Cruise Lines

Four people have been kicked off Cunard's Queen Mary 2 after refusing to comply with quarantine regulations following an outbreak of norovirus on the ship.

Cruise Critic says Cunard spokeswoman Jackie Chase confirmed four passengers refused to obey ship protocol and remain in their cabins for 48 hours after consulting with the ship's medical team.

"Therefore, after having explained the situation to them, and in accordance with our booking conditions and with the health and safety of all of our guests uppermost in mind, we had no choice but to ask them to disembark the ship in Curacao."

Unruly passengers are plaging Cunard. In October last year, a wealthy Manhattan couple aged 82 and 91 were confined to their cabins on QM2, without alcohol, until the ship reached New York after a drunken spat with other passengers in the dining room.

Their passengers clearly aren't what they used to be.

The so-called vomiting bug has been whizzing around QM2 since before Christmas, affecting 167 of the 2,483 passengers during its 16-night Caribbean cruise ending January 3.

Cunard says the outbreak is pretty much under control, but one Cruise Critic member on the ship confirms they are still on red alert, with "no drinks menus on the tables and no nibbles given automatically".

Another says his 12-year-old son was confined to his cabin on Xmas Eve, Xmas Day and part of Boxing Day.

It's been a happy Christmas and New Year cruise then.

Made all the more joyous, apparently, by guest speaker John Prescott, who upset passengers during his talk with his "below decks" humour.

Seems that since his talk, Lord and Lady Prescott have not even been seen in the Queen's Grill, reserved for first-class passengers, which apparently he was deemed to be by Cunard.

Were they just too embarrassed to leave their first-class cabin or had they contracted norovirus and been quarantined? Cunard was not saying.

Perhaps they were too embarrassed as well.

A 15-night cruise to Antarctica on Compagnie du Ponant's Le Boreal, pictured, was cancelled at the last minute due to unspecified technical problems.

The 264-passenger ship was on charter to Abercrombie & Kent and would have been sailing full. Instead it will be staying in Ushuaia for repairs to be carried out.

It is understood signs of wear were found by technicians - pretty shoddy considering the ship only launched in May - and the affected parts needed to be replaced.

Ponant said it decided to cancel the cruise to avoid problems arising while in Antarctica.

"If the ship had been sailing in any other part of the world, the parts would have been readily available and the work could easily have been done during its cruise."

A&K is giving passengers on the cancelled Le Boreal cruise a full refund or a credit and 10% discount off a future cruise.

Antarctica is the most remote place on earth, cut off from civilization by the Drake Passage, 1,000km of treacherous sea, so it's not the best place to be if things go wrong.

Last month Clelia II hit a storm on the Drake Passage and its communication equipment was knocked out of action when a wave shattered a bridge window. It's been in Ushuaia for repairs since December 9, missing three sailings, and will finally re-enter service tomorrow.

Most big cruise lines are pulling their Antarctica cruises after this winter due to a new ruling effective August 1 that bans ships using heavy fuel.

The International Maritime Organisation ruling was made on environmental grounds - an accident resulting in heavy fuel spillage was deemed too much of a risk - rather than because of the risk of a bumpy crossing on Drake's.

Princess Cruises, Regent Seven Seas Cruises and Crystal Cruises are all quitting, but Holland America Line has promised to keep going.

Stein Kruse, their president and CEO, told me they will empty the fuel tanks of heavy fuel, clean them out and fill up with lighter fuel for the trip. "It'll be expensive but we will continue to go there."

In 2012, Azamara Club Cruises' Azamara Journey will make its Antarctica debut instead of Celebrity Cruises' Celebrity Infinity.

It means there is less capacity but only of the sightseeing variety - ships with more than 500 passengers are not allowed to make landings; they can only take them to look at the penguins and icebergs.

Which has always struck me as a waste of time and money.

The only way to do Antarctica is on a smaller vessel that can get close to icebergs, fit through the narrow channels and lower Zodiacs so you can go ashore and walk among the penguins.

And there are still plenty of them including Silversea's Prince Albert II, Compagnie du Ponant's Le Boreal, being joined by sister ship L'Austral next winter, Hapag-Lloyd's Hanseatic and Bremen, Lindblad's National Geographic Explorer and Hurtigruten's Fram.

Aretha Franklin, Janet Jackson and Neil Diamond are joining Norwegian Cruise Line's Norwegian Epic from January 22.

