Cruise Lines

Sky Travel reports that Thomson Cruises has dropped plans to base a ship at Liverpool after just two departures.

It's nothing to do with the cruise that never was, but rather because instead of allowing Thomson Celebration to use the city's new cruise liner terminal, the port people said the ship had to tie up at Langton Dock, which overlooks the biggest scrapyard in Europe.

Somehow they managed to build a new terminal that doesn't have the customs and baggage-handling facilities needed for turnaround days, when one set of passengers disembarks and the next lot come on.

Thomson Celebration would have been the first ship to be based at the port in 50 years and contributed £4.5 million in port fees and related spending to the city's coffers.

There must be some very red faces in the city's council offices.

By the time you read this, I'll be on my way to Miami for the celebrations to welcome Princess Cruises' new ship Ruby Princess.

There's a naming ceremony in Fort Lauderdale on Thursday, followed by a two-night cruise to nowhere, which will be a great chance to experience Ruby's facilities.

I'll be reporting back so watch here and in Travel Weekly for news and pictures.

It was nice to read on e-tid that no one will face the chop in the wake of Carnival UK's decision to axe Ocean Village.

A spokeswoman said the ships' crews will transfer to P&O Australia, while land-based staff will be needed at P&O Cruises and Cunard, which are both getting an extra ship in 2010.

P&O Cruises takes delivery of the 3,100-passenger Azura in spring 2010, with the new 2,100-passenger Queen Elizabeth joining Cunard in October that year.

"The 26 people who work shore-side on Ocean Village will be absorbed with this new capacity."

It's an intriguing question, posed by Mark Tre in the Cruise Examiner, in a piece looking at the winners and losers in the cruise industry in the current financial crisis.

He reckons the big two - Carnival Corp and Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines - are best positioned to ride out the storm, but that question marks hang over Norwegian Cruise Line and MSC Cruises.

The big question about MSC is not only whether it will be able to survive a rapid expansion in a short number of years, but whether parent company Mediterranean Shipping Company, the world's second-largest container line, can survive in a diminishing market where freight rates are dropping every week.

NCL may be a stronger position, now being half-owned by Apollo Management as well as Star Cruises. But Apollo had had to follow through on a recent major acquisition in another market and has a full interest in Oceania Cruises and Regent Seven Seas Cruises that it must also look after. There have also been reported disagreements between Apollo and NCL as to the future path that NCL should be taking, one of the reasons for the dispute over the F3s.

Can the two get together to take on the big two? Or would MSC fill a hole at Royal Caribbean and offer a counterpoint to Carnival's Costa?

This is not the best time for cruise lines to be on a spending spree - or is it? Desperate times can mean desperate deals.

Princess Cruises' Movies under the Stars as been so popular it's being added to seven more ships over the next three years, starting with Golden Princess in May next year and ending with Sapphire Princess in 2011.

The big pool-side screen is used to show sporting events, rock concerts and films through the day but it realy comes into its own at night, when you can tuck up under a blanket and nibble away at popcorn while enjoying your favourite flicks.

I hope to be discovering lots of new features on Ruby Princess today, but let's not forget some of the favourites for which Princess Cruises is so well known.

This is my favourite - The Sanctuary, an adults-only area at the top of the ship where Serenity Stewards (yes, that's really what they are called) are on hand to look after you.

And here's the Movies under the Stars area. You can just make out the picture ... a repeat of the 1970's US TV show Love Boat, the show that put the romance into Princess.

It was a very red evening on Ruby Princess as Trista and Ryan Sutter, godparents to the new Ruby Princess, pressed the button and smashed the bubbly, watched by Carnival Corp chairman Micky Arison, Captain Tony Yeomans and Alan Buckelew, president and CEO of Princess Cruises.

They call it the Ultimate Ship Tour. Ultimate Ship Snore, I thought, when reading about this new feature on Ruby Princess. Yet there I was, in line to get a taste of what it's all about during our two-day cruise to nowhere on the new ship last week, little knowing I was about to be enthralled and forced to eat a substantial slice of humble pie.

The real tour lasts about two and a half hours and takes you to all kinds of places you never knew you wanted to visit - the ship's laundry, print shop, medical centre and photo lab. We didn't get to stop at these but all necks were craning as we walked past tantalising open doors. We really did want to visit them after all.

