Cruise Ships

Recession? What recession? Bookings for the 2011 world cruises with P&O and Cunard opened this week with record numbers putting their deposits down. On Wednesday, 2,044 people booked voyages from the two programmes, an increase of almost 50 per cent on the business done on the same day last year for the 2010 world voyages. P&O has its biggest-ever world voyage programme on offer, with Arcadia, Artemis, Aurora setting off from Southampton in January, and Oriana offering a rare opportunity to go round the world in the autumn. Arcadia will be heading west to the Caribbean, through the Panama Canal, [...]

Belfast might be the city which built the Titanic, but for years it has not had a berth suitable for today's giant modern cruise ships. That changed on Tuesday when the Crown Princess became the first vessel to tie up at the £10 million extension to Stormont Wharf at the head of Belfast Lough. She is the first of 40 cruise ships expected to bring more than 60,000 passengers to Northern Ireland this year. NI Regional Development Minister Conor Murphy unveiled a commemorative plaque on what is now the longest deep-water berth in Ireland, as 3,100 passengers flocked ashore, many [...]

To the plush Institute of Directors in Pall Mall this evening for chilled white wine, tasty canapés, and a chat with the friendly people from Fred Olsen, who are launching their 2010-11 cruise brochure. After a steady programme of expansion, buying new ships and stretching them, managing director Nigel Lingard was - for the first time in several years - not able to announce that Olsen will be growing again in 2010. In fact with the retirement of the venerable Black Prince before the end of this year, capacity will be down by 10 per cent. But the four remaining [...]