Cruise Lines

The annual Carnival UK report released last week is packed with interesting facts. Here are a few of the best:

• Princess Cruises carried more than 100,000 British passengers for the first time in 2007 and saw more growth in 2008 - all without any big marketing campaigns. Bodes well given Princess has a bigger ship, Grand Princess, based in Southampton this summer.
• Carnival Cruise Lines' sales grew almost 80% in 2008 compared to 2007 as a result of Carnival Splendor's season from Dover. Sadly, that turned out to be a one-off, at least while air fares stay high and money is tight.
• Costa Cruises has become a force in the honeymoon market due to its cruises from Mauritius. But don't send anyone looking for a traditional British cruise, UK managing director Marco Rosa warns.
• Passengers on Cunard's Queen Mary 2 managed to get through 97,000 pounds of lobster and 206,200 bottles of Champagne.
• Nearly three quarters of British holidaymakers are planning to spend at least as much on their main holiday this year as they did in 2008.

But the one that really caught my eye was that Ocean Village has replaced its plastic laundry bags with linen ones. Environment and all that.

All very laudable, but it occurs to me that the line's happy green thoughts will turn to seeing red when the linen bags start to walk off the ship.

Especially after I heard the story recently of a woman taking a long cruise on a luxury ship - no names, but it is true - who seemed to be getting through rather a lot of the lotions and shampoos you find in suites on classy lines.

The officer in charge of these things was getting a little worried - we might think it's a freebie, but this top-brand stuff apparently costs the cruiselines a lot of money. They had a look around the passengers' suite to try to find out what was happening and found a suitcase containing the bottles. Not just with 10 or 20, you understand, but full.

Brings a whole new meaning to the concept of money laundering.

Next time you moan about forking out $20 or $25 to eat in a cruise ship's speciality restaurant, spare a thought for the poor souls on Silversea vessels.

On Silversea's Silver Wind (and actually all the ships in the Silversea fleet except Prince Albert II), a night out in the speciality restaurant will set you back $200 a head. Yes really. But boy, do you get a night to remember for your $200!

As you sit down you are presented with a menu bearing your name (a copy is waiting for you later in your suite) and Bharati, the excellent maitre d' and sommelier - and also a bit of a dab hand when it comes to taking photos - and Raj, the waiter in Le Champagne, start to work their magic. Between them can't do enough to make the evening really special.

And then there is the wonderful food, all carefully prepared by Ryan, chef of Le Champagne, and the excellent wines. After a welcome glass of Champagne, you launch into the food and Bharati serves a specially-picked wine to go with each course. Pouring only after explaining its finer qualities, of course.

As you can see, by the end of the evening I was disappearing behind the glasses - there were another two wines to come after this picture was taken!

I was there for the Burgundy night, but there is also a Bordeaux one, an Italian one, a North American one and a Spanish one. Menus change every two days.

Whichever you choose, Bharati won't book more than 16 people per evening, spread out over a maximum five tables, so the experience is very special. In fact, when I dined there it was just me and two friends. Brilliant.

If the $200 price tag sounds just a little too high (actually it doesn't even cover the cost of the wine), you can pay just $30 per person to enjoy the food, but with this option you also have to pay for the wine (whereas it's free everywhere else on the ship). "We have wine for $1,800 a bottle," Bharati tells me.

Makes the degustation menu sound a bargain.

Seems the reason Carnival Cruise Lines pulled their ship from Dover this summer was nothing to do with the high cost of flights from the US to Europe at all but rather because they needed the ship for boat rides around Cochin.

Silversea's Silver Wind is a lovely ship, but by the third sea day after leaving Visakhapatnam, I was starting to dream of containers (you know, those big boxes that any port worth its salt has in spades) and silos.

So I was thrilled and relieved in equal measure to arrive in Cochin, where we have been for the past two days.

I had booked a tour to the Kerala Backwaters for the second day, so decided to go exploring in Cochin on day one. What an experience. First you have to run the gauntlet of the taxi drivers who are allowed in the port. A second tier of taxi and tuk-tuk drivers is waiting as you get out of the port gates; past another barrier, it's the third rank tuk-tuk guys.

I began to get an idea of what honey pots must feel like as drivers swarmed around, followed me, and drove past me, waiting until I got near so they could pounce again. It sounds awful, but they were not at all threatening, just a bit of a pain.

By walking quite a distance from the port, I not only got a good price for a ride into the city and back, but also travelled in style - in this air-conditioned Ferrari (that's what he said it was anyway) driven by Wahab.

He took me around some of the highlights - these fishing nets, the spice shops - waiting for me at each and then delivered me safely back to the ship.

Day two was a trip to the Backwaters. The first time I did this, the excursion was a transfer to Alleppey and a two-hour cruise on a tourist boat before returning to our cruise ship, and I loved it so much - so beautiful and peaceful - I decided to go again despite the rather scary (at current exchange rates) $199 price tag.

But boy, was this different. The 90-minute drive to Alleppey was in a mini bus with just eight people (there were more people in other buses) and we cruised for two hours on one of these houseboats. Just us eight. How exclusive is that!

These have anything from one to five bedrooms, and tourists come on usually for a night, but longer if they wish. There are around 500 of them plying the Backwaters.

Then it was off to the Marari Hotel for a lunch - a curry at last! - and paddle in the sea before returning to the ship. Two hours later the ropes were cast and we're now off again. Next stop New Mangalore.

Thanks to computer wizardry, we are able to see what Norwegian Cruise Line's new ship Norwegian Epic will look like.

This 153,000-ton giant is being built at STX Europe's shipyard in St Nazaire, France, and launches May 2010. It will have room for 4,200 passengers and goes on sale this spring.

According to my Thesaurus, epic means 'larger than life', 'impressive' and 'ambitious'.

