Cruise
Cunard Introduces Wine and Spirit Education Courses at Sea
Cunard has partnered with the Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET) to launch the first ever WSET-certified wine and spirit courses to be available on its flagship ocean liner Queen Mary 2. WSET works with Approved Programme Providers in more than 70 countries to offer its qualifications to interested enthusiasts and industry professionals, ranging from Level 1 Awards in Wines, Spirits and Sake to the prestigious Level 4 Diploma in Wines and Spirits. The partnership with Cunard is the first time WSET courses will be available to guests on a transatlantic or round-world cruise...
Encore Adds Cunard to Lineup
Encore Cruises has added Cunard as its newest partner, and, in celebration, is offering agents 2X Loyalty Points on all bookings made by Dec. 31. Cunard features three beautifully appointed ships – the Queen Mary 2, Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth. Guests can enjoy many unique features including watching a show in the “Royal Boxes” to enjoying “Illuminations” – the only planetarium at sea. Guests can also take dancing lessons, enjoy “Afternoon Tea” and even take “fencing lessons” in the Queens room. Cunard also offers the first multi-level library at sea and...
Royal Caribbean Opens Sailings to Cuba
Royal Caribbean International has opened bookings for its newly announced Cuba sailings. The newly revitalized Empress of the Seas will make history for the cruise line with its first visit to Cuba during a five-night sailing departing Miami on April 19. The ship will then reposition to Tampa offering two itineraries with calls to Havana on April 30 (seven-night sailing) and May 20 (five-night sailing). Empress of the Seas will homeport in Tampa for the 2017 summer season – the cruise line’s first-ever summer program from the destination – offering a series of four- and...
Cuba Bound
A number of major cruise lines have now received permission from the Cuban government to begin offering cruises to the destination. Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. has received approval from the government of the Republic of Cuba to operate cruises to Cuba, beginning March 2017. All three of the company’s brands – Norwegian Cruise Line, Oceania Cruises and Regent Seven Seas Cruises – will offer US travellers the opportunity to visit Cuba on select sailings starting next year. The company’s first cruise to Cuba will set sail from PortMiami on Oceania Cruises’ Marina...
Celestyal On Course In Canada
Celestyal Cruises has another major tour operator offering its Cuba itineraries, further welcome news for a company that believes it's making major inroads in Canada and elsewhere, reports Ian Stalker in this week's digital edition of Travel Courier. Air Canada Vacations announced in late September that it will offer Celestyal's week-long Cuba sailings that circumvent Cuba, with calls that include ones in Havana, Cienfuegos, Santiago de Cuba, and the Isle of Youth and also visit Montego Bay, Jamaica as well. ACV clients will actually be boarding and disembarking in Montego...
Windstar Sets A Course to Asia, Arabia
In the winter and spring of 2017 and 2018, Windstar Cruises will set sail to Arabia, Southeast Asia, and East Asia. The 212-passenger, all-suite yacht, Star Legend will operate the new itineraries with 12 sailing dates from 10 to 18 days in length departing from October 2017 to April 2018 and including dozens of maiden port calls, many off the tourist path. The new itineraries span cosmopolitan marvels like Dubai, Singapore, Bangkok, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Tokyo but also explore the smaller ports and villages, unspoiled islands, and exotic shores of Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, South...
Celestyal Debuts 2017 Aegean Brochure
Celestyal Cruises has unveiled its new Aegean cruise brochure, offering its passengers a chance to ‘Sea More’ in 2017. The new season begins March 2017 through Sept. 2017, and features all-inclusive cruises to more destinations in Greece and the Greek Islands than ever before (13 in total). Agents using the redesigned brochure will find photographs, maps and detailed descriptions of Celestyal’s three-, four- and seven-day Eastern Mediterranean itineraries, new ports-of-call, and all-inclusive packages, in addition to full-page deck plans of the Celestyal Olympia and the...
One Year and Counting for MSC Cruises
MSC Cruises and Fincantieri recently celebrated the float out of MSC Seaside, one of two new groundbreaking mega-ships that MSC will bring into service between June and December 2017. The ceremony took place at Fincantieri’s shipyard in Monfalcone, Italy where the ship is being built. The 5,179-passenger MSC Seaside will homeport in Miami as of December 2017 and will sail year round in the Caribbean. “This is another exciting milestone in our ambitious expansion plans as we see the second of our 11 next-generation cruise ships entering the final stages of her construction,”...