This week’s top cruise deals

Celebrity Equinox was launched on Thursday at a lavish ceremony in
Southampton performed by Daily Mirror Pride of Britain winner Nina Barough, founder of the Walk the Walk cancer charity.You can sail on the Equinox next month for just £1,039pp (cruise-only), departing Civitavecchia (the port for Rome) on September 13. The
13-night voyage visits Naples, Athens, Rhodes, Kusadasi in Turkey,
Haifa in Israel (for Galilee and Nazareth, Ashdod (for Jerusalem and
Bethlehem) and Alexandria in Egypt. Flights are extra and can be
booked through the Leading Cruise Agents Alliance.
www.thelca.com, 0870 122 5115
Take a six-night Transatlantic crossing to New York on board Cunard’s
Queen Mary 2, departing Southampton on August 29, and enjoy a
performance by the London Symphony Orchestra, who will be playing a
programme that includes Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue and a British Last
Night of the Proms, complete with Jerusalem, Land of Hope and Glory
and Rule Britannia. Fares from £799 pp including return flights to
London.
www.cruise118.com, 0800 280 2614
Fancy building an interest in architecture? Then join Swan Hellenic’s
Minerva for a 15-day cruise from Dover on August 22, and explore the
treasures of the Jeronimos Monastery in Lisbon, the Moorish splendour
of the Alhambra in Granada, (from Malaga), Santiago Calatrava’s
inspirational buildings in Valencia, Gaudi’s Barcelona, and the
Renaissance cities of Pisa and Florence before flying home from Rome.
Fares from £1,295 pp inside cabin
www.swanhellenic.com, 0845 246 9700
For something even more exotic, an eight-night cruise on Costa Allegra
leaves Hong Kong on August 28 and explores the myriad islands of
Vietnam’s Ha Long Bay before calling at Da Nang and Saigon and
finally arriving at Singapore, where you can spend two days exploring
the shops of Orchard Road, the restaurants of Chinatown, and the
playground island of Sentosa. Fares from £549 pp, cruise only.
www.costacruises.co.uk or call 0845 351 0552