Captain Breton, 45, and from Essex, was welcomed as Master of the ship – that title apparently does not change, regardless of the gender of its holder – by Carol Marlow, herself the company’s first female managing director (above).

Sarah has been an officer with P&O since 1989. She joined Royal Princess – the ship which is now called Artemis – as third officer, and has served on Sky Princess, Canberra, Pacific Princess, Grand Princess and Sky Princess, working her way up through the positions of second officer, navigator, first officer and safety officer.

She was first promoted to staff captain in 2001 and went on to serve on board Coral Princess, Tahitian Princess, Pacific Princess, Artemis and Ocean Village.

Sarah says: “Growing up near the water I always loved boats and the ocean, so it really does fulfil a lifelong ambition of mine to be a Captain with P&O Cruises.”

Flight restrictions on Scottish airports are expected to be lifted this evening and passengers who were scheduled to fly from Manchester to join Fred Olsen’s Braemar in Barbados are travelling by bus to Glasgow.

A Fred Olsen spokesperson said: “Braemar has stayed in Barbados to wait for them, with the result that the first scheduled port – Castries – has been cancelled and instead the first port now will be Roseau in Dominica.”.

Less fortunate are passengers who should have been flying to Heraklion in Crete yesterday to board Ocean Village. Its seven-night Groves and Gondolas cruise to Dubrovnik, Venice and Corfu has been cancelled. Those who had booked a 14-night cruise onward to Cairo, Cyprus, Rhodes and Athens are being offered the second leg departing next Thursday, or a full refund. Passengers who had already arrived in Crete before the flight shutdown will be taken to hotels until they can be flown home.

Thomson Celebration remained in port at Sharm el Sheik for an extra day, hoping that flights could take off, but the ship has now sailed for Sokhna. Some disembarking passengers have remained on the ship; others are staying in hotels in Sharm.

P&O’s Artemis and Oceana are sailing from Southampton tomorrow, and Oriana departs on Sunday. The only passengers affected will be those who had planned to fly to Southampton. Both of Cunard’s ships are in mid-cruise.

Royal Caribbean and Celebrity Cruises will are attempting to fly their passengers to intermediate ports on their cruises. They will also re-book – without charge – onto other cruises. Passengers will be offered refunds if the new voyage is cheaper, but will be required to pay the difference if the alternative is more expensive.

NCL’s website merely advises passengers to check with their airline.

As the opening date of June 11 grows closer, and more cruise lines announce that they have paid for rights to screen matches, it’s beginning to look like the fans will have the upper hand.

England supporters sailing with P&O, Cunard and Ocean Village will be able to watch all their team’s games live, and the final will be screened on the 10 ships, regardless of whether Capello’s squad get that far.

Thomson Cruises will also be showing all England games on their ships, and have taken the precaution of adding other top teams as well, in the event of an ankle injury for Rooney sending our lads home at the end of the first stage.

The NCL ships sailing in Europe – that’s Norwegian Gem, Sun and Jade – will be following Spain, the Netherlands, Brazil, Argentina, U.S.A., Germany, Italy and England during the initial stages, and will then screen all the knock-out games through to the final. Even Norwegian Epic, the lines newest and biggest ship, which will be in the UK from June 22 before sailing to New York for its inauguration.

Royal Caribbean, Celebrity and Azamara announced this week that they have obtained rights to screen all matches – but only while their ships are in international waters. Best check that England are not facing a crucial tie while Independence of the Seas is tied up at Barcelona or Malaga.

Also probably best to avoid Costa and MSC’s ships if you don’t want to be swamped by armies of Italian fans.

But if you want to get away from the football altogether, then the ships of Fred Olsen Cruise Line are the place for you – I just wonder what the conversation at breakfast will be like, and how many passengers will have radios clamped to their ears to check on the results.

Incidentally, one man who must be praying for an early England exit is Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone – The British Grand Prix takes place on the same day as the World Cup final.

