Queen Mary 2 Photo Tour and Other Cruise News

I recently completed my 18th voyage on Queen Mary 2. In part, all of these voyages are the result of the fact that QM2 goes to a variety of places. Not only does she do transatlantic crossings but she cruises to Canada/New England, the Caribbean, Norway, Germany, and to other places. In other words, one voyage on QM2 is not going to be exactly like the one before it and the one after.

Another factor that I like about QM2 is her nautical properties. She was designed to cross the North Atlantic and during the design process simulations were done to test her against the worst Atlantic storms on record. As a result, even though she towers over the water, she is remarkably stable in bad weather. Even with waves washing over the dining room windows some 30 feet above the waterline, I have noticed that most of the passengers are out and about in the public rooms. She also manages to plow through the waves at a good speed even when other ships are heaved to.

The third factor that draws me back to QM2 is the atmosphere. The programming onboard tends toward the cultural and the intellectual. Thus, she is stimulating as well as relaxing. There is also the sophistication of the bars and restaurants as well as the traditional formal receptions. While I enjoy the less formal ships as well, QM2’s style is more closely attuned to my personality.

One result of all this is that the QM2 section of Beyondships is one of the largest on the site. I have done interviews with several of her captains, senior officers and managers in an attempt to give people a behind-the-scenes look at the workings of this historic ship. In addition, there are pages of photos, menus, daily programmes and other information. At about this time last year, I updated the section to reflect some of the additional information that I had accumulated over that year. So too, I have done an extensive update of the QM2 pages on the site this year adding dozens of new photos and information collected this year.

The QM2 section of the site is at http://www.beyondships.com/QM2.html
and the photo tour begins at http://www.beyondships.com/QM2tour1.html

Turning to other items in the news. . . .

Celebrity has announced that the name of the fourth ship in its Solstice class will be Celebrity Silhouette. These are beautiful ships. I was recently on the second ship of the class, Celebrity Equinox, and was impressed by the grace of her contemporary design. In addition, Celebrity has created numerous options for guests to choose from in the activities and in the dining. The third ship in the class, Celebrity Eclipse, is being built at the Meyer Werft yard in Pappenberg, Germany and is scheduled to enter service in April 2010.

Speaking of new-builds, the Silver Spirit of Silversea Cruises entered service on 23 December. The ship is aimed at the luxury end of the market, carrying just 540 passengers. This is the line’s first new ship in several years and while a small ship, 36,000 gross tons, she is considerably larger than the other ships in the Silver sea fleet.

Photo tour and guide to P&O's cruise ship Oceana

P&O Cruises’ Oceana is the twin sister of Princess Cruises’ Sea Princess. Back in 2002 when Princess was a subsidiary of P&O, Ocean Princess and Sea Princess were transferred from the primarily American market aimed subsidiary to the British market aimed parent company. Both were then modified to suit British tastes. Subsequently, Sea Princess was returned to Princess but Ocean Princess continues to sail on as Oceana for P&O.

What makes this intra-corporate exchange interesting is how it affected the atmospheres on the two ships. Both have nearly identical facilities and amenities but the two ships have much different styles. Even after returning to Princess, Sea Princess continued to sail out of the UK carrying primarily British passengers. However, the atmosphere onboard was one of an American ship serving Britain. Indeed, in her advertising, the British were told that she provided “American-style luxury.”

Meanwhile Oceana has a distinctly British feel. Yes, one can see traces of her American past but she is now firmly a British ship. This manifests itself in the attitude of the crew, the style of service and in other more indefinable ways. As has been said, it is Britain for the British.

In relation to other cruise ships, Oceana is mid-sized at approximately 77,000 gross tons. She is in her element doing warm-weather cruising and so she spends the winters in the Caribbean, only coming home for the summer months. She attracts a substantial number of families with children and has a sizeable children’s area.

My profile of Oceana is at http://beyondships.com/PO-Oceana-Profile.html and the photo tour and commentary begins at http://beyondships.com/PO-Oceana-Tour-1.html

Carnival Pride Photo Tour and Commentary

Carnival Pride and her three Spirit-class sister ships are like the high performance sports cars of the Carnival fleet. Longer but yet smaller than Carnival’s Destiny-class megacruise ships, Pride can whip through the water at 24 knots. Her azipod propulsion system makes her highly maneuverable although I must admit that the Destiny-class ships are surprisingly maneuverable with their traditional propeller system. In any event, her technological prowess carries over and gives the ship something of the same feeling of superiority that comes with owning a performance car.

