Business

Carnival Cruise Line on Thursday announced it has opened itineraries for cruises to the Grand Bahamas from the Helen Delich Bentley Port of Baltimore. Approximately 400 cruises are open for booking to Celebration Key, Carnival’s exclusive cruise port destination, with first calls in July 2025. The Carnival Pride will set sail from Baltimore for seven-day cruises beginning July 20, 2025 along with a 14-day Carnival Journeys Panama Canal cruise on Jan. 11, 2026.

IKEA U.S. Thursday announced plans to open an IKEA Plan & Order point location with pickup in Annapolis in late 2023. IKEA Annapolis will be located in the Annapolis Harbour Center shopping center at 2512 A Solomons Island Road in 3,219 square feet of leased space. This new type of customer meeting point will offer home furnishing inspiration and personalized interior design planning, plus include an IKEA Pick-up point, allowing customers to pick up their purchases made online or purchased at the Plan & order point location.

A Bel Air property known for its Western ski lodge-themed restaurant sold at auction for over $1 million more than its starting price. The Lodge Restaurant and Bar’s property at 2119 Conowingo Road sold on Sept. 27 for $2.7 million, including a buyer’s premium, according to A.J. Billig Auctioneers, which conducted the sale. The auction, which had an opening bid of $1.25 million, started online on Sept. 25 and ended with an onsite auction on Sept. 27.

Emmes, a Rockville-based global Contract Research Organization (CRO) supporting the advancement of public health and biopharmaceutical innovation, Wednesday announced the addition of telehealth capabilities within its digital data platform Advantage eClinical. The new application means any scheduled visit can become virtual with video calls augmented directly through the platform and patients signing in through their existing participant portal.

Hampstead residents may soon have another option for high-speed internet service, as Antietam Broadband is looking into bringing its fiber-optic network to the northeast Carroll County town. According to the company, its direct fiber network “can handle more users and more data at consistently higher speeds than other Internet connections,” and because data is transmitted via light, “fiber optic networks are not as prone to outages as other Internet networks.”

Truist Financial Corp. (NYSE: TFC) plans to aggressively cut costs over the next several quarters in a bid to improve its efficiency and its bottom line, but the Charlotte-based bank’s local leader said the impact of those cuts in Greater Washington will be minimal. That’s because Truist’s leadership views the Washington-Baltimore region as a growth area for the $555 billion-asset bank, said Evelyn Lee, the president of the Greater Washington region who next week will also take over as head of the Maryland region following the retirement of that market’s longtime leader, Greg Farno.

Marriott International Inc. (NASDAQ: MAR) is rolling out yet another new hotel brand to appeal to budget-conscious travelers.The new brand, which the Bethesda-based hotel giant unveiled Wednesday morning, is Four Points Express by Sheraton, and will launch in Europe, Africa and the Middle East over the next few years.