Cruise Gossip

The drawing room on board Royal Yacht Britannia Princess Cruises lay claim to the "Love Boat" title - and just to prove it one more time, they are taking Captain Stubing (in the shape of actor Gavin MacLeod) back to sea on Pacific Princess's world cruise next year. But perhaps we have all been missing something. The real Love Boat is tied up at a quayside at Leith Docks, near Edinburgh and although it doesn't sail anywhere these days, it welcomes hundreds of visitors each day. This vessel has provided a honeymoon home for more princesses than you'll find in [...]

It has been fascinating reading the account of a passenger making his first Transatlantic crossing - much more interesting - and, dare I say, insightful - than a recent article by someone making the journey for the 157th time. David Lebovitz is a renowned pastry chef and author, an American in Paris. He has written about desserts, puddings, and in The Perfect Scoop, penned a paean to ice cream. Plans for him to sail across the Atlantic on Cunard's Queen Mary 2 last year were thwarted when Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull volcano filled the atmosphere with ash. Fortunately he got another chance, [...]

Normal service on the cruise blog may be interrupted this week, as I am taking time off to act as support for my brother, who is younger, fitter and crazier than me. Why else would he have taken it upon himself to cycle 4,300 miles round the British coast in order to raise money for Cancer Research UK? After setting out on May 10, Bill has defied all attempts to put him off course - including persistent torrential rain, gales which blew a 30-ton oak tree on to the motorhome support vehicle, and last week, a half-blind motorist who shunted [...]

I'm feeling a little bit sorry for Carnival's senior cruise director John Heald this week. For a start he was given the task of telling passengers how his company's new smoking policy will operate - and as a man who enjoys a Cohiba, it's not been easy for him to explain why the ships' cigar bars are to become smoke-free zones. One irate - but not erudite - passenger called him a "big hypacritt" and threatened physical violence before promising to take his custom to other ships where, incidentally, he will find his smoking opportunities just as restricted. But if [...]