First Female Cruise Ship Captain

Sarah Breton, 45, from Essex, is also understood by the company to be the first female captain of a cruise ship in Britain. Captain Sarah Breton, who set sail on the 1,200 passenger ship Artemis, said: “Growing up near the water I always loved boats and the ocean, so it really does fulfill a lifelong ambition of mine to be a Captain with P&O Cruises. It is made even more special to be Captain of the first cruise ship I ever served on, after joining P&O Cruises as third officer back in 1989.” Carol Marlow, managing director of P&O Cruises, added: “We are delighted that Sarah Breton has been promoted to the role of Captain on board Artemis. Sarah has worked on board P&O Cruises ships for many years and truly deserves to be Master of Artemis. We wish her every success in her new role More here

Titanic & SOLAS

As with every disaster, lessons are learnt.  The Titanic disaster was no exception & the loss served as a tragic reminder that life at sea is dangerous & unpredictable.

Out of this tragedy though came some good.  The disaster brought about a number of long overdue changes in commercial and passenger trade on the sea. In 1914, a number of seafaring nations gathered to consider the hearing information from the US Senate and the testimony given the British Board of Trade.

This was done in the wake of the great ship's loss, and the continuing public outcry for increased and mandatory shipboard safety. A convention was convened in London, and representatives hashed out new rules and regulations for human safety at sea.

Thus in 1914, two years after the Titanic disaster in which 1,503 people perished, maritime nations gathered in London & adopted the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS Convention)  taking into account lessons learned from the Titanic disaster.

The 1914 convention as superseded by SOLAS 1929, SOLAS 1948, SOLAS 1960 (The first to be adopted under the International Maritime organization) & finally SOLAS 1974.  Which with amendments & many updates is still in force to this day.

Some of the measures put into affect due to the tragedy are :

1. Adequate distress alert capability including a 24-hr radio watch.
2. Ship's public address system which is understandable by all aboard.
3. Adequacy of working lifeboats with covers to minimize exposure.
4. Well-trained lifeboat crew and those who launch the boats.
5. Information for passengers on safety precautions and drills.
6. Immersion suits for cold water travel.
7. International Ice Patrol.
8. Helicopters and rescue craft available at all times with trained SAR staff.
9. Ships must reduce speed in known danger and ice areas.
10. Evacuation chutes for escape.
11. Electronic methods for locating ships in distress and monitoring all ship traffic.
Had all of these mandates been in effect in 1912, it is probable that the loss of the RMS Titanic would have been a footnote in a maritime history book instead of a cult phenomenon.

HCMC welcomes over 3,000 cruise ship passengers

Foreign visitors arrive in Ho Chi Minh City on a five-star international cruise ship on March 22. The Saigontourist Travel Company received 3,250foreign visitors from two five-star international cruise ships – the Costa Classica and the Costa Allegra – to Ho Chi Minh City on March 22-23.
The tourists, mostly from Italy, Spain, the UK, and Germany, are part of Saigontourist tour that will take them to the Mekong Delta city of MyTho and other localities in the central region including Da Nang, Hoi An, My Son and Hue. In HCMC, the visitors will be taken on a city tour, whichincludes shopping in Ben Thanh Market and visits to workshops that produce rice pancakes and lacquer ware. The city also plans to welcome another
luxury cruise ship, the Europa, on March 29.



link

Oasis of the Seas

 

The Oasis of the Seas off Fort Lauderdale, Fla., one recent evening.

How do you keep more than 6,300 people fed, housed and having the time of their life while floating in the middle of the ocean?
The Oasis of the Seas—the world's largest cruise ship—aims to accomplish that feat nearly every week. Almost five times as large as the Titanic, it has a population during its seven-day Caribbean sailings that is larger than many American small towns—more than 8,600 when it is fully booked and including staff. The Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. ship, which first set sail last December, is almost as long as five Airbus A380 airplanes, or about four football fields. It has 24 restaurants and its own leafy "Central Park." During the weeklong sailings, about 700 tons of new supplies are needed, all loaded aboard each Saturday. Guests consume about 20 gallons of maraschino cherries and 80,000 bottles of beer.

