Cruise Ships

There was another christening ceremony on board the cruise ship Carnival Dream in New York yesterday morning. Nine-year-old Hailee Steberger, winner of Carnival's Virtual Book of Dreams contest, took an inaugural plunge down the ship's 303-ft long Twister waterslide - the longest at sea. A few hardy souls gathered on deck 12 to watch the ceremony, hosted by cruise director John Heald and Captain Carlo Queirolo. Hailee, from New Jersey, just across the Hudson River, was wearing a wetsuit to protect against the November chill at eight o'clock, threw herself enthusiastically down the slide and emerged seconds later at the [...]

Twelve days after leaving the UK, the biggest cruise ship in the world arrived at her home port of Fort Lauderdale, Florida today, to be greeted by a flotilla of small boats and firetugs spraying jets of water high in the air (above). The 225,000-ton Oasis of the Seas is not yet completely finished and ready to welcome passengers. Over the next few days frantic work will be taking place to load 12,000 shrubs and trees which will be planted in the ship's Central Park. Minor repairs will also have to be carried out to two lifeboats damaged by stormy [...]

Carnival Dream Godmother Marcia Gay Harden with Captain Carlo Queirolo . There was no pomp and ceremony for the launch of the 130,000-ton cruise ship Carnival Dream in New York today - it was fun all the way, from the moment cruise director John Heald reached the stage, to the climactic moment when godmother Marcia Gay Harden smashed a giant champagne bottle with a baseball bat. Carnival boss Gerry Cahill even emerged from a blue tracksuit, masquerading as a member of the energetic dance troup Fun Force, which had bounded around the stage of the ship's Encore Theatre. He said [...]

Oasis of the Seas was the largest moving object in the English Channel yesterday, and the biggest cruise ship in the world made a brief visit to The Solent - the first, and probably last, time it will be seen from our shores. The 220,000-ton vessel is on its way to its home port of Fort Lauderdale, in Miami, and called to drop off about 300 shipyard workers not needed on the Transatlantic voyage. The light was fading when the ship arrived in the channel between Lee-on-the-Solent and Ryde, on the Isle of Wight - that's my excuse for the [...]

Before it could leave the Baltic Sea and head towards the open ocean, the world's largest cruise ship had to clear one final obstacle last night. The Great Belt bridge, which links two Danish islands, stood between Oasis of the Seas as it sailed from the shipyard in Finland to its new homeport in Florida. Even with its smokestacks retracted telescopically into the funnels, there was a mere two feet clearance between the highest point of the ship and the bridge deck, and the ship was powered through at a scary 20 knots to make sure it was sitting deeper [...]

Here's a Halloween special - Captain Greybeard becomes Captain Redbeard. I was dressed up for dinner on board Sea Princess a couple of years ago during a cruise down the eastern seaboard of north America. Strangely enough, everyone ran away screaming when I took the mask off. The outfit was a bargain buy from a shop in Sydney, Nova Scotia and I wish I still had it now, but I gave it to a waitress so she could wear it at the crew party.