Two out of three ain't bad.

You'd have had to have been living on Mars for the past 12 months not to have heard about Central Park, the zipwire and Moving Bar on Royal Caribbean International's Oasis of the Seas launching in December.

But how many of you know what's going to be on Carnival Cruise Lines' Carnival Dream, which comes out in September? They have kept very quiet about it, but not only is it the biggest ship of the fleet - 130,000 tons and with room for 3,646 passengers - it will have some great features.

All the usual spas, kids' clubs, restaurants, of course, and also that latest cruise ship must have - a water park.

But hang on. This is no ordinary water park. We are not talking the usual fountains and jets, but a four-deck-high corkscrew water slide and a four-lane racing slide.

I wasn't impressed when I saw the water park on Carnival Splendor during its inaugural sailing from Dover last year but the one on Dream looks great.

I just dread to think what the queues will be like.

"There are three things you need when driving in Goa", Mario, our guide for the day, informs us as our rickety old bus puffs and wheezes its out of the port of Mormugao on the temples and spices tour. "A good horn, good brakes and good luck."

This is the fifth port in India that Silver Wind has visited on this Silversea around India and I reckon I have seen it all when it comes to driving in this country.

Drivers who fit their vehicles through gaps as long as there is a paper width of space on either side, overtake in the face of oncoming traffic, hoot horns in the hope it will save them from meeting their maker, and motorbikes that weave in and out of cars and tuk-tuks, often coming to a sudden stop when there is no more space.

Yet it all seems to work.

Mario was full of interesting information about Goa, which was Portuguese rather than British, and only got its independence in 1961 - 14 years after the rest of India.

Part one of the tour was a Hindu temple, which was interesting, but the highlight for me was the spice farm. I've been there before and knew that after a walk through the spice plants they serve a proper spicy curry - something I have been dying for every since joining the ship.

This poor man has to shin up and down a beetle nut tree every time tourists walk by to show how it's done...

...and this is Sandhip, our guide at the plantation, with a cashew nut flower. It's soft and smells of peaches. The skin is used to make the local fire water, which was not bad. but it smelt vile.

The food on Silver Wind has been really very good, but why oh why, on a cruise around India, is there not at least one curry option on the menu each evening?

I had a curry on the galley lunch day (this is an amazing event on all Silversea ships where they open the galley as a self-service restaurant) and another a couple of evenings ago, which French executive chef Laurent Austrui squeezed in among the veal and duck due to popular demand.

I have always thought cruise ship menus should better reflect the places they visit - spicy jerk chicken in Jamaica, tapas dinners in Spain, crispy duck in China, and so on.

Seems a lot of passengers might just agree with me.

Did I say I have seen it all when it comes to driving in India? That was before Mumbai, formerly Bombay, which makes everywhere else I've been on this Silversea cruise around India on Silver Wind look amateurish when it comes to bad driving.

Not that the driving was my problem on my day in the city. I left that to my taxi driver Gurcharan Singh, who I promised to recommend if anyone is visiting the city. His car is clean and in good nick, he speaks English well and he'll make sure you see all the must-see sights (you can call him on 9821375607 but be prepared to bargain a bit!)

No. My problem was crossing the road to get from the cab to see the colourful fruit, veg and spices at Crawford Market. Going one way I sheltered behind a local who was making the death-defying trip; on the way back I was on my own. Thing is, they don't stop, but weave around you, leaving you an island amid all the cars.

In desperation I resorted to holding my hand up as a stop sign, hoping they would take pity on me. They didn't exactly stop, but as you see I lived to tell the tale.

Mumbai is an amazing place. If you visit be sure to go to the Dhobi Ghat, or laundry (below), where 4,500 people live and work keeping the 16 million citizens of the city clean. Gurcharan explained that smaller laundries, acting as agents, collect the washing and bring it to one like this. He claims they never lose anything.

You also have to see the Gateway of India, built 1911 to commemorate a visit by King George V and Queen Mary; the last British troops left India from here in 1948.

In the days of empire, this is where important people - governors and the like - disembarked after sailing from the UK with P&O; these days it's full of hawkers trying to sell you stuff or spin a bad-luck story so you'll hand over wads of cash. It's irritating but the way of the world here so grin and bear it - and hang on to your money!

The Taj hotel so badly damaged during the terrorist attack in November is just to one side of the gateway. They've done a great job fixing it up and it's good to see life going on as normal all around.

My tour took me into the red light district, past some of the famous Mumbai slums, now even more famous thanks to Slumdog Millionaire, and to the Victoria Terminus.

Like so much in India, the station has been renamed. It's now called Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vaastu Sanghralaya. Don't panic, though, because like so much in India, the locals still call it by its original name. Can't think why.

And yes, they do still call Mumbai Bombay. "It's much easier to say," Gurcharan explained.

I'm delighted to read MSC Cruises is to recognise the bravery of the four crew members who dived in to rescue the passenger ditched into the sea when MSC Fantasia's gangway collapsed last week.

It all happened in Palma, when high winds caused Fantasia's bow mooring bollards to come loose. The ship moved away from the dock and the gangway went down. The local port authorities have admitted responsibility of the incident.

The Fantasia four - Caso Salvatore, chief crew steward, from Italy; Naim Samsudin, able fireman, from Indonesia; Andrian O Williams, housekeeping cleaner, from Madagascar; and Faamoe Lalopua, Able Sailor, from Samoa - went immediately to the rescue and had the 80-year-old passenger out of the water in minutes. He is said to be recovering well in hospital.

That has to be service beyond the call of duty. I hope they are well rewarded. They certainly deserve it.

It's all systems go for Oceania Cruises, as the keel is laid for new ship Marina at Fincantieri's Sestri Ponente shipyard near Genoa, Italy.