First to get in touch was a spokesperson for cruise.co.uk reminding me that the more ships there are sailing in Europe, the more chances there are for British passengers to grab a bargain. Which is true – provided the experience is not diminished by having to fight your way through the crowds to get to the sights or the shops.

Another contact alerted me to the fact that there were five ships visiting Roseau, capital of the charming Caribbean island of Dominica the other day. Between them, Ocean Village, Carnival Victory, Caribbean Princess, Oceania’s Regatta, and Wind Surf delivered more than 7,500 passengers to the unspoilt island – and they won’t all have been able to take a ride on the Rain Forest Tram (left), as I did in 2008.

Surprisingly, the major concern voiced by locals writing to Dominica News Online was disappointment that the visitors were being careful with their money rather than splashing out on souvenirs and trinkets from the traders who set up stalls near the pier. Although one contributor sensibly asked “How many cheap Chinese-made trinkets can one buy up and down the islands?”

The island of St Kitts has had a busy week as well, with a total of 12 ships delivering more than 23,000 passengers. On Wednesday alone there were four ships in port at Basseterre.

The visitors have included Ocean Village and Thomson Destiny from the UK.

But back to the Med. David Selby, managing director of Thomson Cruises, had some good points to make, while adding some justifiable plugs for his own ships and adding a well-aimed dig at his competitors. This is what he had to say:

“When Carnival made the decision to disband Ocean Village, it was only a matter of time before another line came in to fill the spaces left in the Med. The announcement that Royal Caribbean is to deploy 11 ships into European waters in 2011 therefore comes as no surprise; the Med is the fly-cruising summer hotspot, especially for the British market, and I’m sure the countries due to benefit from the additional ships will welcome this new wave of visitors with open arms!

“Thomson Cruises has spent almost 15 years sailing fly-cruise itineraries around Europe, in particular the Western Mediterranean. We know how well it works for our own customers – for example, this summer we have three ships sailing itineraries out of Palma, served by regional flights on our in-house airline, Thomson Airways, from 20 UK airports.

“However, the fact that not just one but seven cruise lines are coming into the waters could be cause for concern with regards to how the ports themselves are going to cope with the volume of people descending on them. There is also the question of how the ships themselves can cope.

“While Thomson Cruises’ mid-sized ships mean that, although we can’t eliminate queues completely, we are able to limit them as much as possible, the bigger cruise liners carrying over 3,000 passengers could experience large queues of passengers waiting to disembark. While I’m sure our colleagues in the industry will be looking at ways around this, it could nevertheless be a cause of concern for future passengers.

“As a footnote, Thomson Cruises have anticipated the increase in traffic in the Med this summer. That’s why we’ve introduced new itineraries in areas of Europe where queues are likely to be minimal, and will be basing Thomson Celebration in Marmaris in Turkey and visiting smaller ports such as Kotor in Montenegro and Koper in Slovenia.”

Thanks David, I look forward to discussing the subject further in Barcelona next month, when the line’s latest ship, Thomson Dream, enters service.

• Have you cruised in the Mediterranean, or are you planning to in the near future? Have you had to battle through crowds when cruising in the Caribbean or elsewhere? I’d love to hear from you. Send me your views by clicking on the “comments” link below.

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]]> http://www.cruisefan.net/2010/03/17/the-europa-offers-a-european-cruise-experience-at-its-best-pittsburgh-post-gazette/feed/ 0 http://www.cruisefan.net/2010/03/11/crikey-qm2-heads-down-under/ http://www.cruisefan.net/2010/03/11/crikey-qm2-heads-down-under/#comments Thu, 11 Mar 2010 00:30:21 +0000 John Honeywell Crikey, cobber! If you see any Cunard bosses walking around with corks dangling from their hats, and singing Waltzing Matilda, then don’t be at all surprised – they have come over all Australian this week.

