Greek passenger ship runs aground

29 June 2008 | 19:19

ATHENS — The Greek Passenger ship Theofilos, with 475 passengers on board, laid at anchor safely on the island of Oinousse after running aground. The Theofilos The ship was en route from Mytilene, Lesvos to Chios in east Aegean sea Saturday. According to Greek TV, the emergency rescue team was made available immediately, while the ship continued to Oinousse, which is around two kilometers away, after initial investigation deemed it safe. The Ministries of Mercantile Marine said all the passengers and most of the crew have disembarked safely. Inspectors are now ready to check and repair the damage. Passengers will be picked up by another passenger ship which has been sent to the island to transfer them to their destination.

Passenger in gangway plunge

05 June 2008

By Sam McBride

A WOMAN has been dramatically plucked from the water after she tripped and plunged from the gangway of a luxury cruise ship docked in Belfast.

The woman, who was a passenger on the Celebrity Century cruise liner, is believed to have fallen while talking and walking backwards.

The passenger fell from this temporary access bridge

The incident happened on Wednesday at Belfast Lough.

An Australian member of the luxury liner’s crew dived into the water at Stormont Wharf and rescued the woman before officers from Belfast Harbour Police arrived to administer first aid.

She was transferred by ambulance to hospital where she was said to be in a stable condition.

Antarctic adventures to continue with G.A.P.

Tuesday, 03 Jun 2008 10:00 travelbite.co.uk

Adventure travel company G.A.P. Adventures has announced the purchase of a new ship for Antarctic travel, as it looks to make a comeback after last year’s sinking of the MS Explorer.

The new MS Expedition is a 345ft vessel that will carry up to 120 passengers into Antarctic waters.

It is currently undergoing a complete refit in Las Palmas, ahead of its January 1st 2009 launch.

The first tour will depart on January 4th and G.A.P. Adventures will be offering its full range of Antarctic tours – from classic ten-day experiences to the 18-day Spirit of Shackleton adventure and the 12-day Polar Circle trip.

G.A.P. chief executive Bruce Poon Tip says that very few people who take one of the classic tours don’t come back again for the Spirit of Shackleton voyage.

“People think of Antarctica as a once-in-a-lifetime experience but they soon find it’s really twice-in-a-lifetime,” he told travelbite.co.uk in an interview yesterday.

G.A.P. is confident of a sold-out inaugural voyage and high demand over the Antarctic tourism season in January and February.

The Spirit of Shackleton expedition departs from Ushuaia, the world’s southernmost city and capital of the Argentine province of Tierra del Fuego.

As the MS Expedition journeys to the Antarctic Peninsula, passengers will have opportunities to watch wildlife in the South Shetland Islands, Falkland Islands and South Georgia.

The tour will visit the grave of Ernest Shackleton on remote South Georgia island and see the former whaling station and the king penguin colony there.

The ship then retraces Shackleton’s route to Elephant Island and the Antarctic Peninsula. Once in Antarctic waters, the tour makes daily landings at sites such as Paradise Harbour and Wilhelmina Bay when the weather permits.

There will also be the opportunity to visit scientific research stations before returning to Ushuaia via the Drake Passage.
After finishing in Antarctica the MS Expedition will head to the northern hemisphere for tours around the Britain Isles in April and May, followed by Arctic voyages from June to September.

It will then spend time in the Las Palmas dry dock for its annual service before heading for Antarctic waters once again.

Commenting on last year’s sinking, Bruce Poon Tip said: “It was obviously a very tragic and emotional loss for us, which I think we handled as best we could.”

G.A.P. has invested a lot in polar operations and Mr Poon Tip described the incident as a “stroke of bad luck from which we have to move on”.

Mr Poon Tip said he was particularly thankful for the attitude of the British passengers on the ill-fated voyage, who commented in the press about how much they had enjoyed the trip.

The MS Explorer was on a Spirit of Shackleton cruise through the Drake Passage when it ran into trouble near King George Island – around 75 miles north of the Antarctic Peninsula. More than 150 people had to be rescued after the ship hit ice.

However a number of these passengers are now re-booking for next year’s Antarctic tours, according to Mr Poon Tip.

Cruise ‘mother ships’ are the future !

04 June 2008

Cruise ‘mother ships’ which can launch fleets of smaller vessels and more space-efficient ferries are the future, according to the Passenger Shipping Association.

Futuristic designs of how ships could look were revealed at the launch of the PSA’s Annual Cruise Report last night at London’s National Maritime Museum as the number of cruise passengers is predicted to hit two million by 2012.

The ships were designed by Fredik Johansson, senior architect for Tillberg Design AB, which created the QE2 and QM2, Independence of the Seas, Crystal Serenity and various Disney ships.

He said: “The new generation of ferries and cruise ships will have a distinct identity throughout. They are aimed at the next generation of youthful, design-savvy and environmentally conscioius passenger who we are now seeing entering the market.”

The PSA, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary, predicts cruise holidays will grow from 1.33 million British passengers in 2007 to 1.5 million this year.

Growth in 2007 was in the ultra-luxury cruise sector, specialist cruising and in UK departures and ports of call. The number of ex-UK cruises have increased by 48% since 2004 compared with a 22% increase in fly-cruises, according to the Annual Cruise Review.

Aussie ports must remove bottlenecks to stay ship-shape

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Bottlenecks at major Australian ports must be streamlined if the full potential of the cruise industry is to be realised, said Carnival CEO.

Citing the latest report by Access Economics, Ann Sherry warned that governments must step up to the challenge of updating major ports, otherwise opportunities will pass.

“If action isn’t taken soon, the cruise industry in Australia could be swamped by lost opportunities that will only benefit overseas ports and hurt the national economy,” says Ms Sherry.