What we did get to do was climb into the funnel - no I didn't know what that was all about either, but look at a picture of a Princess ship and focus on the grill on which the logo is mounted; I was behind there. The pictures below were taken inside of the funnel, the bottom one looking out through the grill.

We went up to deck 18, but there are ladders right up to deck 21, 60 metres above sea level. No, was the short answer when I asked it we could go to the top.

Then we went down to the engine control room, the heart and soul of the ship, according to chief technical officer Robin Sutherland, who gave us a fascinating insight into the ship's engines, propulsion and the hi-tech waste water systems.

Yes I know it sounds nurdish, but it was really interesting - and I loved the idiot's guide to waste on the computer, which had a picture of a toilet to denote black water and a sink to illustrate grey.

Last stop was the food stores, where about 150 tons of eats and drinks is kept - that's just per cruise - and from whence comes the necessary bits to create around 20,000 meals a day.

Paying passengers will also visit the galley, where they will be served champagne, caviar and canapes and be presented with a chef's coat, go back stage at the theatre and have bubbly and strawberries on the Bridge, and their picture taken with the Captain.

All that for a cool $150 per person, which sounds a lot but as only 12 people per cruise will get to do it, I reckon passengers will snap it up, if only because it is so exclusive.

After all, how many people do you know who have been in a cruise ship's funnel? The folks at home can't help but be impressed.

Anyone who read my blogs from Crown Princess this summer will know I am a big fan of the "street" entertainment they put on in the Piazza, aka the atrium, because of the way it brings the area alive.

There were some great acts on Crown and the ones on Princess Cruises' new ship Ruby Princess were just as good. Here are acrobats Vitalli and Dani doing their muscle-man stuff and comedy juggler Nick Pike doing his thing on a unicycle with a little help from a passenger. All good, honest fun you can dip in and out of, which I much prefer to the big production shows with mediocre singers and dancers who take themselves so seriously.

Another week, another ship launch. This time it's the turn of Celebrity Cruises' Celebrity Solstice, and again it's in Fort Lauderdale.

So after a day at home on Sunday and a day at World Travel Market yesterday, today I'm flying back out to Miami.

We've a two-day cruise before the naming so I'll be keeping you posted here and in Travel Weekly on how things are looking.

Here's a different take on the fuel surcharge issue.

Rather than dropping the supplement altogether, Fred Olsen Cruise Lines is offering passengers who have paid the surcharge a refund if the price of oil is on average less than £40 per barrel in the calendar month before their departure.

The rebate will be offered for cruises after January 1 2009. As with other lines, money will be given back as on-board credit rather than a cash.

Here's some interesting news from Grand UK Holidays that should help to banish some of the clouds hanging over the cruise industry.

The over-55s specialist has found that the grey market is not half so concerned about the current economic downturn as bright young things saddled with debt.

Research by web analyst Hitwise found that almost 60% of vistors to cruise websites are aged over 55. More importantly for the trade, its report says they are more likely to book through a travel agency than direct with the cruise company.

"UK internet visits to cruise websites, which typically peak in December, increased by 8.2% between September 2007 and September 2008."

Hitwise figures also show that in the three months ended October 25 2008, the Caribbean was the most searched-for cruise destination in the UK, while Norway was the most popular destination. During September, P&O Cruises was the most visited cruise website in the UK, receiving one in every 10 visits to the category.

Naturally there is a reason why Grand UK is giving us this info. It has just launched its 2009 summer cruise programme featuring cruises from the UK on Fred Olsen Cruise Lines and Transocean Tours, which operates sailings on Marco Polo from Tilbury.

Grand UK Holidays sales director Harold Burke said retired holidaymakers are less affected by mortgage rate rises and their kids have left home. They're also accustomed to taking several breaks a year and can travel in term times.

"We are not immune to the effects of the economy but we have not yet seen a downturn, and our experience is mirrored in these statistics."

First it was the oldies; now it seems it's the big spenders who will take the cruise industry through the recession.

Because just as the rest of the industry starts to feel the crunch, White Star Cruises, the luxury cruise arm of WEXAS - The Travellers Club, reports record sales figures in October.

