Cruise News

The deadline approaches: voting for this year's prestigious Cruise International Awards closes tomorrow. Make your voice heard by choosing your favourite cruise line, on-board restaurant or destination and you could win a luxury holiday to St Kitts and Nevis, a tablet PC, or one of a host of other prizes. You can even pick the best cruise blogger - no pressure, but the name's at the top of this piece. The Cruise Awards are the ones the industry leaders take note of, because they are voted for by the people who choose and book cruises. Other categories include best for [...]

The theme from TV's Love Boat blasted out across the water each evening as Royal Princess left port during the Mediterranean cruise which delivered me to Barcelona on Saturday. The ship is fitted with a seven-note horn to play the opening bar, although I'm not sure how many passengers still recognize the tune. It was one of those ironic twists of fate that led to Royal's much-loved older sister, the one-time Pacific Princess, arriving in a Turkish scrapyard during the exact same week. The 42-year-old vessel, one of the original ships used for filming the series, had come to the [...]

MY COLUMN FROM SATURDAY'S DAILY MIRROR You can hardly blame Micky Arison for puffing out his chest and boasting a little. The billionaire chairman of Carnival Corporation took to Twitter this week to brag: "We have more than 10,000 guests in Athens today." As indeed he had. On board the cruise ships Costa Magica, Carnival Sunshine, and his newest baby, Royal Princess. The crowds, together with those from two other ships in the port of Piraeus, bought gridlock to the steep paths leading up to the Acropolis. For once, Arison was on board one of his ships, rather than in [...]

For the first time in its 20-year history, cruise line Silversea has a female captain at the helm of one of its ships. Margrith Ettlin has taken command of the 132-passenger vessel Silver Explorer. She took over on the bridge this week when the ship was visiting Reykjavik, Iceland, and her first tour of duty will continue until October. Ettlin, who is Swiss, has extensive maritime experience in remote regions, including the Arctic and Antarctica. She has worked for Germany's F. Laeisz shipping group, and spent nine years as staff captain with the German shipping company Hapag-Lloyd. She is also [...]

No sooner have I stepped off Carnival Sunshine, after a nine-night cruise from Barcelona, than the ship is mired in controversy over an alleged sail-by incident during its arrival in Venice. A local writer claims the vessel came too close to shore in a manouevre intended as a salute to the company's chairman, billionaire Micky Arison, who was watching from his private yacht. The incident has been compared by some commentators to the navigational showboating which led to the Costa Concordia tragedy 18 months ago, and it has been seized upon by campaigners who want to see cruise ships banned [...]