Captain Greybeard - Page 169 of 209 - Your expert guide to cruise ships and cruise holidays

No pirates, so we learn about our alien origins in cosmic dust

We've seen a German warship, a Dutch warship, and a Norwegian warship. Captain Frank Allica says he's been in contact with ships from the Turkish and Chinese navies. There have been warships appearing on the radar that he hasn't been able to identify, but at least we can assume they're on our side. Access to the outside decks has been restricted during the hours of darkness, and we've had to eat inside the Verandah restaurant instead of outside by the pool But as Spirit of Adventure sails for a second day through the security corridor in the Gulf of Aden, [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T16:00:35+00:00 9 December 2009|Cruise Destinations, Cruise News|0 Comments

Come on pirates, we’re ready

As Spirit of Adventure sails closer to the Gulf of Aden, the "P"-word (for pirates) - which cruise director Neil Horrocks has been trying to avoid for a week - has finally become an accepted part of conversation. This afternoon, Captain Frank Allica gave a 45-minute talk in the Sirocco Lounge. On most cruises, it would have mostly been about his life in the Australian navy, the times when, as a gunnery officer he fired thousands of five-inch rounds at Viet Cong defences, and of his brushes with the Duke of Edinburgh and the Princess Royal. A packed audience sat [...]

By John Honeywell| 2009-12-07T18:02:14+00:00 7 December 2009|Cruise News, Cruise Ships|0 Comments

Wish you were here on the Road (and Rail) show in Eritrea

The bank headquarters building just outside the port gates of Massawa in Eritrea must have been an impressive and bustling sight in its hey-day. Now it lies in ruins as crows fly between the empty arches of its broken windows and out through the remaining rafters of its roof. The square in front would have been a pleasant oasis for traders to barter, or exchange gossip. A huge statue in the centre was surrounded by stone benches and little avenues of well-watered plants. Now all is in ruins. An empty plinth stands in a sea of dust, and although the [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T16:00:35+00:00 7 December 2009|Cruise Destinations|9 Comments

Passengers get a mixed welcome to Sudan – I’ll drink to that

As the first cruise passengers to visit the town of Suakin in Sudan since 2006, we might have expected a warmer welcome - and I'm not talking about the 30-degree heat. But despite the best efforts of Spirit of Adventure's captain, Frank Allica to arrive before the harbour pilots were engaged in their Friday prayers, we reached the pilot station at just the wrong time. Even when the pilots had finished at the mosque, we were not able to enter port straight away - apparently there were no free berths, which seemed strange after we had been told the port's [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T16:00:35+00:00 5 December 2009|Cruise Destinations|0 Comments

Record numbers to cruise in 2010

Bill Gibbons, director of the UK's Passenger Shipping Association, must have liked what he saw on board Oasis of the Seas in Florida last week, because he is now predicting that a record number of Brits will take cruise holidays in 2010. He expects the number - which has outpaced growth in all other holiday sectors - to rise another 6.5 per cent, to 1.65 million next year. Helping to fuel that increase are some of the special offers listed here. Cunard are offering savings of up to £300 per person on crossings between Southampton and New York aboard the [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T16:00:35+00:00 5 December 2009|Cruise Deals|3 Comments

A rare treasure discovered in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings

No time to relax yesterday on Spirit of Adventure. We docked in Safaga in Egypt - with Thomson Celebration just along the quay - and most of the passengers had an early start just after breakfast, setting off in a convoy of coaches for the three-and-a-half-hour drive to Luxor. It was a proper convoy, with an armed police escort, as the Egyptian government is anxious to avoid any more terrorist atrocities which would damage tourism, the country's biggest industry. Trouble was, our police escort appeared oblivious to our need to get to Luxor quickly, in order to squeeze in a [...]

By John Honeywell| 2009-12-03T10:23:30+00:00 3 December 2009|Cruise Destinations|0 Comments

Micky drives a hard bargain

There are signs of movement at last in the building of new cruise ships. Orders had dried up after the global economy fell off a cliff and shipyards in Italy and Finland have been looking around hungrily for new work to avoid having to lay off their workers. Carnival boss Micky Arison, almost as keen to keep pace with rivals Royal Caribbean as he is to strike a hard bargain, has been the first to blink, announcing a new £475 million ship to be built at Fincantieri's Monfalcone yard in Italy. The 130,000-ton vessel, carrying 3,690 passengers, will be a [...]

By John Honeywell| 2009-12-03T10:23:30+00:00 3 December 2009|Cruise News, Cruise Ships|0 Comments

Adventure ahead in the Red Sea

Complete change of scene for me tomorrow. After spending time on board two brand new ships in America in the past couple of weeks, I'm flying to Aqaba tomorrow to join Spirit of Adventure, the lovely little ship operated by Saga Cruises. We're going on a Red Sea adventure, and the itinerary has already had to be tweaked because of those pesky pirates in the Gulf of Aden. After a long day in Egypt on Wednesday, when I expect to take a trip to the Valley of the Kings, we shall be calling at a couple of ports which are [...]

By John Honeywell| 2009-11-30T18:59:14+00:00 30 November 2009|Cruise Destinations, Cruise Ships|0 Comments

The biggest free show afloat?

OK, so we've been among the first to experience Oasis of the Seas, the biggest cruise ship in the world. We have sailed from Fort Lauderdale to the Bahamas and back in the sort of grey and rainy weather we could have expected in the English Channel. We have gasped at the breathless AquaShow, with its high divers and synchronised swimmers acting out an incomprehensibly dramatic pantomime through the medium of dance. We have wondered why a bar which rises and descends between the shopping mall of the Royal Promenade and the leafy Central Park should be in any way [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T16:00:35+00:00 29 November 2009|Cruise Ships|0 Comments

Hairspray’s Natalie and Michael rock to the motion of the ocean

Showbiz hopeful Natalie Woods would probably be the first to admit she is not the right shape to follow her mother into a career in ballet. And until only a few weeks ago the bubbly 21-year-old was working as a children's entertainer at a holiday camp in Camber Sands in Sussex. Now she is the star of the Broadway musical Hairspray, being performed for the first time on a cruise ship, the Oasis of the Seas. After weeks of rehearsal, and frustrating delays waiting for the ship's theatre to be made ready, the show was premiered last night, and received [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T16:00:35+00:00 26 November 2009|Cruise Entertainment|1 Comment