Cruise Lines

Has there ever been an April like this? As if four cruise ships to be named in as many weeks was not enough, Norwegian Cruise Line has managed to squeeze a keel-laying in between the launching frenzy.

I’m counting the days I’ll be at home rather than the time I'm away.

Kick off is this weekend, when MSC Cruises’ Poesia is named in Dover in a glitzy event starring Sophia Loren as godmother; next up is P&O Cruises' Ventura, with Helen Mirren and the Champagne-smashing Royal Marines taking centre stage in a gala do in Southampton.

Then it’s all eyes on Greece, where a new-to-easyCruise ship takes on a new life - as easyCruise Life - for the budget brand. Finally it’s back to Southampton for a smashing time with Royal Caribbean International as it gets set to sail its newest megaship from the UK.

And that NCL keel-laying? It’s for a new generation of F3 code-named ships – huge beasts that will presumably take the Freestyle concept to another level. We will have to wait and see.

I love cruiseship naming ceremonies so this month is like manna from heaven for me, but I’ll have my eye on one new ship in particular.

Ventura, P&O Cruises’ new offering, promises to be nothing like the P&O we have come to know and love. Old and stuffy? Forget it. If all the hype is to be believed, this is young and funky; dare I say even glitzy in places (or so it would seem from the website) and all about having fun.

The traditionalist we-love-P&O brigade I cruised with on Aurora recently, who disliked foreign food and wanted everything to be like it was 20 years ago, would be horrified.

Personally I can’t wait to see if the ship lives up to the promise of lively evenings, good food (hopefully not just in Marco Pierre White's restaurant), contemporary tableware and designer kettles in the cabins - yes, really – and great activities for kids, including a circus school (never mind kids, I rather fancy that!) and giant Scalextric track.

And I am so looking forward to seeing Noddy fly by in his little yellow-and-red plane. What do you mean there is no such person as Father Christmas?

Am I glad I’m not clearing up after yesterday evening’s ceremony in which MSC Cruises took official delivery of new ship MSC Poesia from the ship yard in St Nazaire, France.

As the bottle of bubbly smashed, pink and white balloons were loosed from their netting and cannons shot pink and white paper circles into the air. Not just a few, but hundreds, coating the ground and all who sat there.

Environmentalists would no doubt moan about it, but hey. This was a great ceremony – it actually started and ended on time, which must be a first for MSC – with a marching band to keep our spirits up in the cold wind, the customary switching of flags and lots of speeches in French and Italian (I gathered that the shipyard is honoured to have MSC’s business, which is good because it has another three MSC ships on its order book, and MSC’s boss rather likes his new toy).

Let’s just hope this new-found punctuality lasts until Sunday morning.

With free-flowing booze, Italian diva Sophia Loren to cut the ribbon and the likes of Andrea Bocelli and KT Tunstall to keep the troops entertained, it was always a dead cert that the naming of MSC Poesia in Dover would be a successful event.

But will it achieve the ultimate aim of increasing business from the UK for MSC Cruises? And at what cost?

An oft-repeated conversation between fellow scribes at these events revolves around the question, can the cruiseline ever get back what it has spent? How many passengers do agents need to book and over what time frame to make this - literally - worthwhile?

If anyone has some answers, I would love to know. Not only would I sound intelligent, but I could move the conversation on next time around.

Until I am enlightened, I will continue to wonder at the massive sales job UK agents now have on their hands if they are ever to repay MSC for a great evening. The few I spoke to were certainly excited and enthusiastic about the whole experience.

For MSC's sake, I hope that enthusiasm infected the many and can be translated into sales.

Can't believe I am going to say this....

My dinner last night in one of the dining rooms on P&O Cruises' Ventura was really good. Tasty, hot - and when I wanted to go off-menu for the starter, it was sorted without so much as a murmur.

I'm back on board tomorrow night for the naming ceremony. I would so love for that to be the case again, although it means I'll also have to eat my words about the quality of the food cruiselines serve in the main dining room.

Here's hoping.

I think it's time for a proverbial pat on the back as first news of what's on Royal Caribbean International's new 220,000 monster ship, code-named Genesis, comes out.

Here's what I predicted in my cruise column on the Telegraph website in December last year.

I’m betting on inside balcony cabins, overlooking the Royal Promenade – a “street” that cuts through the centre of the ship and is a trademark of its new vessels...

The picture shows what we can actually expect. This is Central Park, on deck 8, open to the elements, with trees and shrubs and look - inside balcony cabins.

