American Queen Steamboat Company’s new all-suite, 166-guest paddle wheeler American Duchess has been christened in New Orleans. Marissa Applegate, daughter of Chairman and CEO John Waggoner, and godmother of the vessel, broke a bottle of Maker’s Mark bourbon on the vessel’s hull as part of the ceremonial festivities. American Steamboat bought and rebuilt an existing casino vessel, the Isle of Capri, to create the American Duchess, an ambitious undertaking likened to bringing a baby into the world. The conversion included the addition of a third deck to the vessel as well as a working paddle wheel. Like the American Queen, the American Duchess will sail on the Mississippi between Red Bank, Minn. and New Orleans. She also will cruise on the Ohio, Tennessee and Illinois rivers, with fares starting at $2,999 per person.

Brodosplit Shipyard announced on 23rd August that it had started steel processing for Hull 484, which is the polar expedition ship Hondius being built for Oceanwide Expeditions for a 2019 delivery. The Polar Code compliant ship will measure 107.6mm and is being built to LR PC6 class regulations. Two main engines will offer 4,260kW of power for a cruising speed of 15 knots for 196 passengers.

Carnival Cruises’ 128,251gV2009 built Carnival Dream (above) experienced a technical failure on 12th August in the Gulf of Mexico. The ship was without propulsive power for a time and then operated at a reduced speed. Calls at Cozumel Montego Bay, Jamaica and Grand Cayman were reportedly cancelled to permit an early return to New Orleans for repairs. Following strong response to its first-ever cruises to Cuba in 2017, Carnival Cruise Line is to offer five additional voyages with extended calls in Havana in 2018. Departing on 17th February, 2nd July and 5th September three five-day cruises will take guests to Havana and Cozumel in Mexico or Key West in Florida. The company will also offer a six-day sailing featuring calls in Havana and Grand Cayman that departs on 26th August, and an eight-day voyage with stops at Havana, Grand Cayman and Cozumel departing 18th August. All five voyages include a day call and overnight in Havana with the eight-day cruise offering two full days in the Cuban capital. The Carnival Paradise started her first series of four and five-day voy­ ages to Havana in June 2017.

Crystal Cruises’ Crystal Symphony (above) was boarded by a team from Lloyd Werft at Lisbon in preparation for her visit to the Bremerhaven shipyard on 23rd September to commence the multi­ million Evolution of Crystal Luxury refurbishment. This is the first direct internal contract between Lloyd Werft Bremerhaven and Crystal Cruises, both of which are part of the Hong Kong based Genting Group. Lloyd Werft has been a 1000/o subsidiary company of the Genting Group since 2016. A year earlier Genting took over the American luxury cruise shipping company along with its two ocean going cruise ships from the Japanese shipping concern Nippon Yusen Kaisha. The ship was expected to remain in Bremerhaven for the multi-million Euro refurbishment until October 16th. The work is actually being shared with the interior refurbish­ ment being carried out directly by Crystal Cruises or its partner companies while Lloyd Werft is responsible for the shipbuilding aspects and for all the logistical demands of the contract. As a result, not only a large part of the Lloyd Werft work force but also several hundred crew members and sub-contractors will all be busy on the site. Work includes ultra-slim 24inch screens installed in every cabin plus some smaller cabins on Deck 9 will be converted into 40 luxury penthouse suites with butler service (reducing passenger capacity to 848). After the refurbishment work has been completed, the ship will head back to Lisbon where she is scheduled to begin a 15 night cruise to the Mediterranean on October 21st.

Crystal River Cruises took delivery of the Crystal Bach on 3rd August. It is the first of the new river cruise ships for the fledgling river sector of Crystal Cruises. The vessel was delivered by the MV Werften shipyard during a handover ceremony in Wismar, Germany. The 106-passenger Crystal Bach was scheduled to sail on her maiden voyage on 13th August, after which she will offer cruises on the Rhine, Main and Danube rivers. The vessel is the first of four new ships that Crystal has dubbed its Rhine-class river yachts. The Crystal Bach’s debut follows last year’s launch of the Crystal Mozart, a former Peter Deilmann river cruise ship that Crystal River Cruises purchased and transformed from a 203-pas­ senger vessel into a 160-passenger one. The Crystal Bach features 53 suites, all with balconies and all located above the waterline. The vessel was built with multiple dining venues, a Palm Court with a dance floor and a glass-domed roof, a library, a fitness centre and a spa. Sporting equipment is also provided aboard including electric bicycles, kayaks and water scooters. Sistership Crystal Mahler followed in September whilst the Crystal Debussy and Crystal Ravel will arrive in 2018. Meanwhile, Crystal Cruises returned to Dover on 10th August for the first time since 2015 when the 51,044gt/1995 built Crystal Symphony paid a visit. Three further calls in August followed, with additional calls already booked for 2018, 2019 and 2020. The Crystal Bach was later named in Rudesheim, Germany, over the weekend of 19th/20th August by German opera star Anna-Maria Kaufmann.

