Cruise Lines

If more proof were wanted that smokers are the new pariahs of society, it surely comes in the survey by www.cruises.co.uk, which found that more than two thirds of Brits think smoking should be banned completely from cruise ships.

It's a hard life for those who want to light up - not allowed on flights, in public buildings, maybe not for much longer on cruiseships.

I know we're all supposed to live in fear of passive smoking these days, but personally I am more concerned with not going up in smoke - especially as almost a quarter of those questioned admitted either throwing a cigarette over the side or seeing someone do that.

Are they mad? That's just how a fire started on Star Princess three years ago, resulting in one death.

I'm all for personal freedom but if smokers can't behave responsibly, maybe it is time to call time on the weed. If nothing else, I would like to see a universal ban on smoking in cabins and balconies - not just for safety reasons, but so us holier-than-thou non-smokers don't have to live with the smell of stale smoke.

My stint on Swan Hellenic's Minerva is just about to end, mainly due to other commitments and partly because the guys in head office were concerned that if I stayed on to Kirkwall and we hit bad weather, the ship would not be able to get in to the port.

Result? Minerva would head off to Norway - it's next stop after Scotland - with me on board when I was supposed to be elsewhere.

But they hadn't factored in Captain John Moulds. "I'd have got you in," he told me over dinner yesterday evening, after telling me that bad weather is no obstacle for him when it comes to landing passengers in Antarctica - the most unfriendly climate in the world.

Somehow I really think he would.

Is anyone surprised that Miles Morgan Travel took 100 bookings in 24 hours for its Titanic memorial cruise?

The ship might have sunk 100 years ago, but there can't be anyone in this country - dare I say in the western world? - that does not know, and is not interested in, what happened that fateful night in April 1912. Even the young generation knows thanks to Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio.

When she heard of the memorial cruise, my 15-year-old daughter asked whether it wasn't a bit gruesome. Well yes. But that's the point. We all love the gory and the gruesome. It's why people go on Jack the Ripper walks in London and why Ground Zero in New York became a huge tourist attraction.

A Titanic cruise that even stops for a memorial service where the ship went down fits the gruesome bill perfectly, but there's more to it than that. Those on board - Miles Morgan has chartered Fred Olsen Cruise Lines' Balmoral for the voyage - will be living history in their own small way.

I expect the other berths to be snapped up in no time, even though the cruise doesn't happen until 2012. A website has been set up with all the details for those who want to book.

Miles says they will be avoiding ice-bergs at all costs. It'll certainly be a good idea to avoid hitting any, but I bet most passengers will be disappointed if they don't see at least one. It would add just enough authenticity.

I'll also bet a few passengers will be sussing out the lifeboat deck as soon as they get on board. Counting seats. Just in case.

Dawn Princess is the latest Princess ship to have been given a makeover. After two weeks in dry dock in Brisbane, Australia, the vessel is now back in service sporting a signature Movies under the Stars screen by the pool and an adults-only Sanctuary.

It's a case of one out, one in for Princess.

Royal Princess checked into a shipyard in Piraeus at the weekend, where it will undergo repairs following the engine room fire on June 18, as the ship was departing from Port Said in Egypt.

No one was hurt in the blaze, but two engines were disabled. That cruise and the June 25 departure were cancelled. The ship is expected to be back in service in time for its next scheduled cruise, departing Venice on July 7.

I do hope the woman deemed responsible for the outbreak of a norovirus-like infection on Fred Olsen's Balmoral last month doesn't read Gene Sloan's Cruise Blog.

Suggestions as to what should happen to her range from sending her the bill for everyone's ruined cruise - the illness spread to more than 100 people and eventually the ship returned to Dover a day early so it could be thoroughly cleaned - to well, sending her the bill. Hit her in the wallet "pour encourager les autres", as the French would say.

It's a strange story in so much as Fred Olsen's marketing director Nigel Lingard has said publically that they identified the cause of the viral outbreak - a woman who came on in Dover. He also told the Scotman she had been spotted "sneaking out" of her cabin when she was supposed to be in quarantine.