The on-line company sells only five and six-star cruiselines - the likes of Crystal Cruise, Silversea, Regent Seven Seas Cruises, SeaDream Yacht Club, Swan Hellenic and Peter Deilmann - and says its average sales price is a whopping £5,500 per person.

Just to prove things are good, White Star has produced a 60-page on-line brochure featuring 15 of the world's top-rated cruiselines. General manager Scott Anderson calls it "informative, inspirational and independent".

No, I don't entirely follow the logic either. If a company is so happily crunch-busting, why spend time and effort creating such a masterpiece? But no matter. It's refreshing to have good news while all around is recession. Long may the luxury guys carry on cruising.

Another week, another new ship. This time it's Celebrity Cruises' Celebrity Solstice - the one with the real grass - which is hosting hundreds of agents and journalists from around the world on minicruises from Fort Lauderdale.

Last time I saw Celebrity Solstice, it was about to leave the shipyard in Germany and was full of bubble wrap and cardboard boxes. All that has now gone, leaving behind a classy-looking ship with some special touches.

My favourite has to be the solarium, pictured here, which has smart loungers and a few of these wonderful giant chairs.

The bottom picture shows some of the comfy loungers on the Solstice Deck, an exclusive area on deck 16 where only those who can be bothered to walk will find. It will either be empty because no once can be bothered; more likely though, there will be some battle royales as passengers grab their place in the sun and refuse to shift for the rest of the day.

If you thought having a real lawn on a cruise ship was bizarre, how about this? A glass-blowing studio on Celebrity Cruises' new Celebrity Solstice where gaffers - apparently that's what the people who blow glass are called - can be seen plying their trade.

The oven is called the Glory Hole and is 1,120 degrees Centigrad. Fine on a cool, overcast day in the Med, not so much fun when the outside temperature is a sticky 80 degrees.

QE2 might have left Southampton for the last time, but the old girl is not going to disappear from the headlines.

Dubai is planning to match last week's fond farewell at the south coast port with an equally big welcome when the ship arrives in the emirate on November 26.

QE2 will be met at The World islands by a flotilla of local yachts, boats and leisure craft led by a Royal Navy frigate, and there's an open invitation to anyone with a boat to register and be part of the welcome.

QE2 is to be transformed into a luxury floating hotel off the trunk of Palm Jumeirah by new Nakheel, which is also planning to open a heritage museum displaying artefacts from the ship and of local maritime history.

Great for anyone who happens to be in Dubai, but what about past passengers left without their favourite ship to cruise on? I offered some QE2 alternatives in a piece in the Telegraph. Let me know if you have any other suggestions.

After several seasons in Antarctica, Voyages of Discovery is leaving the White Continent and cruising to South East Asia and the Far East in winter 2009/10.

I wrote a little on this for the next TW Cruise, due out soon, but since then the brochure has come out bearing more information and some magnificent itineraries that will take you around India, Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines and South Africa.

VoD's ship Discovery takes its time as it cruises through all these places so there's lots of time ashore. Anyone with the time and money could put some of these itineraries back to back and have an ultimate round-the-world trip.

OK, you won't make it to Australia so it's not quite RTW, but at least you would see the world as you went instead of spending endless days at sea, as is the norm on a standard world cruise.

There is no single supplement on a number of cabins and guaranteed no fuel surcharge on all bookings. All the cruises will have guest lecturers on board to add some insights into the places being visited.

VoD says it has switched to Asia to give passengers who have done Antarctica something new for winter 09/10. Makes sense. I cruised Antarctica with Voyages and much as I loved it, it's not something I would do twice with the same cruise line as I'd like to see how others cope with the harsh environment down there.

On my cruise, most of the passengers agreed they had done Antarctica and would not go back. After all, it's not cheap and makes more sense for them to spend their money seeing new places and cultures.

Travelmole reports P&O Cruises is to make some changes to Ventura after admitting to facing "challenges" in the first summer season.

In a letter to travel agents, managing director Nigel Esdale says they will stop taking bookings for the Freedom dining restaurant so diners really do have freedom to turn up and dine when they want - hopefully getting a table straight away - the Beach House self-service will become an informal dining venue with waiter service and sunloungers will be placed on deck 19, in an area previously devoted only to the bungee trampolines and Cirque Ventura.