Dream Cruises’ new 151,300gV2017 built World Dream (above) was floated out of the Meyer Werft building dock in Papenburg, Germany on 26th August. The funnel was then fitted along with other equipment prior to her transit of the River Ems to the North  Sea on for 9th September. On 8th August sister company Star Cruises announced the 42,285gt/1988 built Superstar Libra’s latest deployment from 3rd September onwards with triple homeports in Kuala Lumpur via Port Klang and Penang in Malaysia, as well as in Phuket, Thailand, with two cruises per week, including the 3-nights Kuala Lumpur (via Port Klang)/Phuket/Penang cruise or the 4 nights Kuala Lumpur (via Port Klang)/Langkawi/Phuket/Penang cruise.

Hapag-Lloyd’s new expedition ship Hanseatic Inspiration will sail itineraries as diverse as the Amazon and the U.S. Great Lakes after making her debut in October 2019. The 230-passenger ship will be one of a pair, with sister ship Hanseatic Nature serving the German-speaking market. The Hanseatic Inspiration will be an international ship. The maiden voyage of the Hanseatic Inspiration departs Antwerp on 14th October 2019, on a 15-day tour of west­ern Atlantic ports such as Lisbon, Casablanca and Honfleur. Voyages in 2020 include 25th March-11th April on the Amazon, and 3rd-17th June on the Great Lakes, the first time in nearly a decade that a Hapag-Lloyd ship will sail there. The Europa 2 and Europa will be dry docked at Blohm + Voss 13th-27th September and 27th September-13th October respectively. The Europa 2, will receive significant spa enhancements plus the Gin bar will be rebranded and the Jazz Club will also get a new look. The ship’s library and coffee bar will be integrated into one lounge, with an extensive view out of the front of the ship. The Europa is due further spa enhance­ ments in addition to significant work on the ship’s propulsion sys­tem.

MSC Cruises celebrated the float out of the 5,179 guest capacity, 323m long and 154,000gt MSC Seaview from the building dock at Fincantieri’s yard in Monfalcone on 23rd August 2017 (above). The ship is the second of MSC Cruises’ Seaside generation of cruise ships and she will now be fitted out alongside the quay at the ship­ yard. The Seaside Class has been designed specifically for warmer climates and to bring guests closer to the sea. The aft profile of these ships certainly lacks aesthetics but everything is designed for a certain function. The MSC Seaview is set to make her service debut in June 2018 whilst the MSC Seaside enters service in December 2017.

Nicko Cruises is set to expand from rivers to oceans with the newbuild World Explorer, which is expected to debut the German com­ pany on a seasonal basis from May 2019. The ship is the first of a series of 200-passenger capacity newbuilds being constructed in Portugal.  WestSea Shipyard in Portugal cut the steel for the ship on 8th September and she will initially debut for Mario Ferreira’s Mystic Cruises in late 2018 in Antarctica for Quark Expeditions on a seasonal charter before Nicko Cruises get to operate her in Europe.

Nordic Cruise Company announced in August that it was moving ahead with plans to build a series of four expedition ultra-luxury yachts. The first ship will be delivered in May of 2020 with three more 220-passenger vessels to follow from Spain’s Metal Ships & Docks in 10-month intervals. A significant amount of fundraising for the project is complete and the four ships will be the first expedition ships that are LNG ready, with capacity to sail up to 36 hours on LNG while burning MGO the rest of the time. They will also be equipped with hydrogen fuel cells. Since the initial ship design con­ cept was released in January, the company went back to the drawing board, adding capacity, making the ships bigger at 16,500 tons and giving them a totally new exterior look, courtesy of Hareide Design. Since announcing its intent to enter the cruise business in January, the company has changed its name from Norwegian Cruise Company to Nordic Cruise Company.

Norwegian Cruise Line’s 93,558gV2006 built Norwegian Jade (above) made her and NCL’s inaugural call at the Port of Tyne on 1st September. The combined effect of the Port of Tyne cruise and ferry business adds some £51m to the regional economy support­ ing 1,700 tourism related jobs. The growth in cruise operations at the Port of Tyne is evident in the record number of cruise calls with 52 cruise arrivals in 2017 and already 52 provisionally booked for 2018, including three calls by the ‘Jade in 2018.

P&O Cruises has unveiled its summer 2019 cruise programme with increased emphasis on appeal to newcomers and past guests alike. The brochure of almost 180 itineraries features a combination of popular mainstream itineraries and longer Discovery cruises to lesser known destinations. The key features of the programme are between May and October, past guest orientated cruising on the Arcadia and Aurora, discovery-led itineraries and scenic cruising opportunities on the Oriana and a Malta Mediterranean fly-cruise programme on the Oceana.

