John Honeywell, Author at Captain Greybeard

Win an exclusive preview cruise on board new Celebrity Silhouette

What do YOU think is the most exciting feature of new cruise ship Celebrity Silhouette? Come up with the best answer to the question and you could win a chance to join the ship for an exclusive sneak peek before any paying passengers get on board. You'll have to convince me and Cruise Critic's editor-in-chief, Carolyn Spencer-Brown, because we'll be judging the competition. The winner can take a guest on a two-night preview sailing from Rome on July 30. And you only have a few words to describe your favourite innovation, because contest entries must be made via Twitter. The [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T16:00:04+00:00 11 July 2011|Cruise Ships|0 Comments

AWT takes to the sea with MSC

TV chef Anthony Worrall Thompson has been on the slide ever since his appearances on I'm A Celebrity ... Get Me Out of Here eight years ago and his restaurant business went bust in 2009, owing £800,000. So he's fortunate to have been selected by MSC Cruises as one of several internationally-acclaimed chefs who will be giving cookery demonstrations on board MSC Fantasia and MSC Splendida this winter. His counterparts from Spain, Italy, France and Germany have a galaxy of Michelin stars between them, and have been involved in opening restaurants in Singapore, Hong Kong and Los Angeles as well [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T16:00:04+00:00 11 July 2011|Cruise Food & Drink|0 Comments

100 dead in river boat sinking

More than 100 people are now feared to have died in the sinking of a Russian river boat on the Volga. The Bulgaria went down in 60 feet of water during a storm near the village of Syukeyevo in the Republic of Tatarstan. The 55-year-old vessel had a capacity of 140 passengers and 33 crew, but some reports said it was overloaded and that at least 199 were on board during the journey to the regional capital of Kazan. Official reports of casualties are still confused, but six deaths have been confirmed, and it is believed the bodies of dozens [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T16:00:04+00:00 10 July 2011|Cruise News|0 Comments

Royal Caribbean turns copycat

Has Royal Caribbean Cruises lost its mojo? For years the company has been the most innovative at sea, building the largest cruise ships with the Freedom class, and then going 40 per cent bigger still with Oasis and Allure of the Seas. It introduced full-length Broadway musicals to cruise passengers, with Hairspray, Chicago, and then Saturday Night Fever. Its ships are still the only ones with ice rinks and shopping malls. Innovations on the ships of Celebrity, another branch of the company, range from Apple i-lounges to real grass lawns. But his week Royal has shown that it is prepared [...]

By John Honeywell| 2011-07-09T01:09:56+00:00 9 July 2011|Cruise News|0 Comments

It’s pay-back time for Liverpool pier

Liverpool has offered to repay more than £5 million it received in grants so the city can adapt its new cruise terminal to accommodate ship turnarounds. The £21 million landing stage at the Pier Head - described by some as a "floating tea tray" - is within sight of the landmark Three Graces, the former Cunard headquarters, the Liver Building, and the offices of the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board, all built in the early 20th century. But that's as far as the heritage connection goes for the port from which millions sailed to America and Africa in the past. [...]

By John Honeywell| 2011-07-08T18:06:39+00:00 8 July 2011|Cruise Destinations, Cruise News|0 Comments

Arab Spring changes Odyssey routes

The after-effects of the Arab Spring continue to reverberate across the cruise industry. While ships are returning to ports in Egypt and Tunisia, other areas continue to be off-limits. Following P&O's recent announcement that their ships will not be making the scheduled calls in Tripoli in December and January, Voyages to Antiquity have decided to amend the itineraries of the last cruises of the year on Aegean Odyssey (above). Three itineraries have been combined into two, and planned visits to Latakia in Syria and Darnah, Benghazi and Tripoli in Libya have been abandoned. The November 8 departure - now called [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T16:00:04+00:00 6 July 2011|Cruise Destinations, Cruise News|1 Comment

Countess to tour P&O ship

She was a lot more stylishly dressed than husband Prince Edward when they were guests at last week's royal wedding in Monaco, and Sophie, Countess of Wessex, will show even more style when she boards a cruise ship later this month. As patron of Southampton-based charity Wessex Heartbeat, she will tour P&O's Azura during a fund-raising event being held on July 22. The ship will be berthed at the city's Ocean Terminal, where the countess will be met by Dame Mary Fagan, Lord Lieutenant of Hampshire before being shown round the vessel by Captain Keith Dowds. In 19 years, Wessex [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T16:00:05+00:00 5 July 2011|Cruise News|0 Comments

Cruising to a TV world record

The marathon live broadcast from Hurtigruten, which followed a ship on its 134-hour voyage from Bergen to Kirkenes has become an unexpected TV sensation. It is believed viewers from 148 countries tuned in to view the journey along the Norwegian coastline on television or streamed onto their computer screens, and the exercise has been awarded a Guinness World Record for the longest live documentary. In Norway itself three-quarters of the population tuned in at some time during the six-day event, and the UK was the fifth-largest audience. Kathryn Beadle, UK managing director of Hurtigruten, said: " Nobody could have imagined [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T16:00:05+00:00 5 July 2011|Cruise Destinations|0 Comments

What a fabulous hangover

I'm hoping to bring you pictures and a report from the lavish christening ceremony in Trieste for Costa's newest ship, Favolosa, but you might have to be patient. I had to decline an invitation to attend so that I could spend a week with my brother on his fund-raising cycle ride around the UK coast, and have been relying on Costa to keep me up to date. For some reason, communications appear to have broken down. An information pack was mailed to my home address, and an embargoed email with details of Saturday's event arrived on Friday, closely followed by [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T16:00:05+00:00 4 July 2011|Cruise Ships|0 Comments

Silhouette squeezes through

There's a big drama every time a new ship departs from the Meyer-Werft shipyard in Papenburg, Germany, on its way to the North sea at Emden. A tidal barrage is closed, the River Ems is flooded, bridges are dismantled and power lines are pulled down to make room for vessels to pass. They get bigger all the time, but yesterday's conveyance of the 122,400-ton Celebrity Silhouette should not have resulted in anyone breaking sweat - the ship is the fourth in class and the three previous vessels have all made it 27 miles down the river without incident. Shipyard owner [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T16:00:05+00:00 2 July 2011|Cruise Ships|0 Comments