Cruise News

Frequent (I was going to say regular, but you'll see in a minute why that would have been inappropriate) cruise passengers have become accustomed to the public health forms they have to complete before boarding a ship at the start of a voyage. We are asked to vouch for the fact that we have not had infectious illnesses such as flu or stomach upset in the previous two or three days, and I'm sure most people tick the "no" box automatically because they fear being refused on board if they own up. The forms are an unfortunate necessity in these [...]

When Celebrity Equinox was launched in Southampton in July there were 10 days of inaugural events during which the ship was shown off to the cruising public, travel agents and the media. The cost of flying over a substantial posse of American journalists, providing free food and drink for thousands of guests all day, every day, and taking the ship out to sea every night must have been astronomical. I tried to get the figures, but Celebrity Cruises' president Dan Hanrahan was reluctant to go into detail and his boss, Royal Caribbean's chairman Richard Fain, would say only that it [...]

As a postscript to Southampton's bonanza cruise weekend, with nine ships in port last Saturday and Sunday, Sue Bryant reports on Cruise Critic.co.uk that the free tours laid on by the port authority attracted 2,500 people, some of whom were queuing as early as 7.00 am, three hours before the first bus was due to leave. The hour-long tours of the Western and Eastern docks gave ship-spotters a chance to get close to Cunard's Queen Mary 2 and Queen Victoria, P&O's Aurora, Oceana, Oriana and Ventura, Royal Caribbean's Independence of the Seas, Grand Princess, and Fred Olsen's Black Watch. Sightseers [...]

Disney bought the Marvel Comics empire for $4 billion earlier this week, and it hasn't taken long for a Disney cruise ship to become a super-hero. Early this morning, crew from the Disney Wonder rescued a passenger who appears to have jumped from another ship, the Carnival Sensation, off the coast of Florida. The man had been treading water for about an hour-and-a-half, and another passenger on the Sensation told a Florida TV station she had heard him arguing with a woman just before he went in the water. "He threatened to jump, and she said, 'Go ahead,' and he [...]