Cruise Hive is your go-to supply for main cruise developments and breaking cruise information. On this week’s cruise information replace, we’ve received protection from Carnival Cruise Line, Cunard, Royal Caribbean, Norwegian Cruise Line, and the Bahamas.
Cruise Information Replace
It’s time to get rolling with this week’s prime cruise information tales from Cruise Hive. Now we have full protection in regards to the famous person who will christen the brand new Carnival Jubilee, a brand new tax cruise strains should pay the Bahamas, Cunard growing its gratuity prices, a restaurant proprietor who took her complete workers on a cruise, tough climate forcing Carnival Magic to depart from a port with out all visitors onboard, and Norwegian Cruise Line deploying a ship to Jacksonville, Florida.
Gwen Stefani to Function Godmother to Carnival Jubilee
Celebrity singer-songwriter Gwen Stefani, a three-time Grammy Award winner, will function godmother to Carnival Cruise Line’s latest ship, Carnival Jubilee, throughout a festive naming ceremony in Galveston, Texas, on February 24, 2024.
Identified for her many philanthropic contributions to charities and foundations, the soloist and lead singer of the band No Doubt joins different notable ladies who’ve served as godmothers for Carnival Cruise Line, equivalent to artist Queen Latifah, who named Carnival Horizon, and tv host and singer Kathie Lee Gifford, who christened Carnival Celebration.
The naming ceremony for Carnival Jubilee, home-porting in Galveston, will likely be partly stay streamed on the Carnival Cruise Line Fb web page beginning at 3:30 p.m., CST.
Ship christenings are time-honored, maritime traditions that sometimes contain the smashing of a champagne bottle into the vessel’s hull. The ceremony is alleged to convey good luck and secure passage to the ship and those that sail aboard her.
Carnival Jubilee, with capability for six,500 visitors and 1,750 crew members, entered service on December 23, 2023 and is the road’s third Excel-class vessel. The ship sails 7-day Western Caribbean cruises with calls at Cozumel and Costa Maya, Mexico, and Mahogany Bay (Roatan), Honduras.
Bahamas Provides VAT to Cruise Line Personal Island Income
Cruise strains will likely be required to pay a ten% value-added tax (VAT) on items and companies supplied to visitors visiting their personal islands within the Bahamas, efficient on March 1, 2024.
The brand new tax coverage is designed to degree the taking part in discipline between the favored cruise line retreats and native Bahamian companies, Simon Wilson, an official of the Bahamas Ministry of Finance, advised an area media outlet.
Underneath the revised tax plan, cruise strains should pay VAT on just about any transactions going down on their islands, equivalent to these for meals, drinks, spa therapies, cabana leases, and leisure actions.
The Bahamian authorities is accepting suggestions from the cruise strains till February 16, 2024, and there may be certain to be some, since operational prices will spike as soon as the coverage is enacted.
The query is: Will the cruise strains cross on the VAT to visitors?
Personal island retreats are wildly in style with cruisers. Among the many locations within the Bahamas are Disney Cruise Line’s Castaway Cay; Royal Caribbean’s Excellent Day at CocoCay; Norwegian Cruise Line’s Nice Stirrup Cay; MSC Cruises’ Ocean Cay Marine Reserve; and Carnival Company’s Princess Cay and Half Moon Cay.
Cunard Line Cunard Set to Elevate Every day Gratuity Charges
A second Carnival Company cruise model introduced it would increase each day gratuity charges for resort and eating companies, beginning in late April 2024.
Cunard is a luxurious, UK-based line that operates three ships, Queen Elizabeth, Queen Victoria, and Queen Mary 2, and can quickly debut its fourth, Queen Anne, set to launch in Might 2024.
The road at present prices $14.50 per individual, per day for visitors in Britannia staterooms, and $16.50 per individual, per day for these in Queens and Princess Grill suites.
Efficient with departures after April 25, 2024 on Queen Elizabeth, and after April 27, 2024 on Queen Victoria and Queen Mary 2, the fees will rise to $16 per individual, per day for visitors in Britannia staterooms and to $18 per individual, per day for these in Queens and Princess Grill suites.
The each day service prices are mechanically utilized to visitors’ onboard accounts, and are divided amongst crew members who present varied companies, equivalent to cabin stewards and wait workers.
One other Carnival model, Holland America Line, introduced in mid-January that it’ll increase charges beginning February 14, 2024, to $17 per individual, per day for non-suite staterooms and to $19 per individual, per day for suite visitors.
