As Disney fans will have noticed, it's named after the star in Ratatouille. Yes, that'll be the rat.

I'm pretty sure there won't be a rat in Remy (no jokes about rats and sinking ships please) but it does sound as if dining there will nonetheless be a very lavish affair.

The restaurant, seating 80 passengers, is in Art Noveau style, tables will be set with Frette linens, Riedel glassware, Christofle silverware and china made exclusively for Remy, and waiters will wear long white aprons, black jackets or burgundy vests and bow ties.

Dining starts with a chilled Champagne cocktail made table-side and moves on through eight or nine courses created by a culinary team overseen by French-trained executive chef Patrick Albert.

There is also a private Chef's Table dining room that seats 16 passengers, who get a different multi-course menu. Apparently the room offers a "glimpse" into the kitchen. Could that be when the chefs come in and out of the room's separate entrance to the galley?

Can't tell you what the menus will be as they are still being created by Lallemen, working with Chef Scott Hunnel from Victoria & Albert's, one of the top restaurants at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida.

Can't tell you what it will cost either, but I don't think this will be one of the cheapest options on the new ship.

The 2,500-passenger Disney Dream (but it can hold 4,000 when all the berths are in use) is being built at the Meyer-Weft shipyard in Germany and due to launch in January 2011. It will will be sailing three and four-night cruises from Port Canaveral in Florida to the Bahamas.

Cruise Business reports that the ship is being converted into a "floating football studio" for the duration.

The Tapas Y Mas bar will become a football-themed World Cup Lounge with matches shown live on big screens. Germany's matches will be shown in the ship's theatre on a big screen.

Also, former Bayer Leverkusen manager Reiner Calmund and sport broadcaster Werner Hansch will be on board to analyse the matches and give talks about the subject.

Thomson Cruises and Island Cruises will be showing every England game on big screens around the ships, and also laying on special activities and spa deals during matches so the football equivalent of grass widows can enjoy their holiday too.

Norwegian Cruise Line will be showing all the important matches on big screens on its Europe-based ships, including Norwegian Epic's inaugural sailings.

Passengers on Norwegian Sun, Norwegian Gem, Norwegian Jade and Norwegian Epic can follow England, Argentina, Brazil, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, the US and Spain through the group stages, while Norwegian Gem, Norwegian Jade and Norwegian Sun will be showing the rest of the tournament up to and including the final.

All Royal Caribbean brands - Azamara Club Cruises, Celebrity Cruises and Royal Caribbean International - will be showing selected games in cabins and lounges when the ships are in international waters.

They will also be laying on themed activities, food and beverages. Does that mean providing chips in newspaper and cans of beer - any kind of rubbish really that can be strewn around the ships to make footie fans feel right at home!

As we all shivered as the sun went down on what the forecasters had billed a hot weekend - maybe they were talking about the weather in the Caribbean? - some 1,200 guests, myself included, on P&O Cruises' new ship Azura were treated to a gala ceremony of dance styles through the ages to welcome the new ship, before ballerina Darcey Bussell took to the podium to cut the ribbon and give the vessel its name.

As the bottle smashed, confetti fell and fireworks exploded. P&O announced details of Azura in November 2008. Now, just 17 months on, it has officially become one of the P&O fleet.

This is P&O's "back to the future" ship, which is an attempt to say to past passengers "this is not Ventura" - a sister vessel, but one that was a little rebellious, shall we say.

Actually there are more than a few shades of Ventura in some of Azura's décor, not least the Manhattan lounge and atrium, but generally the latter has a more sober look and feel.

P&O has also been careful to add stuff to appeal to their past passengers who crave cruising as it used to be. So out go fun things like the bungee trampolines and circus school - but there are still extensive kids and teen areas so there will be families in school holidays - and in comes a classical quartet for dancing in the atrium and a library (albeit a very small one).

Actually that's not quite fair as I reckon the Glass House (above), where they sell wine by the glass - but you can have a bottle if you want of course - will be a fun area, especially when wine guru Olly Smith is on to give his inimitable wine tastings.

I guess my favourite area has to be Sindhu, the Indian restaurant - and not just because I love Indian food. It looks and feels the part as well, with subtle background music that takes you back to Mumbai.

