Cruise Lines

Strange to see MSC Cruises' UK managing director Claudia Baino is being replaced by the newly appointed Giulio Libutti, said to have a wealth of travel expertise, and in particular commercial airline experience.

Remind me what business MSC Cruises is in?

Baino, who is moving to MSC Corporate rather than leaving the company altogether, has only been at the helm in the UK for 16 months, but has done a lot to raise MSC's voice in the UK, both among the trade and consumers.

But it's still not enough - I have met plenty of regular cruisers who have never even heard of the cruiseline. Let's hope when Libutti takes over at the end of July he is not too distracted by the aviation stuff to build on Baino's success.

What a coup for Cunard.

The Queen is journeying down to Southampton on June 2 to bid farewell to the QE2, the ship she named at Clydebank on September 20 1967.

Since then the vessel, which has to be the best known ship in the world, has sailed into the record books by travelling more than 5.6 million nautical miles. It has carried 2.5 million guests, completed 25 world cruises and crossed the Atlantic 802 times.

QE2 leaves Cunard and the UK forever in November, when it sets sail from Southampton for Dubai to take up its new duty as a luxury floating hotel.

If I had a stall selling handkerchiefs, I know where I would be that day...

Great to see that Princess Cruises is adding a Sanctuary area to all its ships over the next couple of years.

The Sanctuary is an area on the top deck of Crown and Emerald Princess (it will also be on Ruby Princess when that launches in November) where only adults are allowed.

There's a canopy over the top to keep out the harsh rays of the sun, bushes that look real enough and rustle in the gentle breeze, cushioned sunbeds (including a few where couples can snuggle up), MP3 players to borrow and private cabanas where you can have a massage. It's all very indulgent and wonderfully exclusive because numbers are controlled and - isn't there always a catch - you have to pay for your piece of pampering.

To me, the Sanctuary is close to heaven, but I have to confess I didn't think it would catch on - cruisers are notorious for not wanting to pay for anything once they have splashed out on their cruise, especially things they reckon they have already paid for in the price.

Just this time, I'm truly happy to have been proved wrong.

Cunard is to ease the strain for single travellers in 2009, cutting the single supplement on Queen Mary 2 from 100% to 75% and even 50% on some voyages during April and on May 2 and 8 for those who get in quick.

It's about time. We hear so often - from the cruiselines themselves - what a wonderful holiday a cruise is for people on their own. And as one who regularly cruises on my own I agree. Except for those swingeing supplements.

Could this new-for-2009 decision have anything to do with Carnival UK chief commercial officer Peter Shanks' prediction in his company's 2008 cruise report that by 2020 we will have waved goodbye to single supplements?

I didn't realise at the time that actually he was hinting about what was to come rather than playing soothsayer, but now I look back at those words of wisdom, I see he also predicted that we would have (hopefully) figured out a foolproof way of smashing champagne bottles on the side of new ships.

Enter the Royal Marines, who will be guaranteeing a smashing time this week when P&O Cruises' Ventura is named in Southampton by Dame Helen Mirren.

I know I for one am going to listen more closely to Shanks' crystal-ball gazing. His obviously works better than Mystic Meg's.

A new report out this week by cruise guru Tony Peisley concludes there is little evidence of a slowdown in fleet expansion despite the weak dollar, which has made ship building an even more expensive business than it already was.

In an analysis in Travel Weekly this week, I list the new builds on order between now and 2011 - 32 in all, and that excludes ships being built for the US or German markets that are unlikely ever to see a Brit on board. I agree. That certainly doesn't smack of a slowdown.

As the euro gathers strength, cruiselines might be cursing the money markets but new ships for new cruisers - 20 million worldwide by 2010, Peisley predicts - is what this industry is all about.

It has taken a lot of courage and hard work for the cruiselines to get where they are today, with cruising now an accepted holiday for people of all ages from all walks of life. They are not going to let a little financial fluctuation rock the boat.

Sad to hear Cunard president and managing director Carol Marlow is stepping down as chairman of the Passenger Shipping Association after a two-year reign during which we have all come to know and love that red jacket and her upbeat words of wisdom about the cruise and ferry industries - and all spoken without a note in sight.

And so it was at the PSA's 50th anniversary dinner last night, fittingly held on P&O Cruises' new ship Ventura, which has been in Southampton for more than a week now so agents and past and potential passengers can have a look at Carnival UK's newest baby. More on that to come.

Marlow is handing over the PSA reins to Stena Line's general manager travel UK Lars Olsen this summer - it being the ferries' turn to head the association. You can't get fairer than that.

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?

The April conveyor belt of new ship launches continues with news that Aker Yards in Turku, Finland, handed over the keys for Royal Caribbean International's new ship Independence of the Seas yesterday.

Indie is now on its way to Oslo, so the Norwegians can get a look-see, and then it will be coming to Southampton for more festivities and fun.

It will be named on April 30 - not by a celeb, but by Elizabeth Hill from Chesterfield in Derbyshire, an ordinary Brit (which is a first for Royal Caribbean) who has been picked for her extraordinary work with children and young people.

Independence will sail its maiden summer season from the south coast port.

Paddington Bear is having another go at this cruising lark 50 years after his last trip to sea. The bear, you will remember, arrived in this country on a ship from Peru. Now he's off again, joining Ocean Village's two ships - the original Ocean Village and Ocean Village Two - as they sail the Med this summer.

He'll find things have changed a bit - there's none of that fixed dining business with OV and there'll be lots of kids to play with in the Base Camp children's club during school holidays. Packing, of course, will be easy as casual all the way is the order of the OV day. A hat to keep off the sun and jacket in case it rains will do just fine.

I trust marmalade sandwiches will be added on Ocean Village's menus.

What's this I read?

That the two Royal Marines we saw on camera smashing two bottles of bubbly against the side of P&O Cruises' Ventura during the naming ceremony were a pre-recorded con.

Rumour is that anyone watching on the quay would have seen that on the day, one didn't actually break. What we saw was a film made to cover up in case of just such an eventuality.

If it is true, it's a real shame and raises all sorts of questions about decency and honesty. More to the point, isn't it just a little worrying that our trained combat troops are not up to smashing a bottle of Champagne against such a hard object as a ship's hull?

Following on from my article on cruising and the environment in Travel Weekly this week, I see Costa Cruises and Steiner Leisure, the company that operates Costa's on-board spas, are marking International Earth Day today by planting a tree for every spa treatment taken.

It's not quite a wellies and spade job for the environmentally-friendly duo because they are actually donating $1 to the Arbour Day Foundation, which does all the digging.

However, they are hoping enough people will be rubbed, wrapped and oiled in just one day to plant 10,000 trees. As they say, from small acorns...

The phones have been going mad at MSC towers in London ever since the no-expense-spared launch of MSC Poesia in Dover earlier this month, I hear. Lunches are off and even MSC Cruises managing director Claudia Baino and UK chairman Peter Pate have had to step in to help answer the phones.

Interesting to see that Cyprus-based Louis Cruise Lines has acquired the Norwegian Dream and Norwegian Majesty from Star Cruises, the Malaysian-based cruise company that owns half of Norwegian Cruise Line.

And interesting that Thomson Cruises has decided not to renew the charter for Louis Cruises' ancient but much-loved Emerald from October this year.

See where I'm going with this?

Director of cruising for Tui Travel mainstream division David Selby is being typically non-commital about Thomson's plans, saying only:

When the right opportunity comes along, which we are sure it will, we will announce it.

Could this be a classic case of London bus syndrome? One minute you are hoping for one opportunity, then two come along at once.

Good news for river cruise companies from cruise.co.uk this week. It reckons river cruising is where ocean was 10 years ago and poised to grow, so it has made its first foray into the market. River cruises are now featured on the web site along with news, deals and more

Apparently clients aged 55-plus with large disposable incomes are driving the demand, which I don't doubt. But if it really is where ocean cruising was a decade ago, then surely it's time river cruise companies took another leaf out of the ocean book and tried to widen the appeal by developing the product to appeal to 30 or 40-somethings and families?

Families? Well why not? River cruising is a terrific way to see some of Europe's great cities and it's very educational for children, but none of the operators do anything to keep youngsters entertained as the boats cruise from one place to another.

I'm not talking big kids' clubs - these are small boats after all - but why not a room where they can paint or draw, play on computers, or where teens could hang out away from prying parents. Maybe the river cruise companies could even try family cruises, less formal but still desirable, so kids won't irritate the blue-rinse brigade, and vice-versa.

As more agents move in on the river market, maybe this is the time to take a giant step into the 21st century.

Aker Yards shipyard in St Nazaire, France, is an awfully long way to go to see a piece of steel lowered to the ground, but there is something rather special about being there at the start of a new ship build.

This time it was for the birth of F3, Norwegian Cruise Line's next new ship - 150,000 tons, 4,200 passengers. Two of these giants are due to launch within months of each other in 2010.

Before going to the shipyard we dropped in on the place where they are developing the cabins, where NCL president and chief executive office Colin Veitch gave us a taste of just how different this ship promises to be (look out for details in Travel Weekly next week).

We also each struck a coin bearing the F3 name (I trust they will come up with a snappier one soon, as also for the next biggie, which currently goes under the moniker F3 - 2).

Then it was to the shipyard, a few more words from Veitch and the first piece of the keel - number 5006, weighing 322 tons - was lowered into place. Once it had landed, beside an unflinching mistress of ceremonies, we all placed our coins in a box that was welded shut and will be forever part of the first F3.

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.

Congratulations to Cunard and Queen Victoria, which has just appeared on Conde Nast Traveller's Hot List of top hotels and spas around the world. Not bad going for a ship that launched less than five months ago.

The magazine's editors noted:

"she is a grand ship that harks back to the romantic era of cruising"

and refers to its sober yet elegant design. Couldn't have put it better myself.

Foodies will have a field day this October, when Crystal Cruises sets sail with a wine and food festival. They might not have lined up top TV celebs, but if the executive chef of the Dorchester Hotel and owner of Michy's in Miami can't cook up a cruise to remember, then no one can.

Onboard there'll be cookery demonstrations and tastings; on port days Crystal has lined up cooking lessons in Sorrento and wine-tasting in Sicily among other gourmet delights.

Luckily both Crystal Serenity and Crystal Symphony have big gyms where passengers will be able to run off all that food.

Bad news this week for cruisers and agents trying to sell cruises. Hot on the heels of Royal Caribbean's decision to hike its surcharges, there's news of a similar move by deluxe line Oceania Cruises.

Anyone booking Oceania from May 1 will pay an extra $10 per person per day, which as anyone with basic maths will know is $70 a week and $100 for a 10-night cruise. Not an insignificant extra when you consider that passengers will also be forking out a similar amount at the end of their cruise in gratuities, not to mention what they have to pay for drinks, shore excursions, spa treatments and all the other extras that make cruising so enjoyable.

Clients booking with Royal Caribbean, Celebrity Cruises or Azamara Cruises are now paying £4 per person per day, but no more than £56 per cruise.

In the Telegraph this week, I note that senior management is amazingly calm about the amount of new tonnage being launched against a credit-crunching background of rising prices.

But I wonder how much higher these supplements can go before clients start to feel enough is enough. And what then happens to all this extra capacity? Discounting?

