A New Dawn

On 14th May Silversea Cruises announced that it had awarded Fincantieri with an order for another ultra-luxury cruise ship, with delivery scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2021. The contract is valued at over €320 million. Named Silver Dawn, the new vessel will be a sistership of Silversea’s flagship, the 40,791gt Silver Muse, which was launched from the Fincantieri shipyard at Sestri Ponente (Genoa) in April 2017. The order came just months after the cruise line signed a contract with Fincantieri for the construction of the Silver Moon, another sistership to the Silver Muse, which is due to be delivered in 2020.

Viking Advances

On 10th May 2018 Viking Cruises’ sixth ship, the 47,842gt and 930 guest capacity Viking Jupiter, was floated out, marking a new chapter in the construction process. Scheduled for delivery in early 2019, the arrival of the Viking Jupiter will officially make Viking the largest small ship ocean cruise line in the industry, only four years after launching its ocean business. Just under a month later on 7th June the 47,842gt Viking Orion, the fifth cruise ship built by Fincantieri for Viking Ocean Cruises, was delivered at the shipyard in Ancona. Ten additional ships are also planned for delivery starting in 2021, which could bring Viking’s ocean fleet to 16 ships by 2027.

P&O Flagship Gets Underway

On 21st May P&O Cruises announced that it had marked the first construction milestone for its newest ship with a steel cutting ceremony at the Meyer Werft Shipyard in Papenburg. The ship’s name was announced that same week, on 24th May. This highly anticipated announcement came as a result of a competition that P&O Cruises ran last year when it invited members of the public to suggest a suitable name for the ship. Over 30,000 submissions were received with a panel of experts made the final decision. The chosen name was Iona, artist’s impression above.

Crown Refit

Princess Cruises’ 113,561gt/2006 built and 3,080-guest capacity Crown Princess (above) has received a multi-million pound two-week refit, which concluded in May. The ship now features new dining venues, a luxury bed in every room and an upgraded spa and fitness centre. The ship will be based in Southampton in spring and summer 2019 for a series of round Britain cruises whilst the Coral Princess will be deployed to the Antarctic Peninsular in 2019/20, with the vessel to sail on three itineraries during her South American season. The programme will also see the Coral Princess and Island Princess circumnavigate the entire continent of South America on a 58-day journey roundtrip from Fort Lauderdale, with overnight stays in Lima, Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro. In 2019/20 the company will also celebrate its largest deployment ever to the Panama Canal. Five ships will offer six itineraries departing from Fort Lauderdale, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Vancouver. The new season offers 21 transits through the historic locks aboard the Coral, Island or Pacific Princess, with 15 others through the new locks on the Caribbean & Emerald Princess.

Additional Ship For Aida

AIDA Cruises has revealed plans to expand its fleet with an additional ship in 2019. The current 48,200gt/1999 built Costa neoRiviera will transfer to AIDA as the AIDAmira for the company’s Selection programme, sailing to South Africa & Namibia. AIDA Cruises will also welcome a new fleet member in November 2018, namely the AIDAnova.

Further Delays For Newbuilds

The second of Hurtigruten’s advanced hybrid battery-powered expedition ships, the 20,889gt Fridtjof Nansen, was confirmed as also being delayed on 24th May. The ship, like her sister the Roald Amundsen, is under construction at the Kleven shipyard in Norway. The complexity of the construction of the Roald Amundsen has delayed her by 8 months to spring 2019 and this has had a knock-on effect on the second vessel. Meanwhile, Hurtigruten has contracted the Norwegian Fosen Yard for comprehensive upgrades on two of its ships, the 11,205gt/1993 built Richard With and the 11,204gt/1994 built Nordlys.

Blissful Arrival

NCL’s Norwegian Bliss became the largest passenger ship to traverse the Panama Canal on 25th May during her delivery voyage from Bremerhaven to Seattle (above). The 168,028gt ship had departed from Germany on 19th April and sailed via Southampton and the Azores to New York, Miami and Los Angeles via the Panama Canal. Upon concluding her Alaskan cruise season, this autumn the ship will operate selected voyages to the Mexican Riviera from Los Angeles and for the remainder of her autumn/winter season, she will sail to the Eastern Caribbean from Miami. In 2019, the ship will return to New York City and sail seven-day voyages to the Bahamas and Florida, the Southern and Western Caribbean. NCL’s 2019 European season will see both the Norwegian Jade and Norwegian Spirit offering itineraries March-October with both making calls at Southampton.

Float-Out No.2

A month after the successful delivery of the 111,554gt/2018 built New Mein Schiff 1, the next ship in line, the New Mein Schiff 2, was floated out at the Meyer Turku shipyard on 1st June ahead of delivery to TUI Cruises, early next year.

New Explorer Goes To Sea

Ponant’s 9,900gt/2018 built Le Lapérouse, the first ship in the Ponant Explorers fleet, successfully completed her first sea trials on 18th May from the Vard Shipyard in Ålesund. The ship entered service from Reykjavik, Iceland, on 19th June 2018 prior to itineraries in the Mediterranean, Indian Ocean, Asia and Oceania. The ship will be officially named in Reykjavik on 10th July. The steel-cutting ceremony for the 5th and 6th vessels, Le Bellot and Le Surville, scheduled for delivery in 2020, took place on 4th April in Romania. More recently, Le Champlain reached Norway on 27th April to complete the final phases of her construction. The inaugural cruise will take place on 25th October from Honfleur, France. The construction of Le Bougainville and Le Dumont d’ Urville progresses at the Vard shipyard in Tulcea in Romania with delivery scheduled for 2019.

Designs Revealed

Virgin Voyages has unveiled a number of new interior renderings from multiple design firms for the new cruising fleet, the first of which will offer cruises from Port Miami starting in early 2020. The total being invested in the new cruise company is $2.5 billion. The brand’s design concept is the ‘Modern Romance of Sailing’ and, across the ship, Virgin Voyages has partnered with Tom Dixon’s Design Research Studio in London, Roman and Williams in New York, Concrete Amsterdam, Softroom in London and WorkAC in New York. Virgin Voyages opted to use multiple interior designers to create diversity throughout the ship, using the aforementioned principle of the ‘Modern Romance of Sailing’. Within the brand ethos, modern is representative of a contemporary holiday aesthetic paired with romance, which offers a nod to a love of the historical glamour and sophistication of a sea voyage. Classic nautical elements such as steel, brass and portholes are tastefully incorporated throughout the ship so that Virgin Voyages guests are always conscious that they are sailing at sea.