Cruise News

Cunard flagship Queen Mary 2 lent a helping hand to a solo woman rower Mylène Paquette in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean today. Mylène, from Canada, is aiming to become the first North American woman to row solo across the Atlantic, a total of 2,700 nautical miles. She set out from Halifax, Nova Scotia on July 6, heading for Lorient, France, but was hit by the remnants of Atlantic Storm Humberto and had lost her anchor and a satellite phone. QM2, which left New York on Sunday on a seven-night crossing to Southampton, received a request to assist yesterday [...]

Some interesting insights from Carnival's senior cruise director, John Heald, who is on board Carnival Legend. The ship left Dover today at the end of its summer season in Europe and there will be no Carnival cruise ships here next year. "Fun ship" Legend is now heading for New York on a 14-night sailing via Dublin, Glasgow, Belfast, Reykjavik, Qaqortoq (that's in Greenland) and St John's, Newfoundland. There are 2,147 passengers on board, just over the ship's dual-occupancy capacity of 2,124. Four of them are over the age of 90 and there are 14 children. The average age of guests [...]

OFFICIAL STATEMENT BELOW, MORE DETAILS TO FOLLOW LATER P&O Cruises has announced that its new £500 million cruise ship, scheduled to enter service in spring 2015, will be named Britannia - just as I hinted 18 days ago. Speaking today in London, P&O Cruises & Carnival UK chief executive officer David Dingle said: "Britannia is a most fitting name for the newest addition to P&O Cruises, which, with its long and famous heritage, remains Britain's favourite cruise line. Britannia will capture both the contemporary spirit of P&O Cruises and the spirit of Britain today. "Today's Britain is a place of [...]

Royal Princess finally reached the Italian port of Naples this evening, more than 12 hours behind schedule as its current voyage was cut short for emergency repairs to be carried out. The ship, launched in June by Kate Middleton, suffered a major power failure on Sunday. An emergency generator kept essential services such as toilets operating for three-and-a-half hours. Royal Princess was seven days into a 12-day cruise which started in Venice on September 15 and had been at the Greek island of Mykonos on Saturday. There are 3,594 passengers and 1,336 crew members on board. Calls at Rome, Livorno [...]

The building of what will become the world's largest cruise ship got under way this morning. Royal Caribbean chairman and CEO Richard Fain pressed a button to cut the first piece of steel for what he is calling Oasis 3 and what the STX Europe shipyard in France has branded A34. The ship will be a near-identical sister to Oasis of the Seas and Allure of the Seas. Keel-laying will take place in April next year and the 227,700 GRT vessel will be delivered in spring 2016. Vangelis's theme music for the film 1492: Conquest of Paradise rang through the [...]

How are you thinking ahead for your next holiday? Britain's cruise lines and travel agents are hoping that more people are looking at taking to the high seas. On the eve of National Cruise Week, 400 of the industry's leaders gathered in Liverpool to try to find the formula for continued success, with "Think Ahead" as their slogan. As it turned out there was more talk about soggy bottoms than keels and cabins. The Great British Bake Off was a favourite topic among the presentations and 2011 winner Jo Wheatley was among the guest speakers at the event organised by [...]