Lower prices might be great for clients and help fill the ships, but at what price? It's a dangerous one-way street road where none but the very skilled can manage a u-turn.

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!

I've come across the sad story of Bill Burr on the TW Blog, a regular cruiser who has just discovered that all is not as it seems when cruiselines recommend certain shops in ports around the world.

Recently I was quite dismayed to learn that one of my favourite shops [in Gibraltar] is not one of the 'recommended' shops promoted by the shopping lecturers aboard ship. When I questioned the owner, I was shocked to learn that he had been asked, not only for a large sum of money for advertising, but also for hefty percentages of whatever the shop sells to 'recommended passengers'.

I can't believe it! Or maybe I'm just a little gullible, but I always thought that Shopping Lecturers were working for the benefit of the passengers. Now I find that all they are doing is lining their pockets by pushing hapless shoppers into shops that are, in all likelihood, more expensive than their competitors (after all, they have to pay thousands of dollars for the privilege!).

Maybe I'm just a little cynical, but I assumed cruiselines were doing this for money from the moment I took my first cruise and have therefore always steered clear of shops brandishing cruiseline stickers.

In fact I can't believe Mr Burr really thought cruiselines were expending time and energy on port talks to get nothing in return. They want you to buy what are often very expensive excursions and spend money in shops that will give them a kick back.

After all, they are not charities and if they want to keep the headline costs of cruises as low as possible, they have to make their money elsewhere.

I wrote a piece for my Telegraph column recently on cruising in a "bubble" that included the following:

Go on a cruise to the Caribbean and the ships’ daily newsletters will even have a map of “approved” shops where it is safe to buy.

Safe to buy? Whatever happened to caveat emptor? If the price seems too good to be true, chances are it is, but if it shines and you like it, do you really need cruise ship approval before you buy?

The same can equally be said on Gibraltar or anywhere else around the world you end up on a cruise.

I note that Mr Burr cruises a lot with Royal Caribbean. He may be interested to know that on a trip to the Baltic with Princess Cruises, I was given very detailed information on how to get into the cities where it was not obvious, even in Gdynia, where they explained how to get to the train station (taxi), buy a ticket (not so easy in small town Poland where they don't speak English and my attempts at Russian were not appreciated!) and catch the train to Gdansk.

Princess is not faultless, if indeed recommending shops for a percentage payback is a fault, because they also have their recommended lists at various ports. But I really appreciated the fact they were doing something for passengers that did not make them a penny, but saved me plenty.

This month's prize for the most contrived cruising link has to go Trips Worldwide for the following:

She weighs more than 80,000 family cars or 32,000 adult elephants and at 1,112 ft. is longer than 37 double-decker buses… If you don’t fancy rubbing shoulders with 3,999 other passengers, a holiday aboard the new 160,000-ton Independence of the Seas may not be for you…

Tailor-made specialist, Trips Worldwide, has opted for more bijou vessels, Coral I & II (both around 108 ft. long) for its four-night Galapagos wildlife cruise, part of a longer two-week itinerary that includes a stay at Huaorani Ecolodge in Amazonian Ecuador. Departures from London by air are available daily.

The words bandwagon and jumping spring to mind. Any other entries gratefully received...

Good to see that Ocean Village's ship Ocean Village the original (how I wish they could come up with something simpler - how about Ocean Village One given there is now an Ocean Village Two?) now has a Club Lounge.

Ocean Village Two, launched in April 2007, had a Club Lounge when I cruised on it last summer and it proved a fantastic place to get away from the masses and enjoy a much more personal service.

Of course there is a catch. It is only available to passengers staying in top-grade AA or BB suites and it costs £70 per person. But for that you get unlimited access to the lounge, continental breakfast, afternoon tea, unlimited soft drinks, free alcohol served between 5pm and 8pm and free access to the Internet, so it is a bit of a bargain. Even more so given children of lounge-paying passengers can go in for free and still get the free soft drinks.

Nice move OV. Now how about that name?

The number of Europeans - including the British - taking a cruise has hit the four million mark two years earlier than expected.

According to the European Cruise Council, numbers leaped 17% last year to hit the new record, which is up from 2.6 million five years ago. The ECC had predicted four million in 2010.

The UK is way ahead of the rest with 1.3 million passengers. Germany comes second with 763,000, up 8% on 2006, followed by Italy at number three with 640,000 passengers, up 24% on the previous year.

Another ship is leaving Norwegian Cruise Line's NCL America, the US-flagged company with mostly American crew set up to cruise within Hawaii (others can cruise to the islands but there are strict cabotage laws that the NCL America operation was designed to circumvent).

According to Cruise Critic, Pride of Aloha will revert to being Norwegian Sky, go into dry dock for the casino to be put back (no gambling allowed in waters around the 50th state) and Freestyle 2.0 upgrades to be added, and will start sailing three and four-night cruises between Miami and the Bahamas in July.

The ship was originally going to join the Star Cruises' fleet - Star being the parent of NCL - having previously been deemed unsuitable for the investment needed on the upgraded amenities.

This is the second ship to leave NCL America - Pride of Hawaii has been reflagged and renamed Norwegian Jade and is now sailing in Europe - leaving just one vessel, Pride of America, whose future must also now be in serious doubt.

It's a shame but not a great surprise. NCL America has been dogged with problems since it started, not least because the Americans proved less then enthusiastic about spending months away from home on a cruise ship - and wanted proper wages to boot.

It's been a costly lesson but NCL deserves marks for trying.

I was amazed to read this week that Louis Cruise Lines has sold the 42-year-old Princesa Marissa. Not because it has been sold; more that Louis still had the ship in the first place.

I had the misfortune to sail on it once, thankfully for just two nights, and have to say it was a perfect example of how not to do it - a dingy cabin. iffy food and cheesy entertainment.

Worst of all, when we boarded in Limassol, Cyprus, the ship was listing, which made me doubly alert on the lifeboat drill.

Thankfully I survived the experience and even carried on cruising (there is surely a film there somewhere?) despite their best efforts to put me off.

Incidentally, Louis has also sold the Serenade, which unbelievably was even older (it has another 10 years on Marissa), as part of a fleet upgrade programme. You may remember it has just bought Norwegian Dream and Norwegian Majesty from Norwegian Cruise Line.

Now we know why.

Just back from a meeting with Bernard Carter, sales and marketing director UK and Europe for Oceania Cruises, and I'm pleased to report all is well in its upper premium world.

Except for August 12, that is. Oceania has wait lists for wait lists on all its ships for much of the rest of the year - what's that about a credit crunch? - but Nautica's August 12 12-night sailing in the Med is proving about as popular as the proverbial ham sandwich at a Jewish wedding.

OK, so that's an exaggeration, but there's enough space left for Oceania to have been inspired to come up with some incredible offers - £818 per person for an inside cabin. It is cruise-only and it is an inside room, but you can have a balcony for £1,126 per person, which is a real bargain.

Don't blink or you'll miss them...

Louis Cruise Lines' Aquamarine had to make an emergency stop in Milos after a five-foot breach in the ship's hull was discovered. That's a hole to you and me.

According to Cruise Critic, the ship safely docked carrying 872 passengers and 407 crew, all of whom are expected to stay on board while emergency repair work is carried out. Cruise Critic reports:

A spokesman for Louis Cruise Lines blamed the ship's contact with the pier [while departing from Iraklion, Crete] on high winds and the pier's lack of protective rubber fenders, and said that the damage never posed any danger to passengers.

Nevertheless, it must have brought back chilling memories for Louis and the passengers. Last year, its ship Sea Diamond struck a reef in Santorini and sank, losing two French passengers, presumed dead. Aquamarine was due to go to Santorini before changing course to Milos.

All this talk of holes and breaches has not gone down well at Louis Cruise Lines.

They reckon Aquamarine's hull suffered "cosmetic damage" that was above the water line so there was never any danger to passengers.

The ship docked at Milos for a sticking plaster repair and is being fixed in Piraeus today. It is due to leave the port this evening on its next sailing.

Passengers are being compensated for missing Santorini, which was the last port. There were no Brits on board.

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.

With its yacht-style cruising and fares that take your breath away (yes, I know, they are all-inclusive but even so!), there are some who would say Yachts of Seabourn is already in with the in-crowd.

However, it gets even more "in" for 2010, when the ships will be making more calls at that jet-set heaven otherwise known as the France Riviera. St Raphael, Bandol and Antibes are all slated for visits, as are a few other millionaire playgrounds - Portofino in Italy, St Barts in the Caribbean, the Isles of Scilly. Where? Don't worry I do know - have actually been there a few times - and while it might not quite be up there with the rest, it's a beautiful place nonetheless.

2010 also marks Seabourn's first world cruise, on Seabourn Odyssey, which launches in June 2009, expanding the ultra luxury segment of the cruise industry for the first time in six years, according to president and CEO Pamela Conover.

As it's the first of three Seabourn ships on order, each for 450 passengers, and Silversea is building too, could it be that luxury is not longer a luxury, it's a necessity?

At last, only four months after I was due to get a first glimpse of Balmoral, Fred Olsen Cruise Lines' new ship, I am on board.

Formerly Norwegian Crown, the vessel was acquired from Norwegian Cruise Line last year and has been stretched - literally it was cut in half and a new bit inserted - so it takes around 400 more passengers.

It was due to set out on its maiden voyage under Fred Olsen colours in January but the work overran and the first cruise was delayed until February.

Is it Fred still? Actually yes. Despite being bigger, it does have that oh so British Fred feel that ageing Olsen groupies know and love. Not quite so intimate though, and there are more lost souls aged over 60 wandering around, still not sure where everything is.

More interesting still... yes, you can see the join.

Cruising fans of Carrie and the girls will be in seventh heaven with Princess Cruises' decision to show the entire first series of Sex and the City on Sea Princess' Movies under the Stars big screen as the ship cruises out of Southampton this summer.

A reason to book? For some, maybe. I remember trying to watch this once on TV, but went back to watching paint dry as it was more exciting. Just what was the point?

Agents who attended the first day of the Association of Cruise Experts' cruise convention in Southampton yesterday had a great opportunity not just to see Crown Princess, which was on its way to Copenhagen to start a summer season of sailings in the Baltic, but also pick up some really practical and helpful hints and tips on how to profit from selling cruising from Princess Cruises head of brand marketing Pieter van der Schee (there is a repeat presentation on Monday so don't panic if you missed it).

This was the event ACE business development director Andy Harmer didn't think could happen. With the three-day convention proper starting Monday, he reckoned maybe 50 agents would turn out for the Friday Premiere.

In the event, there were 150 or so (and many of them are so keen to learn more they will be back in Southampton on Monday for the rest of the convention) which means a total 850 agents will be attending the convention over the four days.

That's an incredible result considering the American equivalent of ACE only manages to attract 1,000 agents. Just think how many more agents there are in the US!

If you are one of the many who was too late to secure a place at the convention, keep an eye on Travel Weekly, which will be reporting all the news and views from the event.

And remember to follow the advice you give your customers next year and book early! 

Interesting letter in Travel Weekly this week about gratuities, which always manage to raise a few heckles among the British cruising fraternity. Why? Well as the letter says, a tip is supposed to a reward for good service. Ah yes. But not where cruising is concerned.

