10 cruise lines announced news this week that included newly christened ships, construction milestones, and new VIP areas on select vessels.
Here is a rundown of cruise news for the week ending April 27, 2024. Cruise lines are listed alphabetically.
Carnival Cruise Line
Carnival christened the newest cruise ship to enter their fleet, Carnival Firenze. The ship moved over from sister cruise line Costa Cruises and is now sailing cruises to the Mexican Riviera from Long Beach, California.
Carnival Paradise rescued 28 people who were adrift at sea while the ship was sailing from Tampa to Roatan, Honduras.
Celebrity Cruises
Celebrity cruise ships began to visit CocoCay this week. Celebrity Reflection and Celebrity Beyond both visited the private island while on cruises to the Caribbean from Port Everglades. CocoCay is Royal Caribbean’s (sister cruise line to Celebrity) private island in The Bahamas.
Celebrity’s newest ship, Celebrity Ascent, arrived in Europe for the first time and will spend the summer reason cruising in the Mediterranean.
Celestyal Cruises
Celestyal Cruises has partnered with National Geographic for special excursions in Greece and Croatia.
Holland America Line
Holland America Line is adding Dutch Day to all cruises. This day will have unique Dutch food in the main dining room and buffet and will also be the day where the cruise line’s Orange Party is held. You can read more about this day here.
MSC Cruises
MSC Group announced that they are building a hospital ship for Mercy Ships International that will provide free surgeries to thousands of people in Africa.
Norwegian Cruise Line
NCL launched their 2024 cruises to Europe and they will offer more than 100 itineraries from 13 homeports this season. This includes Norwegian’s first ever summer season of sailings between New York and Iceland.
Norwegian’s next new ship, Norwegian Aqua, was floated out at the shipyard and the vessel now moves to the final stage of construction. This is the cruise line’s first Prima Plus class ship.
Oceania Cruises
Oceania Cruises announced new Mediterranean cruises for 2025 that will range from nine to 56 days long. The sailings will visit some of the most popular ports in Europe as well as some lesser known ports.
Princess Cruises
Princess Cruises christened their newest and largest ship this week, Sun Princess. Award-winning actress Hannah Waddingham gave the traditional blessing for the new ship with magician Michael Carbonaro serving as the master of ceremonies.
The cruise line also announced a new ‘ship within a ship’ concept that will launch on their Sphere class ships.
Princess also announced the opening of a new specialty restaurant and updates on cruises to Alaska in 2026. You can read all about the new announcements here.
Royal Caribbean
Royal Caribbean Group has partnered with Hard Rock to offer reciprocal perks between members of the casino programs. The perks include free cruises and free hotels stays. You can read more about this new partnership here.
Royal Caribbean started construction on their first Royal Beach Club. The beach club will be located on Paradise Island in Nassau. It is expected to open in 2025.
The world’s largest cruise line has also cancelled all stops to one of their private destinations in the Caribbean. All stops to Labadee, Haiti through May have been cancelled with some cancellations going out to September.
Seabourn
Seabourn, an ultra luxury cruise line from Carnival Corporation, will offer a special 22 day cruise on September 2, 2024 for the final voyage on Seabourn Odyssey. The ship has been in service with the cruise line for the past 15 years.
