Silversea Cruises has added three new Antarctica Bridge sailings

The move comes in response to a recent uptick in demand for the luxury line’s fly-cruise offering. 

Adding to Silversea’s existing Antarctica Bridge offering for 2022 and 2023, the line has added two new five-day expedition voyages aboard Silver Cloud, departing 2 and 7 February 2024, and a six-day sailing departing 12 February 2024.

After arriving at Chile’s Eduardo Frei Montalva air base on King George Island, Silver Cloud’s guests will spend the same amount of time exploring Antarctica as on the cruise line’s conventional itineraries. They will journey to destinations such as Antarctic Sound, the Antarctic Peninsula and the South Shetland Islands.

“In response to exceptional demand, we have added three new fly-cruise voyages aboard Silver Cloud for 2024, enhancing our industry-leading Antarctica offering and strengthening our destination leadership,” said Roberto Martinoli, Silversea’s president and chief executive.

“We offer guests the luxury of choice, with the most diverse offering in ultra-luxury Antarctica cruising.”

China ‘Stronger Than Last Year’ For Carnival Corp

“The bottom line is things are stronger for sure that they were last year at this time,” said Arnold Donald, president and CEO of Carnival Corporation, touching on China on the company’s Monday morning second quarter earnings call.

Donald said he still believes China will eventually be the largest cruise market in the world and putting in new hardware (ships) still made sense.

“The market there is very large in terms of overall travel, both from cities in China and, of course, as a huge potential source market for fly/cruise all over the world,” Donald said.

“In terms of the distribution system itself, yes, we’ve moved from full-ship charters primarily now to group sales and partial ship charters,” he continued. “We’ve added a large number of additional distributors. All of that kind of de-risks things a bit from being overly concentrated and what, in effect, today is still pretty much a B2B market. The direct sales component is slowly growing a bit there. There’s an opportunity to grow that over time. But a timeline in China, we’ll see. It’s a small market.

“I don’t see a dramatic increase in per cent of total capacity in the short term there. And the reason is not so much because of China, but because of the demand everywhere else in the world. And then as I mentioned, there are large addressable markets everywhere in the world that are under-penetrated, including the United States.

“And so it looks positive for the year on a relative basis so far. But China’s China, and we have to see how things play out for the full year,” Donald said.

“But right now, conditionally, things definitely look stronger. In terms of sanctions, we haven’t heard of any sanctions on either side that would directly impact the cruise industry.”

Travel to Korea is still unofficially restricted, and Donald said if that opens up, it could help the situation.

P&O Cruises’ Britannia to make St Lucia debut in 2016

P&O Britannia

P&O Cruises’ newest ship, Britannia, is to sail from St Lucia for the first time as part of its winter 2016-17 deployment in the Caribbean.

An expanded fly-cruise programme of new seven-night cruises alongside traditional 14-night winter sun itineraries went on sale yesterday (Thursday).

Britannia will run a total of 28 Caribbean cruises from St Lucia or Barbados during its second winter season in the region.

The ships will depart from the new Caribbean port for the first time on November 12, 2016 on a seven-night itinerary with calls into Dominica, Antigua, St Maarten and Barbados.

The line described St Lucia as a “must-see” Caribbean destination for its passengers.

Marketing director, Christopher Edgington, said: “Introducing new itineraries which all depart or return St Lucia will offer a new dimension to our Caribbean cruises.

“St Lucia is a popular destination with passengers and no other cruise line has it as a home port, so we are looking to make the most of this by offering an exciting range of shore excursions to maximise the time there.

“It is also the first time we have offered a seven-night Caribbean cruise option. These new week-long itineraries will appeal to those wishing to escape the cold weather and see a number of destinations but who don’t have the time for a longer cruise.

“For passengers with more leisure time, our 14-night cruises provide the perfect opportunity to see more than seven islands in one holiday.”

Prices for seven-night Caribbean fly-cruises start at £1,099 per person for an inside cabin and a 14-nights from £1,299, including return flights from Gatwick.