Traveler demand for cruises is up this year, and cruise lines are raising prices. That is a big turnaround from last year when the recession hit the industry hard.
Over the past decade, cruise ships have been supersized as operators have tried to cram in ever more lavish features and activities. The Oasis, for example, has two rock climbing walls, a zip line that allows guests to fly through the air, and surf machines so passengers can hang 10 without leaving the boat. Royal Caribbean also has three other ships that can each hold more than 4,000 passengers. "Going to the larger ships just allowed us to offer so many more activities, " says Richard Fain, the company's chairman and chief executive. "We thought people would like it and if they liked it they would pay more...and at the same time, it would offer economies of scale," he says. A one-week Oasis trip in the Caribbean this year costs about $1,458 for an inside cabin and $3,200 for a two story "loft suite" facing the ocean.
The big ship is controversial. Competitor Carnival Corp. is pushing a fleet of relatively smaller ships—its largest max out at about 4,000—which it says offer a better experience for passengers and ease reaching ports. "I kind of look at her [the Oasis] like the Mall of America. It will also attract millions of people, but it's not what we do," says Micky Arison, Carnival chairman and chief executive. "It's kind of like a train wreck you want to go see."

City at Sea

Click on the graphic to see what's on board the world's largest cruise ship, Oasis of the Seas.

Arthur Frommer, founder of Frommer's Travel Guides, says the Oasis represents "a dumbing down of the travel experience" because it stops only in a handful of ports. The ship is too big to dock in some popular spots such as Venice and Bermuda.
Royal Caribbean says tickets for the Oasis are selling well, and most of its loft suites are reserved for the next two years. "It was amazing," said Lynn Scott, a 59-year-old sale and marketing specialist from Kingwood, Tex. after a recent cruise. "It was relaxing, it was entertaining, the food was great," said the first time cruiser who sailed with a group of 30 friends. "We are trying to figure when we can go back."
Ensuring a floating city the size of the Oasis operates smoothly is challenging. Cleaning the ship, doing laundry, and fixing things are a 24-hour job for crew members. One of the popular acts, an outdoor Aqua Show with divers, gymnasts and synchronized swimmers, gets canceled about once a week because of rough seas. And the task of cleaning salt water off window exteriors is never done.
Dozens of people and 18 robots wash windows each day. "It's like painting the Golden Gate Bridge. Once you're finished, you start again," says Chris van Raalten, ship manager for marine operations, the group of employees that steer the ship and maintain the ship's exterior and mechanics like the engine. Robots take care of hard to reach places and metal baskets move crew along the upper decks where there are no balconies to support them. Scheduling the cleaning can be tough. The washing can't be done in every port because of environmental regulations, so it often happens while sailing, Mr. van Raalten says.
In the ship's belly, the laundry room hums 24-hours a day: 34 crew members, mostly men from Indonesia, wash more than 20,000 pieces of linen such as towels, table cloths, and sheets daily. Table clothes, sheets and napkins are then fed into giant machines that press them. Clothes and towels are all folded or ironed by hand.
There is always something that needs to be fixed. Recently, an engine exhaust temperature problem caused soot to rain down on parts of the ship where guests lounge by pools and sit on their rooms' balconies. After weeks of study, crew members installed insulation in the upper part of the smokestacks to fix the problem last week, Mr. van Raalten says .
The ship has three doctors on board. It also has its own intensive care unit and can keep one person at a time on life support. Every few weeks a passenger has a heart attack so thrombolytic drugs are kept on-hand, says Chris Taylor, the ship's senior doctor.
If there's a serious illness, the ship's doctors and captain can decide to divert to a port early, but rarely is anyone airlifted back to the U.S., says Dr. Taylor, who has been a doctor on cruise ships for seven years. "Many people have the belief that the U.S. coast guard is always going to come to the rescue if there is any emergency at sea. The actual truth of the matter is that most of the time the ship is well out of range of the coast guard," he says.

