Cruise Lines

It was a change waiting to happen once Thomson and First Choice became as one. Now it has.

As the rumour mill predicted, Royal Caribbean Cruises has sold its 50% stake joint venture stake in Island Cruises to TUI Travel.

Island Star, on charter from Celebrity Cruises, will complete its Caribbean winter season and be returned to Celebrity on March 26 2009. It will then join Royal Caribbean's Pullmantur Cruises Spanish operation.

Royal Caribbean Cruises chairman and chief executive office Richard Fain said the company wants to focus on developing and expanding the Royal Caribbean and Celebrity Cruises brands in the UK.

"[This way] we will be better able to serve our customers and create value for our shareholders. This belief has been strengthened by the success of the inaugural season of Independence of the Seas, which has served the UK market from Southampton, since it entered service in May 2008."

Island second ship, Island Escape, will complete its winter season sailing in Brazil and then return to the Med, cruising from Palma in summer 2009 as planned, but as a Thomson Cruises ship rather than an Island one. It is not clear whether the name will be changed, but a statement says it is being "integrated" into the Thomson fleet so it's a fair bet that it will at the very least become the Thomson Escape.

Details of the deal and how it affects passengers booked on Island cruises are detailed on the Thomson Cruises website.

Island's managing director Patrick Ryan will leave the company in December. David Selby, TUI's director of cruising, stays at the helm of the new integrated business.

It's a sad end for a cruiseline that, after a chequered start, built up a good following in the UK for its low-cost cruises and casual brand. I reckon a lot of that was down to the captains, who were always to be seen out and about talking to passengers, which the passengers loved. It gave the cruise a human touch.

Island Escape was not the best ship in the world - one couple I met on another cruise called it the Island Mistake and rued the day they went on it - but I had a very enjoyable few days on Island Star, which was a big step up. Unfortunately for TUI, Royal Caribbean gets Star back, Thomson gets the Escape.

It will be interesting to see what they do with the ship's dining. Island is all about buffet dining, with waiter service available at extra cost. Thomson has a 24-hour buffet but waiter service in the evening as standard. Difficult for Thomson to have an odd one out in the fleet so I suspect Escape will have to change.

I guess it had to happen. A cruise ship launching with a 4D cinema - the 4th D being where they shake you, spray you with water and blasts of air. The first film I was ever all shook up over was that masterpiece of the silver screen, Earthquake.

Disaster, death and destruction. Just what you want to take your mind off the fact that you are at sea, miles from anywhere on a lone cruise ship, at the mercy of the deep blue sea!

The cinema will be on AIDAluna, a 2,050-passenger vessel being built by Meyer Werft in Papenburg, Germany, for German cruise line AIDA Cruises - which is part of the Carnival Corp empire - and launching next April.

At the meeting at Royal Caribbean HQ yesterday, it emerged that the grass on Celebrity Solstice is sitting on a bed on clay and limestone rather than "dirt", as the Americans call soil, to disuade any crawly things from taking up residence and avoid problems with customs people worried about the ship-born diseases. It will survive on the nutrients watered into it.

After many months of searching and trialing - they even had a patch of grass in the car park at HQ in Miami - they decided on a grass from Austria, which is reckoned to be tough enough to withstand hot Caribbean sun, Mediterranean summers, salty air and being stomped on by thousands of feet.

It was transported in refrigerated lorries from Austria to the Meyer Werft shipyard in Papenburg, Germany. Eighteen hours from "harvest" to being laid.

"Ice rinks on a ship? Now that was easy," said Harri Kulovaara, Royal Caribbean's executive vice-president maritime.

Kulovaara also revealed that when Royal Caribbean built Song of America (now Thomson Destiny), in 1982, the designers reckoned it was as big as a cruise ship could go. It was 37,773 tons and held 1,450 passengers. Oasis of the Seas, launching next year, is 225,000 tons and will hold 5,400 passengers.

Just goes to show you should never say never.

All the talk at a meeting at Royal Caribbean HQ in Addlestone, Weybridge, yesterday was about the new ships - Celebrity Cruises' Celebrity Solstice and Royal Caribbean's Oasis of the Seas.

But this wasn't the usual stuff about Central Park, Boardwalks and zipwires, but rather a day for the techies to find out some behind-the-scenes stuff about these ships.

About the wonders of non-toxic silicon paint on the hull, for instance, how they will be using waste heat from the engines to heat water, how common rail diesel engines have been fitted as they are more efficient and reduce emissions, how air-conditioning and lighting is cleverer, so it uses less energy and so helps the environment.

