Captain Greybeard

Typical! You wait ages for a new cruise line to arrive, and then two come along at once. Hot on the heels of the announcement of Cruise and Maritime Voyages comes news of Voyages to Antiquity, a new venture set up by serial cruise line entrepreneur Gerry Herrod. The industry veteran, who set up Ocean Cruise Line in 1984 and Orient Lines in 1993, has bought the former Aegean I cruise ship in Greece and plans a major refit, adding balcony cabins and reducing the capacity of the 11,500-ton ship from 500 to 382, before launching the new operation in [...]

A new British cruise line will be sailing from the UK next year. Cruise and Maritime Voyages has chartered two ships, Marco Polo and Ocean Countess, to offer a traditional product to compete with established companies such as Voyages of Discovery, Fred Olsen and Saga. The 22,000-ton, 850-passenger Marco Polo, which was built in 1966 and is currently on charter to German company Transocean Tours, sets out on her first voyage in new livery from Tilbury on January 2 and during the winter will operate to South America and the Caribbean followed by a summer of cruises to Scandinavia, the [...]

The South African government has called foul over plans to use cruise ships to provide accommodation at next year's football World Cup. German media tycoon Leo Kirch planned to charter two Holland America Line vessels, Westerdam and Noordam, and moor them as floating hotels at Cape Town, Durban and Port Elizabeth during next summer's competition. The deal, reported to cost £9 million, would have provided 4,600 beds. However, the South African Tourism Ministry has now made clear that berthing rights for both ships were based on the proviso that the vessels brought tourists to the country. FIFA president Sepp Blatter [...]