Ann Sherry News

Sydney is the stage for the biggest get-together of a fleet of cruise ships ever seen in the harbor city. Five P&O cruise ships have created a V-formation at sea then sailed toward Sydney abreast in a single line, to celebrate the fleet's newest additions, the Pacific ARIA and Pacific EDEN. Just before sunrise, Pacific Dawn, Jewel, Pearl and today's additions to the cruise line, Aria and Eden, created a V formation before sailing abreast in one line toward the city. The special occasion celebrated the arrival of Pacific Aria and Pacific Eden, two former Holland America vessels, which were relaunched in a world-first social media naming ceremony, attended by Carnival Corporation CEO and president Arnold Donald, and CEO of Carnival Australia, Ann Sherry.

Cruise Shipping Miami 2015 is gearing up to offer the most comprehensive and robust roster of panel discussions featuring the industry's most knowledgeable and experienced executives. The panels will be grouped under several broad themes based on industry trends during the four-day conference. The 31st edition of Cruise Shipping Miami is scheduled for March 16-19 at the Miami Beach Convention Center. Organized by UBM Connect, thematic topics include The Geography of Cruise Tourism, Safety and Ship Operations, Market Segments and Cruise Product Development. On Tuesday morning, March 17, the conference will open with the popular State of the Industry session. Participants in that plenary session will be announced in the coming weeks. This program may be subject to alterations and additions.

Holland America Line announced today that effective Dec. 1 Orlando Ashford will join the company as president to lead the award-winning cruise line's brand and business, including its fleet of 15 premium vessels carrying approximately 850,000 guests annually to all seven continents. Ashford joins the company from Mercer, the global consulting leader in talent, health, retirement and investments, where he was president of the Talent Business Segment. “We are fortunate to have Orlando join our team, bringing with him a career's worth of global experience leading high-performance teams that helped innovate some of the most respected and well-known companies in the world,” said Stein Kruse, chief executive officer, Holland America Group.

Carnival Corporation & plc (NYSE/LSE: CCL; NYSE: CUK) announced plans to expand in Australia, one of the fastest growing markets in the cruise industry. With Australian cruise passenger numbers having increased 130%in the past five years and projections of 800,000 cruise passengers in 2013 growing to one million by 2016, P&O Cruises (Australia), one of Carnival Corporation’s 10 brands, will add two ships to its fleet in 2015. With a total of five ships, P&O Cruises will establish…

The search for an Australian couple who went overboard Wednesday from the Carnival Spirit cruise ship has been called off, the Associated Press reported. The passengers, identified as Paul Rossington, 30, and Kristen Schroder, 26, went overboard in the waters off New South Wales, Australia. The couple was reported missing when the ship docked in Sydney on Thursday and have now been missing for more than two days. It was reported that railing over which the couple fell was two inches higher than industry safety regulations mandate…