The air-con changes mean there will be a 25%-30% improvement in energy efficiency (personally I would just turn it down - or is it up? - so passengers don't freeze, but maybe that's too simple) while lighting-related energy consumption will fall 40%.

We learned that Solstice has 500 square metres of solar panels, which will provide enough energy to power the passenger lifts - all the jokes about being stuck in the lift when the sun goes behind a cloud illustrates why they won't actually be used for that purpose!

We also learned that the pipes sticking out of the funnel on Oasis are telescopic, allowing them to disappear inside the funnel to allow the ship under low bridges.

True, you don't get that many bridges in the ocean, but without this cute mechanism the ship couldn't get out of the Baltic - it is being built in Finland - or into New York.

Cue more jokes .... but I'll leave you to work that one out for yourselves.

With no sign of an end to the dispute between Norwegian Cruise Line and Aker Yards over the building/cost of its 150,000-ton F3 ships, comes another misery for NCL.

Cyprus-based Louis Cruise Lines has failed to dot the i's and cross the t's in the purchase of Norwegian Dream. The sale was supposed to go through on Monday but Louis apparently decided against splashing out $218 million for the ship because the charter business it was planning for the vessel did not materialise.

As well as operating its own cruises, Louis charters ships to other lines, including Thomson Cruises. It's not so unlikely that one of those others - or indeed Thomson - has decided against increasing capacity at a time when people are concerned about their bank balances.

Louis is saying nothing; likewise NCL, which will be no surprise to anyone who has been following the F3 saga. Leaving everyone to speculate and rumour.

Star Cruises, which owns half of NCL has told brokers to put Norwegian Dream back on the market, but brokers reckon it's a terrible time to be selling a ship.

I don't know. I had a meeting Tuesday with the guys from Fred Olsen Cruise Lines and casually mentioned the ship sale had fallen through. "Don't tell Mr Olsen," came the urgent reply. New-to-Fred ship Balmoral used to be Norwegian Crown, so they obviouly fear he has a penchant for ex-NCL stock.

But what with Balmoral and the newly-stretched Braemar, the FO team feels they have more than enough extra capacity to fill for a while!

After our jolt getting into Kepez, Turkey, earlier on my Spirit of Adventure cruise, it was a pleasant surprise when the captain came on the tannoy in my cabin this morning at 7.30am - yes, really, and in the cabin too; there is no sleeping in on this cruise - to announce we had tied up. I hadn't even noticed we had stopped moving.

But imagine my shock when he announced we were in Malta. We had only left Sevastopol late the previous night and were supposed to be in the Black Sea. Was I mistaken? Was it his Aussie burr? Not if half the passengers on this cruise can be believed.

Naturally it was a great joke and the talk of breakfast.

Anyway, the truth is, we had arrived in Yalta, the third and last port in our Black Sea odyssey. Most of us spent the morning at the Livadia Palace, the summer residence of the last Russian Tzar, Nicholas II, and famous as the place where the Big Three - US president Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin - met at the end of World War Two to carve up Europe.

According to Irina, guide of bus 6, both Western leaders got tired of Stalin's oneupmanship - he even provided a lemon tree for a US delegate who complained there wasn't a slice of lemon in his drink - so they decided to play a trick on him.

One morning Roosevelt told Stalin he dreamed he was leader of the whole world, Churchill that he was ruler of the universe. Quick as a flash, Stalin said he had also had a dream: that he was the person who refused to sign the papers appointing each of them to these positions.

"It's just a joke," Irina emphasised, having just told us what a kind, hospitable man Stalin was. Or maybe that was the joke?

I have to admit I had a long debate with myself before I left home for this Spirit of Adventure cruise in the Black Sea, deciding whether I really wanted to spend my evening in Sevastopol watching the Russian Navy Black Sea Ensemble doing their thing. Am I glad the cynic in me lost.

It was a fabulous show, full of singing and dancing - yes, the kind of stuff that usually leaves me cold, especially on a cruise ship. But then cruise ships don't have singers and dancers like this.

When the show, at some officers' club in town, ended we all sat there, waiting for them to come back. Instead we got Neil, our much-loved cruise director, reminding us there would be food in the Verandah self-service when we got back on the ship.

Groan. Not more food, the audience chorused as one (we had, after all, had an early dinner before leaving for the performance). Then they rushed up to the Verandah as soon as they were back on board. Unlike a fool and his money, a cruiser and his food is never parted.

