The World of Cruising

January, 2013: We're busy taking stock of the cruise world for the next four issues of the Magazine, but also looking back at one of our busiest years for cruise travel. After the big Cruise Shipping event in Miami and then a three-day preview voyage on the new Disney Fantasy, which underlined how well Disney Cruise Line have managed to make their big ships (for adults as well as families), we were in River Cruise mode for much of the rest of the year. Our first journey on the Danube River with Uniworld Boutique River Cruises took us on a wonderful 11day voyage from Giurgiu in Romania to Vienna in Austria. The full story went into the Autumn edition of World of Cruising while a separate feature appeared in the Mail on Sunday, and we also blogged heavily about it on Time Spent At Sea. Although notably for an older clientele (think 60-70-plus), it was a magnificently organised trip, in the highest comfort, and we were hugely impressed with the onboard Uniworld style. After that trip in early summer, we had to wait until late autumn for some more cruise travels, this time a bit closer to home on the mighty Mississippi with American Cruise Lines. Their brand new Queen of the Mississippi is a fabulous re-creation of a classic paddle-steamer, with all mod cons, and we absolutely adored this leisurely journey through the heart of small-town America from St Louis to Memphis, with some wonderfully well-travelled and sociable fellow passengers. The full story will appear in the Spring edition of the magazine, but we also had a full day-by-day blog of the trip on Time Spent At Sea. Finally, our Epic (ahem) cruise year concluded in Hawaii with a truly remarkable experience courtesy of Norwegian Cruise Line and Virgin Holidays, plus two nights at Disney's Aulani Resort thanks to our friends here in Orlando. We combined the typical 7-day cruise aboard Norwegian's dedicated US-flagged ship Pride of America with four nights on Oahu - and absolutely loved every second of it. Hawaii is purely and simply one of the friendliest, most scenic and attraction-filled destinations in the great cruise multi-verse, and the effect of having two days on each of the three main islands, in the comfort of a floating resort purpose-designed for Hawaiian waters, was simply stunning. The onboard experience was excellent but the time spent ashore (for which Pride of America is ideally suited) was just off-the-charts amazing. The full story has already appeared in the Winter edition of World of Cruising (see link on Our Writing) and a separate feature will be in the Mail on Sunday at some stage in the next few weeks, but we also blogged about it extensively on Time Spent At Sea and on the Trip Reports section of the ATD Forums, hence you can get a very clear idea of what we did, how much we enjoyed it - and how much we want to go back.

Now we are looking forward to our first Panama Canal cruise in March, when we will be sailing aboard the Coral Princess of Princess Cruises, cruising via Aruba, Cartagena (Colombia), Costa Rica and Grand Cayman. It should be a great look at an increasingly popular section of the cruise world, with one of the specialists for the area, sailing round-trip from Port Everglades in South Florida (hence right in our back yard, metaphorically speaking). The rest of the year has still to be scheduled, but you can be fairly sure we'll be looking at some new ships and new destinations, so stay tuned via World of Crusing and Time Spent At Sea.

March 2012: We're just back from Cruise Shipping Miami, the world's biggest annual forum for all things cruising. We returned loaded down with press materials, information kits, factsheets and more - much more! - and can easily say there is a LOT going on in the cruise world, albeit from a rather more somber position in the wake of the recent Costa Concordia tragedy. The venue, South Beach Convention Center, may be a bit tired, and possible even complacent, but this remains the 'home' of cruising, and everyone turned out en masse for the four days. There was the usual State of the Industry address, a host of workshops and forums on different aspects of the business, and the massive Exhibition, split into two parts, for Destinations and Technical aspects (albeit with a bit of confused mixing in places - not the best laid-out exhibition we've ever attended).

We especially enjoyed meeting some new destinations and their wonderful people, notably Rita from Guatemala (pictured), the people from Wales/Ireland (the Celtic Wave cruise initiative to link and promote the six Irish Sea ports of the two countries), Valletta in Malta, and Barbados. There are some fascinating new itinerary options developing in places, and we really liked the sound of the French Canadian town of Gaspe, on the Gaspesie peninsula, which gives cruising along the St Lawrence Seaway a vital option to break up the dull 2-day sailing between Quebec City and Halifax, Nova Scotia. Equally, Guatemala is an intriguing and under-developed possibility, especially as it has both Caribbean and Pacific coasts, as is the island of Zakynthos off the coast of Greece (a busy area in summer but a totally new port destination), and the region of Newfoundland/Labrador, which offers great off-the-beaten-track potential.

