A Cunard New Year! less the 24 Hours Till the Rose Parade!

Well less the 24 hours left until next year! and less the 24 for hours from now I will be watching as Cunard's "Grand Celebration at Sea" sails down Colorado Boulevard here in Pasadena!! It is a pretty exciting time to be a shipgeek and more specifically a Cunard-geek, in Pasadena! I will be posting tomorrow with pictures from the Parade and most of all with pictures of Cunard's float!

For those of you who do not know about or read Cunard's blog... here is a interesting and relevant article.

http://wearecunard.com/2010/12/a-new-year%e2%80%99s-day-grand-celebration/

HAVE A HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Exciting Rose Parade News for Anyone in the LA Area!

Hello blog readers!

Quick little note.... Cunard will be having a little get together on the Rose Parade route durring the parade. Anyone attending the Rose Parade now has a cool opportunity to do so with Cunard! I will be there and so far it looks like a few other people will be there as well.

Here's a link with more information...

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=180609221968888#!/event.php?eid=180609221968888

Carnival's New Breeze. Carnival Breeze

A few days ago the world witnessed the miracle of conception….the conception of a cruise ship that is! That’s because Carnival’s new baby, the Carnival Breeze has been put in the oven…in more technical terms the keel of Carnival Breeze has been laid in the dry dock at the Fincantieri Shipyards in Monfalcone, Italy.

Breeze will be the newest ship in Carnival’s Dream Class of ships being number 3 in the group and number 17 of the Destiny Class of ship, from which the Dream Class evolved. Sized at 130,000 grt (gross registered tons), the Breeze will be the largest ship ever built at Fincantieri and will feature all of the staple features of the Carnival Dream and the currently unfinished Carnival Magic as well as a few of her own features that Carnival has yet to release. (Picture below - Side view of Dream Class ship)

This is great news for Carnival and the industry as a whole. Why? Well, because its means even in our tough economic times the cruise industry continues to grow and that Carnival is strong enough to be able to support additional ships and passenger capacity. In the last year or so ship building has really slowed down so it is good to see at least some ships being built. Hopefully shipbuilding will pick back up to its pre recession glory!

Back to the Carnival Dream, I do have a few comments I would like to put out there. I will start with the negative ones, that way I can leave you on a good note. First of all, I have a problem with the way Carnival builds new ships because they repeat the same design over and over and over and over again (in the shipgeek world this is call cloning). For example, the Breeze is the newest in a long line of Destiny Class ships and their derivatives (Carnival Destiny was the first in the class FYI), Breeze is number 17 in fact. The reason for this repetition actually makes very sound economic sense. By not designing new ships all the time, Carnival is saving hundreds of millions of dollars because designing new ships is not cheap. One other benefit is that it gives Carnival a very consistent product. (Photos at above- Breeze's keel bing laid in dock)

I guess I really shouldn’t complain too much about that though. The Dream Class ships are very close to the Destiny Class in terms of design and layout but even so they are different enough that they can’t really be considered clones of the Destiny Class. They are quite a bit larger and have many things that the Destiny Class dose not, like wrap around promenade deck, “cove” balcony cabins, new public spaces and cantilevered whirlpools, just to name a few. Also the exterior appearance of the two classes is similar but also quite different. So basically, while I can’t complain I do kind of wish that Carnival would design something really new for itself.

Other then that there is really nothing to complain about. The ship will do very well for Carnival and many new cruisers and Carnival loyalist will love her. The Carnival Dream, Breeze’s older sister, already seems to be doing well so I imagine that this new ship will be just as popular.

One thing I haven’t decided if I like or not is her insides. Carnival hasn’t released pictures of what they will look like yet but they have said that the bulk of the interiors will not be designed by the legendary Joe Farcus, the man who has designed the interiors of all Carnival ships since Carnival’s first ship the Mardi Gras. His designs are colorful and whimsical and really are very Carnival Cruises-ish.

To be completely honest, I have never really been a fan of his design’s. I mean, I like them well enough, I am just not crazy about them though and I never really have been (actually there are a few spaces I do really like). But now with this new ship and its new designers I suddenly feel un-sure and surprisingly sentimental over Mr. Farcus. How can it be a Carnival ship without Joe Farcus?? Will it seem like a Carnival ship?? I don’t know. Now I kind of feel sad that old Joe seems to be on his way out from Carnival. My only consolation is that he will continue to design Costa Cruises new ships (Costa Cruises is a European line that Carnival owns).