I seem to be spending my life underground on this Spirit of Adventure cruise in the Black Sea. On Saturday in Odessa I was down in the catacombs under the city, seeing where resistence fighters lived during the Second World War; on Sunday I was in tunnels dug after the Second World War to hide a submarine base in Balaklava, just outside Sevastopol.

Yes, the very same Balaklava made famous for the Charge of the Light Brigade during the Crimean War, so we learned all about that too while we there.

The history in this area is fascinating. Odessa, I was surprised to discover, is a very elegant city, best known for the Potemkin Steps - 200 steps that lead from the city to the harbour that featured in Eisenstein's film Battleship Potemkin.

It was great to see them, and I walked up and down them, but the catacombs are far more interesting - 2,500km of mad-made tunnels (it's where they took the limestone from to build the city) that would stretch from Odessa to St Petersburg if laid in a straight line.

Up to 250 resistance fighters lived for a year in the tunnels we wandered through under the town of Nerubaiskoye, coming out at night to blow up German trains, trucks and garrisons. Because they lived underground, they were very pale, so they had to make themselves up before they went out on sabotage duty or the Germans would easily spot them.

Nest day I was in the submarine tunnels - much bigger obviously as they had to hold a nuclear sub. These are the stuff of James Bond - I could just see Daniel Craig racing through them, blowing everything up as he went. Or maybe that was wishful thinking.

The tunnels were dug by brigades, which each did their bit and were then sent away - shot, I suggested, but Mariya, our guide said no - so no one knew the full extent of them. She reckons the people of Sevastapol, just down the road, didn't even know they existed.

The subs and nuclear weapons have all gone now - after all this area is now the friendly Ukraine, not the Russian bear (you don't even need a visa to visit). And anyway, the subs got too big to fit in the tunnels and no one had any money to expand them.

...but not really in the way Spirit of Adventure intended. As we arrived at the port, in Turkey, there was a sudden jolt, followed by an apology from the captain. Apparently the tug had not been doing its tugging bit as we came into dock. Result, one alarmingly big gash in the side of the ship.

Cleverly it was patched up so we could continue on our way, into the Black Sea, heading for the Ukrainian ports of Odessa, Sevastopol and Yalta.

Spirit of Adventure - it's also the name of the ship - is scheduled to go into dry dock after this cruise anyway for its annual spruce-up. Could the timing have been any better?

It was hinted to me this summer when I was in Stockholm, but now it's for sure.

In 2010, Disney Cruise Line is positioning the Disney Magic in Scandinavia in 2010, operating 12-night cruises that will visit Germany, Russia and Sweden.

All-American mouse meets St Petersburg history and culture. What a thought.

I'm off on a Black Sea cruise with Spirit of Adventure, the Saga brand for the over 21s (hence I am allowed on).

Hopefully I will be able to keep you posted about the ship, the Black Sea and other breaking news, but internet connections don't sound great so blogs might be a bit intermittent.

You have been warned.

As a friend has just remarked apropos of the Island Cruises news.

No wonder Louis Cruises decided against buying Norwegian Dream. They probably intended to charter it to Thomson Cruises to replace the Emerald. But now Thomson is getting Island Escape it doesn't need another ship.

The website Cruise Critic has announced the winners of its 2008 Editor's Picks Awards.

Royal Caribbean International topped the league table, coming first in five categories, with Princess Cruises getting a very respectable three awards.

It's an interesting snapshot of who does what best in the cruise industry - but only if you are in the US. There's no mention of UK lines P&O Cruises, Fred Olsen Cruise Lines or Ocean Village, nor of river cruise specialist Viking, which might not win any "best for" awards when it comes to ships, but has some great itineraries (Russia, Ukraine, China anyone?).

With a Cruise Critic UK website now established, maybe it's time to open up the voting a bit?

And the winners are ...

Best Luxury Cruise Ships - Crystal Cruises
Best Dining - Oceania Cruises
Best for Romance - Princess Cruises
Best Spa and Fitness - Royal Caribbean International
Best Cabins - Holland America Line
Best Value for Money - Carnival Cruise Lines
Best Itineraries - Azamara Cruises
Best Entertainment - Norwegian Cruise Line
Best Shore Excursions - Carnival Cruise Lines

Best Family Cruises
Best Kids' Programs - Disney Cruise Line
Best Teen Programs - Royal Caribbean International
Best Multi-Generational - Princess Cruises - Grand Class

Best Luxury Cruises
Best Luxury Dining - Crystal Cruises
Best Luxury Service - SeaDream Yacht Club
Best Luxury Staterooms - Regent Seven Seas Cruises

