It’s straightforward to remain on high of essential cruise developments by studying Cruise Hive day-after-day, however simply in case you’ve missed one thing, right here’s our newest version of Cruise Information Replace. This week’s recap has protection from Royal Caribbean, Carnival Cruise Line, and PortMiami, the Cruise Capital of the World.
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Royal Caribbean Provides Homeport in The Golden State
Royal Caribbean is banking massive on California in 2026 and 2027, including a brand new homeport — San Diego, and basing 4 mega-ships in Los Angeles.
The two,490-guest Serenade of the Seas will sail from San Diego beginning in October 2026 and persevering with by means of the winter 2027 season. Three-, 4-, and 7-night itineraries are provided to locations alongside the Mexican Riviera.
In Los Angeles, Quantum of the Seas and Ovation of the Seas, each with double occupancy capability for five,000 visitors; the 4,000-guest Navigator of the Seas; and the three,600-guest Voyager of the Seas will sail a number of itineraries of as much as 8 nights in the course of the summer time and winter seasons.
Locations visited from each ports embody Cabo San Lucas, Ensenada, Mazatlan, Puerto Vallarta, and Catalina Island.
Additionally, La Paz might be a brand new port name for Serenade of the Seas, marking the primary time Royal Caribbean has included the vacation spot on a voyage. The ship’s maiden name to La Paz might be a celebratory occasion. The entire California-based cruises have opened for bookings.
Rubber Geese: Cruisers Both Love ‘Em or Hate ‘Em
Carnival Cruise Line Model Ambassador John Heald reached out to his hundreds of followers on Fb asking why so many visitors need the rubber duck sport banned.
For these readers who could also be oblivious to the innocent sport, Cruisers cover small rubber geese round their ship for others to seek out. Those that uncover a duck can cover it someplace else, for another person to seek out, or maintain onto it as a souvenir.
Although some visitors have steered that the road ban the sport, Heald has already acknowledged that won’t occur. Some visitors replied to his publish, with various opinions on the controversy.
One admitted he’s not into the “duck factor,” however has no objection to others having fun with the sport. One other posited that visitors who complain in regards to the duck sport accomplish that solely as a result of they haven’t been fortunate sufficient to seek out considered one of their very own.
Acknowledging the recognition of the sport, Carnival Cruise Line not too long ago took it to a brand new degree by including a “Ducky the Duck” character onboard its ships for the needs of photograph ops for his or her duck-loving visitors.
Taxi Travesty Journeys Up Cruisers at Port Canaveral
All the time choose the fare — or at the very least know the mileage cost, earlier than getting right into a taxi. That was a lesson discovered the exhausting approach for a pair who not too long ago disembarked Royal Caribbean’s Utopia of the Seas at Port Canaveral.
Capable of get off the ship sooner than anticipated, the couple had an hour to attend for his or her pre-scheduled Uber journey, they wrote in a Reddit publish. So that they cancelled that reserving and as an alternative accepted a journey from a driver already on the port, nevertheless, he would transform a scammer.
As soon as arrived at their vacation spot — Orlando, about 60 miles from the port, the couple was introduced with the scammer’s invoice, a whopping $345. The Uber journey would have price round $120.
Ultimately, the couple paid the scammer $100 in money, grabbed their suitcases and shortly left the scene. Whereas they didn’t truly pay the scammer’s worth, they described their expertise as a warning to others.
Carnival Sunshine Begins Service From Norfolk
Carnival Cruise Line started working year-round from Norfolk, with the three,700-guest Carnival Sunshine launching a collection of Caribbean and Bahamas cruises from the Virginia port.
Beforehand, the three,690-guest Carnival Magic provided solely seasonal voyages. That ship is now crusing from PortMiami.
The choice to base Carnival Sunshine at Norfolk was made again in 2022. The ship not too long ago emerged from a scheduled dry dock and is crusing 5-, 6-, and 8-night voyages to the Jap Caribbean, Bahamas, and Bermuda. Come September 2025, the ship will function a port name to Celebration Key, Carnival’s new non-public vacation spot within the Bahamas set to open in July 2025.
