All the latest cruise news from the man in the know

Royal wedding plans at sea

Cunard have been quick off the mark to announce that passengers on their three ships will be able to watch the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton in the appropriate surroundings of a Royal Court Theatre. And as the Royal couple tie the know on Friday, April 29 in Westminster Abbey, Cunard will be celebrating with a commemorative dinner menu, and a champagne toast. The Royal Court theatre on flagship Queen Mary 2 seats more than 1,000. If that's not enough, the event will also be screened in Illuminations - the only planetarium at sea - as the ship [...]

By John Honeywell| 2010-11-23T13:08:59+00:00 23 November 2010|Cruise News|2 Comments

Saga’s new ship is a bargain buy

Official confirmation came today that - as I reported last week - Saga Cruises will be extending their fleet with the purchase of Bleu de France. A spokesman said this afternoon: "The Bleu de France has been acquired and will enter service with Saga in 2012. After completing her published itineraries for current operators, the ship will undergo a multi-million pound refit starting in November 2011, before joining the Saga fleet in her new livery in March 2012. "The acquisition is in response to the continued and growing popularity of the Saga cruise experience," he added. There was no official [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T16:00:15+00:00 18 November 2010|Cruise News, Cruise Ships|0 Comments

Going Dutch on a Transatlantic run

Cunard's Queen Mary 2 will have competition on the Transatlantic run next summer. Holland America's Rotterdam is to make two sailings which ironically will commemorate the 40th anniversary of the transition from operating line voyages to becoming a cruise company. The 60,000-ton ship, capable of travelling at 25 knots, will be throttled back during the nine-day voyage leaving its home port of Rotterdam on July 3 and sailing to New York via Southampton. On the return crossing the ship will stop at Cobh in southern Ireland - known as Queenstown when Titanic made its final call there in 1912. Anouncing [...]

By John Honeywell| 2010-11-17T23:16:23+00:00 17 November 2010|Cruise Destinations, Cruise News|0 Comments

New star on the cruise horizon

As I reported exclusively last week, French cruise line CDF Croisieres de France has sold its only ship to Saga, who will take possession of it in about 12 months' time. The company is not about to disappear, however. It is to take over Pacific Dream, currently being operated by parent company Pullmantur. The ship, originally built as Horizon for Celebrity, was also briefly Island Star (shown above in Bridgetown, Barbados) for Island Cruises, which was a joint-venture operation between Royal Caribbean and First Choice. With 721 cabins accommodating up to 1,875 passengers, the ship - built in 1990 - [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T16:00:15+00:00 17 November 2010|Cruise News, Cruise Ships|0 Comments

Robbery forces cruise switch

The attack on cruise passengers in St Kitts at the weekend must have been scary. Armed raiders blocked a road with a fallen tree and ambushed a tour bus carrying 16 adults and a child from the Celebrity Mercury. They boarded the bus and forced the tourists at gunpoint to hand over money, jewellery, cameras and mobile phones. No-one was hurt, and within hours police arrested four suspects in pre-dawn raids after a tip-off from other islanders. A police statement said the robbery was unprecedented. "Last year, over 500,000 cruise passengers safely disembarked in St. Kitts to enjoy the many [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T16:00:15+00:00 17 November 2010|Cruise Destinations, Cruise News|0 Comments

Splendor passengers back Carnival

An unexpected message from American attorney Jim Walker, who specialises in taking up the cudgels on behalf of passengers who claim to have been victims of crime or injury while on cruise holidays. On his website CruiseLaw, he takes a pot-shot at other lawyers touting for business as a result of the fire on board Carnival Splendor. "Any time there is a cruise disaster, the issue of lawsuits arises," he writes. "Sometimes there is a basis to file a lawsuit, and sometimes - like this time - there is clearly not. Many passengers from the Carnival Splendor have contacted our office seeking [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T16:00:16+00:00 15 November 2010|Cruise News|1 Comment

Celebrity rings the changes

Now that Celebrity Eclipse has finished its first European season, and crossed the Atlantic to spend the winter sailing from Miami, American journalists have had their first chance to see the ship,. They expected to be in Southampton for the launch - performed by breast cancer survivor Emma Pontin - in April. But the Icelandic ash cloud which grounded flights kept them at home, and the ship was sent on a rescue mission to Spain to ferry home trapped British holidaymakers. Eclipse is the third of five planned Solstice-class ships being built for Celebrity. The next one, Silhouette, followed Disney [...]

By John Honeywell| 2010-11-15T21:54:55+00:00 15 November 2010|Cruise News|0 Comments

Tense moments on the bridge

Back home in Essex, John Heald is continuing his dramatic account of last week's Carnival Splendor saga. The cruise ship was left drifting off the coast of Mexico last week after an engine room fire left it without power and cruise director John was the man responsible for keeping passengers informed throughout the ordeal. In the latest episode he describes how a visit to the bathroom in his cabin, four hours after the lights went out, brought home to him how serious the ship's plight had become. "The lack of lighting started the worry bells ringing in my head and [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T16:00:16+00:00 15 November 2010|Cruise News|0 Comments

Oriana goes adults-only

There can't be too many kids desperate to sample Peter Pan's, Decibels or Outer Space, the clubs for younger family members on P&O cruise ship Oriana. If there are, they'd better get mum and dad to book a cruise within the next 12 months, because from the end of November 2011, the ship will become a child-free zone. There are currently two adult-only ships in the P&O fleet; the 2,064-passenger Arcadia and the 1,200-passenger Artemis. In May, Artemis sails off to join a German cruise line, to be replaced by Adonia, which will carry 710 passengers. Because their all-adult capacity [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T16:00:16+00:00 14 November 2010|Cruise News|0 Comments

Sweet Dreams at night for Disney

The high winds which were blowing across the UK yesterday must have faded before they reached northern Germany, because Disney Dream (above) set off as scheduled on the complicated journey from shipyard to the sea on Friday night. Unfortunately for the thousands of spectators who turn up in their camper vans for these events, the whole 26-mile journey will have been completed in darkness. The founders of the Meyer-Werft yard at Papenburg can never have imagined when they began building wooden boats in 1795 that one day they would be constructing ships as big as the 128,000-ton Dream. The water [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T16:00:16+00:00 13 November 2010|Cruise News|0 Comments