Quick programming note, National Geographic Channel is set to re-air its special hour long look at the construction of Royal Caribbean's Oasis of the Seas called "Man Made: World's Largest Ship", so be sure to tune in or set your DVRs to record it.
A female elderly passenger from Royal Caribbean's Grandeur of the Seas went to a Gibraltar hospital after she fell and cut herself on a metal barrier.
Grandeur of the Seas was docked in Gibraltar and the woman had just disembarked when she lost her balance and fell onto a metal barrier that is used to separate zones outside the cruise termal. Unfortunately, the barrier fell down and cut the woman as she and the barrier tumbled to the ground.
Locals called for an ambulance for the woman who was quickly transported to the hospital to be treated. It is not believed that the injuries the woman sustained are serious in nature.
We've been conditioned to believe the newest cruise ships are the best cruise ships and when Royal Caribbean announced earlier this year its new class of cruise ships they have ordered, dubbed Project Sunshine, many of us got excited for what we could see someday.
FoxBusiness wrote a piece about how the next generation of cruise ships, such as Royal Caribbean's Project Sunshine, will be different than previous classes of cruise ships because these ships are being developed to be "optimized for the new economic reality".
Ships like Project Sunshine will carry substantially more passengers per square foot so that the ship can have optimal fuel efficiency and get a greater return on investment per passenger.
To put this in perspective, the Project Sunshine ship will be a 158,000-ton ship that will hold 4,100 passengers. If we compare that to a different Royal Caribbean cruise ship of similar size, such as Freedom of the Seas, Freedom is 160,000 gross tons but only carries 3,634 passengers.
While details on Project Sunshine are still scarce, one thing is for certain: you will see a lot more passengers on the ship than you may have thought.
Greece has been meeting with Royal Caribbean as part of the Posidonia Sea Tourism Forum that took place this week but represenatives from the country recongize the fact more work is needed to be done before it can be ready for likes of Royal Caribbean. The aim of the visit of top executives of Royal Caribbeanto Greecce is to explore possibilities for further development of the company in Greek cruise market.
In order to promote cruise tourism throughout Greece, the Deputy Minister of Culture and Tourism George Nikitiadis accompanied Royal Caribbean Vice President John Tercek on visits to the ports of Thessalonica, Kos and Rhodes.
Rhodes has all conditions for emerging as one of the major cruise destinations, however, "still wants a lot of work". The process of fast-tracking is the conclusion extracted from what was said yesterday evening, during the press conference given at the Municipality of Rhodes. Tercek traveled with Nikitiadis to tourist destinations across the country and visited the port facilities there as well as has meetings with local actors.
During their visit, then, in Rhodes and Kos, they had the opportunity to see the situation of port facilities and areas of potential cruise passenger visits and discussed issues critical to the development of ports in a way that creates perfect conditions for the reception of cruise ships and increased traffic.
Some positive impressions seemed to be made on the Royal Caribbean executives, who said yesterday, from Rhodes that "it is a beautiful island, is a rapidly growing island is a popular tourist island" Asked also Mr. Tercek if Rhodes can easily be home-port, he replied that: "Not easy but possible", while Mr Nikitiadis added that "wants a lot of work."
Nikitiadis' deputy also commented on the possibilities, "I think the cruise market is a great challenge. The government is committed to proceed with very important measures and believe that even the prospect of creating the municipalities in the region, with any carrier, new facilities. This will be subject to procedures of fast-track. Such a process will reach all sides of the market, which will ensure that we have more people, more and more ships, more and more visitors all year long. "
He added, "I must point out that one of the major issues of concern throughout the whole country... is to ensure greater security, which must serve the visitor and not to harass them. This happens in most our ports. It matters that we discuss with them the cruise line, because they know much better since they go around the world and they know what they receive complaints aboutd. So, this cooperation is the relationship developed and we believe that, in future, strengthens more and more, is for the good of the island, for the good of the marine tourism is good for the cruise and hope in the future to go too much better. "
The cruise magazine Cruise International is asking its readers to vote for their favorite cruise line in a number of categories and Royal Caribbean has been nominated for a few of them.
Royal Caribbean recieved nominations for
Want to vote? Click here to cast your vote for these and other categories.
Investments for the development of the Zakynthos, Greece harbor will be addressed at a special meeting, which will take place this afternoon at the office of Mayor of Zakynthos Stelios Boziki.
The initiative for the idea is from naval architect Dimitris Caper. Present at the meeting will be John Tercek, Senior Vice President of Royal Caribbean, Demi Karapatakis, Director of Royal Caribbean, Andrea Stylianopoulos, President of Navigator Tours, MP Dimitris Varvarigos, Antiperifereiarchi Dionysis Mylonas, Harbour Master John Stathis, President of the Port Fund Dionysis Kardiani, and the President of the Chamber of Costa Kapodistrias.
Mr. Tercek and Ms. Stylianopoulos are visiting the island of Zakynthos at the invitation of Mr. Capers to explore whether to invest capital to build the port infrastructure that is necessary to accommodate cruise ships in Zakynthos. The master plan by Mr. Capers for the development of Zakynthos por has received favorable comments from both the municipality and the Ministry of Tourism.
Royal Caribbean also met with officials from Thessalonica, Greece yesterday about bringing Royal Caribbean ships to their port as well.
The challenge of visibility and awareness is required to win over Royal Caribbean if it was to return to Thessalonica, Greece. Royal Caribbean Vice President John Tersek was visiting Thessalonica today and spoke to local officialls about the possibilities of the port as a cruise destination.
Royal Caribbean is considering giving Thessalonica a second chance and returning after the departure of Navigator of the Seas from the city a few years ago. Back then, Navigator of the Seas had only made half of her stops to Thessalonica in order to avoid extensive paperwork due to local port authority regulations.
"I see that Thessalonica is very well placed, but the condition is becoming a recognizable tourist destination, so first priority should be to promote the tourism of the location," said Mr. Tersek during press conference.
Mr. Tersek declined to say when if Royal Caribbean intends to bring cruise ships back to Thessalonica, noting simply that Royal Caribbean has completed the itineraries until 2012. "Any change will take place after 2013" he stated.
The new mayor of Thessalonica knows that the city must do more to entice Royal Caribbean to retun, "Depends on us whether it's Royal Caribbean Cruises. We are confident that any cruise ship come in Thessalonica will not want to leave," he said, while noting that the port has more than sufficient infrastructure for any size ship.
Italian Coast Guard responded to a report of a heart attack aboard Royal Caribbean's Voyager of the Seas, located 27 miles from the port of Ancona. The passenger, a person from Cyprus, suffered the heart attack while the ship was headed to Venice, Italy.
The Coast Guard Operations Centre in Ancona asked the Captain of the ship to anchor, interrupting the journey, so they could transfer the passenger to a Coast Guard patrol boat.
Following the transfer, an ambulance has took the patient to a hospital for treatment. Following the incident, Voyager of the Seas was able to start sailing towards the north once more.
Photo by Ivan Pineiro