New Princess Cruises 2011 Program

Article posted: March 5th, 2010 by Cruisepilot | No Comments »

Princess Cruises has announced today the April to September 2011 deployment of Sun Princess, and a new Dawn Princess sailing prior to her 2011 Round World Cruise.

The program sees the return of Sun Princess to Fremantle for its most exciting season yet. This deployment will feature double the number of Northern Explorer cruises between Sydney and Perth (Fremantle), as well as the return of the 46-night South Africa and Indian Ocean Odyssey that operated in 2009. The 2011 program will also feature the new Treasures of Asia itinerary which offers an 11 and 14 night open jaw sectors between Perth (Fremantle) and Singapore. These sectors can be combined to form a 25-night roundtrip Grand Adventure departing Perth (Fremantle).

The northbound 11-night leg will call in Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore while the southbound 14-night leg will call in Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia. The exotic and highly popular 21-night Southeast Asia Explorer cruise will also return for another season.

Prior to the Dawn Princess Round World Cruise, a new 12-night cruise to the South Pacific departing the 13th of May 2011 has been added.

Dawn and Sun Princess are designed to offer all the choice and amenities of a big ship while keeping the warmth and intimacy of a small ship. With over 400 balcony cabins, these superliners feature itineraries tailored for the Australian market with local entertainment and Australian dollars as the onboard currency, in addition to all the hallmarks of Princess Cruises.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS • Return of the 46-Night South Africa and Indian Ocean Odyssey visiting Southeast Asia, India and South Africa. • Inaugural 11-night & 14-night Open Jaw Cruises to Southeast Asia. • Double the number of 17-night Northern Explorer cruises visiting the Top End of Australia

For more information, please contact your Cruise Consultant on 1300 795 433

Cruise Companies flock to Australasia

Article posted: March 4th, 2010 by Cruisepilot | No Comments »

Australasia seems to be THE hot destination for cruising with more cruise lines than ever positioning their ships in our waters. This month alone three of the bigger cruise lines have announced new deployments to our region.

 SEABOURN declared this week that Seabourn Pride will spend all of next year sailing in Asia, while Seabourn Odyssey will increase its time spent in Australia/NZ.

Seabourn plans to expand their 2011 winter cruises itineraries to a wider range of destinations in Asia calling at smaller ports in Indonesia and Malaysia as well as their existing program of cruises to Japan, Korea and China.

“We will position Seabourn Pride between Singapore and Bali and really make the most of the fact that we can take our smaller ship into places that large ships can’t go, such as Komodo Island, and see the culture up close and personal, which is even difficult to do on land-based journeys because of the limited infrastructure – plus our guests can come back to the comfort of the ship and a glass of champagne,” Seabourn president, Pamela Conover said.

The 2011 winter-season Asian itineraries will also include Vietnam, Borneo, the Karimunjawa islands and shore excursions to the Borobudur temple site and an orangutan orphanage.

Seabourn will also have a summer presence in the southern hemisphere with its world voyage program.The new Seabourn Sojourn will visit Australia in 2011 during its journey from Los Angeles to London, with calls to Fremantle, Hobart, Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney. In 2012, Odyssey will undertake a South Pacific circle voyage called ‘Stars of the Southern Cross’ offering segments of 14 to 26 days between LA, Auckland and Sydney.

HOLLAND AMERICA LINE will base another ship in Australia next year while also expanding its Sydney season, including more roundtrip cruises to New Zealand and the South Pacific.

Joseph Slattery, vice president, international sales and marketing, HAL, said “Australia was its top international market and would “see more ships more often.” We have made a commitment to more departures and more roundtrips from Sydney,” Slattery said.

 HAL currently bases the 1,432-passenger Volendam in Sydney during the international season and this year added 10 home-port sailings from the city to attract more local passengers.

Up to 50% of passengers on Sydney roundtrips are Australians, with domestic bookings increasing last year by 45%. Cruises aboard Volendam include five Sydney roundtrips to NZ or the South Pacific, such as a 16-day voyage spending Christmas and New Year at sea. The season will begin on 05 November 2010 with a 14-day Pacific Treasures cruise to New Caledonia, Vanuatu and Fiji.

ROYAL CARIBBEAN CRUISES has also announced that Radiance of the Seas will join Rhapsody of the Seas in Sydney from October 2011.

For cruise departures and enquiries please contact your Cruisepilot Cruise consultant.

Yet Another MSC Cruise Ship – to be delivered in June 2012

Article posted: March 2nd, 2010 by Cruisepilot | No Comments »

MSC Cruises have again announced the date of delivery of yet another new ship. Only three days after the MSC Magnifica flag ceremony MSC Cruises signed a letter of intent for the delivery of MSC Favolosa, their latest ship for June 2012, to join the eleven new vessels built in the last 7 years.

Pierfrancesco Vago, CEO of MSC Cruises stated: “At a time when many companies are cautious about investing, MSC Cruises once again signals the record-breaking extent of its ambition. This latest ship once built will bring our capacity to 1,400,000 passengers, confirming both the success of our strategy and our confidence in further growth.”

Measuring 333.3m in length and 38m in beam, MSC Favolosa will have a total of 1751cabins and will be able to travel at speeds of up 23.7 knots.