Aboard the Oasis of the Seas

See what it takes to run the world's largest cruise ship.

Barbara P. Fernandez for The Wall Street Journal

The Oasis of the Seas, the world's largest cruise ship.

The ship's doctors spend most of their time treating run-of-the-mill health issues such as sore throats, back aches, and sinusitis. During every seven-day sailing, the Oasis medical staff dispenses about 2,000 to 3,000 meclizine, a drug that treats sea sickness.
About 200 crew members are dedicated to entertaining passengers. They include performers, child activity planners, and lighting and sound experts. Passengers can see a production of the musical "Hairspray", the Aqua Show and an ice-skating performance.
Feeding more than 8,000 people takes 26 kitchens—and some complicated logistics. Every Saturday morning, before the sun comes up and while passengers are still asleep, the ship docks in its home port, Port Everglades, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
One recent Saturday, by 6 a.m. semi-trucks had arrived. They would eventually unload about 750 pallets of food, flowers and other supplies. Longshoremen hopped into forklifts and started moving the pallets, buzzing around the ship's giant hull as the sun rose.
By 7:30 am, the ship's inventory manager and staff were reviewing the pallets, searching for any rotten fruit and vegetables, and moving the pallets with smaller forklifts into the ship's food storage areas, each set to a specific temperature. Red wine goes into a warmer room than white wine, beer and champagne, for example. More Corona beer is loaded than any other alcoholic drink, followed by Budweiser and Bud Light. More beef of various types is loaded than any other food.

—David Lewenz

Supplies fluctuate. When a lot of Germans are on board, extra pork is ordered, says Frank Weber, vice president of food and beverage for Royal Caribbean International. Americans tend to favor chicken and beef. In the summer, if a lot of families are sailing, more ingredients for Caesar salad are needed.
To prevent disease, food storage, food preparation and actual cooking are all done in separate areas. "In our world we cannot afford to have a food-borne illness outbreak," Mr. Weber says.
By 5 p.m. on Saturday, after loading all the necessary supplies and its next group of travelers, the Oasis is usually pulling out of the Port Everglades port and heading for the Caribbean. Even though the ship is very big (with a gross tonnage of 225,282), it is highly maneuverable thanks to the three Azipods—giant propellers that can rotate 360 degrees—under its belly, says Captain Thore Thorolvsen.
The majority of the time the ship is on autopilot, he says, except when the ship is pulling in and out of a port. Then, it will sometimes be steered by hand. "That's when there are really some tense moments here on the bridge," said Capt. Thorolvsen, standing in front of a bank of electronic mapping and steering devices in the ship's central command area.
"She is big, she is wide and she is very very heavy," he said.

Website here.

Green' taxes could hit growth Carnival warns

Environmental taxes and regulation in Europe could hold back the continued expansion of the cruise market, the leading operator of cruises in the UK has warned. writing in the annual Carnival UK Cruise Report, chief executive David Dingle said there was a danger that the "rapid growth of the cruise industry in Europe being stalled by regulation and taxation". The report included a bold prediction from Carnival Corporation chairman Micky Arison that the UK market would double to three million passengers in the next decade.

He believes the UK will follow the growth seen in the US with lines offering a wider variety of shorter cruises on higher quality ships offering a greater range of facilities onboard. However, Dingle sounded a warning to European regulators about the impact they can have on an industry said to have been worth €30 billion and accounting for 300,000 jobs in 2008. Arison acknowledged the environmental challenges the cruise industry faces but said the operator was lowering fuel consumption by 3%-4% a year by managing itineraries and reducing ships’ speeds.

But he said there was no "silver bullet" answer to this problem. "The fact is we need to have the technology catch up even though we are a small shipping sector and therefore a small market." Dingle said the signs for the UK cruise industry so far this year were promising with prices tightening after a tough 2009 and indications of an increase in early bookings. He said improvement started to be seen in the final quarter of 2009 and that this had continued into 2010 when "we would hope the advance booking period will begin to lengthen".