"We will retain the bungee trampolines which have been a real hit with passengers aged from 8 to 84. And we will continue to offer the Cirque Ventura circus skills school teaching the art of juggling, tightrope and stilt walking."

In addition, new furniture, including a reclining chair, will be put on cabin balconies, to help alleviate demand for loungers on the open deck.

I reported in my cruise column in the Telegraph on the problems of Freedom dining I encountered when I was on board and spoke to people who were fed up with the morning rush to grab a sunlounger so it's good news that all these things are now being addressed.

MSC Cruises says it took 47% more calls in October than in the same month in 2007, while bookings for the month were up 84%.

Managing director Giulio Libutti attributed the bookings surge to the fact the call centre is open longer and also on Sundays for the first time.

Apparently a lot of bookings are coming in for MSC Lirica, which is sailing the Baltic from Dover next summer, and the giant MSC Fantasia, which is being named in Naples on December 18.

This is the ship with the much-anticipated VIP Yacht Club - a separate area of the ship where top-paying passengers will enjoy butler service in their cabins, have a private swimming pool and observation lounge with bar. 

Silversea has pulled the South Pacific cruises planned for exploration ship Prince Albert II in summer 2009 and instead will be bringing the ship back to the Arctic, cruising around Greenland and Spitsbergen.

Reading between the comments from Silversea president and chief executive officer Amerigo PerassoIt, the South Pacific cruises were not selling, mainly because of the cost of getting there, but also because people didn't connect with a ship built for polar waters sailing around sun-kissed islands.

Operating our vessel in close reach of our three leading markets (United States, United Kingdom and Continental Europe) is all the more justified in the present economic conjuncture. With its ice-strengthened hull, Prince Albert II is quite naturally associated with polar sea ice regions, rather than other attractive, exotic destinations.

Prince Albert II will sail nine Arctic cruises between June and August before heading back to the Antarctic for winter 2009/10.

Is this the first casualty of the credit crunch?

Seatrade Insider reports that the "new" Orient Lines president and CEO Wayne Heller has cancelled the resurrected cruise line's first European season due to the current econimic climate.

"We are exploring possible options to relaunch our cruise program at a more favourable time in the near future."

The maiden voyage on Maxim Gorky, which has been renamed Marco Polo II, was supposed to be on April 15 from Barcelona.

Booked customers will receive a full and prompt refund.

Royal Caribbean International's giant Oasis of the Seas has to be seen to be believed ... and I was lucky enough to see it on Friday, at STX Europe's shipyard in Turku, Finland, where it was about to be floated out.

The Caribbean it wasn't, with snow and ice on the ground and freezing temperatures, but we were kitted out with big coats, steel toe-cap shoes, gloves and hard hats for a walkabout in the dry dock and on board - the first groups to get a glimpse of what this levathon will be like.

After a lightening tour of some of the key places on the ship, we were taken dockside, a cannon was fired - so loudly the ground shook! - and the sluice gates were opened, allowing water to touch the hull for the first time.

The gates were opened at about 5pm and the dry dock was expected to be filled by midnight so the ship could be sailed out to a new berth where the interior will be fitted out. They have just under a year to transform it from looking like a mass of steel and scaffolding, as below, into a luxurious cruise ship.

This is the Royal Promenade - the very same feature you'll find on the Voyager and Freedom-class cruise ship, except this one will be more than twice as wide as the "street" on those vessels. When finished, there will be a pub, shops, cafes and the amazing Rising Tide Bar.

Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines chairman and chief executive officer Richard Fain, who was guiding my group, said they decided they needed a lift to get passengers from the Royal Promenade to Central Park above and those little box things most of us manage with to get up and down floors was just too boring. So they are putting in a bar. Of course.

The idea is that it acts as a lift, but I can see passengers grabbing a stool for the evening and staying put.

Unless of course they are tempted away by the antics in the Aquatheatre at the back of the ship.

There is a pool, 17.9 feet deep (this one pool will hold more water than all the pools on the Freedom-class ships) surrounded by amphitheatre-style seating and with a bridge 10 metres above from which performers will be diving into the water. Sort of Cirque de Oasis, I guess. Apparently one show will have a row of divers going off the bridge all at once, which would be quite spectacular

When the pool is not needed for swimming, the bottom can be raised so it also becomes a dance floor.

