Captain Greybeard - Page 158 of 209 - Your expert guide to cruise ships and cruise holidays

Lively Cruise Show 2010 gets it right and pulls in the crowds

What a difference a year makes! The crowds have been flooding in to London's Olympia today for The CRUISE Show, and they found plenty to entertain them - in contrast to last year's event at the ExCel Centre. There was free wine and Champagne aplenty as the big cruise lines sought to attract customers. Those looking for a relaxing massage could take it easy in MSC's mini Aurea spa, while visitors looking for action tackled Royal Caribbean's climbing wall or practised their golf swing in Fred Olsen's simulator. SpongeBob SquarePants and Dora the Explorer drew younger passengers to the Norwegian [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T16:00:30+00:00 27 March 2010|Cruise News|6 Comments

Top deals on P&O cruises

Just two weeks from today, ballerina Darcey Bussell will be on Champagne-smashing duty at the launch of P&O's new super-liner, Azura, in Southampton. And this week, P&O announced details of the cruises planned for the first season of Adonia, the next ship to join their fleet, from May next year. The two ships are at opposite ends of the market. Azura will carry more than 3,000 passengers and the ship will feature a restaurant masterminded by Michelin-starred chef Atul Kochhar, and a wine bar with a list selected by TV's Olly Smith. Adonia, currently sailing as Royal Princess - and [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T16:00:30+00:00 27 March 2010|Cruise Deals|0 Comments

Anything you can do I can do TuTu

Judging by the responses I received, lots of you were thrilled to see yesterday's picture of Cunard liner QM2 making her maiden call at Cape Town. To start today, here's another impressive shot, of the ship at dusk. There's also a picture of Archbishop Desmond Tutu blowing the ship's whistle during a visit to the bridge. Just for fun, I've added a picture of Mrs Greybeard doing just the same as QM2 left the port of Cochin, in southern India, during the ship's 2007 world voyage. And check out the crowds who gathered on the beach by the city's famous [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T16:00:30+00:00 26 March 2010|Cruise Destinations|0 Comments

Miami plans to out-gun rival port

Surely it's just a coincidence that within days of Fort Lauderdale's Port Everglades announcing a record day for cruise passengers, rival port Miami, a few miles down the coast, is revealing plans for a new "mega-terminal." Isn't it? Miami is where the cruise boom started, back in the 1970s, and it still lays claim to the title "cruise capital of the world", with more than four million passengers a year. Although it will be the home port for NCL's Norwegian Epic, launching this summer, it lost out to Port Everglades for the two biggest cruise ships in the world, Royal [...]

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

RNLI thanks Fred Olsen Cruises

Congratulations to Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines - and its generous passengers. After 40 years of fund-raising, the company is to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Royal National Lifeboat Institution Cash is collected on board Olsen's cruise ships through raffles, quizzes, church services, foreign coin collections and auctions. Fred. Olsen has also supported the charity by donating numerous cruise prizes, which in turn has helped generate funds through the Lifeboat lottery and other competitions. The money donated by Fred. Olsen passengers has funded three inshore lifeboats, three mobile training units, kitted out three seminar rooms at The Lifeboat College, [...]

By John Honeywell| 2010-03-23T13:41:53+00:00 23 March 2010|Cruise News|0 Comments

Adonia will be P&O’s pathfinder

Cruise ships come in all shapes and sizes, from mega-liners to super-yachts; boutique vessels to expedition ships - just never call them boats, all right? Now P&O have invented a new classification for Adonia, which joins their fleet next year. Carrying just 710 passengers, this will be the fleet's "pathfinder ship," managing director Carol Marlow announced yesterday. In less than three weeks, Marlow will be watching proudly as Darcey Bussell smashes the Champagne to launch super-liner Azura, but there's just time before that to announce Adonia's 2011 programme of cruises. "Adonia is an exciting introduction to our fleet and one [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T16:00:30+00:00 23 March 2010|Cruise News|2 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

Record day for Port Everglades

Ruby Princess (left) and Independence of the Seas leaving Port Everglades The news that Port Everglades - the cruise ship port in Fort Lauderdale, Florida - had a record day yesterday in terms of passenger numbers is both a confirmation of the increasing popularity of cruising, and a footnote to my reports of potential overcrowding at sea. A total of 52,000 passengers passed through the port yesterday; half of them on their way home at the end of a cruise, the other half setting out on their holidays. The previous record day for business was on January 3 last year, [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T16:00:30+00:00 21 March 2010|Cruise Destinations, Cruise News|1 Comment

Alaska deal in the pipeline

Anyone planning a cruise in Alaskan waters, as I am later this summer, will be pleased to see that the state's governor, Sean Parnell, was doing more than soaking up the spring sunshine during his trip to Florida this week. He was there, of course, for the Cruise Miami convention, and sat in the front row of the audience as Holland America CEO Stein Kruse - one of the biggest operators in the region - warned that the exodus of cruise ships from Alaska would continue in reaction to punitive taxes. Now the Anchorage Daily News is reporting that Parnell [...]

By John Honeywell| 2010-03-20T16:07:57+00:00 20 March 2010|Cruise Destinations, Cruise News|0 Comments