It will have a cafe and Vintages wine bar (both in the Royal Promenade), Chops Grille, which is on the other big ships but by the self-service, and a swanky new-to-Royal Caribbean restaurant called 150 Central Park.

And look what else I wrote:

...and restaurants fore and aft, breaking design tradition, so passengers at the front don’t have to walk all the way to the back every time they want to eat.

OK, so I was talking more about the self-service and main dining rooms, but guess what? Central Park is in the centre of the ship; likewise its restaurants. Not quite fore and aft but on the right track.

I admit I've not been over excited by the idea of a ship that holds 5,400 people - which makes it twice the size of my village - but having seen this first picture, I am starting to get a bit of a tingle...

With the Royal Marines lined up to abseil down the side of the ship and smash the bubbly (after Queen Victoria's naming, when the Champagne bottle failed to smash, P&O Cruises wasn't taking any chances!), Ventura's naming ceremony was always going to be different.

But wow, never did I dream they would put on such a fun show for the 1,500 or so agents, celebrities (Rowan Atkinson, Nicholas Lyndhurst, Celia Imrie, Stephen Tompkinson and Cherie Lunghi to name but a few) and hacks who had travelled to Southampton for the big day.

For about 20 minutes, I actually forgot just how cold I was in my evening finery, standing open to the April elements on the top deck of the ship.

Picture it if you will. P&O Cruises' managing director Nigel Esdale appears on stage, a female agent from TV show Spooks starts dashing around, yelling into a wrist mic and and then M – aka acress Patricia Hodges - appears on a big screen with a "smashing" mission that only one man was deemed capable of completing.

The latest 007 blockbuster movie had started.

We saw Samantha Bond as Moneypenny, cameo rolls for Roger Moore, Bond villain Jonathan Pryce and news reader Selina Scott (not quite sure of the 007 link there; any suggestions welcome), before the camera turned on Dame Helen Mirren, the godmother to be, being escorted through the ship by the Royal Marines.

Cheers erupted as she appeared on stage, laughing and smiling. I'm sure she was enjoying it as much as we were. The all-important words uttered, two marines went over the side and smashed the bubbly. As we were showered by streamers, fireworks lit up the night sky.

I feel rather sorry for Royal Caribbean International, which is next on April's cruise ship naming conveyor belt. How can you beat that with just two weeks to go?

Anyone who has missed the fact that P&O Cruises has launched a new ship must have been on Mars for the past week or so, during which time Ventura has been doing a sterling job in Southampton, selling itself to past and future passengers, agents and just a few passing hacks.

But what is the ship really like? Is it that different to the P&O norm?

If only all cruiseship entertainment could be like this. Imagine: a warm spring day, another new ship in Southampton, 1,500 consumers on board waiting to be impressed - and out comes Scouting for Girls to give a live concert by the pool.

The ship, in case you've lost track, is Royal Caribbean International's Independence of the Seas. It arrived in Southampton on Friday and is playing host to visiting trade and those consumers (all competition winners, on for Saturday night only) before it is named on Wednesday.

So there we all were around the pool, waiting for the band to come on and music from Goldfinger strikes up. What is it with 007? P&O Cruises chose a Bond theme for the naming of Ventura and here he was again. All to do with the song "James Bond", which I trust fans will already have guessed (I knew the song, had heard of the band - well only just, to be honest! - but hadn't put the two together).

It was a good gig, short and sweet, ending with the band jumping in the pool, much to the delight of the audience.

Will they be back on board? Sadly no. They were there because Virgin Radio stumped up the cash to celebrate its 15th anniversary. If you cruise with Indie, you'll be back to the likes of that evening's show, Under the Big Top, which is a terrific cure for insomniacs, and the ice show, which had good costumes and accomplished skating, but all was overshadowed for my money by the violinist.

It was enough to bring a tear to even the most hardened cynic - well almost - as Elizabeth Hill admitted being chosen as godmother of Royal Caribbean International's new ship, Independence of the Seas, was like a dream.

"Ordinary people like me don't do this sort of thing," she told the packed 1,320-seat theatre. "I am sure I'm going to wake up any minute."

Of course, that was the whole point of her being there. Royal Caribbean wanted an ordinary woman who has done extraordinary things ... and that's what they got. A farmer's wife from Derbyshire, Elizabeth works tirelessly to help young people and adults with physical and learning disabilities through a centre on the farm where they can learn horticulture, art, pottery, how to work with animals and a host of other skills.

