Your guide to news from cruise destinations around the world

Your guide to the latest news and updates from cruise destinations and ports of call around the world. Mediterranean, Europe, Caribbean, Alaska, South America, south-east Asia, Australasia, Arctic, Antarctica, Middle East. Southampton, Barcelona, Rome, Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Barbados, Panama, Norway, Dubai, Bahamas, Abu Dhabi, Sydney, Auckland, Wellington, Baltic, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Oslo, Helsinki, St Petersburg, Marseille, Athens, Greece, Venice, Dubrovnik, Corfu, Malta, Sicily, Sardinia, Naples, Santorini, Mykonos, Le Havre, Amsterdam, Bruges, Dublin, Belfast, Edinburgh, Kirkwall, Bergen, Svalbard, Iceland, Reykjavik, Costa Rica, Dominica, Puerto Rico, New York, Vancouver, Seattle, Skagway, Juneau, China, Shanghai, Singapore, Myanmar, Thailand,

Fred takes on Gavin in the galley

The food on my Springtime in Norway cruise on Saga Pearl II has been sensational. Executive chef Gavin Baxter and his brigade have consistently produced superb meals to match anything at sea and superior to most restaurants on land. Dinner menus are usually limited to a choice of three starters, three soups, and three main courses, but each is so tempting it's still difficult to make a choice. At last night's final formal dinner, for example, there was much head scratching before I settled on the haggis (accompanied by a glass of whisky), lobster bisque with Cognac, and a succulent [...]

By John Honeywell| 2010-05-13T08:31:19+00:00 13 May 2010|Cruise Destinations, Cruise News|1 Comment

Welcome to the Saga Juniors

Cruising among the Norwegian fjords on board Saga Pearl II in early May has two great advantages over visiting at peak season on one of today's mega-ships. For a start, the 400 passengers on board have not had to fight through crowds to get to the major sights and attractions ashore. We have been the only ship in port at each day's stop. And at just 18,500-tons Pearl is small enough to visit destinations which are off-limits to some of the bigger vessels, and we have been able to go alongside at each port, rather than having to tender ashore. [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T16:00:28+00:00 11 May 2010|Cruise Destinations, Cruise News, Cruise Ships|0 Comments

Away from it all in Eidfjord

There's only one better way to see the Norwegian fjords than from a cruise ship gliding serenely past vertiginous cliffs and spectacular waterfalls, and that's from the air. Yesterday I enjoyed the best of both worlds, sailing on Saga Pearl II through Hardangerfjord to the village of Eidfjord, and then clambering aboard a helicopter to look down on the snow-covered mountains of Hardangerjokulen from above. It was worth waking early to throw open the door to my cabin balcony, take in the morning air, and enjoy the final approach to Eidfjord while catching up with the latest election results on [...]

By John Honeywell| 2010-05-08T08:04:31+00:00 8 May 2010|Cruise Destinations|0 Comments

World Cup takes to the sea

Cruise ships have become a popular choice for providing accommodation at major sporting events. There were two in Vancouver during this year's winter Olympics and two companies have this week announced charters for the 2011 Rugby World Cup in New Zealand next October. TUI Travel, the company which owns Thomson and First Choice in the UK, will be taking over P&O Australia's Pacific Dawn, and Adventure World have agreed to charter MS Volendam for the event. A plan to move the venerable QE2 from her retirement home in Dubai to South Africa for this year's football World Cup fell through, [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T16:00:28+00:00 8 May 2010|Cruise Destinations, Cruise News|0 Comments

Stars lighting up the North Sea

They scrub up well, the Saganauts. Yesterday was a relaxing introduction to the Spring Time in Norway cruise on Saga Pearl II, a calm day spent threading our way through the oil and gas rigs of the North Sea en route to our first port of call, Stavanger. Putting any concerns about the general election and the airport closures behind them, passengers had all the time in the world to explore the newly-refurbished ship; to select something to read from the extensive new library, or to listen to lectures about the destinations ahead, and an amusing talk on the quirks [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T16:00:28+00:00 6 May 2010|Cruise Destinations, Cruise Gossip|0 Comments

Follow me to the fjords

This afternoon I will be boarding Saga Pearl II in Southampton for a 10-night cruise to the Norwegian fjords. It's a bit early in the season for Norway, so fingers crossed the weather holds, and that snow-bound roads have opened up, otherwise our excursions will be restricted. Ports of call include Stavanger, Eidfjord - from where I'll be checking up on the election result on Friday morning - Kristiansund, Alesund (pictured above when I visited last year aboard Queen Victoria), Olden and Bergen. We return to Dover on May 14. I will be updating this blog daily from the ship [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T16:00:28+00:00 4 May 2010|Cruise Destinations, Cruise News|1 Comment

Volcano brings an eruption of interest in cruises to Iceland

There can be few sights more spectacular than a volcanic eruption, and while the ash cloud from Iceland may be disrupting UK flights today, cruises to the island this summer will be unaffected. Even if the cruise companies don't set up their own excursions, there will no doubt be plenty of enterprising taxi drivers waiting on the quayside at Reykjavik to take passengers on the 90-minute drive to the Eyjafjallajokull volcano which is causing all the problems. The earliest opportunity to cruise to Iceland from the UK will be on Page & Moy's Athena, which sails from Harwich on May [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T16:00:29+00:00 15 April 2010|Cruise Destinations|2 Comments

Mermaid is a Chinese takeaway

There can be few cruise passengers visiting Copenhagen who don't include a visit to The Little Mermaid on their schedule. When they reach the figure, a short walk from the Langelinie terminal, they are usually surprised by two things: just how small she is - the statue is only 50 inches tall - and the fact that, unlike most depictions of mermaids, she has two legs.Those making the pilgrimage to the statue this year are in for an even bigger shock, because the mermaid won't be there. The statue, which has sat serenely on a boulder at the edge of [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T16:00:30+00:00 29 March 2010|Cruise Destinations|0 Comments

Anything you can do I can do TuTu

Judging by the responses I received, lots of you were thrilled to see yesterday's picture of Cunard liner QM2 making her maiden call at Cape Town. To start today, here's another impressive shot, of the ship at dusk. There's also a picture of Archbishop Desmond Tutu blowing the ship's whistle during a visit to the bridge. Just for fun, I've added a picture of Mrs Greybeard doing just the same as QM2 left the port of Cochin, in southern India, during the ship's 2007 world voyage. And check out the crowds who gathered on the beach by the city's famous [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T16:00:30+00:00 26 March 2010|Cruise Destinations|0 Comments

Miami plans to out-gun rival port

Surely it's just a coincidence that within days of Fort Lauderdale's Port Everglades announcing a record day for cruise passengers, rival port Miami, a few miles down the coast, is revealing plans for a new "mega-terminal." Isn't it? Miami is where the cruise boom started, back in the 1970s, and it still lays claim to the title "cruise capital of the world", with more than four million passengers a year. Although it will be the home port for NCL's Norwegian Epic, launching this summer, it lost out to Port Everglades for the two biggest cruise ships in the world, Royal [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T16:00:30+00:00 25 March 2010|Cruise Destinations, Cruise News|0 Comments