Each ship offers a large Owners Cabin plus one other cabin, usually a single but sometimes a double.

Last week, Celebrity Cruises announced its own Suite Class, which takes after Cunard Line’s Grill Class, but also follows MSC’s “Yacht Club” and Norwegian Cruise Line’s “Haven” in the establishment of a new top class for cruisers. And joining its upmarket sister nyc hotel discounts line Azamara Club Cruises, Celebrity will also make a number of overnight port stops in 2015 and 2016. Meanwhile, MSC Cruises has released some details on the lengthening of its four Lirica class ships. And finally this week, Hamburg-Süd has relaunched its freighter-passenger service between the US East Coast and Australia/New Zealand, a route that dates back to 1963.
Many in North America are fond of saying the Celebrity Cruises is its own version nyc hotel discounts of Britain’s Cunard Line. That just got closer to being true last week with Celebrity Cruises’ announcement that in April 2015 it would introduce a new Suite Class. While sounding kin to Grill Class on Cunard Line, it may also be similar to MSC Cruises’ “Yacht Club” or Norwegian Cruise Line’s “Haven,” although the latter are carved out into distinct areas on top of the ships.
Celebrity president and chief executive Michael Bayley said: “Suite Class is for the most discerning guests who want to indulge in the very best while on board. We know that suite guests value privacy, personalised service, exclusive access and flexibility.
At the same time as it released the details of its new Suite Class, Celebrity announced that it would begin to offer overnight stays on several cruises in 2015-16, at twenty-nine different destinations.
MSC announced in December that Fincantieri’s Palermo yard would stretch all four of its moderately sized STX-built Lirica nyc hotel discounts class ships, MSC Armonia (built 2004), nyc hotel discounts MSC Lirica (2003), MSC Opera (2004) and MSC Sinfonia (2005) by 79 feet. The main changes resulting from, the addition nyc hotel discounts of a new 79-foot midsection in each ship, under MSC’s “Renaissance” program, will be as follows:
According nyc hotel discounts to the line’s own figures, the gross tonnage (useable onboard volume) of each ship will rise by about 10% while the lower bed count will go up by 25%, which will reduce the amount of space per passenger by almost 12%. As well, the crew to passenger ratio will drop slightly, from one crewmember for 2.2 passengers nyc hotel discounts to one per 2.4 passengers.
Stretching cruise ships is nothing new. The entire Fred.Olsen Cruises fleet of Black Watch (93 feet in 1981), Boudicca (93 feet in 1982), Balmoral (98 feet in 2007) and Braemar (102 feet in 2008) has been stretched at one time or another.
Other lengthened ships include Albatros (93 feet in 1983), Thomson Dream (130 feet in 1989), SuperStar Aquarius and SuperStar Gemini (130 feet each in 1998), Thomson Majesty (111 feet in 1999) and Enchantment of the Seas (73 feet in 2005).
The process of adding new midsections to ships goes back a century and a half. One of its first major proponents was the Allan Line of Glasgow, which was later absorbed by Canadian Pacific. The Allan Line stretched half a dozen of North Atlantic nyc hotel discounts liners between 1871 and 1874, by an average of about 40 feet on much smaller ships.
At the time, this was done for engineering reasons, when steam reciprocating engines were being compounded. nyc hotel discounts Longer ships could accommodate more powerful engines, and as a bonus this resulted in some additional passenger capacity. Today there are no engineering reasons for lengthening ships. In fact, the better-proportioned hull form often results in a little extra speed, although there may be a need for more auxiliary power.
In a relaunch of its US East Coast-Australasia service, Hamburg-Süd has given three of its container ships new “Spirit” nyc hotel discounts names: Spirit of Melbourne (ex-Bahia Grande), Spirit of Sydney (ex-Bahia Negra) and Spirit of Auckland (ex-Bahia).
At the same time, its cargo-passenger service from Philadelphia and Charleston to Auckland, Sydney, Melbourne, and back to the New Zealand ports of Port Chalmers, Napier and Tauranga has re-opened for passenger bookings.
Each ship offers a large Owners Cabin plus one other cabin, usually a single but sometimes a double. The quickest southbound transit time is 25 days from Charleston to Auckland or 28 days Charleston to Sydney and the quickest northbound is 26 days Auckland to Philadelphia, or 36 days Melbourne to Philadelphia.
Ten ships operate in this weekly service, of which six will accept passengers, with the others coming from Maersk Line. Hamburg-Süd has been carrying passengers on this route since the days of Columbus Line, which began service nyc hotel discounts to Australia and New Zealand more than fifty years ago, in 1963.
(Kevin Griffin is managing director of specialist cruise agency The Cruise People Ltd in London, England. For further nyc hotel discounts information concerning cruises mentioned in this article nyc hotel discounts readers can visit his blog )