All the latest cruise news from the man in the know

Countess to tour P&O ship

She was a lot more stylishly dressed than husband Prince Edward when they were guests at last week's royal wedding in Monaco, and Sophie, Countess of Wessex, will show even more style when she boards a cruise ship later this month. As patron of Southampton-based charity Wessex Heartbeat, she will tour P&O's Azura during a fund-raising event being held on July 22. The ship will be berthed at the city's Ocean Terminal, where the countess will be met by Dame Mary Fagan, Lord Lieutenant of Hampshire before being shown round the vessel by Captain Keith Dowds. In 19 years, Wessex [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T16:00:05+00:00 5 July 2011|Cruise News|0 Comments

QM2 fails US hygiene inspection

Cunard flagship Queen Mary 2 has failed a hygiene inspection by the American Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, scoring a shock 84 out of 100. Fruit flies and cockroaches in a storage locker, sediment in ice-making machines, and a "filthy" swimming pool were among more than 60 violations cited in the report on the inspection, carried out when the ship was berthed in New York on June 10. The 3,000-passenger ship has passed every previous CDC inspection, scoring a perfect 100 on three occasions. It has only once before scored less than 92 in 15 checks carried out during [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T16:00:05+00:00 25 June 2011|Cruise News, Cruise Ships|2 Comments

Will the Queen borrow tycoon’s £50m yacht for her Jubilee flotilla?

With the Royal Yacht Britannia now retired and serving as a popular tourist attraction at Leith docks, the Queen is having to search for a suitable vessel to lead a 1,000-strong flotilla on the Thames, which is expected to be one of the highlights of her Diamond Jubilee celebrations next year. Hebridean Princess, the luxury cruise ship which she has twice chartered for holidays, is not an option, and my colleague Victoria Murphy reports that she has been offered the use of a £50 million private yacht owned by the business tycoon who made his fortune with National Car Parks [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T16:00:05+00:00 24 June 2011|Cruise News, Cruise Ships|1 Comment

Don’t delay, vote for your favourites today in the first cruise OSCARs*

Cruise International magazine has launched the first ever consumer awards dedicated to celebrating every aspect of the cruise industry. The awards will highlight the best the cruise industry has to offer - from cutting-edge cuisine to Broadway shows; iLounges to zip-lining; Agatha Christie to the Archers - they're all on board today's cruise ships. A panel of judges including leading cruise agents, and writers and commentators such as your very own Captain Greybeard shortlisted the awards, which are now open for consumer voting. A glittering awards ceremony will take place on September 14, ahead of Cruise Week, in a top [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T16:00:05+00:00 24 June 2011|Cruise News|0 Comments

Cruise ships steer clear of Tripoli

The itinerary planners at P&O Cruises have had more on their minds this week than 2013's world cruises. Gazing into their crystal balls, they have decided that Libya is no longer the place to be this winter, and have been re-scheduling voyages which had planned to visit Gaddaffi's capital. Adonia's 14-night Christmas cruise departing from Athens on December 20 was to have called at Tripoli on December 30 but will now visit Tunis on New Year's Eve instead. Timings of calls at other ports on the cruise have been changed, so the planned Christmas Eve excursions to Jerusalem and Bethlehem [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T16:00:05+00:00 24 June 2011|Cruise Destinations, Cruise News|0 Comments

Back to proper bathrooms for NCL’s new Breakaway cruise ship cabins

New designs for cabins on board Norwegian Cruise Line's two new ships - codename Project Breakaway - have been revealed, and they show that the company is prepared to learn from its mistakes. They won't actually accept that the open plan bathrooms on Norwegian Epic were a mistake - " I don't think we've heard a word of negative commentary [on the bathrooms] from anyone in six or nine months," chief executive Kevin Sheehan told USA Today's Cruise Log - but traditional-style bathrooms with doors that close will be the order of the day on the new ships to be [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T16:00:05+00:00 22 June 2011|Cruise News|0 Comments

Around the world in so many ways

If you're announcing a series of exotic voyages to the South Pacific, then a Polynesian tiki bar in the heart of London is probably an appropriate place to do it. And it's a fair bet that many of those who turned up for the launch of Cunard and P&O's 2013 world cruises were drawn as much by curiosity about the one-time hang-out of young Royals as a desire to be first to get their hands on the brochures. Two floors down, deep beneath the streets of the West End, the Mahiki Club is where Princes William and Harry used to [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T16:00:05+00:00 22 June 2011|Cruise Destinations, Cruise News|0 Comments

A Caribbean cruise to Crow about

As a regular traveller on the London Underground, I'm no fan of Bob Crow, whose outdated tactic of calling his RMT union members out on strike at the drop of a hat disrupts life for millions of people. I've no time for the Daily Mail either, with its spiteful news agenda and its persistence in believing that every substance known to man can either cause cancer or cure it, and in some cases is capable of both. But it's a bit rich when the Mail takes Crow to task for flying to a Caribbean cruise in January, just a day [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T16:00:05+00:00 20 June 2011|Cruise Destinations, Cruise News|0 Comments

Less smoke on the water

Cruise News column from the Daily Mirror print edition, June 18. Smoking on cruise ships has been a hot topic this week with three major lines clearing the air by finally announcing they are to ban lighting up in cabins. While hotels and restaurants on land in America and most European countries are off-limits to smokers, new rules to be introduced by Carnival, Holland America and Princess restrict the number of bars where smoking is permitted, and limit smokers to separate sections of casinos on their ships. On the newest Carnival ships, the dedicated cigar lounges are now non-smoking rooms [...]

By John Honeywell| 2011-06-18T10:25:27+00:00 18 June 2011|Cruise News|2 Comments

Million-dollar birthday cruise will be one woman’s party of a lifetime

A mystery British cruise passenger has paid one million dollars to charter a luxury ship for an extra special party. The woman, who is approaching a significant birthday, will be flying 200 friends to Venice for a week-long cruise on board Seabourn Spirit. Paying that sort of money - about £600,000 - she also gets to choose the restaurant menus and the entertainment throughout the cruise, which will begin on August 12. Travel Trade Gazette reports this week that the charter, made through luxury cruise specialists Sovereign Cruise Club, is thought to be the UK's largest-ever private cruise booking. Sovereign's [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T16:00:05+00:00 17 June 2011|Cruise Gossip, Cruise News|1 Comment