OK, not the real Mccoy. But they are the next three stars that singers from Legends in Concert will be impersonating during shows in the theatre and the Manhattan Room.

Legends in Concert pioneered live celebrity shows and is now in 11 cities in the US including Las Vegas, Atlantic City and Seattle, as well as having performers on Epic.

The new trio replaces Rod Stewart, Britney Spears and Michael Jackson, who have finished their four-month stint at sea.

Norwegian Epic is cruising in the Caribbean now, but will be based in Barcelona from May, sailing seven-night cruises around the Mediterranean.

"We'll soon have had the whole Jackson 5 on Epic," quipped Andy Stuart, NCL's executive v-p in charge of global sales and passenger service, as he released the news last evening.

"You can tell he's from the UK," retorted Kevin Sheehan, president and CEO, who was on a webinar to talk about his stint as undercover boss (see below) on Epic. "Janet Jackson was never in the Jackson 5."

(Not quite sure how being from the UK and not knowing who was in the Jackson 5 are related subjects but still ... - Ed)

Stuart: "Ah well, I'm too young for all that stuff."

I love it that NCL's management have fun running the cruise line as well as promoting it on their ships.

Guess who was waiting to greet Disney Cruise line's new ship, Disney Dream, as it arrived in its new home port of Port Canaveral in Florida?

The ship, the first new Disney vessel for more than a decade, was welcomed to its new home early yesterday morning to a blaze of fireworks and Mickey and Minnie waiting on the dock.

Donald and Pluto were also there as a plane towed a banner across the sky reading "Welcome Home, Disney Dream" and the ship's horn played "When you wish upon a star".

I'll be flying out to Orlando in just over a week for the naming ceremony on January 19 and a mini-cruise, so I'll be able to report back on all the fun things on board.

Top of my list of priorities is a ride on the AquaDuck, the first water coaster at sea. Followed closely by toasting Pink, the Champagne bar, with a glass or two of bubbly.

The maiden voyage, a two-night cruise with a day at Castaway Cay, Disney's private island in the Bahamas, departs on January 26.

Disney Dream will then be sailing three, four and five-night cruises that visit Nassau in the Bahamas and Castaway Cay.

* Pic courtesy of Red Huber, Orlando Sentinel

A record six cruise ships were in Southampton yesterday, disembarking one set of passengers and taking on another lot before heading off on marathon round-the-world or round-South America cruises.

The Southampton six comprised Fred Olsen's Balmoral and Black Watch, Cunard's Queen Elizabeth and Queen Victoria, P&O Cruises' Arcadia and Saga Cruises' Saga Ruby.

Between them, they brought 18,000 passengers through the port and each contributed £1.5 million to the local economy.

The good start to 2011 is going to continue, according to Doug Morrison, Southampton's port director. More than 350 cruise ships have booked calls so far for 2011. That's 50 more than last year.

Good thing they announced plans last month for a fifth cruise ship terminal, although even if all goes to plan that won't be ready until 2013.

The new port of Falmouth in Jamaica is not having such a good time. It was due to welcome its first cruise ship - Royal Caribbean's Navigator of the Seas -  tomorrow, but the on-off opening is off again.

The maiden call has been put back to February 17, due to on-going construction work on the eastern part of the site.

That's after maiden calls last November were called off because the port was not ready.

William Tatham, v-p cruise operations for the Jamaica Port Authority, said it is now ready take ships and tour operations are set to go, but "the guest experience is not where we want it to be".

Freedom of the Seas will now be the first ship to call at the new port, a joint venture between Jamaica Port Authority and Royal Caribbean Cruises, which has been designed to take Royal's giant Oasis-class ships.

They are scheduled to make their maiden calls at Falmouth in mid-March.

Where would you most like to cruise this year and who would you most like to travel with?

That's what Princess Cruises asked their Facebook fans. The answers? Seems Alaska is ther in-place to go this year. And most said they'd actually like to go with their spouses or partners, but if they had to choose a celeb, it would be Oprah.

She got 19% of the vote, way more than Michelle Obama's 6%, but America's official first lady still outperformed princess-in-waiting Kate Middleton in the popularity stakes. She got just 3% of the vote.

Alaska was also a popular choice for shore excursions, with 17% wanting to go dog mushing on a glacier in the 49th state. That was level pegging with the number who wanted to visit the lost city of Machu Picchu in Peru.

Strange what people want to do. Some 14% said they'd like to climb the cliffs in Santorini in Greece, but just 7% said they wanted to visit Petra in Jordan and only 6% wanted to go to Vietnam.