On a cruise, the gratuity is an extra cost dressed up as a tip to save cruise lines having to pay crew higher wages, which they don't want to do as it would mean having to charge more for the cruise itself.

How else can you explain the fact that Royal Caribbean International allows passengers to pre-pay their gratuity? So you are rewarding service before you have even stepped onto a ship. Make sense of that. Or that Costa Cruises and Norwegian Cruise Line have replaced gratuities with compulsory service charges?

Other lines automatically add the gratuity to your on-board account and you can ask for it to be taken off or for the amount to be reduced, but it takes a hard person to dare look so mean.

Cruise lines argue that putting the tip on the bill is for passengers own good. Saves them having to find lots of extra cash at the end of a holiday - and it is a lot. From about £30 per person per week, which is £120 if you are travelling with the family. So they have a point.

But it would be a stronger point if they asked when passengers check in,"would you like us to add the £5 a day gratuity to your cruise account?" - and then explain the reasons. I suspect there is the likelihood too many would say no, which is not what the cruise lines want.

I have heard a prominent cruise line CEO say he would love to remove gratuities and pay crew more (OK, not his exact words, but it's what he meant) if other lines did the same, but he wasn't going to put himself at a competitive disadvantage. Understandable.

The big question is why the Brits - and the Spanish also, I am told - dislike tipping so much. Cruise lines say we are mean, embarrassed, not sure how much to tip (which is why they tell us).

I think it's more that we dislike being told what to do. Get the Brits on a package holiday and they will follow their tour leader over a cliff, but when it comes to money they want to think for themselves, tip because they want to, because they feel have had good service.

There is also something not quite fair - or British! - about going up to a bar to get a drink and having to tip for the pleasure.

There are ways to escape tipping. It's not the done thing on a luxury line - affluent cruisers don't want to be troubled by anything so common as money! - but then you pay a lot for the privilege.

At the other end of the scale, cruise lines like Island Cruises, Ocean Village and Thomson Cruises, aimed squarely at the Brits, have got it right by taking tipping out the equation.But I bet many passengers also leave something for their cabin steward/ess or favourite barman as a genuine thank you. It would be interesting to find out.

Congratulations again to Andy Harmer and the team from the Association of Cruise Experts - and that includes everyone in the accounts and training departments (sorry Andy, couldn't help perpetuating the myth) - for a great cruise convention in Southampton this week.

There might have been one or two hiccups, but it was brilliantly attended by the people it was aimed at - the agents - and there were some very good speakers imparting a lot of useful information.

We touched on the US elections courtsey of Terry Dale from Cruise Lines International Association, the American version of ACE, and had mighty mice and nudity courtesy of Royal Caribbean International UK and Ireland MD Jo Rzymowska.

If none of this makes sense, by the way, book early and make sure you are at the conference next year, wherever that might be.

I am also intrigued by the speaker who vanished so completely from day two. Poor Mario Martini, from God knows where, who was going to give what promised to be an intriguing talk entitled "how cruise destinations are fundamental". Who'd have thought it? The ultimate ignominy surely was that no one even seemed to notice when he didn't take to the stage.

Sadly, the one thing that let it all down was Southampton, that great cruise capital of the Europe (so we were told), which can only field a rather grim football stadium for conferences of any size.

We either melted or froze during the exhibition and sessions, starved or gave in and dined on what must have been the leftover sandwiches when British Rail catering closed down.

In fairness, the food at the Speakers' Dinner - also in the football stadium - last evening was fine and there was plenty of wine to help it down so by the dessert it didn't really matter anyway.

And I suppose at least I can now tell anyone who is in the slightest bit interested that I have been inside a football stadium and even seen the pitch - just!

Interesting story on the Cruise Critic website about an American couple who have been banned from cruising with Royal Caribbean International.

Apparently they were regular cruisers with the brand, but managed to find faults with every cruise they took. These were vocalised to the world through travel websites and when Royal acted to rectify the problems with financial sweeteners - on-board credits, money off future cruises - they told the world of that too.

Cleverly they always praised Royal and rebooked with them so it never looked like they were after money. Of course they weren't. But now the game is over. Let's face it, cruiselines can't afford to allow others to learn the rules.

Somehow I'm finding it hard to feel sorry for these guys, who have been pouring their hearts out on US TV, but I do have sympathy for Norwegian Cruise Line. Apparently they have discovered - and love - NCL's Freestyle cruising!

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.

The Brits have really caught on to Far East cruising Italian-style, a beaming Marco Rosa, UK managing director of Costa Cruises, tells me.

For the first time ever, he was able to report to HQ that his office has booked more Brits on a Costa cruise than his Italian-based counterpart has booked Italians.

OK, so it was only for the line's new cruises from Hong Kong, but that's still quite an achievement given the Brits are usually number five source market for the line, behind the Italians, French, Germans and Spanish. No wonder Rosa was so happy.

He also reports an unexpected surge in bookings from the UK for summer 2008, despite credit crunches, rising prices and falling house values - and the fact one would have thought most people would already have booked this year's summer holiday by now.

"We have already reached our 2008 target, which was 34% higher than for 2007, so anything else is an unexpected bonus," he says, adding that forward bookings for 2009 are ahead of this time last year for 2008.

Rosa reckons it's all down to better brand awareness among agents. "We don't get asked what we do any more or how many ships we have. Thet are all amazed when they come on board. I don't know what they expect."

Passengers on Azamara Cruises, the better-than-Celebrity brand from the Royal Caribbean stable, had a real treat as their ship popped into London this week on the way from Barcelona to Copenhagen - namely what passes for a port in one of Europe's leading capital cities.

Port? Actually, it's a pontoon just down river from Tower Bridge that has been covered with portacabins that you weave through in order to get to the ship - and that's after enduring a tortuous tender transfer from the other side of the bridge.

No matter. There was a fabulous view of Tower Bridge from the aft end of the ship and it must have been fun squeezing through the Thames Barrier - for passengers at least. Captain Carl admitted he pulled his stomach in as he manoevered through with just 15 metres to spare on either side.

Thames boatmen notwithstanding, I finally managed to get on board with some of the top people from Royal Caribbean for what was a first glimpse of an Azamara ship for all.

Except it was a bit like deja-vu for anyone who has been on Princess Cruises' Royal Princess (Swan Hellenic's Minerva II as was) or any of the Oceania Cruises' ships.

Obviously Azamara Journey been tweaked here and there - actually there have been $19 million of tweaks to add 32 bigger suites, a cafe, bar and change the carpets. Sadly the money didn't stretch to real teak on the pool deck so there's a plastic faux alternative but the wooden sun loungers with comfy mattresses helps to make up for that.

They have also put in new alternative restaurants, which come with no charge (that's one of the better-than-Celebrity bits) and look lovely. But so does the eat-when-you-like main dining room. Again, so much more advanced than its X-rated big sister with its fixed dining.

And at the moment, as the brand is not yet well known, it doesn't cost any more, and sometimes even less. That's got to be well worth a second look.

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.

Forty-one years after smashing a bottle of bubbly against Cunard's QE2, the Queen will be in Southampton on Monday to bid the ship a fond farewell.

The ship, for anyone who has been on Mars, has been sold to the Dubai government to become a floating hotel, and sets off for its new home in November after a series of sell-out farewell voyages.

The Queen will tour of the ship, meet some of the crew and then settle down to lunch with former prime minister Baroness Thatcher.

On a signal from the Queen, Cadet Jennifer Haynes will sound QE2's whistle to salute Queen Mary 2, which will also be in port. Being very polite, Queen Mary 2 will respond with a whistle.

There won't be a dry eye in the house.

News reaches me that Lucien Freud's portrait of a naked, pregnant Kate Moss will be on Star Cruises' SuperStar Virgo's voyages from Hong Kong this summer.

Is this supposed to attract bookings from passengers not excited enough at the thought of seeing Vietnam and China. Please tell me it can't be true.

Cruising kids - or should that be parents? - have never had it so good.

Not only do under-18s cruise for free all-year round with MSC Cruises, now the line is offering 30% discounts on excursions for under 14s. That's good news for mums and dads bewildered by cruiselines that count 12-year-olds as adults when to comes to all things financial while forbidding them access to adult areas of the ships.

I also love MSC Cruises' Teen Card for 12-17s that parents can charge with 30 or 50 euros at the start of the cruise, leaving teens free to spend, spend, spend as they want on board - until they use up all the credit, that is.

Parents can then either take their teens back under their financial wing or recharge the cards - presumably after a few lessons in the art of money management.

Good to see Norwegian Cruise Line's Norwegian Jade in Southampton last week sporting the line's new Freestyle 2.0 upgraded features.

The ship is homeporting in Southampton this summer - the first time NCL has based a ship at the port - and sailing to the Med with an average 1,500 British passengers per cruise - a very healthy number, especially for a first season (there are also Americans and a few northern Europeans).

Freestyle 2.0 has all sorts of good features - a welcome glass of bubby for everyone on embarbarkation, and thicker mattresses and better-quality linens in the cabins. If you're into seafood, I guess it's also good news that they are offering more lobster on the menus.

But then there are the flags. Sounds so cool - relax on your sunbed, wave a flag and a waiter will come and take your order. The reality? The word tacky springs to mind.

I feel sorry for the crew who have to keep the flags in some kind of order. Bets, please, on how long they will last.

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...

Now you can come back from your cruise not only feeling good, but looking good too.

Norwegian Cruise Line has become the first cruiseline to offer Botox at sea. Passengers keen to become human pin-cushions in their quest to banish wrinkles and lines will find the treatment on Norwegian Dawn, Norwegian Spirit and Norwegian Gem.

It will be rolled out fleetwide this autumn.

As the website Cruise Critic so rightly says, once one starts, they all start. Yes, it's fuel supplement hike time again.

For bookings made from June 20, Norwegian Cruise Line's daily charge rises to $11 per person, with no maximum, while Carnival UK, which encompasses P&O Cruises, Princess Cruises, Ocean Village and Cunard, has put its fuel supplement up to £4.50 per person per day, with a maximum £63 for cruises up to 14 nights.

Fred Olsen's supplement, meanwhile, hits £5 per person per day to a maximum £70 from June 10.

As I wrote recently in a news story for the Telegraph, cruisers now not only have to fork out for gratuities, but also have to pay at least the same amount again for the fuel supplement. We are talking of at least £140 per person extra for each cruise, on top of the cruise price.

How much longer can it go on?

Airline cutbacks in response to the soaring price of fuel is causing major headaches for US cruisers, a USA Today Cruise Log Blog reports.

The soaring price of oil has forced airlines to make some drastic moves in recent weeks, including cutting back service, raising fares and adding new baggage fees. And that's causing major headaches for cruisers who rely on airplanes to get to ships.

Be interesting to hear if agents over here are finding similar problems. Another good reason to cruise from the UK, I think.

How sad to see that Carnival is pulling Carnival Freedom from the Med next year. All the talk is about the growth of cruising in Europe - and the line is about to launch ex-UK cruises for the first time - yet here's a first sign that the downturn in the economy is taking its toll.

Carnival fills its Med cruises with a majority Americans, but with the strong euro and swingeing airline fuel supplements (and the amount the cruiseline are now charging is not drop in the ocean) there are fears these guys won't be venturing across the Pond next year.

