All the latest cruise news from the man in the know

Slow it down with Cunard

With fuel costs spiralling out of control, cruise lines are being forced to take steps to cut down on consumption in order to reduce costs. And anyone who has limped away from a petrol station with an overloaded credit card after filling up the family car will feel nothing but sympathy for the accountants who have to foot the bill for a tanker top-up that is counted in thousands of tons rather than a few dozen litres. Ships are taking longer to reach their destinations and spending longer in port in order to economise. It's become a fact of life [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T15:59:52+00:00 27 March 2012|Cruise Deals, Cruise Destinations, Cruise News|0 Comments

Princess bookings off to a Royal start

Record bookings for the debut of Royal Princess have set Princess Cruises up for a bumper 2013, when it will have an unprecedented seven ships in Europe and another seven in Alaska. The 3,600-passenger Royal Princess, currently under construction in Italy, will set off from Southampton on her seven-day maiden voyage to Spain on June 16 next year. UK director Paul Ludlow says the importance of UK passengers has been behind the decision to bring the ship to Britain, and is delighted with the response when sales opened on Thursday. "We've seen great bookings already from the UK on the [...]

By John Honeywell| 2012-03-24T05:12:57+00:00 24 March 2012|Cruise Deals, Cruise Destinations, Cruise News|0 Comments

Aurora drugs couple facing jail

Two passengers arrested when cocaine was found in their cabin on P&O cruise ship Aurora are facing up to four years in jail. Bar owner Tony Wilkinson, 42, from Auckland, New Zealand and his 25-year-old girlfriend Kirsty Harris pleaded guilty when they appeared in court this week. The pair were held when US customs officers searched the ship in San Francisco in January. A haul of 7 kg of the drug was found in the cabin of Australian Ahmed Rachid, who then led officials to the New Zealand pair. They tried to flush drug paraphernalia down the toilet before the [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T15:59:52+00:00 23 March 2012|Cruise News|3 Comments

Aurora drugs couple facing jail

Two passengers arrested when cocaine was found in their cabin on P&O cruise ship Aurora are facing up to four years in jail. Bar owner Tony Wilkinson, 42, from Auckland, New Zealand and his 25-year-old girlfriend Kirsty Harris pleaded guilty when they appeared in court this week. The pair were held when US customs officers searched the ship in San Francisco in January. A haul of 7 kg of the drug was found in the cabin of Australian Ahmed Rachid, who then led officials to the New Zealand pair. They tried to flush drug paraphernalia down the toilet before the [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T15:59:52+00:00 23 March 2012|Cruise News|0 Comments

Shipyard strikes blamed for delay to Saga Sapphire maiden voyage

There's good news and bad news for Saga Cruises and passengers looking forward to embarking on the maiden voyage of the company's newest ship next week. The good news is that the vessel is on its way to Southampton after a multi-million pound, four-month refit which has transformed the former Bleu de France into Saga Sapphire. The bad news is that, largely due to a series of strikes by shipyard workers at the Fincantieri yard in Palermo, the work over-ran. The new jewel in Saga's crown may be glistening, but she will have to delay her maiden voyage, which will [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T15:59:52+00:00 23 March 2012|Cruise News|0 Comments

Shipyard strikes blamed for delay to Saga Sapphire’s maiden voyage

There's good news and bad news for Saga Cruises and passengers looking forward to embarking on the maiden voyage of the company's newest ship next week. The good news is that the vessel is on its way to Southampton after a multi-million pound, four-month refit which has transformed the former Bleu de France into Saga Sapphire. The bad news is that, largely due to a series of strikes by shipyard workers at the Fincantieri yard in Palermo, the work over-ran. The new jewel in Saga's crown may be glistening, but she will have to delay her maiden voyage, which will [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T15:59:52+00:00 21 March 2012|Cruise News|6 Comments

Boudicca takes the cruise battle north of the Border to Scotland

Of the four cruise ships in Fred Olsen's fleet, three have distinctly Scottish names. Black Watch shares emotional connections with the Highland infantry regiment and Braemar and Balmoral are, of course, named after places in Royal Deeside. As far as I know, the warrior queen Boudicca, whose name is carried on the fourth ship, never rode into battle north of the Border. And yet this is the ship which will spend most of the summer sailing out of the Clyde and the Forth. The Scottish season starts on May 7 when Boudicca arrives in Greenock at the end a three-night [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T15:59:52+00:00 21 March 2012|Cruise Destinations, Cruise News|0 Comments

Power cuts hit QM2 world voyage

Cunard flagship Queen Mary 2 is making stop-start progress on her current world cruise - the 150,000-ton liner has been plagued by a succession of brief power blackouts. The latest left the vessel without propulsion as it was en route to Japan. The ship was also affected by power outages during its crossing of the Indian Ocean to Australia last month. Passengers have reported being stuck briefly in lifts until power was switched back on. although back-up generators restored lighting and other services after a short break. More alarmingly, the most recent incident appears to have affected propulsion of the [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T15:59:52+00:00 19 March 2012|Cruise News, Cruise Ships|1 Comment

Silver Shadow arrives in Hong Kong after colliding with cargo vessel

Dramatic reports of a collision involving the luxury cruise ship Silver Shadow appear to be somewhat exaggerated. The vessel reached Hong Kong on schedule this morning, and will embark on a private charter as planned. Blogger Mikey Faust, in a report followed up by The Huffington Post, quoted a passenger on board as saying: "We're on Silversea Silver Shadow cruise ship and we just collided with a Vietnamese container ship near Ha Long Bay, Vietnam. We slammed into the side of it, in thick fog. "The other ship was severely damaged, and crew hurt, damage to our ship is being [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T15:59:52+00:00 19 March 2012|Cruise News|0 Comments

MSC’s newest cruise ship was being built with an aquarium for sharks

MSC Cruises may have picked up a bargain by taking over a ship which was being built for Libya's overthrown Gaddafi regime, but they are missing out on what could have been a unique feature - an aquarium containing six sharks. The 140,000-ton ship was originally ordered by Hannibal Gaddafi - son of the former leader - when he discovered he was unable to charter cruise ships for his own use at short notice. To be called Phoenicia, and capable of carrying 3,500 passengers, it was being built by the STX shipyard in St Nazaire, France when his dictator father [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T15:59:52+00:00 16 March 2012|Cruise News|0 Comments