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Greetings Cruise Fans and Happy Mother's Day! We hope every Mom can be with her children today. I can't be this year, but I've already talked to them today. And it helps! So today, to make up for some skipped issues, I have prepared a long cruise newsletter, with the latest news from all the major lines. First, however, Pat has asked me to tell you about a great group cruise he's put together! And you're invited! Join us for the October 30 sailing of the Carnival Victory. The ship is a big beauty, sailing from Miami for 7 days in the Eastern Caribbean, with port calls at St. Thomas, San Juan and St. Maarten. Best of all, the prices are fantastic! As soon as Pat has all the details in place, I'll have more information about the ocean-view and balcony cabin bargains! Plus it's Halloween -- and Pat is already planning his costume! Watch for more information, coming soon! Another thing Pat wanted me to mention was his affiliation with Travel Safe Insurance, one of the very best cruise insurers anywhere. Several clients have had to collect from Travel Safe over the years, and there is never a problem. They're also value- priced, which makes for a perfect, secure, reasonably priced insurance product, so you can just concentrate on having fun. With hurricane season upon us soon, rest assured that insurance you purchase with your cruise from Pat and Travel Safe will cover any weather-related problems! For example, Travel Safe includes Departure Cancellation coverage, which will reimburse pre-paid, non-refundable expenses if more than 50 percent of the trip is lost due to inclement weather. There's also Post-Departure Interruption coverage which will reimburse unused pre-paid travel arrangements that are non- refundable, plus the additional transportation expenses incurred to return home if your arrangements need to be interrupted for one of the above reasons. There's also Travel Delay coverage that will reimburse you for reasonable additional expenses incurred by you for hotel accommodations, meals, telephone calls and local transportation if you are delayed for more than 8 hours due to a natural disaster or closure of public roadways by government authorities due to adverse weather. It's excellent coverage - as good or better than what is available from the cruise lines. Next week, we'll get deeper into this insurance business and Pat will prepare a comparison of Travel Safe and several cruise line programs. There are advantages to both kinds of coverage, largely determined by passenger age. In other cruise news ??¦ For the new 110,000-ton Carnival Liberty - set to launch Carnival's first-ever Mediterranean cruise program July 20, 2005 - the line has commissioned a group of talented artists to enhance the vessel's interiors, which celebrate great artisans and their works. Israeli artist Calman Shemi took the Carnival Liberty's design theme to heart and created a series of large, colorful murals that feature depictions of iron workers, glass blowers, jewelry makers, and sculptors practicing their crafts. The massive aluminum panels, which measure six feet by nine feet, are positioned within the ship's center stairways. Shemi also created 45 different smaller pieces that were reproduced for the 1,479 staterooms. California painter Marian Westall also pays homage to the artisan theme with a series of large canvases for the aft stairways. The brightly colored paintings depict pottery and ornate grillwork set against a variety of dramatic settings, including the desert, sunsets, and a lake. Virginia Ferrara's large, tropical-themed pieces, which adorn Carnival Liberty's stair landings, are huge, pastel-hued laid-back looks at the Sunshine State, with images of palm trees, hammocks and swimming pools. Adjacent to the Carnival Liberty's swimming pools are four bronze sculptures by Susanna Holt, depicting an anhinga bird drying its wings, sea lions in repose, and a stag and a doe in standing positions. Colorful glass pieces by renowned Italian glass artist Luciano Vistosi, which are illuminated from behind and Sara Righi's bronze sculpture "Aurora" round out the art aboard the new ship. Liberty is scheduled to debut July 20, with a series of 12-day Mediterranean voyages that will run through Oct. 12, 2005. Carnival Liberty will then operate a 