So Freedom will be staying in the Caribbean, which we know from the 9/11 terrorist attacks is the cruiselines' bolt hole when things get tough. Anyone already booked on the 2009 Med cruises can cancel or rebook without penalty before July 10.

The good news is that Carnival Splendor, which is selling well in the British market, is still scheduled to be back for a second season of ex-UK cruises from Dover to the Baltic next year.

Shows when the going gets tough, you can always rely on the Brits.

Oceania Cruises is the latest to increase its fuel surcharge, which is going up to $15 per person per day from June 16. As there's no maximum, this is going to hit those on longer voyages particularly hard.

Does anyone care? Apparently not. Sales and marketing director UK and Europe Bernard Carter says winter 09/10 is about to launch and agents should advise clients to book fast to secure their cruise because last time all the best rooms sold out in record time.

As the current saying goes, crunch, what crunch?

Did anyone else read about this new book, Cruising from A-Z, in which author Bill Glenton - billed "a leading cruise writer" - warns that many holidaymakers booking a cruise risk "taking a voyage to disappointment"?

'While holidays afloat are usually enjoyable, cruising is now such a vast and complex business that it easy to make mistakes and select a cruise that disappoints. I often meet passengers who feel like a fish out of water.'

Luckily his book "shows us how to choose a cruise and ship to match our personality and pocket, while steering us clear of the shoals and rocks that can lie hidden in the fog of brochure boasts".

Hmmm. Rather than wade through the cliches, I think it would be much simpler and far more productive to speak to a travel agent who specialises in cruising.

I see Champagne will be out and English sparkling wine will be in for the naming of Carnival Splendor by classical musician, singer and presenter Myleen Klass next month.

"Saves Carnival a bit of money I suppose," a cynical former journalist friend commented. "Or maybe they're just hoping that the cheaper glass is guaranteed to smash."

Of all the cruiseships in all the world and you had to crash into mine.....

My thanks to Mike at Gill's Cruise Centre for news of a collision between Costa Cruises' Costa Classica and MSC Cruises' MSC Poesia off Dubrovnik on June 6.

You can view footage of the collision at the LiveLeak website 

I know MSC and Costa don't get on that well ... but this is getting silly!

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.

I see Disney Cruise Line just won the questionable honour of paying the highest fee to pass through the Panama Canal.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25084475/

Just hope it was worth it.

If John Heald, the blogging Carnival cruise director with an irritating penchant for dots (read the blog and you'll see) - who must be a little jaded after all his time around cruiseships - can get excited about the new suites on Seabourn Odyssey, they must be good (although of course Yachts of Seabourn is owned by Carnival so maybe he is just a tad biased.)

http://johnhealdsblog.com/2008/06/12/seabourn-odyssey-and-the-lifestyles-of-the-rich-and-bill/#more-3542

Odyssey comes into service June 24 next year but is already on sale and, as Heald admits, has some of the most expensive suites at sea - I've just done a piece on the Grand Suites for the next TW Cruise and they will set you back nearly £11,500 for seven nights, and you still have to pay for flights and a transfer.

If they aren't good, guess there's no hope.

It was a pizz-a cake for Costa, when it decided to celebrate its 60th birthday Down Under by setting a new world record for the longest pizza line in the world - a total 826 stretching 221 metres. http://blogs.usatoday.com/cruiselog/

Cheering Aussies looked on as 25 local chefs sweated their way to victory in Sydney's Italian quarter.

Once the man from the Guiness Book of Records announced the record broken, the pizza were collected up and distributed to local charities to feed homeless and disadvantaged people. Good work.

What is happeneng on our high seas? If they are not crashing into each other or into ports, cruiseship are running aground.

easyCruise's easyCruise Life, which only set sail for the budget line last month, is the latest - Associated Press says it ran aground in the Aegean Islands. None of the passengers or crew was hurt.

http://blogs.usatoday.com/cruiselog/

Don't miss this comment:

http://blogs.usatoday.com/cruiselog/2008/06/easycruise-ship.html#uslPageReturn

So 89-year-old Beatrice Muller, the New Jersey woman who has lived on the QE2 for the past nine years, is looking for a new home. No surprise there given Cunard has sold the ship to the Dubai Government. She has until November to pack her bags and leave.

http://www.usatoday.com/travel/cruises/item.aspx?type=blog&ak=51075048.blog#uslPageReturn

Now she needs another cruiseship to call home.

Which would you choose?

Swan Hellenic's Minerva was named yesterday at a quiet ceremony in Dover, just before the ship set off on its second cruise under its new name - which is actually the vessel's name when it sailed for Swan before, but since leaving Swan five years ago it has sailed as Alexander von Humboldt and Explorer II.

Lady Sterling, wife of the man who bought the brand from Carnival Corp and then sold it on to All-Leisure Group, which also owns Voyages of Discovery, did the honours as godmother and Paul Carter, the cruise director, assures me the Champagne did break.

Crystal Cruises is converting 12 deluxe cabins into eight Penthouses when its 1,080-passenger Crystal Serenity goes for a refit in November. Reducing capacity when others are increasing, as the luxury line proudly proclaims. Well yes. Just.

The ship will come out of the refurb with 72 Penthouses, 32 Penthouses Suites and four Crystal Penthouses, which have to be among the largest and most luxurious rooms at sea.

All you need are deep pockets and you're on your way to cabin heaven, complete with a butler, of course.

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.

Good to see the Leading Cruise Agents is going from strength to strength under the leadership of Peter Deilmann's managing director Stuart Perl - who is still with Deilmann by the way. He has just stepped in to guide the LCA as well.

It has just signed up the Worldchoice Cruise Club, adding 45 members, and eight independents, and taking the total to 94 members.

Can only be good news for the cruising business.

Apologies but blogs are going to get a bit erratic for a few days as I'm cruising between Moscow and St Petersburg with Viking River Cruises.

A fascinating experience. Just been learning today how a bell was punished and banished to Siberia. Well this is Russia. Food and service are a bit iffy, and my room is a little bizarre, but the big problem - slow and expensive internet.

So this comes to you from Uglich - an unknown town but really quite sweet and at least the sun is shining. I'll be back when I can find more cheap street internet cafes like this.

Princess Cruises has become the first cruiseline to offer the Wii fit on all its ships. Apparently passengers can try their hand at a ski jump, Hula Hoop or heading soccer balls.

And there was me thinking people went on a cruise for a holiday.

Why do it yourself when you can get your cruise passengers to do it for you?

That is clearly the new motto of Voyages of Discovery as their new Antarctica brochure features pictures taken by passengers who have sailed to the White Continent with the line. Clearly they reckon past passengers' recommendations are the best way to sell the cruise.

As I've been there with Voyages, I have to say I agree.

More than the service, more than the destinations we visited, more than the food, the big topic of conversation on my cruise from Moscow to St Petersburg was the internet. Or rather lack of it.

"If you come in a month it will be working," Viking River Cruises chairman Torstein Hagen told me. Not really a lot of good to those of us spending a swingeing 10 euros (£8.30) for an hour online, during which time we were lucky to open one email.

I do admire his confidence, especially as the problems have nothing to do with techie stuff, but rather the fact that right piece of paper hasn't been signed by the Russian authorities. That's the bit he expects to be completed in the next few weeks.

But if he can cut through the red tape that has wound its way around so much of Russian life since the ending of the Soviet regime, and it really does happen, it's great news for all Viking's Russian river cruisers to come.

Even better, Hagen tells me that from the start of 2009, all Viking ships except those sailing the Yangtze in China, will have free wi-fi and laptops to hire for those who don't want to drag their own on holiday.

I see to see on the Travelmole website that the Orient Lines' brand has been bought and will be back with us if the new owner can find a ship.

Orient Lines was the "discovery" arm of Star Cruises and put up for sale last year because it really didn't fit with the Star/Norwegian Cruise Line concept of growing fleets of lively big ships.

http://www.travelmole.com/stories/1129565.php?news_cat=4

Orient Lines' one ship, Marco Polo, was sold to a Greek company and is now chartered by Transocean Tours and operating cruises from Tilbury to the Norwegian fjords and Baltic before heading off to the Antarctic this winter.

As its much-the-same 2009 programme is already out and selling, I assume that's one ship the new owners will have to strike off the list of possibles.

Has anyone looked at the new P&O Cruises' website? Such an improvement. All the info was there before, I'm sure, but the home page used to be so cluttered and came with a blast of irritating music if you weren't quick enough to get it switched off.

Now there's easy navigation, whether you want to know about the ships, the destinations, find a cruise and several new touches. I especially like this one:

A 'recently-viewed cruises' panel will give users a quick and easy route back to the last three cruises they viewed.

 

I have been given lots of info about the number of hits since it launched, as well as about who is doing what and talking to whom. But the big question is whether it brings in more bookings. I wait to hear.

Congratulations to Nigel Lingard, Fred Olsen Cruise Line's sales and marketing manager.

He has been named Norway Travel Ambassador of the Year by Innovation Norway (that's the tourist board to you and me) for his support and enthusiasm in promoting Norway over the past 30 years.

He was snapped with Heidi Dahl, Innovation Norway's director of tourism international markets (left), and Wench Nygard Eeg, of Cruise Norway

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.

Interesting e-mail from Joe in response to my column a couple of weeks ago in the Telegraph looking at whether the cruising bubble can continue in view of the credit crunch and ever-rising fuel surcharges.

Swan Hellenic are now writing to passengers who are sailing in 2009, promising no surcharges if they pay in full by July 2008. They state possible surcharge figures of £20+ a day.......

Clever how the surcharge has become a tool to get clients to book and pay for their cruises asap. Clouds and silver linings spring to mind.

An interesting selection of wierd and wonderful new themed cruises are coming out of the Crystal Cruises' stable for 2009.

There's fashion and style with fashion shows and design excursions, photography, even a chance and fortune cruise, which sounds more like a way to get people to spend more time - and money - in the casino.

But it's the tennis that appeals most:

Tennis - experts provide onboard instruction and insights in anticipation of Wimbledon.

 

They'll be getting real grass on board next. No wait. That idea's already been taken by Celebrity Cruises.

It was good to hear from Andy Stuart, Norwegian Cruise Line's executive vice-president and chief product officer, this week that no matter what new stuff they put on the F3 ships, the basic cruise package, with food and entertainment included, will continue.

There have been rumblings that all the new to-be-paid-for nightclub venues suggest the traditional package, which is after all such a strong selling point for the cruise lines - even if they do charge for so much extra these days - could be on its way out at NCL.

Not so, says Stuart. The F3s will continue to include everything that was included but simply add more choice - but that additional choice will probably carry an price.

Example - the private beach club to be on the new F3 ships launching 2010, which will be free to for suite people but an extra for everyone else; likewise the Halo VIP club.

They will probably be great. but have to say my fav is the pool area at the back, which becomes an outdoor Bliss lounge in the evening with double beds, dancing in the pool - OK the bottom comes up to make a stage so it's more dancing on the pool - Chinese food and a big screen where they'll show a sunset if there isn't a real one. How cool is that!