Norfolk expects to welcome about 150,000 cruise arrivals every year because of the presence of Carnival Sunshine, which town believes might be a boon to the native financial system. The port has been getting ready for the ship’s arrival by investing $12 million within the Half Moone Cruise Heart.
Upgrades embody the addition of air-conditioned seating areas for as much as 600 visitors, and a sloped walkway from the cruise heart’s second flooring to the bags pick-up space.
‘Get to Know’ Your Favourite Carnival Cruise Director
Carnival Cruise Line visitors — previous, current, and future, now have an opportunity to go behind the scenes and be taught all about their ships’ cruise administrators. Cruise administrators, in any case, play an important position in setting the tone of a Enjoyable Ship trip and within the course of change into recognized to many visitors on every crusing.
Fleet Cruise Director Lee Mason has launched a YouTube video collection that focuses on the road’s cruise administrators. Mason is a former Carnival cruise director and, as fleet cruise director, is concerned in coaching and supervising administrators throughout a number of ships.
His “Get to Know” collection consists of 5- to 10-minute interviews with varied cruise administrators. The primary within the collection launched on February 10, 2025 and featured Gary Blair, at present serving aboard Carnival Miracle.
It seems that Blair is an accordion participant, has a penchant for Scottish dancing, and is a giant fan of actuality TV. So tune into the Mason’s collection and search for your favourite Carnival Cruise Line cruise director.
New Carnival Cruise Line Reward Makes Packing Simpler
Cruisers who’re Platinum and Diamond degree members of Carnival Cruise Line’s Very Necessary Enjoyable Particular person (VIFP) loyalty program will quickly have a brand new present to take pleasure in after they board their subsequent Carnival cruise: packing cubes.
The cubes are zippered luggage designed to carry private gadgets inside a chunk of bags. They’ve already rolled out aboard Carnival Jubilee and might be made out there throughout the fleet by early March, Model Ambassador John Heald revealed on his Fb web page.
Loyalty membership members sometimes are recipients of particular presents from cruise strains. Carnival Cruise Line’s newest present, in October 2024, was a baseball cap.
Loyalty membership members earn factors for every day they sail on a Carnival Cruise Line ship. The Platinum degree requires 75 factors, whereas Diamond standing is reached at 200 factors.
Cruisers can acquire their present by visiting the Pixels Photograph Gallery onboard their cruise ship. Their identify and membership degree standing might be checked in opposition to a listing of eligible passengers.
PortMiami Data Busiest Cruise Day Ever
On a typical day at PortMiami, the world’s busiest cruise port, one can look forward to finding 5 or 6 cruise ships embarking and debarking visitors, however on February 8, 2025, the port had 10 ships docked, making it the busiest day within the port’s historical past.
The ships on the port that day had been Carnival Cruise Line’s Carnival Dawn and Carnival Magic; Royal Caribbean’s Independence of the Seas and Icon of the Seas; Norwegian Cruise Line’s Norwegian Escape and Norwegian Gem; MSC Cruises’ MSC Seascape; Oceania Cruises’ Sirena; Virgin Voyages’ Scarlet Girl; and Holland America Line’s Zaandam.
All instructed, the passengers transiting the port from the entire ships mixed got here to a dizzying 68,000.
The ships working on the port that day had been certain for varied locations and areas of the Caribbean. Icon of the Seas, as an illustration, the world’s largest cruise ship, was boarding visitors for a 7-night Jap Caribbean cruise to St. Maarten, St. Thomas, and Excellent Day at CocoCay, whereas Zaandam was departing on a 27-night voyage to the Amazon.
Extra Cruise Headlines
These had been only a handful of cruise information developments from the previous week, and we’ve obtained loads extra on Cruise Hive. Try our protection on Costa Cruises unveiling its 2027 World Cruise; Norwegian Cruise Line and its sister manufacturers including a preferred on-line fee choice; Princess Cruises increasing its Alaska cruisetours; a brand new residential cruise ship revealing its inside design; and a Royal Caribbean visitor suing the road after a jet ski accident.