It begs the question why she was allowed on the ship if she was unwell. Equally, why whoever saw her "sneak out" did not challenge her, or at least report the situation to the poeple in charge.

But let's leave that one for a moment. It's the comments on Sloan's story that made me smile - the 21st-century equivalent of being hung, drawn and quartered (and so much less messy).

"They should fine her carelessness"

"The inconsiderate b#%& should have to pay for everyone's cruise ... The only way people like this learn is through their wallet."

"A score of lashes and a lusty keelhauling clearly dictated!!! On a more practical tac... send the wench THE BILL!!!!!"

"I hope that this greedy, selfish hag gets a bill from the cruise line for the lost revenue and the additional expenses incurred by the passengers who had to disembark early."

Wonder if Fred will circulate her details to other cruise lines, as insurance companies do when they have identified a fraudster? Either way, I suspect it will be a long time before she dares to show her face on a Fred Olsen ship again!

The Cruise Vessel Safety and Security Act of 2009, requiring more transparency when it comes to reporting cruise ship crime, has been passed by the House of Representatives.

The bill, which will also require peepholes and security latches on cabin doors, and sets a minimum height for ships' railings, now goes to the Senate for a vote.

There are all sorts of other requirements under the bill, including deploying new technology, when it is available, to detect passengers who fall overboard. Fall overboard? You'd have to have really plan well to "fall" overboard from a cruise ship these days.

As I've made my thoughts about this bill known already, I'll leave you instead with some comments in Travel Weekly US.

"With 10% unemployment, foreclosures going through the roof and billions being proposed for forced medical insurance and Congress spends time on this kind of nonsense."

"...there really is nothing much in the bill preventing another sexual assault which appears as [Congresswomen Doris Matsui's] motive for introducing it. So one looks thru the peep hole and sees room service or a cabin steward, unlocks the deadbolt, opens the door and is assaulted by one bad apple out of 100,000 crew members..."

"I daresay more young women have been assaulted at land-based resorts at a much greater rate than on a cruise ship. There's a price tag for all of these "nanny state" laws and the consumer will pay for essentially nothing better than what exists today..."

How ironic that the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) should report that the incidents of norovirus on ships reached its lowest level for almost 10 years in 2009 just as Fred Olsen was battling with its latest outbreak.

It says there were just 13 outbreaks on ships operating from US ports, down from 34 in 2006, even though more people were cruising.

Somehow I don't think Fred Olsen will take heart from the report. Balmoral and Boudicca were both hit with the vomiting bug during their Christmas and New Year cruises. Cruise Critic says it's the third time in less than a month that passengers have been taken ill on Boudicca.

In a statement, Fred's managing director Mike Rodwell said: "This is just the time of the year when the norovirus, or winter vomiting virus, becomes widespread in the UK, and being highly contagious it can spread very quickly in the confines of a cruise ship."

True. But what about the outbreak on Balmoral in September?  Or the outbreak on Marco Polo in last July? He can't blame winter for either of those.

Rather than make meaningless statements, Fred really does need to do something and fast to get the bug in check.

May I suggest a few lessons from the readers of Cruise.co.uk, writing in response to news of the Boudicca Christmas outbreak.

This from Shelledpea:

"This report says a lot about the customers that FO attracts especially as has been pointed out so few staff are coming down with the virus as opposed to the pax! Maybe a quick guide to hand washing i.e hot water, soap, as hot as you can stand for 1 min minimum like in the food trades! Not the quick flick under a cold tap and then longer under the hand dryer that some people do."

This from PropShaft:

"I do feel that the cruise lines should now send everybody an information sheet with the cruise tickets on virus information and basic passenger hygiene, and what is required of passengers during the cruise. Sterile wipes for wiping door handles etc are a good idea, but when we see someone leaving the toilet without washing hands we should call them back and remind them, that they have forgotten. It's our own safety they put at risk."

Cruise.co.uk readers are in no doubt that the bug pops up time and again on Fred ships because its passengers are all rather elderly.

It's true, they are. But if that has a bearing, either because older people are more prone to illness or because they are less concerned about hygiene, why don't Saga, Swan Hellenic, Voyages of Discovery or Spirit of Adventure get regular outbreaks as well?

