Oceania Cruises will have a new ship, the Marina, scheduled for launching in January. As a result of that, one of their other three ships will enter the Alaska waters next year.
The Oceania Regatta will be travelling the Inside Passage and making 10 trips in all. Two are Vancouver return, four are one-way Vancouver to Anchorage and four originate in San Francisco with Vancouver as a port on two and as the destination on two.
Oceania currently has three ships the same size, with fewer than 700 passengers. Marina’s capacity will exceed 1,000, and nothing on the horizon indicates the company will build anything bigger in the future.
Right now, Oceania has a 2-for-1 offer for Alaska next summer, along with free air — great news for the beleaguered cruise market in the 49th state. You can check out all the sailing dates at Oceania’s website. Just as an aside, this cruise line is entering the Canadian market on the other side of the country, too, when the Regatta sails from New York to Montreal via the Atlantic provinces and Quebec City.
If you’re travelling to Europe this week, remember that the British Airways strike still has three more days to go, with more five-day strikes scheduled for May 30 and June 5. It couldn’t come at a worse time for the European cruise season.
All for now.
