Yearly Archives: 2012

/2012

Cruise with a quantum of passion

Imagine you're the boss of a major cruise line. You have three, possibly four, new ships on order and you have to find names for all of them. When Norwegian Cruise Line was planning its new Breakaway class, they had a simple solution - the first ship is to be called Norwegian Breakaway, and the second will be Norwegian Getaway. When Royal Caribbean announced the building of two Genesis-class ships they invited the readers of USA Today's Cruise Log to come up with names - and chose Oasis and Allure of the Seas. Now they have two new Sunshine class [...]

By | 2017-06-15T15:59:41+00:00 31 December 2012|Cruise Ships|4 Comments

My cruise year in pictures

Time for a round-up of my year in pictures. This time with a difference. A few - like the one above of Disney Cruise Line's resort island of Castaway Cay - are traditional picture postcard stuff (or as near as I can get with my limited photographic skills). Others are quirky, weird, or just plain bonkers. Enjoy. This vintage Porsche, parked directly outside the Gucci shop in St Tropez, seemed to sum up the over-the-top luxury of the French Riviera, appropriately enough during a short cruise on SeaDream II. Such a shame that when the driver returned with his two [...]

By | 2017-06-15T15:59:41+00:00 31 December 2012|Cruise Destinations|0 Comments

Cruise lines accused of bowing to Argentine blackmail over Falklands

FROM MY DAILY MIRROR COLUMN. PUBLISHED DECEMBER 29 Cruise lines which have abandoned visits to the Falkland Islands because of pressure from Argentina are being accused of cowardice. Holland America, Regent Seven Seas, Oceania, Aida and Silversea have all cancelled forthcoming calls at Port Stanley after being told their ships' "safety" could not be guaranteed on arrival in Buenos Aires and Ushuaia. Explaining his company's decision, Silversea's UK general manager, Mike Bonner, said: "Due to ongoing political uncertainty" the line has "taken the decision to cancel scheduled calls at Port Stanley for voyages departing in the coming weeks. "These voyages [...]

By | 2012-12-29T14:40:21+00:00 29 December 2012|Cruise Destinations, Cruise News|3 Comments

Ending 2012 on a high note

New Year's Eve is always a spectacular event in Funchal, with a firework display to rival anything that London or Sydney can put on usually attracting a handful of cruise ships. This year's event on the island of Madeira has a new feature - a symphony of ships' horns playing for the last sunset of 2012. Composed by Francisco Loreto who will conduct the ships' whistles by radio link, it will be performed by P&O's Azura, Cunard's Queen Victoria, Fred Olsen's Boudicca, Thomson Majesty, AIDAbella and AIDAsol, together with local ferry Lobo Marinho, all of which will be docked or [...]

By | 2017-06-15T15:59:41+00:00 28 December 2012|Cruise Destinations|0 Comments

Oasis 3 deal signed – could Royal Caribbean now send one to Europe?

Oasis of the Seas in The Solent in 2009, on its one and only visit to the UK After weeks of speculation and a Europe-wide search to secure finance guarantees, Royal Caribbean has contracted to build a third Oasis-class ship in France, for delivery in the summer of 2016. The deal also includes an option for a fourth 5,400-passenger vessel to be completed in 2018. Confirmation of the company's plans to build a sister ship to Oasis of the Seas and Allure of the Seas - at 226,000 tons the largest cruise ships in the world - came in a [...]

By | 2017-06-15T15:59:41+00:00 28 December 2012|Cruise News|0 Comments

Arrive by river and stay on a cruise ship – still the best way to visit Burma

My father travelled to Myanmar almost 70 years before I did. Except it was called Burma then and was a British colony which had been occupied by the Japanese during World War 2. He, too, arrived in the Yangon River. On a troop ship from India rather than a cruise ship carrying passengers alternating their time between educational talks and exciting excursions. Instead of tying up at a berth in close to Rangoon's Pansodan ferry terminal (below), as Voyage to Antiquity's Aegean Odyssey did, he transferred to a landing craft which then hit a mine in the water. A fellow [...]

By | 2017-06-15T15:59:41+00:00 24 December 2012|Cruise Destinations|0 Comments

Smiles on the riverbank

Mandalay was a marvellous experience, despite my qualms from the early part of the day. The sheer scale of the walls of the Royal Palace (above), stretching for more than a mile in each direction, flanked by an expansive moat were simply awesome. Our excursion from Voyages to Antiquity's Aegean Odyssey did not actually enter the compound - little of historic value remains after it was razed by fire towards the end of World War 2 and much of the site is still off-limits to visitors. We did, however, visit the Shwenandaw Monastery or Golden Palace which was rebuilt outside [...]

By | 2017-06-15T15:59:41+00:00 23 December 2012|Cruise Destinations|0 Comments

Was this a bridge too far for tourists in newly-emerging Myanmar?

The Road to Mandalay was paved with good intentions, but a couple of stops en route left me feeling a little uneasy about the nature of tourism in a country that is only just beginning to open up to visitors. The one-hour flight meant an early start from Aegean Odyssey, but even before 6.00 am the streets of Yangon were already packed with locals up and about in numbers, buying and selling on the downtown pavements, jogging and exercising on the shores of Inya Lake, where Aung San Suu Kyi has her home. After arriving at Mandalay's rudimentary international airport, [...]

By | 2017-06-15T15:59:41+00:00 18 December 2012|Cruise Destinations|0 Comments

Burmese Daze: 48 hours in Yangon

More on Myanmar, and let's go back to the beginning. Aegean Odyssey arrived early at its berth in the centre of the city - just down Strand Road from three bastions of the colonial era, the post office, the British embassy, and the Strand Hotel. And how lucky we were. The extra couple of hours gave the shore excursion team time to organise a sunset visit to the glittering, golden treasures of the Shwedagon Pagoda instead of cramming it into a packed itinerary for our final morning in the city. Never has gold taken on so many colours as during [...]

By | 2017-06-15T15:59:41+00:00 17 December 2012|Cruise Destinations|0 Comments

Tears flow for the past, but hope is growing for the future of Myanmar

There was so much to do, see, and experience during our 48-hour visit to Yangon that it's difficult to know where to start. So let's begin at the end. Thi Thi had been the guide for Aegean Odyssey's Red 2 tour bus from the first evening's magical visit to the Shwedagon Pagoda. On the second day, while I flew on a separate trip to Mandalay, she led the group for a day-long visit to Bago and Myanmar's tallest pagoda at Shwemawdaw. On our final morning she shepherded us round the myriad stalls of Scott's Market - now re-named Bogyoke Aung [...]

By | 2017-06-15T15:59:41+00:00 16 December 2012|Cruise Destinations|0 Comments