Any suggestions gratefully received.

Seems I am not the only one interested in the Titanic. A centenary cruise organised by Miles Morgan Travel is almost sold out - and there are still about 20 months before it sets off.

The cruise, on Fred Olsen Cruise Line's Balmoral, leaves Southampton on April 8 2012, exactly 100 years after the ill-fated ship set its course for New York.

People from all over the world have booked, including relatives of those who died, historians and people who are just interested in the Titanic story. Prices for the last remaining cabins start from £3,350 per person including the one-way flight back from New York.

Interestingly, Balmoral itself has hardly had a history of smooth sailing. I just hope it makes the crossing without losing too many passengers to the dreaded Norovirus vomiting bug.

Heaven forbid that cruising should ever become as elitist as it once was. You must know the old saying that cruising used to be for the "well bred and nearly dead".

But things are surely going too far the other way when passengers have to be kicked off a cruise ship for fighting, as happened recently Carnival Cruise Lines.

Reports say a brawl broke out in one of the dance clubs on Carnival Dream and led to 10 people being escorted off the ship in Costa Maya, Mexico, with an 11th person deciding to disembark.

It's not the first time something like this has happened. Two passengers on P&O Cruises' Ventura were "put ashore" during the ship's Christmas/New Year Caribbean cruise in 2008/09.

Then the fighting and bad behaviour was blamed on chavs who had bought a cheap cruise and didn't know how to behave on a ship. Well anywhere, surely, if the reports of what they did were true.

That sounds frighteningly like the "us and them" syndrome but I fear a bit of human nature is also to blame here. Mix alcohol, high holiday spirits and Caribbean heat and things can get out of control - usually for the most ridiculous of reasons I'm sure.

Not that I can see it happening on Seabourn Odyssey, which I was on last week and where there's plenty of alcohol sloshing around as it's all free.

Happily I know from my own experience such incidents don't happen too often - or maybe it's that I am tucked up in bed by the time they do! - and the cruise lines don't mess about when it comes to dealing with any problems.

What does anyone think? Is brawling on cruise ships a growing problem?

If you've not been lucky enough to secure a berth on Balmoral's sold-out Titanic Memorial cruise, fear not, because more "in memory" holidays are emerging from the woodwork to mark the 100th anniversary of the fateful day in 1912 that the "unsinkable" ship hit an iceberg and sank.

Saga Cruises has a 10-night Titanic Remembered voyage from Southampton up the east coast of the UK on Saga Pearl II departing April 12 2012.

It includes calls at Belfast, where the ill-fated ship was built, Cherbourg, where the Titanic picked up extra passengers, and Cobh, then called Queenstown, the last port visited before Titanic headed off across the Atlantic bound for New York.

They'll be serving meals based on the Titanic's first-class dining menu, have on-board talks about the ship and a memorial service, presumably in the early hours of April 15 1912 to mark the moment the ship went down.

UK holiday firm Superbreak is getting in on the sinking ship act with two-night Titanic-themed short breaks in Belfast, priced from £183 per person.

You'll visit the home of Thomas Andrews, who designed the ship, the Harland & Wolff Drawing Office where Titanic's plans were drawn, and the Titanic & Olympic's Slipways.

Superbreak also has a one-night break in London priced from £56.50 per person that includes entrance to the new Titanic Exhibition at the O2 that runs until May 1 2011.

You'll be able to touch an iceberg to see how cold it was on that fateful night (but honestly you could just put your hand in a fridge to find out). You'll also get a White Star boarding pass with a real passenger's name and at the end can check if you live or die.

How cheery.

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.

Welsh-born diva Dame Shirley Bassey is to name Adonia when the ship joins the P&O Cruises' fleet on May 21.

The 710-passenger vessel is moving across from Carnival UK sister brand Princess Cruises, where it is sailing as Royal Princess. Before that it was Minerva II, sailing for Swan Hellenic, and started life as R8 for the now-failed Renaissance Cruises.

It's a lovely ship - I should know as I've been on it in all its reincarnations - so am looking forward to the next one.

I trust the invitation is in the post.