AIDA Cruises celebrated its 20th anniversary on 7th June 2016. On that day in 1996, the first ship in the AIDA fleet, Aida, was christened by former first lady Christiane Herzog in Rostock and put into service. From the very beginning, AIDA has stood for innovation and product diversity like no other company in the industry. This will continue in its 20th year.

Carnival Group shares dropped 11% on 27th June amid concerns that the economic fallout of the Brexit vote will affect demand for cruise holidays. The shares dropped to a four month low of £30.75. The markets are expected to be twitchy until the effects of Brexit are actually known, good or bad.

Cruise & Maritime Voyages’ 16,144gt/1948 built and 550-passenger capacity Astoria (above) is set to leave the cruise line’s fleet after the vessel completes a 2017 micro-season. CMV has announced that the world’s oldest passenger cruise ship still in service will leave the fleet after her final cruise in April 2017, a 10-night round-Britain itinerary from Amsterdam to London Tilbury. The ship will once again be chartered to French tour operator Rivages Du Monde from May until September 2017. Whether the ship will be sailing with another operator after September 2017, or heading for the scrapyard is still unknown. The Astoria will operate 8 sailings with the cruise line between 9th March and 27th April 2017 from London Tilbury, with the option of also joining the ship in Amsterdam and Rotterdam.

COSCO Cruising: The world’s largest shipping company has branched out into a potentially controversial cruise business. China COSCO Shipping will launch cruise itineraries in the South China Sea, with the first route to travel from Sanya city on Hainan Island to the disputed Paracel Islands, a landmass also claimed by Vietnam and Taiwan. After the company’s debut next month the plan is to offer a variety of domestic and international cruise itineraries going forward.

Crystal Cruises’ 68,870gt/2003 built Crystal Serenity and 51,044gt/1995 built Crystal Symphony will sail a total of eight sailings to and from Port Everglades beginning 27th October 2017, having last sailed from the port in 2006.

Grand Circle Cruises will be offering new small ship cruise tours to Cuba aboard the Clio from January 2017. The 11-night sailings from Miami to Cuba will call at the small cities of Caibarien and Remedios plus Trinidad and Cienfuegos before spending three nights in the capital, Havana via an overland journey from Cienfuegos. The plans were announced in June and the 89-passenger capacity Clio has been visiting ports in the UK during summer 2016. Other cruise operators that have been pursuing approval to cruise to Cuba from Miami include the parent companies of Oceania Cruises and Royal Caribbean International.

Hebridean Island Cruises: The 2,112gt/1964 built Hebridean Princess, seen above in Hardanger Fjord, will return to the Norwegian Fjords as part of Hebridean Island Cruise’s 2017 season. The ship will sail across the North Sea in July 2017 for three cruises. For the first cruise, passengers have the choice of cruising from Invergordon or joining the Hebridean Princess in Sandnes. After cruising through the Hardanger and Fykesuung fjords the 8- day journey ends in the historic city of Bergen. The Hebridean Princess’ 2017 season gets underway on 1st March with a five night cruise from Greenock and, throughout the season, the 50-passenger capacity vessel will cruise to 44 Scottish islands.

Hurtigruten’s 7,344gt/2009 built Spitsbergen (above) made her debut in July and was baptised in a ceremony at Svolvaer on 6th July. The ship will sail parallel to MS Lofoten along the Norwegian coast for part of the year. She was built for the Venezuelan Government as Atlantida, joining Hurtigruten as Norway Explore in 2015.

Istanbul is being given a wide berth, along with other Turkish ports of call by cruise lines such as Cunard Line, Princess Cruises, Celebrity Cruises, Windstar and Seabourn that have modified or cancelled calls in response to the tragic bombing at Atatürk Airport. Holland America Line said it is closely monitoring the situation whilst Royal Caribbean Cruises, Silversea and Fred. Olsen Cruises had not made any modifications at the time of writing. Itinerary changes have generally benefitted alternative destinations in Greece.

Lerwick Harbour welcomed P&O Cruises’ 115,055gt Azura, the largest cruise ship yet to enter the Shetland port, on 30th June. The vessel arrived from Akureyri, in Iceland, en route for Kirkwall, Orkney, carrying around 3,100 passengers. The Azura broke the previous port record set by the 114,288gt Costa Pacifica in June 2011. The record will change hands again on 14th August when the 122,210gt Celebrity Silhouette arrives during a season expected to attract a record 79 cruise ships if all goes to plan.

Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. has relocated its three brands to a large office in Grosvenor Square, Southampton, in a move that will increase synergies and nurture working relationships between all three distinct cruise lines. Norwegian Cruise Line, Oceania Cruises and Regent Seven Seas Cruises share a location in the UK for the first time since Norwegian Cruise Line acquired Prestige Cruise Holdings, parent company of Regent Seven Seas Cruises and Oceania Cruises, in November 2014. The relocation underlines the Company’s growth plans for each of the individual brands and comes at a time where several additions have been made, or are imminent, to the respective fleets. Oceania Cruises welcomed the Sirena in April 2016, Regent Seven Seas Cruises will launch the most luxurious ship ever built, Seven Seas Explorer, in July 2016 and NCL will launch the Norwegian Joy, the first ship purpose-built for the Chinese market, in 2017.

Panama Princess: The Panama Canal celebrated the opening of its new lock system on 26th June after the decade-long, $5.4-billion “Panamax” expansion. A crowd of 30,000 attended to witness the container ship COSCO Shipping Panama (renamed especially) become the first commercial vessel to pass through the Agua Clara locks on the Atlantic side of the canal. The 112,894gt/2004 built Panamax cruise ship Caribbean Princess (above) was the first passenger vessel to pass through the new canal system.

MSC veteran Melody, now named Qing, has been residing at a repair yard near Mormugao Port Trust (MPT) at Vasco, Goa. She developed a severe list to starboard at the end of June following a period of continuous rainfall lead to water ingress, as seen above. The ship is owned by the Sahara India company and had been ‘in situ’ for around two years prior to this awaiting conversion to a floating hotel. This development may well put the 35,143gt/1982 built ship’s future in immediate doubt.

An Explorer from Dawn The 77,441gt/1997 built Dawn Princess of Princess Cruises will be refitted in May/June 2017 to emerge as P&O Australia’s Pacific Explorer. She will be equipped with waterslides, a chilled barefoot bowls green and much more when she debuts after the multimillion- dollar refurbishment. The ship will operate her first cruise from Sydney on 22nd June 2017, joining Pacific Dawn, Pacific Jewel, Pacific Aria and Pacific Eden.

Celebrity Cruises signed a letter of intent for the two 300m long, 38m beam, 2,900 passenger capacity and 117,000gt cruise ships with French shipbuilder STX France in December 2014.