Page 24: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (July 1997)

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Newly Purchased Ship Will

Join Windstar Fleet

Carnival Corp. has purchased cruise ship Club Med I from

Services et Transports Cruise

Lines for $45 million. The vessel will join the fleet of Windstar

Cruises, a Holland America compa- ny. Windstar will take delivery in

March 1998, after the ship under- goes modifications at French yard

Societe Nouvelle des Ateliers et

Chantiers, which built the ship in 1990.

CLIA Announces New

Member

On June 24, Cruise Lines

International Association (CLIA)

President Jim Godsman

Holland America Supports

Alaskan Programs

On June 11, Holland America

Line announced $200,000 in corpo- rate contributions for Alaska tourism-related educational pro- grams. The announcement of the donations was made by company

President and COO Peter T.

McHugh during receptions held aboard Veendam in Alaska.

Donations made to the

Electrical Problems Slow

Cruise Liner Delivery

Royal Caribbean International's newest ship, Rhapsody of the Seas, returned to Chantiers de l'Atlantique shipyard in St.

Nazaire, France, on April 22 fol- lowing damage to the starboard propulsion motor. The ship was reportedly 25 miles out of

Fincantieri loins

Bow And Stern Of Disney

Magic

The bow section of Disney Magic, pictured on this month's Table of

Contents page, was launched and tugged 100 miles up the East

Coast of Italy in mid-April to be joined with its stern outside of Venice.

The sections of the ship were built simultaneously at Fincantieri yards in Ancona and Marghera in eight months' time. "The construction of the hull in two different yards is one example of the many innovations which we are introducing to the cruise industry through the launch of the Disney Magic," said Disney Cruise Line (DCL) President Art Rodney.

This process has previously been used in building tankers and air- craft carriers, but this is reportedly the first time it has been applied to cruise ship construction.

The bow was launched from its building berth in the Ancona

Shipyard on April 12, and accompanied by three oceangoing barges, embarked on a 42-hour transport to Marghera. Through the use of underwater cameras and mechanical guides, the bow was methodi- cally guided in and the two sections were welded together to form the entire hull of the ship. Disney Magic, featured as this month's Cover

Shot, is scheduled to enter service next March.

On June 6, DCL aired its first television advertising campaign in the

U.S. The Leo Burnett-created commercial, "Clouds," is an extension of a print campaign that has been running since last October. "Our new advertising campaign was designed to establish Disney Cruise

Line as the first-ever land and sea vacation created by the dream- makers at Disney," said DCL Marketing Vice President Howard

Pickett. announced that Mediterranean

Shipping Cruises had become the association's newest member.

The line has been in business since 1970, and operates a total of four cruise vessels in the

Caribbean, Mediterranean and

South Africa. The mainstay of the company's operations is container shipping and diversified maritime businesses, and the cruise line's

U.S. operation is headed by Nicola

Arena.

The cruise line's ships, Monterey,

Symphony, Rhapsody and Melody, carry from 576 to 1,076 passen- gers.

Enchantment of the Seas

Named During

Southampton Ceremony

Royal Caribbean International (RCI) appointed Colleen Fain godmother of Enchantment of the

Seas, now under construction in

Finland. Ms. Fain, spouse of RCI

CEO Richard Fain, was sched- uled to name the ship during cere- monies in Southampton, England, on July 12.

Enchantment of the Seas will be the 12 th ship in the Royal

Caribbean fleet and is the fifth of six Vision class vessels being built.

Royal Caribbean currently oper- ates 11 modern ships with a total capacity of 19,770 berths.

The company will introduce its last Vision class vessel in May 1998, and will unveil a new gener- ation of cruise ships in 1999 and 2000: two 130,000-ton, Eagle class vessels, the largest passenger ships ever built.

University of Alaska included funds for its museum, SeaLife

Center, Anchorage food service pro- gram and for training native per- sons for the Alaska Native

Heritage Center, which will open in 1999.

Fincantieri Launches New

Princess Flagship

On May 22, Grand Princess was launched at Fincantieri's

Monfalcone shipyard in northeast

Italy. Alison Ratcliffe, spouse of

P&O Group's Princess Cruises Ltd.

Chairman Peter Ratcliffe, broke a bottle of champagne over the ship's bow.

The vessel was to be floated to an outfitting pier for interior comple- tion before handover in spring 1998 when it will become the flag- ship of the Princess Cruises fleet.

The $400 million, 935 ft. (285 m) long, 109,000-gt ship will have a maximum capacity of 3,300 pas- sengers and 1,100 crew. Its maid- en voyage, from Southampton to

Istanbul, is scheduled for May 1998.

The vessel is the fifth Fincantieri has built for P&O at Monfalcone after the 70,000-ton sisterships

Crown Princess and Regal Princess and 77,000-tonners Sun Princess and Dawn Princess. The yard will also be building two additional 77,000-ton ships — Sea Princess and Ocean Princess — for P&O

Princess Cruises.

This is reportedly the first vessel to be built at Monfalcone using a new mobile, completely robotized workshop designed and built by

Fincantieri under the European

Eureka project. 24 Maritime Reporter/Engineering News