The Oceania-class ship, the cruiseline's first new build, will hold 1,252 passengers - almost twice as many as the three other vessels in Oceania's fleet - in 626 cabins, of which 96% will have teak balconies. The ship will have six open dining restaurants. It launches next year.

At the keel-laying ceremony, Oceania's founder Frank Del Rio, now chairman and CEO of Prestige Cruise Holdings, Oceania's parent company, welded a US silver dollar and a pre-Castro silver Cuban peso into the keel of the new ship to ensure its good fortune. A steel block was then lowered into the dock.

Only another 54 to go and they will have a ship.

Del Rio is on the left, with Bob Binder, Oceania's president, on the right.

For those who don't know, the Hogs in question are Harley Davidson nuts (members of the Harley Owners Group), who, believe it or not, every so often go off cruising together.

It's all organised by Dean and Debbie Anderson, who run Hogs on the High Seas, and gather hundreds of bikers together. "We can have fun without worrying about drinking and driving," says Dean, who naturally is also a Hog.

Which is all really just an excuse for showing you this picture....

Meet Captain Hog, aka Johnny Faevelen, current master of Royal Caribbean International's Mariner of the Seas, who keeps his Harley with him on the ship.

Dean says lucky Hogs get a chance to see the bike in the hold and the captain sometimes rides out with the group (special excursions are organised for Hogs as they can't take their bikes on the ship).

Not surprisingly, Mariner is the Hogs favourite ship - in fact a big group will be descending on it in November. Mostly Americans, but they usually get 10-12 Brits on each cruise.

As you might expect, bikers are not into all that cruise ship dress code malarkey, so Dean gets special dispensation for the group. Evening dress code is jeans and t-shirts (no profanity please!), except on formal nights, of course, when they are expected to make an effort and wear leather (please be discreet!).

And here's the best bit.... they are booked for second sitting dinner because the waiters get into the spirit of the occasion and come in bikers' gear. As their work for the day is done once the Hogs shuffle off to their own show (you didn't really think they would sit through that schmaltzy songs from the shows stuff did you?), the waiters don't have to change back into their black and whites and start serving the smart casual brigade.

Dean really has though of everything.

Nakheel, the Dubai company that now owns QE2, says it is considering opening the ship to tours in its current state in response to popular demand. Probably also because it is rather expensive having a ship moored up with engines running, especially in these tough economic times.

The company is clearly smarting over rumours that money is so tight it has droppped plans to spend millions transforming QE2 into a luxury floating hotel and might now sell it for scrap.

A very long statement says, in a nutshell, that it takes time to work out how best to do all the work. It explains an engine is running to provide power and light and keep the air circulating.

"Irrespective of short-term plans, the ultimate goal is to renovate and refurbish QE2, and for her to be the focal point of a luxury precinct, dedicated to her, that will recreate an authentic luxury ocean liner ambience and lifestyle. There is no question of QE2 being operated as a cruise liner or of her being sold to any third party whatsoever."
 

First reports on the future design are expected at the end of the summer, at which point they will issue a timeline for the refurbishment (well, almost total rebuild really).

I can't wait.

Oh to be crossing the Atlantic on Cunard's Queen Mary 2 on June 19, when James Taylor will be playing two gigs (actually they're "command performances" on the QM2).

I admit I am not the world's greatest James Taylor fan - far from it (if he walked past me in Sainsbury's I would never know) - but how I have longed to see some real singing talent on cruise ships. And here it is.

He'll be on a eastbound crossing from New York to Southampton and is using it as a way to get his band, crew, gear and family to Europe - minus jetlag -  for a summer tour.

I, meanwhile, will be at the Association of Cruise Experts' Cruise Convention in Dover.

By the way, there is still room on the June 19 crossing if, like me, you would like a break from the traditional belt-em-out singers they so love on cruise ships.

Considering the stuff Disney trades in, I guess we shouldn't be too surprised the cruise line picked Dream and Fantasy as the names for their two new ships. I just wish I had put money on it.

Disney Dream and Disney Fantasy will be launched in 2011 and 2012 respectively. Each is 122,000 tons and carries 2,500 passengers (but there's room for 4,000 with all the berths in use).

Steel cutting began last week at the Meyer Werft shipyard in Papenburg, Germany, and guess who was there to help the day along?

Oh dear. Hasn't anyone got anything nice to say about Norwegian Cruise Lines' new ship, Norwegian Epic? I think it's safe to say it has made an impact -- but for all the wrong reasons, if comments on the Cruise.co.uk and Cruise Critic websites are anything to go by.

Maybe things will improve once it has the trademark NCL graffiti down the sides?

I see the lucky folk on Silversea's new ship Silver Spirit, cruising from New York to Southampton on an April/May transatlantic, will be calling at Plymouth, that well-known cruise mecca where Sir Francis Drake is said to have played bowls as the Spanish Armada approached.

I can't help wondering why. I was brought up "over the bridge" from Plymouth and can't think of a single reason to visit the place. The Pilgrim Fathers had the right idea. They left. And that was before the post-war architects got their hands on it and created an ugly concrete jungle.

Interestingly, next port after Plymouth is Southampton, so maybe there will be an opportunity for a few favoured guests to see the ship if there's no time when it comes out of the shipyard in December.

Plymouth aside, there are some great cruises in a new dedicated Silver Spirit brochure. An amazing 91-night Grand Inaugural round South America from January to April 2010, cruises through the Western and Eastern Med, into the Black Sea, lots of overnights in many of my favourite places - Sorrento, Venice and Istanbul.

The ship returns to the Caribbean at the end of October.

It was always such an easy equation. SeaDream Yacht Club ships had 55 cabins - sorry, suites - and held 110 passengers. I could do that even without O level maths.

But things are changing over at the diminutive luxury specialist. SeaDream II is now sporting a new suite, and sister ship SeaDream I - because the company is very fair - is going to get one too.