Best Dining
Best Main Restaurant - Carnival Cruise Lines - Conquest Class
Best Specialty Restaurants - Oceania Cruises
Best Healthful & Alternative Dining - Celebrity Cruises

Best for Romance
Best for Honeymoons - Windstar Cruises
Best for Weddings - Princess Cruises
Best for Couples - Regent Seven Seas Cruises' Paul Gauguin

Best Spa, Recreation and Fitness
Best Pool Deck - Royal Caribbean International - Voyager/Freedom Classes
Best for Fitness Enthusiasts - Royal Caribbean International
Best Spas - Costa Cruises' Samsara Spa - Concordia Class

Best Cabins
Best Standard Staterooms - Holland America Line - Signature Class
Best Suites - Norwegian Cruise Line - Jewel Class
Best Family Cabins - Disney Cruise Line

Crystal Cruises has reduced its required deposit from 10% to 5% for all 2009 bookings except for the World Cruise.

For the World Cruises, passengers now only need to put down $1,000-$1,500, depending on stateroom, not 20% of the cost as before.

The cruiseline is also giving people a week to pay their deposit (it was three days) and has cut the no-penalty cancellation period from 75 days to 45 days.

The announcement is all dressed up in words like "secure", "risk-free" and "investment", but at the end of the day it suggests that even six-star passengers need coaxing to part with their money as the credit crunch turns into a recession.

Anyone booking a suite in Ruby Princess will be able to start the day with a peaceful breakfast in Sabatini's, away from the madding crowd in the self-service or the main dining room.

It's a great idea - makes suite passengers feel special and means a few less people for the morning scrum - and one of several new features making their debut on Ruby, Princess Cruises' new ship, launching next month.

On sea days, for instance, they will be serving a British pub lunch in the Wheelhouse Bar (ploughman's or bangers and mash anyone?) and they are adding cheese to the menu at Vines wine bar - 12 varieties will be available each day for a "nominal" fee.

The Scholarship@Sea programme is being expanded so passengers can learn new skills, such as the art of entertaining, navigation, astronomy (I guess those two go quite well together) and how to mix a cocktail.

There will be "misting" stewards around the pool to help passengers keep their cool, more audience-participation entertainment (karaoke is bad enough, so dread to think what this will entail) and a Wizards Academy for kids.

Best news for me, though, is that wifi will be available in the cabins - no more trudging down to the atrium with a laptop, hunting around for a seat next to a plug. They are also adding the connections needed for passengers to use their mobile phones while at sea. Another very welcome addition.

Princess will no doubt wait to see how all this is received, but I think we can expect most of it to be rolled out to Ruby's sisters, Crown Princess and Emerald Princess, if not other ships in the fleet, in very quick time.

The BBC reports that QE2's iconic red funnel is to be sliced off by its new owners, Dubai-based Nakheel, and replaced with a four-deck glass penthouse with swimming pool, designed to become the most exclusive hotel room in Dubai.

The Cunard ship sails from Southampton for the last time on November 11, to start a new life as a floating hotel at the Palm Jumeirah, one of the reclaimed islands on the waterfront in the emirate.

According to the report, the funnel will be used as an entrance to the ship, the lifeboats will go, extra rooms will be built at the stern and all cabins will be ripped out and replaced with bigger, modern bedrooms.

"What's happeneing to the ship is very good," Captain Ian McNaught is quoted as saying. Tell that to the thousands who will be shedding more than a few tears as they wave a last farewell on the 11th day of the 11th month.

Seventh heaven for footie fans surely? A seven-night Brazilian/football-themed cruise with Pele, top European players and all sorts of people from the world of football.

It's all happening on Italian line Costa Cruises' Costa Serena, on a cruise departing June 28 2009, not from Brazil as you might expect, but from Venice, sailing around the Greek Islands.

There will be non-stop talk about football, an exhibition of items linked to the most important moments of Pele's life, with never-seen-before video clips.

I can certainly see the appeal if you like football, but the bit that appeals to me is that the whole cruise will be Brazilian-themed - the food, the entertainment, the atmosphere - to make Pele feel right at home.

"When I began to feel "saudade", meaning when I was homesick, what I wanted most was to be able to experience the traditions and customs of my beloved Brazil. The Costa Serena cruise, during which everything will be focused on Brazil, will spread joy throughout the entire Eastern Mediterranean."

Nice sentiment, but since when have footie fans spread joy in the countries they visit?

