PASSENGER CRUISE SHIP FUTURE VISITS ARRIVALS SOUTHAMPTON & SOLENT

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Celebrity Solstice - Size: GRT: 122,000 Capacity: 2,850 berths Builder: Meyer Werft - Germany. This will be Celebrity's first post-Panamax vessel. It will be powered by a diesel-electric podded propulsion system. It will have live grass on a portion of the top deck, and not a small portion either, the "Lawn Club" is a half-acre or 7190 square feet of live grass. The lawn will be used to allow guests to enjoy bocce ball and croquet, practice their putting, picnic with a basket of wine and cheese, or simply feel the grass between their toes.

Late 2009. Project Genesis, the largest cruise ship to ever make it from drawing board to production made a significant step in its journey towards the sea today a few days ago at Aker Yards ship yard in Turku, Finland. At the milestone keel-laying ceremony, the first blocks constructing the 220,000 GRT Project Genesis were laid into the bottom of the dry dock. From here the ship will begin to take its form for the first time.

At 40% larger than any other cruise ship in the world, Project Genesis – the working title applied by cruise line Royal Caribbean International, the company behind its development – is scheduled to enter service in Autumn 2009. Project Genesis will be homeported year-round from Port Everglades, Fort Lauderdale in Florida. Project Genesis is 1,180 feet long, 154 feet wide, and 240 feet high and will accommodate over 5,400 guests. The ship will take 5,800 man-years to complete and is expected to float on water for the first time in Winter 2008 as it nears the finishing stages. At a cost of US$230,000 per berth, Project Genesis is the most expensive cruise ship ever to be ordered. Royal Caribbean have started a competition for the name, but it must end in "of the Seas".

Second Solstice Class ship Celebrity Eqiunox. She will make two cruises from Southampton after she arrives from Meyer Werft in late July. The first will depart on 29th July to the Norwegian Fjords calling at Alesund, Trondheim, Geiranger, Flam, Oslo and Le Havre, arriving back at Southampton on 8th August for the re-positioning cruise to Civitavecchia. Gross tonnage 112,000 and powered by a diesel-electric podded propulsion system.

Portsmouth will have a mini cruise season in 2009. Silver Seas vessel Silver Cloud will call on Monday 8th June and more significantly, Fred Olsen will operate it’s first Cruises from Portsmouth in the Autumn. Boudicca will arrive from a Summer season out of Newcastle via Amsterdam and Zeebrugge on Monday 5th October. She will depart that evening on a 20 night cruise to Adriatic Ports, returning on Monday October 26th. She will again turnaround and operate a shorter cruise to Mediterranean Ports, returning on Sunday 8th November. Black Watch will operate from Southampton throughout most of 2009 but one wonders if Fred Olsen are testing the waters with these Cruises and maybe the writing is on the wall for Southampton’s relationship with them ?

A round-Britain voyage and a doubling in the number of shorter, taster cruises are among highlights of P&O Cruises’ programme for 2009. The line’s smallest ship Artemis will run an 11-night debut tour of the British Isles departing on July 5, 2009 with ports of call including Leith for Edinburgh, Invergordon, Kirkwall in the Orkney Islands, Moville for Londonderry, Greenock for Glasgow, Dublin, Falmouth and St Peter Port in Guernsey. Sixteen cruises of between two and seven nights duration will run in 2009, double the number scheduled for this year, including breaks on new ship Ventura and Oceana. Ventura, the largest ship in the fleet, will operate its first full year of itineraries, with 19 departures from Southampton and 10 fly-cruise holidays from Barbados. The 2009 programme is 30% bigger than this year’s due to the first full 12 months of Ventura being in service. In total, P&O Cruises will offer cruise holidays to 235 destinations in 82 countries during 2009. New ports of call include Antwerp in Belgium, the island of Hvar in Croatia and La Spezia in Italy.