I've been to all three and can honestly say Petra and Vietnam are seriously amazing, while Santorini, while pretty, is just another Greek Island.

Princess is currently running a bucket list blog revealing employees' top 50 travel experiences.

In the latest, Rob Roberts, shorex manager, tells of his first visit to the Mediterranean as he made sure everything was in place ahead of the 1998 launch of the 2,600-passenger Grand Princess, which was then the largest cruise ship in the world.

If you're off on a Nile cruise later this year, don't forget to pack your Berlitz Nile Cruising Pocket Guide.

This new handy-sized guide book describes the various Nile River and Lake Nasser cruises you can do, listing what you can see as you sail down the river, as well as offering helpful hints and tips.

There's also a large section on Luxor and what to do there - everything from an early-morning balloon ride to visiting the temples in the town, shopping in the souks and exploring the Valley of the Kings on the West Bank.

The book is published on January 31, price £5.99.

Coincidentally, I can now confirm details of Viking River Cruises new itineraries in Egypt, revealed exclusively in this blog last month.

There's a nine-day Nile Explorer, which has three nights in Cairo at the start of the holiday and one at then end, with a four night cruise on Moevenpick's Royal Lotus sailing from Aswan to Luxor in between.

There's also a 12-day Pathways of the Pharaohs cruise with three nights in Cairo, one night in Luxor, a three-night Nile cruise on Royal Lotus and a three-night cruise on Lake Nasser on Prince Abbas, also operated by Moevenpick.

Prices start from £1,990 and £2,090 per person respectively including flights, transfers and excursions.

Handy hint: Viking is offering to organise your Egyptian visa for £50 per person before you go, but British passport holders can get it on arrival for $15.

If you're casting around for a cruise, this really is a happy new year, with deals galore to suit all pockets and all tastes.

Royal Caribbean International (0844 493 3005) has launched its "What you see is that you get" campaign, with prices from £699 per person. That's for seven-night cruises from Palma on Grandeur of the Seas and from Malaga on Adventure of the Seas for an inside cabin with flights and transfers included.

As the ad says "Why Not?"

Well only because there are so many other great offers to pick from.

Iglu Cruise (020 8544 6447) has a seven-night transatlantic cruise on Queen Mary 2, sailing from Southampton to New York, from an iincredible £679 per person for an inside cabin - and that includes the flight back from the Big Apple. You can upgrade to an outside cabin from £99 and a balcony room from £199 per person.

Iglue tells me they are booking up fast. There's a surprise!

Celebrity Cruises (0845 456 0523) has a 14-night no-fly Italian Mediterranean voyage on Celebrity Eclipse from Southampton on May 7 from £1,416 per person. Not quite such a bargain, but at least they throw in $100 onboard credit and free car parking at Southampton. You'll need to book by February 28.

Orion Expedition Cruises (020 7434 0089) is celebrating Australia Day on January 26 by offering free return flights for selected cruises on Orion and new ship Orion II between now and the end of February. They include:

* Three nine-night Vietnam Explorer voyages in November and December priced from £4,295 per person.

* Two seven-night, one from Bangkok to Ho Chi Minh City, the other in reverse, in October and December from £3,340 per person.

* Two 10-night cruises in the Kimberley, Australia, one sailing from Broome to Darwin, the other in reverse, in August and September, from £5,325 per person. The price also includes a free two-night stay in Darwin or Broome at the start or end of each cruise.

The papers were full of news that Kenny Dalglish was appointed manager of Liverpool Football Club at the weekend.

What they neglected to mention was that the appointment was confirmed when Kenny was celebrity guest speaker on Silversea's ship, Silver Wind.

He was on a seven-night cruise round-trip from Dubai, entertaining the ship's 290 passengers with stories of his career when hasty plans had to be made for him to fly home early from Bahrain.

Given his team went on to lose 1-0 to Man U on Sunday, I wonder why he bothered. Bet he does too!

With two big-for-Oceania new-builds launching in the next 15 months, Oceania Cruises has clearly decided it can manage without one of its smaller ones.

From April 2012, it is chartering its 684-passenger Insignia to TUI-owned German cruise line Hapag-Lloyd, to sail as Columbus 2.

It's part of a major expansion at Hapag-Lloyd, which is also adding a new-build luxury ship, Europe 2, to the fleet from 2013.