The ever enigmatic Ian Buckeridge, UK director of SeaDream Yacht Club, was back on the subject of expansion at an intimate get-together in London last night.

I have heard it before - that SeaDream is planning to expand, that they are negotiating for a Hurtigruten ship. Last night's news was that they couldn't see it would work as a separate luxury exploration vessel. Sounds familiar?

It seems this time it really could happen, although not with the Hurtigruten ship, giving SeaDream the opportunity to expand into new destinations.

At the moment it only has two ships, each with room for just 110 passengers, each designed for outdoor living so the ships have to be in warm places. The Med in summer, Caribbean in winter.

But don't hold your breath. Nothing seems likely to happen until 2010. Which is long enough away for us to forget that it was ever on the cards.

Fred Olsen Cruise Lines has announced it is retiring the geriatric Black Prince, first launched in 1966 as a passenger/freight ferry sailing between the UK and the Canary Islands in winter and the UK and Norway in summer.

Black Prince has long been destined for the chop - as with Cunard's QE2, it would cost too much to bring the vessel up to the standards needed to meet new SOLAS (Safely Of Life At Sea) regulations that become law in 2010.

These are tough new rules about the make-up of a ship - no combustible materials, low-level lighting, fireproof enclosures around stairways, and more - that has made it more cost-effective to hive off older tonnage than spend money on repairs.

Saga's Saga Rose is also another ship destined to go because of the new regulations.

Like QE2, Black Prince will have a farewell season to help sell those last few cruises.

The long goodbye, although no where near as long as QE2's, starts on September 9 2009 in Liverpool and ends in Southampton on October 16, spanning four cruises. A shame they didn't throw in a last three nighter to round it all off.

Then Black Prince would be retiring in October 19 2008, having come into service on October 19 1966. It has a certain symmetry that appeals.

Fred hasn't said what is happening to the ship, but speculation last evening at a get-together with SeaDream Yacht Club was that it will end up sailing in Greece, where, we were told by our host, Ian Buckeridge, the line's UK director, that ships will not have to comply with SOLAS 2010.

Remind me never to book a cruise with a Greek line.

Interesting to see that Island Escape might not be swallowed up into the Thomson Cruises concept following TUI's decision to buy its outstanding half share in Island Cruises from Royal Caribbean.

Instead, Thomson might use the ship to build a more casual Island-style brand, adding one or two others from its fleet.

It does make sense. After all, not everyone wants Thomson's more formal-style cruising - namely fixed dining, with two sittings at dinner time. That's no doubt a key reason why they booked with Island in the first place.

All will be revealed in Thomson Cruises' next brochure, due out in December.

You can always tell when a new ship feature has been a success - it starts to appear on the cruiseline's other ships.

And so the 2,600-passenger Star Princess becomes the first vessel in the Princess Cruises' fleet to be retro-fitted with a host of features introduced when Crown Princess launched in 2006.

Star has just emerged from a three-week drydock with an adults-only Sanctuary (a serene area at the top of the ship with faux greenery, padded loungers and stewards armed with water sprays to keep you cool), a Movies under the Stars screen where you can have a night at the fliks, and an piazza-style atrium with a cafe, wine bar and "street" entertainers to keep the buzz buzzing.

Caribbean Princess and Golden Princess go for their facelifts, respectively in January and April next year, and will emerge with all the above (actually there's already a Movies under the Stars screen on Caribbean Princess - it was the first Princess ship to get one).

They will get a new Crown Grill steak and seafood restaurant. Great news. That was my favourite place to eat when I cruised on Crown Princess this summer.

It had to happen given how successful Costa Cruises seems to have been operating cruises from Dubai around the Gulf.

Between January and April 2010, Royal Caribbean International is positioning Brilliance of the Seas at the emirate, presumably also sailing around the Gulf, although itineraries have not been announced.

Brilliance is the ship chosen to operate cruises in the Med this winter - the first time Royal has stayed in Europe year-round. If Brilliance is also staying for 2009/20, it's for a very short season. Does this mean winter Med has not been a success? I hope not, but wait to find out.

This time it all happened as we were leaving Yalta late last night in the hands of an L-plated tug boat driver. It was his first tugging job, apparently, and seems to have been a minor disaster, leaving us standed for a while as the tug failed to do its tugging thing. Thankfully, though, this time there were no piers for Spirit of Adventure to hit.

So today we've been all at sea, heading back over the Black Sea towards Istanbul in Turkey, where we are due to dock around 8am tomorrow.

