Captain Greybeard - Page 176 of 209 - Your expert guide to cruise ships and cruise holidays

Is Derren’s number up at sea?

If you hear of any strange happenings in the English Channel over the next couple of days, then don't be too surprised - illusionist extraordinaire Derren Brown is entertaining and no doubt bemusing passengers on board P&O cruise ship Aurora. Fresh from tricking a huge TV audience into believing he had predicted the National Lottery numbers, Brown will be performing two 45-minute shows in the ship's Curzon Theatre during the cruise which left Southampton today and will be calling at Zeebrugge and Le Havre. Surely that means he will have to put together two completely different shows, because the theatre [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T16:00:37+00:00 23 September 2009|Cruise Entertainment|0 Comments

Carnival profits surge ahead

It's been a busy week for Micky Arison, chairman and CEO of the biggest cruise company in the world. He's in Italy, having taken delivery of his company's newest ship, the Carnival Dream. Meanwhile, back at Miami HQ, the Carnival empire, which includes Cunard, P&O, Princess, Holland America and Costa, was announcing its latest financial results. Third-quarter profits of just over a billion dollars were better than expected, thanks to lower fuel costs and stronger advance bookings. Arison said the drastic price-cutting which has helped fill ships across the industry may not continue for much longer, and that early bookers [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T16:00:37+00:00 23 September 2009|Cruise News|0 Comments

P&O confirm sale of Artemis

The future of Artemis, P&O's smallest cruise ship, became clearer today. I reported a couple of weeks ago that there were rumours the 1,200-passenger vessel was about to be sold to German cruise line Phoenix Reisen and at that time P&O confirmed they had received an enquiry from an unnamed source. In a statement today, the company confirms the ship has been sold, and that it will continue to operate under the P&O flag until it has completed all the cruises currently listed in P&O's brochures. An initial statement reads: "P&O Cruises can confirm that it has signed contracts for [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T16:00:37+00:00 22 September 2009|Cruise News, Cruise Ships|3 Comments

I vote to take a teabag to Venice

It's National Cruise Week and we are being deluged with surveys drawing our attention to all aspects of cruising. First was one which revealed that, given the choice of sharing a cabin with Johnny Depp, in his Pirates of the Caribbean role as Captain Jack Sparrow, or Penelope Cruz (in whatever role you can dream of), most passengers preferred their own partner. Then we learnt that more than a quarter of passengers take their own teabags on a cruise, and 14 per cent of women take their own pillow. Which is a bit odd, given that on every ship I [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T16:00:37+00:00 21 September 2009|Cruise News|0 Comments

This week’s top cruise deals

National Cruise Week runs from September 20-27. The packages on offer have been put together by members of the Association of Cruise Experts (ACE). For more information on all the offers here go to www.discovercruises.co.uk Save up to £300 per state room on a 12-night Med cruise aboard Ruby Princess, with fares reduced to £1,149pp including flights and transfers. Check out the on board spending credit offers with Crystal Cruises and Costa Cruises. P&O Cruises are offering discounts on 50 sailings to the Med, Caribbean and Baltic. A 25-night cruise around the Med, leaving on October 22 visiting 15 ports [...]

By John Honeywell| 2009-09-19T12:14:31+00:00 19 September 2009|Cruise Deals|0 Comments

Carnival Dream is under way

The newest and biggest cruise ship in Carnival's fleet, the Carnival Dream, has left the shipyard in Monfalcone, Italy, and is on its way to Civitavecchia, the port for Rome, to take on passengers for the first time. The 130,000-ton vessel will be sailing three inaugural voyages in the Mediterranean before crossing the Atlantic for a glamorous naming ceremony in New York in November. Carrying up to 3,646 passengers, Dream is nowhere near the size of Royal Carribbean's Oasis of the Seas, which has a capacity of more than 6,000. But Carnival believe they have their own unique attractions on [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T16:00:37+00:00 19 September 2009|Cruise Ships|0 Comments

Mystery Epic maiden revealed

Details of that mystery maiden voyage for Norwegian Epic have been revealed. The ship, carrying up to 4,200 passengers and 60 per cent bigger than any other vessel in the company's fleet, will leave Southampton on June 24 next year, and arrive in New York on July 1. And because construction work, at the STX yard in St Nazaire, France, is ahead of schedule, the ship will begin sailing regular Caribbean cruises a week earlier than planned, with the first now leaving Miami on July 10. Passengers who put their names on the waitlist for this "pre-maiden" were given the [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T16:00:37+00:00 15 September 2009|Cruise News|0 Comments

Leafy Oasis poses a problem

Royal Caribbean boss Richard Fain has an interesting problem to tackle as final preparations are being made for the maiden voyage of the biggest cruise ship in the world. One of the many innovations on Oasis of the Seas is Central Park, an open-air leafy garden in the middle of the ship. Climatic conditions in Finland, where construction is nearing completion, are rather different from those in the Caribbean, where the ship will be sailing regularly from the end of November. So it is not possible to plant up the park before the 5,400-passenger, 220,000-ton ship sets out across the [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T16:00:37+00:00 15 September 2009|Cruise News, Cruise Ships|0 Comments

Extra charges are hard to swallow

The doyen of cruise ship writers has taken a pop at the Ryanair-style pricing tricks which he says are creeping into cruise fares. Douglas Ward, author of the Berlitz Guide to Cruising and Cruise Ships, claims that extra supplements can bump up the fare and "take the glow off an apparent giveaway price." He adds: "A highly discounted fare may apply only to certain dates and itineraries, while passengers' preferred cabin grades and location may not be available or they may be limited to first seating at dinner." But surely that has always been the case with all kinds of [...]

By John Honeywell| 2009-09-14T23:47:32+00:00 14 September 2009|Cruise News|0 Comments

Red card for QE2 World Cup plans

The England football team may have confirmed their place in next year's World Cup, but there are new doubts over plans to move the QE2 to South Africa to provide accommodation for visiting fans. The former Cunard liner, which retired from service last year, has been in Dubai since November, waiting for work to start to convert it into a luxury floating hotel. The global financial crisis placed those plans on hold, just as they put a stop to other building work in Dubai. New owners Nakheel then announced the ship would move to Cape Town for 18 months, in [...]

By John Honeywell| 2017-06-15T16:00:38+00:00 13 September 2009|Cruise News, Cruise Ships|0 Comments