"I'd like to thank my husband, because it's his farm. And my family. And my daughter. This is starting to sound like an Oscar's speech, isn't it?" Well yes, but carry on Liz, because there's not a dry eye in the house, especially after we learned that daughter Alicia, coincidentally celebrating her 13th birthday as mum was doing her godmother bit, nominated her mother and said she hoped if she won she might get to go on a cruise and have a holiday.

Unlike other recent namings this was not all about celebrities. We had Scottish pipers, Irish dancing and God save the Queen to mark the fact the ship is sailing out of Southampton. And that oh so American cruise director Ken Rush, who has this way of referring to England as if it is one of the colonies. Forgive me, but I'm sure it used to be the other way around?

Sadly, the Champagne bottle didn't break - and this time there wasn't a back-up film (look back at previous blogs to read of P&O Cruises' con trick). What bad luck - literally. But a word of advice for Elizabeth: Next time you name a ship, don't put your hands to your face in agony when the bottle bounces. We were almost fooled by the loud explosion as the bottle hit the hull!

Richard Fain might be chairman and chief executive of Royal Caribbean Cruises, the big boss of Royal Caribbean, Celebrity Cruises and Azamara Cruises, but give him a wave and surf board and he's really just a kid at heart, as these pics from Independence of the Seas show. What a great sport.

But surely you've done this before, I asked, as he emerged half-drowned from the FlowRider (this is the third one on Royal Caribbean ships). "Yes, but it's hard you know." I do actually - but it's also great fun.

It's been a busy time at the Aker Yard in St Nazaire, France. Norwegian Cruise Lines' F3 keel-laying last month, a coin-laying ceremony for MSC Cruises' Magnifica this.

Like smashing Champagne, coin laying is all about good luck. MSC laid a specially-minted gold coin bearing the City of Venice coat of arms on one side and the cruiseline's logo on the other, Aker Yards laid a 1978 50 French francs silver coin.

Magnifica will be a sister to the newly-launched MSC Poesia, have 1,259 cabins and carry a maximum 3,779 passengers. It will join the fleet in spring 2010.

Project Genesis is dead, long live Oasis of the Seas. Oasis? As in a fertile spot on the desert? Well, yes. But also a place of refuge, relief or pleasant contrast, according to Royal Caribbean International.

Apparently Royal Caribbean received 91,000 entries in a Name that ship competition run with USA Today to find a name for the giant 220,000-ton, 5,400-passenger ship launching late next year.

Interesting to see how quickly the name catches on, given it has been known as Genesis for so long. Royal only had to add "of the Seas" at the end and they would have saved a lot of time and effort.

To be in with a chance of winning, entrants had to suggest two names, so we now also know that the second Genesis - sorry, Oasis - ship, launching in 2010, will be named Allure of the Seas.

Want to know what luxury looks like?

Here's the hull of Yachts of Seabourn's new ship Seabourn Odyssey, on its way from the Gulf of Venice, where it was built, to the T Mariotti shipyard in Genoa, where the rest of the ship is being put together in time for its June 2009 launch.

It's Seabourn's first new ship for six years and will mark a big step forward for the ultra-lux line - or at least so we are told. Hard to picture from this giant lump of steel.

Costa Cruises is going for an industry first by floating out two ships on one day. On June 27, as the 2,828-passenger Costa Luminosa hits water for the first time at Fincantieri's Marghera yard in Venice, the 3,780-passenger Costa Pacifica will be doing the same in Fincantiari's Genoa yard.

Once they are in the water, work will start on kitting out the ship's interiors - the first to be themed a ship of light, the other a ship of music.

The two vessels, which will give Costa 13 ships, will then share a naming ceremony in Genoa at the end of April 2009. As tey say, two' company...

If you've ever wondered what all this luxury cruising lark is all about, this is it, Yachts of Seabourn style.

Not only was there a free excursion for everyone on the ship during my voyage - it's called an Exclusively Seabourn event and there's one per cruise (ours was into the Sicilian countryside, to taste olive oil and wine) - but a welcoming committee of crew for when you get back.

True, this costs a lot on paper, but it can work out cheaper than lesser-starred cruiselines when you take into account the fact that all drinks and gratuities are included ... and that includes in the spa, where you pay the cost of the treatment and that's it.