We've had four lectures, a Ready Steady Cook with cruise director Neil and Captain Frank Allica that got the smoke detectors on red alert, a gala drinks do, formal night, crew show and we've got to be on deck at 6am tomorrow for the magical dawn sail through the Bosphorus.

Who says cruising is a holiday?

Sad to see that instead of positioning Carnival Liberty in Dover for the 2009 summer season, to operate a series of Baltic voyages, Carnival Cruise Lines has decided to leave the ship Stateside.

The line only launched its Baltic cruises this year, starting with the magnificent naming ceremony on Carnival Splendor and a most enjoyable three-night cruise to Amsterdam.

The official line is that the bosses fear continued economic uncertainty and high air costs will deter the Americans from flying to Europe. The same reason given for pulling Carnival Freedom's 2009 Mediterranean season earlier this year.

That could be true. But what about the Brits? We don't have to fly anywhere to get to Dover.

As I reported in the Telegraph recently, though, Carnival was selling next summer's 12-night Baltic cruises for £699 per person - less than £60 a day. Month ahead of sailing. It doesn't suggest the cruises have been flying off the shelves.

Any Brits booked on the cancelled Liberty cruises will get a full refund, but the UK team is also scouting around trying to find alternative voyages on another line in the Carnival group. Passengers can also rebook on Carnival Dream, the line's new big ship, due out of the yard in September and scheduled to operate a few Med cruises before going to the Caribbean.

Unless they are about to be cancelled as well.

P&O Cruises next new ship will be called Azura.

The keel for the vessel was laid today. The ship will be floated out in summer 2009 and delivered to P&O in spring 2010. That's barely 18 months for a 3,100-passenger cruise ship to grow from a lump of metal into a vessel setting off on its maiden voyage. I don't know how many keel-layings and new ships I've seen, but I still find it amazing.

I was among a small group of British journalists supposed to be at the keel-laying ceremony today at Fincantieri's Monfalcone shipyard in Trieste, Italy, but the event was called off last week because of the tragic death of a worker on the Ruby Princess.

Azura's first section laid weighs 650 tons and is made up of six pre-manufactured blocks ready-fitted with piping. In all, 50 sections and several interconnecting steel blocks will be used to build the ship.

There have been hints that Azura will not follow sister ship Ventura down the big-for-families route, but for now all speculation remains just that. The next news bulletin is on November 25.

It's official. Celebrity Solstice belongs to Celebrity Cruises.

The keys were handed over on Friday and the ship is now on its way to Fort Lauderdale, where it will be named on November 14 after a mini-cruise to nowhere. Celebrity promises "formal ceremonies" but details of the naming are under wraps.

I'll be there and keeping you updated on the pros, cons and the naming itself so keep watching TW's Cruise Lines.

Quest for Adventure, the ship slated to join Saga's Spirit of Adventure cruise line for the young at heart, will instead replace Saga Rose, which is being retired in October 2009.

Its Farewell Voyage will be a 37-night cruise from Southampton around the Med, to the Greek Islands, Egypt, Malta and Morocco.

Like Cunard's QE2 and Fred Olsen's Black Prince, Rose does not meet the standards required by the Safety of Life at Sea regulations being introduced in 2010 and the cost of making her shipshape and SOLAS acceptable are just too high.

It's sad news for all Saga Rose fans, but also a bit of a blow for Spirit of Adventure, which was due to start sailing Quest for Adventure in July 2009. It was already in the brochure and some passengers on my recent Spirit cruise in the Black Sea were booked on it.

The ship, currently named Astoria, was built in 1981, weighs 18,591 tons, holds 450 passengers and is sailing for German company Transocean Tours.

Instead of becoming Quest and going in search of adventure, Astoria will become Saga Pearl II, devoted to passengers aged 50-plus who want tradition, convention and formality.

With oil hitting $70 a barrel from its $150 summer high, cruise lines are starting to remove those dreaded supplements.

Carnival Corp was one of the first to announce it was axing surcharges across its brands on all new bookings made after October 31 for 2010 sailings.

Now Royal Caribbean has followed suit. Passengers booking a cruise with Royal Caribbean International, Celebrity Cruises or Azamara Cruises after November 10, for a holiday departing on or after January 1 2010, will not pay a surcharge.

Those with 2009 sailings might even get a refund, in the form of an on-board credit, if oil prices stay low, but what is the chance of that when the oil-producing nations have already decided to cut back production to push up the price?

Just in case, there are some very complicated price mechanisms in place to determine who might get what if the price goes down or stays level. If anyone actually understands them, I reckon they should be rewarded with a free cruise.