(Photo at right- Joe Farcus)

Who knows, maybe this ship will turn out to be great! I hope so!

At the end of the day, despite the issues, though I am very excited about this new ship and her sister ship, the Carnival Magic, which will be out sailing this coming year (then again I am excited about every ship as I love them all!!). They are going to be very nice ships and will definitely provide the great cruise vacation experience that Carnival is known for.

Some Small Blog Changes..

Hi readers! Just wanted to let you know that today I made some small changes to the blog. If you look you will see that at the bottom of each post there are 4 buttons... "interesting", "cool", "geeky" and "umm...?". You can click any one of these to express your feelings about the post if you would prefer not to comment.
On top of that there are several other buttons at the bottom of the post that will allow you to easily share these posts on facebook, twitter, google etc etc..

Anyways, my readers, I hope you like the blog so far. Every week I am getting more and more visitors from all over the world and I hope that number continues to grow.

Always feel free to comment on here with your questions or opinions about ships, the blog or the cruise industry!

-Mark

The Rose Parade and Cunard!!

Well I am very excited for this coming New Year! A whole new year for cruising, blogging, geeking out over ships, visiting the Beautiful and Ever Perfect…Queen Mary in Long Beach and also…The 2011 Pasadena Tournament of Roses Parade!!

Why am I so excited about a Parade?? You ask. Well for one, it’s the world famous Rose Parade! Secondly, I am from Pasadena, California and I love the Rose Parade and Pasadena, Thirdly…this year, for the first time ever The Great, The Powerful, The Amazing and Historical Cunard Line (….*geek drool…) is going to have a float in this, the greatest of all Parades!

Named “A Grand Celebration at Sea”, the float will be Cunards first ever foray into this Parade even though, interestingly enough, Cunard has had a connection to Southern California for decades. The float is designed to show different scenes and experiences that you could have on a Cunard ship like a Grand Ball, a grand staircase, a big band orchestra, a large floral graph of the Three, current, Cunard Queens, a Cunard funnel and other such er…um…..grandness. AHHHHHHH!!!! I LOVE CUNARD!!!!...sorry, I had a geek out moment there :D. (The picture below shows what the float will look like)

For those of you who might possibly not know what the Rose Parade is….first of all I would suggest you get out from under that rock you live beneath, because if you hadn’t heard of the Rose Parade, well…you must live under a rock. Secondly, the Rose Parade is a very large parade that we have here in Pasadena every year on New Years to celebrate the coming of the new year. Millions of people every year watch the Rose Parade all over the world. There are marching band, horses and of course the floats. The thing that is special about this parade over others is the floats, because in the Rose Parade every single visible inch of them has to be covered in flowers or some kind of plant material. As a result the floats are really quite beautiful and now with the addition of a Cunard float the parade will be incomprehensibly beautiful! ;)

I will try and get pictures from the parade route of the Parade and most importantly of the Cunard float. I will be sure to post those here so be sure to keep reading!!

ShipGeek Christmas Wishes!

Merry Christmas blog readers!!!

-Mark

(P.S- I didn't get any ship related presents -_-....Dang!)

A little late but....Royal Caribbean Launches Newest ship….Allure of the Seas!!

Earlier this month RCI (Royal Caribbean International) launched Allure of the Seas on her maiden voyage to the Caribbean. While I will try not to make this to long today, I will try and give some small tidbits of information and some commentary here. Allure is the largest passenger ship in history, even larger then her identical sister ship the Oasis of the Seas (but only by 50 millimeters I think it was LOL!) and 5 times the size of Titanic. She can carry over 6,000 passengers and over 2000 crew members on each cruise.

