Amadeus River Cruises’ 110m long Amadeus Classic collided with an over bridge on the Van Starkenborgh Canal in Aduard, The Netherlands, on 25th July. The vessel was attempting to pass under the bridge but struck it, causing serious damage to her promenade deck railings. Water levels in the canal were reported as being 20cm higher than normal but within normal operating conditions.

Azamara Club Cruises’ “new” 30,277gt/2001 built Azamara Pursuit, formerly the R-Eight, Minerva II, Royal Princess and Adonia, completed her refit at Harland & Wolff in Belfast in late July before making her way to Southampton, arriving on 28th July. The first 2-night trip to Guernsey was cancelled due to bad weather so the ship remained in port until sailing for Oslo on 1st August. Her naming ceremony will be at Southampton on 28th August.

CMV’s 20,704gt/1987 built Astor will conclude her seasonal itineraries in Australia for the company between December 2018 and March 2019 after six years. CMV’s new ship, the Vasco da Gama, will begin her first Australian season in December 2019.

Crystal River Cruises welcomed its fifth ship and the newest member of the fleet, the Crystal Ravel, during a christening ceremony in Budapest, Hungary on 11th July. The ship’s godmother was Hungarian philanthropist and creator of the hit “Virtuosos” classical music talent show, Mariann Peller. The Crystal River Cruises fleet now comprises Crystal Ravel and her identical sister ships: Crystal Bach, Crystal Mahler and Crystal Debussy, as well as the Crystal Mozart, which at twice the width of any other river cruise ship, is Europe’s most spacious river cruise vessel and launched the brand in July 2016. The Crystal Ravel is currently sailing itineraries of 6-14 days between Vienna and Basel and in 2019 she will be the only river ship to sail seven-night Danube cruises round-trip from Vienna to ports in Austria, Hungary and Slovakia. Meanwhile Crystal Cruise’s 20,000gt expedition yacht Crystal Endeavour will debut on 10th August 2020 and her itineraries were published on 31st July.

Genting Hong Kong redeployed one of its older cruise ships, the 42,285gt/1988 built Superstar Libra (above), to Genting’s MV Werften yard in Wismar at the beginning of August to accommodate shipyard workers. She was noted heading north through the Dover Straits on 1st August. MV Werften’s Wismar and Warnemünde sites are working on Genting’s new 5,000-passenger capacity Global Class ships, with the first due for delivery in 2020 and the second in 2021. Additional accommodation is being built near the shipyard in Wismar but the 700 cabin capacity ship will provide a much needed temporary solution.

Hapag-Lloyd Cruises’ new Hanseatic Nature departed from VARD Tulcea, her builders in Romania, in late July under tow for VARD Langsten Werft near Ålesund in Norway for completion (above). The 4,000 nautical mile voyage was expected to take 24-28 days. The 230-passenger capacity ship will be delivered in April 2019. The ship will be christened next April in Hamburg and her sisters will follow in October 2019 and 2021.

Lindblad Expeditions Holdings has revealed plans to place an order for a new polar expedition ship, scheduled for delivery in 2021. This will be the fourth polar vessel in the Lindblad Expeditions/National Geographic fleet and will join the 6,471gt/1982 built National Geographic Explorer and the 3,984gt/2003 built National Geographic Orion with the National Geographic Endurance being scheduled for delivery in early 2020.

Phoenix Reisen co-ordinated all four of its ocean-going ships, the 28,518gt/1973 built Albatros, 29,008gt/1991 built Amadea, 44,656gt/1984 built Artania and the 22,496gt/1998 built Deutschland in Bremerhaven on 25th July (above) to celebrate 30 years since Phoenix Reisen first sailed from Bremerhaven with the Maksim Gorkiy.

Ponant Cruises held the naming ceremony for the new Le Lapérouse on 10th July at the port of Hafnarfjörður, Iceland. The christening was undertaken by the godmother, Mrs. François Pinault, in the presence of prominent political and cultural figures, international media and key partners. Another highlight of the day involved Le Lapérouse being greeted as she was sailing from Hafnarfjörður by Le Soléal, another Ponant ship positioned in Icelandic waters. The company, the only French-owned cruise line and the world leader in luxury expeditions, celebrates its 30th anniversary in 2018. The operator was founded by Jean Emmanuel Sauvée and was acquired by Artémis in 2015, François Pinault’s family holding company. The 10,038gt/2018 built Ponant Explorers class ship Le Lapérouse will be joined by sisterships Le Champlain (October 2018), Le Bougainville and Le Dumont-d’Urville (2019) and Le Bellot and Le Surville (2020).

Poseidon Expeditions vessels rendezvoused in the Franz Josef Land Archipelago in July in the newest frontier in polar expedition cruising, the Russian High Arctic. This region was off-limits to foreign travellers until recent decades and is now largely under the management of the Russian Arctic National Park System. On 11th July the 23,439gt/2007 built and 128-passenger, nuclear-powered icebreaker 50 Years of Victory met with the 4,200gt/1991 built and 114-passenger Sea Spirit whilst both on their first voyages to the area.

Scenic Cruises of Australia has delayed the launch of the 10,000gt Scenic Eclipse, the world’s first discovery yacht, until late January 2019. Construction issues within the Croatian shipyard Uljanik are the source of the hold-up. The 237 passenger and 172 crew capacity vessel was launched at the Uljanik shipyard in Pula in January 2018 and was originally scheduled to deploy on her maiden voyage from Piraeus to Venice on 31st August before sailing to the Americas, Antarctica, Europe, the Mediterranean and the Arctic.

Viking Ocean Cruises confirmed in July that Vard Holdings has been awarded contracts for the design and construction of two cruise ships. The total contract value is approximately NOK 5 billion

A Letter of Intent for the vessels was entered into back in April 2018. Delivery of the vessels is scheduled from VARD in Norway in 2021 and 2022 respectively. The hulls will be built by VARD in Romania and fitted out in Norway. Speculation continues that these two ships will be expedition type vessels.

Two More Leonardos for NCL

On 12th July NCL confirmed with Fincantieri orders for the construction of the fifth and the sixth unit of the ‘Leonardo’ series, a class of new-concept cruise ships with deliveries scheduled in 2026 and 2027. The option was included in the agreement signed in February 2017 for the construction of the first 4 ships. These 140,000gt, 300m long and 3,300 guest capacity vessels will form the backbone of the future NCL fleet. The class is based on a prototype project developed by Fincantieri, which enhances the consolidated features of NCL’s freedom and flexibility policy as well as being energy efficient. On 18th July NCL announced enhancements to its 2019 and 2020 itineraries to take advantage of the strong global demand.

Originally built for the Chinese Market, the 167,725gt/2017 built Norwegian Joy (above) will join 168,028gt/2018 built sister ship Norwegian Bliss on the seasonal Alaska itineraries from Seattle in summer 2019 and will also offer Mexican Riviera and Panama Canal voyages from Los Angeles in winter 2019/2020.

The Norwegian Pearl (above) will sail to Europe as the cruise line’s sixth ship in the region in summer 2019 (Amsterdam, Civitavecchia, Barcelona & Venice) while the 93,558gt/2006 built Norwegian Jade and 93,502gt/2005 built Norwegian Jewel will significantly expand NCL’s presence in Australasia in 2019/2020.

The Norwegian Jade (above) will operate from Singapore/Hong Kong and a refurbished ‘Jewel will cruise from Honolulu, Papeete, Sydney, Auckland, Singapore, Hong Kong and Tokyo (Yokohama).

A refreshed 75,904gt/1998 built Norwegian Spirit (above) will serve the Chinese Market seasonally as from summer 2020.