All Leisure group chairman Roger Allard was being suitably inscrutable about his new ship Alexander von Humbolt when I bumped into him at a gala dinner on Hebridean Princess the other day.
News of the acquisition had just broken but with no hint as to which of All Leisure's brands would get the vessel. We can write off Hebridean Island Cruises - Hebridean Princess holds just 49 passengers; with capacity for just over 500, AvH is definitely too big.
That leaves Swan Hellenic, which operates the 350-passenger Minerva, and Voyages of Discovery, which has the 700-passenger Discovery as contenders, always ruling out the possibility that Allard plans to start another cruise line.
Which brand was most likely to get the new-to-All-Leisure ship, I asked. Allard's response? "We will not start operating it until 2011. And we will be changing the name."
Suitably non-commital (!). And no surprise either. Apart from the fact Alexander von Humboldt hardly slips off the tongue, a ship named after a German naturalist and explorer does not fit a cruise line aimed at the British market.
How about Minerva II, I suggested. I don't think he was impressed!
Jane Archer
