All Leisure Holidays (ALH), the British cruise ship operator, has signed a three-year agreement with Portsmouth international Port that will extend a relationship that started in 2010 to at least 2018. The news was released on 5th January 2016 and ALH owns three well-known companies, Swan Hellenic, voyages of Discovery and Hebridean Island Cruises. During the last five years ships from each company have visited Portsmouth international Port, a decision based on excellent transport connections, location and investment in new facilities. Swan Hellenic’s 12,892gt/1996 built Minerva (above) has been based at Portsmouth international Port since 2010 for cruises in Northern Europe, the Baltic and Scandinavia. That relationship will continue for at least another three years, with the Minerva starting Portsmouth international Port’s 2016 cruise season on April 15th, the first of 11 cruise departures with the 15,396gt/1990 built voyager and Minerva during the season.

Carnival Group will add four new ships this year to its cruise fleet, which currently totals 99 ships. Carnival operates 10 cruise brands, including Carnival Cruise Line, Fathom, Holland America Line, Princess Cruises, Seabourn, AIDA Cruises, Costa Cruises, Cunard, P&O Cruises in Australia and P&o Cruises in the UK. In total, the company plans to add 17 new ships to its fleet between 2016 and 2020. The new ships joining the fleet in 2016 are the Koningsdam (99,500gt), Carnival Vista (133,500gt), AIDAprima (125,000gt) and Seabourn Encore (40,350gt).

CMV’s 22,080gt/1965 built Marco Polo made her second ever call at Southampton on 5th January due to bad weather. Conditions meant that she could not make it back to Avonmouth so diverted to the south coast. The ship went for a five-week refurbishment and maintenance drydock at Damen Shiprepair Vlissingen (DSV), part of Damen Shiprepair & Conversion (DSC), 3rd November-14th December. The 800-passenger vessel underwent her 10th special survey, various interior repairs were completed and her exterior was repainted. Other work included minor steel work, maintenance on the propellers and propeller shafts, the reconditioning of the bearings on the main engines, and the servicing of air-conditioning units and generator sets. The life rafts and other safety equipment were also removed and serviced, while the cranes and winches were overhauled. DSC has recently won a series of maintenance and repair contracts for cruise ships. Last summer, Damen Shiprepair Rotterdam completed repair and maintenance work onboard MSC Cruises’ 3,220-passenger MSC Magnifica and Saga Holidays’ 720- passenger Saga Sapphire. Meanwhile, Damen Shiprepair Amsterdam completed a five-week maintenance drydock on Cruise & Maritime voyages’ 1,200-passenger Magellan and Norwegian Cruise Line’s 4,100-guest Norwegian Epic departed Damen Shiprepair Brest in October following a three-week refit.

Cunard Line has announced the launch of the verandah grill on the Queen Mary 2, opening in June 2016 after her significant refit, exactly 80 years after the first Cunard verandah grill went to sea on the Queen Mary in 1936. The verandah, a favourite among guests onboard the Queen Elizabeth and Queen Victoria will replace the Todd English restaurant aboard the QM2 and will evoke the special personality and flavour of French regional cooking with seasonal influences. Set within light and elegant dining rooms, impeccable service with attention to every detail will make this an unforgettable dining experience, available at a surcharge for lunch and dinner. The Queen Elizabeth and Queen Victoria met in Hamburg on 8th January and then sailed home to Southampton in tandem to meet the QM2 prior to all three departing on their world cruise adventures on 10th January after firework displays. This was the first of three “3 Queens” events at Southampton for 2016.

Diamond Cruise do not plan to operate the 40,171gt/1982 built island Escape despite information being circulated to the contrary. The ship did indeed go to Brest for refit as reported, but was then linked to other uses including a floating accommodation vessel. Renamed the ocean gala, the vessel has been shown online on a seemingly unofficial website along with the Bluefort (ex Tallink ferry Meloodia) and the ocean Atlantic. Diamond Cruise actually took delivery of the 24,318gt/2001 built Celestyal Odyssey (formerly Semester at Sea’s Explorer) after just one season with Celestyal Cruises. So, both royal Olympic Cruises built sister ships (formerly the Olympic voyager/Explorer) are now in China.

Fred. Olsen’s new fleet was well advanced at the time of writing after New Year. The Boudicca, Black Watch and Balmoral had all visited Southampton sporting their new grey hulls and red hull stripes. The Boudicca was the first to be so treated after having visited the Lloyd Werft shipyard in Bremerhaven, Germany. The company says that the painting of the hulls is a positive statement and represents the on-going changes to position Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines’ fleet within the premium market. A grey hull harks back to Fred. Olsen’s heritage, to when the first Black Watch and Black Prince were launched in the 1930s. These were two of the most luxurious ships afloat at the time. The use of the ‘Cartier’ red line is a visual reminder to all guests and crew of what is referred to internally as the ‘red Carpet’ service. The Braemar was the last of the quartet to be repainted.

MSC’s 92,409gt/2006 built MSC Musica began a winter 2015/16 season based at Abu Dhabi on 13th December by inaugurating the new cruise terminal at Zayed Port. The MSC Musica will take guests from Dubai or Abu Dhabi on a series of 7-night cruises. Norwegian Cruise Line has once again been named the World’s Leading Large Ship Cruise Line by the World Travel awards, marking the fourth consecutive year that the company has been honoured with this accolade. In addition, NCL also won in the category for the World’s Leading Cruise Line Website. The awards were presented to NCL at the 22nd annual World Travel awards grand Final gala, held on 12th December in El Jadida, Morocco. The annual awards are voted on by thousands of travel and tourism professionals from across the globe and honour travel companies that provide outstanding products and customer service.

Princess Cruises’ 113,561gt/2007 built and 3,092-guest Emerald Princess has undergone a multi-million pound refit. The ship, which will sail from Southampton on a series of cruises to southern and northern Europe in spring/summer 2016, now has several new features added on board. These include a restaurant, SHARE by Curtis Stone, a fresh approach to dining created by the Australian celebrity chef. His first restaurant at sea, it encourages connecting and sharing over food with family, friends and other cruisers by offering dishes served family-style. The menu features a charcuterie starter course, composed salads, handmade pastas, premium quality meats, an array of decadent desserts and more. Also introduced is the Salty Dog gastropub. This new dining venue pairs gourmet small dishes inspired by pub favourites such as a rib eye burger, beef ribs and pork cheeks with craft beers, cocktails and wines. The gastropub only appears on two further Princess Cruises’ ships. other additions from the grand Class ship’s refurbishment are the fitting of 200 interconnecting doors to 100 staterooms for those families who book rooms next to each other, a luxury mattress on every bed as part of Princess Cruises’ recently-introduced ‘Sleep’ programme, and the on board gymnasium has new equipment and weights. The refit took place in Freeport, Bahamas and lasted two weeks.

Windstar Cruises’ 9,975gt/1988 built cruise ship Star Pride (built for Seabourn Cruise Line as Seabourn Pride) ran aground on the morning of 22nd December whilst preparing to anchor at Isla de Coiba, Panama for a shore excursion. The company said that the ship suffered damage to her hull, rendering the vessel unable to proceed any further. The hull was penetrated with water ingress to the engine room. All passengers were transferred to fleet mate Star Breeze and the Tere Moana and taken to Costa Rica. The Star Pride was towed to the port of Balboa for inspection and repairs. Coiba is the largest in a group of 38 islands that make up Coiba National Park, designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2005. The ship’s subsequent cruise departures until April were all cancelled.