Best Summer Cruises 2020

Royal Caribbean International has launched a new website for potential cruise volunteers. 

The company, which hinted last week it may need volunteers for trial sailings as part of the CDC's new conditional framework, now has a website and dedicated Facebook page set up for trial sailings.

After the baptism in Hamburg (Germany) and a long positioning cruise with final destination Genoa, the opening winter season of MSC Grandiosa started on 23 November 2019, again from the Ligurian capital.

Designed to meet all the needs of cruise passengers with its avant-garde design, this first Meraviglia plus class vessel is 331 meters long, about 65 meters high, has a gross tonnage of about 181,000 tons becoming the largest ship in the MSC Cruise fleet. Also important is its capacity, available 2421 cabins of various types (including a two-storey cabin) for up to 6300 passengers. After MSC Grandiosa, another 12 new vessels will enter the fleet until 2027, its twin MSC Virtuosa is expected to be in service in less than a year, in October 2020. The city of Genoa will be a fixed stop on the itinerary of MSC Grandiosa during its inaugural season, every week will move something like about 7000 cruise passengers between transits and embarkations. MSC Grandiosa will spend its inaugural season in the Mediterranean, before moving to South America for the winter 2020/2021 and make room for its twin, MSC Virtuosa.

It will be possible to board MSC Grandiosa for weekly cruises, from Genoa every Saturday, from Civitavecchia every Sunday or from Palermo every Monday, to discover La Valletta (Malta), Barcelona (Spain) and Marseille (France). From spring, the airports of Naples and Messina will replace Civitavecchia and Palermo. At this time of year, regardless of the weather conditions along its route, in addition to discovering all that these incredible places have to offer, you can enjoy different indoor areas. It is confirmed as a ship designed for all seasons and able to climb most of the international cruise ports in the world. Thanks to its internal configuration and its 16 meters more, there are additional public areas and several innovations. In addition to a large promenade, the nerve centre of life on board enriched by additional shops, new thematic restaurants, there is a large LED Sky screen about 98.5 meters long, which at certain times of the day offers an original show called "dome show", of lights and sounds.

The brand new "L'Atelier Bistrot", a lounge bar with a stage, dance floor with a view of the Impressionist art exhibition, was also a great success, as well as a terrace seating and tables that resemble those of a typical Parisian bistro. For the first time ever, there is an art exhibition nearby, with 26 engravings from the Danse Dessin series by the painter Edgar Degas.

The entertainment offered includes the debut of two new shows of the Cirque du Soleil at Sea, one of the world leaders in live entertainment with the opportunity to dine or sip a cocktail during the exciting show, paying a little extra. A lot of fun for the little ones too, including a large water park and many options to have fun in the almost 700 square meters dedicated to them, including technology, workshops, sports and music.

MSC Grandiosa is the second "smart ship" in the MSC fleet to be equipped in all cabins with the first personal virtual assistant in the cruise industry: Zoe. It is programmed to answer over 800 questions in seven different languages, with the aim of assisting guests on board the ship and offering them an innovative and smart travel experience.

To discover these and other features of MSC Grandiosa up close, all you have to do is book a cruise and get on board.

After the first sea trials session in October, Costa Smeralda has recently quit again the moorings of the Meyer shipyard in Turku (Finland) and embarked on a new sea trials session. During this second sea trials session, Costa Cruises's flagship company used liquefied natural gas as its fuel, which is an ecological feature that allows it to navigate with less harmful emissions into the atmosphere.

The use of liquefied natural gas as a fuel to produce energy on board of the Costa Smeralda reduces emissions of sulphur oxides, particulate matter, nitrogen oxide and CO2. With the imminent debut of this second eco unit, Carnival Corporation Group once again confirms its position as an industry pioneer in the use of alternative fuels, supporting the sustainability objectives of the global company. This new class of ships to which the Italian flagship belongs is called Helios, have common characteristics such as a gross tonnage of about 180 thousand tons and can accommodate 5,200 passengers, each unit will have unique characteristics.

Shortly after her debut, the Costa Smeralda will be the second cruise ship in the world, after AIDAnova, to use liquefied natural gas as a fuel both in port and at sea. Not only an ecological power supply, on board there is no lack of solutions to reduce the environmental impact of the ship, the energy consumption will be maximized through the use of LED lights, will be recovered the heat produced by the engines. In addition, from a technical point of view, further solutions have been adopted, such as a particular shape of the hull designed to significantly reduce friction with the water, new generation elevators designed to recover the energy used during service and use it for other functions.

From a strictly practical point of view, on board of the Costa Smeralda we have worked to reduce to a minimum the use of disposable plastic in catering as well as in the hotel industry through the use of alternative and biodegradable materials.  Although this new unit continues to focus on the theme of food, with the 4GOOFOOD programme dedicated to reducing food waste and recovering surpluses for social purposes, with the novelty of the LAB-Taste Workshop Restaurant, to involve guests in an entertaining way in the field of food sustainability.

Finally, after concluding this second session of sea trials, the future flagship has returned to the shipyard in Turku (Finland) where it is working to complete the interior design. Unless there are any sensational unforeseen events, the first cruise scheduled will depart from Savona on 21 December 2019, for a classic itinerary to discover the Western Mediterranean that will be repeated until 16 May 2020, with stops in Marseille (Sunday), Barcelona (Monday), Palma de Mallorca (Tuesday), Civitavecchia (Thursday) and La Spezia (Friday) and Savona.

All that remains is to wait for the debut of this eco cruise ship that will represent the emblem of the made in Italy in the seas.