All the latest cruise news from the man in the know

There’s no such thing as a free drink and they are going to cost even more

After yesterday's post about free lunches, we now turn to free drinks. Or not, as the case may be, because unlimited alcohol is proving a problem for one cruise line. Only last month, Royal Caribbean announced with some fanfare a range of drinks packages to be provided on board three of their ships, most notably Independence of the Seas which sails from Southampton. Not free, admittedly, and in some people's eyes not particularly cheap - $29 per person per day (onboard prices are in US dollars, remember) for all beers and house wine by the glass; $39 for the Classic [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T16:00:08+00:00 12 April 2011|Cruise News|1 Comment

Queue here for a free lunch

Who says there's no such thing as a free lunch? New website silvertraveladvisor.com - which does exactly what it says on the tin, that is dispense travel advice to the over-50s - has teamed up with Holland America Line to offer a series of visits to cruise ships this summer. The events, in Dover, consist of a tour of one of the line's ships, followed by lunch on board - all at no cost. They'll even provide free car parking. The ships are: MS Eurodam on May 22, June 3, July 9 and August 12; MS Ryndam on May 21, [...]

By John Honeywell| 2011-04-11T14:25:01+00:00 11 April 2011|Cruise Deals, Cruise News|0 Comments

Birthday celebrations for Azura

Cruise ship Azura celebrated its first birthday yesterday, with a signed card from godmother Darcey Bussell. A picture of the ballerina, who named the ship in Southampton a year ago, was on the front of the card and inside she wrote: "Happy 1st Birthday Azura! I wish I could be with you all. Have a wonderful celebration. Love Darcey." The ship reached Cadiz in Spain today on a 14-night cruise to the Mediterranean which will see birthday celebrations including a gala night party. Managing director Carol Marlow (seen above handing over the card to Captain Keith Dowds) said: "One year [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T16:00:08+00:00 11 April 2011|Cruise News, Cruise Ships|1 Comment

Is the Queen planning another cruise to the Hebrides this summer?

With all eyes on the Royal wedding at the end of this month - and speculation rife about where Wills and Kate might spend their honeymoon - no-one seem to have given a thought as to what the Queen will be doing for her summer holidays. But I think I may know. Checking through the calendar for Hebridean Princess's voyages this summer, I spotted a gap. The luxury ship, which cruises round the Scottish coast and Western Isles, has been chartered for seven days from July 12. Her Majesty sailed on the ship for 10 days last year, starting at [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T16:00:08+00:00 8 April 2011|Cruise Gossip, Cruise News|1 Comment

BBC Watchdog gets its teeth into Thomson Dream cruise ship…again

Watchdog returns to our TV screens tonight after a four-month break, but some things just don't change - the first show of the new series has another bash at cruise ship Thomson Dream, which they last had a go at in September. The build-up to the return of consumer champions Anne Robinson, Matt Allwright and Chris Hollins refers only to "passengers' horror stories from a luxury cruise ship" - and it's naive of the BBC to perpetuate the myth that every cruise ship deserves the "luxury" tag. Thomson's own description of the Dream on their website doesn't use the word [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T16:00:08+00:00 7 April 2011|Cruise News|29 Comments

Europe to lose the Disney Magic

Families who fancy a Mediterranean cruise on Disney Magic had better make a booking pretty soon - the ship leaves Europe in September, and won't be back next year. After a winter sailing to the Caribbean from Port Canaveral, the ship will spend summer operating out of New York and then moves to Galveston, Texas. Mickey Mouse's 20 cruises from the Big Apple will be eight-night voyages to the Bahamas with just three ports of call - Nassau, the private resort of Castaway Cay, and Port Canaveral - and five-night sailings north to Halifax , Nova Scotia and St John, [...]

By John Honeywell| 2011-04-06T21:18:57+00:00 6 April 2011|Cruise Destinations, Cruise News, Cruise Ships|2 Comments

Woman plunges into icy North Sea during dramatic cruise ship rescue

A dramatic medical evacuation from a cruise ship in the North Sea almost turned to tragedy when the stretcher carrying the passenger plunged into the water. The incident occurred last week when a woman suffering from internal bleeding was being transferred from the Ocean Countess to a Norwegian rescue vessel. Fellow passenger Colin Prescott, of Burscough, Lancashire, who took the picture (above) told his local paper: " The vessels, which hadn't been latched together, suddenly moved apart by several feet just as they were transferring her, which caused the rescue crews to drop the stretcher into the sea. "We'd been [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T16:00:08+00:00 6 April 2011|Cruise News|9 Comments

A Titanic night to remember

In just a few days' time ceremonies will be held to mark the anniversary of the sinking of RMS Titanic's 99 years ago; an exhibition of artefacts recovered from the wreck is in its final month at London's O2 Centre, and even the Cannon Hall museum in Barnsley - a long way from the sea - gets in on the act next Friday with a one-off show of the sort of clothes passengers might have worn on board. On May 31, the 100th anniversary of the doomed vessel's launch at the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, the Ulster Folk [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T16:00:08+00:00 6 April 2011|Cruise Destinations, Cruise News, Cruise Ships|2 Comments

Two QEs together for the first time

Elizabeth, meet Elizabeth . . . as two ships bearing almost the same name come together for the first time under the blazing desert sun of Dubai. Cunard's newest ship, Queen Elizabeth, arrived at Port Rashid on the return leg of her maiden world voyage to a welcome from her illustrious ancestor QE2 which has been laid up at the port since 2008, awaiting conversion into a floating hotel. Passengers on the new ship - launched last October by Her Majesty the Queen - lined the rails to get the best view, but will have been unable to get too [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T16:00:09+00:00 1 April 2011|Cruise News, Cruise Ships|5 Comments

What do you want to see on board a cruise ship? Our surveys said . . .

They certainly love their market research at Carnival UK. Not content with asking every passenger to complete a questionnaire at the end of each cruise, they are constantly commissioning opinion polls to find out why people do - or do not - favour cruising, and topping that up with surveys carried out by students from Southampton Solent University. All of which helps to fill the company's annual Cruise Report - out this week - with dozens of statistics, numbers and percentages; some fascinating, some mundane, others simply bizarre. Some of it may even be confusing and counter-productive for an organisation [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T16:00:09+00:00 31 March 2011|Cruise News|0 Comments