Amid all the doom and gloom of this are-we, aren't-we recession, it's good to see solid proof that cruise sales are buoyant. This comes from Results! Travel, a US travel agency group with 900 locations.

http://www.travelagentcentral.com/consortia/results-travel-survey-shows-growth-cruise-and-resort-sales

Heartening story for agents everywhere in Travel Weekly US this week.

Carnival Cruise Lines' president Gerry Cahill says they have reduced the size of the direct sales department and are putting more resources into getting trade bookings.

What has happened this year is our business with travel agents has grown significantly. Key to us is that the travel agent adds value. If someone is just an order-taker, that doesn't do a lot for us. But when somebody can help add value, they are a very important business partner to us.

http://www.travelweekly.com/article.aspx?id=175928

Yachts of Seabourn president and chief executive officer Pam Conover and Marco Bisagno, president of Mariotti, met up last week to watch as the keels were laid for for two sister luxury 450-passenger yachts launching 2010 and 2011.

 A third sister is already well on the way. Seabourn Odyssey, which also holds 450 passengers, launches next June with a maiden season in the Eastern Mediterranean and Black Sea

It's good to see that Peter Deilmann's previous disdain for agents is well and truly over, with a cash bonus the latest evidence that managing director Stuart Perl's really does know the benefit of having the trade on board, so to speak.

The incentive is simple. Agents who book a client on one of four half-price cruises this autumn not only get their standard commission, but an extra £40 per person booked to pocket as well. That's £80 for just one booking for two people, more for more bookings, but I'll leave you to do the maths.

Bookings need to be made before July 31, but with cruises along some of Europe's most iconic rivers at half price - that's less than £400 per person cruise-only on some itineraries - that should surely not be too difficult, especially for agents who know what this river cruise lark is all about.

Stuart Perl says he expecting strong support and a big payout. Not too big, I hope. He is still supposed to be making a profit, after all.

As founder Harley Van Stratten freely admits, the name cruisepricescompared.com hardly trips off the tongue - or indeed the keyboard - but it's hard to think of a moniker that more accurately suits what this new website does.

As my exclusive story in Travel Weekly this week explains, CPC is a marketplace where consumers can come in search of cruise deals and agents can advertise those deals for free. It couldn't get much simpler.

The catch is that if this is to succeed, Van Stratten needs lots of support from agents - and that means registering and putting up your cruise deals fast so there is something there for consumers to buy.

As it costs nothing and registration only takes minutes - or so I am told by Van Stratten, who is waiting by his computer now to OK applications (only ABTA or Travel Trust Association guys please) - it seems silly not to give it a go.

Once you're approved, you're free to put up your cruise deals using a series of drop-down boxes. That bit really is simple - I know because I have had a go.

The site's success also depends on cruise lines and other travel suppliers stumping up cash for adverts, and cruise lines can also pay for weekly slots on the home page to play their DVDs. That money will be ploughed back into cruise consumers' favourite newspapers - the likes of the Telegraph - to get them coming.

After all, a load of great deals with no one to buy them is pretty useless.

I see that Spirit of Adventure, the one-ship Saga-owned brand for the over-21 market, has bought the 500-passenger Astoria from Dutch-based Club Cruise and will refurb and rename the ship Quest for Adventure, reducing capacity to 450 at the same time.

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

Although mainly direct sell, Saga and Spirit are both sold through Thomas Cook.

Astoria is currently on charter to Transocean Tours and sold in the German market. That's the same company that operates Marco Polo under charter for the UK market.

Last week I reported that the Orient Lines' name - Orient Lines is the company that used to operate Marco Polo - had been acquired from Star Cruises. Now I see Gerry Herod, who started Orient Lines, has just bought a ship - Aegean I - so speculation is naturally rife that it and Orient Lines might about to start a new and beautiful relationship.

And so it all goes around....

Fred Olsen Cruise Lines' tours manager Tim Moore has sent me details of CareVacations, set up by Canadians Don and Susan, who saw an opportunity to open a business renting "special equipment" - oxygen, respiratory products, scooters, wheelchairs, walkers and the like - to cruise passengers.

Apparently the idea has gone down a storm in the US, where they are preferred supplier to all the major cruiselines, so now they have set up over here, shipping equipment to European cruisers.

In the States it's quite a common sight to see a person with portable oxygen shopping ... on cruise ships. They are not prepared to be confined to their homes, and neither should Europeans. Someone with impaired mobility may have their own equipment but it may be too large and too heavy for use on cruise ships. Renting lightweight equipment that is compliant with cruise lines' requirements, from CareVacations Ltd., is the answer.

Well they would say that, wouldn't they, but have to admit this sounds a clever idea. Wheelchair prices start at £99 for a week's cruise, £150 for a month, but you can pay £225 for an intriguingly-named newlife quiet concentrator.

Imagine if you could book these through your travel agent at the same time as your cruise? Just a thought...

Just as I am reading on Travelmole that Fred Olsen Cruise Lines has put its surcharge up again - its fifth increase since December, taking it to £6 per passengers per day for the first two occupants of a cabin, with a cap of £50 - I get an email from Olsen HQ telling me that a Christmas hamper worth £100 will be delivered to everyone on Balmoral's pre-Christmas cruise to the Canaries this year in time for the big day.

Wouldn't it just have been easier to wave the fuel surcharge on this cruise and save all those delivery charges, not to mention the fuel used, getting the hampers to everyone?

Sad to see in Travel Weekly that Susan Hooper, managing director EMEA at Royal Caribbean International is leaving the cruise line in September.

Hooper was responsible for persuading her American bosses that Independence of the Seas - the world's biggest cruiseship - could be a success in the UK. Result? The ship was not only named here and is sailing from Southampton this year, but is on sale with a similar selection of Med cruises next year. Suspect that indicates she was right.

Meanwhile, the cruise merry-go-round continues over at MSC Cruises, where Giulio Libutti has taken over from Claudio Baino as managing director, while Stena Line's Lars Olsen has replaced Cunard president and managing director Carol Marlow as Passenger Shipping Association chairman. Olsen was previously chairman of the PSA's ferry section.

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.

Thanks to Mike at Gill's Cruise for spotting the story about the Dorset couple hit with a fuel surcharge bill of £892 by Voyages of Discovery.

Multiply that up over the 700 or so passengers that Discovery holds and we are talking a nice little earner for Voyages.

No wonder they call the black stuff "liquid gold".

As my regular blog readers will have seen, I was at Tilbury last week to see Marco Polo, now sailing under charter to Transocean Tours and sub-charter to Cruise and Maritime Services through the summer. Click on the video, created courtesy of Travel Weekly, to see and hear more.

The International Herald Tribune reports that Royal Caribbean International president and chief executive Adam Goldstein was in Singapore to announce plans to base a ship in Singapore starting autumn 2009.

The line dipped a toe into Asian waters this year, so I guess this decision is proof that the experiment was successful. Either that or they just can't think what to do with all the cruise ships they keep building.

Let's face it, the Caribbean might be popular, but when the giant Oasis of the Seas hits the region in December 2009, it's going to soak up an awful lot of passengers - 5,400 on each cruise if all goes according to plan - so Royal's other ships have to fill somewhere else.

And why not Asia? Star Cruises is there year-round, Costa Cruises bases a ship there for part of the year and Princess Cruises has a big selection of exotic cruises there in winter, but generally it's somewhere the big lines only dip in and out of on their way around the world.

On Carnival Splendor last weekend, I heard Carnival Cruise Lines president and chief executive Gerry Cahill rule Asia out as an option, so seems Royal might have it all it's own way - for a while at least. Smart move.

I see Celebrity Cruises, that bastion of cruise tradition, is cutting back on formal nights for nine, 10 and 11-night cruises starting August 1. A sign of the more casual times, even for lines that like to think their passengers are quality, discerning types.

They'll be telling us they are trialing an open-dining system next. I can't wait.

But luckily it's one we can all applaud in these days of being green, in words if not deeds.

The line has won an award from CiAI in Italy, which translates into National Consortium for the Recovery and Recycling of Aluminium Packaging, for collecting tons of empty cans, waste foil and aluminium packaging - 10,000 kg of the stuff between May and December 2007.

CiAI usually reserves its awards for councils, but decided MSC qualified because its ships are floating towns. Actually that doesn't sound so good, does it? I can see the term being picked up with glee by environmentalists determined that cruising is the worst thing since, well, sliced bread.

A report in Travel Weekly US suggests the chill wind of the economic downturn is starting to blow around the cruise lines.

Johanna Jainchill's report talks of downsizing staff and budget cuts at Royal Caribbean in response to rising fuel costs and says sources say the line wants to trim the payroll by 10%.

RCCL's vice-president of corporate communications Lynn Martenstein admitted they are under pressure to control costs.

Like most companies today, we are redoubling our efforts to find savings, but we have not announced any specific actions.

Hot on the heels of news that Susan Hooper, managing director EMEA, is resigning one can't help putting two and two together and coming up with, well,  four.

I feel a definite reorganisation in the air.

Yet another fuel surcharge story, I'm afraid, but read on because this time it's good news.

Travelmole reports that Peter Deilmann has promised there will be no fuel surcharge in 2009 and Viking River Cruises UK managing director Wendy Atkin-Smith tells me Viking has not imposed any fuel supplements this year or next, although she admits they might have to bring in a charge for 2009 later down the line.

Our past passengers are very loyal so we have brought out nest year's brochure two months earlier than usual so they can book 2009. There are no fuel surcharges now, but I can't promise that won't change.

It's also good to see that Deilmann is now including one excursion per day per cruise in the price. Viking includes daily excursions in the price. Everyone takes them and it seems to give the boats a feeling of camaraderie.

Yet funnily, when I asked Torstein Hagen, Mr Viking himself, why they don't include drinks in the cruise price - even just wine at dinner - guess what? He said it's because passengers don't want to pay for drinks they don't want.

I guess I can just about see the logic. But the other journo at the table nodding wisely in agreement? What is the profession coming to?

The crystal ball is working well. No sooner do I predict a reshuffle at Royal Caribbean International, than the top people start moving.

Robin Shaw becomes vice-president and managing director, responsible for finance, human resources, revenue management and guest experience, reporting directly to Miami-based Michael Bayley, senior vice-president for Royal, Celebrity Cruises and Azamara Cruises.

UK managing director Jo Rzymowska has been appointed associate vice-president and general manager, still with responsibility for sales, marketing, trade and guest services, but with more resources to help her exploit future growth.

I'm delighted - as I risked saying it was such a good idea - that cruisepricescompared.com, the on-line cruise market place that I wrote exclusively about in Travel Weekly this month, seems to have been a big hit with agents.

Harley Van Straten, who has gone from being the man behind the idea to managing director of the website - where agents can post cruise deals for free - said he was inundated with 150 independent agent registrations within days of the website going live.

Demand has been so high that it has been opened up to members of the Global Travel Group as well as ABTA and Travel Trust Association agents.

I'm amazed how well everything has gone. When I set this up I would have been happy with 50 registrations in the first week and we've already achieved three times that number with more coming on each day.

Van Straten now has to make part two of the business work - namely making consumers aware of the site so they can go in and book the offers posted by agents.

Any registered agents out there? Let me know how it goes.

Yes you have seen this headline before, but I have to admit I misunderstood what Peter Deilmann is doing next year - namely including one excursion per day in the cruise price, not just one excursion per cruise, as I had originally thought.

