John Honeywell, Author at Captain Greybeard

Luxury – that’s the Spirit

Blackbeard concludes his reports on his first cruise, an Iberian adventure on board Spirit of Adventure, with some final thoughts about the ship I had many preconceptions at the beginning of the week and an overwhelming sinking feeling that I was about to encounter a Butlins at sea floating town with passengers crammed aboard like sardines. There may well be ships like that, but Spirit of Adventure is certainly not one of them. Small it may be, but it is big enough to cater for all 350 passengers comfortably and it is more like a luxury yacht than an imposing [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T16:00:38+00:00 13 September 2009|Cruise Ships|0 Comments

Vintage experiences for a beginner

Stepping ashore in Spain and Portugal, Blackbeard samples a selection of Spirit of Adventure's port excursions, all included in the fare Various factors prevented me boarding a cruise ship up until now, the main aversion being a feeling that it wasn't really the best way to see a city. After a week at sea, my opinion has changed. There is no other way of sampling so many places, so conveniently, in such a short space of time, in such comfort for such a relatively small amount of money. You might not get the opportunity to fully drink in a city [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T16:00:38+00:00 12 September 2009|Cruise Destinations|0 Comments

Top cruise deals of the week

Join Royal Caribbean's Splendour of the Seas on a seven-night cruise around the Greek Islands departing on October 1. The fare of £782 per person includes return flights from Heathrow to Venice and the itinerary fits in calls at the walled city of Dubrovnik, in Croatia; Corfu, Athens, Kusadasi in Turkey - for a tour to the ancient city of Ephesus - and Heraklion in Crete. See www.royalcaribbean.co.uk or call 0844 493 2061 Explore the Mediterranean for seven nights on a cruise aboard the informal Island Escape. Flights are available from Gatwick, Stansted or Bournemouth on October 6 to join [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T16:00:38+00:00 12 September 2009|Cruise Deals|0 Comments

A 21st-century Typhoid Mary?

Frequent (I was going to say regular, but you'll see in a minute why that would have been inappropriate) cruise passengers have become accustomed to the public health forms they have to complete before boarding a ship at the start of a voyage. We are asked to vouch for the fact that we have not had infectious illnesses such as flu or stomach upset in the previous two or three days, and I'm sure most people tick the "no" box automatically because they fear being refused on board if they own up. The forms are an unfortunate necessity in these [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T16:00:38+00:00 9 September 2009|Cruise News|3 Comments

Eclipse gets off to an early start

When Celebrity Equinox was launched in Southampton in July there were 10 days of inaugural events during which the ship was shown off to the cruising public, travel agents and the media. The cost of flying over a substantial posse of American journalists, providing free food and drink for thousands of guests all day, every day, and taking the ship out to sea every night must have been astronomical. I tried to get the figures, but Celebrity Cruises' president Dan Hanrahan was reluctant to go into detail and his boss, Royal Caribbean's chairman Richard Fain, would say only that it [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T16:00:38+00:00 7 September 2009|Cruise News|5 Comments

Ship spotters get a free ride

As a postscript to Southampton's bonanza cruise weekend, with nine ships in port last Saturday and Sunday, Sue Bryant reports on Cruise Critic.co.uk that the free tours laid on by the port authority attracted 2,500 people, some of whom were queuing as early as 7.00 am, three hours before the first bus was due to leave. The hour-long tours of the Western and Eastern docks gave ship-spotters a chance to get close to Cunard's Queen Mary 2 and Queen Victoria, P&O's Aurora, Oceana, Oriana and Ventura, Royal Caribbean's Independence of the Seas, Grand Princess, and Fred Olsen's Black Watch. Sightseers [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T16:00:38+00:00 5 September 2009|Cruise News|0 Comments

This week’s top cruises

Take a 10-night pre-Christmas cruise to northern Europe on Cunard's Queen Victoria (above) and come home to a free festive hamper. Sailing from Southampton on December 9, the voyage visits Hamburg in Germany, Stavanger and Oslo in Norway, and Copenhagen in Denmark where the Tivoli Gardens will be the perfect place to get into the Christmas spirit. Last stop Bruges before returning to Southampton on December 19. Fares start at £799 per person for two sharing an inside cabin. The John Lewis hamper which comes as part of the deal includes wine, Christmas cake and pudding, mince pies and all [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T16:00:38+00:00 5 September 2009|Cruise Deals|0 Comments

New life beckons for Artemis

There's a bit of a mystery developing over the future of Artemis, the smallest ship in P&O's fleet. The French website Mer et Marine reported earlier today that the vessel had been sold to German cruise line Phoenix Reisen and could be sailing under a new flag by next summer. Which struck me as rather unlikely, because P&O announced earlier this week that Artemis was scheduled to set out on a spectacular 98-night grand voyage to the Far East in January 2011. My first call to P&O's head office in Southampton was met with a flat denial. By the afternoon, [...]

By John Honeywell| 2009-09-04T23:03:11+00:00 4 September 2009|Cruise News, Cruise Ships|3 Comments

Never a dull moment at sea

On board Spirit of Adventure, Blackbeard finds there's always plenty to do, and takes us to the Ready Steady Cook show he mentioned a couple of days ago Kevin Woodford, Gavin Baxter and Lesley Waters. Picture courtesy of Robert Senft I had always wondered what people do on days at sea and was slightly apprehensive that I might feel claustrophobic or start to develop signs of cabin fever. I needn't have worried. There's nothing better than sitting in the sun with a good book; Spirit of Adventure has a well-stocked library, and there are sun loungers dotted all about the [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T16:00:38+00:00 4 September 2009|Cruise Entertainment|0 Comments

Disney Wonder is a super-hero

Disney bought the Marvel Comics empire for $4 billion earlier this week, and it hasn't taken long for a Disney cruise ship to become a super-hero. Early this morning, crew from the Disney Wonder rescued a passenger who appears to have jumped from another ship, the Carnival Sensation, off the coast of Florida. The man had been treading water for about an hour-and-a-half, and another passenger on the Sensation told a Florida TV station she had heard him arguing with a woman just before he went in the water. "He threatened to jump, and she said, 'Go ahead,' and he [...]

By John Honeywell| 2009-09-03T23:44:58+00:00 3 September 2009|Cruise News|0 Comments