Captain Greybeard

Royal Caribbean International has added two more vessels to the growing number of cruise ships on its order books. Code-named Icon, the new class of vessel will be powered by clean fuels, a combination of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and - another first -  fuel cell technology. The 5,000-passenger ships will be built by the Meyer Turku yard in Finland, and are expected to enter service in spring 2022 and 2024. “With Icon class, we move further in the journey to take the smoke out of our smokestacks,” said Richard Fain, chairman and CEO of Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. “We are [...]

For most of us, a world cruise is a once-in-a-lifetime experience – a voyage lasting three months or so that might travel around the world but will visit only a fraction of it. But if you think you’ve “been there, done that” until there’s nothing left, get ready for the “World of Travel” cruise, a 357-day marathon that goes further than anything before. Visiting all seven continents, and combining voyages on seven different ships, this voyage brings together visits to Machu Picchu, Table Mountain, Angkor Wat, the Panama Canal and the Great Barrier Reef all in one package. Ticking off must-visit [...]

Crystal Cruises’ ambitious expansion plans are beginning to slow down. Work is progressing on building the first of six planned river ships, but the arrival of an innovative expedition ship and the first 1,000-passenger Exclusive-class ship have been deferred. Endeavor, announced at a lavish event in Fort Lauderdale in March, was promised for August 2018 but will not now be ready until 2019. The Exclusive ship has already been postponed by a year and has now been put back two more years, to 2021. There is no word on when its promised two sisters will be complete, but there are [...]

Cruise lines love an anniversary, and will seize any excuse for a party. Cunard and P&O are past masters at bringing their ships together to celebrate any event that has a zero or a five at the end of it. It’s only 15 months since Balmoral, Black Watch, Boudicca and Braemar sailed in convoy into Bergen to mark the 200 birthday of the original Fred Olsen. Now Fred Olsen Cruise Lines are planning another celebration, this time the 170th anniversary of the company’s beginnings, carrying cargo on sailing vessels. The four cruise ships will gather in the Spanish port of [...]

Saga’s senior captain, Philip Rentell, is one of 13 recipients of the new Merchant Navy Medal for Meritorious Service, awarded for “exemplary service and devotion to duty.” Philip, who addresses his intrepid passengers as “Saganauts” and is due to retire next year, has been at sea since 1969. He will be at the helm of Saga Sapphire in November for a 24-night mystery cruise – only he and his senior officers know the itinerary, and passengers will have to guess whether to pack for warm or cold weather. On a previous mystery cruise, he brought along a friend who flew [...]

Saga Sapphire returns today (Saturday) from her first cruise of the summer, following two months of extended maintenance work in the engine room. The 34-year-old ship – originally built as Europa for German company Hapag-Lloyd – has been in dock at the Blohm and Voss yard in Hamburg. She welcomed groups of new-to-Saga customers for a gala night in Dover on Monday, before leaving for the short cruise to Portland, Dorset, and St Malo and Le Havre in France. Saga’s Stuart McQuaker said the work on Sapphire’s main engines will “ensure continued reliability for the years of service ahead.” He [...]

Seabourn has named Captain Mark Dexter as the master of its newest vessel, Seabourn Encore, which will be christened in Singapore in January. Capt Dexter, who joined Seabourn in 2007, recently served as fleet captain, overseeing the implementation of the company’s bridge resource management systems. He began his career at sea as a deck cadet with Cunard, and he worked on tankers, container ships, and refrigerated cargo ships before moving to ferries. He will be familiar to British passengers from his spells of duty with Hebridean Island Cruises and Swan Hellenic. Originally from Portsmouth, he now lives in Christchurch, New [...]

With just one week to go until Thomson Cruises welcomes the 1,800-passenger TUI Discovery (above)  the company has announced there will be a TUI Discovery 2 from May next year. Discovery is the former Royal Caribbean ship Splendour of the Seas; Discovery 2 is sister ship Legend of the Seas. Old favourites Thomson Spirit and Thomson Majesty will be leaving the fleet at the end of 2017. Discovery 2 has 915 cabins, almost 40 per cent of which have balconies. There are eight bars, plus activities and entertainment offering something for all the family, including a poolside cinema screen, a [...]