AIDA Cruises’ 125,572gt AIDAprima sistership, the AIDAperla will begin sailing in the Mediterranean on 1st September 2017 after delivery from her buliders in Nagasaki, Japan. From March 2018 the vessels will homeport in Hamburg, operating seven-day round trips before relocating to the Western Mediterranean. Contrary to previous announcements, the 2008-built AIDAbella will now spend summer 2017 in Europe, sailing in the Western Mediterranean and will not go to China. As recently as 9th August, AIDA had announced that the 69,203gt/2008 built AIDAbella (above) would make her maiden cruise from Shanghai on 16th April 2017. Carnival Cruise Line made a similar move in February 2016 when its entry into the Chinese cruise market was deferred from 2017 to 2018. Amras, a European river cruise operator, has re-branded as Amadeus River Cruises and simultaneously unveiled new cruises for 2017. The company operates on Europe’s primary waterways with a fleet of 10 river cruise vessels.

Cruise & Maritime Voyages will be offering new departure points in 2017 including Newport, Cardiff, Belfast and Dublin. New Itineraries include Spain, France & Portugal, Cuba, Greenland and Spitzbergen. Also new for 2017 is the Magellan’s 120 night Round the World Cruise with new added sector options.

Carnival Cruises and Royal Caribbean International were the first to change itineraries when Hurricane Matthew materialised around 1st October. The storm was a category 4 hurricane at the time with maximum sustained winds of 155 mph. The hurricane was projected to pass over the eastern part of Jamaica, Cuba, and the Bahamas and initially battered the south of Jamaica and Haiti whilst moving at just 7 mph. Carnival Cruise Line made changes to itineraries for the Carnival Sunshine (above) and Carnival Splendor. The Carnival Sunshine’s calls in Half Moon Cay and Grand Turk were cancelled and replaced with calls in Costa Maya and Cozumel, Mexico. The Carnival Splendor sailed a reverse itinerary calling at Ocho Rios, Grand Cayman, and then Cozumel. Royal Caribbean made two changes due to the storm. The Allure of the Seas switched stops in St. Thomas and St. Maarten for Labadee and Falmouth whilst the Adventure of the Seas bypassed St. Lucia and Barbados for St. Maarten, St. Croix, and St. Thomas.

Disney Cruises’ 83,308gt/1999 built Disney Wonder (above) received a major 40-day refit at the Navantia Shipyard in Cadiz, where she arrived on 18th September. Three ferries have been chartered to accommodate workers at the port, namely the 44,307gt/1996 built Rhapsody, 30,318gt/1981 built SNAV Toscana and the 52,645gt/2012 built Tanit.

Dream Cruises’ 150,000gt Genting Dream (above) began her river conveyance from Meyer Werft’s Papenburg shipyard to Eemshavn on 18th September in Papenburg, Germany. Fitting out was then completed and sea trials were undertaken. The ship will head for her first home in Guangzhou, China where she will begin service on 13th November 2016. The Genting Dream initially left the covered building dock on 19th August and the handover ceremony was scheduled for 12th October. Upon completion, the Genting Dream can accommodate 3,400 guests in 1,674 staterooms.

Fred. Olsen Cruises will on 10th September 2018 unite its four ships Balmoral, Braemar, Boudicca and Black Watch once again, this time in one of Europe’s most historic cities, Cádiz in Spain, for a spectacular event to mark the 170th anniversary of Fred. Olsen’s beginnings in the shipping industry. Entitled Captains in Cádiz, this get-together will be packed full of lively celebrations and festivities, on four special themed cruise itineraries. These went on general sale from 28th September 2016.

Guernsey has suffered a drop in visitors by ferry in recent times but 2016 was a record year for cruise ship passengers as numbers visiting hit a record high of almost 130,000, surpassing the 2015 total of 123,000. When the figures were released there were still six cruise calls left for the season so the overall total was higher still.

Holland America Lines’ 99,836gt/2016 built Koningsdam (above) arrived at Portland, Dorset, on 20th September for the first time, becoming the largest cruise ship to call there. The ship’s captain, Emiel De Vries, was bestowed with a ceremonial plaque made from Portland stone. Back in 2000 Portland saw three cruise ship calls but in 2016 15 vessels have called, amounting to 17,000 passengers, and next year 22 vessels and 33,000 passengers are expected. In October work began on a £3m berth extension which will enable vessels in excess of 340m to dock in the port.