A grand dinner in Melbourne for passengers on Queen Victoria’s world voyage was followed by an announcement that the line’s flagship Queen Mary 2 will spend an unprecedented 28 days in Australian waters in 2012, circumnavigating the continent in the process.

The voyage will be the longest period Queen Mary 2 has been based in any country outside her northern hemisphere home ports of Southampton and New York.

The ship will make maiden calls at Cairns, Darwin, Brisbane and Melbourne as well as visiting Sydney, Fremantle and Adelaide, generating more than £6 million of revenue for the Australian economy according to Ann Sherry, chief executive of Carnival Australia.

They certainly seem to enjoy their cruises Down Under – the industry estimates that one million Australians will take a cruise holiday by the year 2020. Not bad for a country with a population of just over 22 million, and ample justification for the decision to close down the UK line Ocean Village and transfer its two ships to P&O Australia.

The remainder of QM2′s 2012 world voyage itinerary has yet to be announced, and the Australia voyages will not be put on sale until later this year.

The ship, currently on this year’s world voyage, left Sydney on Monday and is today in Adelaide, while Queen Victoria has moved on to Hong Kong.

The dinner, for more than 500 passengers who have booked cabins for the entire three-and-a-half month QV round trip, was held appropriately enough at the National Gallery of Victoria.

And, of course, it was all rather grander than a shrimp barbie. Before dining on Tasmanian smoked salmon, Melbourne-grown asparagus and Australian fillet of beef, the guests were greeted by Aboriginal dancers, and then entertained by the Australian Boys Choir.

“By adding £100 or £150 per person on board credit, cruises became effectively all-inclusive for some passengers. This kind of certainty about their overall holiday bill was clearly exactly what they wanted.”
Nigel Esdale, Commercial Director, Carnival UK

“We did see a trend [in 2009] towards taking shorter cruises, with 16-night Mediterranean cruises something of a harder sell. The transatlantic voyages are mainly bought as seven-night holidays so they did well.”
Peter Shanks, President and Managing Director, Cunard Line

“We are lowering our energy consumption every year by between 3 and 4 per cent through a variety of solutions from new paints and hull coatings to simply slowing the ships down. Longer (seven-day) transatlantic crossings are one major change which will mean a greener, as well as a lower cost operation.”
Micky Arison, Chairman and CEO, Carnival Corporation

“We researched our passengers’ views on dining and what they liked best on our ships. As a result, menus have been changed with some old British favourites – like the savoury course – re-introduced after a long time away. The research also revealed that there was a strong demand for more fish and other dishes perceived as ‘healthier’ so there is now a greater range on the menus.”
Carol Marlow, Managing Director P&O Cruises

“We never book an act we have not seen live as we do not want any racist or sexist material. We always monitor response to the acts in customer questionnaires because quite often people in an audience will laugh and applaud and look as though they have enjoyed a comedian, but then comment at the end of a cruise that they should be banned.”
Morgan Van Selman, P&O Product Manager (Entertainment)

“Port Canaveral is a particularly popular homeport for UK passengers as it is the most conveniently-located for combining cruises with stays in Orlando. More than 50 per cent of our UK Carnival guests opt to flycruise-and-stay. The cruise itself offers better value than a land stay in Florida since so much more is included in the cruise fare.”
Lynn Narraway, Managing Director UK Business, Carnival Cruise Lines

“The UK will never be one of the largest markets for Costa Cruises but 2009 was an example of why it will always be a key one for the brand. Not for the first time, the British showed just how important their annual holiday is to them. Our UK sales rose again, so we are now attracting about treble the number of UK passengers than four years ago.”
Marco Rosa, UK Managing Director, Costa Cruises

“A new ship always stimulates increased consumer curiosity and media interest but Seabourn Odyssey was also designed to take ultra-luxury cruising to a new level and open it up to a broader market. We expect an even bigger boost from the arrival of the next new ship, Seabourn Sojourn, because this will be named in London this summer.”
Andrew Magowan, Vice-President EMEA, The Yachts of Seabourn

And a few interesting facts and figures:

• More than 1,000 couples got married on board the P&O and Princess fleets in 2009.
• Enough carpet to cover 27 football pitches is replaced each year on board the P&O Cruises fleet.
• More than one million eggs are served each year on board Ocean Village [That's a lot of hens who will be put out of business when the ship transfers to P&O Australia later this year].
• Passengers drink 23.5 million cups of tea on Princess, P&O and Cunard ships, and 2,5 million bottles of Champagne on Cunard alone.

