Embarking on adventure
Cruise lines’ Florida sailings to feature visits to private islands
Florida will once again be the beneficiary of the cruise industry’s biggest and best offerings, but it’s not just ships that will be of interest to Sunshine State cruisers in 2019. The big news is private islands. Both Royal Caribbean and MSC have sunk millions into developing private islands in the Bahamas for those sailing out of Florida. Royal Caribbean’s offering is at its existing destination CocoCay, but now renamed Perfect Day at CocoCay, with all the trappings of a theme park. That includes a 13-slide water park, one of which will be the tallest in North America at 135 feet. In comparison, Disney’s Summit Plummet at Blizzard Beach is 120 feet tall and Volcano Bay’s tallest slide, Ko’okiri Body Plunge, is 125 feet tall. CocoCay will also feature a helium balloon that rises to 450 feet, a 1,600-foot-long zip line featuring a splash landing in the harbor, a new set of overwater cabanas and the largest freshwater pool in the Caribbean. “By adding a water park, pools, cabanas and other fun family activities, the appeal of a visit to Perfect Day at CocoCay will now be in the same conversation as Central Florida attractions,” said Matt Hochberg, who runs the website RoyalCaribbeanBlog.com. “I think when new cruisers see everything Royal Carib-
bean is adding, it is going to get a lot of attention because there really is nothing else like it that is so easily accessible in the cruise market.” The majority of CocoCay’s offerings will be available in May, with the entire refurbishment slated to be up and running by November. MSC Cruises, meanwhile, is aiming for November to get its own private island online while also bringing the most ships ever to Florida. Ocean Cay MSC Marine Reserve will be a 95-acre resort with 11,400 feet of beach and its own pier. The destination will have bars, restaurants and a new lighthouse that the line said will be a focal point of evening entertainment. It will support four MSC ships sailing the Caribbean, including the arrival of the largest MSC ship to sail North America, the 171,598gross-ton MSC Meraviglia, which is joining MSC Seaside, MSC Divina and MSC Armonia out of Miami. Meraviglia, which means “wonder” in Italian, is the largest class of ship for the cruise line and can support 4,500 passengers based on double occupancy. One of its unique offerings is the 450-person venue for original Cirque du Soleil shows. The ship, which debuted in 2017, is the sixth largest in the world, behind the four Oasis-class vessels of Royal Caribbean and the German cruise ship AIDANova. While 2018 saw five new ships make their way to Florida, including Royal Caribbean Symphony of the Seas, Celebrity Edge, Carnival Horizon, Holland America Nieuw Statendam and Norwegian Bliss, all now sailing the Caribbean from PortMiami or Port Everglades, 2019 will still welcome a couple more. Norwegian Encore is the last of four Breakaway-Plus class ships from Norwegian Cruise Line. The ship under construction at Meyer Werft shipyard is set to be delivered in October and begin sailing from Miami in November. A sister ship to Norwegian Escape, Joy and Bliss, the 169,000-gross-ton ship will have the largest go-kart track in the fleet with 1,150 feet of track across a 10-turn course that has four sections that extend up to 13 feet beyond the side of the ship. Encore will also have an open-air laser tag course, aqua park with two water slides and the 10,000square-foot interactive entertainment center Galaxy Pavilion. For marquee entertainment, the ship will stage the Tony Award-winning show “Kinky Boots.” The other brand-new ship coming to Florida year is Princess Cruises’ latest Royal Class ship, Sky Princess, which will make its way to Port Everglades in December. The sister ship to the Royal and Regal Princess, Sky Princess features the line’s new Sky Suite, which offers 270-degree views from atop the ship as well as its own vantage point for the line’s Movies Under the Stars screen. The suite is designed for up to five guests and is touted as having the largest balcony at sea. Not new, but reworked and renamed will be Carnival Cruise Line’s existing ship Carnival Triumph, which will go under the knife in the spring for a $200 million overhaul, and re-emerge as Carnival Sunrise. This is a similar approach to what the cruise line did when Carnival Destiny became Carnival Sunshine in 2013, and what’s on tap for Carnival Victory in 2020, when it becomes Carnival Radiance. The new ship will eventually make its way to Fort Lauderdale. It will feature dozens of updated venues including the cruise line’s newest restaurant and bar concept, Guy’s Pig & Anchor Bar-B-Que, which debuted on 2018’s Carnival Horizon. Demand for cruising out of Florida is keeping pace, with more than 14 million passengers among PortMiami, Port Everglades and Port Canaveral in fiscal 2018. That’s over half a million more people than the previous year.