Rotterdam Rescues Migrants Off the Florida Coast
14 people found themselves in a fortunate position on Wednesday.
While Hurricane Nicole was spinning in the Atlantic off the coast of Florida, a raft full of migrants were caught off the coast. Holland America’s Rotterdam, which was spending an extra day at sea because of Port Everglades being closed to marine traffic, spotted the raft and alerted the Coast Guard.
However, because of the rough seas churned up by the storm, they were unable to provide assistance so Rotterdam took on the guests. In total, 13 men and women were saved by the crew of Rotterdam.
Royal Caribbean Drops Testing For Two More Destinations
Royal Caribbean has further relaxed its testing protocols, opening up voyages with no testing requirements to two additional destinations. Guests taking cruises to Haiti or Honduras from Caribbean or U.S. homeports no longer have to take a test prior to sailing, regardless of their vaccination status.
With this change, only passengers on transatlantic sailings and in Australia must submit a negative pre-cruise test. On voyages to Colombia, only guests 12 or older that are unvaccinated must take a pre-cruise test.
Viking Neptune Delivered at Shipyard
Viking has taken delivery of its latest ocean ship, Viking Neptune. The ceremony took place Thursday morning at the Fincantieri shipyard in Ancona, Italy.
Neptune is nearly identical to Viking’s other ocean ships, with the addition of a small hydrogen fuel system. The system is in place as a test to see how hydrogen power could be used at a larger scale for onboard operations on future ships.
Viking Neptune will spend her inaugural season in the Mediterranean before embarking on Viking’s 2022/2023 world cruise on December 22nd from Port Everglades.
STORY: Viking Takes Delivery of New Ocean Ship, First to Test Hydrogen Power For On Board Operations
