Meredith Vieira has been all over the world in her role as a reporter, but her visit on the Avalon View from Avalon Waterways was her first trip on a cruise ship. Vieira (see my ship christening story) said she’s a little frightened of water, but loved being on a river where she could clearly see land. “I would definitely do this again,” she told a group of journalists the day after the christening. “You can make it whatever you want, and they help make it whatever you want.” “I didn’t realize how emotional I would get,” Vieira said. “I Read more
cruising
It’s tricky when you invite someone who’s afraid of the water to get on board a ship. It’s especially unusual to ask that person to christen the ship, become the ship’s godmother, and then take a four-day cruise. But everything went according to plan this week when television star and journalist Meredith Vieira christened the newest “suite ship” in the Avalon Waterways fleet. (See short video here) Vieira handled the honors with aplomb in Bratislava, Slovakia on Tuesday, and with a bit of emotion to boot, cutting a long cord with a pair of scissors and sending a bottle of Read more
After a two-year pause due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the first cruise ship has arrived in Victoria. CHEK reports Holland America’s Koningsdam ship arrived shortly after 10 a.m. local time at Ogden Point in Victoria, B.C. on Saturday with 1,200 passengers on board. It’s the first cruise ship to dock in Canadian waters in more than two years. “We know that cruise ship passengers enjoy everything our communities have to offer, helping support thousands of jobs in the maritime, tourism, hospitality, and agricultural sectors across the province,” Rob Fleming, B.C.’s minister of transportation and infrastructure, said in a release from Read more
Consumers are optimistic about their 2022 cruise travel plans. That’s the overall sentiment from a recent survey conducted by arrivia, a leading travel loyalty and cruise booking technology platform that works with consumer-facing companies worldwide. The company surveyed 1,453 Americans between November 3, 2021, and January 10, 2022, all of whom are members of a travel club or travel benefits program, about their attitudes and preferences around cruise travel. Initial responses were collected just a few weeks before the emergence of the COVID-19 Omicron variant, with responses also being recorded into January 2022 as it became the dominant strain worldwide. Read more
In a move that took some observers by surprise, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has dropped its notice of risk for cruise travel. After more than two years of warning would-be cruisers about how dangerous cruise travel could be during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Atlanta-based CDC today dropped its warning entirely. “CDC is removing the COVID-19 Cruise Ship Travel Health Notice,” spokesperson Dave Daigle, spokesperson for the health agency, told USA TODAY. The CDC issues travel health notices to let travellers know about current health issues that could impact their plans. The group had cruise at Read more