Although the lines in the Carnival UK family – P&O Cruises, Cunard, Princess Cruises and Ocean Village – are seeing more people research online the percent booked on the web remain in the low single figures. "It could more up in the future but, significantly, it still remains at low levels in the US were the concept was embraced earlier, so we do not expect any radical change in this pattern any time soon.

"With cruising, at least, people still prefer the face-to-face transaction," Dingle said. Arison added the internet was having the biggest impact on the way cruise was being sold: "This has already resulted in huge change. Just 10 years ago, most people looked for cruise advice from travel agents or newspaper and magazine travel sections – that has all gone. "Now nearly everybody uses the internet for their research. Far fewer actually book cruises directly online but any travel agent still without online booking capability is going to loose out."

Website

Holland America Line Launches View & Verandah Sale With Top Savings On Ocean-View & Verandah Staterooms

SEATTLE, Dec 16, 2009 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX/ -- Holland America Line has launched its annual View and Verandah Sale that features extraordinary fares on ocean-view and verandah staterooms for hundreds of departures in the coming year. Cruisers can enjoy savings of up to 45 percent off ocean-view and verandah accommodations.

"Cruising provides the best vacation value today," said Richard D. Meadows, CTC, executive vice president, marketing, sales and guest relations. "Holland America Line already stands out for providing a premium vacation and now is the best time to book with these great cruise fares." 

Cruisers also enjoy reduced deposits, third and fourth guest savings, and 25 percent savings on select hotels for pre- or post-cruise stays. Fares for the View and Verandah Sale start at $499 for 7-day Alaska cruises, $599 for 7-day Caribbean sailings, and $1,199 for 12-day Europe and Panama Canal voyages.

Holland America Line Sails to All Seven Continents 

Holland America Line's fleet of 14 ships offers nearly 500 cruises to 320 ports in more than 100 countries. Two- to 108-day itineraries visit all seven continents and highlights include Antarctica, South America, Australia/New Zealand and Asia voyages, a Grand World Voyage, and popular sailings to ports in the Caribbean, Alaska, Mexico, Canada/New England, Europe and Panama Canal. A 15th ship, ms Nieuw Amsterdam, is scheduled to join the fleet on July 4, 2010. 

The fleet features more than $525 million in Signature of Excellence enhancements that showcase new staterooms and public areas on Statendam- and Rotterdam-class ships. Highlights also include the Culinary Arts Center presented by Food & Wine magazine -- a state-of-the-art onboard show kitchen where more than 60 celebrated guest chefs and culinary experts provide cooking demonstrations and classes -- Explorations Cafe powered by The New York Times, teens-only activity areas and all new stateroom amenities of flat-panel televisions and plush Euro-top Mariner's Dream Beds.

Egypt cruise ship crash kills three sailors

The Costa Europa was on an 18-day cruise from Dubai to Savona
A luxury cruise liner has crashed into a dock at the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm al-Sheikh, killing three members of the crew,
officials say. At least four other people were hurt when the Costa Europa, carrying 1,473 passengers, came into the harbour during
bad weather at 0445 (0145 GMT).



The dead sailors were an Indian, a Honduran and a Brazilian, the General Authority for Red Sea Ports said. The injured reportedly
include three British women and an Italian man. They were in a stable condition in hospital, officials told the AFP news agency.
The guests have been disembarked and are being accommodated in local hotels

Costa Cruises
In a statement, Costa Cruises confirmed that the Costa Europa had damaged the starboard side of the hull, but said it was "now
safely docked in port". "We sadly have to confirm the deaths of three crew members," the Italian company said. "The guests have
been disembarked and are being accommodated in local hotels," it added. Witnesses said Sharm al-Sheikh had been hit by fierce
winds overnight and that the crash had left a 2m-wide hole in the hull. The Costa Europa was on an 18-day cruise from Dubai to
Savona, and had arrived in Sharm al-Sheikh from the Egyptian port of Safaga.

BBC