Breaking: Carnival gets keys to 100th new ship

by Chris Owen on
Carnival Cruise Line is breaking some records today. In addition to taking delivery on new Carnival Magic that debut’s May 1, that delivery makes it a total of 100 ships built by parent company Carnival Corporation. In celebration, guests currently sailing on all ships under the Carnival umbrella will join in a champagne toast to celebrate.

In the photo illustration above is pictured new Carnival Magic along with the company’s first ship, Carnival Mardi Gras which began service in 1972. At 130,000 gross tons, the Carnival Magic is almost five times the size of the Mardi Gras’ 27,250 tons. The Mardi Gras was 650-foot long and had a passenger capacity of 906. Carnival Magic stretches 1,004 feet in length and has a capacity of 3,690 guests. That’s a big ship.

That’s a big champagne toast too, 27,000 people, believed to be the largest ever.

Photo courtesy Carnival Cruise Lines

Space shuttle workers may have short trip to new jobs

by Chris Owen on

When the U.S. space shuttle program finally shuts down and the final launch is complete, space workers are going to need a job and they may not have to travel far to find one. Some may end up working in a related field, maybe building the next generation of flight vehicles with a private contractor. But for many workers at Florida‘s Kennedy Space Center, the future had been uncertain at best until now. Now workers are seeing at least one possible option from an unlikely source.

Carnival Cruise Lines recently announced they were moving 2,052-passenger Carnival Ecstasy from Galveston, Texas to Port Canaveral, just down the street from where space workers have been making a living for decades.

Along with Carnival Ecstasy comes hundreds if not thousands of jobs building a new $30 million cruise terminal, dock and more.

No, we’re probably not going to see one of the astronauts or flight directors in the construction process, but for 8,000 space workers who will lose their jobs, this adds one choice to a very short list of options.

Another possible job for space shuttle workers, ironically tech-related is in the health information technology field. As doctors and hospitals make the transition from paper to electronic records jobs there are plentiful but that sure doesn’t sound as exciting as being a part of space travel.

Look for displaced space workers to find other jobs in aerospace too as aviation companies are drawn to the area. Aviation companies soon to break ground at new facilities in Florida include AAR Corp and MidairUSA who noted that the skilled work force was a big advantage over other communities they were considering.

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Cruise ships on the move as traveler demand changes

by Chris Owen on

It was not all that long ago that cruise lines were boasting massive deployment to European waters for 2012 and into 2013. Now, it appears those waters across the pond might not be quite as attractive as at least one cruise line thought. Royal Caribbean is bringing one of their ships back to the U.S. On the other hand, some lines are expanding even beyond Europe as Celebrity Cruises heads to Australia and New Zealand and Carnival Cruise Lines hints at plans to court the UK cruise market. Let’s take a look.

The big news is that Royal Caribbean will redeploy Navigator of the Seas, scheduled to cruise in the Mediterranean, to the Caribbean for the 2011-2012 cruise season and sail out of Port Everglades, Florida.

“We are responding to vacationers’ demand for more Caribbean options this coming winter (and) spring,” Royal Caribbean spokesman Harry Liu told USA Today.

That’s good news for the U.S. cruise market as Navigator of the Seas will offer a unique series of five- to nine-night Eastern and Western Caribbean itineraries between November 20, 2011 and April 14, 2012 when she goes back to Europe.Disney Cruise Line, who will complete the process of doubling it’s fleet soon, will move out of Vancouver after just one season. Sailing from Seattle next year, the line appears to be reacting to “the cost of flying” says the Regina Leader-Post who notes “Flying costs, especially with Disney’s high proportion of children, are important”.

Also, Celebrity Cruises plans to have six ships in the Caribbean during the winter of 2012-13, down from eight this coming winter. Celebrity is sending Celebrity Solstice to Australia and New Zealand and Celebrity Millennium will go to Asia for the first time calling in Singapore, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City and Halong Bay.