On both, the new Admiral's Suite is where the boutique used to be. I'm told the folk at SeaDream who did pass O level maths did a few calculations and decided they could make more monely selling the space as a suite than they did from it as a shop where passengers bought the odd tube of toothpaste or branded shirt.

You can still buy that stuff, but it's all at reception now.

SeaDream I is going into a shipyard in Lisbon for its new suite refit. Work starts in June, so the accommodation will be ready for the start of the Mediterranean season.

"It's a bit smaller than the Owners' Suite, so it's a bit cheaper," SeaDream's head of UK business Ian Buckeridge says. If size means anything, it's 375 square feet, while the Owners' Suite is 450 square feet.

The new suite has a separate living/dining area - the latter with a dining table that seats four - a master bedroom and one-and-a-half bathrooms. There is an entertainment center with wall-mounted flat-screen TV, refreshment centre - I assume that's what we ordinary mortals call a minibar - and writing desk.

The master bedroom features a queen-sized bed with flat-screen TV and a master bathroom with marble walls and floor, multi-jet shower massage, tub and vanity area. There is no balcony - none of the SeaDream rooms have balconies - but the suite has three panorama windows looking out to sea.

The suite is a great addition, but the timing is lousy as SeaDream is having to discount to fill existing capacity - just 110 passengers (112 with the new room) don't forget."It's a tough environment," Buckeridge admits.

Seems I'm not the only person who dislikes fixed dining. A Cruise Critic poll has found the thought of sharing a table with other passengers was the Brits' least favourite thing about cruising.

I don't know what reason others have, but mine are simple. Too often I've been stuck on a table for seven nights, trying to make conversation with people with whom I have nothing in common and who are, frankly, boring. One night is fine - you can do all the usual who-are-you stuff. Then it's time to move on and do the same with another bunch.

Give me a dine-when-you-like option anytime when you can either sit with different people each night or just with your partner.

Even the Captain is seen as an undesirable when it comes to dining companions. More than a fifth said their first thought on receiving an invitation to the Captain's table was "how do I get out of this?" How times have changed. An invitation to the Captain's Table used to signify the pinnacle of your cruising career.

The poll also found the Brits cruise on their stomachs. Some 60% said a cruiseline's reputation for quality cuisine would affect their choice of cruise, while 63% said the best thing about dining on board is the quality of the food. Hmmm. Not so sure about that one.

It's true that some cruiselines so serve good food, but mostly it's fairly run-of-the-mill stuff with a posh name to appeal to the most unadventurous palate; invariably it's served lukewarm (for all the pomp and ceremony in the main dining rooms, it is still mass catering with food cooked well in advance).

When dining companions go into raptures over what is essentially meat and two veg by another name I have wonder what these people eat at home.

Interestingly, 53% said they pay extra to go in the speciality restaurant at least once or twice when they cruise. James Martin, who works with Ocean Village, was the favourite celebrity chef, followed by Marco Pierre White and Gary Rhodes, who have restaurants on P&O Cruises' ships.

I do like James Martin but guess who my favourite is?

The question from Jill on Cruise.co.uk must rank up there with the cruise directors' favourite daft passenger comments, among them "do these stairs go up or down?" and "does the ship run on mains electric?"

She claims to be terrified of water and therefore is dreading having to go in the sea during the safety drill. I'm pleased to see most of the respondents have a good sense of humour. Do take a miute to read them. They made me smile and brightened up my early morning start!

A poll by Co-operative Travel into the best cruising companions got me thinking. Which celebrity would I like to go on a cruise with?

The poll of 650 holidaymakers was broken down into four sections - celebrity men and women the men would most like to cruise with and then the same two categories for the ladies. An interesting idea, but clearly people were given a list to choose from as the same celebs appear on each, just in a different order.

And what a random selection of names they were given, including Terry Wogan, Tom Cruise, Carol Vorderman, Rod Stewart. With one exception I would have had to reply "none of the above".

Daniel Craig, aka 007, came out top for the ladies. No surprise there. Stephen Fry topped the men's chart for the top male celeb. Right.

The men chose Myleene Klaas as their favourite female cruise companion - but no I don't think it had anything to do with her godmothering Carnival Splendor in Dover last year (unless it was the moment her dress did a Marilyn Munroe) - while the ladies went for Julie Walters.

All this was done to celebrate old new figures from the Passenger Shipping Association (they have been bandied about enough already, let's face it) that almost 1.5 million Brits took a cruise last year - an 11% increase on 2007. Nice one.

Travel Asia Daily reports that Singapore is to build in a new cruise terminal as part of a plan to develop as a major cruise hub.

The designs look interesting - the rooftops are supposed to depict rolling waves - but let's hope they remember to make it big enough.

When I was there last year on P&O Cruises' Aurora we had to park in the cargo terminal because of the ship's size (and it only has room for 1,870 passengers) and disembark straight onto the dock, to be surrounded by those ubiquitous MSC containers that the cargo arm of MSC Cruises ships around the world.

To their credit, they did bother to put up a welcoming tent, had a forex desk on hand and there was an efficient - and free - shuttle bus into the city.

The terminal designs were unveiled at Seatrade in Miami this week. Opening is planned for the end of 2011.

Regular readers will have been following my recent travels around India; now, almost two weeks after my return - where does the time go? -  it's time for a few thoughts on my ship, Silversea's Silver Wind.

I last cruised with Silversea in 2008 and visited some drop-dead gorgeous places in the Mediterranean, but felt Silversea's six stars need to be taken out and given a polish; other ultra-luxury lines were not just snapping at the heels but overtaking.

Not any more. Money is being invested across the fleet to modernise the ships. Silver Wind only emerged from drydock in November, a couple of months before I was on, and is sporting a lot of new features.