It's a complicated set up, but essentially Hapag-Lloyd has designed the ship and persuaded an unnamed company to build it at the STX Europe shipyard in St Nazaire, France. Hapag-Lloyd will then charter the vessel, which will hold 516 passengers, for a minimum of 12 years.

Construction begins in September 2011 and will take 18 months.

Hapag-Lloyd said the new build will offer a more casual luxury experience than the 408-passenger Europa, which it operates alongside two exploration ships, Bremen and Hanseatic. The cruise line also already has a premium ship called Columbus, which holds 420 passengers.

Hapag-Lloyd is a German cruise line, but they operate several "international" cruises a year, when all literature - menus, daily programmes - and lectures are guaranteed to be in English, and there are separate shore excursions for English speakers.

Oceania currently has three sister ships, Insignia, Regatta and Nautica, which each hold 684 passengers. However, their new 1,258-passenger Marina sets off on its maiden cruise, a transatlantic from Barcelona to Miami, on January 22, and sister ship, Riviera, is due to debut in April 2012.

Fred Olsen Cruise Lines has changed its website address, dropping dot.co.uk to become a dot.com.

The cruise line says it's to reflect its international nature - by which I assume it means in terms of where it sails as the Brits are still very much in the majority on a Fred ship - and will make access easier, wherever you are searching from.

Fred Olsen was voted Best cruise line for seeing the world in Cruise Critic's UK industry awards in November.

The url change is one of several techie changes at Fred recently, which is being "dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century", according to Nigel Lingard, their marketing director.

They've also set up a Facebook fan page, opened a channel on YouTube and started Twittering. You'll find links on the website.

The champagne corks will have been flying at Saga Cruises, the over-50's specialist, which has been voted top cruise line by readers of Which? Magazine for the second year running.

It's all to do with the value for money - their prices include food and entertainment like all cruise lines, but also travel insurance, a chauffered car to drive you from your home to the port and back again after the cruise, and gratuities - the exciting places they go and, of course, the friendly service.

I cruised on Saga Pearl II last year and can confirm that the food's pretty good too. And if you're cruising alone, you won't get hit by swingeing single supplements. In fact some of their cruises have no single supplements at all.

Best of all, Saga will refund the difference if the price of a cruise falls once a booking has been confirmed. Apparently for one couple this meant they got back a cheque for £10,000.

Saga has promised 2011 will be the year to "get people talking" as part of a campaign to attract people who have never cruised. They're off to a good start.

P&O Cruises is to show plays on Adonia when the ship joins their fleet in May, moving across from sister line Princess Cruises, where it sails as Royal Princess.

I'm told P&O will probably stage three plays, but only one has been decided - Art, which opened in London's West End in 1996.

It's a strange story, set in Paris. In a nutshell: Modern art lover Serge buys a painting which is nothing but a white canvas with some white lines on it. His friend of 15 years, Marc, calls it s*** and so begins a debate about what is art, what is friendship. Meantime you've got other friend Yvan adding fuel to the flames.

I've not seen it but it's supposed be clever and funny. It's also very easy to do on a ship, especially one with quite a small theatre, as it's all conversation between the characters or monologues to the audience.

Bringing West End plays to the high seas follows a growing trend among cruise lines to get away from the traditional song, dance and acrobatics stuff they usually put on in the theatre.

Royal Caribbean International has performances of Chicago on Allure of the Seas and Hairspray on Oasis of the Seas. When it comes to Europe this summer, Liberty of the Seas will be staging Saturday Night Fever.

Norwegian Cruise Line has the Blue Man Group in the theatre on Norwegian Epic, alternating with tribute singers from Legends in Concert.

I reckon P&O should also show the ever-popular Mousetrap (also easy as it only has one set) but I doubt they'd get the license given it's still going in the West End. Can you believe, it's in its 59th year!

Or how about a one-act play called Titanic that was staged in New York in the 1970s, all about three people (mum, dad and their son)  sitting down for dinner on the ill-fated ship. As they ponder why they haven't been seated at the captain's table all kinds of skeletons emerge from the woodwork. Kind of appropriate, don't you think?

What play would you like to see on Adonia? Post your suggestions below.

After a successful autumn show in Birmingham last year, the Cruise Show is expanding again in 2011.

It'll be opening in Glasgow for the first time, at the SECC (Scottish Exhbition & Conference Centre) on October 22 and 23, and it's returning to the NEC in Birmingham on October 29 and 30.

But the first date for your diary is March 26-27, when the Cruise Show opens at Olympia in London.