Unfortunately the restaurant was closed on naming day so I didn't get to eat there, but I have dined a few times at Benares, Atul Kochhar's restaurant in London, and assuming it's as good, which I'm sure it will be, diners will be in for a treat.

We're talking subtle flavours with lots of spice rather than fiery curries. And all for just £15 per person, excluding drinks, which makes it a bit of a bargain.

Or maybe it was The Retreat, above, the adult-only area up at the front of the ship. I do like the look of those comfy loungers and the thought that you can relax there in peace and quiet.

I also like the look of the menu in Seventeen, below, a P&O fine-dining creation - and the one that caused all that foie gras controversy. I'm would have happily ordered the foie gras had the restaurant been open (this one is £20 per person), but I was disappointed to find it looks so much like the White Room on Ventura, which I found rather sombre.

Now if it had been really white, like the dining room on Celebrity's Solstice-class ships, it would have been spectacular. But maybe that was just too revolutionary, even for Ventura.

P&O has dubbed Azura its back-to-the-future ship - classic P&O with some modern twists, namely Atul Kochhar's classy Indian restaurant Sindhu, and the Glass House, a dining-cum-wine-tasting outlet fronted by wine guru Olly Smith.

I see more of a wedding link - something old (that's the traditional stuff), something new (as above), something borrowed (the ideas of a big screen by the pool and The Retreat adults-only area, "borrowed" from Princess) and something blue (the name of course).

I'll be on board on Saturday, one of 1,200 lucky guests who have been invited to see the ship and watch it being christened by top ballerina Darcey Bussell. Check back here next week for pictures and a video of the best bits.

Azura sets sail on its maiden voyage on Monday, cruising to the Mediterranean.

I knew there would be three Solstice-class ships - I'd got that much from talking to Celebrity Cruises president and chief executive officer Dan Hanrahan when I was on Celebrity Eclipse sailing backwards down the River Ems in Germany.

What he kept up his sleeve was the news they are also bringing Celebrity Solstice to Europe for summer 2011. The ship has been stationed in the Caribbean since it launched in 2008.

Celebrity Equinox will be back and again based in Civitavecchia, the port for Rome, where it will be sailing 10 and 11-night Med cruises.

New ship Celebrity Silhouette, launching in July 2011, will sail a one-off maiden cruise from Hamburg to Civitavecchia, a one-off nine-night Med cruise and then 12 and 13-night Eastern Med voyages to Israel.

That's shaping up to be one of the hot back-on-the-map destinations for 2011.

Celebrity Eclipse will be sailing a second summer season from Southampton, while Celebrity Solstice will be based in Barcelona, adding to the big ship cruise fray that's building up there for 2011 (Royal Caribbean will have Liberty of the Seas, Norwegian Cruise Line will have Norwegian Epic, Carnival Cruise Lines will have the new Carnival Magic).

In all, Celebrity will have a record six ships in Europe next year - the others are Celebrity Mercury and Celebrity Constellation, which is soon to be retro-fitted with a few Solstice favourites and will be sailing seven-night cruises from Piraeus, the port for Athens, to Israel (see what I mean about it being hot?) and the Greek Islands.

Bookings for summer 2011 cruises on Solstice and Equinox open today, with Silhouette on sale to Captain's Club members from today and opening to all on April 20. Eclipse is already on sale. Mercury and Constellation on-sale dates have yet to be announced.

Earlier this year Norwegian Cruise Line and MSC Cruises announced they are leaving the port in 2011. Now Swan Hellenic has said is off as well, taking up a new UK base in Portsmouth, where a smart new terminal, under construction, is due to open in spring 2011.

NCL is leaving Dover because it is dropping all no-fly cruises from the UK and will be offering Baltic cruises from Copenhagen instead. MSC says it is moving to Southampton because it is so much easier to get to.

Swan likewise cites the city's better road, rail, air and sea networks as the reason for moving, as well as the new terminal, which will also be used by the ferry companies that sail from Portsmouth.

I imagine All Leisure Group, which owns Swan, has also managed to strike a good deal for committing all three of its brands to Portsmouth throughout 2011.

Voyages of Discovery will be sailing a few no-fly cruises from Portsmouth at the start of the 2011 summer season, before relocating to its usual UK base in Harwich, while HRH's favourite Hebridean Island Cruises will be visiting the port next year, during Hebridean Princess' five-week circumnavigation of the UK.

