Cruise News

When the Duchess of Cornwall christened Cunard's Queen Victoria almost six years ago, she didn't only launch a cruise ship, she also set in train a fund-raising effort that has raised £1 million for her husband's charity. The achievement will be celebrated in style at a £100-a-head lunch for The Prince's Trust on board the ship in Southampton tomorrow (Friday). Charles accompanied Camilla to the naming and there were gasps from the audience when the bottled failed to smash against the ship's side - traditionally seen as a sign of bad luck. Fortunes have clearly changed ... The Trust works [...]

It's official: Anthem of the Seas, Royal Caribbean's second Quantum-class cruise ship, will make its home in Southampton when it is launched in spring 2015. After weeks of speculation, which began in early September when I first reported that European ports of call had been booked for the 4,180-passenger vessel, the company made the official announcement in London this evening. Radio personalities Stuart Maconie and Lauren Laverne, together with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, were the appropriate musical connection joining Royal Caribbean president and CEO Adam Goldstein. Anthem will replace the 3,600-passenger Independence of the Seas, which has been sailing from [...]

There's no doubting the increasing popularity of river cruising. While the growth in numbers of UK passengers taking to the seas has slowed in the past couple of years, more and more are choosing to take a boat trip inland. They were up 12 per cent last year, according to figures being quoted at the CLIA-UK River Cruise Convention in Cologne at the weekend. Of the total of 130,000, the majority - 90,000 - cruise on European waters, while a further 40,000 head further afield, to the Yangtze, Mekong, Mississippi and elsewhere. It should come as no surprise then, that [...]

It's been a while . . . More than three weeks since I disappeared to the remote South Atlantic island of St Helena. Strange to think that in order to spend eight days there, I had a total of 14 days of travel. An overnight flight to Cape Town was followed by a night in the Commodore Hotel, just a few minutes' walk from the bustling Victoria & Alfred Waterfront. Then there were five nights on board the RMS St Helena before arrival in Jamestown. It was the same process in reverse to get back to the UK. Well worth [...]

FROM TODAY'S COLUMN IN THE DAILY MIRROR Images of Viking's river cruise ships will be familiar to anyone who has watched mysteries, thrillers and drama on ITV - the company's sponsorship commercials are on screen almost every night. There's no mystery about its success - Viking launched 10 new ships this year and another 14 are being built for 2014. Not content with the Rhine, the Danube and the Seine, the company is now planning to conquer the oceans - in a rather gentler version of the invasions of more than a thousand years ago. The 930-passenger Viking Star is [...]

The emerging markets of India and the Far East have been targets for the world's biggest cruise lines for some time, as they seek to expand beyond America and Europe. It's now beginning to look like Carnival Corporation and Royal Caribbean will not have it all their own way. There are reports of a fledgling company planning to acquire second-hand ships to operate from the Indian sub-continent. At the same time, the Hong Kong-based parent company of Norwegian Cruise Line has placed a £600 million order for a new-build for the Asian market. Ironically, given the ship-building facilities available in [...]

The dust has settled on the week's two big announcements. It's time to reflect on Britannia and Oasis 3, the two new cruise ships that will respectively become the biggest designed and built built for British passengers, and the biggest in the world. First, P&O's Britannia: we knew it would be arriving in 2015, and we knew it was being built on the same basic hull design as this year's star newcomer, Royal Princess. The big reveal was the name. Apart from a few generalisations, and the clues to be gained from examining the computer-drawn impressions, we are not much [...]