All the latest cruise news from the man in the know

Azamara goes all-in-cruise-ive

Boutique line Azamara Club Cruises is to offer all-inclusive drinks, matching the packages available on upmarket competitors such as SeaDream and Crystal. The line will also introduce a complimentary shore excursion - or AzAmazing Evening - on each of its voyages. The new benefits will begin when the line's ships return to Europe next year - March in the case of Azamara Quest, and May for Azamara Journey. All Azamara's cruises feature late-night departures and overnight stays in port. It will be during these that the "destination events" will be laid on. Typical evenings will include outings to the ballet [...]

By John Honeywell| 2012-10-01T18:40:26+00:00 1 October 2012|Cruise Deals, Cruise News|0 Comments

Searchers find body of woman who went overboard from cruise ship

The body of a woman who went overboard from P&O cruise ship Aurora has been recovered from the Atlantic Ocean. The woman was reported missing as the ship was sailing from La Coruna in northern Spain, heading for Barcelona. Under the command of Captain Ian Hutley, the vessel immediately turned around at about 6.00 am on Saturday morning and spent much of the day conducting a meticulous search of the choppy waters off the coast of Portugal, north-west of Lisbon. Cruise ship Thomson Spirit, which was en route to Cadiz, also joined in the search during the afternoon. Aurora's track [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T15:59:42+00:00 29 September 2012|Cruise News|3 Comments

Big money in cruise souvenirs

Cruise passengers - who we were told this week save a fortune on their holidays compared with those on land-based tours - spend more of their spare cash on souvenirs. More than three times as much, according to a study conducted by an independent online cruise travel agency. A poll conducted for www.bonvoyage.co.uk, examined the spending habits of 2,005 Britons aged 18 and over; 1,002 of them had been on a land holiday for their last trip abroad; and the remaining 1,003 last went on a cruise. Almost all of them - 89 per cent - had brought back souvenirs. [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T15:59:42+00:00 28 September 2012|Cruise News|0 Comments

Take the family on a cruise and save enough money to buy a car

While P&O's sponsorship of Downton Abbey places the brand in front of a TV audience of millions each week, I fear the tactic will do little to change the widely-held - but totally inaccurate - perception of cruising as an expensive holiday. In fact, cruise ship holidays provide some of the best value around, and it's taken Thomson to prove it with a comparison of three different multi-centre breaks. A family of four on a Mediterranean tour from Palma, Majorca to Corsica, Rome, Florence, Toulon and Barcelona would spend an estimated £11,269 on flights, hotels, meals, drinks and entertainment. The [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T15:59:42+00:00 28 September 2012|Cruise Deals, Cruise News|1 Comment

Cruising’s favourite towel animals fail the test for Hotel Inspector Alex

It's National Cruise Week, but anyone who spent Thursday trying to book a ship-board holiday might have had a problem. The country's leading specialist travel agents were not in their offices and shops. They had travelled far from the sea to Birmingham and were being urged to "think differently" at the Columbus Day conference organised by the Association of Cruise Experts. Thinking differently included listening to several speakers repeating the mantra that, following on from record growth last year with the number of UK cruisers passing 1.7 million for the first time, 2012 has been tough. Double-dip recession and the [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T15:59:43+00:00 21 September 2012|Cruise News|6 Comments

Classic cruise ships ‘arrested’

The future of Classic International Cruises is in doubt following the "arrest" of three of its four ships for alleged non-payment of fuel bills and crew wages. Their oldest ship, the 64-year-old Athena, was seized in Marseille at the weekend, together with Princess Danae - which was held briefly last month in Dublin over a fuel bill for £60,000. A third ship, Arion, has been detained in Kotor, Montenegro, although CIC's Princess Daphne continues to operate under charter to a German cruise company. The 16,000-ton Athena was chartered to Belgian company AllWays and its passengers returned home by plane and [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T15:59:43+00:00 19 September 2012|Cruise News|1 Comment

Tide of protest delays Venice ships

Cruise ship MSC Armonia passing Piazza San Marco in Venice last Thursday Strange that the protesters who massed in Venice to delay three cruise ships from leaving the Stazione Marittimo chose Sunday for their action; a day earlier and they could have inconvenienced ex-prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, who is spending a week on board MSC Divina. As it was, the sister ships MSC Opera and MSC Musica, together with Costa Favolosa, were held up by about 70 small boats marshalled by the No Grande Navi organisation which wants large cruise ships to be banned from the lagoon on environmental grounds. [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T15:59:43+00:00 18 September 2012|Cruise Destinations, Cruise News|0 Comments

New cruise ships on the horizon

AN EXTENDED VERSION OF CAPTAIN GREYBEARD'S COLUMN PUBLISHED IN THE DAILY MIRROR, SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 15 The boom in cruise ship building may have peaked in the 'noughties, but new vessels are still being built and two of them will make their debuts in the UK next summer. The 4,000-passenger Norwegian Breakaway will set out from Southampton at the end of April on its maiden voyage, a Transatlantic crossing to set up home in New York. A few weeks later, the 3,600-passenger Royal Princess will be christened in Southampton. The name of the godmother has yet to be revealed, but it [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T15:59:44+00:00 16 September 2012|Cruise News|0 Comments

20 million choose to cruise

The number of holidaymakers around the world who took a cruise last year topped 20 million for the first time. The total grew by 10 per cent, or almost two million, on 2010's figures. The main markets are North America, with 11.5 million, and Britain, with 1.7 million. The fastest growth has occurred in Australia - up 30 per cent to more than 500,000, with growth expected to top a million by 2020.. The statistics, released at the beginning of the UK's annual National Cruise Week, were compiled from industry bodies including the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), the [...]

By John Honeywell| 2012-09-13T22:58:01+00:00 13 September 2012|Cruise News|0 Comments

Carnival UK’s Dingle picks up Lifetime Achievement Award

Carnival UK CEO David Dingle has been honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award in the Cruise International Awards announced in London today and presented by Gyles Brandreth at the Soho Hotel. He has ultimate responsibility for 12 cruise ships: three flying the Cunard flag, seven sailing for P&O in the UK, and two more in P&O's Australian division. Already this year he has seen Cunard's ships assemble in Southampton to mark the Queen's Diamond Jubilee and joined Princess Anne as she reviewed the P&O fleet in celebration of the line's 175th anniversary. Dingle, who has been employed in the cruise [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T15:59:44+00:00 12 September 2012|Cruise News|0 Comments