I just love the sound of this cruise. I don't have dates yet, but I do know it is being sold in four segments as they don't expect many people will want to spend five weeks on board such a small ship - it's 2,112 tons and holds just 49 passengers (to increase to 50 after a refit later this year).

I suspect they could be surprised.

The cruise line also has some other good deals on offer as it starts the four-week countdown to its launch - up to £500 per person savings, and free cabin and flight upgrades, depending which category of accommodation you book.

Voyages to Antiquity first cruise departs May 4, sailing 15 nights roundtrip from Piraeus, the port for Athens, and visiting Greece and Turkey. Cruise number two is a Sicily Odyssey, again 15 days and again cruising from Piraeus, but this time visiting eight ports on the Italian island. The cruise ends at Civitavecchia, the port for Rome.

All sorts of professors, reverends and doctors will be accompanying the cruises, talking about the places you'll be visiting.

It does sound rather educational, but Voyages UK managing director David Yellow assures me you'll be able to opt out of all the learning and just enjoy the cruise if you wish.

Prices start from £1,995 for 15 days, which includes flights and transfers, all shore excursions, wine with dinner and gratuities.

Voyages' one ship, Aegean Odyssey, is not new, but the Aegean I that it used to be has been taken apart and rebuilt so it might as well be. Balcony and deluxe cabins have been created by knocking rooms together, reducing capacity from 570 passengers to 380.

I'm hoping to get a sneak preview of the ship in Piraeus later this month so I'll let you know how it's looking.

Iglu Cruises has a five-night Spring Getaway from Southampton on Cunard's Queen Victoria from £399 per person, with a balcony cabin just £50 per person more - £449. You'll have an night in Amsterdam and visit Zeebrugge (for Bruges) and Le Havre in France. Call 020 8544 6447 or click here.

Iglu also has 14 nights from Southampton to the Norwegian fords on P&O Cruises' Oriana departing June 2 from £699 per person for an inside cabin. That's just £50 a night. An upgrade to an outside cabin costs £200 per person. Call 020 8544 6447 or click here.

Carnival Cruise Lines has a seven-night Western Caribbean cruise on the new Carnival Dream from Port Canaveral from £359 per person cruise-only on May 1, and there's a host of other great deals as well. But you'll have to hurry as these prices are only available today and tomorrow. Ask your travel agent to find Carnival's Pack and Go rates.

Cruise & Maritime Voyages has a six-night Norwegian fjords cruise on Ocean Countess from Hull on April 20 from £449 per person for an inside cabin or £649 per person for an ocean view. See your travel agent, call 0845 833 9798 or click here.

Gills Cruise has a 10-night Canary Islands cruise from Southampton on Royal Caribbean International's Independence of the Seas. It departs May 5 and costs from £749 per person for an inside cabin. Call 08456 582323 or click here.

It's Gills again, but this time with a 13-night Baltic cruise from Dover on Fred Olsen Cruise Lines' Braemar departing May 29, with prices from £999 per person. Call 08456 582323 or click here.

For something very different, polar cruise operator One Ocean Expeditions is offering free charter flights from Canada, worth $1,600 per person, to passengers booking a 13-day cruise through the Northwest Passage from Resolute in Canada to Kangerlussuaq in Greenland on the 122-passenger Clipper Adventurer on August 2. Prices start from US$5,590 per person excluding international flights. For more information, click here.

Instead, there is the much-more-exciting news that in 2011, Crystal is offering free flights with all sailings.

It's great news for lovers of luxury, but possibly not so wonderful for Crystal. As I already reported, they are also continuing their All-Inclusive As You Wish offer, giving couples up to $2,000 to spend on whatever they want - alcohol, spa treatments, excursions, and so on.

What with that, and the free flights, it must be quite painful for the money men.

It's great for consumers though, and has sparked an all-inclusive battle as at the end of last month Regent Seven Seas Cruises launched its 2011 programme, also offering free flights.

On Regent, all drinks - soft and alcoholic - are already included in the cruise price, as are shore excursions.

So which is the most inclusive?

The answer is, it depends. If you go on lots of shore excursions, you'd be better off with Regent, although of course you can use your $1,000 Crystal credit ($2,000 per couple remember) towards whichever shorex you fancy.

