 2018 and preliminary bookings had been made for her to return in 2019, but P&O made the changes as a result of the sale of the Pacific Eden to CMV. So, the Pacific Aria will spend most of the year sailing from Brisbane, along with 11 Sydney departures scheduled from late September.

Poole Harbour Commissioner’s new £10 million cruise quay was put into service on 5th May with the arrival of the 4,077gt/1990 built cruise ship Corinthian from Barcelona. South Quay is a 200m long and 40m wide deep-water quay that provides 9m in depth to accommodate vessels up to 220m in length. This has seen the port’s capacity for conventional cargoes, yacht liners and special project cargo increase. The quay has been operational for cargo vessels since early 2018 with cruise operators Grand Circle Line, Variety Cruises and Cruise & Maritime Voyages already offering itineraries from Poole for 2018/19.

SunStone Ships has announced it has confirmed a second shipbuilding contract for its second expedition newbuild with China Merchant Heavy Industries. The Miami-based company is the largest supplier of expedition ships in the world on a charter basis, and is moving forward with a newbuilding program in China. The first ship, the Greg Mortimer, will be delivered to Aurora Expeditions in summer 2019, while a second ship is now scheduled for an August 2020 delivery. Two more ships, scheduled for 2021 deliveries, already have signed charter contracts.

Viking Ocean Cruises’ Viking Jupiter was floated out on 10th May at Fincantieri’s Trieste Shipyard. The company’s sixth ocean cruise ship will now complete fitting out.