Carnival to Expand Seaside Theatre
 
Carnival Cruise Lines is adding its Seaside Theatre-jumbo-sized LED screens poolside-to five more ships over the next year. The poolside theater is currently on five Carnival ships, including the new 113,300-ton Carnival Splendor which debuted earlier this month. The 270-square-foot screens display movies, concerts, news, sporting events and the "Morning Shows" hosted by the ship's cruise director. Additionally, during Carnival's deck parties, music videos and live shots of the band and party guests are displayed. The first "Seaside Theatre" debuted aboard the 110,000-ton Carnival Liberty in 2005 and the concept proved so popular that it has been incorporated into all new ships, including the 130,000-ton Carnival Dream set to debut Sept. 12, 2009.
 
The 101,000-ton Carnival Destiny and 102,000-ton Carnival Triumph will be retrofitted with Seaside Theatres during scheduled dry-docks later this year with the 110,000-ton Carnival Conquest and Carnival Glory set to receive the screens next year.
 
The 12-by-22-foot screens use the same technology featured in large stadiums and New York's Times Square and can be seen during both the day and evening hours. The entertainment system also includes a 70,000-watt sound system for concert-quality sound outdoors. 

Royal Navy Divers Rise to the Occasion Myleene Klass Plays in Divers to Name Carnival Splendor

First ever underwater-to-hull bottle break to name biggest passenger ship to sail from Dover

Multi-talented classical musician, singer and presenter Myleene Klass will have a spectacular bottle-breaking “assist” from Royal Navy divers when she performs her first-ever Ship’s Godmother duties next week by officially naming the 113,000 tonne Carnival Splendor - the biggest passenger ship to sail from Dover Cruise Port.

Ultra-fit Petty Officer Christian Rumming, 39, assisted by a Royal Navy dive team led by Lt Ian Richardson, 43, will be underwater near the bow of the Carnival Splendor when he will hear a unique radio signal from Myleene Klass, playing live classical piano music on the ship’s top Lido deck. PO Rumming will let out some compressed air from his diving tanks and then personally climb, in wet suit, safety harness and flippers, a 60ft black marlin ascent rope to reach the Carnival Splendor’s name on the top of her bow. 

PO Rumming will then break with tradition, for instead of French champagne, he will undertake Myleene’s command and smash against the hull a bottle of the highly acclaimed 1994 vintage Nyetimber English sparkling wine, chosen by Carnival to emphasise their selection of Britain to launch their largest and latest superliner.

Myleene Klass said, “Not only am I excited about launching my first-ever ship with the Carnival Splendor, but also I am  so looking forward to working with the Royal Navy men who seem to be under my command - if only for a couple of minutes! I plan to give PO Chris Rumming the start signal by playing some classical music on Carnival Splendor’s baby grand piano.” 

Lt Ian Richardson of the Royal Navy Fleet Diving Squadron said, “This has to be a rather unusual assignment for my men, who are trained in deep sea marine diving and underwater bomb and mine disposal to protect our fleet, but I am confident they can pull this off.”

Carnival Cruise Lines President and CEO Gerry Cahill said, “Myleene Klass and the Royal Navy are a unique combination, and we are very honoured that they are joining forces to successfully name the Carnival Splendor.”

Carnival Splendor offers a comprehensive selection of restaurants, show-stopping entertainment, four swimming pools, a 5,500 sq ft children’s play area and Carnival’s largest ever floating spa featuring a thalassotherapy pool, thermal suite and 17 treatment rooms.

Immediately after its Naming Ceremony, Carnival Splendor sets sail for a three day preview cruise to Amsterdam, returning to Dover on July 13, when it will depart on the same day for its official inaugural 12-day cruise to the Baltic countries, visiting Copenhagen; Warnemunde (for Berlin); Helsinki; St Petersburg; Tallinn and Amsterdam.

Scrapblog Partners with Carnival Cruise Lines to Create and Share Vacation Memories in a Digital Way:

Scrapblog, Inc., the first web-based service for creating and sharing multimedia scrapbooks, announced today a partnership with Carnival Cruise Lines to provide its guests with a unique and easy way to share memories from their “Fun Ship” cruises. Carnival is the only cruise line to offer this on-line feature to its guests.

 Scrapblog is the latest addition to the line’s popular social networking site, CarnivalConnections.com, and offers cruisers an entirely new way to interact and connect though shared vacation experiences. Cruisers can add digital pictures, videos and audio to a customizable Carnival theme to create a personalized, one-of-a-kind multimedia scrapbook of their “Fun Ship” vacation. 

Five different “Fun Ship”-themed scrapblogs are available, each patterned after the line’s most popular destinations: the Caribbean, Bahamas, Mexico, Alaska and Europe.  

Scrapblogs can be shared with fellow cruisers through the Scrapblog Gallery on CarnivalConnections.com or through direct publishing on popular blogging and social networking platforms including Facebook, Blogger, Typepad, WordPress, Flickr and MySpace.

“Carnival is all about creating a lifetime of wonderful vacation memories and Scrapblog’s easy-to-use, highly interactive platform enables our guests to relive their ‘Fun Ship’ vacation experience through these on-line digital scrapbooks,” said Ruben Rodriguez, Carnival’s executive vice president of marketing and guest experience. 

“Preserving and sharing stories of travel experiences is one of the top reasons for creating scrapblogs. This, and the fact that Carnival values community and fun as much as we do makes this partnership ideal,” said Carlos Garcia, CEO and co-founder of Scrapblog.