However, if you like to be pampered in the spa, Crystal would be better as you can also use the on-board credit in there, whereas on Regent you pay full whack.

As already reported, for 2011 Crystal is bringing in Perfect Choice Dining, allowing passengers to escape the rigid two-sitting fixed dining system if they wish, and the line has also confirmed it is going back to Alaska for the first time since 2005.

It is offering nine 12-night sailings on the 940-passenger Crystal Symphony from San Francisco between May 9 and August 13.

In spring, Symphony will be around South America, the Panama Canal, Mexican Riviera and Hawaii. In autumn, it relocates to east coast US for New England and Canada cruises; in winter it moves to the Caribbean, and back to the Mexican Riviera and Hawaii.

The 1,080-passenger Crystal Serenity, meanwhile, will be in Europe for most of 2011, cruising the Med and Baltic, before relocating to the Caribbean in December.

Apparently she made a rash promise to take hers on one a while ago and needs to make good the pledge!

I took my daughter on a Nile cruise when she was 12, which was the youngest age the tour operator, Discover Egypt, would allow - quite rightly I think because there is just too much "boring" sightseeing for very little ones. Also, the boats don't have any kids facilities and there's no guarantee there will be other children to make friends with.

I had had my eye on Discover Egypt's luxurious Alexander the Great, but was persuaded it was not the best choice for a child, so we ended up on a bigger boat that was in desperate need of a makeover - you can read about the trip here - but was right for the circumstances.

Yes, I would have loved more luxury, but over-the-top service on a small vessel could make a 12-year-old a tad uncomfortable. More importantly, passengers who paid substantially more for their luxurious cruise might not have been very keen on having a 12-year-old, no matter how well behaved, in their midst.

In other words, with river cruising, like any holiday at sea, it is important to do your research and pick the right vessel.

Get it right - and I think we did despite the Pharaoh's revenge - and the kids will have a great time. Especially is you remember there is more to the Nile than temples and tombs, although you have to see them too.

Make sure also that it's something the children want to do. After all, if their idea of a holiday is a week in a resort hotel in Sharm el Sheikh where they can spend all day playing with other kids, or indeed one of the big child-frendly cruise ships, they'll never settle for seven days on the Nile.

Both Celebrity Solstice and Celebrity Summit will get the i treatment, creating what has been dubbed a "hipster haven" on both.

Well if that's the definition of a lounge where you can go on line using MacBooks and buy said laptops and iPods, then that's what it is. Sounds to me more like my office transposed into a nifty new retail opportunity.

There will also be Apple-trained staff on hand running photo, movie, DVD and web courses for people who go on holiday to spend hours in front of a computer screen.

And I always thought it was the days at sea that were dull!

The iLounge will be unveiled on Eclipse when it is named in Southampton on April 24 and goes live on Solstice on May 30. On Summit, the lounge, which will be split between the existing computer classroom on deck six and cybercafe on deck four, goes live on May 16.

There will also be an iLounge on Celebrity Silhouette, which comes out next year, and the fifth - and last - Solstice-class ship, as yet unnamed, launching in 2012.

Which leaves me wondering what they have against Celebrity Equinox, the only Solstice-class ship missing from that line-up. Any suggestions?

River Tosca was supposed to be one of the most luxurious vessels to sail the Nile when it launched last year; instead, it seems there was nothing but complaints from passengers about the shoddy workmanship.

There were scratched floors, loose tiles, bad paint and wood work. Hardly life and death stuff, but not exactly luxurious either. So Uniworld took a deep breath and removed the River Tosca from service for seven weeks so the workmen could have another go (different ones I presume, although history does not relate).

Anyway, the seven weeks is up and the vessel is back in service, and looking rather good, if this picture of the lounge is anything to go by.

Uniworld president Guy Young is certainly pleased. He might be a bit biased but let's face it, he does need to make sure they have got it right this time.

"I can now proudly say after visiting the Tosca that all the deficiencies have been resolved. All the floors in the staterooms, corridors, stairwells, and restaurant have been replaced. There are new wall coverings in the staterooms and the furniture has been reupholstered with tones more appropriate to the destination."

I just hope they had a "not-up-to-scratch" (unfortunate term in the circumstances) clause in the build contract to help pay for the changes.

