Welcome to the weekly Cruise News Digest. Here you can catch up on the past week’s cruise news and all things La Lido Loca.
Let’s dive in!
Carnival Cruise Line hosted another successful $1M Slot Tournament aboard Carnival Celebration. The event was the cruise line’s largest-ever casino competition where more than 1,600 guests took part. The top 100 winners were awarded prizes with the grand prize winner awarded $500,000, and second and third place winners taking home $150,000 and $50,000 respectively.
MSC Cruises has upgraded its youth programming across its entire fleet. The new programming will include extended hours, live entertainment, organized activities, dinner with peers, an exclusive prime-time game show and a teen disco. They also released a new teen music video dedicated to its private island in the Bahamas, Ocean Cay MSC Marine Reserve.
Carnival Freedom returned to her homeport of Port Canaveral after a 16 day dry dock in Cadiz, Spain. While in dry dock, she received a new whale-tail funnel and the fleet’s new red-white-and-blue hull livery. She also had her public spaces refreshed, her worn decks replaced, her casino expanded, and her staterooms renovated. Her dry dock also included the addition of two new venues–The Heroes Tribute Bar & Lounge and the new Dreams Studio.
Royal Caribbean International announced its lineup of European vacations for 2025. Six ships will sail from five homeports giving cruisers the opportunity for bucket list European vacations. Itineraries will range from two to 12 nights and include ports of call in Greece, Croatia, Italy, Portugal, Spain and France.
In port news, Port Everglades is looking forward to the 2023-2024 cruise season with new cruise lines and new cruise ships. The Port will welcome multiple inaugural calls from different cruise lines, host two naming ceremonies, as well as many returning ships.
In Port Canaveral, the world’s busiest cruise port, CEO Captain John Murray delivered the annual State of Port address on November 8, 2023 at Cruise Terminal 1. The Port has broken records in 2023 and is looking to break even more in 2024. Murray said, “We’re very excited for the future. We have some great assets coming online in the next few years and a lot of surprises for the business as a whole.”
There you have it. This week’s Cruise News Digest. Are you a member of the Loca Extra Patreon? You can join here and get extra live content and more. Did you see Tuesday night’s Live? Are Tony and the lovely Jenny B quitting YouTube? How about Tony and Don from Don’s Family Vacation and their Cruise News Roundtable?
La Lido Loca has even more cruise news, while La Lido Loca Two offers more cruising content along with the Cruise Podcast! Tony updates his weight loss journey over at Have To Lose. You can also join in on the conversation via social media on the La Lido Cruising Community and the Have to Lose Support Crew group pages.