All the suites on Silver Wind now have flat-screen TV - that might sound trivial but clunky old TVs make a room look very outdated.

There is also a new category of large Medallion suites on deck eight forward (pictured) and a new Owners' Suite - that was my room! - where the spa used to be. The spa is now on deck nine, where there was once open deck space.

When I was on board, I was one of the lucky ones to have a butler, the lovely Suren, but Silversea has just announced that butler service is being rolled out across all suite categories on all ships this year. As every cabin is a suite in Silversea's world, that means everyone gets a butler. Polishing those six stars again, you see.

Like most of the top-ranking luxury lines, Silversea is all inclusive so there's nothing to pay for drinks, whether soft or alcoholic. It does mean Silversea costs more, I know, but it's so nice not to have drinks waiters hovering awkwardly while you try to find your cruise card - and you never hear anyone moan about the 15% gratuity other lines slap on the drinks bill!

Included drinks also helps the onboard ambience no end. You can sit and enjoy a drink with someone you've just met without worrying who is going to pay. As one woman pointed out, that is especially nice if you're cruising alone.

My evenings were spent in The Bar - yes, that's really its name and it was above The Restaurant (functional but not too imaginative) - where we were looked after like royalty by Oliver and Covi. It was always packed before dinner, a bit busy after and empty by 11.30pm. There is a nice Panorama Lounge on deck eight (always busy for the cute sandwiches and cakes they serve for afternoon tea) and a cosy library if you want a quiet read or to borrow a DVD.

The service on Silver Wind was faultless. Not just efficient, but genuinely friendly. These guys never stopped smiling. They were even smiling when three of us turned up at the 11th hour for dinner one night, just when they might have been hoping for an early night. Nothing was ever too much trouble.

The food was also consistently good - even the hotdogs and burgers around the pool. Dinner in the main dining room (The Restaurant - pictured here) is open seating so you can eat when you want and sit with whom you want. I like that. And that food was almost always delivered hot, which was another plus point for me.

For a change, you can eat in La Terrazza, which is the buffet by day and a speciality Italian restaurant by night. There's no extra charge to dine there, but you do need to book and numbers are limited so as not to spoil the ambience.

There is another alternative - the paid-for Le Champagne, which I have already written about.

While on the subject of food I must mention the galley lunch. I have never seen anything like this. On a sea day, on every cruise where possible, the galley is turned into a self-service and you just go in and help yourself to the salads, cold meats, stir-fries, fish, roast beef, fiery curry (well it was by the time I had added a good dollup of chilli) and other dishes on offer.

It was brilliant - not only because the food was so tasty but because this was so very different. The crew had worked so hard getting the galley dressed up for the occasion and I think I can safely say that everyone appreciated it.

Silversea has some unheard of deals at the moment - not just great discounts, but you'll also get spending money to use in Le Champagne or put towards shore excursions. It's a cliche I know, but luxury really has never been so affordable. Why not give it a go?

Someone obviously heeded my blog last month and got a quick bid in for Hebridean International Cruises' 98-passenger Hebridean Spirit because the ship has just been sold.

It's a shock after being told by sales and marketing director Ken Charlson that the vessel was being taken off the market and it was "business as usual".

I'm very sad on two counts - it was a lovely ship, small and friendly; more to the point, I should have been cruising with them in April, on an exciting itinerary visiting Libya. Spirit goes at the start of the summer season so that's all off now.

Anyone booked on Spirit will be offered a full refund or a transfer to Hebridean's other ship, the 49-passenger Hebridean Princess, which sails around the Scottish isles. Somehow that's not quite the same as Libya.

The sale also means jobs will go, both at head office in North Yorkshire and among the crew.

Hebridean says it can't continue to operate Spirit in an aggressive market when all around are discounting. When I was on last, we were only half full (and it's only 98 passengers remember) - and that was two years ago.

Hebridean is going to concentrate on Hebridean Princess, a nice little ship but suddenly the company becomes a pretty insignificant operation.

I forecast the next announcement will be a name change, back to Hebridean Island Cruises. After all, it can't be "international" anymore.

Swan Hellenic has sailed in with a rescue plan for passengers left high and dry by Hebridean International's decision to sell Hebridean Spirit.

It is offering past Spirit passengers, or those currently booked, a past-passenger 5% discount off 2009/10 cruises on Minerva and Swan's Danube river programme.

Minerva is currently on a Cape to Cape cruise - sailing from Cape Horn to the Cape of Good Hope. On March 25 it leaves Cape Town for a 20-day cruise to Kenya, then sails from Kenya to Aqaba, through the Suez Canal and across the top of Africa, visiting Alexandria and Libya. In fact it will be there just a few days after I should have been! The ship will then start its Mediterranean and Northern Europe season.

Like Hebridean, Swan offers free excursions at every port and gratuities are included in the price; however, Minerva is bigger than Spirit and it's not all-inclusive so Spirit passengers will find they have to pay for drinks.

You can get details at the website or call reservations on 0845 017 1806.

It's been a busy weekend for me with two days taking part in question-and-answer sessions at the Cruise show at London's ExCel.

This was the UK's first dedicated Cruise show - and actually Carolyn Spencer-Brown, editor in chief at Cruise Critic, tells me she doesn't recall any cruise-centric show in the US either - so it was always going to be an experiment.

Carolyn (right) is pictured here with me, Royal Caribbean's associate vice-president general manager UK and Ireland Jo Rzymowska and Sky Travel presenter Claire Smith during one of the panels.

My impression from talking to cruiselines that had stalls (most were represented one way or another and those that were not there were conspicuous for their absence) was that the experiment worked.

Saturday morning was the busiest time. People were actually queuing at the Royal Caribbean stand to make bookings, which was incredible, and other cruiselines were doing very nicely thank you - even having to send back for more brochure supplies and staff to help man the stands.