Even more impressive, after a lovely massage this morning, I didn't have to fend off the usual hard sell for anti-ageing, anti-stress or anti-anything-else products that I neither need not want.

It's not all rosy in the Seabourn garden though. I've got a lovely big shower but the actual shower head is so far in one corner I can't actually get under it, and my so-called French balcony is big enough to stand on...Just. And hit bad weather in one of these tiny 8,000-ton yachts, as we did last night, and you know all about it - at least I and many of the other passengers did.

But all these negatives are why Seabourn is building bigger ships. Will it ruin the Seabourn style, where I exit my cabin to be greeted by name by my stewardess, not just as ma'am.

Let's hope not, or we'll all just have to keep taking the pills - literally!

Do luxury and exploration cruising go together? Ultra-luxury line Silversea was certainly in no doubt when Prince Albert II - previously known as World Discoverer - arrived at London's Tower Bridge to collect its first complement of luxury explorers.

Silversea has done a lot of work to bring this 132-passenger ship up to its luxury standards, but somehow it misses the mark.

Maybe it's the faux teak on deck seven - such a shame as the real teak in the outdoor grill one deck down looks every bit the upmarket part - or the MFI-look furniture in the cabins (sorry, suites) although some tooms are a nice size, achieved by knocking two into one, and they really have done a great job with the bathrooms. And can you really call one room with a table a spa?

Must admit my heart sank most, though, when I spotted the chains in the dining room that will be used to stop chairs flying around in rough weather. The joys of small ship cruising.

Prince Albert II sets off on its maiden voyage tomorrow, cruising from Tower Bridge to Tromso with around 85 passengers on board.

It will cruise the Arctic and Norwegian fjords until August, when it heads over to the US, South America and on to Antarctica, all the time with a complement of ultra-enthusiastic hippy-style biologists, geographers and anthropologists on board to lecture the luxury lovers before and after they venture ashore in off-beat places on the fleet of inflatable Zodiacs.

If you expect exploration, this ship will be great. If you expect Silversea-style luxury, you'll be disappointed. But I am still not convinced that luxury and real exploration go together anyway. Only time will tell.

The website Cruise Critic reports Hurtigruten is pulling the Nordnorge out of Antarctica because the vessel is needed to replace one that sails along the Norwegian coast between bergen and Kirkenes - Hurtigruten's core business - and is being sold.

http://www.cruisecritic.com/news/news.cfm?ID=2640

Maybe they are also rather fed up with the difficulties of operating in the White Continent. This is the ship that last year went aground in Deception Island and then came to the aid of passengers who had escaped from the sinking Explorer. This year Fram, its newest ship, which will continue to do Antarctica cruises, had to limp home early after hitting an iceberg.

The first ice bar at sea will be among the evening hotspots - or do I mean chill-out zones? - on Norwegian Cruise Line's new generation of F3-coded ships.

First it was wavy cabins, now a new reveal, as the Americans insist on calling the simple process of telling us what will be on board its new 4,000-passenger Freestyle ships launching in 2010, lists all the nightlife venues being lined up for these big ships.

There's an adults-only POSH Beach Club - OK, not just for evenings - and wonder of wonders, no theatre. Could it mean the Broadway-style show really is dying. One can live in hope.

Interestingly it looks like that sacrosanct all-inclusive entertainment on a cruiseship bit could be going out of the window. Especially interesting because on my first cruise with NCL they charged for a comedian - and then said if it had happened (the UK office obviously doubted me but I still have the paper to prove it) it was a mistake. Are they about to make another mistake, I wonder?

And while we are on interesting, all this has come out almost in tandem with Royal Caribbean International's next big reveal - there's that word again - about the neighbourhoods (no longer areas, you note) on the giant new Oasis of the Seas. That's Genesis with its 5,400 passengers, in case you've forgotten.

There will be the Boardwalk with a carousel and tattoo parlour (how tasteful), double-decker suites and the first zipline at sea.

At least it will be a quicker way to get down the decks than the lifts on the Freedom-class ships.

There was so much that was really great about Holland America Line's new ship, Eurodam, in Southampton for a Friday-night bash so that it could be shown off to the UK trade, journos and past and prospective passengers.

My stateroom was lovely, with a comfy bed, super-soft dressing gown, super-big balcony and large bathroom - thankfully without the garish gold sinks that penthouse people have to live with - with his and hers sinks, and a separate bath and shower.