Restaurant Proprietor Treats Staff to Caribbean Cruise
The workers of Pier 16, a well-liked seafood restaurant in Tybee Island, Georgia, not solely work collectively, they cruise collectively too, because of the generosity of their boss, eatery proprietor Natalia Navon.
Navon exhibits her appreciation to her workers by closing the venue for every week and rewarding employees with a bunch trip annually. This 12 months she handled them to a 5-night crusing aboard Royal Caribbean’s Mariner of the Seas.
The group, which seems to be about 20 folks, traveled from Georgia to Port Canaveral, Florida, the place the three,100-guest Mariner of the Seas is home-ported. The January 6, 2024 itinerary referred to as at Costa Maya and Cozumel, Mexico, and featured two days at sea.
Pier 16, a family-owned operation that opened in 2020, has loyal patrons who assist the eatery and applaud Navon’s trip custom.
Among the many adventures that Pier 16 workers had the chance to take a look at onboard Mariner of the Seas are the Excellent Storm waterslide, the FlowRider browsing simulator, and Sky Pad, a digital actuality bungee trampoline, amongst different actions and leisure.
Carnival Magic Collides With Pier in Jamaica
A drama performed out onboard Carnival Cruise Line’s Carnival Magic on the morning of February 6, 2024, when excessive winds and large swells prompted the 130,000-gross ton ship to hit the pier the place she was docked at Ocho Rios, Jamaica.
A video of the incident exhibits a part of the dock cracking and crumbling underneath the stress from the ship’s affect. There was no quick indication of any harm to the ship.
No accidents had been reported, however sea circumstances and the chance of hitting the pier once more prompted the ship’s captain to take the vessel out to sea. Sadly, some visitors had already departed the ship for shore excursions, and had been briefly left behind.
Nonetheless, the cruise line’s shoreside groups and native companions sorted these visitors, who had been capable of return to the ship after she docked at one other, close by pier later that day.
Carnival Magic left Miami on February 4, 2024 to sail a 6-day itinerary that included calls at Bimini, Ocho Rios, and Grand Cayman. The truth is, adversarial climate introduced the ship to Ocho Rios a day sooner than scheduled, and ongoing tough seas compelled the ship to cancel her name at Grand Cayman on February 8, 2024.
The Dream-class ship, which launched in 2011, is on her means again to Miami, the place the cruise will conclude on February 10, 2024.
Seasonal Ship Headed to Jacksonville in 2025
Norwegian Cruise Line will deploy its Norwegian Gem to Jacksonville, Florida, in November 2025, working a sequence of seasonal cruises to the Bahamas and Japanese Caribbean. The house-porting is the results of a three-year settlement between the road and the JAXPORT Board of Administrators, and indicators a significant enlargement of the port’s cruise operations.
Underneath the pact, Norwegian Gem will sail from Jacksonville between November and April by 2028. The two,400-guest ship joins Carnival Cruise Line’s 2,000-guest Carnival Elation, which is predicated at JAXPORT year-round.
The addition of Norwegian Gem is anticipated to be an financial boon to the northern Florida metropolis, which is inside driving distance of some 98 million residents within the southeastern US. In a research from pre-pandemic 2019, the cruise trade in Jacksonville supported some 800 jobs and contributed an annual financial affect of $187 million to the area.
The Jewel-class Norwegian Gem, which entered service in 2007, will provide brief and lengthy voyages, together with two 11-day and three 12-day sailings to the Japanese Caribbean.
Scheduled port calls embody Nice Stirrup Cay, the cruise line’s personal island within the Bahamas; Dominican Republic; St. Thomas and St. John, US Virgin Islands; Antigua; St. Kitts; and Puerto Rico, amongst others.
Shorter, 4- and 5-day choices will function Nice Stirrup Cay, and Freeport and Nassau, Bahamas. Bookings will open on February 15, 2024.
Extra Cruise Headlines
These had been simply a few of the information tales Cruise Hive lined previously week. For extra developments, examine Cunard’s massive reserving spike in January, the ‘love boat’ cruise line welcoming a particular Valentine’s Day visitor, Margaritaville at Sea updating its Heroes Sail Free deal, Carnival Company making strides on its emissions-reduction objectives, and an thrilling new Carnival Cruise Line itinerary from Seattle to Sydney.