“This report reinforces the need for visionary thinking from politicians, planning officials, and the industry itself.”

The Access Economics report found that the cruise industry’s last year contributed AUD734 million towards the Australian economy – double that which the government had assumed.

This lucrative sector could potentially grow to surpass AUD1 billion by 2010 and AUD3 billion by 2028 if current growth rates were to continue.

“Without a determined approach, which allows for the prospect of more luxury ships and superliners docking at our major coastal cities, the cruise industry could experience severe port congestion in the next few years,” Ms Sherry continues.

“The Access report is a shot across the bow for policymakers who must take action to prevent the cruise industry from facing the sort of infrastructure bottlenecks that have hampered the export coal industry up and down Australia’s east coast for far too long.”

The report also claimed that Australian-based cruise activity in 2010 will be 300% greater than in 2004.

Currently most major Australian ports are heavily cargo-orientated, and port-planning doesn’t prioritise passenger movements. With the cursing sector growing at leaps and bounds, and ship shapes also changing dramatically, Australian ports now face the threat of being unable to cope with changes.

Ms Sherry points directly at Sydney harbour, the largest port in Australia, and says that the failure of governments to build and plan adequate port facilities means visits to one of the world’s greatest harbours by more than one superliner at a time are very unlikely.

Also looking at Brisbane, she points that large ships can’t pass under the Gateway Bridge and the mixed-use nature of the Portside Wharf complex equates to major stumbling blocks for major cruise lines.

Cruise ships hull develops crack!

The Greek cruise ship Aquamarine (Louis Cruises) carrying more than 1,200 passengers and crew was ordered to make an emergency stop on the Aegean island of Milos after discovering a large crack in its hull, Greece’s Merchant Marine Ministry said.

The crack, which is above sea level, was discovered after the ship left the island of Crete for a cruise of the Aegean with 872 Greek and foreign passengers and about 400 crew, it said.

“The Greek-flagged ship had left the Cretan port of Heraklion at 11 (0800 GMT) when shortly afterwards the crew heard a loud noise and discovered a 1 metre-by 30 centimetre hole on the side of the vessel, about 2.5 metres above the water level,” a ministry official, who requested anonymity, told Reuters on Thursday.

He said all aboard were in good health.

“The weather is pretty good and the ship is only half an hour away from the island of Milos where passengers will be taken off and inspectors will look at the damage.”

Van Gogh Cruise Line has closed down and all its staff made redundant.

Van Gogh Cruise Line ceases operations

30 April 2008

The cruise line, formed out of failed tour operator Travelscope, had already been forced to abandon its itineraries for this summer but had hoped to re-start cruises in November.

Around 20 staff in Cheltenham have lost their jobs. Most were told to go home on Monday while managers came in again yesterday to alert key trade partners of the news.

Owners Club Cruise blamed hikes in fuel prices and devaluation of the pound against the euro for the collapse.

In a statement the cruiseline said: “After careful consideration and in light of the changes in the market conditions, with the massive increase in fuel prices; the devaluation of the pound to the euro, it is with much regret that Club Cruise Entertainment & Travelling Services Europe N.V has decided that the Van Gogh will not now be sailing from the UK in the foreseeable future and therefore, disappointedly, Van Gogh Cruise Line Limited will no longer be in operation.”

The business has struggled since it was launched in January by former financial director of Travelscope Mark Horwood and had recently failed to become an ABTA member or obtain bonding. Its appeal was turned down last week.

Earlier this month the ship was impounded in Funchal, Madeira, by Travelscope administrators Menzies Corporate Restructuring over an alleged £2 million debt.

But one former Travelscope member of staff said staff at the cruise line had only recently been reassured by Club Cruise bosses the company would be kept afloat for at least a year. However, staff were alerted to a problem when they did not receive March pay packets on time, with this week’s news coming just before they were due for their next month’s pay. “I can’t see how they are going to get their wages,” said the source.

Thomson Cruises makes a Caribbean return

Thomson Cruises is making a return to the Caribbean for winter 2008-09.

Thomson Destiny will make two transatlantic cruises – Tropical Transatlantic and Transatlantic Sunrise – and two seven-night cruises, Coral Islands and Caribbean Gems.

The Tropical Transatlantic cruise is a 14-day itinerary that sees passengers fly to Lisbon to board the ship for a five-day Atlantic crossing to the Dominican Republic, where a seven night Coral Islands or Caribbean Gems itinerary starts. Passengers fly home to the UK from La Romana in the Dominican Republic.

The Transatlantic Sunrise 18-night itinerary starts with a flight to the Dominican Republic, before the Thomson Destiny sails first for seven nights on either the Coral Islands or Caribbean Gems itinerary before crossing the Atlantic from Barbados, taking in Gibraltar, Cartagena, Valencia and Barcelona, Spain before finally arriving back in Palma, Majorca.

The seven night Coral Islands cruise sails from La Romana to St Lucia, taking in Barbados, Guadeloupe, St Kitts and Tortola. The Caribbean Gems cruise sails to Grenada, Dominica, Antigua, St Maarten and Tortola.

The operator’s Caribbean cruise programme features a new entertainment programme ‘A New Wave of Entertainment on the high Seas’ with jazz and Dixieland band performances, Latin dancing classes and West End-style shows.

EasyCruise postpones launch of EasyCruise Life !

16 April 2008

EasyCruise has postponed the launch of its second cruise ship easyCruise Life this week due to labour strikes in Greece.

EasyCruise Life was due to depart for its inaugural week-long cruise this Saturday out of Piraeus in Greece with 20 travel agents on board.

But the company was forced to admit today that the ship would not be completed in time for its first sailing because of strikes by workers in Greece. It is contacting all passengers and will be offering refunds for the cost of the cruise and their expenses, as well as offering alternative cruise dates.