Extra, Extra: Cruise news you can use

Publisher's Note: This is the first installment in the Smarter Cruising Blog's periodic parade of three-dot news roundups ("Extra, Extra") helping to bring you up to date on cruise industry doings.

If a cruise line changes names, retires a ship or adds a new one of note, adopts a major new itinerary -- or if any other newsworthy item comes our way, we'll report it to you in a timely fashion.

As always we'd be delighted to hear your comments, and hope you find this new feature helpful and informative when planning your future cruises.

Extra, Extra:

Norwegian Coastal Voyage -- known as Hurtigruten in Norway for more than a century while navigating Norwegian fjords and coastal waters -- is changing its name for the North American market to none other than Hurtigruten. The change reflects the fact that Hurtigruten has now branched out to many other regions of the world beyond the Norwegian coast including polar destinations such as Antarctica, Spitsbergen, and Greenland. Hurtigruten's newest explorer ship, the MS Fram, was built and launched in April for Greenland expeditions...

...easyCruise, the innovative and informal line that sails only in mornings to allow maximum time in port each afternoon and night, has added a second ship for its popular Greek Islands itineraries starting in April 2008. The 500-passenger easyCruise Life will cruise among six different Greek Islands as well as visit Bodrum, Turkey, for the first time; roundtrip passengers may board in either Athens or Bodrum. Meanwhile, easyCruise has dropped its former ship easyCruise Two, which operated on European rivers, after being forced to cancel a number of scheduled trips due to leasing problems...

...Royal Caribbean's 160,000-ton, 3,600-passenger behemoth Independence of the Seas -- the newest in the line's three Freedom ships equipped with water parks, ice rinks, boxing rings, climbing walls and other amazing amenities -- has made its first test run from the Finnish shipyard where it has been built and is now being readied for service starting in May 2008. Based in Southampton, England, it will be the largest cruise ship ever home-ported in Europe...

...An independently run website, http://www.save-the-delta-queen.org/, is marshaling support for saving Majestic America Line's historic Delta Queen steamboat, whose 80-year existence as a Mississippi riverboat is currently being threatened in the U.S. Congress. A few congressmen are holding up a vote needed to allow an exemption for the Delta Queen from meeting all the terms of the Safety at Sea Act, which requires inflammable materials to be used in boats that carry overnight passengers. While the 1926-era paddlewheeler is made of wood, it has an excellent safety record over the years and many built-in safety features. If the exemption isn't granted, Majestic America Line plans to retire the Queen in November 2008...

...As we reported in late August, the hurricane-ravaged cruise ship docks at Mexico's Costa Maya on the Yucatan Peninsula will take the better part of a year to rebuild. Now it appears that it will take at least a year -- until next September -- to reopen for business, and until spring of 2009 before the docks are again fully functional. Carnival has already announced that it won't revisit Costa Maya until 2009. Meanwhile, cruise lines are substituting other nearby ports such as Progreso and Cozumel to the north in Yucatan, and even some in other countries such as Roatan, Honduras, and Ocho Rios, Jamaica...

Above photo courtesy of Hurtigruten.