Thanks to award-winning naval architects De Jorio Design International the latest addition to the Fantasia class, technically called V32, will herald a state-of-the-art concept in space management, which will include two additional lifts to improve passenger flow and a total redesign of decks and restaurants to offer guests on board the ship unprecedented comfort and the highest space ratio per passenger. To achieve the highest standards of respect for the environment, substantial investments will include more efficient evaporators, chillers, a new generation of propulsion motors and an additional bow thruster to improve maneuverability.

Click here to enquire about Northern Europe and MSC Cruises – discover the beauty of the Norwegian Fjords, St Petersberg, Amsterdam and Copenhagen.

Are You Our Winner?

Article posted: March 2nd, 2010 by Cruisepilot | No Comments »

The hunt is on for the winner of our Mexican Riviera Fly-Cruise competition! Is it you? If you submitted the below entry, check your inbox now and you will soon be jetting off to the colourful shores of the Mexican Riviera thanks to VAustralia and Cruisepilot!

I would like to win because… Plane’s fantastic, LA excites me Virgin delights me, hope Cruisepilot invites me!

Leslie, call us when you can!

MSC Magnifica Joins the World’s Most Modern Fleet

Article posted: March 1st, 2010 by Cruisepilot | No Comments »

MSC Magnifica Joins the World’s Most Modern Fleet

MSC Cruises officially took delivery last Friday of its new ship MSC Magnifica from the STX Europe shipyard at Saint-Nazaire (France) before sailing her to Southampton UK for a pre-christening showcase weekend before the 6th March official christening in Hamburg.

In the traditional flag ceremony, the shipyards pennant and the French flag were first lowered, accompanied by the French national anthem, before Jacques Hardelay, General Manager of STX Europe, formally handed the ship over to MSC Cruises shipowner Mr Gianluigi Aponte. Mr Aponte then gave command of the MSC Cruise ship to Captain Giuliano Bossi, and the flags of Italy and MSC Cruises were raised to the sound of the Italian national anthem.

The honour of cutting the ribbon fell to MSC vice-president Mrs Alexa Aponte Vago, daughter of Mr Aponte and wife of MSC Cruises CEO Pierfrancesco Vago, who was also in attendance, as was the Manager of MSC Cruises France & Belux Erminio Eschena. After the traditional breaking of a bottle of champagne, three blasts from the ships siren signalled the end of the ceremony.

CEO of MSC Cruises, Pierfrancesco Vago said: We are delighted and proud to take delivery of this magnificent new ship, bringing the MSC Cruises fleet to 11 ships. Our capacity has increased 10 times in just 7 years to reach 1,200,000 passengers in 2010, an unprecedented rate of growth,he continued. But our growth is not just a question of number, MSC Cruises has earned worldwide recognition for its industry-leading innovations in ship design, and MSC Magnifica is the perfect demonstration. Based on a tried and tested model, she introduces previously unseen levels of sophistication and comfort, and does so in total respect for the highest environmental standards.

In his speech, STX Europes General Manager Jacques Hardelay said: We are honoured that STX France has once again contributed to the growth of the most modern cruise fleet. MSC Magnifica brightly displays the know-how and constant improvement capacity of both the STX France SA�s teams and our partners. This new cruise vessel illustrates the excellent and exceptional collaboration between Saint-Nazaire and MSC�Cruises teams.

After the pre-christening visit to Southampton, MSC Magnifica will return to Saint-Nazaire to begin her pre-christening cruise on Monday 1st March, calling at Cherbourg (Tue 2nd), Dover (Wed 3rd) and Amsterdam (Thu 4th) before reaching the port of Hamburg (Fri 5th) for the official christening ceremony on Saturday 6th March, 2010.

This grand event will be attended by an array of show business stars, including UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador and international singing sensation Nana Mouskouri, world-famous Italian singer-songwriter Eros Ramazzotti and platinum-selling German artist Sasha.

Of course, the heart of the event will be the cutting of the ribbon and the naming of the ship by screen legend Sophia Loren, to a crescendo of champagne and fireworks.

The christening ceremony can be enjoyed not only by those in Hamburg onboard and ashore on two giant floating screens in the beautiful Landungsbrucken area of the harbour – but also by online spectators around the world on MSC TV (www.mscwebtv.com).

MSC Magnifica is the 11th in the fleet and 4th in the Musica Class of ships. Offering 22,000 square meters of public areas for the 3,013 guests and weighing in at 90,000 gross tonnes, MSC Magnifica combines the intimacy of her three sister ships in the Musica fleet with the state-of-the-art facilities and design found on the company�s larger flagships, MSC Fantasia and MSC Splendida.

MSC Magnificas features include the 1st Magrodome within the Musica class series of ships. This retractable roof the largest of its kind covers one of the four pools and provides the ability swim in all weather perfect for year-round Meditarranean sailings. In addition, world famous (double Michelin star) Chef Mauro Uliassi�s stunning masterpieces will be available at LOasi Restaurant for a-la-carte world class dining.

While the circular styled LOlimpiade sports bar with its Olympic themed atmosphere includes Olympic glass football lamps, athletic and track marking floor work, stabilised pool table and displays of Panettas running shoes, Thoenis Olympic racing skis, Bertazzos bobsleigh, Mosers record-breaking bike and articles from many other medal winning Olympiads.

Once christened MSC Magnifica will cruise the Mediterranean for the year starting on the 20th March 2010. The 7 night itineraries take in Bari (Italy), Katakalon/Olympia (Greece), Izmir (Turkey), Istanbul (Turkey), Dubrovnik (Croatia) and Venice (Italy).