Cruise Ships

There's only a few days left to enter the competition to win a trip on the new ship Celebrity Eclipse asd it leaves the shipyard in Germany and travels down the River Ems to the North Sea. Entries in the contest - which I am helping to judge - must be submitted by midnight on Sunday. Full details are in my earlier story. Not sure whether the picture above will be of much inspiration to entrants, but I thought you'd want to see it anyway. It shows the Eclipse nearing completion at the Meyer-Werft yard in Papenberg. And yes, it's [...]

The website cruise.co.uk is claiming to have obtained an exclusive with its publication of extracts of a review of Oasis of the Seas by Douglas Ward, author of the Berlitz Guide to Cruise Ships. Which is odd, because a two-page review of the biggest cruise ship in the world appears in the 2010 edition of the guide, which was published before Christmas. It's there on pages 493 and 494, sandwiched between the Norwegian Sun and the Ocean Dream. The original review was completed before work finished on building the ship, and it was based on Ward's experience of Oasis's smaller [...]

Want to be one of the first people to board the new cruise ship Celebrity Equinox, and take part in a once-in-a-lifetime experience sailing 26 miles from the shipyard to the open sea? If so, I can help you. Celebrity Cruises has launched a competition using Twitter to give away an exclusive preview of their newest ship, which will be named at a ceremony in Southampton on April 24. Any UK and Ireland user of social media website Twitter can enter the contest by stating - in just 140 characters or less - why they want the chance to sail [...]

It's a mere six months since the first blocks for the construction of Cunard's newest ship were laid in the dry-dock at a shipyard in Italy. Today, that dock is being flooded, and Queen Elizabeth floats for the first time. Unlike her famous predecessor the QE2, which slid down a slipway on the Clyde in 1967 and splashed into the sea in a cloud of dust and smoke, the new vessel sat serenely in dock while lock valves were opened and the water level slowly began to rise. It will be another couple of days before the ship is gently [...]

The Eritrean Railway was constructed in the 1930s when the Italians occupied this part of Africa. It runs for 73 miles from Massawa to the capital, Asmara, and after being put out of action by damage inflicted during the war with Ethiopia, is now in use again carrying freight and the occasional passengers. It must be a rarity, however, to have 200 cruise ship passengers aboard, even if we only had time for the 18-mile run to Mai Atal. First some pictures of the train, then some of the people we saw on the journey. This delightful girl was from [...]

Of all the fascinating places visited on my recent cruise in the Red Sea, the highlight was undoubtedly the day in Eritrea, partly because of the chance to take a ride on a veteran steam train, but mostly because of the smiling faces of the people who have stayed defiant against years of war and famine. First some pictures from the port of Massawa, and later I'll bring you images from the railway journey. Here's our ship, Spirit of Adventure, in port. Next to the port is the ruined Banca d'Italia building, which must have been very grand in its [...]