Holland America Blog
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Holland America Blog Has Just Posted the Following:
They call the port of Valletta the Grand Harbour and that is correct for more reasons than one. First of all it is a very large enclosed harbor which can handle any draft as long as the ships fit through the breakwater and it is surrounded by monumental buildings erected through the ages until the current day. Although nowadays not much new can be erected as the place is full and the locals are not planning to knock something old down to get a more modern creation in place. This has made sailing in and out always spectacular or just plainly enjoyable encase you are not overawed with what you see. *It is just an amazing place. We were not the only ones who thought so as behind us was the MSC Magnifica which came in just before 08.00 hrs. and the Seabourn Spirit which was already there yesterday. This is one of the three smaller ships of Seabourn and she is on her last voyage as Seabourn is phasing out the smaller ships. All three have been sold to Windstar which once was also part of Holland America. Seabourn which is now a sister company to us, is replacing them with bigger ships, roughly the Prinsendam size and already has three of those in operation. The Seabourn Sojourn, Quest and Odyssey. Two more ships are under construction, the Seabourn Encore and the Seabourn Ovation. They will come into service in 2016 and 2018. The small Seabourn ships were nice and because of their size they could visit ports not open to larger ships but they lacked one thing and that was balconies. Some years ago the company tried to alleviate this problem by installing French Balconies in the suites above the lifeboats but it did not fully solve the issue.* Hence new ships and to get balconies on, you have to build them larger as well. You are no allowed to have Balconies under lifeboats and that means a redesign of the ship and that means you have to go larger. Still 40.000 tons is not that large. Most […]
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They call the port of Valletta the Grand Harbour and that is correct for more reasons than one. First of all it is a very large enclosed harbor which can handle any draft as long as the ships fit through the breakwater and it is surrounded by monumental buildings erected through the ages until the current day. Although nowadays not much new can be erected as the place is full and the locals are not planning to knock something old down to get a more modern creation in place. This has made sailing in and out always spectacular or just plainly enjoyable encase you are not overawed with what you see. *It is just an amazing place. We were not the only ones who thought so as behind us was the MSC Magnifica which came in just before 08.00 hrs. and the Seabourn Spirit which was already there yesterday. This is one of the three smaller ships of Seabourn and she is on her last voyage as Seabourn is phasing out the smaller ships. All three have been sold to Windstar which once was also part of Holland America. Seabourn which is now a sister company to us, is replacing them with bigger ships, roughly the Prinsendam size and already has three of those in operation. The Seabourn Sojourn, Quest and Odyssey. Two more ships are under construction, the Seabourn Encore and the Seabourn Ovation. They will come into service in 2016 and 2018. The small Seabourn ships were nice and because of their size they could visit ports not open to larger ships but they lacked one thing and that was balconies. Some years ago the company tried to alleviate this problem by installing French Balconies in the suites above the lifeboats but it did not fully solve the issue.* Hence new ships and to get balconies on, you have to build them larger as well. You are no allowed to have Balconies under lifeboats and that means a redesign of the ship and that means you have to go larger. Still 40.000 tons is not that large. Most […]
Click here to view the article.