Once again, this will be a terrific opportunity to meet all the cruise lines under one roof, to get ideas and suggestions for your next holiday at sea as well as good show-day-only deals.

More than 30 cruise lines have signed up to attend, including Royal Caribbean International, Celebrity Cruises, Azamara Club Cruises, Princess Cruises, Cunard, Fred Olsen, European Waterways and MSC Cruises.

You'll be able to get tips and advice from cruise experts, including myself, during panel discussions and debates in theatre one.

The show is open from 10am to 5pm on Saturday March 26 and from 10am to 4pm on Sunday March 27. Tickets can be purchased on line in advance at the special price of £6 per person by clicking here.

Portsmouth Port is getting so many cruise ships this year, it has changed its name.

Instead of sailing from the Continental Ferry Port, you'll now cruise from Portsmouth International Port.

Sounds a lot swankier, doesn't it?

They're building a new terminal and dredging the water outside the port to allow larger ships to come and go at different stages of tide.

Forty cruise ships will be calling at the port, up from 11 in 2010, including Swan Hellenic, owned by All Leisure Group, which is quitting Dover and making Portsmouth its new homeport for summer no-fly cruises.

Swan has four cruises from Portsmouth, sister company Voyages of Discovery has five departures (the rest of its no-fly programme is from Harwich) and even tiny Hebridean Princess, also owned by All Leisure Group, will be calling in as part of its debut round-Britain adventure starting in August.

French cruise line Compagnie du Ponant is using Portsmouth as its base for seven debut no-fly cruises this summer.

There are five seven-night cruises that journey up the west coast of the UK and over to St Malo in France, and two 12 nighters that goes all the way around Britain.

Others include Hurtigruten, which will be visiting with Fram when it repositions from Antarctica to the Arctic.

Last year, Lord Sterling, chairman of All Leisure Group, moaned that Swan passengers would have to mix with smelly lorry drivers in the new Portsmouth terminal.

Maybe the new name will make them clean up their act!

Eat your heart out Royal Caribbean.

You might have a zipwire on two of your ships, but Carnival Cruise Line has just released details of its ropes course on Carnival Magic, the first on a cruise ship, and boy does it sound fun.

It's called the SkyCourse, and is made up of rope bridges, swinging steps and beams. Passengers - no more than 20 at a time - will be strapped into safety harnesses and then set off along one of the two 230-feet courses.

There's one for beginners, one for intermediates; both have with views of the sea, almost 150 feet below.

It's all part of a new top-deck SportSquare on the Carnival Magic, which is launching on May and sailing from Barcelona this summer.

There's also a two-level nine-hole golf course, a keep fit area with exercise bikes, rowing machines, punch bags and more, and a basketball-cum-football-cum-volleyball course. An 800-foot-long jogging path surrounds the entire area.

But if that all sounds too much like hard work, there's a bar with a flat-screen TV.

If prices keep tumbling like this, the cruise lines will soon be paying you to go on a cruise. Who's complaining?

Last week's top deals included a seven-night Spanish Med cruise from Palma on Royal Caribbean International (0844 493 2076) ship Grandeur of the Seas from £699pp. This week's missive from their "what you see is what you get" campaign is cheaper again - from £599pp for departures from May to October.

And that includes the flight!

Grandeur is sailing two seven-night itineraries that be combined into a seven-night cruise from £1,099pp.

Royal Caribbean is also offering a three-night cruise from Southampton to Le Havre, with excursions to Paris, on Independence of the Seas on April 27 from £299pp.

A four-night cruise from Southampton to Cork in Ireland, also on Independence, on April 30, costs from £400pp.
 
Iglu Cruise (020 8544 6447) is offering a seven-night no-fly cruise from Dover to the Baltic on Holland America's Line Ryndam on July 31 from £679pp for an inside cabin, or £799pp for a room with a view. As kids sharing pay just £99, a family of four can get away for a week for just £1,589. And Iglu will throw in $50 to spend as well.

They've also got a seven-night Mediterranean cruise on Disney Cruise Line's Disney Magic on August 27 from £2,195 for a family of two adults and two kids, and flights at £599 for all four.

Holland America Line (0845 351 0557) is offering a seven-night Mediterranean cruise from Barceona on April 28 Eurodam from £599pp cruise-only or £849pp including flights.

P&O Cruises (0845 3 555 333) sent me five of their best deals from their current sale. Here's the three best ones. You can go on line or call to find others.