It was quiet Saturday afternoon - was this when Captain Greybeard was there?; Sunday saw steady visitor numbers. We should know tomorrow what the total attendance was.

I was impressed with the numbers given everything that went against the show. We were informed two days before it opened that the Jubilee Line and DLR were not going to be working. That made getting there a trial for me and hundreds of others. If there's another Cruise show, ExCel is not the place to be!

We had the rugby on Saturday afternoon, Mothering Sunday and the lovely sunny weather. Who wants to be indoors at a show when the sun is shining? Quite a few people it seems. And they got there despite Transport for London.

I was on several Q&A panels with Carolyn, Steve Read from Sky Travel and Simon Veness from World of Cruising, talking about the joys of cruising, cruise destinations and why cruising is such a great holiday for families.

There was a lot of interest in cruising for single people and questions about the swingeing single supplements. I suggested a few cruiselines that don't penalise the lone traveller but it's a shame I couldn't mention more. Here were people who travel alone with money to spend and we were not able to direct them to any of the big lines (except P&O's Azura, but that's not even built yet!).

If there is another show, it would be good if the cruiselines went a little more overboard (sorry, couldn't resist it) with their stands.

A mini rock-climbing wall on the Royal Caribbean one maybe, appearances by Noddy on the P&O one (which actually disappeared under Complete Cruise Solution branding, which means what to consumers?), a mock up of a luxury suite, an executive chef cooking up dishes for visitors to taste.

Fred Olsen Cruise Lines was highlighting their Flagship Golf programme with a putting tent where visitors could practise their strokes, but otherwise none of the things that are on ships to excite and inspire current and would-be cruisers - there were quite a few cruise virgins listening to our talk on Sunday morning - were to be seen. It all costs money I know, but I can't help feeling it was a missed opportunity.

Princess Cruises is back in the Med in force in 2010 and offering a new selection of seven-night cruises, which are great for anyone desperate to cruise but short on time and money.

These week-long "Interludes" are on Ocean Princess (that's currently the Tahitian Princess but the ship is being renamed Ocean Princess in November 2009). The ship holds just under 700 pasengers and the Interludes will be around the Greek Isles, Scandinavia, Norway, Ireland, Scotland and the Western Med.

There are also more overnight options. The ships will be staying two days in Israel, Egypt and St Petersburg (a regular two-nighter) so there's more time to explore these fascinating places. Pyramids in Cairo anyone? Or a day floating in the Dead Sea?

There are also some interesting new ports lined up - Cephalonia (made famous by Captain Corelli), the Greek island of Khios, Koper in Slovenia, for days out in Ljublijana, and Constanta in Romania to name but a few.

Princess will have six ships in Europe next year. Itineraries include the signature Grand Mediterranean Voyage - a brilliant cruise for ticking off some of Europe's most iconic cities. Athens, Istanbul, Rome, Florence, Naples. I'll be doing it in August on their newest ship, Ruby Princess, pictured here at the very red naming ceremony last November, and can't wait.

Sixties band The Merseybeats have signed up to be on Black Prince's farewell cruise from Liverpool on September 9.

The Fred Olsen ship is retiring in October after more than 40 years of sterling service because it's too expensive to do all the work needed for the vessel to meet new SOLAS (Safety of Life at Sea) regulations coming in 2010.

The Merseybeats were in the charts when Black Prince set sail, which means its members must be at least as old as Fred passengers (average 60-plus) - unless of course this is the Merseybeats mark 2 (or 3, 4, 5).

That was the case on P&O Cruises' Aurora last year. We had the Batchelors. Well, actually one Batchelor. The other two were imitations, but still no spring chickens.

If the Merseybeats have also plucked some ageing singers from obscurity to make up numbers, I guess Black Prince will sail gracefully, rather than rock, into retirement. But that's just perfect for dedicated followers of Fred.

Prices start from £1,045 for the 10-night cruise, which visits Belfast, the Hebrides, Chatham, St Peter Port in Guernsey, Falmouth and Dublin.

Windstar Cruises has opened an alfresco dining option on Wind Star and Wind Spirit, its two smallest ships holding just 148 passengers. Called Candles, the restaurant is actually the back deck of each ship, dressed up in the evening with steaks and skewers on the menu.

The only surprise here is that neither ship has this alfresco dining option already. I ate in Candles when I cruised on Wind Surf last December (it was introduced on the ship last summer) and it's a lovely experience.

The food and service were great and it's all very romantic - dinner under the stars gazing into the eyes of the one you love.

Unless, that is, you have longish hair and it's a windy night. My top tip: don't sit at a table at the very aft end of the deck!

In less than four months, this ship - Celebrity Cruises' Celebrity Equinox - will be shining like a new pin and in Southampton so would-be passengers and travel agents can get on board and take a look see.

The ship will leave the Meyer Werft shipyard in Papenburg, Germany, on June 19-20, when it will sail down the River Ems to Emshaven in the Netherlands, for some last-minute finishing off and sea trials. Celebrity Cruises takes delivery of the ship on July 16.

Celebrity Equinox is being named in Southampton; its maiden cruise is an eight-night voyage to the Norwegian fjords.

Carolyn Spencer-Brown, editor-in-chief of Cruise Critic, has named Cruise Lines her favourite journalists' blog in an article for the Times Online.

John Heald, Carnival Cruise Lines' cruise director and inveterate blogger, comes top in her list of favourite cruiseline blogs.

If you've not caught up with John yet, you are really missing out. But don't forget to come back here for the news and views.

The RMS St Helena was in the UK this week, making the first of two annual calls into Portland - a blustery spit of land off Weymouth.

The ship is a bit special on several counts. It is one of the last working Royal Mail Ships and a lifeline for the people of St Helena, a small and remote island in the South Atlantic - find Nambia in south-west Africa, look to the left and you'll see it.

