Second Ship For Pearl Seas?

The new Pearl Seas Cruises, who are due to debut their first ship, the Pearl Mist (above) in June, have revealed plans for a second ship in the fleet for 2016. Sort of.

The follow-up ship will, apparently, be slightly slightly larger than the 8,700-ton, 210-passenger Mist, carrying around 245, company chief executive Charles Robertson said, although he would not say (to Seatrade Insider) where the second vessel would be built, and added that no official announcement is planned until mid-summer.

Pearl Mist is currently undergoing final outfitting at Chesapeake Shipbuilding in Salisbury, Mrayland, having been built at Irving Shipbuilding in Halifax, Nova Scotia. It was originally due to enter service in 2009 but a dispute arose between the company and shipyard that was only settled in early 2013 with the intervention of American Cruise Lines.

Its inaugural season begins on June 25 with an 11-night cruise from Baltimore to Halifax, followed by a series of Canadian waterways and Great Lakes sailings, with Pearl Mist then moving to the Bahamas and Caribbean from spring 2015.

Meanwhile, American Cruise Lines is also constructing four ships of its own at Chesapeake Shipbuilding, two paddlewheelers to enter service in 2015 (one on the Mississippi in March and the other on the Columbia and Snake rivers later in the year), while details of the other two have yet to be disclosed. 

 

The Mississippi riverboat will have a similar capacity to the luxurious Queen of the Mississippi - which we featured in a big blog series in October 2012 - at 150 passengers, while the Columbia boat will be slightly larger, taking 175 passengers.
More info: call (in the US) 1800 981 9146 or visit www.pearlseascruises.com.

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