These rectangular bars of metal on the pods on Royal Caribbean's Oasis of the Seas look a bit like those things tyre fitters use to balance your car's wheels.

In fact, they are sacrificial anodes and their job is to divert the corrosive attentions of salt water away from the pods they are positioned on. When their job is done, they are simply replaced. Quick, easy and a darn sight cheaper than replacing a corroded engine.

So simple. And apparently they really work too!

First stop on the way to the shipyard to see Royal Caribbean International's Oasis of the Seas was a bike shop in Turku where, in one corner, we were able to tramp through a mock-up of a standard version of one of the 28 new loft suites that will be on the ship.

Was this to keep it away from the prying eyes of the competition, I wondered? Who would think of looking in a bike shop? But no. We were told it was actually only because the factory happened to have a bit of space available. Sometimes fiction is so much better.

These loft suites are spectacular, two decks high and with a floor-to-ceiling glass window which looks out over the balcony and out to sea.

Downstairs there is a bathroom, dining table that slides out of the way after use and a sitting area with a flat-screen TV and sofa bed. It then opens out to the balcony.

Upstairs is a mezzanine with another bathroom, this one with a shower with his and hers shower heads - RCCL chairman and chief executive officer Richard Fain was amazed I'd never seen such a thing and then revealed he has a his and hers shower at his home and that it is very handy when him and her are different heights because you don't have to keep moving the heads up and down - and a double bed with a flat-screen TV that opens out of the ceiling.

Oasis of the Seas has such a lot of new things on board to thrill and excite passengers that the ship had to be the size it is just to hold them all, explains Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines chairman and chief executive officer Richard Fain.

Speaking at the float out of the ship, in a snow-covered shipyard in Turku, Finland, he said Oasis is one-third traditional Royal Caribbean, one-third evolutionary and one-third revolutionary.

The traditional is, for instance the Schooner Bar, which can be found on other Royal Caribbean ships. The evolution is the Royal Promenade, which is twice the width of the promenades on other ships, and will twist and turn instead of running in a straight line. The revolution is Central Park, a huge open area in the middle of the ship that will have real trees and shrubs, the loft suites, the Aquatheatre, zipwire and more.

"I know size is what everyone focuses on, but we didn't set out to build the world's biggest ship. Oasis is big because we decide what we want to put in and than wrap a ship around it. We don't just take rooms from other ships and make them bigger, but we add more, to give passengers the opportunity to do things they never would have thought of doing on a ship."

Fain revealed that he initially thought putting a rock-climbing wall on the Voyager-class ships was a really stupid idea, but went along with it because it was the least stupid idea he was presented with at the time. He now jokes that it was one of the best ideas he ever had ("that's one of the benefits of being chairman!").

Oasis of the Seas is now 65% ready. Its first sea trial is scheduled for June, with a second one in September.

It will weigh 225,000 tons (this is the shipyard's figure, which keen readers will notice is another 5,000 on the tonnage previously quoted), which makes it more than twice as heavy as an aircraft carrier, and carry 5,400 passengers.

Inside, there will be 5,000km of electric cable, 250km of pipes, 100,000 electric points, 90,000 square metres of carpet, 8,000 square metres of windows and there will be 2,300 metric tons of water in the pools. In all, it will be made up of about 500,000 individual parts.

Now Oasis of the Seas is out of the dry dock, the yard can start work on sister ship Allure of the Seas. The keel-laying is on December 2, with delivery slated for late autumn 2010.

John Sargeant's decision to exit from Strictly Come Dancing means he is now free to take up a previously booked slot as guest speaker on P&O Cruises' Oceana, on a 15-night voyage from Barbados through the Caribbean and into Latin America.

Putting up with unpleasant comments from the judges week after week or basking in the Caribbean sun? What a tricky decision.

Hot on the heels of Silversea's decision to bring Prince Albert II back to the Arctic for summer 2009, Hurtigruten has added capacity in Spitsbergen for June, July and August for 2009.

The additional cruises are on the 120-passenger Expedition, which is owned by Gap Adventures and has been chartered on a crew basis for four years by Spitsbergen Travel, which is a subsidiary of Hurtigruten.

