Marella Sending Discovery 2 to Med and Canaries for Winter 2024-25

Marella Sending Discovery 2 to Med and Canaries for Winter 2024-25

Starting November 7, Marella Cruises will homeport the Marella Discovery 2 in Malaga, Spain for a series of winter sailings before heading to Tenerife and Gran Canaria in December 2024.

The ship was previously slated to sail in Asia.

These itineraries go on sale on May 23.

Chris Hackney, managing director of Cruise for TUI UK & I said: “We are delighted to offer these itineraries out of two of our well-established homeports for this winter. We know guests love the beautiful Canaries and Madeira and as Marella Cruises is part of TUI, we can offer incredible experiences ashore with our destination teams as well as a great onboard experience too. All of these itineraries offer cruise and stay options too, with great flying options across various UK airports.”

 “We do appreciate how disappointing it was to those customers who were impacted by the cancellation of our Asia program on Marella Discovery 2, but we are confident with the breadth of the program we have to offer something different to our customers.”

 From Malaga, Spain, Marella will offer two itineraries:

• Spanish Flavours, departing from November 7, 2024, with visits to Malaga, Palma de Mallorca, Barcelona, Valencia, Cartegena, Gibraltar and porting in Malaga.
• Sights and Delights, departing from November 14, 2024, visiting Malaga, Lisbon, Portugal, Cadiz, Casablanca, Cartagena, Motril and Malaga, Spain.

 

From Tenerife, the Marella Discovery 2 will also offer two new itineraries:

• Winter Escape, departing November 28, 2024, with visits to Malaga, Gibraltar, Cadiz, Gran Canaria and Tenerife.
• Sail into Spring, departing on March 24,  2025, visiting Gran Canaria, Tenerife, Cartagena, Malta and Limassol, Cyprus.

 

German Market Growth to be Driven by TUI

German Market Growth to be Driven by TUI

Mein Schiff 3 photo credit Spacejunkie2 (flickr)

The cruise brands catering to the national German market have an estimated capacity of 2.1 million passengers (double occupancy) in 2023, forecast to grow to 2.5 million by 2020, according to the 2023 Cruise Industry News Annual Report.

The growth will mainly be driven by TUI Cruises which will launch three new ships over the time period, boosting its annual passenger capacity from approximately 600,000 to nearly 1 million.

TUI is focused on the German premium market along with Phoenix Reisen and Plantours. In the luxury segment are Hapag-Lloyd and Sea Cloud.

AIDA is the largest national brand today with an estimated annual passenger capacity of about 1.4 million, but has no new builds on order, and barring any further retirements of ships, will maintain its position, dominating the contemporary market segment.

These brands offer a German-language products. In addition, other European brands also market in Germany, including MSC and Costa, as well as North America-based brands.

Germany is the single largest national cruise market in Europe.

Drydock Frenzy as Cruise Lines Restart

The resumption of global cruise operations is keeping drydock busy around the world. With more cruise ships restarting service, cruise companies are rushing to get necessary work done before welcoming the passengers back on board, as predicted by Cruise Industry News earlier this year.

In Europe, some drydocks have seen a dramatic increase in the number of cruise ships projects, almost seemingly overnight.

Popular among several cruise lines, the Navantia Shipyard in Cadiz, Spain, has been one of the busiest facilities. Working on vessels from brands such as Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, Marella and Azamara, the yard currently has five ships in  Cádiz, with two more on the way.

According to the local press, Navantia plans to work on18 cruise ship projects through the end of the year. the year.

The work performed by the facility includes necessary classification society inspections,  technical maintenance and modernization. Recent work included the Liberty of the Seas, Harmony of the Seas and Celebrity Constellation, which underwent repairs and revision of propulsion and steering equipment, hydro blasting and application of silicone paint.

Marseilles, has also been a the hotspot, working closely with Carnival Corporation, Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings and Royal Caribbean Group’s Silversea.

 Carnival completed four drydocks in the facility recently, with all vessels undergoing regular maintenance and a change of hull colors. A fifth Carnival vessel – the Carnival Legend – is currently at the shipyard, along with Silversea’s Silver Spirit.

Also recently,, the Palumbo Malta Shipyard worked on several MSC ships for their restart operations. Located in Valletta, the yard was partly acquired by the MSC Group in 2020 and currently has the MSC Preziosa docked there.

Bigger Projects Making a Comeback

While most of the current drydock projects are limited to mandatory and technical work, some vessels are also seeing significant refurbishment and conversion projects in 2021.

After virtually all those projects scheduled for 2020 were cancelled or postponed, a few are now being carried out.

In April, the former Star Princess was converted into a P&O ship in Singapore. Also in Singapore, Ponant’s Paul Gauguin emerged renovated a few weeks before, with revamped interiors and cabins.

Work on Carnival Victory was also resumed recently. The vessel is set to be transformed into the Carnival Radiance with all new interiors and revamped cabins in a $200 million project. 

Another big project confirmed for the year is the conversion of the Silver Wind into an ice-class expedition vessel. Previously scheduled for 2020, the project is now set to be completed by the end of 2021.