* A 12-night Western Mediterranean cruise from Southampton on Ventura on March 27 from £1,035pp - that's £87 per night.

* A seven-night Iberian cruise from Southampton on Azura on April 1 from £666pp - that's £96 per night.

* A 14-night Western Mediterranean cruise from Southampton on Arcadia on March 29 from £1,331pp - that's £96 per night.

Saga Cruises (0800 056 5880) is offering savings of up to 35%, with a further £1,000 discount on selected cruises. They include:

* A 26-night Mediterranean cruise from Southampton on Saga Pearl II on April 3 from £3,068pp.
 
* A 21-night Mediterranean cruise from Dover on Saga Ruby on June 14 costs from £2,991pp.

* A 15-night cruise from Dover to Iceland and back on Saga Ruby on August 4 from £2,516pp.

All Saga Cruises prices include travel insurance, gratuities and a transfer from home to the departure port.

Cruise Thomas Cook (0800 916 6070) is giving away a free case of wine to every customer who books a cruise from now until Monday. They're also offering 10% off all cruises confirmed by January 31 2011, as well as free car parking, free all-inclusive upgrades and free onboard spending money.

There are some of their best deals:

* A 14-night Italian Mediterranean cruise from Southampton on Celebrity Cruises' Celebrity Eclipse on May 7 from £1,409pp.

* An 11-night Caribbean cruise roundtrip from New York on Princess Cruises' Caribbean Princess on July 9 from £1,599pp including flights and $260 per cabin onboard spending money.

* A 12-night Mediterranean cruise from Barcelona to Venice on Holland America's Nieuw Amsterdam on June 15 from £1,499pp including flights and $50 per cabin onboard spending money.

Cheers!

P&O Cruises is offering more shorter sectors on its 72-night Grand Alaska Voyage from Southampton on Arcadia on April 12, which is great is you fancy joining this historical cruise - it's P&O's first no-fly voyage to Alaska for 40 years - but don't have time for the entire round-trip.

You've always had the option to cut the cruise in half, sailing 44 nights from Southampton to Los Angeles or 45 nights from Los Angeles to Southampton.

Now there are seven more cruise options:

* 41 nights from Southampton to Vancouver from April 12-May 23, from £3,999pp.

* 34 nights from Southampton to Whittier from April 12-May 16, from £3,499pp.

* 29 nights from Barbados to Vancouver from April 24- May 23, from £3,399pp.

* 18 nights from San Francisco to Los Angeles from May 7-May 26, from £2,499pp.

* 16 nights from Vancouver to Port Everglades from May 23-June 8, from £1,949pp.

* 14 nights from Barbados to San Francisco from April 24- May 7, from £1,499pp.

* 12 nights from Southampton to Barbados from April 12- April 24, from £1,099pp.

Of course there is still room if you want to do the whole voyage, which spends nine days in Alaska, calling at Ketchikan, Juneau, Whittier, Skagway and Sitka, and cruising in Yakutat Bay, College Fjord and to the Tracy Arm glacier.

What a sight!

Queen Mary 2, Queen Elizabeth and Queen Victoria get a colourful send off as they sail out of New York at the same time. Thousands of New Yorkers lined the shores ot Manhattan to see their regal progress, which began with a 21-gun fireworks salute.

QM2 and Queen Elizabeth departed on their world cruises, Queen Victoria was heading off to Hawaii, where it's sailing a series of cruises around the islands, Mexico and through the Panama Canal before returning to the UK in mid-April.

Fred Olsen Cruise Lines is changing the way it calculates its fuel supplement.

From Wednesday January 19, it will be charged as a percentage of the cruise fare instead of as a per person per day rate.

The cruise line says it brings them into line with the EU Package Directive and ABTA guidelines that require charges to be "proportionately rated to the cruise fare invoiced".

If that is the case, I say how unfair.

It means if you book a deluxe cabin or suite on a 14-night cruise, you'll pay a higher fuel supplement than someone in an inside cabin on the same voyage. Why? Is the person in the bigger cabin going to use more fuel?

The new fuel percentage will be 5%, the current per person per day rate is £4.

All I can add is, if you want a Fred Olsen cruise, and especially if you want to cruise with them in a decent cabin, book asap.

And certainly before Wednesday!

I'm flying out to Orlando today, for the naming ceremony of the Disney Dream, without doubt the most exciting cruise ship launching this year.

It all happens at Florida's Cape Canaveral on Wednesday morning US time, after which we're sailing to Castaway Cay, Disney's private island in the Bahamas for a spot of sun, sand and sea.