Great news. Thanks to managing director Stuart Perl for putting me right.

Travel Weekly US forecast that cuts were coming at Royal Caribbean International last week and now they have happened, according to a story on Travelmole.

It's a painful cut too - 400 shoreside jobs and the end of the Scholar Ship educational programme for college students to study abroad at sea - which is hoped to save $125 million a year.

CEO Richard Fain blamed soaring fuel costs, which are eroding too much of the line's profitability.

Bet the money men are rueing the day they placed an order to build the world's biggest cruiseship, especially with launch less than 18 months away.

From October this year, P&O Cruises is banning smoking in all inside areas of Oceana, Ventura and adult-only Artemis. Smokers will still be able to light up on their cabin balconies and designated parts of the deck.

Not sure what that will do to the Exchange, the pub on Ventura, which is pretty empty at the best of times, either a) because it has no atmosphere, even with the band in there singing their hearts out or b) because you have to cut through the smoke to get in, which means it's a real no-go for non-smokers.

It also suffers from being way down on deck six, away from the fun lounges and bars.
 
Guess it could go either way.

Anyone cruising on Ventura post-October, let me know.

How would the world of cruising have survived without everyone's favourite octogenarian Bruce Forsyth and this new dance fad?

Strictly Come Dancing hoofers Flavia Cacace and Vincent Simone have just finished their second cruise on Transocean Tours' ship, Marco Polo; now comes news that Thomson Cruises is repeating its Destiny Dance Fever cruises - except that this year dance champs Darren Bennett and Lilia Kopylova will be strutting their stuff on Thomson Celebration.

The rather less snappily named Get Up & Dance on Thomson Celebration will take place every week during January and February, when there'll be a series of Latin dance classes covering salsa, jive, rumba and the cha cha cha.

Thomson says novices are welcome, although I guess they won't have a hope of winning the qualifying heat that will be held at the end of each cruise, offering a chance to win a place in an expenses-paid grand final in April.

On second thoughts, so much of this reality stuff is about rewarding under-dogs rather than talent so two left feet and plenty of chutzpah might just do the trick.

I'm thrilled to see that Crystal Cruises has added acupuncture to its list of on-board treatments in the spa on Crystal Serenity. Why? Because I'm going on Serenity in September and have always wanted to see what this acupuncture lark is all about.

If it's there and I'm there, what possible excuse is there for us not getting together?

None that I can see. But let's just say that I'm still plucking up courage to have a go on the bungee trampoline on the top deck of Ventura!

It is very high above the sea, though...

High waves are as difficult to video as skiing if this snippet on YouTube is anything to go by. There is a lot of spray but personally I find the sound more alarming than the waves.

Not that I am belittling what the passengers went through on P&O Cruises Australia's Pacific Sun when it hit bad weather on the way to New Zealand. It sounds like my idea of hell.

I thought I had it bad going over Drake's Passage to Antarctica last year. I couldn't stand but the bottle of water by my bed stood bolt upright throughout the whole two days!

Seatrade Insider reports that SeaDream Yacht Club is giving passengers the chance to buy the deck on selected cruises in 2009.

The cruiseline is one of the most aggressive in the industry when it comes to whole-ship charters and apparently very successful at getting individuals and companies with deep pockets to book out an entire vessel (they are small, each with room for 110 passengers).

I wonder if this is a sign of the economic times? Can't afford the whole ship for your birthday, anniversary or incentive? The why not have a deck instead?

Anyone who bites gets 21 staterooms on deck 3 and the Owners' Suite for free, which seems a fair exchange.

I guess it was inevitable. Transocean Tours is introducing a fuel surcharge on all Marco Polo bookings.

The good news is that it doesn't come into effect until August 30 - so clients have an incentive to book now and save money - and it only applies to summer 2009 cruises on Marco Polo. This summer and winter 08/09 remain are supplement free.

Also, it is only £6 per person per night - that's £42 for a one-week cruise and £84 for two weeks, I know, but gratuities on Marco Polo are included in the cruise price so it's not as if passengers have to fork out twice.

I don't think anyone has too much to moan about, especially as six-night cruise prices start at just £499. That's quite a bargain by any standard.

I can just see the poster now. Adam Goldstein, CEO and president of Royal Caribbean International, in the part of Kitchener, pointing a finger at agents and saying "Your cruiseline needs you".

Over dramatic? Maybe. But then the impending opening of bookings for Royal's 220,000-ton Oasis of the Seas promises to be dramatic too - especially for agents, whom associate vice-president and general manager UK and Ireland Jo Rzymowska expects to be snowed under with bookings.

The level of interest to date is phenomenal and we are anticipating a record-breaking day of bookings when the ship goes on sale for the first time on September 3.

Just to make sure things go according to plan, Royal is producing a stack of sales tools for agents, including window displays and A4 and A5 brochures showing cut-away images of the ship and pictures of Central Park, the Loft suites and Boardwalk.

These they will be with agents by September 3 - hopefully a bit before, so they have time to get them on display before it starts to snow - but a selection of marketing tools will also be available at the line's Cruising Power trade website.

Just my luck. I'm on Ventura for two weeks and just when I get off there is a drama at sea.

The Cruise Critic website reports that the P&O Cruises' ship went to the rescue of an injured yachtsman on Sunday as it was sailing from Southampton to Malaga at the start of another two-week cruise.

OK, so the yachtsman probably didn't think it was fun but it must have been a great spectacle for the passengers after nearly two days of seeing nothing but well, sea, in the English Channel and Bay of Biscay.

He was landed and Malaga by the way and is said to be fine.

I am flying to Greenland tomorrow, joining a Hurtigruten cruise around the coast.

It seemed strange to be packing gloves and thick socks when it's warm but I know from experience that icebergs and glaciers are very cold places!

I'm told there is internet - and wifi - on board but not necessarily all the time. So I'll be blogging when I can, detailing my progress, in between the hikes and glacier watching.

Keep looking.

Delighted to see agents are getting behind my campaign for a better deal for singles through Cruisepricescompared.com, the deals at sea website just launched by Harley Van Straten.

Check out the Telegraph website and travel pages this weekend for more about singles and why cruising makes such a great holiday for lone travellers.

Who knows. We might just start to break down the walls of Jericho.

Delighted to see Cruiseprices is doing so well, by the way. Really seems to have taken off thanks to agents' support.

I see Ideal Cruising is selling a nine-night Canary Islands cruise from Barcelona on Norwegian Cruise Line's Norwegian Jade this winter for just £510 per person - and that includes return flights from Gatwick.

I appreciate that this will be NCL's first winter cruising in the Med and Atlantic so they are testing the waters, so to speak, but it's hard to believe anyone can be making anything from that giveaway price.

Except the customer, of course, who is getting an absolute steal - especially as they can bag an outside cabin for just £92 per person more.

It's for a cruise departing December 12, which just happens to be my favourite day of the year (and not because it's when Royal Caribbean's Oasis of the Seas is scheduled to set off on its maiden voyage) but is probably not a good time to try to get people thinking about a cruise given most minds are focused on turkey and tinsel.

Either that, or people are planning to escape the big day, in which case they won't want to be away just before as well.

Costa and MSC have made it work, so really there's no reason why NCL shouldn't - except, of course that the former appeal to the European market while NCL depends heavily on the Americans.

And why would Americans want to cruise over here in a warm-ish, if they're lucky, winter when they have sun, sea and sand on their Caribbean doorstep - and without forking out a fortune in airline fuel supplements.

Pre-Xmas blues or a deeper malaise? Only time will tell.

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.

easyCruise has bowed to popular demand and for 2009 will be including half-board accommodation and daily housekeeping in the price.

It's a far cry from the budget line Stelios set up, where everything was an extra once you had paid for your bed, but then he has had to backtrack on quite a lot - reopening inside cabins so passsengers have a window, cutting back on the orange, providing proper food on board, now including it in the price and cleaning cabins to boot. How very mainstream it has become.

Personally I find it reassuring that the bright young things he wants to attract want their rooms cleaned. Seven nights is a long time to wallow in your own muck, especially in Greece in high summer.

History doesn't relate whether sheets and towels will be changed over that time. I hope so. At least once - even if we are supposed to be environmentally friendly.

I remember a seven-night cruise in the Maldives many moons ago when neither was changed. They were so filthy could have walked off with us at the end of the week. I noticed the tour operator I booked with never offered the cruise again.

There's just three weeks to go before the September 7 start of National Cruise Week, the campaign organised by the Association of Cruise Experts to get Brits thinking cruise.

This is being billed as the world's largest-ever cruise campaign, with 2,000 agencies up and down the country signed up and planning events during the week to try to persuade that sector of great British public that still thinks cruising is for rich old people - ie the majority - that they are a little behind the times.

Event ideas from ACE include a spa night, captain's dinner or poker school - all things that are associated with cruising.

If all goes according to plan it should be a great time for agents to be involved in raising the profile of the industry and hopefully making a few bookings along the way.

Free promo packs have been provided by the Spanish National Tourist Office and if you sign up with ACE, your event will be promoted by the Mail on Sunday and Telegraph.

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?

The Honolulu Advertiser reports that a proposed law change that would reduce the amount of time foreign-flagged ships can spend in Hawai'i has been thrown out by the White House Office of Management and Budget.

It's bad news for NCL America, the US-flagged arm of Norwegian Cruise Line, which prompted the attempt to change the law.

NCL America was set up specifically to operate in Hawai'i waters - under US cabotage laws, as a US-flagged operation it is allowed to cruise just in the islands, instead of having to make the long voyage to the islands from the American west coast (four days in each direction) - but it has been struggling to make the venture work.

From operating three ships in the region, it now just has one.

NCL America said it sent the other two ships away because it couldn't compete with rival foreign-flagged ships. ...Norwegian Cruise Lines hasn't backed down from its position that something needs to be done to protect its US-flagged operation in Hawai'i. NCL America's US-flagged ships are at a competitive disadvantage because they're subject to US taxes and labor laws.

Travel Weekly US reports NCL is unhappy with the decision, arguing that its one remaining ship should be protected because it provides significant economic benefits for the islands.

Pride of America provides more than 4,600 jobs, $496 million in total economic impact and $142 million in total earnings impact, "which is almost 3.3 times more than the economic impact attributable to the entire foreign-flag fleet that calls on Hawaii", NCL said.

I have feared the writing is on the wall for NCL America ever since their offer of a cruise in Hawai'i to see the operation was quietly withdrawn.

It is a shame as it would be great to cruise Hawai'i without all those sea days at the start and end of the holiday, which add so much to the time you are away.I wonder, though, why NCL didn't sort this matter out before they went in to the Big 50 with all guns blazing - well three ships anyway - lost money and rather a lot of face.

Hawai'i loss is our gain, of course. Pride of Hawai'i has become Norwegian Jade and is now sailing from Southampton and will be cruising in Europe this winter. Not quite Hawai'i I know, but with all the Hawai'i-themed decor and public area names at least you can dream of bronzed surf dudes and leis!

MSC Cruises reports its most successful week for bookings. On Saturday, there were 25% more calls to the call centre than on an average Saturday, while Monday recorded 48% more calls than the daily average and the conversion rate was up 60%.

