Carnival Cruise Line will get a third 133,500-ton Vista-class ship in late 2019. This comes after sister line, P&O Cruises Australia, scrapped plans for a new build because the Austrailian market hasn't experienced enough growth. That new build has now been deferred to Carnival Cruise Line.
Carnival Splendor will say goodbye to Carnival Cruise Line and transfer to sister cruise line P&O Cruises Australia at the end of 2019. That answers the question of why no Fun Ship 2.0 upgrades.
Princess Cruises' Grand Princess' Hawaii to San Francisco cruise was cut short over the weekend when a side hatch on the ship opened while at sea, this first reported by CruiseCritic. The ship is being forced to return back to Honolulu, Hawaii to be repaired. The ship is scheduled to arrive in Honolulu on Monday afternoon where the guests will be flown to San Francisco.
Princess Cruises Statement
Princess said in a statement, "While at sea after departing from Maui, a tender platform on the starboard side of Grand Princess opened. The platform sustained damage, such that it could not be closed. Although the platform is not part of the watertight integrity of the vessel, as a result of it opening, the hull sustained minor localized damage which has been secured."
They went on to say, "The Captain has confirmed that the ship is safe and secure and he is communicating updates to guests on a regular basis."
Compensation
Guests are being flown from Honolulu to San Francisco, the original destination of the ship. Princess Cruises is offering guests a 50 percent refund and a future cruise credit equal to the amount of the refund. Princess is also covering hotel and transfer costs for passengers aboard Grand Princess.
Grand Princess was on a 15-night sailing from Honolulu to San Francisco.
It’s the end of an era for Carnival Corporation’s social impact cruise line, Fathom, as they announced last week that the cruise line would cease operation in the summer of 2017.
Fathom first launched to the Dominican Republic earlier this year, and also opened up the Cuba market in May.
The Dominican Republic market showed little interest while the Cuba cruises have been extremely popular.
The Fathom brand will remain in Amber Cove, Dominican Republic and operate social impact shore excursions like teaching English, making water filters, and pouring concrete in houses. The ship, ms Adonia, will be transferred back to P&O Cruises.
According to USA Today, Carnival Corporation has already requested approval for another cruise line to take its place in Cuba come June 2017.
If you were looking to sail Fathom but never got around to it, you’ve got approximately six months to hop on the ship before it’s too late!
Freeport, Bahamas is back open for business, well at least docking cruise ships, after being plowed over by Hurricane Matthew early last month.
Last week, Carnival Cruise Line’s Senior Cruise Director, John Heald, revealed on his facebook page, Facebook page, "It looks like we have good news on ships being able to sail to Freeport again on the week of November 6th."
This week Carnival Cruise Line has Carnival Valor, Carnival Sunshine, Carnival Pride, and Carnival Elation scheduled to dock at the island.
Norwegian Cruise Line said that Norwegian Sky is expected to resumes called to Freeport on November 20, a stop on their four-night itineraries out of Miami.
Royal Carribean's Grandeur of the Seas, a ship based out of Baltimore, is scheduled to stop there on November 16.
Clean up of Port Lucaya Marketplace is underway. Businesses in the island’s tourism hub are slowly starting to reopen. Well known day pass hotel Grand Lucayan sustained roof and water damage and still remains closed until further notice. A representative at the hotel told me that are still in "restoration mode." Cruisers can not buy day passes to the resort at this time.