Expedition will be sailing 13 nine-day Kingdom of the Polar Bear cruises for Hurtigruten from Longyearbyen, circumnavigating Spitsbergen, weather permitting.

Hurtigruten's head of commercial Kathryn Beadle said demand has outstripped capacity on the line's two other ships in Spitsbergen.

"Our main nine-day Spitsbergen voyage is already close to being sold out for 2009 and we still have more than six months' selling time."

Expedition, which has an ice-strengthened hull, was built in 1972 and is currently undergoing modernisation. When it enters service it will have a panorama lounge, expedition lounge, restaurant, library, bar, fitness room and sauna.

Cold is clearly the new hot for British cruisers. Just a month ago Titan HiTours announced it had signed an alliance with National Geographic which enables Brits to travel on the company's expedition ships, operated by Lindblad Expeditions, to Antarctica, the Arctic, Alaska, the Galapagos and other such exciting places.

There's never been a better time to go cruising on your own.

Elegant River Cruises, part of Connections, which is the independent travel division of Titan Travel, is offering no single supplements to travellers who book a spring cruise before December 31. It means a potential saving of nearly £2,500.

Now Oceania Cruises has slashed the single supplement on Far East and Australia cruises on Nautica between December 2008 and April 2009, cutting it from 100% to 50%.

I reckon we'll see a lot more offers for singles over the coming weeks as lines pull out all the stops to fill their ships in these credit-crunching times.

Agents should urge clients travelling along to make the most of it and who knows? Maybe the cruise lines will discover a hidden market and the lower supplements will stick.

Or maybe not. But it's a nice thought.

In a move Woolworths would be proud of, Italian cruise line MSC Cruises is offering cruises for £1 on selected sailings across the fleet next year - even on new ships MSC Fantasia and MSC Splendida.

To qualify, one person has to book an MSC Cruise at brochure price and the second person travelling with them will then pay only £1, plus any flights of course. The offer is applicable to more than 100 departures between March and November, but bookings have to be made between December 1 and 7 this year.

Drastic times call for drastic action, but is it a bit too drastic? Last week Travelmole reported on a survey by the website Cruise Critic which found that just 13% of cruise travellers would not be cruising next year because of financial pressures.

People did say they would be looking at ways to cut the cost of their cruise. Avoiding flying, booking at the last minute and cutting on-board spend were top ideas. But they pale into insignificance compared with the now very obvious way of cutting costs.

Book an MSC Cruise for £1!

QE2 arrives in Dubai this morning, November 26, the last stop on her last cruise.

An Emirates double-decker A380 aircraft will be making a grand flypast to welcome the ship as it arrives at The World islands and a flotilla of small boats will be waiting to escort the ship to her new home at Palm Jumeirah.

At 3pm tomorrow, Cunard will hand over the keys to new owner Nakheel in a traditional flag-changing ceremony.

And so the chapter ends - just in time for a new one to begin.

Worrying story in Travel Agent Central of the tough time being faced by US travel agents because, as we all known, what happens over the Pond happens over here.

Of course it's inevitable that bookings will slow when recession hits and people are worried about money and jobs, but one agents says people are "scared" and admits she has very few new orders."Scared" is a different ball game.

On the positive side, cruise lines are coming in with bargains to try to encourage sales. The paper says Celebrity Cruises had a three-day Post-Election Sale-a-Bration. Clever, but not nearly as attractive as MSC's cruise for £1 offer.

Other lines are upping commission to get agents on side; others still are moving ships to local ports to try to capture demand. It's why Carnival president and CEO Gerry Cahill decided to pull out of Europe.

"Close-to-home cruise options...are clearly the preference of the vast majority of the mainstream vacation market right now."

P&O Cruises is going back to its core values of delivering a traditional British cruising experience with new ship Azura, launching next year.

The ship will be a sister to Ventura, managing director Nigel Esdale said, but it will not be the same. Crucially, instead of the big push for families that accompanied the launch of Ventura, Azura will be aimed at couples looking for "a serene holiday experience" that is unahamedly British.

"Azura will establish P&O as a contemporary brand that delivers a stylish large ship experience in tune with what the British want. British tastes will drive the decor, entertainment and shore excursions .... All passengers will be British so they need to be able to feel at home"

That's not to say families will be banned on this ship. Azura will have as much space devoted to kids and teens as Ventura, and Noddy and Mr Bump will be on board - as will bungee trampolines, high up on deck 19.