Carnival has also negated any cause for celebration by announcing price rises effective from, you've guessed it, October 31. It's a clever move. The whole world hates the S word, so just swallow up the supplement in the price. I have no doubt others will soon follow suit. Will they be as honest? Only time will tell.

Hurtigruten's new trade website is a useful new tool for agents planning to sell the cruise line.

There are lots of useful bits and pieces - a place to order brochures and download flyers, find out about training and fam trips, a FAQ section.

The Norway map, where you can see at a glance where the ships visit when they sail between Bergen and Kirkenes, is very helpful. It would be good to have one for each of Hurtigruten's other destinations - Spitsbergen, Greenland, even Antarctica, along with details of the ships that serve these rather specialist areas.

That information is on the main site, I know, but it's a pain if you have to keep jumping between URLs.

The Fincantieri shipyard in Monfalcone, Italy, officially handed Princess Cruises the keys for Ruby Princess yesterday and the ship set sail for Fort Lauderdale.

It will be named on November 6 by Trista and Ryan Sutter from the ABC TV show Bachelorette, who will also be celebrating their fifth wedding anniversary.

I am among the UK contingent going to see the ceremony and enjoy a two-night cruise on the ship. Keep watch here for my first impressions.

Casual cruiseline Ocean Village is offering one week in the Caribbean for £749 per person (from £99 for kids under 12) - an incredible deal given that it includes flights and transfers.

The low, low price is on a December 17 departure - a seven-night Corals and Coconuts cruise on Ocean Village Two - which is a bit of an awkward time for agents to sell I guess because it's so close to Christmas for those who want to be back for festivities with family and friends.

But you know, Christmas has a habit of coming around every year. Deals like this might not. Blue skies and Caribbean sun or the grey skies and rain? A bit of a no-brainer really,

I've often reported that Vietnam is the next big thing in the world of cruising.

For 2009, at least nine major cruise lines will be visiting the country, still best known to most people for the war with the US.

But that was all a long time ago and these days the Americans are gathering on the shoreline for altogether more peaceful reasons - to see this amazing, exotic little country that was such an important part of their history.

Princess Cruises, Silversea, Seabourn, Crystal and Royal Caribbean International are among the cruise lines that will be calling on Da Nang, Nha Trang, Ho Chi Minh City and other stops along the Vietnamese coast.

It's long been on my list of must-see places. Maybe 2009 is the year it will happen.

Was yesterday's shocking news of the demise of Ocean Village really such a surprise?

One of my blogs two days ago reported they were giving away Caribbean cruises. What kind of message does that send out?

Rather than going overnight, the line will be phased out (to give Carnival UK a chance to change its mind if things suddenly recover maybe?). Ocean Village Two will join P&O Australia in autumn 2009, while Ocean Village the original will go a year later.

It's sad news. Ocean Village seemed to have built up a following among people who don't do cruises, converting them into people who do do cruises. And understandably. I cruised with them twice and had a great time. They did what they did very well. It was casual, fun, relaxed; great for kids and adults alike.

But it can't support more than two ships and that, officially, is why it has to go.

It's interesting that this is the second casual brand to go in less than two months. Island Cruises is to be wound up next year, following TUI's decision to buy the outstanding 50% share of the line. It has said it will set up a new casual brand, but so far there have been no more details.

The end of Ocean Village means another major loss in capacity for the UK market. QE2 leaves the Cunard fleet in less than two weeks and next year Island Star, Black Prince and Saga Rose will also go.

In return, in 2010 P&O Cruises gets new ship Azura, while Cunard gets the new Queen Elizabeth.

Travel Pulse reports USB cruise industry analyst Robin Farley has revised 2009 and 2010 yield estimates and is now forecasting a 3% decline for 2009 and a flat year for 2010.

October has reportedly been a very challenging month so far and as a result cruise lines have become more aggressive with 2009 promotions, starting them earlier than normal given the macroeconomic environment.

It's certainly true there are a lot of deals out there. Yesterday I reported Ocean Village is giving away Caribbean cruises, now I've got this from six-star SeaDream Yacht Club - seven nights in the Caribbean for £2,795, departing January 31. That's a straight 50% price cut and includes flights and transfers, an overnight stay in Antigua before the cruise, alcohol and soft drinks and gratuities.

It's on offer from BA-way Cruise. To book, call 0208 248 2355.

The Seattle Times concludes the cruise sector is facing rougher seas after a Cruise Lines International Association report showed the number of North Americans cruising last year grew by just 1%.