P&O Cruises Australia’s 55,877gV1993 built Pacific Eden (above) joined sister ships Explorer and Dawn in sporting the brand’s new Southern Cross livery in early August. The vessel was in Singapore for a 12-day drydock which included updating the Marquee Show Lounge, The Dome, cinema, spa, gym, HQ and HQ Plus and select mini-suites and balcony cabins. The refit also saw the application of the new Southern Cross livery across her bow and several million dollars worth of new facilities, fixtures and fit­ tings inside. The Pacific Eden emerged from dry dock on 9th August and returned to service with a 9-night sailing from Cairns to the Conflict Islands on 24th August.

Polar Expeditions Inc.’s new Polar Expedition Ship got underway at BrodoSplit as Hull 484 on 22nd August when the steel cutting commenced. The 107.6m long and 17.6m beam passenger ship will be the first vessel to be built to class LR PC6, meeting the late stand highest demands of Lloyd’s Register for “Polar Class 6” vessels, the highest Polar Class notation for ice-strengthened vessels. The vessel will be equipped with two main engines with a total output of 4,260kW, generating a speed of 15knots. The passenger certificate is for 196 passengers accommodated in 85 cabins. Design and all the technical solutions are the work of the Brodosplit Design Department. The new vessel will be available for her first customers as per the Arctic season in March 2019.

Portsmouth Port played host to Noble Caledonia doing the double on 31st August when their 4,200gt/1991 built Hebridean Sky and 2,598gt/1960 built Serenissima arrived on the same day on turnaround calls. According to reports, the 116 passenger capacity Hebridean Sky had recently undergone a multi-million pound refurbishment in dry dock in Sweden. As of 29th September cruise pas­sengers arriving at Portsmouth International Port will be able to sail straight to Gunwharf Quays from the quayside where the ship docks. The new boat service is completely free for port of call visi­tors, and will be operated by Blue Funnel Cruises. The first passen­ gers to experience the new service arrived aboard the Viking Star on 29th September, the first time that a Viking Cruises ship has vis­ited Portsmouth International Port. All non-turnaround cruise calls in 2018 will benefit from the boat service.

Princess Cruises’ 77,499gV1998 built Sea Princess (above) had to operate for 10 days of a cruise in blackout from dusk until dawn for fear of pirate attacks. Captain Gennaro Arma was forced to make the decision when the 1,900 passenger capacity ship depart­ed from Sydney towards Dubai on a 104 day cruise around the world. The mandatory blackout included no deck parties, no movies under the stars, no late-night outdoor bars and no pool use after dark. All curtains were drawn, all lights were dimmed or turned off and there were obligatory pirate drills to prepare the crew and passengers in case an actual attack happened. The ship was fully equipped with anti-pirate devices, fire hoses were made ready, Officers were on watch 24/7 and a sonic boom system, which could knock pirates off their ladders, was on standby. Quite rightly, the Captain opted for the “better to be safe than sorry” approach and the ship continued on her voyage without issue. On 8th September the steel for the next 145,000gt and 4,250 passenger capacity Royal Princess Class ship was cut at the Fincantieri shipyard in Monfalcone, the fourth ship in the series. Delivery is due in 2019.

Regent Seven Seas Cruises is asking its guests and travel agents to submit names for the next new ship, which makes her debut in 2020. The competition ran 5th-29th September and the name suggestion was to be in English and begin with “Seven Seas” and end with either “er” or “or”. Three winners will be randomly selected and announced by 15th November and each will receive a complimentary suite for themselves and a guest aboard the christening voyage of Regent Seven Seas Cruises’ new fifth ship.

Royal Caribbean International has cut the first piece of steel for its new Quantum Ultra ship and revealed the vessel will be named Spectrum of the Seas. The Quantum Ultra ship will be specifically designed for guests in China and the Asia-Pacific and makes her debut in autumn 2019.

Silversea Cruises revealed on 11th September that a €310 million deal had been signed with Fincantieri for the construction of a new ultra-luxury cruise ship. The ship is due to join the Silversea fleet in 2020. The new ship, tentatively named Silver Moon, will be the sister ship of the Silver Muse, which was delivered in April 2017 at the Fincantieri shipyard in Sestri Ponente (Genoa). At 40,700 gross tons and with a capacity to accommodate 596 passengers on board, the Silver Moon will maintain the small-ship intimacy and spacious all-suite accommodation which is the hallmark of the Silversea experience. The new build will expand Silversea’s fleet to 10 ships. The day of the announcement saw the Silver Muse making her debut call at Southampton.