Even All-American Carnival Cruise Lines which has had a minimal presence in Europe is looking to the UK market for new passenger sourcing.

“We have a desire to source more people from the UK because of the common language we share,” Carnival chief executive Gerry Cahill told TTGLive.

Indeed, with new Carnival Magic debuting on May 1, 2011 and next-up Carnival Breeze coming out next year, the line will have plenty of experience and hardware in the area. Still, no announcements have been made on exactly how the Funship line will go after UK passengers.

“The UK market is a key priority for us, but how we try to attract it will be decided at a later date,” Cahill said, adding “There are a lot of options, and basing a ship in the UK could be one of those options.”

Flickr photo by Heroiclife

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Cruise line Godmother a “true hero”

by Chris Owen on

When cruise lines launch a new ship, it is traditional to name a Godmother for the new vessel. Godmothers come in all shapes and sizes ranging from Reba McEntire to Whoopi Goldberg and even Martha Stewart. When Carnival Cruise Lines went to pick a Godmother for new Carnival Magic, set to debut May 1, they did not have to look very far.

Carnival is an ongoing sponsor and supporter of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital so they turned to Lindsey Wilkerson, former patient, now good-will ambassador for the hospital to be Godmother of the new Carnival Magic.


“Lindsey embodies the spirit of the tremendously talented, compassionate and dedicated individuals at St. Jude who are true heroes in every sense of the word. Lindsey’s selection as godmother is a tribute to the special children of St. Jude, as well as an acknowledgement of the groundbreaking efforts the organization has made in the fight against childhood cancer,” said Gerry Cahill, Carnival president and CEO.

Wilkerson began treatment at the St. Jude facility in Memphis, Tennessee at age 10. Three years later, her cancer was in remission and she went on to finish high school and attend college. She joined ALSAC, the fundraising organization of St. Jude, in 2004 and is now a volunteer specialist helping to engage and support St. Jude volunteers across the country. Wilkerson also volunteers as a tour guide at the hospital and is a member of the organization’s Family Advisory Council and the St. Jude Women’s Club, the latter for which she serves as president.

Wilkerson will officially name the 130,000-ton vessel during a shipboard ceremony taking place May 1 in Venice, Italy, prior to the Carnival Magic‘s inaugural voyage. Gadling will be there for the event and hopes to meet Lindsey, an unusual choice for Godmother we hope begins a trend of recognizing those who do so much for so many.

Post-race wedding ceremony a win for charity

by Chris Owen on
The Cooper Ridge Bridge Run in Charleston, South Carolina is the third-largest 10K race in America. In a first-ever post-race wedding ceremony at the 2011 run this last weekend, the culminating event was a Race to the Altar contest and fundraiser which resulted in a $10,000 donation to the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) Children’s Hospital.

Sponsored by Carnival Cruise Lines, a nationwide search selected Andy Cook and Tina Berwanger as the winning couple based on their inspiring personal story. The couple met at Surry Community College in North Carolina and were two of over 40,000 participants in this years race, their first. Using preparation for the race as a goal to aid in an ongoing, realistic weight loss/lifestyle program, they said the race to the altar “is symbolic of the healthy lifestyle that we want to continue to lead” after they were married.


Andy and Tina ran in custom-designed wedding attire then, after the race, they were married in a beach-themed ceremony complete with sand, calypso band and slushy drinks in Charleston‘s Marion Square. The couple also got the first dance at the Cooper River Bridge Run Finish Festival in front of family, friends and 40,000 fellow runners plus a honeymoon cruise aboard Carnival Cruise Lines’ Fantasy.


Fulfilling a promise made on New Year Eve in Times Square, this was part of Carnival’s “Hey America, DidJa Ever?” social focus where the line collected “Top 100 Firsts” from over 420,000 Facebook fans. Fans were encouraged to tighten up relationships by sharing experiences through photos and videos aimed to create events and memories. Carnival promised to help make those dreams come true for fans giving away anything from cruise vacations to appearing on stage with a favorite band.