Next year marks the 170th anniversary of the company’s founding and will see its two ships offer a total of 61 voyages throughout Europe, the Caribbean and across the Atlantic. In addition to an extended season of 25 transatlantic crossings, Queen Mary 2 will offer two Mediterranean voyages, a round British Isles voyage, two Northern European voyages and two Canada and New England trips before completing the year sailing in the Caribbean from New York. Cunard’s newest ocean liner, Queen Victoria, will offer a range of four- to 16-night voyages from Southampton.

Queen Victoria will offer four, four-night voyages perfect for those seeking a taste of the Cunard ocean liner lifestyle. All will call at Cherbourg, Rotterdam (for visits to Amsterdam) and Zeebrugge (for visits to Bruge). Departures are on May 2, August 29, October 22 and December 5. A total of eight voyages to the Mediterranean will be offered in 2009 ranging from 12- to 16-nights. Queen Victoria will continue trips to the fjords. On Baltic itineraries, the ship is able to call at ports such as St Petersburg, something denied to QE2. A highlight for Queen Victoria will be a 24-night inaugural voyage to Canada and New England. The fact that the original Cunard paddle steamers sailed from Liverpool to Boston via Halifax makes Queen Victoria’s first call at these two ports even more special. Queen Mary 2’s round British Isles trip departs from Southampton on October 15, 2009, calling at South Queensferry (Edinburgh), Greenock, Liverpool, Cobh and Cherbourg. The ship’s expanded transatlantic programme features 25 six-day crossings and includes seven no-fly roundtrip voyages, a new range of New York hotels, new North American escorted tours and new ‘As You Like It’ programme featuring 11 US gateways airport connections. The new American tours programme combines Atlantic crossings and places such as New York, Las Vegas, Boston, Toronto, Niagara, Atlanta, Calgary, San Francisco, Charleston and Los Angeles. Queen Mary 2 will also run its first transatlantic crossing from Boston to Southampton, via New York. Interspersed with the Atlantic programme are two voyages from Southampton to the Mediterranean and two to Northern Europe. Queen Mary 2 continues to offer Canada and New England with two voyages taking in Newport, Boston, Bar Harbor, St John and Halifax. The ship ends 2009 with a programme of five Caribbean voyages from New York of 10- to 15-nights including a Christmas voyage featuring Grand Turk, Tortola, Curacao, Grenada, Barbados, Castries, Dominica, Basseterre and Charlotte Amalie.

The world’s biggest cruise liner is to have a New York-style “Central Park” on the ship, its owners have revealed. Royal Caribbean is building the 220,000-tonne liner with the working name Project Genesis and the announcement is the latest salvo in the intensely competitive global cruise market. The company said the park would be “a revolutionary design in which the center of the ship opens to the sky and features lush, tropical grounds spanning the length of a football field”. New York style: The liner will have an outdoor area on-board supposedly modeled on Central Park. The 1,180ft long luxury liner is under construction in Finland at a cost of £700 million and dwarfs the current biggest ships - also owned by Royal Caribbean - which are 160,000 tonnes. The builders said the space will be like a town square for al fresco dining and entertainment. The park will be located on Deck 8 of the 16 deck ship and open to the sky, with dimensions of 62ft (19m) wide and 328ft (100m) long. Trees in the park will tower more than two-and-a-half decks tall and the area is to have micro-climate control techniques to make sure the plants thrive.

2nd July OOCL Busan (new)
3rd July Lorraine

9th July Wan Hai 603 (Wan Hai 605 due back again on 11th June)
14th APL Minnesota (new)
16th July Meta (ex Maersk Perth)

17th July Hyundai Brave
6th August Conti Singa
9th August NYK Terra
13th August Gothenburg Express

Two of Hyundai Merchant Marine’s latest and greatest Container ships are due here on CMA CGM’s FAL service. The Hyundai Brave (2008 94,511 grt) is due on 1st August and again on 2nd October on her second rotation and the Hyundai Faith (again 2008 94,511 grt) is due on 16th October. Both are very large ships of 339m LOA by 45.6m Beam. Whether these are charters to cover CMA CGM refits or permanent inclusions in the FAL Service is unclear but their size is more compatible with the CMA CGM FAL fleet than the slightly smaller ships in Hyundai’s CEX service which now calls at Thamesport.