16-day transatlantic voyage departing Rome (Civitavecchia) Oct. 24, and arriving at Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Nov. 9, 2005, calling at Barcelona, Palma de Mallorca and Malaga, Spain; Funchal (Madeira), Portugal; and St. Maarten, Netherlands Antilles. The cruise industry's only year-round six- and eight-day Bahamas/Caribbean cruises from Fort Lauderdale begin Nov. 12, 2005. Carnival Cruise Lines will return to Norfolk, Va., next year with a series of four voyages aboard the 2,758-passenger Carnival Victory in summer and fall 2006. The four voyages will depart from Norfolk' s Nauticus Cruise Terminal and will include two six- day Bahamas voyages June 4 and Oct. 8, 2006, and a pair of two-day cruises departing on Saturday June 10 and Oct. 14. One of the largest passenger vessels at sea, the 102,000-ton Carnival Victory features 18 lounges and bars with interiors inspired by the world' s most famous bodies of water, a 15,000-square-foot spa, an on-board duty- free shopping mall, a jogging track, Internet caf?©, four swimming pools, a 214-foot-long water slide, and expansive indoor and outdoor children' s play areas. Dining options include twin two-level formal dining rooms with extensive menus and wine lists and a casual poolside eatery offering breakfast, lunch and dinner buffets, plus a 24-hour pizzeria, a deli and Asian and American specialty areas. Carnival has announced that the price for a meal in one of their award-winning supper clubs has increased from $25 to $30 per person. Supper Clubs feature intimate dining in a Manhattan-chic setting and a menu that includes your steakhouse favorites. Supper Clubs are featured on the Carnival Spirit, Carnival Pride, Carnival Legend, Carnival Miracle, Carnival Conquest, Carnival Glory, Carnival Valor and Carnival Liberty. In response to many passenger requests, Carnival has gone back to the drawing board to refigure some shore times to allow for longer port calls On the Carnival Conquest's 7 Day cruise from New Orleans, they've managed to add an extra hour to the Montego Bay call, arriving at 8 a.m., instead of 9 a.m. and an extra hour in Cozumel, arriving at 9:30 a.m. instead of 10:30 a.m. On the Sensation's 5-Day itinerary on Mondays from New Orleans, the Calica/Playa del Carmen port call is now extended from 9 a.m. to 8 p. m. rather than the original 6 p.m. departure, allowing for more shore excursion choices. On the Sensation's 5-Day itinerary on Saturdays from New Orleans, the Monday port call at Costa Maya now lasts from noon until 8 p.m. On the Carnival Elation from Galveston, the Cozumel port call is now 9 a.m. until 6 p.m. On the Carnival Legend's 8 Day cruise from Ft. Lauderdale, the port call at Colon, Panama now extends from 7 a.m. until 5 p.m., rather than 4 p.m. the ship now call at Limon, Costa Rica from 7 a.m. until 5 p.m., rather than noon until 7 p.m. On May 3, NCL announced another new ship order with Meyer Werft, in Germany, for delivery in October 2007 to its Norwegian Cruise Line brand. The vessel, currently referred to as hull S.670, will have a capacity of 2,384 lower berths and be a sister to the Norwegian Jewel, which is scheduled for delivery in August of this year. Total contract price, is ?‚¬391 million (approximately $510 million at today's exchange rate). The new order follows an order announced in December last year with the same yard for an identical ship to be delivered in February 2007. This ship becomes the fifth ship in the pipeline for introduction to the NCL fleet during the next 28 months. This new order will be the 10th new ship to join the NCL fleet since fleet modernization began in 1999. Once this 10th ship is delivered in 2007, over 75 percent of NCL's inventory of beds will be on ships less than eight years old. Star Cruises chairman Tan Sri K T Lim reports, "Our investment in the NCL fleet modernization is now close to $4 billion since 2000. " Delivery dates for new NCL ships are Pride of America, June 2005; Norwegian Jewel, August 2005; Pride of Hawaii, April 2006; S.669 February 2007; and S.670, October 2007. That's it for this week. Again, Happy Mother's Day! And until next week when we'll have all the details on the group cruise, a discussion of travel insurance and all the cruise news, smooth sailing! Teri |
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