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Steff, I think one cabin was confirmed but there were rumors about more. Anyway one or two or three - that wouldn´t be the reason for the delay. Yep, all cruises until Dec 19th including the maiden cruise starting Dec 2nd have been cancelled today. steamboats who should have been onboard right now

The hand over should have been taken place yesterday but has been cancelled. Yesterday it was confirmed that the ship will be ready for the maiden cruise on Dec 2nd. Todays announcement is that all cruises til Dec 19th are now cancelled. steamboats

The fire did not cause any further delays. It was only one cabin. steamboats

Today in the German news is an article about delays at Meyer Werft. Todays hand over of the AIDAnova has been delayed until later this month with the first cruise now Dec 2nd. First cruise should have been today. Another newspaper talks about delays concerning the Spectrum of the Seas and the Spirit of Discovery too. steamboats

There´s an article on a German website speaking about big delays at Meyer Werft in Papenburg. The hand over of the AIDAnova was scheduled for today (and actually I was supposed to fly this afternoon) but has been delayed. Now the inaugural cruise on Dec 2nd will be the first one. They had to cancel all pre inaugurals which were booked pretty well. Another newspaper is even speaking about delays with the further newbuilts like the Spectrum of the Seas and the Spirit of Discovery. Hopefully the Norwegian Encore will be ready in time. She´s the third ship to be delivered in 2019. steamboats

Sorry to correct you, but the Bayern Ticket is valid weekdays after 9 am (not 9:30). steamboats

Language onboard all Phoenix Reisen ships is definitely German. Crew members do speak English too. But there won´t be any announcements in English, no daily program or anything else (maybe except for emergency announcements). I´ve only been on their river cruise ships but DH has been on one of the blue water ships (but we are German). steamboats

That depends on the shipyard. Especially the Italians do have various ceremonies in the ship yard including the christening when the ship first gets water under the keel (float out). Here in Germany (Meyer) there´s no ceremony for that part of the construction. It may be more correct to call it "naming ceremony". steamboats

Oct 31st til Nov 2nd - that´s a 2 nighter ;-) - for media and travel agents. steamboats

They did change quite a bit for Spectrum. And all the changes are to please the Chinese customer. Remember when they closed the Solarium on Ovation and made it suites only? It´s been just for the China cruises not out of Australia. Now we have a dedicated extended suite area. No Star class but Silver and Gold. So they definitely made some adaptions specifically for the Chinese market. More gambling space and VIP rooms for high rollers are also specifically for the Chinese market. The Diamond Club on the Ovation was turned into the VIP gambling room (and changed back for the Australia cruise). A hot pot restaurant in the aft part of Windjammer... another Asian restaurant on the lower decks. I didn´t look on the cabins. But on the Norwegian Joy they´ve added a lot of connecting doors and triple/quad occupancy cabins as the Chinese prefer to travel in larger groups/families. steamboats

Welcome to CruiseCritic, Tom! You should be a bit more precise with your posts and tell us more about your cruises ;)! steamboats

Two posts... one bashing ACL and the other one praising AQSC. Not saying on which boat he was cruising (in neither post). Welcome to CruiseCritic! steamboats

Sorry, but this ship is designed for the Chinese market (and optimize the revenue there). There are a lot of differences to the sister ships which you won´t find on any other RCI ship. They didn´t do that much with the Ovation so it´s easier to refurbish it back for the US market. There is more space for gambling, there is a different suite system and areas (Solarium is suites only), there are more Asian restaurants. steamboats

Two posts... one bashing ACL and the other one praising the competitor AQSC. Not saying on which boat he was cruising (in neither post). Welcome to CruiseCritic! steamboats

I can only agree with Biker19! Weather based sailing decisions are made by the captain who is being advised by Van Fleet. This has nothing to do with a ships construction and design. And BTW other cruise lines made questionable decisions too regarding weather based sailing decisions. steamboats