Viking River Cruises has ordered 6 new 190 passenger capacity Longship Class river cruise ships from Neptun Werft in Rostock. The order was placed on 19th October for delivery in 2016 with each vessel being 135m long and 11.45m in beam with a draught of 1.60m.

As the demolition of the Costa Concordia continues in Genoa a body, thought to be the last person unaccounted for almost three years after the ship came to grief, was found at the beginning of November.

The Mein Schiff 4 was floated out at Meyer Turku Oy on 10th October. The Finnish shipyard is planning to hand over the newly built cruise ship to her German owner TUI Cruises in spring 2015. The 99,500gt ship is approximately 294 metres long and 36 metres wide with 1,250 staterooms and a crew of 1,000.

The 137,308gt/2000 built Explorer of the Seas was damaged by a rogue wave on 3rd November as she sailed from Bayonne, New Jersey, to St. Maarten. Two of the ship’s lifeboats were partially dislodged and fell on to the promenade deck with water ingress also taking place on to Deck 4 via the promenade deck doors, which in turn disabled the aft elevators. The Explorer of the Seas will be based at Southampton for the 2015 season.

The 95,128gt/2010 built MSC Magnifica arrived at Damen Shiprepair Rotterdam on 20th October for an 18 day overhaul. The scope of the work included extensive steelwork, cleaning, painting and replacement piping, as well as the entire renewal of the rudder.

The 137,276gt/1999 built Voyager of the Seas went into dry dock in Singapore on 23rd October for five weeks to receive a major renovation and the addition of new features ahead of her upcoming arrival in Australian waters. A FlowRider surfing simulator will be installed plus Virtual Balconies in interior staterooms, new carpets, plus new Chop’s Grille and Izumi Japanese restaurants etc.

Costa Cruises’ Costa Victoria rescued 12 crew members from a burning fishing boat while sailing from Hong Kong to Sanya Hainan Island on 3rd November. The cruise ship went to assist after spotting the distressed ship in the Southern China Sea and provided medical assistance. Meanwhile, the ship’s crew worked with a helicopter from Sanya Hainan Island Coast Guard to search for two missing crew members, who did not survive due to severe weather and sea conditions.

Two German ships, the 20,704gt/1987 built Astor and the 22,496gt/1998 built Deutschland were embroiled in financial storms according to reports on 6th November. Premicon Hochseekreuzfahrt GmbH, the Premicon AG subsidiary company that owns the Astor, filed for bankruptcy at the Bremen District Court. The holding Premicon AG was able to secure the money needed to give the ship her annual overhaul, and to secure her Australian winter charter season for cruise tour operator CMV, but the charter rates were apparently not enough to cover the high running costs of the ship. The previous week Deilmann’s operating company MS Deutschland Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH asked the Court for protection against its creditors and started a reorganisation procedure. The Deutschland was due in dry dock in Cadiz in November but the financial situation placed this in doubt.