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Queen Elizabeth to Christen Cunard's Newest Liner

The full text of the stories has been delivered to our subscribers on the dates indicated.

* That Crowning Touch
Sept 1 - "There are ship launches, and there are Cunard ship launches," says Cunard president Peter Shanks, and as of today, Cunard has quite a Cunard ship launch on their hands.
The line announced today that Her Majesty The Queen will name their newest liner, Queen Elizabeth, before 1,600 invited guests in Southampton on October 11.

* You Have to Stay One Step Ahead of Earl
Sept 1 - With Hurricane Earl heading out of the Caribbean, the cruise lines operating along the East Coast are now beginning to shuffle ports of call to keep ships out of the way of the storm.
With the storm arriving in New York on Friday afternoon and New England early Saturday, the strategy seems to be to move ships ahead in their itineraries to get ahead of the storm.

* Carnival Crew Member Arrested
Sept 1 - Another Carnival crew member has been arrested on charges involving sex and a minor.
This time it was a 26-year-old male crew member, whom according to Canadian Border Services, was an assistant room steward aboard Carnival Glory.

The complete text of these stories appeared in the CND editions referenced and was sent to subscribers.

* Earl's Caribbean Work Is Not Done Yet
Aug 31 - As Hurricane Earl turns north and leaves the Caribbean, cruise lines are still making changes to deal with the winds and high seas the storm is churning up. The port of San Juan reopened this morning, but ports in the Virgin Islands remained closed until mid-afternoon.
Cruise lines today made four more adjustments to the itineraries of their ships.

* When an Inflatable Santa Just Won't Do
Aug 31 - The holiday sailings aboard Crystal Symphony and Crystal Serenity are four months away, but Crystal Cruises has already made all their holiday plans. And from the looks of it, they've been planning this since right after they took the decorations down last year.
Crystal Symphony will sail round trip from Los Angeles to Hawaii on December 22, while Crystal Serenity will sail round trip from Miami to the Caribbean on December 21, and passengers aboard each will be treated to some of the most lavish and unusual holiday decor that we've seen.

* Other Things You'll Want to Know
Aug 31 - CND subscribers also read about Paul Gauguin and the perfect cruise ... another medevac from Carnival Paradise ... breaking out the antibiotics aboard one ship - just as a precaution ... and there's always someone with a video camera - even when a cruise ship brawl breaks out.

* Earl 6, Danielle 0
Aug 30 - Hurricane Earl intensified this afternoon to Category 4 strength as the eye passed 68 miles north northeast of St. Thomas (at 5pm EDT), and ports in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands remain closed.
Over the weekend, three major cruise lines rerouted ships so they would be out of the storm's way.

* Other Things You'll Want to Know
Aug 30 - CND subscribers also read about scheduling Allure of the Seas' delivery ... an unusual medevac in Australia ... Norwegian Dawn's engine troubles ... and Clipper Adventurer's grounding.

* Fincantieri Launches Carnival Magic
Aug 27 - The 130,000-ton Carnival Magic was floated up today at Fincantieri's Monfalcone shipyard.

* Norwegian Sky Lease Extended
Aug 27 - Apparently, Norwegian Cruise Line is going to stay in the Bahamas market for a couple more years - or at least will have the ship to do it if they want to. Norwegian Sky, the ship which NCL operates the 3- and 4-night cruises with, is owned by Genting Hong Kong, with whom they've just agreed on new leasing terms.

* Other Things You'll Want to Know
Aug 27 - CND subscribers also read about Carnival choosing Carnival Magic's first master ... a new direction for RCI's television commercials ... a force to be reckoned with in the full ship charter market ... and a different point of view in Charleston.

* Greek Parliament Creates Opportunity for Foreign Cruise Lines
Aug 26 - The Greek parliament has approved changes to the country's cabotage laws which will allow foreign cruise lines to operate Greek Island cruises round trip from ports within Greece. Until now, those itineraries required passengers to sail on Greek lines. Foreign lines were required to start or end the cruise outside the country or include Greek ports on round trips from other countries.
The change is seen as a boost for the Greek tourism industry and the sagging Greek economy, although Greek maritime unions, feeling threatened by increased competition, have opposed the change.

* More Trouble in Alaskan Waters
Aug 26 - Get ready for another round of legal battles in Alaska that could end up affecting the way cruise lines operate there, or force more ships out of the market. Either way, it would further damage the state's economy.

* More Trouble in Falmouth
Aug 26 - A couple of weeks ago we reported that work has yet to begin to spruce up the somewhat dilapidated town of Falmouth which is set to grow by leaps and bounds as a cruise port when one of Royal Caribbean's Oasis-class ships begins making weekly calls there next year. (Calls by other ships are scheduled to begin in November.)
Now word comes that changes planned for the town to accommodate the cruise ships is riling many of the local businesspeople.

* New Federal Rule to Police Calif Coastline Water
Aug 25 - The Environmental Protection Agency has proposed a new rule that will prohibit all large ships from discharging waste within three miles of California's coast. The consumer press is heralding this as a great triumph, and most of the stories mostly talk about how it will prohibit cruise ships with thousands of passengers from dumping sewage near the state's beaches.
The problem with that coverage is that the new regulations generally won't affect cruise ship operations because they haven't been intentionally discharging waste that close to shore for years. The problem with the new rule itself is that if it's supposed to improve the quality of the water near shore, it doesn't cover discharges by land-based sources which do make waste discharges within three miles of shore, and what they discharge is generally far more polluted than what cruise ships routinely discharge farther out to sea.

* Other Things You'll Want to Know
Aug 25 - CND subscribers also read about the potential RCCL sees in China and what it could mean for the US market ... numbers of cruise tourists up for Mexico ... and Carnival filling some kind of need on Facebook.

The complete text of these stories appeared in the CND editions referenced and was sent to subscribers.

Aug 13 - Construction is in the early phases of Celebrity's fourth Solstice-class ship, Celebrity Silhouette. Larger

Aug 12 - Construction proceeds on AIDAsol last week at Meyer Werft as Carnival orders a fourth vessel in that series for delivery in 2013. Larger

Aug 6 - The first water touched the hull of Costa Favolosa today at the Fincantieri yard in Marghera (Italy). More/Larger

July 6 - HRH Princess Maxima tours the bridge of Nieuw Amsterdam with Capt Edward van Zaane shortly after she christened the ship in Venice on Sunday. More/Larger

July 1 - Norwegian Epic makes her maiden arrival at New York. More/Larger

June 28 - The new Tianjin cruise terminal as seen from the deck of the first ship to call, Costa Romantica. More/Larger

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Recent features:

What's Wrong with Alaska's Thinking? Why are the cruise lines getting little cooperation from the state?
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News File Index - past photos and articles available online.

Guide to New Ships Lots of new ships will be sailing over the horizon in the next couple of years. This is the place to sort them all out and keep them straight. Here we list in a table how big, how many, who's got them, when they're coming.

Cruise Weather Page Here, you'll find links to some major weather sites that will help you find the current weather forecasts at ports you plan to visit and to sites that track major tropical storms.

Links to Cruise-Related Sites Here we gathered all the links to the major cruise lines' official home pages (and some selected smaller ones, too) along with links to the official pages of tourist boards at ports of call. Also included are other cruise-related sites that you will find useful.

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