This weekend, the nearly-completed vessel was floated out of the giant construction shed at the Meyer-Werft shipyard in Papenburg, Germany (above), and in a few days’ time – wind and tides permitting – will sail backwards down the River Ems, for final construction work and fitting out to be completed at Emshaven.

Also at the weekend, Oceania Cruises celebrated the float-out of their newest ship, Marina, from the Fincantieri shipyard near Genoa, in Italy, and also started contsruction of a sister ship, Riviera.

The 1,258-passenger Marina will enter service next January, and Riviera is scheduled to be launched in April 2012.

And there’s yet more news of new cruise ships: as the newest MSC vessel, Magnifica, was being shown off in Southampton, the company announced that its sister, MSC Favolosa (the Italians must like that name, there’s a Costa Favolosa being built, as well) will become the 12th ship in the fleet in June 2012.

That’s a whole lot of berths to fill – 1.3 million for MSC alone in 2012. The newbuilds give support, if it were needed, for Carnival Corporation boss Micky Arison’s statement this week that he expects the UK market, which has doubled in the last decade, to double again in the next 10 years. This would mean the British taking three million cruises every year compared with 1.55 million in 2009.

Carnival, which owns Cunard, P&O, Princess, Holland America, Costa, Ocean Village (for a few more months before it disappears) and Yachts of Seabourn, expect Britain and Europe to follow the explosion in numbers of cruise passengers already seen in the US, and predict that Asia will be the next growth market.

Arison says that he expects to see more short-break cruises from the UK, with the introduction of new ships “which are interesting destinations in themselves.”

Which is rather at odds with the results of a survey commissioned to coincide with publication of the company’s annual Cruise Report, which showed that more than 50 per cent of UK passengers chose a cruise because of the destination, and only five per cent said their decision was dictated by choice of ship.

Half of the British holidaymakers choosing cruises prefer to sail from UK ports, either because they don’t like flying – or the airport experience – or because they can take more luggage if they drive to a port such as Southampton or Dover.

Given that Arison has frequently said he never intends to build ships as big as Royal Caribbean’s 6,000-passenger Oasis of the Seas and Allure of the Seas, it is no surprise that the survey shows that Brits prefer vessels carrying between one and two thousand passengers, with only one per cent happy on a ship capable of holding more than 4,000.

Incidentally, P&O’s Ventura, and sister ship Azura – to be launched in April – each carry mjore than 3,000 passengers. Judging by the survey results, P&O customers will be happier when the 710-capacity Adonia, currently sailing as Royal Princess, joins the fleet in May 2011.

Ocean Village prepares final cruises
TTG live
The farewell trip will see the British cruise ship travel from Crete to Dubai , India and Singapore in the autumn. Two itinerary options have been offered, …

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]]> http://www.cruisefan.net/2010/02/24/ocean-village-prepares-final-cruises-ttg-live/feed/ 0 http://www.cruisefan.net/2010/02/24/ocean-village-prepares-final-cruises-ttg-live-2/ http://www.cruisefan.net/2010/02/24/ocean-village-prepares-final-cruises-ttg-live-2/#comments Wed, 24 Feb 2010 10:48:04 +0000 cruise ship - Google News

Ocean Village prepares final cruises
TTG live
The farewell trip will see the British cruise ship travel from Crete to Dubai , India and Singapore in the autumn. Two itinerary options have been offered, …

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