Among the many workshops and seminars, a lot of which also focused on new destinations and source markets, there was much talk about the booming market of Brazil (although, surprisingly, there was little, if any, Exhibition evidence of the country) and the ability of cruise lines to continue to operate under the harsh new fuel-use conditions laid down by the Environmental Protection Agency, which is insisting - in part from this August and completely from 2015 - that cruise lines use low-sulfur fuels within range of the coasts. Which is great, until you learn no-one currently even makes the kind of fuel that is needed. A classic case of cart before horse and just plain dumb thinking by the EPA (and other dim-witted bureaucrats). However, we did also attend many positive press conferences, and there were some eye-catching developments presented by the likes of Singapore, who will debut a new cruise terminal in a few months, and Hong Kong, who are re-developing the old Kai Tak airport into a hugely imaginative cruise centre, to open in 2013, that will potentially make the port a major cruise hub to rival the likes of Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Southampton and Barcelona and put the Far East on the cruise map like never before. In fact, the Far East featured very heavily in destination terms, with other presentations from Taiwan, Korea and Indonesia.

Of course, there was plenty of cruise line news, too. The go-ahead Italian line MSC Cruises had a lot to talk about, with the imminent launch of their new MSC Divina and the announcement of a fourth ship in the Fantasia class for 2013, MSC Preziosa, which has been taken over from a failed Libyan consortium and will be completed in full MSC style, including their innovative MSC Yacht Club concierge-class option. Norwegian Cruise Line revealed some fabulous new features on their forthcoming (in 2013) Norwegian Breakaway that will give the ship a dramatic external promenade (among other things), while Princess Cruises unveiled more dining options on next year's Royal Princess, and impressive river-cruise specialists American Cruise Lines announced another new Mississippi-type paddle-steamer to go with this year's eye-catching Queen of the Mississippi. You can also read more of the day-by-day events on the Time Spent At Sea blog.

Later this month, the focus will switch to Port Canaveral; and the media preview of the brand new Disney Fantasy of Disney Cruise Line, fresh from her christening by Mariah Carey in New York and prior to her maiden 7-day Caribbean voyages. The sister ship of last year's Disney Dream (pictured, left), this will be a slight varation on a theme, with several modications and additions for the longer one-week cruises, which have more time at sea.

The Fantasy will still feature all the great facilities and attractions that made the Drea, such an eye-catcher last year - and so popular with her many passengers. These include the amazing AquaDuck flume ride above and around the pool deck; the elegant adults-only restaurant, Palo, the superb Disney Theater, and the unique rotational dining system which provides for three different dining rooms, notably the vivid and interactive Artist's Palate. The ultra-elegant Concierge level staterooms are also retained, which help to give DCL that extra touch of tradition and style that harks back to cruising's Golden Age. Really good to see.

February 2012: A great experience this month as we (finally!) got our first proper look at the Norwegian Epic of Norwegian Cruise Line, their massive 154,000-ton flagship (below) might not be terribly pretty from the outside but has a wealth of top-quality dining and entertainment options packed away on the inside.

The full 7-day cruise, from Miami to St Maarten, St Thomas and Nassau, with three glorious sea-days, gave us ample opportunity to sample many (but not all!) of the features, from the superb Blue Man Group show to many of the memorable restaurants.

We were deeply impressed by the quality and variety of entertainment on board and the 20 different dining options are simply sensational, ranging from the continental style of Le Bistro to the sumptuous steakhouse Cagney's and the Japanese flair of the Teppanyaki Room. The one important thing to remember about an Epic cruise, though, is to pre-book as much of your dining and entertainment as you can. There is SO much to pack in during a typical cruise but it is easy to miss out if you wait until you are aboard. Norwegian's online pre-booking facility works really well and passengers should really take advantage of it at all times.

We've seen plenty of St Maarten and St Thomas in the past - although they continue to provide that quintessential Caribbean/tropical island experience - but we were susprisngly impressed by our time on Nassau, which has garnered a fair bit of negative cruise publicity in recent years. OK, the main harbour area is still horribly crowded and hard to get out of with four or five ships in port at once, but it is nice and walkable, has some good restaurants, a handy beachfront and some different shopping. We optted for our own walking tour, which worked really well, and stopped for lunch at the unique Fish Fry area,about a 20-30-minute walk from downtown. All in all, it made for a very pleasant visit and ensured we finished the week in good Bahamian style.

The other big bonus, from the photographic point of view, was the beautiful evening departure from Nassau. With six other ships in port (two from Carnival, one from Royal Caribbean, and one each from Disney and MSC Cruises), it made for a beautiful sailaway as darkness fell, with the grand MSC Poesia providing the perfect sunset picture (below). Very Caribbean and very satisfying.