There's no word as yet on the godmother. Cruise lines increasingly like to keep these things under wraps until the last moment. I'll just say that in 1999, Disney Wonder was named by Tinkerbell, so anything can happen (well it is Disney, you know).

Disney Dream is two decks taller than Disney Magic and Disney Wonder, and holds up to 4,000 people when full - that's nearly 700 more than each of the other two ships.

It is also jam-packed with fun cruise ship firsts. I can't wait to try the AquaDuck water-coaster, below, and have a chat with Crush, the turtle in Finding Nemo, who will be popping up in the kids club to have real-time conversations with the children. And me!

Actually he is also stars in Animator's Palate, one of three dining rooms, talking to the diners during the meal while swimming around in his tank

There's art that comes alive when you get near, those clever inside cabins with virtual portholes and restaurants that change vistas between day and evening.

I'll also be checking out the District, a huge adults-only area with a Champagne bar, nightclub and Skyline, a cocktail bar with changing cityscapes.

Internet willing, I'll be posting thoughts and reports on the blog so be sure to keep in touch.

Why waste perfectly good Champagne by christening a ship in it?

That was the perfectly-sound reasoning behind Disney Dream's gala ceremony in Port Canaveral yesterday.

Cue Mickey and a 16-foot bottle that he had to fill with dreams before the naming could go ahead.

Pirates filled the stage giving us dreams of adventure. Then came Disney princes and princesses, who gave us dreams of happy ever after. Finally there was a number from High School Musical with dreams of fun together.

The bottle full, godmother Jennifer Hudson, who won an Oscar for her part in the film Dream Girls in 2006 and was a singer on Disney Wonder in 2003, and the 600 of so cast members gathered on stage as a helicopter appeared, picked it up, flew it above the ship and emptied its contents (air!) over Disney Dream.

Flags waved, fireworks exploded. Disney Dream had a name.

I'm now on board for a couple of nights and having to rush around to make sure I see and do everything so don't be surprised if there are no more posts for a couple of days.

I'll bring you more about the ship - including pictures - when I am back in the UK.

I said before I left the UK that I couldn't wait to try the AquaDuck on Disney Cruise Lines' new ship, Disney Dream.

Well here I am, ready for the off.

It was great fun, actually better than I had expected, and really quite amazing when you think about it - 10,000 gallons of water (that's 4.5 tonnes) sloshing about at the top of a ship.

Bruce Vaughn, one of the clever Disney folk who dream up new rides and attractions, said the coaster, when first suggested, sounded insane. "That's how we knew we were on the right track."

But my brush with the 'Duck was not the only bit of animal magic on my trip to Florida see the new ship.

The day before the naming ceremony, Disney treated the British contingent to breakfast with Tigger followed by a day in Walt Disney World's Animal Kingdom and a chance to try out the Wild Africa Trek.

It's a new feature, opened just two days before we had our go last week, and involves being strapped into a safety harness so you can walk over two rickety rope bridges and get close-up views of hippos and crocodiles.

You then have a leisurely safari through the savannah Disney has created in the park, looking out for wild animals including giraffe, wildebeest, cheetahs, lions, gazelles and more.

It was fun, if annoyingly OTT on the health and safety side, and at least we did see lots of animals, including this beautiful lion. Call me a cynic, but I'm sure he must have been trained to come and stand four square like this for the visitors!

The Wild Africa Trek is not cheap at $189 per person, but it is a three-hour experience and the price includes a snack stop during the safari and all the pictures that are taken by the guides on the way around.

I looked very carefully at the date when I saw this.

On four cruises this year, Costa Cruises' frequent passengers can become crew for a day under a new initiative called ViceVersa.

They'll be given a uniform with a ViceVersa logo and work, under supervision, in guest services or as tour escorts, cruise staff, musicians, singers, waiters or cooks.

General mayhem, not to mention health and safety issues, springs to mind, but apparently it is true.

Costa tells me there is no limit to the number of people who can sign up for the scheme, and there is also no charge.

You don't get a refund for doing all the work either, mind, and I'm guessing you can forget a share of the tips!

Princess Cruises is offering a free cruise for two in a balcony cabin, including flights, to the Facebook fan who comes up with the best travel experience.

It's all linked in with the cruise line's 50 Essential Experiences bucket list - places to go, things to see before you kick said bucket - that's being written by Princess employees.

