Category: Cruise News

Royal Caribbean Floats Out Wonder of the Seas

TalkingCruise

Royal Caribbean’s fifth Oasis-class ship, Wonder of the Seas, has been transferred to the fitting out dock at Chantiers de l’Atlantique shipyard in Saint-Nazaire, France. This was also the first time the ship’s hull has touched water since construction began with the first block being placed in October 2019. Originally scheduled to arrive in 2021, Wonder of the Seas will take the title as world’s largest cruise ship, currently held by sister ship Symphony of the Seas. Being built to suit the Chinese cruise market, Wonder of the Seas will…

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Carnival’s 2nd XL-Class Ship will be Carnival Celebration

TalkingCruise

Carnival Cruise Line officially announced that the name of their second Excel-Class ship will be Carnival Celebration. With the help of celebrity partners past and present, Carnival Cruise Line today announced that its next Excel-class ship arriving in 2022 to coincide with its 50th birthday celebration will be named “Carnival Celebration.” A full roster of Carnival partners, including Kathie Lee Gifford, Guy Fieri and Shaquille O’Neal, unwrapped boxes that revealed the letters of the Celebration name, which is both a throwback to one of the popular early ships in the…

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Royal Caribbean’s New Approach to Lifeboat Drills

TalkingCruise

Anyone that has taken a cruise before, knows the least favorite part is the mandatory muster drill. For years, guests have been required to attend these drills en masse, with literally thousands of guests all moving in the same direction at the same time. Thankfully, with the introduction of  the Oasis class ships from Royal Caribbean over a decade ago, guests stopped having to carry their life vests from their cabins to the drills. On newer ships, we’ve also seen a move to having guests attend the drills in indoor…

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Carnival’s 2nd Excel Class Ship Confirmed for Nov 2022

TalkingCruise
Carnival Mardi Gras Itineraries Staterooms Bookings

Along with today’s news of fleet reductions, Carnival Cruise Line also confirmed that an additional Excel-class, LNG-powered ship will be arriving in November 2022. The yet unnamed, second Excel-class ship has been confirmed from the Meyer Turku shipyard. The sister ship to Mardi Gras will showcase many of her features, including BOLT, the first roller coaster at sea, and sail out of PortMiami as previously announced. Carnival had also previously announced plans for a newly upgraded terminal at PortMiami that will accommodate the second Excel-class vessel. Carnival said it will…

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Carnival Sells Two Ships and Two Enter Long Term Layup

TalkingCruise

Carnival Cruise Line made it official today that two of their ships Carnival Fantasy and Carnival Inspiration have been sold. Additionally, Carnival Fascination and Carnival Imagination will move to a long term lay-up status, with no specific timeline identified for a return to operation. These moves are part of Carnival Corporation’s recent announcement to reduce its overall capacity and focus on ships with upgraded features. All four of these Fantasy Class ships are some of the oldest in the Carnival fleet with Fantasy originally arriving in 1990, Fascination in 1994,…

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