Cruise News

The irregularity of internet access while on board ship in the Norwegian fjords can be frustrating at times. Especially when, as happened yesterday, I was unable to react to an early tip-off about a rare event in cruising. A friend at CruiseBite.com alerted me to the news that the Silverseas expedition ship, Prince Albert II, had been impounded in Portsmouth by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency. Remarkably for such an up-market operation, there were concerns that the vessel was overloaded, and that senior officers were over-worked and not getting the amount of rest required by law. Prince Albert II was [...]

I'm beginning to wonder whether there's a hex over construction the the Norwegian Epic, NCL's biggest cruise ship which is due to be completed in June. Latest news from the STX yard in St Nazaire, France, where the 153,000-ton vessel is nearing completion, is that fire broke out in a provisioning area on Deck 4 late on Monday evening. It is reported that damage was confined to wiring and the blaze was prevented from spreading. The handover date of June 15 has not been affected. The fire is the latest in a series of mishaps, and I reported last month [...]

The news that Princess Maxima of the Netherlands is to name Holland America's latest cruise ship, Nieuw Amsterdam, has prompted further speculation about the plans for the naming ceremony of Cunard's Queen Elizabeth later this year. Nieuw Amsterdam's naming will take place in Venice on July 4, and she will be the 11th HAL ship since 1929 to be launched by a member of the Dutch royal family. Sister ship Eurodam was named by Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands in 2008. Built to a similar design, Queen Elizabeth will be launched in Southampton in October, and there can be only [...]

All aboard! Celebrity Eclipse is on her way back to the UK carrying 2,200 holidaymakers who were stranded by the volcanic ash flight ban. Many of them can't believe their luck. Yesterday they were stuck in Spain, not knowing when they would be able to return home. Now they are travelling in five-star luxury, with free meals, on a brand new cruise ship which would normally cost more than £1,000 a week. Most of the holidaymakers boarding the £500 million ship in the northern port of Bilbao this morning had been brought by bus from the Costas. Others had been [...]

Usually, I try to avoid clichés like the plague, but on this occasion it seems entirely appropriate to use the one about every cloud having a silver lining. For the volcanic ash which has grounded aircraft over Europe for almost a week could turn out to be a welcome shot in the arm (oops, there goes another one) for the cruise industry. Travel agents are falling over themselves (sorry) to report a surge of enquiries about cruises, and not just from holidaymakers stranded abroad, or travellers who have seen their flight bookings cancelled. James Cole, director of SailFromUK.com, said: "We've [...]