November 2010 - Page 6 of 6 - Captain Greybeard

Hurricane Tomas scatters cruise ships

P&O's Ventura is among the cruise ships which have been diverted away from the Caribbean island of St Lucia following the devastation caused by Hurricane Tomas. No ships will call at the island before Sunday at least, and what will greet them when they return is still not clear. At least 14 peole are believed to have been killed when Tomas struck at the weekend, triggering landslides and bringing down bridges. The capital of Castries, where cruise ships dock, is believed to be cut off from the rest of the island. My picture (above) shows Ventura in the port, together [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T16:00:17+00:00 4 November 2010|Cruise Destinations, Cruise News|0 Comments

What’s the Allure of shopping?

Wait until Carnival cruise director and blogger John Heald sees the latest video from Allure of the Seas (above) as it makes its way across the Atlantic to its new home in Florida. John was scathing about sister ship Oasis of the Seas last year, referring to it as the "Mall of the Seas." And today Captain Hernan Zini and his team, including someone whose job title is "Revenue Partner Manager" take viewers on a guided tour of the shops on board, including Coach and Guess, the Pinwheels kids' store, Candy Beach sweet shop, the Star Pier shop for teen [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T16:00:17+00:00 3 November 2010|Cruise Gossip|0 Comments

NCL plans more cabins for singles

The two new cruise ships which Norwegian Cruise Line has ordered from the Meyer-Werft yard at Papenburg - which this weekend floated out Disney Dream - are still in the planning stage. But an interview which CEO Kevin Sheehan has given to the US edition of Travel Weekly has provided some clues to what we can expect from the ships, which will together cost about £1 billion. We know they will be 143,5000-tons each and will carry 4,000 passengers - slightly smaller than the 153,000-ton Norwegian Epic which launched this summer. The new vessels, as yet un-named, are likely to [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T16:00:18+00:00 3 November 2010|Cruise News|1 Comment

Here’s one cruise Odyssey that serves up a voyage to remember

It's been more than a week since I returned from Aegean Odyssey and five days sailing along from Venice along the Croatian coast to Dubrovnik. I haven't forgotten that a review of the ship is overdue, so here goes . . . Facts and figures first: the ship is 460 feet long with seven passenger decks, carries 378 passengers in 198 cabins, and has a crew of 200. Aegean Odyssey was built in 1974, but not as a cruise ship - it has a strengthened hull and was designed to carry ammunition. Later converted for passenger use, and sailing under [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T16:00:18+00:00 3 November 2010|Cruise Gossip|2 Comments

Boudicca gets a face-lift

Fred Olsen's Boudicca will be going into dry-dock in January for a refit which will leave the 37-year-old ship a little more like her twin sister, Black Watch. Both ships were built in Finland in the 1970s, as Royal Viking Sky and Royal Viking Star, and both have long since been stretched - by the addition of a new mid-section. But whereas Black Watch's fitness centre is high up on top of the ship on the Sun Deck, where passengers can work out gently while enjoying a calming ocean view, Boudicca's has been a gloomy and uninviting space in the [...]

By John Honeywell| 2010-11-03T11:29:17+00:00 3 November 2010|Cruise News|1 Comment

First pictures inside Disney Dream

Here they are at last - the pictures they wouldn't allow me to take yesterday inside Disney Dream. The company's own photographer, Kent Phillips, was on hand to take pictures of the interiors of the cruise ship. Some of them are already close to the computer renderings, which are shown here for comparison. Others demonstrate just how much work remains to be completed in the next five weeks. First, the three-deck high Central Atrium, showing craftsmen assembling the gold and Swarovski crystal chandelier shown in the rendering below. The hand-tufted carpet will not be laid until there are no more [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T16:00:18+00:00 2 November 2010|Cruise Ships|0 Comments

Cruise ships? There’s an app for that

As I was boarding Disney Dream for my tour of the ship yesterday I was handed two things: a hard hat, because it is still very much a construction site, and an iPad containing artists' impressions and computer renderings to show in brilliant colour just how the interiors will look when they are finished. It might have been a ploy to prevent me and the rest of the media from sneaking pictures with our phones - you'd have had to possess as many arms as Pearl, the octopus from Finding Nemo (left) , to juggle a pen, a notebook, the [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T16:00:18+00:00 2 November 2010|Cruise News|0 Comments

Allure just keeps on growing

Size really does matter, you know, especially in maritime matters. When Royal Caribbean showed off the almost-complete Allure of the Seas back in August, Captain Hernan Zini surprised a press conference by stating confidently that his new ship rightly held the undisputed title of "biggest cruise ship in the world" because it was 5 mm - about a fifth of an inch - longer than sister ship Oasis of the Seas. That's not much more than the thickness of a few coats of paint, or the head of a rivet, and it makes you wonder how accurately it is possible [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T16:00:18+00:00 2 November 2010|Cruise Gossip|0 Comments

An everyday story of cruise folk

Some of the cast of The Archers will be escaping from Ambridge next year, and cruising to the Mediterranean with Fred Olsen. They will be reviving a tradition of Archers-themed cruises, and as well as mingling with other passengers at the Captain's cocktail party they will take part in a special performance of the long-running radio show - complete with agricultural sound-effects. Names of the cast members taking part have not yet been confirmed, but the characters Eddie Grundy, Kathy Perks, Linda Snell and Mike Tucker have sailed on previous cruises. The first Archers cruise of 2011 will be a [...]

By John Honeywell| 2010-11-02T00:44:53+00:00 2 November 2010|Cruise Entertainment|0 Comments

Will Disney ship be finished in time?

The weekend's visit to Papenburg, Germany, for the float-out of Disney Dream has been fascinating and frustrating in equal measure. It was exciting to be among the crowd of 10,000 who stood in the rain to witness Saturday's event, and thrilling to be one of the first people on board for an extensive tour today - I was one of only two British journalists invited - but the hectic schedule and an almost non-existent internet connection at our hotel left me unable to file proper updates. I can't bring you any new pictures - Disney allowed only their official photographer [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T16:00:18+00:00 1 November 2010|Cruise Ships|0 Comments