Five Cruise Ships Make Inaugural Calls to St. Maarten
Five cruise ships made inaugural calls to St. Maarten within one month recently. From December 6th to January 3rd, Philipsburg welcomed Azamara Onward, Carnival Celebration, Viking Neptune, AIDAbella, and Celebrity Apex for the first time.
Viking Neptune visited St. Maarten just before heading out on a world cruise from Fort Lauderdale, and AIDAbella’s visit was part of a 43-day voyage roundtrip from Germany.
In a post on Facebook, Port St. Maarten said that the five inaugural calls are a “strong indication of the destination’s popularity among cruise lines.” Located east of Puerto Rico and north of St. Kitts, St. Maarten is a common port on eastern Caribbean itineraries.
STORY: Five Cruise Ships Make Inaugural Calls to Caribbean Port in One Month
Carnival Sunshine Has Inadvertent Cruise to Nowhere
Due to bad weather that produced high winds and choppy seas in the Bahamas over the weekend, Carnival Sunshine’s voyage out of Charleston became a cruise to nowhere.
The ship was originally supposed to visit Nassau on Saturday during a four-night sailing. Since Nassau was the ship’s only planned port, the cruise wound up not including any ports at all.
In addition to receiving refunds for shore excursions and port fees, guests received $100 in onboard credit per stateroom and a 50 percent future cruise credit to make up for the disappointment.
Two Cruise Ships Plug Into Shore Power at the Port of San Diego Simultaneously
Last Friday, the Port of San Diego became one of the first ports in California to have two cruise ships using shore power at the same time — Disney Wonder and Oceania’s ship Insignia.
The port first installed a shore power outlet at the cruise terminals in 2010, and more recently added a second. The two outlets will result in at least a 90 percent overall reduction of harmful pollutants while ships are docked.
The Port of San Diego is also working on the installation of an emissions capture and control system, which would be able to connect to ships that aren’t shore power capable and reduce their emissions while docked as well.