John Honeywell, Author at Captain Greybeard

Top chef gets the scoop on QM2

It has been fascinating reading the account of a passenger making his first Transatlantic crossing - much more interesting - and, dare I say, insightful - than a recent article by someone making the journey for the 157th time. David Lebovitz is a renowned pastry chef and author, an American in Paris. He has written about desserts, puddings, and in The Perfect Scoop, penned a paean to ice cream. Plans for him to sail across the Atlantic on Cunard's Queen Mary 2 last year were thwarted when Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull volcano filled the atmosphere with ash. Fortunately he got another chance, [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T16:00:04+00:00 27 July 2011|Cruise Gossip|2 Comments

Laugh a minute on Silhouette

A few more words about the Celebrity Silhouette launch before we move on . . . Ship launches can quite often be fairly sober affairs - at least until the Champagne bottle smashes, acting as a signal for glasses to be poured for all the guests. And while Celebrity's tradition of inviting breast cancer survivors to be godmothers is admirable, and always guarantees a moving ceremony, it doesn't follow that it's going to produce a laugh a minute. But there were smiles and humour in abundance this weekend, with Royal Caribbean chairman Richard Fain quipping that he had saved a [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T16:00:04+00:00 26 July 2011|Cruise Ships|0 Comments

What’s new on Celebrity Silhouette?

Richard Fain relaxes in one of the Lawn Club's Adirondack chairsPicture: Simon Brooke-Webb Celebrity Silhouette is more than just the fourth cruise ship in the Solstice class - which has already done so much to take premium cruising up a gear - it has a host of innovations to set it apart from its older sisters. It seems amazing that Celebrity has launched four of these ships in just over two years and eight months - even CEO Dan Hanrahan seemed surprised when he dropped that factoid into the naming ceremony. The first two, Solstice and Equinox, stuck to an [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T16:00:04+00:00 25 July 2011|Cruise Ships|5 Comments

Many rivers to cruise

Confession time - although have spent countless days sailing on cruise ships at sea, I have yet to experience the joys of river cruising (apart from a couple of days on the Thames, which don't really count). But river cruising is booming, growing faster even that ocean cruising. Almost 134,000 UK passengers chose a river cruise last year; mostly in Europe on the Rhine and the Danube, but there are other rivers such as the Douro and the Elbe, and others travelled further afield to Russia and the Far East, to cruise the Yangtze and Mekong. My friends at Cruise [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T16:00:04+00:00 25 July 2011|Cruise News|5 Comments

Low-key launch for Silhouette

From today's Daily Mirror print edition: For a cruise ship christening, the ceremony on board Celebrity Silhouette this week was a low-key affair. There were no big star names, no fireworks, and the whole event took place 50 miles from the sea in the middle of Hamburg. But it was not short of emotion. All the Solstice-class ships - and Silhouette is the fourth - have been named by women who have fought back from breast cancer. Daily Mirror Pride of Britain award winner Nina Barough, who named sister ship Equinox in Southampton in 2009, and British yachtswoman Emma Pontin, [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T16:00:04+00:00 23 July 2011|Cruise Deals, Cruise News|1 Comment

What not to pack for your cruise

Cut-throat razors, carpet knives, toy guns and pink furry handcuffs - it's amazing what some people pack to take on a cruise. The items in this picture have all been confiscated from passengers boarding ships in Southampton. While the handcuffs may have been intended for a little harmless fun - and I hope the neighbours in the next cabin would not have been disturbed - what would have been the purpose of a Stanley knife? To take home a section of carpet as a souvenir, or to slice a picture out of its frame on the wall? And who thinks [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T16:00:04+00:00 20 July 2011|Cruise News|2 Comments

Silhouette is ready for her close-up

It's less than three weeks since Celebrity Silhouette left her shipyard and made the journey to the sea down the River Ems. Yesterday the £500 million cruise ship headed inland again, making a 50-mile journey up the River Elbe to Hamburg, where she will be christened in a lavish ceremony tomorrow. I will be there to see godmother Michelle Morgan, a leading figure in the American travel industry, cut a pink ribbon to trigger the traditional Champagne bottle smashing against the ship. Like the godmothers of sister ships Silhouette, Equinox and Eclipse, she is a breast cancer survivor, and the [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T16:00:04+00:00 20 July 2011|Cruise News|0 Comments

NCL planning a luxury Haven

While Royal Caribbean keep details of their new Project Sunshine cruise ships under wraps, Norwegian are pursuing a policy of releasing details of their own Project Breakaway bit by bit. The latest announcement, made in New York at the launch of Condé Nast Traveller magazine's first issue dedicated to cruising, is a re-branding of the luxury ship-within-a-ship complex containing the best - and most expensive - suites. Out goes the Courtyard, and in comes The Haven. On the newbuilds, to be constructed at the Meyer-Werft yard in Germany, the area will have 42 suites on decks 15 and 16, and [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T16:00:04+00:00 19 July 2011|Cruise Ships|0 Comments

Roadworks delay Dover cruise traffic

If you're driving to Dover to join a cruise ship or a cross-Channel ferry, you might want to give yourself a little extra time to get there - as I discovered when I visited Oceania's Marina in the port on Friday. There are severe delays at Folkestone - where the M20 becomes the A20 and enters the Roundhill Tunnels - due to the failure of expansion joints in a viaduct. Port-bound traffic, which has already come down from three lanes to two past the EuroTunnel turn-offs, has to squeeze into a single lane. Similar restrictions also affect traffic travelling out [...]

By John Honeywell| 2011-07-18T18:19:44+00:00 18 July 2011|Cruise Destinations|0 Comments

Magnificent Six? Still room for more

The wet weather wasn't exactly welcoming, but Saturday's visit of six cruise ships in a single day is being hailed a success by Southampton's port authorities, who claim they could have handled even more. The picture above shows four of the ships berthed in the harbour; from left, Crown Princess, Balmoral, Artania and Celebrity Eclipse. Elsewhere, Ventura was at the Ocean Terminal and Grand Princess at the QE II building. Click on the image to see it full size. Damian Gevertz, managing director of of CruiseSouthampton.com said: " The additional transport arrangements that ABP Port of Southampton put in place [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T16:00:04+00:00 18 July 2011|Cruise Destinations, Cruise News|0 Comments