Cruise Destinations

If passengers on board the expedition ship Via Australis were wondering why the ice in their drinks came in large irregular lumps, rather than uniform cubes, then they discovered the reason on an excursion to the Piloto glacier (above). As the Zodiac inflatables picked their way carefully though the substantial chunks of ice floating in the fjord at Chico Sound, members of crew were picking manageable-sized mini icebergs from the water and taking them on board. So there were two good things about my gin and tonic that night - and each night. Firstly, like every drink at the bar [...]

Braving the winds off Cape Horn - and this as close as I could get to it _ Ever had that feeling of despair when you have expended lots of effort to get somewhere, only to find it was closed? Well, imagine travelling 8,500 miles, taking three flights and half a day's journey by sea, only to find you cannot reach your ultimate destination. That's what happened to me when I got to Cape Horn. OK, so my destination was more than a little off the beaten track, and has been ever since the opening of the Panama Canal saved [...]

So, after just two days, I'm about to say adios to the tango city of Buenos Aires. In less than 12 hours I will be flying south to Ushuaia. If the weather and sea conditions allow, I'll be going ashore at Cape Horn, and I expect to see lots of glaciers and penguins. I'm looking forward to the adventure - and I've got the Stugeron tablets ready in case it gets rough. If you don't see any updates for the next few days it won't be because I'm confined to my cabin by seasickness, it's because where I'm going is [...]

Just in case any of my regular readers are wondering whether I would make it safely to Argentina - you can relax. I was delivered from Paris to Buenos Aires by a bumpy 13-1/2 hour flight, and I have spent the afternoon strolling along its graceful tree-lined boulevards and the teeming pedestrian shopping street that is Florida. The most moving moment of the day came as I watched the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo slowly processing round the square in remembrance of their children, who disappeared during Argentina's "dirty war" - the military dictatorship between 1976 and 1983. They [...]

The tourism chiefs of Dubai are clearly hoping that Costa Deliziosa - and other cruise ships following in her wake - are going to have a delicious effect on their business. How else to explain the last-minute decision by Crown Prince Shaikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum to attend Deliziosa's naming ceremony today, the first time any cruise ship has been named in an Arabian port. The smile on the face of Dubai Tourism's Hamad bin Mejren was matched only by the obvious delight of Costa CEO Pier Luigi Foschi. The royal presence brought its own problems, however, [...]

Something different today: a blog from the air instead of the sea. I have just come back down to earth after a sensational flight-seeing tour over Dubai in a nine-seater seaplane. The Department of Tourism is making the most of the opportunity to market their destination to visitors who, like me, are here for the naming ceremony of cruise ship Costa Deliziosa tomorrow. And there can be no better way than the 40-minute flight taking in all the incredible sights of this 21st-century miracle springing up from the desert. Laid out below us were the man-made islands of The Palm [...]