Azura will have an Indian restaurant, Sindhu, created by Michelin-starred chef Atul Kochhar (this will be where East is on Ventura) and a new restaurant-cum-wine-bar, The Glass House, being created with the help of TV wine expert Olly Smith.

There will also be a new fine dining restaurant - presumably where The White Room is on Ventura - but it has as yet no name, as well as the usual self-service outlets and dining rooms. There will be three dining rooms, with fixed and dine-when-you-like options available.

A couple of things have been "borrowed" from sister brand Princess Cruises - an adult-only Retreat on the top deck and an open-air cinema (respectively the Sanctuary and Movies under the Stars on Princess ships) - but new for P&O (in fact new for any cruise ship built this century) there will be single cabins. There are just 18, it's true, and they will carry a premium but nothing like the double occupancy price that many lines charge.

Also new are a couple of large suites suitable for families or groups of friends and designated spa cabins located near the Oasis Spa.

Michelin-starred chef Atul Kocchar, the man behind Sindhu, the Indian restaurant opening on P&O Cruises' new ship Azura, tells me his dishes will be Indian "with a British twist".

The "twist" being that there will be no hot curries, but rather a tasty use of spices. "What if some like it hot?" I asked, a little dismayed. We can cater for them too, Atul promised.

Atul said Sindhu will also be all about presentation. The food will look more attractive than the stuff dished out at your local Tandoori, with meat and sauces served separately so diners can see what cut of meat they are eating (I know what he means - I always go vegetarian at my local curry house, just in case....).

As well as creating the menus, Atul will be helping to design Sindhu and also training the staff who will work there, either by going on board himself or having one member of staff learn the ropes at one of his restaurants (he owns Benares in London, Vatika in Southampton and Ananda in Dublin) so he or she can teach the others.

Meanwhile, he is getting ready to embark on his first P&O voyage, in March or April next year, so he can see what this cruising lark is all about. "I've been on Ventura in Southampton and am confident this will work," he says. "The biggest challenge for me is not having an open fire."

And for that I think we can all be grateful.

Princess Cruises must be cock-a-hoop about Cruise Thomas Cook's new cruise report.

The Love Boat line puts a lots of store on romance and now it transpires they were right, with nearly two-thirds of the 5,000 Brits polled by the cruise retailer revealing that a cruise helps to put the spark back in their relationships.

More than half of those surveyed said tables for two at dinner get them in a romantic mood, while 30% said dining on their cabin balcony gets them in the mood (good news for Princess, which has Anytime dining for passengers who want a romantic table for two and balcony dining for lovers who prefer a little privacy).

Just under a quarter said a Champagne breakfast worked magic in the romance department, while one in four said they'd like to get married on a cruise ship (yes, Princess can help there as well, with its weddings at sea performed by the captain). The findings are just a few of the facts to emerge from Cruise Thomas Cook's first cruise report.

* 70% would like to see a full-scale West End or Broadway musicals (with West End and Broadway quality performers, I would hope, but history doesn't relate).

* 57% wanted a total ban on smoking.

* 44% would love a branch of Marks & Spencer and Boots on a cruise ship (why go away if you want to take the high street with you, I wonder?)

* 45% of female cruisers buy new undies before setting off on a cruise (hopefully they are cruising with their loved ones, although again history does not relate).

* 65% prefer organised shore excursions to exploring alone.

It's all good fun stuff, but the really important thing for agents and cruise lines is that the survey bears out what has been said so many times: Get someone on a cruise once and they will be back. Some 4,811 of the 5,000 polled had been on a cruise and more than three quarters said they "were very likely" to cruise again.

Cruise Thomas Cook director Marc Bennett said: "As an independent cruise retailer we are in a good position to provide this type of report. There is no angle for us but the most important factor in continuing to grow the UK cruise market will be a greater understanding of the needs and requirements of today's cruise passengers."

Do I spy a possible sideline selling undies? I'll bet it's more lucrative than travel insurance and forex, and certainly a lot more interesting.

