Monthly Archives: January 2010

When Celebrity Eclipse is launched in Southampton in April, UK passengers - who will make up 76 per cent of the total during the summer - will find a number of tweaks have been made to the facilities to accommodate British tastes. The Sky Lounge, an elegant bar at the bow, will become the Sky Pub, with appropriate beers on draught and in bottles - but only on two or three nights a week. There will be a dartboard, too, despite health and safety concerns about sharp points - which have never been a worry for Cunard and P&O. In [...]

The Queen must be regretting the day she ever agreed to relinquish the Royal Yacht Britannia. When she wanted to celebrate her 80th birthday in style she chartered the tiny cruise ship Hebridean Princess for a voyage through the western isles. And she must have enjoyed the experience in 2006, because she is taking over the ship again for two weeks this summer. Passengers who had booked cruises departing on July 22 and 29 aboard the 49-passenger ship have been offered alternative sailings - and generous compensation - to accommodate the royal party. Owners All Leisure Group will not confirm [...]

Cruise ship Independence of the Seas, which is based in the UK during the summer, arrived in Haiti today carrying much-needed relief supplies for victims of Tuesday's earthquake. Two more ships from the Royal Caribbean fleet - Liberty of the Seas and Navigator of the Seas - will deliver more food next week. The company operates a private beach resort at Labadee in the north of the island, a valuable source of revenue for Haiti - much of which is pretty much off-limits to tourists at the best of times. While tens of thousands were killed and even more made [...]

Look out for a round-up of new cruise ships being launched in 2010 which will be published in the Daily Mirror on Saturday. Once I have pulled that together, it will be time to start thinking about 2011, and I'm already getting excited about Oceania's much-delayed Marina, which should have been among this year's new launches, but which is now scheduled to debut in about 12 months' time. The 1,258-passenger ship will join the three smaller sisters, Regatta, Insignia and Nautica, which Oceania took over when the Renaissance cruise line folded in 2001. These three boutique ships can carry a [...]