Is MSC reaping the benefits of its amazing deals or is this yet more proof that credit crunch or no, cruisers are not yet ready to give up on their holiday at sea.

Just as it was getting a real taste for flycruising, Fred Olsen Cruise Lines has more than halved its flycruise programme for the next two years.

Instead of enjoying the Med sun in Civitavecchia, the port for Rome, next summer, Braemar will be in Dover, cruising to the Norwegian fjords, the Baltic and the Med. And instead of living it up in Miami, when it goes back to the Caribbean for winter 2009/10, it will be based back in Barbados.

Boudicca's 2009/1010 Caribbean season has also been cancelled. Instead the ship will be operating an extended pre-Christmas selection of cruises out of Portsmouth before relocating all the way to Southampton, for cruises to the Canary Islands, Med and a mammoth 28-night voyage to the Caribbean.

Marketing director Nigel Lingard blames the changes on the rising costs of fuel - rather unfortunate timing as prices have started to fall, and why then put in a costly (in fuel at least) cruise to the Caribbean? - but reading between the lines I wonder if there isn't also a feeling at Fred that they were going too far too fast in their bid to widen their client base beyond their traditional 65-plus market.

With the dramatic increase in fuel prices we have taken the decision to offer a more cost effective programme. This also gives us the opportunity to further widen the choice of ex-UK cruises for our traditional clientele.

Travel Weekly US reports that Carnival Cruise Lines is reclassifying cabins on all its ships so they are not just priced depending whether they are inside, outside, have a balcony and according to deck, but also whether they are mid-ships, at the fore or aft end of the ship or near a public room.

Whether you get a discount or pay more for being near a public room, history does not relate.

The changes have already been made on Carnival Valor and will be rolled out across the fleet by the end of the year.

Lynn Torrent, Carnival's senior vice-president sales and guest services, says the change will allow passenger to pick a cabin that exactly meets their needs while giving agents a better chance to upgrade clients because the price gap between the categories is much smaller.

For the sake of the trade, I just hope this reclassification doesn't catch on. Royal Caribbean International  released prices for its giant Oasis of the Seas last week, as the ship went on sale to Crown and Anchor loyalty club members, with 37 different cabin categories. That's quite enough for any agents - and actually consumers - to get their heads around.

At roughly the moment as I was writing a note to Elaine at RBI's search2cruise.com website, explaining that Orient Lines is effectively no more because it has no ship - Star Cruises sold its one ship, Marco Polo, to a Greek company and it is now operating cruises from Tilbury for Transocean Tours - Cruise Critic runs a story that the line is back in business.

As mentioned in an earlier blog, the Orient Lines' brand was recently acquired by Wayne Heller, the American founder of Orlando-based travel agency Cruises Only, and he has now bought a ship and is back in business.

The ship is the Maxim Gorki, a 40-year-old 24,981-ton vessel with capacity for 650 passengers that is currently operating for Phoenix Seereisen, a Germany-based tour company.

It leaves Phoenix in November for a major refit so it can meet tough new SOLAS (Safety of Life at Sea) standards effective from 2010 and will then be renamed Marco Polo II and start sailing again in spring 2009, starting with Med cruises from Barcelona before the ship sails north for itineraries visiting London and Scotland.

That doesn't sound too exploration-like - the style of cruising for which the original Orient Lines was famed - but apparently more out of the way places, Antarctica included, will follow.

My inbox is still being flooded by past passengers concerned about Discovery, the cruise ship operated by Voyages of Discovery, which has been suffering engine problems since March this year.

In a story I wrote for the Telegraph last week, managing director David Yellow admitted there had been problems but said they would be fixed by Friday (August 22).

A statement yesterday from Voyages of Discovery also seemed to show all was finally well with the ship - even if she was going a little slow!

'The MV Discovery is operating its published Baltic Explorer itinerary and is currently in Korsor, as scheduled. The vessel did transit the Kiel Canal yesterday (Monday 25 August) en route to Korsor. During its journey from Harwich to Korsor, MV Discovery averaged its planned speed of 14.5 knots and has made no changes to its designated ports of call.'

But I have also been sent a letter from one of the passengers on the cruise, received on boarding and signed by David Yellow, informing them a new part was delivered last week but the engineers have still not managed to fix the problem. Apparently another new part now needs to be manufactured.

This does mean Discovery will be operating on 3 engines during your cruise which is perfectly permissible and the ship can do so safely. However it does mean that Discovery will be operating at a slightly slower speed than when the itinerary was originally planned.

It might be permissible and safe, but the letter also says Discovery will be skipping Tallinn, which will be a great disappointment to many.

David Yellow told me the part delivered last week also had to be specially manufactured. If that hasn't worked, maybe it's time to either take the ship out of service until it is fixed or replace the current cruise programme with slow, short hops over to the continent, sold on the basis of being one engine short, until everything is up and running again.

Or maybe Voyages just needs to splash out on a new engine. Discovery is an old lady, does some sterling work each year in Antarctica and is obviously feeling a little tired.

Whichever option, it would be a lot fairer to the passengers.

A report in Florida Today says sales for cruising remain strong in the US as Americans disillusioned with flying latch onto the idea of driving to a port to join a ship.

Terry Thornton, Carnival's vice president for marketing planning, said there is no end in sight for demand for Caribbean cruises, which the company bolsters through locating its ships at drive-to ports around the state of Florida. "The cruise industry is doing well because people are driving to their ports."

Many Brits have already discovered the joys of being able to pack the car and drive to Southampton, Dover or wherever to start their cruise. No airport security hassles, no delays. Just board the ship and you're on holiday.

The Passenger Shipping Association says a record 591,000 passengers cruised from the UK last year. As more people discover the benefits of sailing from the UK - and more ex-UK cruises are offered - that figure can only grow. I expect more records for 2008 and beyond.

First there was Costa's Costa Fortuna, then MSC's MSC Armonia, which sounds like something you put down the toilet if you forget to put an Italian ring to it.

Now I've discovered a band on Princess Cruises' Crown Princess called Endur. Doesn't really sell them to me.

Land sailing in Bonaire caught my eye as I read about the new Action Ashore excursions that Ocean Village is offering in the Caribbean this winter.

I remember doing something similar to this - except it was sand yachting in Le Touquet in France. It was wet and windy and our yachts kept going every which way except around the course.

After about 30 minutes, the owner, fed up with putting us back upright, gave a Gallic shrug and walked back to his office, leaving his hapless assistant in charge of a bunch of out-of-control journos. Sadly it meant he missed the spectacular pile-up at the end, memories of which kept everyone in hysterics for the rest of the trip.

I hope Bonaire land sailing is as much fun.

It's also nice to see a zip-wire adventure in Barbados adding a touch of spice to the rather tame island tours, jeeps and botanical garden visits.

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.

As promised, an update on the Piazza entertainment on Princess Cruises' Crown Princess. Following juggling Daniel's departure, we've had quick-change artist Yulana Plotvinova and magician Alex Lodge.

I've yet to have seen the latter at work - he does his magic up close so it depends on him coming to your table - but the oohs and ahhs from other passengers were impressive.

Plotvinova is great. She walks into a curtained closet in one outfit and emerges at the other end in another, or wraps herself in a cloak, then whisks it off to reveal - yes, another outfit. I was standing right in front of her, trying to take pictures, but it's impossible because it all happens so fast. And no, I couldn't see how it is done.

These "street" entertainers are very clever. Gives the atrium - sorry, Piazza - life and a reason to hang out there, rather than just passing through to admire the décor and eat the sticky buns they offer for breakfast in the International Cafe!

I looked at them earlier and wondered who would eat such unhealthy food for breakfast - sugar, icing, you name it, they are covered in it. And then along came the Americans!

Interesting to see on Cruise Critic that Disney Cruise Line is considering offering Alaska cruises from 2010.

Apparently, the cruise line has applied for a 10-year permit to cruise in Glacier Bay National Park, where there are tight restrictions on the number of ships allowed in.

All the more interesting as it was also suggested to me this week that the Baltic might also be on the Mickey radar. With two new big ships coming 2011 and 2012, guess it has to find somewhere to cruise other than its well-trod Caribbean home.

It started officially yesterday, but this is the first working day of the UK's first National Cruise Week.

With 2,000 agents registered to take part and cruiselines bringing out some great offers to support the trade, there has surely never been a better time to get the cruising message across to the great British public.

Not only that it's a great holiday, but also great value at a time when everyone is looking hard at the pennies.

Princess Cruises, for instance, is giving away two free nights in Copenhagen next summer to anyone who books a 10-night Scandinavia and Russia cruise this week, or offering a £300 discount to clients booking a Med 2009 cruise on the new Ruby Princess.

Island Cruises has brought out a Captain's Specials mini-brochure to cash in on the extra interest in cruising expected to be generated by this week's activities.

At the moment the Passenger Shipping Association forecasts 1.5 million Brits will take a cruise this year, rising to 1.7 in 2009. It would be great if this week, organised by the PSA's trade arm, the Association of Cruise Experts, is such a success that the figure has to be revised upwards.

US-based Travel Trade reports that MSC Cruises is selling off the MSC Rhapsody, the oldest and smallest ship in the fleet.

No surprise really. In an interview for Travel Weekly earlier this year, MSC's chief executive officer Pierfrancesco Vago told me that the clock was ticking for the 780-passenger MSC Rhapsody and 1,064-passenger MSC Melody - another of MSC's smaller ships.

There are passengers who like Rhapsody and Melody because they are smaller and more intimate, but more and more people want balconies so they will go in the end - I would guess over the next couple of years.

Travel Trade reports that Israeli-based Mano Maritime is interested in buying the Rhapsody. Ironic really, given that MSC Cruises started life when Gianlucci Aponte, owner of cargo giant Mediterranean Shipping Company, acquired the Achille Lauro, the cruiseship hijacked by Palestinian terrorists in 1985, resulting in the death of an Jewish American passenger.

But irony or not, the fact is that with two new ships with room for close to 4,000 passengers close to launch, MSC has less and less room for small, elderly ships such as the Rhapsody. Much as Carnival Corporation had no room for Swan Hellenic and Norwegian Cruise Line had no room for Orient Lines, which are both starting new lives under new owners.

Ocean Village is spending £1 million on a multi-media advertising campaign starting next week, which will include TV ads in the Granada, Central, Yorkshire and West Country TV regions.

The cruise line for people who don't do cruises is targeting its core 35-54 market with a one-week cruise in the Med from £599 per person. Gill Haynes, OV's head of marketing, says it's a keen lead price that represents great value for money in the current economic climate.

I would say it's an incredible deal. Don't forget that price even includes a flight and transfers. Amazing.

Agents had better get ready for the rush.

Bales Worldwide is adding a fourth dahabiyya to its Egypt programme for 2009/10.

Dahabiyyas are small sailing boats modelled on 19th-century vessels used by aristos and others with money to cruise the Nile.

They hold just 12 passengers in six individually decorated cabins, have their own private moorings away from the big Nile boats that are moored sometimes six and seven deep, and you are waited on hand and foot by a wonderful crew who will be waiting to greet you back from an excursion - of course there is a guide to take you around the temples and tombs - with cold towels and an even colder beer (all drinks are included in the price).

It really is the only way to do the Nile.

