On the weekend, we came across a story about “gentlemen hosts” on cruise ships. These are “jobs” for single men who pay $30 a day to go and have a good time on a cruise, with no romantic liaisons allowed. In other words, they have to be, well, gentlemen. The Gentleman Host Program and others [...]
In the old and never-ending wake of the Costa Concordia accident, there is a new perspective that’s worth acknowledging. It comes, courtesy of a show the Discovery Channel aired this weekend. A former cruise ship captain from California, Paul Leyda, was interviewed extensively on the show. In a story that appeared in a Bay Area [...]
When you’re No. 2 — or even No. 3 or No. 4 — you try harder. Norwegian Cruise Lines has plenty of experience, competing with bigger brands, all of which are part of cruise line consortiums…Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Princess and so on. When you try harder, you try everything. Quality of products, quality of service. [...]
In another life, as a sports writer, there were five big sports events I hoped to see before moving on to another profession. One of them was the Kentucky Derby. I made it, in 1978, when Affirmed left the favorite, Alydar, a length-and-a-half behind at the finish line of the famous Run For The Roses. [...]
“We are committed to Southampton as our main base, but Liverpool is our spiritual home.” Those are the words of Peter Shanks, Cunard’s President, after word leaked in the Liverpool Daily Post that the Queen Mary 2 may — that’s “may” — start sailing from Liverpool to New York on a one-off, sporadic basis. The [...]
We feel a little sorry for the Carnival Splendor. She’s not even four years old and already she’s been rejected, isolated, burned and — while it may be stretching the analogy too far — placed in the cruise ship version of a witness protection program. She came out of cruising’s womb at Fincantieri, Italy’s most [...]
Maybe it’s because a week after the Super Bowl, I’m already in football withdrawal…but after a little arm-twisting I convinced my better half (and I do mean better) that we should write about a cruise with a football theme today. It leaves New York for England on May 8, and it’s a re-positioning cruise for [...]
It’s finally happened. All 16 Princess ships have piazza and pizza, and it’s a good thing the cruise line has competent proof readers. The Sapphire Princess is now out of dry-dock and on a Hawaiian vacation. It has a new Piazza Atrium, and it also has Alfredo’s Pizzeria. Anybody who has ever been on a [...]
Is biggest best when it comes to cruise ships? The answer will always be subjective, of course, but if you’re among the cruisers who like big ships and the frills and anonymity that comes with them, and if you’re interested in trying to catch a last-minute deal, read on. The seven biggest ships in the [...]
How many of us could say we have actually read the fine print that’s part of the documentation when we cruise? Not us. Not once. Not only are they written in legalese, they’re up to 8,000 words long. Because of the Costa Concordia accident, we are all being deluged with warnings about making sure we [...]