Cruise News

They do say these things come in threes, so we should have been expecting the news that a THIRD cruise ship has had to cancel a voyage due to propulsion problems. Following the Regent Seven Seas Voyager, which developed a faulty pod, and Celebrity Century, which needs repairs to its rudder, P&O Australia's Pacific Jewel has cancelled an 11-night Pacific Sunsets cruise due to sail from Sydney tomorrow. The ship is currently returning from the south-west Pacific island of New Caledonia at reduced speed. The company had previously announced that a November voyage was to be cancelled in order to [...]

It can't be much fun for passengers when mishaps or misfortune bring their long-awaited cruise to a premature end. The 1,800 who boarded Celebrity Century in Barcelona on Wednesday looking forward to a 12-night holiday in the Mediterranean now find themselves stranded in Villefranche on the French Riviera. The ship's rudders have been damaged and the cruise has been cancelled so that dry-dock repairs can be carried out - bringing its final European cruise of the season to a premature end. The engineering work should be completed in time for its re-positioning transatlantic crossing to Miami scheduled to depart on [...]

The privileged few who witnessed my performance on the Yacht Club dance floor on board Queen Elizabeth in the early hours of Tuesday morning will be horrified to learn that I was back in action again this morning. This time it was in the spectacular hall of London's Natural History Museum, where it would have been a difficult task to discern me from the dinosaurs on display. It was all in a good cause at the London Press Club Ball in aid of the Journalists' Charity. Cunard had generously donated a five-day voyage on Queen Elizabeth to be sold in [...]

Sorry to learn that a passenger has disappeared from Fred Olsen's Balmoral, the ship on which I recently sailed to the Baltic. The 79-year-old man went overboard about 45 miles south of Lizard Point in Cornwall shortly before the ship was due to return to Dover after a 21-day cruise to the Mediterranean and the Adriatic. A coastguard helicopter from Portland in Dorset, the Royal Navy frigate HMS Westminster, and a French coastguard plane searched the English Channel without success. The man's wife had reported him missing in the early hours of yesterday morning when she woke to discover he [...]

Unseasonably warm and sunny, the weather is behaving itself for today's naming ceremony of Cunard's newest ship, Queen Elizabeth. In a few hours I will be joining the invited guests on the quayside at Southampton's Ocean Terminal as The Queen breaks a bottle of Rothschild's Graves to christen the vessel which carries her name, and then I will be going on board for the gala dinner tonight. I will be back on dry land tomorrow morning, so that the £365 million ship can be prepared for the 2,092 passengers embarking on her maiden voyage to the Canaries, which sold out [...]

Sailing around the west coast of Scotland - and dodging the gales - on board the Majestic Line's lovely little boat Glen Tarsan, I have been enjoying a break from the internet and the rest of the outside world. But I am in Fort William today, and there's just chance to bring you a little exclusive. Most new ships are named by smashing a bottle of Champagne or possibly Prosecco at the appropriate moment. When Her Majesty names Queen Elizabeth in Southampton on Monday, the Champagne will be saved for the guests' glasses, and instead a bottle of white wine [...]