At Sea with Doug Newman

Clipper Group has acquired the 4,954 GT, 226-berth sister ships Cape Cod Light and Cape May Light from the US Maritime Administration (Marad) for $9 million each. Both ships will be upgraded and offered for charter beginning in the summer of 2009 as Clipper Discoverer and Clipper Voyager respectively. The ships will be managed by Miami-based International Shipping Partners, which manages Clipper Group’s cruise investments and in which it recently acquired a 50% stake. Keep reading →

…Though I can’t really blame you if you thought I was!

I have been extremely busy with that inconvenient thing called “real life” in the past month or so. I should have posted earlier to say that I’m still here, but you know, “Out of sight, out of mind,” or so they say…!

(Note to self: Stop using so many ellipses.)

Anyway, I’m back now, and hopefully I won’t be disappearing again for extended periods in the near future. Thanks all for hanging in there, assuming, that is, that anyone did!

Swan Hellenic has been forced to cancel its first cruise with its once and future ship, Minerva, due to unexpected generator difficulties. The eight-night Norwegian Fjords cruise was scheduled to depart from Dover on Friday 23 May, returning on Saturday, 31 May and was scheduled to call at Bergen, Flam, Ulvik, Stavanger and Kristiansand. The ship is scheduled to arrive in Hamburg tomorrow, 22 May, concluding her charter to Phoenix Reisen. According to a statement from Swan Hellenic, “[The problem] in no way affects the safety of the passengers on board and the ship will finish its current cruise on schedule this Thursday at Hamburg, where a thorough assessment can be undertaken. Once this is completed a further announcement will be made.” Keep reading →

Rumors are strengthening that Club Cruise’s Astoria, whose charter to Transocean Tours ends in April 2009, has been sold to Saga to become the second ship for its Spirit of Adventure brand. Club Cruise has come on hard times lately recently, having sold the recently-acquired ferry Da Vinci (ex Finnjet) for scrap and been forced to shut down its stillborn British subsidiary Van Gogh Cruise Line, so it’s not surprising that it would consider selling the 18,591 GT, 500-berth Astoria in the apparent absence of a new charterer. Keep reading →

It’s official: after weeks of rumors, Norwegian Cruise Line has announced that its subsidiary NCL America’s Pride of Aloha will return to the main NCL fleet as Norwegian Sky. If this gives you a sense of déja vu, it’s because the 77,104 GT, 2,002-berth ship was first entered service in 1999 as — you guessed it — Norwegian Sky! She was transferred to the US-flag NCL America fleet in 2004 and renamed Pride of Aloha for cruises in the Hawaiian islands, but in February 2008 NCL announced that she’d leave the fleet on 11 May 2008 and move to the Asian-based fleet of NCL’s part owner and former parent Star Cruises. Then — after no further information was forthcoming from Star — came rumors that the ship was for sale, including reports that Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. subsidiary Pullmantur Cruises made and then retracted a $310 million bid for the ship. Finally, NCL has put an end to the speculation by announcing that the ship won’t be leaving the fleet but will instead return to the NCL international fleet on 14 July 2008 with a program of three- and four-night cruises from Miami to the Bahamas. Keep reading →