MSC Cruises has not only found the money to buy two new Musica-class ships - 93,000 tons and 3,013 passengers - but they have already been named. MSC Meraviglia and MSC Favolosa, to be delivered 2011 and 2012.

I just hope the names sound better when spoken by an Italian!

This has to be the party of 2009.

Next August, Hapag-Lloyd's exploration ships Bremen and Hanseatic are cruising the Northwest Passage in opposite directions - Bremen from Greenland and Hanseatic from Alaska. If all goes well with the weather they will meet in the middle and stop for an icy beach party and reciprocal ship visits.

On the way over - in either direction - passengers will be able to take Zodiac excursions to get up close to icebergs and glaciers, and hopefully spot polar bears.

Hapag-Lloyd is a German company and there will be a lot of Germans on board, but the cruises will be bilingual.

Wonder what's happened to my invitation?

I had to smile at the headlines this weekend about all those Brits "stranded" abroad when XL went under. Stranded? Were they in Tristan da Cunha or St Helena, thousands of miles from anywhere in the middle of the South Atlantic ocean?

No, they were in some of the world's top holiday hotspots - you know. Those places served by numerous charter and scheduled airlines, all crammed with hotels which, let's face it, would have had plenty of availability because the people coming out on holiday were not going to arrive. How did we ever build an empire?

But checking into a hotel for a night or two would have cost money they didn't want to spend. Far better to have an uncomfortable 24 hours or so milling around an airport with thousands of others.

The irony is that if XL had levied a higher fuel supplement which better covered the rising cost of oil - maybe just another £1 per client - it might not have collapsed. But then XL clients would have shouted "foul". Just as they are now. But now they are "stranded" and many have lost everything.

My thoughts turned to the cruiselines, which increased their fuel supplements almost weekly in the spring as the price of oil went through the roof.

It was not popular, and I'm sure all people who cruise hope they will eventually go away, but it's something to do with financial management and covering your costs I believe. And the cruisers who have coughed up are getting the holiday they planned rather than a two-night break at Gatwick or Tenerife South.

I asked someone on Swan Hellenic if the fuel supplement would put them off booking a cruise in the future. No, he said, because it was a tiny amount compared to what he was paying for the holiday anyway. The voice of reason.

Costa Cruises' Costa Mediterranea has inaugurated a new $13 billion cruise terminal at St Petersburg.

I heard about the new terminal, which is open but not finished - completion is scheduled for 2010, when there will be three terminals and seven berths - when I was cruising the Baltic on Princess Cruises' Crown Princess a couple of weeks ago.

Apparently this new facility is closer to the city than the cargo port, which most ships use, but still not really walking distance.

Sadly I was there too early to see it and Princess tied up in the cargo port.

I say sadly, but it was great fun to get from there into the city - you do need visas if you want to go it alone - taking the port bus (which is actually for the workers but tourists can hop on), getting through security at the other end of the port, about three miles away, and then negototiating for a taxi into the city. And then you have to do it all in reverse to get back to the ship.

Of course, if the new port is not walking distance, visitors with visas will still have to do battle with the taxi drivers who have a bad reputation but were most pleasant and certainly knew enough English to negotiate prices and get us into the city and then back to the right port. One had even spent his downtime as a taxi driver learning English, German, Italian and Japanese.

In between the travelling to and fro, we had a lovely day wandering the city, doing lunch and riding the metro.

It is such as shame that most visitors are scared off doing St Petersburg on their own, partly by the effort and cost of getting a visa, but also by the guides, who give the impression that all the locals are out to rob and mug you. But let's face it, they have a vested interest in keeping everyone together in a flock.

Maybe this new terminal is the start of much-needed change of attitude. I would love to think so.

Is this a sign of the [hard] times - 10 nights Celebrity Cruises' Celebrity Galaxy from £796 per person?

OK, it's for an inside cabin, but that's not even £80 a day for a brand that calls itself deluxe - less if you take out the cost of the return flight and transfers. Even the press release that announced the price admitted it was "out of this world".

Or does it just tell us that cruising the Med in the near depths of winter - this is for a November 14 departure - is really not that popular unless you happen to be Italian (Costa and MSC, which carry a majority of Italians, seem to be making it work for them).

What does this mean for Royal Caribbean and Norwegian Cruise Line, about to embark on their first winter seasons in the Med? Only time will tell.

Seatrade Insider reports that a contract dispute between Norwegian Cruise Line and Aker Yards could affect the delivery of NCL's first 4,200-passenger ship, code-named F3, scheduled for early 2010.

It's a confused story, with Aker Yards on the one hand saying work on the first F3 is on-going, likwise discussions with NCL, but refusing to confirm the delivery date, and unnamed sources saying the F3 newbuild is not going ahead.

NCL says it will not comment on commercial or legal matters. Unfortunately that only heightens speculation that the story is true.

Good news for all agents who are going to miss seeing Celebrity Cruises' new Celebrity Solstice - this is the one with the real lawn and the first new Celebrity ship for six years - which comes out of the shipyard in November and goes straight to the US/Caribbean.

Jo Rzymowska, managing director for Celebrity Cruises UK and Ireland, tells me that the next Solstice-class ship, Celebrity Equinox, will be making a first stop at Southampton when it leaves the shipyard in Germany next August.

After the trade has had time to see it, Equinox will be picking up its first paying passengers in th south coast port for a cruise to Civitavecchia, the port for Rome, where it will be based for the rest of the summer alongside Solstice, which comes back to Europe after an inaugural season in the Caribbean.

Two new Celebrity ships in the Med? That's confidence for you.

Incidentally, I'm lucky enough to be one of a select few from the UK going on board Solstice at the end of next week as it sails out of the shipyard at Meyer Werft and down the River Ems to Gandersum, so keep an eye out here for my first impressions.

When P&O Cruises launched Ventura this April, it was all about kids. Noddy, Mr Bump and racing cars around a Scalextric track (although having seen them clustered around the table, I reckon that's really for the dads!).

Apparently when sister ship Ventura II is launched - at the moment known as Hull 6166 but I prefer Ventura II until the real name is revealed at the keel-laying on October 27 - things might be different.

At a dinner this week, P&O Cruises managing director Nigel Esdale said the new vessel, which launched in 2010, could have a different appeal.

He said launching Ventura, P&O Cruises' biggest ship, had created challenges, which in turn have led to some on-board refinements.

For instance, I am told by a colleague who attended that they will now be using empty tables in the Club Dining restaurants - that's where the fixed diners eat - to accommodate passengers on Freedom dining (Freedom diners have been facing over-long delays getting a table in the evening) and using themed buffets in the self-service to draw people away from the dining room.

It's probably not an ideal solution, but it's a positive response to the moans from passengers that have filled websites this summer and shows the bosses have been listening.

"We're learning, we're refining, we're changing some of the emphasis, changing some of the service styles, moving some of the manning around, experimenting with some of the flows around the ship in terms of the schedules of the shows and activities."

The price of oil might have dropped to below $100 a barrel, but cruiselines have no plans to drop of fuel surcharges.

USA Today quotes a Royal Caribbean spokesperson:

We continue to see considerable volatility in fuel price movements around the world and believe it would be premature to lower the supplement at this time," the company said in a statement.

Carnival Corporation spokesman Tim Gallagher says the company has no plans to get rid of the fuel supplements because the pump prices that cruise lines pay haven't come down as quickly as oil prices.

Our fuel prices for the ships don't drop nearly as fast as oil does, but they sure seem to go up every time there is a spike.

Reminds me of electricity prices, gas prices, oh yes, tax, food.... 

Cunard's Queen Mary 2 set off on its 100th transatlantic crossing yesterday, sailing from Southampton to New York. By the time she moors in the Big Apple, the ship will have sailed 711,288 nautical miles, clocking up 316,729 of them on transatlantic crossings alone, and served 206,200 bottles of Champagne.

Queen Mary 2 has carried Donald Trump, Rod Stewart, John Cleese, Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Queen Noor of Jordan, Hillary Clinton, George Bush senior.

But not Jane Archer. Could 2009 be the year I finally add my name to this roll call of the rich and famous? I'll keep you posted.

Aker Yards in France has broken ranks and spoken of its dispute with Norwegian Cruise Line over the cost of NCL's two 4,200-passenger ships, codenamed F3.

Seatrade Insider says Jacques Hardelay, president of Aker Yards France, has confirmed there are issues over construction costs.

In projects with this magnitude of complexity, we have in this industry several examples that discussions arise during the project execution. We regret that we have a situation with a dispute.

Earlier Seatrade reports spoke of a meltdown in relations between Aker Yards and NCL and said Aker Yards had approached other cruise lines to take over the building project.

Hardelay says building work is going on, but other reports suggest the yard has stopped work on the F3s.

NCL is officially saying nothing but Travel Pulse say the company has told employees that the first F3 ship order has been cancelled (backed up in the comments section by a mother of an NCL officer, who says all the crew were told last week) and a decision has not been taken on whether to proceed with the second ship.

Travel Pulse also reports that NCL has called off its search for a sales executive to replace Andy Stuart, who was moved left, right or up (not sure which) to oversee the F3 project. It speculates he could be about to return to his old role in charge of sales and marketing. 

Some in the industry have suggested that it would be a good thing if the order were cancelled because it would mean less capacity in the market from 2010, when the two ships were due to launch.

Maybe, but what a large dollup of egg NCL bosses would have on their collective faces after the great song and dance they made about these ships and how they were so different. If the reports are true, seems they are just too different - no theatre, wavy cabins - for other lines to be interested.

When I tried to find out some information about Indian Ocean Cruises earlier this year I was told by Uwe, my contact there, that its ship had been deployed elsewhere and that cruises were therefore temporarily suspended. Ondeed the website was a blanck, inviting people to call back later.

He said he would tell me when they managed to find another and got things started again.

He didn't - maybe he has moved on? - but I read in Travelmole that not only does IOC have the 200-passenger Ocean Odyssey back, but that the ship has had a $10 million refurb.

I was on the ship last November and had a great cruise, sailing from Goa down the west coast of India, out to the idyllic Lakshadweep Islands, and enjoyed fab food and charming service, but boy, was that ship in need of some tender loving care. I would love to see what they have done with it.

IOC is also extending its operations beyond Goa. It will cruise there in winter and base the ship in Port Louis, Mauritius, in summer, sailing to Madagascar, Reunion and the Agalega Islands.

The collapse of XL could lead to an increase in dynamically-packaged holidays, according to Nigel Lingard, Fred Olsen Cruise Lines marketing director.

He told the Association of National Tourist Office Representatives/Passenger Shipping Association conference in London yesterday that cruiselines will struggle to find enough capacity to get passengers to their ships next year as a result of XL's demise.

XL was used by some cruiselines so they will have to find other aircraft to charter. We all use charter airlines as we have to get 2,000-3,000 passengers to our ships at once for our flycruises, and without XL there will be a tightening of capacity.

Lingard also said the prices being quoted by charter carriers have gone up since XL collapse and forecast a shift to more longer ex-UK cruises, in fact exactly what Fred is doing, to avoid having to fly people.

There will be problems for all, but ironically it could lead to more opportunities for agent to dynamically package holidays for their clients, selling cruise only and adding flights and pre and post-cruise hotels stays.