Everything the Islanders need is brought in by ship (see the crane, to lift everything in and out of the hold); if they want to leave, this is the only way.

When I went to see the ship on Wednesday, they had just finished loading the cargo for yesterday's departure. There were cars, a minibus, concrete and an "unpacked" cat.

Being "unpacked", the cat didn't have to spend the crossing in the hold, which is good as it takes 14 days for the ship to get to Ascension Island, from where it's another 72 hours to St Helena. No one told me where the two crocodiles they once carried lived. Not really the sort of passengers you want wandering the decks.

The vessel's final role is as cruise ship, for people who want a "blue water" cruise experience. There's no glitz, no glamour. They sleep in ferry-style beds that pull out of the wall (my cabin, on B deck, was a good size but with a tiny porthole), bathe in the communal bath (but there was a toilet and shower of sorts in the cabin), and spend their days in one of the two lounges, reading a book, having a drink and watching the waves go by.

Come evening, the crew, mainly "Saints", lay on games in the lounge (we were treated to the joys of turtle racing) and I imagine most people turn in early, conserving their strength for another day of eating, drinking and basically doing nothing.

As Kedell Worboys, St Helena Line's sales and marketing director, put it: "This is an experience rather than a cruise."

Because of the ship's schedule, sailing from Portland to St Helena, between St Helena and Ascension Island, and between St Helena, Walvis Bay and Cape Town, you can go on for a few days a couple of weeks or a couple of months, depending how long you want to get away from it all. Bookings can be made through Andrew Weir Shipping.

There's no internet, but you can send emails. At £1.50 a minute, I guess most people stay out of touch.

Some 4,000 people live on St Helena, a British Overseas Territory, which measures just nine miles by five miles.

It's main claim to fame is that it's where Napoleon was exiled in 1815, after he was defeated at Waterloo, because it is so remote and inaccessible, making it impossible for the French to mount a rescue.

Even now, nearly 200 years on, it's still remote and inaccessible. They have their ship, but no port - the St Helena has to anchor and ferry all its passengers and cargo ashore. Likewise, passengers on passing cruise ships have to tender. That's if the sea is playing ball.

When P&O Cruises' Aurora arrived in January on its world cruise it was too rough to get anyone ashore so they just waved and then sailed on to Cape Town. Holland America Line's Rotterdam is due there in April. Let's hope it's passengers have more luck.

The British are still booking their cruises, but it's tough in the US. That's the message I've been getting for the past couple of months. But it seems things are not all that bad after all.

MSC Cruises US president and CEO Rick Sasso told this month's Cruise Shipping Miami conference (that's the annual Seatrade get-together but with a new name) that a survey showed about 80% of travel agents thought peak season bookings were equal or better than last year.

He reckons the number of cruise passengers this year will rise 300,000 to 13.4 million, which is roughly what the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) was predicting in January.

Of course we all know the numbers are being achieved on very low prices - "unprecedented" is the word that's been used many times in my conversations with cruiselines - so the cruiselines are hurting profits-wise, but I agree with Gerry Cahill, president and CEO of Carnival Cruise Lines, who told the conference that filling capacity is key to survival.

When we come out of this - and we will - it's vital holidaymakers are still thinking cruise. It'll be tough to get them to accept higher prices, but hey, without these challenges life would be just too easy.

What bad timing. On the one hand Regent Seven Seas Cruises releases a few pictures of the $40 million refurbishment of Seven Seas Mariner and Seven Seas Voyager.

At the same time, comes news that Voyager, on its World Cruise, is limping along to Dubai, having had to cancel calls at Mumbai and Abu Dhabi, where engineers are waiting to fix a propulsion pod damaged off Singapore when it got tangled in fishing nets.

It's still a good excuse to show some of the changes, which included a new grill restaurant, Prime 7 (pictured below), where Latitudes used to be, a new pizza oven and ice cream bar and new carpets, upholstery and wallpaper in the public areas and suites.

Regent's third ship, Seven Seas Navigator, is due to get its facelift in October 2010.

Richard Fain, chairman of Royal Caribbean Cruises, has started a cruise blog about new big ship Oasis of the Seas. This is the one that holds 5,400 passengers. He says it's taken him five years to write the first blog. He'll have to speed up a little. The ship is launching in seven months.

Ill-fated Aurora's even more ill-fated world cruise is back in the news. The passengers, it seems, are fed up with looking at the sea.

The P&O Cruises' ship suffered engine problems as it left Sydney and ended up staying six days in Auckland (surely an opening for one of the passengers to write the definitive "how-to-kill-a-week-Auckland" guide book) while the problem was fixed.

Now the ship racing to get back to Southampton, to start its Mediterranean season on time, and has visited just two ports in 22 days after skipping five calls in New Zealand and the South Pacific. Passengers say they are beginning to feel like prisoners rather than world cruisers. All have splashed out thousands of pounds to do a Phileas Fogg.

I sympathise. I did a two-week sector of a world cruise on Aurora last year and while it's a nice ship, I can't imagine being stuck on it for so long without so much as sighting land. You can only read so many books.

It seems they got so bored, they created their own entertainment, the Aurora Committee, with the headline act being a demand for more compensation.

P&O had offered free drinks while in Auckland, a £500 payment and a refund of four days of the cost of cruising, but has apparently decided to be more generous. Is it really that easy?

Every recession has a silver lining, it seems.

Pam Conover, Yachts of Seabourn's chief executive, says the cruiseline cut prices in Europe by 65% this summer to get business, and as a result has attracted cruisers who would normally not even think of an ultra-luxury cruise. She is confident they are now hooked.

"We are seeing new guests and new agents who haven't booked us before suddenly booking. That's very positive for us. Once you go to the best, you don't want to trade down. We believe they will continue to cruise with us."

