Silver lining for cruise ships

Usually, I try to avoid clichés like the plague, but on this occasion it seems entirely appropriate to use the one about every cloud having a silver lining.
For the volcanic ash which has grounded aircraft over Europe for almost a week could turn out to be a welcome shot in the arm (oops, there goes another one) for the cruise industry.
Travel agents are falling over themselves (sorry) to report a surge of enquiries about cruises, and not just from holidaymakers stranded abroad, or travellers who have seen their flight bookings cancelled.
James Cole, director of SailFromUK.com, said: “We’ve had a phenomenal number of calls from people who have had flights cancelled in the past few days, and who are looking for an alternative way to go abroad without having to take to the air.
“Feedback from customers is that this latest disruption is the last straw, following the series of strikes and delays in UK airports over recent months. People are increasingly looking for other ways to travel, and as a result we’ve seen an increase in requests from people wanting to sail directly from the UK rather than taking flights to pick up cruise ships in other countries.”
Simone Clark, sales and marketing director for Iglu Cruise told me: “We have been inundated with people wanting to book late ex-UK cruises due to the flight situations, and quite a few stuck in New York looking to cruise home. The no-fly holiday option is certainly appealing to people at the moment.”
And I wouldn’t mind betting that a good proportion of the stranded holidaymakers about to be rescued from hotel and apartment breaks in Spain by Celebrity Eclipse will disembark in Southampton thinking “Wow, that was good. We’ve never been on a cruise before, but I’m going to book one right now.”