You can either submit a 300-word story with up to five pictures to their Facebook page, or a two-minute video. Deadline is February 7 and fans can vote for the story that most inspires them from February 11-25.

The winner will be announced March 11. And then comes the hard part.

Choosing one of eight cruises from this list:

• 13-day cruise from Sydney to New Zealand and back
• 12-day Israel and Egypt cruise from Civitavecchia (Rome) to Piraeus (Athens)
• 16-day South East Asia cruise from Beijing to Singapore
• 12-day Grand Mediterranean cruise from Barcelona to Venice
• 14-day Panama Canal cruise from Fort Lauderdale to Los Angeles
• 12-night Alaska cruise-and-stay holiday
• 10-day South Pacific cruise from Tahiti
• 14-day cruise from Rio de Janeiro to Valparaiso, rounding Cape Horn

You have to be over 21 to take part and there are various other rules. Click here to read them.

With liquid gold racing towards $100 a barrel, it's no surprise the dreaded fuel supplements are back with a vengeance.

For the Brits at least. The US lines are so far steering clear.

Oh and that's unless you book a cruise with Saga or Spirit of Adventure.

Not only do these sister cruise lines guarantee no fuel supplements, but they will also refund the difference, probably in the form of a cabin upgrade or other on-board extra, if the cost of your cruise falls after you've booked.

Paul Green, their spokesman, explained all about good money management and playing fair with customers.

I'm not sure what that says about the others, but anyway here's what they are charging:

All Leisure Group's Voyages of Discovery and Swan Hellenic are imposing a fuel supplement of £4 per person per day, to a maximum £150 per person, on cruises booked after February 1 for departure after April 1.

From February 1, Cruise and Maritime Voyages is levying a £4 per person per day supplement to a maximum £100 per person.

So if you hurry you can beat the charge with these three.

Cunard and P&O Cruises each started charging a £4 per person per day supplement to a maximum £150 per person at the beginning of the year.

Fred Olsen, in its wisdom, has switched from a daily per person flat fee to charging the fuel supplement as a percentage - 5.5% - of what you pay for your cruise. It works out as an extra £55 per person for every £1,000 cost of the cruise. It also means if you want a suite, you have to pay more.

Make sense of that.

Here's a cruise to die for.  

Fred Olsen Cruise Lines (01473 742424) has devised a crime-themed cruise on Balmoral in April to celebrate Agatha Christie's 120th birthday. 

There'll be free talks and lectures about the Queen of Crime by her grandson, Mathew Prichard, and author John Curran - a lifelong fan who is often on TV and radio talking about Ms Christie.

There will also be live performances of some of Agatha Christie's rarely-heard 30-minute radio plays, featuring actors and selected members of the audience.

Wonder if they'll be asking for murder volunteers. 

The 10-night cruise, to Iberia and Morocco, visiting La Coruna in Spain, Casablanca in Morocco, Gibraltar, and Portimao and Lisbon in Portugal, departs Southampton on April 23 and costs from £899 per person.

Excuse me while I fetch the homburg and polish up the little grey cells.

MSC Cruises isn't actually giving away free holidays, but it's not far off.

Book one of their Mediterranean cruises in February and you'll get free flights, free transfers, £50 onboard credit and free cabin upgrades.

On Lirica-class ships, you'll be upgraded from an inside to an outside cabin or an outside to a balcony cabin.

On seven-night Fantasia and Musica-class ships you'll be upgraded from an outside to a balcony cabin; on eight-night cruises on a Musica-class vessel, you'll leap-frog from an inside to a balcony cabin.

The offer means you can pick up a seven-night cruise from Venice on MSC Magnifica, their newest ship, next November from £599 per person, with flights, transfers, on-board credit and an upgrade all included.
 
Bookings must be made between February 1 and 28 for two people sharing a cabin. It excludes MSC Yacht Club passengers.

Louis Cruises, the Cypriot-owned low-cost cruise line, has also cut prices. Book by February 18 and you can pick up a seven-night Greece and Turkey cruise from  Piraeus, the port for Athens, on the Louis Cristal from £446 per person.

Not quite such a bargain as MSC as it excludes flights and transfers but Louis says you'll be saving more than £70, so there's something to put towards the extra expenses.

My review of Disney Cruise Line's new ship, Disney Dream, was in the Telegraph Travel section on Saturday.

In case you missed it, you can read it here.

I've posted some of my favourite pictures from the ship on my cruising show blog. Click here to see them.