A big floater

On January 5th 2010, Cunard "floated out" it's newest ship, the Queen Elizabeth at a shipyard ceremony in Italy.

Queen Elizabeth met the sea for the first time following a special float out ceremony at shipbuilder Fincantieri's Monfalcone yard, near Trieste, Italy.

Silversea lauches it's newest ship

Silversea's new ship Silver Spirit officially got its name in Port Everglades, Florida, last week.

Are Celebrity the Anti-Christ?

MOst people weren't aware, but for years Celebrity Cruises quietly had a programme aboard all their ships where they carried a Roman Catholic priest on every single sailing. This allowed them to celebrate mass every day for the Catholics aboard. Just as quietly, earlier this month the programme and the priests disappeared.

Island of Disaster (or the need to Escape!)

My more experienced colleagues here have in the past, described Island Cruises' Island Escape as "a rust bucket" and explained to me it used to be a Car Ferry. I wasn't quite fully aware of the condition of the ship until I had a phonecall yesterday from a potential customer.

The gentleman was calling up from Madeira, looking to get on a ship - any ship! He and his family had just disembarked from the Escape, claiming "the ship is a disaster"...

Phantom Found on Balmoral!

On board Fred Olsen's Balmoral this Christmas, there were spooky happenings aboard...

Thomson Cruises - on the up?

A number of my customers of late have been exceedingly complimentary of Thomson cruises. They may not have the newest fleet on the block (cue MSC for that title) but it sounds like, for a bit of true Brit grit, you can't beat a package-holiday-on-a-boat...

Have you ever had a sleepless night at sea?

One of my customers recently had 23 nights of disturbed sleep onboard P&O's Arcadia. Here's her story as told to me over the phone.