Not that Uniworld can be short of a bob or two because it has also been busy sprucing up another couple of its river cruise vessels - River Queen, which sails the Rhine and Moselle and is claimed to be the only river cruise vessel "in the entire (sic) world" to have a working fireplace, and Rhine River, which cruises the Rhine.

Cabins and public rooms have been redecorated, bathrooms have been upgraded and kitted out with L'Occitane products, Christies of Manchester towels and bathrobes.

This is a cabin on River Queen. Must admit it does look rather nice.

The ribbon was cut by godmother Measha Brueggergosman, whose previous engagement was singing at the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, and Avalon Felicity is now getting ready to operate a seven-night Romantic Rhine cruise from Amsterdam to Basle (and vice-versa). It runs from April 11 to the end of October.

A sister to Cosmos, Avalon is one of a rash of new river cruise companies to appear on the UK market in the past 12 months or so.

Except this one has actually been around for some time, but relying on other companies to sell it here in the UK. You can now book their cruises direct or through your local travel agent.

Felicity is Avalon's 10th river cruiser, 361 feet long and with capacity for 138 passengers in 65 cabins and four suites. Most have floor-to-ceiling sliding glass doors with French balconies, which means you can get air in but there's not even room enough to stand outside.

A sister vessel, Luminary launches in July.

The Romantic Rhine cruise visits Strasbourg, Rudesheim, Koblenz, Cologne and Amsterdam, and costs from £1,325 including return flights, UK and overseas transfers, daily shore excursions and wines, beers or soft drinks with dinner.

Royal Caribbean International has just added yet another new inaugural cruise for its next big ship, the 5,400-passenger Allure of the Seas.

It's a four-nighter going from Port Everglades in Florida to Labadee, Royal's private island in Haiti, on December 1. Just like they offered when Oasis of the Seas launched last. Even the dates are the same.

Anyone booked on the previous maiden cruise - a seven-night Western Caribbean voyage departing December 5 (which only replaced the original December 12 inaugural last month) - has until April 30 to decide if they want to add the four-nighter to their original booking, making an 11-night holiday.

If they do, the price will be adjusted as necessary and Royal will throw in $100 onboard credit per stateroom.

For those keen to try out Royal's next behemoth, the minicruise went on sale today. Prices start from £521 per person.

* Cruise and Maritime Voyages is offering free upgrades on a six-night springtime cruise from Tilbury on April 23, visiting Rouen in France, Guernsey and the Isles of Scilly. Prices from £399 (that's just £66.50 a day) per person cruise-only. See your travel agent, call CMV on 0845 833 9798 or click here.

* Iglu Cruise has seven nights on Princess Cruises' Grand Princess sailing from Southampton to Scandinavia on May 22 from £599 - that's just £85 a night with all food included - and you'll get a free upgrade to a balcony cabin. The cruise visits Bruges, Copenhagen, Helsingborg and Oslo. Call Iglu on 020 8544 6447 or click here.

* Gills Cruise has 14 nights on P&O Cruises' Oceana, sailing from Southampton to the Med on May 1, from £799 per person for an inside cabin. Cruise calls include Gibraltar, Civitavecchia (for Rome), Barcelona and Cadiz. Call 08456 582323 or click here.

* Gills again, but this time with a 10-night cruise on Royal Caribbean International's Independence of the Seas from Southampton to the Canary Islands. Prices start from £749 per person for an inside cabin. Call 08456 582323 or click here.

* Star Clippers has a kids-sail-free offer on a one-week Turkish Riviera cruise roundtrip from Rhodes on the clipper ship Star Flyer on July 24. Kids have to be under 18 to qualify and will have to pay port taxes. Price start from £2,860 for a family of four excluding flights (saving £2,320). See your travel agent, call 0845 200 6145 or click here.

* If river cruising is more your thing, AMAWaterways is offering two free nights' in a five-star hotel in Prague with all bookings for its seven-night Castles and Rivers' cruise from Nuremberg to Trier on the Main, Rhine and Mosel Rivers. Prices start from £1,275 per person departing October 29, including daily excursions and wine with dinner but excluding flights. See your travel agent, call 0808 223 5009 or click here.

* Finally, Voyages of Discovery is offering upgrades from inside to outside cabins on selected cruises (there's one to France in August and one to Libya in October among the selection). Bookings must be made in April. See your travel agent, call 0844 822 0802 or click here.