John Honeywell, Author at Captain Greybeard

Love Boat legend meets namesake

When Inverness-born Gavin MacLeod joined Princess Cruises as a Third Officer two years ago, he didn't even realise that his namesake was a legend of the Love Boats. The actor Gavin MacLeod made the role of Captain Stubing his own during nine years of the popular TV soap-at-sea from 1977 to 1986 and is now an ambassador travelling the world for the company whose real-life ships were used as a filming location. The two met for the first time last week on board Island Princess, and shared lunch in the ship's Sabatini's Italian restaurant. There they autographed a collection of [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T15:59:49+00:00 18 May 2012|Cruise News|0 Comments

New cruise ships breeze into action

Carnival's newest cruise ship is on course for her maiden voyage on June 3 after breezing through its sea trials - as it should have given that its name is . . . Carnival Breeze. But unusually, the ship won't be officially named for several months. The 3,690-passenger vessel is a sister to last year's newcomer, Carnival Magic, and the 2009 introduction, Carnival Dream, whose launch I attended in New York. In the final stages of construction at a shipyard in north-east Italy, Breeze was put through her paces in the Adriatic, with technicians testing the ship's navigational, technical and [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T15:59:49+00:00 16 May 2012|Cruise Ships|1 Comment

Al’s taking Herbie to Monte Carlo to raise money for children’s hospice

Good luck to cruise ship sommelier Al Clinton, who will be setting off in less than two weeks to fulfil a life's ambition which will raise thousands of pounds for charity. Al, who works in The Glass House on P&O's Azura, will be taking his lovingly reconstructed Herbie from his home on Merseyside on the 1,100-mile drive to Monte Carlo. With sponsorship and a flurry of celebrity-supported events in the UK, he hopes to collect at least £53,000 for Claire House, a children's hospice. Al will be taking a co-driver, back-up team and film crew along for the drive, which [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T15:59:49+00:00 16 May 2012|Cruise News|0 Comments

It’s party time for Cunard and P&O

This update on Cunard 's forthcoming Three Queens salute to the Royal Diamond Jubilee, and the P&O Grand Event a month later, is expanded from the version in today's print edition. More than a thousand boats are expected to take part in the Diamond Jubilee Pageant along the River Thames on June 3. The other major maritime event of the weekend will involve rather fewer vessels - the three ships of the Cunard fleet. Queen Mary 2 and Queen Elizabeth, which were both christened by Her Majesty, will be joined by Queen Victoria, named by the Duchess of Cornwall, as [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T15:59:49+00:00 12 May 2012|Cruise News|2 Comments

Bowlers sail into battle

Greg Harlow, the world's leading bowls player, will be taking to the sea in a few days' time, on a cruise around the UK. Not to take part in an impromptu game of carpet bowls in a corridor - although I wouldn't rule out the possibility - but to lead a group of enthusiasts in competition against players from Ireland and Scotland. Fred Olsen's Braemar is the ship taking the bowlers into battle, in a partnership with No Fly Cruising, a sister company to Potters Leisure Resort in Norfolk, which is to the World Indoor Bowls Championships what Sheffield's Crucible [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T15:59:49+00:00 9 May 2012|Cruise Entertainment|1 Comment

Royal review for P&O’s Grand Event

Where to see the P&O fleet (click to enlarge image) The Princess Royal will be reviewing the P&O fleet when all seven of the cruise line's ships assemble on July 3 to mark the company's 175th anniversary. Her Royal Highness is Master of the Corporation of Trinity House, the historic organisation responsible for the UK's lighthouses, having taken over the position from her father, the Duke of Edinburgh last year. She will on board THV Patricia, the corporation's flagship, as P&O's ships sail down Southampton Water into The Solent. Earlier in the day she will join guests for afternoon tea [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T15:59:49+00:00 9 May 2012|Cruise News|3 Comments

Breakaway on the starting block

The first of 73 giant construction blocks which will eventually make up Norwegian's new cruise ship, Breakaway, was laid in the bottom of a dry dock in a German shipyard at the weekend. Remarkably, it will take less than 12 months for construction of the 144,000-ton ship to be completed - a new record for a vessel of this size. Procedures at the Meyer-Werft yard in Papenburg have been streamlined to improve efficiency, with the introduction of high-tech systems learned from the Porsche car factory. Some of the ship sections have been under construction for months, beginning in the giant [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T15:59:49+00:00 8 May 2012|Cruise Ships|0 Comments

Welcome aboard! A picture tour of the new Saga Sapphire cruise ship

Saga Sapphire crew waiting to welcome passengers on board and escort them to their cabins. The Drawing Room (above and below) on Deck 11 is a comfortable bar and observation lounge packed with quirky decorative features and also serves as library and snack bar. The Grill (both pictures, above) on Deck 9 seats 100 and has an open show-kitchen. There's room for another 100 passengers on the adjacent Verandah (below). Asian specialty restaurant East To West, also on Deck 9, seats 64. Pole to Pole is the main dining room, seating 620. It is broken up into separate, intimate sections, [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T15:59:49+00:00 7 May 2012|Cruise Ships|0 Comments

Ready at last, Sapphire is a little gem, glowing with fun and surprises

It's taken six months, and - thanks to some unexpected delays - a little bit longer. It's cost £25 million. And from what I saw yesterday, the creation of Saga Sapphire has been worth every minute and every penny. The vivid blue of her newly-decorated funnel shone out across a grey day in Southampton as passengers arrived at the City Terminal and when they stepped aboard into the deck 7 reception area they were greeted by a spectacular 22-ft high sculpture consisting of a shoal of 1,395 fish. Design duo Scabetti have created a similar work for Rick Stein's fish [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T15:59:49+00:00 7 May 2012|Cruise News, Cruise Ships|1 Comment

Farewell Pearl . . . welcome to Quest

Coming soon, my first impressions of Saga Sapphire, - I spent two hours crawling over the ship in Southampton this afternoon. But before boarding the newest gem in Saga's fleet, I had to take a quick look at Saga Pearl II before she was transformed into Quest for Adventure. Actually, it's something of an exaggeration to say she has been transformed. Although she has inherited a number of crew from predecessor Spirit of Adventure, little has changed in the fabric of the ship. The new name had been painted on the bow while I was enjoying a chicken curry for [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T15:59:49+00:00 6 May 2012|Cruise News, Cruise Ships|0 Comments