Cruise News

Argentina has closed the port of Ushuaia to two cruise ships which had visited the Falkland capital Port Stanley just two days earlier. Passengers who had been hoping to go ashore in the most southerly city in the world found they had been turned away as diplomatic tension increases over the disputed islands. P&O's Adonia is carrying 710 passengers, mostly from the UK, on an 87-night voyage around South America. Star Princess, with 2,580 passengers on board - 284 of them British - is on a 14-night cruise which began in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Both are part of the [...]

A cruise ship carrying more than 1,000 passengers and crew is adrift in the Indian Ocean after a generator fire left it without power. A French fishing boat is reported to have been the first vessel to reach Costa Allegra, about 200 miles south of the Seychelles and a cargo ship is expected to make contact later today. It will be several hours before rescue tugs from Mahé arrive on the scene. No-one was injured in the blaze, but the general emergency alarm was sounded and the 636 passengers were summoned to their muster stations in the ship's public rooms. [...]

It has been five months since Cunard announced that its ships were to be re-flagged in Bermuda so that it could offer weddings at sea to a queue of eager couples. No time was wasted in arranging the change of registration and the name of Hamilton soon replaced Southampton on the sterns of Queen Mary 2, Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth. So I was rather surprised to discover this week that the first nuptials will not be until April at the earliest. Wedding packages will start at $2,500 (£1,600) plus $575 (£370) licence fee and include breakfast in bed for [...]

Divers searching the capsized cruise ship Costa Concordia have located eight bodies and were yesterday able to recover four of them, including a five-year-old girl. Weather conditions worsened before the other bodies could be removed. The death toll, including those still counted as missing, is 32. Work is progressing to remove the remaining fuel from the vessel, which ran aground off the coast of the Italian island of Giglio, on January 13. Bids for the salvage operation have been put out to tender and it is still hoped the wreckage can be re-floated and towed away for dismantling, rather than [...]

A British passenger on P&O's cruise ship Aurora has been arrested in Australia as he attempted to smuggle 30 kilograms of cocaine ashore. A sniffer dog called Sherlock is reported to have alerted customs officers to Ronald Fletcher, 59, who was held last Friday at Sydney's Circular Quay. Police discovered several silver packages inside a wetsuit he was wearing under his clothes, and another 25 packages were found in suitcases in his cabin. Fletcher appeared at Sydney Central Local Court today, charged with importing a commercial quantity of a border-controlled drug. Bail was refused and the case was adjourned until [...]

A cruise ship which has been vilified on BBC's Watchdog has confounded its critics by winning a sheaf of consumer awards. Thomson Dream has triumphed in the annual Cruisers' Choice Awards compiled by Cruise Critic and based on ratings and reviews submitted by its 800,000 members. The 1,506-passenger ship was named as best overall in the mid-sized category and has been rated top for best entertainment, service, cabins and shore excursions. The awards come as a rebuttal to the TV consumer programme, fronted by Anne Robinson, which has twice reported complaints from passengers who travelled on Dream in its first [...]