The new Tamarind restaurant, on the extra deck that makes this a Signature-class ship instead of a Vista-class, really looked the pan-Asian part. And I loved the NCL-type hideaway alcoves in the Silk Bar, which is also a new addition.

But what were those private cabanas all about?

The ones by the Lido pool, with their lovely made-for-two loungers, are one thing - although I'm struggling to know why anyone would want to be hiding behind curtains on a pool deck (for sure you wouldn't be soaking up the sun, as one HAL person suggested, and if couples have anything else on their minds, I would suggest a busy pool deck is not the place).

But the ones on deck 11 - the Retreat - looked like plastic seaside tents at best and builders' huts at worst (workers were making a few finishing touches to the ship so it was an easy connection to make). And just outside was a spartan deck area with some ordinary loungers and chairs. Why would you want to lounge/sit there, just to watch others in their cabana? Or indeed for a view of the closed curtains?

Princess Cruises' brilliant adults-only Sanctuary they certainly ain't, even if the price (from $30 per day for the Lido, $45 for the Retreat) does buy you a butler to douse you in Evian water if you get too hot, iced fruit skewers mid-morning and a glass of bubbly in the afternoon.

I have been picking up a few useful pointers on P&O Cruises' Ventura from Phil at the Cruise Village/Save 'n' Sail as he was on the ship in June and I am on later this month. Ventura, for those who have already forgotten, was launched in April and is the biggest in the P&O fleet, with lots of new-for-P&O stuff on board.

http://www.mycruiseblog.co.uk/

It all sounds pretty good, although he reckons the cover charge in The White Room is too high given the limited choice on the menu. I'll reserve comment on that issue, but I was surprised at the launch to discover that they have gone for flexible pricing in the speciality restaurants so people on shorter cruises pay more. I struggle to see how that can be justified, other than to the bean counters.

But what interested me most is his comment that Freedom dining is not working well because too many people book tables at their preferred sitting time each day so when radom diners turn up to eat, there is no room.

The turn-up-and-dine concept works very well on Princess Cruises (where it is called Anytime Dining) so I wonder what the problem is.

Could it simply be that Princess staff are more experienced at handling flexible dining because they've been doing it for so many years or because P&O people haven't got to grips with this idea of Freedom after so many years of being told when to eat and where to sit.

I just hope things are improving - and fast....

Will people pay more to cruise on the giant 220,000-ton Oasis of the Seas just because it's got a Central Park, Boardwalk and all sorts of other amazing features?

Royal Caribbean's chairman and CEO Richard Fain has said it will carry a premium, cruise blogger Anne Campbell questions whether that is realistic when fuel prices are escalating, airlines are taking planes out of the air and experts are determined to talk us into a recession.

http://www.cybercruises.com/cruisecolumn_july7.htm

Of course, Oasis is not due out for another 18 months - the maiden voyage is December 12 2009 - by which time the economy might be on the mend. The question surely is, even if they can afford it, will people buy the principal of paying a premium for a big ship with lots of features?

My thoughts go to the many conversations I've had with passengers resistent to paying $15 or $20 each to dine in a speciality restaurant because food on a cruise is "supposed" to be included in the price and this paying lark is the cruise lines trying to "nickle and dime you".

The classic has to be the man who wrote in response to a piece I wrote in the Telegraph about Gary Rhodes' restaurant on P&O Cruises' Arcadia, saying the food was so bad he wasn't going to pay extra money to try it! I paraphrase, but you get the drift.

If anyone has any thoughts on Oasis and paying extra, I'd love to hear them. 

Have one too many on the new Carnival Splendor and you'll start to see pink spots in front of your eyes. No wait. That's what you see if you are stone-cold sober.

Carnival's new baby is a real vision in pink - another creation from Joe Farcus, the man behind all the over-the-top designs on Carnival ships, and lately the Costa ones too.

I must admit I am a bit of a Farcus fan, if only because I am intrigued how he comes up with his ideas and because the attention to detail is quite incredible.

Pink spots notwithstanding, Splendor is a very muted Farcus. I'd say he was considering the sensibilities of the British market, but suspect we are really not that important to Carnival, even if the number of Brits booking has doubled in the past year, as president and CEO Gerry Cahill said during his naming speech.

In fact, apart from the spots, which I really rather like, and the garish lions above the thermal pool in the otherwise very lovely, and very large, Cloud 9 spa, I really haven't seen anything very worthy of note.

Surely that can't be right?

