Cruise News

Seven Seas Voyager is the latest ship to suffer propulsion problems while on a world cruise. Shortly after leaving Singapore last week, a propellor and drive shaft on one of its two pods became tangled in lengths of heavy fishing line Some of the line was removed at the next port of call, Phuket in Thailand, but the ship has been unable to resume full speed. It is due to arrive in Cochin, in India, on Wednesday, having earlier cancelled a planned call in Sri Lanka because of civil unrest in the country. Engineers from the pod's manufacturers will assess [...]

I spent an hour at the Cruise Show at London's ExCel exhibition centre yesterday, and sadly an hour was more than enough time to see all that was on offer. Some, but by no means all, of the major cruise lines took stands, as did a few of the major cruise agents. There was wine to be sampled, a stall selling binoculars, and another claiming to offer arthritis relief. Wanderlust magazine had a small area set out as a theatre - watching a television screen smaller than the one in my living room - and Sky Travel had a slightly [...]

When I'm on a cruise ship, the TV in my cabin rarely gets switched on, unless I want to check where we're heading, or look at the view from the bridge cam. But if you really can't tear yourself away from the plasma screen on holiday, then I suppose it will be good news that the BBC is adding five channels to the World News channel already available at sea. If you're sailing with Cunard, Fred Olsen, Norwegian Cruise Line, P&O, Princess, Royal Caribbean International, or Crystal Cruises in the Mediterranean later this month, you'll have 24-hour feeds of BBC [...]

Not to be outdone by their friends at Cunard and the Queen Elizabeth unveiling, P&O have announced the inaugural voyages for their own new cruise ship, Azura, which will go on sale at travel agents on March 30. The maiden voyage is a 16-night Mediterranean cruise leaving Southampton on April 12 next year. Prices start from £1,524 per person including an early-booking discount. The ship will be based in Southampton for the summer, sailing to the Med, the Canaries and the Baltic. After a three-night mini-cruise to Bruges and Le Havre, she crosses the Atlantic in October to spend the [...]

Country house parties by the swimming pool, big band dances in the ballroom, and a bowling green and croquet lawn on the Games Deck - these are some of the attractions which Cunard hopes will re-create the golden age of cruising on board their newest liner, the Queen Elizabeth. The new ship, which will make her maiden voyage in October 2010, has an Art Deco feel throughout, as my early preview illustration showed last week. Cunard's aim, according to president and managing director, Carol Marlow, is to evoke the era of the first RMS Queen Elizabeth, which sailed from 1940 [...]

Confirmation of the growing popularity of cruise holidays among Brits comes in the latest figures issued by the Passenger Shipping Association. A record 1,477 million of us took a cruise in 2008, an increase of 11 per cent on the previous year, partly due to the introduction of P&O's Ventura, Royal Caribbean's Independence of the Seas, and Fred Olsen's Balmoral. There were 577,000 passengers embarking on cruises in the UK (up 23 per cent), and a further 900,000 choosing to fly to join their ships (up 4 per cent). Speaking at the Seatrade cruise convention in Miami, PSA director William [...]