The CLIA says 12.6 million people took cruises worldwide last year, 4.7% more than the previous year, and that in the first half of this year numbers grew 5.8%.

But the 2007 CLIA Economic Study also says North Americans contributed just 1% of that growth as economic woes - falling house prices, rising unemployment and reduced airline capacity - made many think twice about a cruise holiday.

The report notes that in 1995, around 11% of passengers on CLIA members cruises came from outside North America. This year to date, overseas passengers represent more than 20% of cruise passengers.

All these years using wire and plastic clothes hangers and now it turns out we are collectively responsible for damaging the environment.

As a result, Crystal Cruises has switched to new EcoHangers, manufactured from recyclable materials, themselves 100% recyclable and proven stronger than wire hangers in lab tests.

Just what do people do with their hangers? The heaviest thing I've ever seen on one is a cute towel monkey made by my room steward.

I'm sure this is all good green news. More importantly, though, does it mean an end to that maddening tinkle tinkle from the wardrobe that you get on the last night, once all your clothes are off the offending hangers and packed?

And what exactly has Crystal done with those eco-unfriendly hangers? Surely not added them to the 8.5 billion that it says fill America's landfill sites each year.

A Californian couple will be adding a new twist to the "I name this ship" stuff during the Ruby Princess naming ceremony in Fort Lauderdale next week, saying "I do" as they become the first couple to tie the knot on board the new Princess Cruises' ship.

Trista and Ryan Sutter, who met and married on US TV five years ago, will be doing the naming honours and also acting as the new couple's attendants (I am guessing that's a US version of a witness).

The Sutters say they will be coaching the couple to be on how to make the wedding special and intimate. Intimate? When the wedding and naming will be on the Princess website the next day. Who are they kidding?

Ocean Village's latest recession-busting offer means they are now giving away free Caribbean cruises when they travel with two adults booking a voyage on Ocean Village Two. That's four adults for £1,877 including flights - but you have to go from Birmingham.

Does this give us an idea of which area of the country is battening down the hatches first as talk of recession hots up?

I couldn't help but smile at the story this week about the Thomson Celebration passengers who had a cruise to, well nowhere.

I don't think they saw the funny side. The ship was due to set off on a three-day cruise to Ireland when bad weather struck. The captain could have battled his way through the storms or settled for a couple days in Liverpool.

Very sensibly he chose the latter. Who on earth wants to spend three days being sick on the Irish Sea? But then, who wants to spend three days tied up at Liverpool docks?

Quite a few people, apparently. Everyone was free to go home - and incidentally would still get the 80% refund, offered in the form of vouchers to use against another Thomson cruise - but many decided to stay on board and eat, drink, enjoy the entertainment, even have a free bus trip into the city. In fact they had everything but Ireland and the seasickness.

Some have now cried foul because they are not getting a full refund. Thomson cited terms and conditions, said it was an insurance issue and that it was not obliged to give any refund at all. All to do with small print and why we are all urged to have travel insurance.

Mr and Mrs Scott, quoted in the Liverpool Echo, said it was "scandalous", especially as ferries were making the crossing and they were in a ship. Yes, but Thomson Celebration is not a very big ship. History doesn't relate if they stayed on board and enjoyed the hospitality anyway - or indeed whether they had any travel insurance to cover the £279 they had each splashed out on the break.

Personally I prefer the attitude of the couple from Crewe quoted by Cruise Critic.

"We are disappointed, but we know it couldn't be helped and at least there is good food, good entertainment and people were having fun."

Kelly Ranson, Cruise Critic's UK editor, just happened to be on the ship and wrote:

This seemed to sum up the attitude of the majority -- and although everyone was disappointed that they were not visit Cork or Dublin, the facilities and the attitude of the staff on the ship helped to make a good weekend away.

The interesting question is whether any will use their refund vouchers and have another go on Thomson cruise. Or is once enough? We'll never know.

Norwegian Cruise Line has announced it will be axing fuel supplements on all bookings made after November 10 for cruises departing on or after January 1 2010.

There are also complicated rules to determine whether those already booked for cruises after that date will get a refund in the form of an onboard credit; likewise, for those who have booked a 2009 cruise.

After this year's roller-coaster oil ride, I can understand why NCL is cautious, but it does seem a little unfair that anyone who has booked early for 2010 - what the cruiselines want them to do, after all - is to be penalised for their eagerness.

There is a real danger these people will be so annoyed they'll join the ranks of the last-minute bookers and that is not good anytime, but especially not when times are tough.