Captain Greybeard

It is Europe's biggest cruise line, with more ships than Britain's P&O, Cunard and Fred Olsen combined. But recent events must spell the end for Costa Crociere. Bosses were already complaining of a PR annihilation following the Concordia tragedy in January. Now, six weeks later, they are faced with another disaster - Costa Allegra left without power in the Indian Ocean after an engine room fire knocked out its generator plant. The vessel is 43 years old and was originally built as a ferry. Passengers endured three days without air conditioning or working toilets, and there was no way to [...]

Argentina has closed the port of Ushuaia to two cruise ships which had visited the Falkland capital Port Stanley just two days earlier. Passengers who had been hoping to go ashore in the most southerly city in the world found they had been turned away as diplomatic tension increases over the disputed islands. P&O's Adonia is carrying 710 passengers, mostly from the UK, on an 87-night voyage around South America. Star Princess, with 2,580 passengers on board - 284 of them British - is on a 14-night cruise which began in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Both are part of the [...]

A cruise ship carrying more than 1,000 passengers and crew is adrift in the Indian Ocean after a generator fire left it without power. A French fishing boat is reported to have been the first vessel to reach Costa Allegra, about 200 miles south of the Seychelles and a cargo ship is expected to make contact later today. It will be several hours before rescue tugs from Mahé arrive on the scene. No-one was injured in the blaze, but the general emergency alarm was sounded and the 636 passengers were summoned to their muster stations in the ship's public rooms. [...]

It has been five months since Cunard announced that its ships were to be re-flagged in Bermuda so that it could offer weddings at sea to a queue of eager couples. No time was wasted in arranging the change of registration and the name of Hamilton soon replaced Southampton on the sterns of Queen Mary 2, Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth. So I was rather surprised to discover this week that the first nuptials will not be until April at the earliest. Wedding packages will start at $2,500 (£1,600) plus $575 (£370) licence fee and include breakfast in bed for [...]