When it is a taster cruise from Cruise Thomas Cook. These tasters are a benefit for anyone who joins the retailer's new Cruise Club and explained as follows:

"For those who want to sample a life at sea for real, taster cruises are available for The Cruise Club members to book for a small fee. Once on board members will be given the opportunity to sample a menu and view a selection of cabins to help decide if a cruise is right for them. If it is, when they book, the fee will be refunded."

Wow. What a fab offer. You can go on a short cruise and "sample life at sea" - and the cost is refunded if you then book another cruise?

Er, no. It's actually a ship visit, a meal on board and a tour of the cabins.

Nothing new there then.

Hebridean International Cruises is going back to the Caribbean and Central America for winter 2009/10 - and this time it is taking people on the transatlantic.

The cruiseline's 98-passenger Hebridean Spirit made its debut in the region in winter 07/08 and that time went over the Pond empty, thinking that no one would want to be making that journey in a 4,200-ton ship. It seem they were wrong.

"The brochure's only been out a couple of weeks but we already have some bookings for the crossing," managing director Mike Deegan told me on the even smaller Hebridean Princess - just 2,112 tons and yes, the one the Queen chartered - when it was in Tilbury this week.

The night before I was there, it had been hosting Hebridean's top-selling agents for an awards evening and overnight. It is a lovely little ship, with quaint but beautifully-appointed cabins, but at that size I can understand why they run for cover at the first sign of bad weather.

News of those intrepid transatlanticers is interesting, but the real point here is that they have actually been able to book because the brochure is already out - part of a strategic move by Hebridean to stop lagging behind when it comes to getting its cruises out on agents' shelves.

There are some great cruises in there, more Caribbean than before, and taking Spirit though the Panama Canal and into ports in Cuba that most people will never have heard of.

The 2010 summer programme will be out in March, and one brochure will feature cruises on both ships, which is also a first for the cruiseline - usually there are two brochures for each ship each year.

I am told Princess will be doing its usual Scotland stuff, but dropping its Norway visits as Spirit is going north for the summer, covering off Norway and the Arctic areas.

Italian line Costa Cruises has been named "Best Cruise Company" at the annual Virgin Holidays awards. Runners up were Carnival and Ocean Village.

Naturally managing director Marco Rosa is pleased - in fact almost as thrilled as when I saw him last week, racing high-performance cars at a fantastic day out at Thurleigh Airfield near Bedford with some of his top-selling agents and fellow scribes.

He now has to come back down to earth and get ready for 2009, when Costa has two new ships launching - the Costa Luminosa and Costa Pacifica - so close to each other they are sharing a naming ceremony.

Cruise Critic reports that Fred Olsen is considering pulling its Liverpool departures because of the scrapyard scenery and "abysmal" facilities its passengers have to put up with at Langton Docks.

Thomson Cruises has already voted with its fleet and decided not to offer cruises from Liverpool after a trial run this summer.

The problem? Cruises that start and end in Liverpool have to use Langton Docks, while cruiselines just visiting for the day get to use the shiny new terminal.

The reason? The powers that be managed to build the new terminal that doesn't have the customs and baggage-handling facilities needed for turnaround days, when one set of passengers disembarks and the next lot comes on.

The result? Huge loss of potential earnings to the city.

How clever was that?

Travelmole reports that Yachts of Seabourn is to name its second new ship, Seabourn Sojourn, in London, when it launches in June 2010.

The vessel will be the second of three sisters bring built by Seabourn. The first, Seabourn Odyssey, comes out of the shipyard in June 2009.

It's yet more proof of how much faith cruiselines have in the UK market, even in these credit crunching times, following hot on the heels of Celebrity Cruises' announcement a couple of weeks ago that it will be offering its first cruises from Southampton, aimed at British cruisers, in summer 2010.

Seabourn president and CEO Pam Conover said the UK has a large and loyal following of repeat cruisers from the UK and expects this to grow.

"In the long term, the UK represents a huge growth market for Seabourn as UK cruisers look for a more intimate, personal experience offering exceptional value for money, all of which can be found on our yachts." 

I'll be on a Windstar cruise in the Caribbean next week, finding out how the cruiseline is performing since it was sold to Ambassador International in February 2007. I'll be posting information and pictures, so keep an eye on Cruise Lines to find out more.