Above photo "Pictures of the Allure of the seas boat as she docked in Labadee, Haiti" by flickr member "Nathan & Raquel"

She has 7 “neighborhoods”, like her sister, Oasis.
They are…
---Central Park, with real plants and trees running down the center line of the ship, sporting shops and restaurants. Photo at left "Launch of Royal Caribbean International's newest ship Allure of the Seas. Central Park." by flickr member "new cruise ships"
---The Boardwalk, a large open outdoor space at the aft end of the ship, modeled after different ocean side boardwalks around the world like the famous Santa Monica pier here in California. It has several restaurants, stores, bars, and handmade wooden carousel, rock climbing walls and at the stern of the ship; an Aqua Theater with original diving and acrobat shows.
---The Royal Promenade, a large shopping and entertainment arcade that has become something of a staple on newer RCI ships, runs down the center of the ship below central park. It has restaurants, shops, bars (including one that acts as an elevator between The Royal Promenade and Central Park) and even a couple of parades that happen several times during the cruise.
---Entertainment Place, an area that includes Studio B, Allure’s ice rink which features ice shows, Comedy Club, Jazz lounge, The Casino and the Amber theater, Allures main theater with shows like Chicago and a RCI original “Blue Planet”.
--- The Pool and Sports Zone, with several different pools, including a beach like pool that gets gradually deeper as you walk, a zip line that zips you 9 stories high above the Boardwalk area and 2 Flowriders: Serf simulators. It also features an large adult only space at the front of the ship over the bridge which has a light buffet by day and a Brazilian Churrascaria restaurant by night, 2 levels of out door lounge space and 2 whirlpools that hang over the side of the ship.
---The Youth Zone featuring several different areas for different age groups including a nursery for babies, the theater and a science lad.
---The Vitality at Sea Spa and Fitness Center, which features a large fully equipped gym and a large luxurious spa.

Photo at right "Boardwalk 3" by flickr member "Gelinda"

The ship is beautiful and seems to be doing very well already. She’s identical in almost every way to her sister Oasis but does have some key difference, for example the Boardwalk on Oasis features a seafood restaurant, The Seafood Shack, where as on Allure there is a Mexican Restaurant, Rita’s Cantina, in its place. This was done to attract more people to the Boardwalk area which apparently was under-performing on Oasis. There are also some other small differences such as Oasis does not have the Brazilian restaurant mentioned above, Oasis features “Hairspray” as its headlining show where as Allure has “Chicago”, Allure has the first Starbucks at sea (STARBUCKS IS TAKING OVER THE WORLD I TELL YOU!), Allure has a hot dog eatery absent on Oasis, the look of the Boardwalk has been changed and there is one other difference on Allure that I am not so keen on.

A few months back, RCI teamed up with DreamWorks Animation Studios. Doesn’t sound too bad at first…you can have Shrek, Puss In Boots and Po play with the kids in the kid areas which they (the kids) will love. But it’s not like that here… and this is RCI’s one and only big fail with Allure so far, in my opinion. DreamWorks characters are everywhere. The Ice show is “How to Train Your Dragon on Ice” (Great movie BTW), the parade that goes down the Royal Promenade is DreamWorks filled (from what I have heard), DreamWorks movies are shown, the characters are walking around and the thing that bothered me the most was Princess Fiona as the Allures Godmother. Don’t get me wrong, The DreamWorks movies are good, I am just not crazy about them being all over this ship.

Disney Cruise Lines does the same thing on their ship but I don’t know…Shrek doesn’t seem quite as loved or as endearing as Mickey Mouse does he?

But besides that I have no major gripe with Allure of the Seas. She’s beautiful, great and I desperately want to sail on her!!! She and Oasis really are great ships and both together, in my opinion, offer a unique and great cruise experience.

I am hoping to write another article on the Oasis class ships, in which I will go into more detail about the ship, soon so keep reading!

Above photo "Sunrise at 6:45 am off the coast of Ft Lauderdale, Florida aboard Allure of the Seas." by flickr member "jazzybeatles- Joe DeRenzo "

Ummm.....

Well now here I am sitting at my laptop ready to finally write for this sad little blog that I have been negliecting. I have just finished watching a DVD “Three Queens: An International Rendezvous” by Robert Neal Marshall (Great DVD BTW…..I geeked out watching it) and I am inspired now to write!...that and I have time right now as I don’t have any work right now.
Let my desire for this blog to be great, never be questioned! I may not write as often as I should but I am still devoted to it!

Above Photo "The cruise ship the Celebrity Infinity" by flickr member "Chris&Steve"