My heart went out to the Royal Navy's Christian Rumming, the man chosen to shin 60 feet up the side of Carnival Splendor during Thursday's naming ceremony in Dover. In a pair of flippers.

And all because the lady loved, well, English sparkling wine.

In honour of the fact the ship was being named in the UK, Carnival shunned smashing the usual bottle of good-luck bubbly and chose instead a home-grown sparkling wine, cruise director John Heald explained during the ceremony.

Nothing to do with the the fact the thinner glass made it easier for Christian to smash when he finally got to the top of his rope, of course, although the event organisers didn't want a repeat of the naming of P&O Cruises' Ventura, when two Royal Marines went over the side of the ship (yes, it does sound very similar doesn't it?) to smash the bubbly and reports came back that one bottle didn't break.

The lady in question, by the way, was Splendor's godmother Myleene Klass, singer, classical pianist, model and I'm a Celebrity star (oh dear, and she was starting to sound really talented), who managed to do the naming honours while holding down her skimpy red dress, which was flapping nicely in the wind.

"That only worked for Marilyn," she quipped as she shouldered her responsibilities well and promised to send Splendor a birthday card every year.

Carnival Splendor cruise director and fellow blogger John Heald's entry from yesterday does not cover the UK travel industry in glory.

Once you can get past his new-found love for Splendor's godmother Myleene Klass, his dislike of Chekhov and the theatre, he tells his readers about the open bar card Carnival gave all its non-paying guests.

This means that all the beverages were free.............and this means three awful long nights for the poor bar staff. While some of the agents treated the card with respect by ordering just one drink at a time others looked upon it as though they had just been given use of Bill Gates' Black American Express card for 3 days and therefore ................they were going to get absolutely hammered ...................and they did.

I saw things the last three nights that made me so not proud to be British as the Brit Travel industry let loose. I actually ventured into the dance club last night just to see the DJ and discovered Dante's hell. People were ordering three drinks at a time or more and the once polite country I knew and loved so much seemed to have given birth to young people who had not been taught words like "please" and "thank you" and "No, I have had enough to drink, I am going to bed............alone."

Just what the trade needs when it is trying to convince the world - or British travellers at least - that they know their cruising stuff and can make intelligent and sensible recommendations to help customers choose a cruise. Wonder if they realise that the stuff they are supposed to know isn't how quickly you can get served at the bar.

Sad words in view of an earlier blog this morning in praise of the trade.

I'm pleased to say Heald does go on to say most agents were well behaved and ends with a story of how over-indulging on Le House Wine hen in his 20s got him locked up in France for a night. It's very funny, so stick with the blog - and let's hope his readers remember that, and not the agents' antics, as they tune out.

I thought it had to be Balmoral, but no. This "giant" is Fred Olsen's new Braemar, fresh out of the shipyard where they cut it in half and added a 31-metre mid-section. It now takes more than 200 more passengers - 950 in all - has more cabins and an extra restaurant.

But it was still dwarfed by P&O Cruises' Ventura, on which I'm sailing, which was towering over all in Civitavecchia today.

Interesting comments this week on cruise.co.uk about the benefits or otherwise of dine-when-you-want options on cruise ships.

Is it working well? Tsang didn't think so after her experiences on P&O Cruises' Ventura and I have to agree, after a week on board, that the staff are struggling with the concept.

So many people are booking that half the dining room is blocked out for the evening, which means if you do get a table the room is often half empty. But passengers are still turning up at the door and being turned away. "I guess we should book as well, but it kind-of loses the point of being Freedom," one man on a neighbouring table told me a couple of nights ago.

One of the problems is that the ship is packed with families who want Freedom dining, but two out of the three dining rooms are set aside for fixed dining. It wasn't always like that. When the ship launched, two out of three were set aside for Freedom dining, but the older - I'm guessing - passengers on the maiden voyages wanted fixed, so it was switched around.

And no one thought to change again when the passenger profile changed.

One evening my partner and I eventually ended up sharing a table for 10 with, um, two other people. We did look very lonely, especially with empty tables around us. They said one couple they met had asked for Freedom dining and been told they couldn't have it; another couple requested fixed and, yes, you've guessed it. They were told they couldn't have it.

The dual system works for Princess Cruises so guess it's just early days for Ventura. Im sure they'll get it right - but sooner would be better if they want to stem the moans I've heard.

I never really knew the correct time on Ventura. Reason? Every clock was wrong, some by five minutes, some by an hour, others by more still.

