Cruise News

Within hours of making history as the first cruise ship in 40 years to use the centre of Liverpool to embark passengers, Ocean Countess suffered an embarrassing engine failure which left it stranded in the Irish Sea. Instead of heading north for an eight-night Jubilee voyage to the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, the ship - with a full complement of 719 passengers on board - was left adrift near the Isle of Man when an electrical problem caused a loss of main engine power. After drifting in calm seas for three hours, the ship was taken into Holyhead on [...]

Ephesus is one of the most visited ancient sites in the eastern Mediterranean, and is probably photographed millions of times every week by thousands of cruise ship passengers. From my own experience, I know how difficult it is to take a picture of the Greek and Roman ruins without getting the frame filled by the heads of fellow-tourists. So congratulations to Christine Svircev who took this shot of the Library of Celsus which has won a competition organised by Princess Cruises to find 1,000 pictures to decorate the corridors of their newest ship, Royal Princess. Svircev, from Illinois, USA, wins [...]

It's not just the long-awaited change in the weather, this week is turning out rather well, thank you very much, especially for a food-loving cruise addict. Two meals in Michelin-starred restaurants - each introduced by the chef himself - is already a new personal best. Monday dawned with a train journey to one of my favourite parts of Britain, and the brief journey from Totnes station to the quayside at Dartmouth must have been one with which my grandfather would have been familiar when he was a bus driver before the war. But I wasn't here to start rooting around [...]

When Inverness-born Gavin MacLeod joined Princess Cruises as a Third Officer two years ago, he didn't even realise that his namesake was a legend of the Love Boats. The actor Gavin MacLeod made the role of Captain Stubing his own during nine years of the popular TV soap-at-sea from 1977 to 1986 and is now an ambassador travelling the world for the company whose real-life ships were used as a filming location. The two met for the first time last week on board Island Princess, and shared lunch in the ship's Sabatini's Italian restaurant. There they autographed a collection of [...]

Good luck to cruise ship sommelier Al Clinton, who will be setting off in less than two weeks to fulfil a life's ambition which will raise thousands of pounds for charity. Al, who works in The Glass House on P&O's Azura, will be taking his lovingly reconstructed Herbie from his home on Merseyside on the 1,100-mile drive to Monte Carlo. With sponsorship and a flurry of celebrity-supported events in the UK, he hopes to collect at least £53,000 for Claire House, a children's hospice. Al will be taking a co-driver, back-up team and film crew along for the drive, which [...]

Where to see the P&O fleet (click to enlarge image) The Princess Royal will be reviewing the P&O fleet when all seven of the cruise line's ships assemble on July 3 to mark the company's 175th anniversary. Her Royal Highness is Master of the Corporation of Trinity House, the historic organisation responsible for the UK's lighthouses, having taken over the position from her father, the Duke of Edinburgh last year. She will on board THV Patricia, the corporation's flagship, as P&O's ships sail down Southampton Water into The Solent. Earlier in the day she will join guests for afternoon tea [...]