John Honeywell, Author at Captain Greybeard

It’s the year of the river cruise

This will be the year of the river cruise, according to the UK's Passenger Shipping Association. Which is a little bit strange because I have a funny feeling they said the same about 2012. But the organisation's 12 river cruise operators have come up with some convincing arguments - such as the five new ships and the 30 new itineraries on sale in the UK for 2013. AmaWaterways will be introducing two new vessels and four new routes in France and Portugal, including its first cruises on the Seine. AmaPrima, which caters for 164 passengers, will debut in April and [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T15:59:40+00:00 3 January 2013|Cruise News|1 Comment

Choose which captain you want

CLICK on image to see full-sized version Nice touch from Saga Cruises, whose latest brochure adds an extra nugget of information to help customers choose their next voyage. Alongside the dates and destinations of each sailing is now listed the name of the captain who will be in charge. No surprise, of course, that the man on the bridge for Captain Rentell's Mystery Cruise on Saga Sapphire in December will indeed by Philip Rentell, who may well be the man who coined the term "Saganauts" to describe his intrepid passengers. But until now the annual mystery cruise - another feature [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T15:59:40+00:00 2 January 2013|Cruise News|0 Comments

New Year symphony and fireworks

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T15:59:40+00:00 1 January 2013|Cruise Ships|0 Comments

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