Cruise Ships - Page 42 of 57 - Captain Greybeard

Join me aboard P&O’s Azura

There will be fireworks tonight when ballerina Darcey Bussell (above) names P&O's newest cruise ship, Azura in Southampton - ironically, 98 years to the day since Titanic left the port on her ill-fated maiden voyage. Before I set off to join the 1,200 guests on board for the ceremony, here's a sneak peek at the ship's interiors - when I toured the vessel earlier in the week I was struck by the warm tones of the decor throughout. If all goes well, I shall have a video of the event online tomorrow, and I'll be sending updates to Twitter during [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T16:00:29+00:00 10 April 2010|Cruise Ships|2 Comments

How many pillars are enough?

The two up-market cruise lines, Azamara Club Cruises and Oceania, operating almost identical ships, are in head-to-head competition to attract customers. But it comes as a surprise to find them both using an almost identical sales spiel to attract passengers. The important phrase, apparently, is "key pillars" - whatever they are. Listening to the latest gimmick announced by Oceania, you could be forgiven for thinking that the word should be "pillows." Oceania are introducing herb-infused bedding in their cabins, promising chamomile-induced sleep thanks to pillow-top cushions filled with gel and wrapped in scented fibre. The beds will be introduced on [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T16:00:29+00:00 9 April 2010|Cruise Ships|0 Comments

Azura makes her grand arrival

Grey skies and a chill wind greeted P&O's Azura on her arrival in the UK today, but there was a warm welcome from cruise ship enthusiast lined up at vantage points on Southampton Water. The 116,000-ton ship will be named by ballerina Darcey Bussell on Saturday, and sets out on her maiden voyage on Monday. Before then she will host thousands of visitors - among them regular P&O passengers, travel agents, and 1,200 specially-invited guests for the naming ceremony. Carnival UK chief executive David Dingle clambered aboard the vessel off the Isle of Wight at 6.00 am this morning, and [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T16:00:29+00:00 7 April 2010|Cruise News, Cruise Ships|4 Comments

Ready to crack the bottle

As the week goes on, there will be plenty of news about P&O's latest ship, Azura. I shall be on Southampton Water tomorrow to see the 116,000-ton vessel arrive in the UK for the first time, and I will be on board for the naming ceremony on Saturday. So here's the first of a number of posts about Azura - godmother Darcey Bussell talking about what it means to have been chosen as the godmother. And below, a quick guide to when and where Azura can be seen tomorrow morning on her way to Southampton's Ocean Terminal.

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T16:00:30+00:00 6 April 2010|Cruise Ships|0 Comments

Even earlier start for Allure

Work on building Allure of the Seas at the STX shipyard in Turku, Finland, must be proceeding well - the date of its maiden voyage has been brought forward AGAIN. The twin sister of Oasis of the Seas - at 225,000 tons the two Royal Caribbean vessels will share the title of biggest cruise ship in the world - will now sail with paying passengers for the first time on December 1. The four-night cruise, from Port Everglades in Florida, calls at RCI's private resort of Labadee, on the north coast of Haiti. The ship was originally scheduled for a [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T16:00:30+00:00 30 March 2010|Cruise Ships|0 Comments

First pictures inside Azura

P&O have posted the first interior pictures of their newest superliner, Azura, on their Facebook page - and pretty smart they look too. The atrium lighting (above left) reminds me of the hypnotic colour-changing ceiling designed by Joe Farcus for Costa Concordia (above right); both companies are part of the Carnival Corporation, after all. With its dark wood panelling, The Marquis Bar (below) has a more familiar P&O feel about it. I'm sure there will be more pictures to come during the next few days, and - weather permitting - I should be on board next week when the ship [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T16:00:30+00:00 29 March 2010|Cruise Ships|0 Comments

QM2 sails into Cape Town

Plans to move retired liner QE2 to Cape Town may have fallen through, but her big sister, Queen Mary 2, arrived in the port today for the first time. And on board for the maiden call was Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 for his role in the anti-apartheid campaign. He has been a guest speaker for the past few days during the QM2's world cruise. He is pictured below with Captain Nick Bates and Cunard's president and managing director, Peter Shanks, who said: "Our guests were thrilled to have the opportunity to meet [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T16:00:30+00:00 25 March 2010|Cruise Destinations, Cruise Ships|0 Comments

New York taxi takes to the sea

It's an incongruous sight. High above an Italian shipyard, a New York taxi dangles from a crane as it is loaded on board a ship. The yellow cab is not being transported home on a freighter though. This one is destined to become a decorative feature on Holland America's newest cruise ship, Nieuw Amsterdam. As befits its name, the theme for the 86,000-ton vessel's interior decor is New York (Nieuw Amsterdam was the original name for the settlement on Manhattan island) and the authentic 1981 Checker cab is being placed in the teenagers-only Loft club. The ship's main restaurant will [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T16:00:30+00:00 22 March 2010|Cruise Ships|2 Comments

Slower crossings ahead

Gene Sloan's report on his USA Today Cruise Log about Cunard extending the length of its transatlantic crossings to seven days has been exciting lots of comment. Micky Arison, boss of Carnival Corporation which has owned Cunard since 1998, recently confirmed the longer crossings were being introduced in order to save fuel. Queen Mary 2 is the only ship sailing regularly scheduled services between Southampton and New York, and in 2011 only one of those voyages will be of six days. When I travelled to New York on QM2 in 2006 the crossing took six days. In the 1930s, the [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T16:00:30+00:00 19 March 2010|Cruise News, Cruise Ships|4 Comments

There’s nothing austere about life on board the Via Australis

The first thing to realise about expedition ship Via Australis, on which I recently travelled to Cape Horn, is that the name has nothing to do with Australia, except both share the same etymology - from the Latin for "south." The second thing I discovered was just how well this little vessel - a mere 2,716 tons and carrying just 125 passengers - could handle itself in the wild waters of the south Atlantic. The seas of Drake Passage, between South America and Antarctica, are some of the roughest in the world, and have claimed hundreds of ships and thousands [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T16:00:30+00:00 17 March 2010|Cruise Destinations, Cruise Ships|0 Comments