The problem was that passengers waiting by the lifts thought it a good joke to move the hands forwards or backwards. And yes, you could do that, I am reliably informed by someone close to me who shall remain nameless!

Not sure why the ones that were out of reach were so wrong.

But full marks to Hurtigruten. Fram, launched a year earlier has digital clocks on each deck that all show the correct time. Not so much fun, of course, but as my watch is invariably wrong at least I now know whether I am coming or going.

I see Trista and Ryan Sutter are to christen Ruby Princess in Fort Lauderdale on November 6.

OK I admit it. I'd never heard of them either, but according to the news release, the Sutters are one of the best-known romantic duos in broadcast history (maybe that should be US broadcast history?), having shot to fame after meeting and marrying on The Bachelorette, a reality TV programme that I guess doesn't need much explaining.

Princess Cruises senior vice-president Jan Swartz says the decision to invite the duo - who will be celebrating their fifth wedding anniversary - to do the deed is in keeping with the cruiseline's reputation for romance and reconnection (no I don't understand that last bit either).

If you're still bewildered, it's all to do with Love Boat, the long-running 1970's TV series that starred a Princess' ship. I don't remember it but plenty in the US do and it is almost a cult, I discovered, on a Seabourn cruise earlier this year. No wonder Princess keeps the link alive.

Just as everyone was thinking the new ship building boom was over - I refer you to a report on Tripso by Anita Dunham-Potter - sharp-eyed cruise watchers spot news on Aker Yards website saying MSC Cruises has ordered two more Musica-class ships.

Sisters to MSC Poesia, the ships will weigh 89,600 tons and carry 2,550 passengers and be delivered in Febrary 2011 and February 2012.

MSC notwithstanding, Dunham-Potter is surely right in predicted the end of the new ship boom As she points out, all the cruiseships on the shipyards' books bar the MSC duo - she estimates 35 vessels at a cost of $22 billion - were ordered before the price of fuel shot up and world economies shot down.

But does it matter that the boom is over, for a couple of years at least? We all love new ship launches, but I can't help thinking it will be a good thing to give the new capacity coming into the market time to settle - there are still 35 ships to come, after all, and two of those are Royal Caribbean's giant 5,400-passenger vessels.

Simple supply-and-demand economics also tells me that a shortfall in capacity means prices will go up. And higher prices surely are better for cruiselines and agents. Given that, I wonder whether MSC wouldn't be better to watch and wait until it starts to command higher fares.

Do we need more cruise ships? Let me know what you think.

Can Seabourn Odyssey be the luckiest ship about to launch?

As the ship sets off on its maiden voyage from Venice on June 24 next year, all 450 passengers on board will be named godparents (guess it can't be a traditional godmother because some will be men!). Birthdays are going to be like, well, Christmas.

I'm sure the passengers will consider themselves ultra-lucky as their names will be inscribed on a plaque for all to see. Quite an honour and definitely worth the few thousand dollars they have probably spent.

Wonder if they will be eligible for the occasional free cruise, just like traditional godmothers?

So this is it. The day Royal Caribbean, travel agents and hopefully the British public have all been waiting for. Oasis of the Seas, the largest cruise ship ever built goes on sale at 1pm UK time.

This ship is longer than four football pitches, higher than Nelson's Column - 220,000 tons and with room for 5,400 passengers.

Royal is moving staff from other areas into reservations to cope with an expected 50% more bookings than on its previous busiest sales day. Senior managers have been drafted in to deal with booking inquiries and Jo Rzymowska, associate vice-president and general manager, has promised to make the tea.

Some £1 million has been set aside to make sure this behemoth sells. It's going to be a long day.

Either I've not been paying attention or this is new. Passengers who book one of the 99 suites in the VIP Yacht Club on MSC Cruises' new MSC Fantasia, launching December, have soft and alcoholic drinks included in the price.

Suddenly it becomes a lot more attractive!

Yacht Club people also have 24-hour butler service, a VIP swimming pool, hydro-massage pool, solarium, lounge and direct access to the spa.

The ship holds a massive 3,959 passengers and takes pride of place in MSC's new 2008/09 brochure. It will be sailing the Med - the maiden voyage is an eight-night Christmas cruise, then there's a New Year sailing and 12-night itineraries out of Genoa.

How much extra does it cost for the Yacht Club? Unfortunately my press release skips over the money bit and as I'm away and it's now 7am in the morning UK time, I can't find out.

If anyone can enlighten me, I'd love to know.