Venice Cruise Calls were again in the spotlight towards on 25th September when a large mob of people in boats waving flares surrounded several cruise ships trying to depart from Venice whilst Venetians (who all gain from the huge income generated by these ships) took part in a mass protest. Thousands of angry locals took to the water protesting against the large cruise ships that continue to traverse the ancient Giudecca Canal, allegedly causing environmental damage and erosion to the fragile seabed and foundations of Venice. The Thomson Celebration, AIDAbella, Costa Deliziosa, MSC Orchestra, and Ocean Majesty were all targeted by protesters, delaying the ships by up to three hours. The Crystal Esprit was also visiting Venice that day. Perhaps their efforts would be better put towards stopping smaller vessels from speeding through the canals of Venice and causing damaging wash rather than revenue earning ships that have their speed strictly regulated. The disgruntled mob also wish to focus on sustainable tourism, with aims to control the increasing traffic, pollution and tourist numbers.

MSC Cruises announced on 21st September that it will deploy the 137,936gt/2009 built MSC Splendida (above) to China as of May 2018. In connection with this, following in the footsteps of the announcement of the opening of the new MSC Cruises office in Shanghai and a new management and operations team based there, the Company is taking another key step to further improve its ability to serve the Chinese home market. In her new positioning, the MSC Splendida will join MSC Lirica, which has been serving to great success the Chinese market since May and has recently moved her homeport to Tianjin, to serve the North China market during the winter season. The MSC Splendida will visit many popular cruise destinations in China, Japan and Korea. This will see another fine ship lost from the European market as companies rush to seize on the revenue potential in China. MSC announced that it will deploy the MSC Meraviglia to Hamburg for the 2018 summer season.

Princess Cruises’ 142,714gt/2013 built Royal Princess emerged from drydock on 7th October to become the first Princess Cruises ship to carry the new livery featuring the iconic Princess logo design.

Phoenix Reisen’s 28,518gt/1973 built Albatros (above) suffered a mechanical failure and postponed departure from the Columbus Cruise Centre, Bremerhaven, to Dover on 28th September. The vessel was scheduled to leave Bremerhaven with 800 passengers, but damage to the rudder’s hydraulic system disabled the ship. The problem was repaired and the ship departed 11 hours late. Unfortunately the same failure reoccurred less than an hour later, near, 25km from the port. The ship dropped anchor and requested assistance. Two Svitzer tugs were sent to the ship to tow her back to the Columbus Quay for repairs, which were completed that evening.

Portsmouth Port’s Portsmouth Cruise Forum was re-launched from the Cruise Britain stand at the Seatrade Cruise Med event in Tenerife in September. The Portsmouth Destination Marketing Partnership subgroup sees Portsmouth City Council, key attractions and activity providers, as well as local specialist tour operator, More Than a Tour, working together with cruise industry partners to encourage more of their passengers to explore and experience new and innovative destination experiences across the City. The relaunch of the cruise forum marks a new approach to delivering innovation in shore excursions. The conference underlined the need for a new approach and Portsmouth International Port encourages all tour operators to raise their game. The forum has already hosted the Phoenix Reisen management team on an exclusive familiarisation trip of Portsmouth and looks forward to hosting other cruise line partners in due course.

Portuscale Cruises’ 9,563gt/1961 built Funchal (above), which has been laid up in Lisbon since January 2015, may have another reprieve in her illustrious career. Interest has arisen in operating the ship in the Caribbean so the outcome of this is now awaited.

Saga Cruises welcomed a new Captain, Julian Burgess, on his first cruise in December 2016. Captain Burgess will take command of the Saga Sapphire (above) on the “Canaries to Casablanca” cruise, sailing out of Southampton on 1st December 2016 bound for Madeira, Tenerife, La Gomera, Gran Canaria, Morocco and mainland Spain. Captain Burgess began life at sea as a cadet when he was 17, before working on various ships as a Safety Officer and Chief Officer. He then became Deputy Captain for the Carnival Corporation where he worked under P&O Cruises, Princess Cruises and Cunard, where he was Captain of the Queen Elizabeth. Julian has been at sea for 35 years with the last 12 as a Captain. Captain Burgess considers himself very much a ‘modern Captain’ and is not going to be stuck up on the Bridge all day. He loves to meet people and hear their stories. Socialising with the guests and finding out what they’ve been up to on their exploits on land is, to him, an important part of being a successful Master. He is quite hands on and likes to do lots of the ship’s manoeuvres himself, but is more than happy to give the officers and staff opportunities to develop their seamanship under his experienced eye.

Princess Cruises’ 77,441gt/1995 built Sun Princess (above) rescued five people, including family members of a senior Vanuatu Government minister, from a vessel which had been adrift at sea for 48 hours. The search and rescue operation was completed west of Espiritu Santo in Vanuatu waters in the early hours of 28th September with those rescued being tended to by the ship’s medical staff. The 113,561gt/2007 built Emerald Princess departed Southampton on 28th September after her 2016 season there, bound for Australian waters. The vessel undertook a 48 night repositioning voyage prior to her maiden call in Australia at Fremantle on 8th November followed by a five-month season sailing from Sydney on 13 roundtrip cruises.