Delta Queen Steamboat Co. canceled cruises on its American Queen vessel between Sept. 16 and March 6. The ship was scheduled to operate three- and four-day cruises from New Orleans coupled with overnight stays in the city. The line said that due to the damage inflicted by Hurricane Katrina, it will be “impossible” to operate the American Queen in the area.
Refunds will be automatically generated within the next 60 days and will go through the line´s agent partners, it said. Delta Queen said it is working with various government authorities to make the American Queen available in the overall relief efforts for the Gulf Coast region.
Cypriot line Louis Cruises will consult EasyCruise for low-cost start-up and advise the maritime company on the acquisition and building of new ships.
Louis Cruises will equally assist EasyCruise with “further expansion of its activities,” according to a statement from EasyCruise.
Discovery World Cruises unveils its first full-year program, spanning November 2005 to 2006, and featuring 40 cruise tours to more than 130 ports. Specialists in exploring faraway places in comfort and style, the line´s MV Discovery will call at intriguing destinations, including Antarctica, Iceland, New Zealand, South America, Europe and Scandinavia.
For the first time in 2006, Discovery will call at the Galapagos Islands, Amazon River ports, Ireland, the Shetland Islands, Corsica, and Sicily.
Royal Caribbean International, the cruise line that introduced the first onboard rock-climbing walls, ice skating rinks and in-line skating tracks, now will offer guests the chance to “hang ten” a hundred miles out to sea with the first-ever shipboard surf park aboard Freedom of the Seas.
The company unveiled plans for the onboard surf park at a special event at Cape Liberty Cruise Port in Bayonne, N.J., which will be the first U.S. stop in Freedom of the Seas´ preview schedule when she debuts as the world´s largest cruise ship in May 2006.
A Chilean based cruise company is incorporating a second vessel for this coming season´s tours of Antarctica, beginning in Puerto Montt and concluding in Ushuaia, Argentina, with a call in Punta Arenas.
Diego Hurtado, C & O Tours CEO who visited Punta Arenas over the weekend with foreign tourist operators said the company for the last three years has been successfully operating Antarctic cruises with the Norwegian flagged “Nordnorge” which has a 350 passenger capacity and a crew of 70.
Carnival Cruise Lines chartered three of its cruise ships for six months as part of Hurricane Katrina relief efforts. The ships, the Ecstasy, the Sensation and the Holiday, have been chartered to the Military Sealift Command on behalf of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The ships will be used to house people affected by the hurricane, said Carnival CEO Bob Dickinson.
Carnival has canceled the ships´ scheduled sailings through early March -- each operates short Caribbean cruises -- and providing full refunds to passengers booked on affected sailings. Passengers who rebook will receive a $100 per-person shipboard credit; agent commissions are protected.