For those who don't know, Seabourn prices include all drinks, gratuities, speciality dining and you even get one free shore excursion on most cruises. Cavier in the surf, for instance. Now who would want to give that up?

Royal Caribbean International hasn't even launched the giant Oasis of the Seas yet but already sister ship Allure of the Seas is going on sale.

Diamond and Diamond Plus members of the Crown and Anchor Society can book from April 2. Bookings open for all other Society members on April 8, and for the rest of us from April 13.

The maiden voyage is slated to depart on December 12 2010 - that's 12 months to the day after Oasis was supposed to launch (Oasis is now coming out early; the first cruise is on December 1).

There's more that's the same. Allure will be following Oasis of the Seas around the Eastern and Western Caribbean from Fort Lauderdale. Not surprising as there are only so many islands that can take these big ships, but not exactly exciting either.

It's hateful being the younger sister.

The King of the Jungle, aka naff-turned-cool DJ Tony Blackburn, is trading the air waves for the ocean waves this summer when he hosts a Smooth Radio cruise on Ocean Village in June.

It's all to celebrate the new film The Boats that Rocks. about a fictional pirate radio station but inspired by Radio Caroline, which Tony Blackburn helped to launch. After spending a few years spinning the vinyl (that's records to those too young to remember) and practising his corny jokes there, he went on to torture us on Radio One, which he opened with the words "and good morning everyone. Welcome to the exciting new sound of Radio One." Or so I am told. I wasn't there at the time.

When I was at school he was the epitome of naff; now he has totally reinvented himself to become the king of cool. Good on yer Tony.

The seven-night Smooth cruise (so called because he is on Smooth Radio these days) is for sale exclusively through Thomas Cook Cruise.

To book, call 0800 975 6099 and quote Smooth cruise to ensure you are one of Tony's groupies. Sorry group. Prices start from £715 per person including flights.

Poptastic!

Last week Swan Hellenic stepped in with a special offer for Hebridean International Cruises' passengers left high and dry (including me!) when their ship, Hebridean Spirit, was sold from underneath them.

Now Silversea has also stepped in. Passengers booked to cruise on Spirit can claim a 10% saving, in addition to existing savings of up to 40%, on most 2009 and 2010 cruises.

The offer is available on all Silversea ships, including Prince Albert II, the exploration ship, which, with room for 132 passengers is closest in size to Hebridean Spirit, and Silver Spirit, the new ship launching in December.

Call Silversea on 020 7920 7064.

Nobuyuki "Nobu" Matsuhisa, the man generally credited with having introduced the western world to sushi, is joining Crystal Serenity's Venice to Athens cruise departing July 28.

Nobu already has restaurants on both Crystal Cruises' ships - Serenity and Symphony. There's the Silk Road for his famous Japanese-with-a-Peruvian-twist-style dining and the Sushi Bar for those who fancy a finger-sized bite of raw fish.

While on board, he will be preparing meals for the Silk Road, signing books and hosting cooking demonstrations.

The 12-night cruise costs from £4,285 per person including flights, transfers, soft drinks and all the sushi you can eat (there is some other food too). You'll also get $2,000 per couple shipboard credit through the promotion called "As you wish". You can spend it on drinks, shore excursions, in the spa. Basically as you wish.

Regular readers will have seen my blog in February about the behind-the-scenes open day P&O Cruises holds every now and then in the atrium on Ventura, allowing passengers to try their hand at making beds, manning the security scanners, even driving the ship.

It seems it was so popular, P&O has gone a stage further and is now giving passengers a chance to make those behind-the-scenes' experiences a reality in a new scheme, launched today, April 1, called Jobs at Sea.

They could be making beds, starring in the chorus line in the theatre, preparing dinner, even taking the helm as the ship docks.

The scheme was trialed last month and proved a success. Izzy Foreal from Oxford said: "It took me three goes to pass my driving test as I could not get to grips with parallel parking. My friends couldn't believe the holidays photos of me docking a 115,000-ton superliner in the Caribbean with absolute precision."

P&O Cruises managing director, Nigel Esdale said passengers are looking for new, more adventurous excursions and activities.

"If anyone has ever dreamed of putting on that white uniform and being at the helm of a superliner, Jobs at Sea is for them. Imagine being the Captain of a cruise ship for a fortnight, or even executive chef or chief housekeeper. Passengers will be able to relate stories of how they cooked 3,000 portions of lobster thermidor during their cruise holiday, or turned down 3,000 duvets each day."

No experience is necessary but you do need a sense of humour.

Just think. If the scheme goes well, maybe there'll be a chance to become navigator for the day. It could make the itineraries more interesting.

News that The World - that's the cruise ship that sells apartments but also carries "ordinary" passengers - will be cruising the Sea of Cortez in May had me scurrying for a map.

It transpires the Sea of Cortez is actually the Gulf of California and is the area of water that separates the Baja California Peninsula from the Mexico mainland.

The sea is just 868 miles long and 130 miles wide; The World will be taking 10 days to voyage up and down on the cruise from Cabo San Lucas in Mexico, which is at the tip of the Baja California Peninsula. That means the ship will be cruising just 86 miles a day!

That's still faster than John Steinbeck (Author of The Grapes of Wrath). He took six weeks to sail the sea, but he was on collecting marine specimens for a non-fiction book.

It's the marine life that attracts people here; over 10 days the people of The World should have time to see some of it while they are hiking, kayaking, diving and snorkeling, especially as there is an expedition team on board to help them with sightings.

Catch it at the right moment and you get humpback whales, killer whales, manta rays, leatherback sea turtles, even the blue whale, the world's largest animal, passing through. And there are lots of smaller fish and marine mammals.

The World is sold through The Cruise Line. Call 0800 008 6677 for more information.