While Pride is smaller than the Destiny-class ships, especially the latest evolutions of that design such as Carnival Splendor, she offers many of the passenger choices that Carnival features. Indeed, there is even a specialty steakhouse and a flexible dining option in the main restaurant.

Inside, Pride is flamboyant. Carnival designer Joe Farcus has made use of numerous reproductions of Old Master artworks in a tribute to the “icons of beauty.” There is probably not another ship afloat that makes such extensive use of the works of Raphael, Van Gough, Michelangelo, and other renowned painters. These are not lined up one after another as in a museum but rather are blown-up to giant proportions or blended into the décor in interesting ways. Not only does it create a fun, Pop-style environment but it leads one to look around at the detail work and say “Hey, isn’t that from . . . .”

Aside from the hardware, I was impressed by the friendliness of the crew during my recent voyage on Pride. Everyone was friendly and confident in what they were doing.

My profile of Carnival Pride is at: http://beyondships.com/CarnivalPride-Profile.html and the multi-page photo tour and commentary begins at: http://beyondships.com/CarnivalPride-Tour-1.html.

Pride is the 50th ship that I have profiled on Beyondships.com including 10 other Carnival ships, 8 Royal Caribbean ships, 8 Holland America ships, 7 Princess ships, four NCL ships, three each from Cunard, P&O Cruises, and Celebrity Cruises as well as individual ships from three other lines. There is a dedicated section on the website for each ship with a photo tour, copies of menus and daily programs and in many cases interviews with the captain and/or other officers.

A Profile and Photo Tour of Carnival Valor

One of the interesting things about going aboard a Carnival Cruise ship is discovering the interior. Designer Joe Farcus creates a different décor for each ship. Often they are bold and unrestrained like a theme park. In other places, they are elegant and full of details taken from old master paintings or literature. They are never dull.

The theme of Carnival Valor is “heroes and heroic acts.” This gave Farcus a wide spectrum to draw from as the public rooms celebrate such diverse personalities as George Washington, Josephine Baker and Lou Gehrig. Other rooms are dedicated to characters from the movies, novels or mythology. It is fun just to explore the ship to see the various design interpretations.

Of course, Carnival Valor offers other things to do. She is a megacruise ship and thus can contain a wide array of amenities, entertainment and sports facilities as well as several dining alternatives.

My profile of Carnival Valor appears at http://www.beyondships.com/CarnivalValor-Profile.html and the photo tour and commentary starts at http://www.beyondships.com/CarnivalValor-Profile.html

Cruising on Navigator of the Seas

I was finally able to take a cruise on Navigator of the Seas last month. Navigator was one of those ships that I kept encountering when on cruises - - in Southampton, in Cozumel, in Fort Lauderdale. Big, yet sleek. Always impressive looking.

She is one of Royal Caribbean’s Voyager class of ships. There aren’t too many passenger ships that are bigger - - over 3,000 passengers. However, there are many different things to do and that distributes the passenger load so that it does not seem overcrowded.

The lifestyle onboard is relaxed. Royal Caribbean aims toward providing an active adventure vacation rather than a cultural/intellectual experience although the ships have interesting art collections. There are lots of bright lights and Las Vegas flash but at the same time there are quiet areas done in a more restrained contemporary style. Consistency is achieved through the good quality of the materials used throughout.

I was particularly pleased to find that Captain Erik Standal would be at the helm during my cruise. A ship usually reflects the character of the person at the top. I had interviewed Captain Erik before when he was in command of Explorer of the Seas and knew him to be relaxed, friendly and professional. Just as on Explorer, the crew on Navigator reflected these traits.

This was just a short cruise to the Bahamas from Fort Lauderdale before Navigator went into dry dock. Captain Erik pointed out that ships are required by law to go into dry dock every so often for inspection and that such occasions allowed the cruise line to do some routine maintenance and sprucing up. For example, some carpeting was going to be replaced.

The voyage was all too short. Arriving early, I was onboard within 20 minutes of arriving in what has to be the quickest embarkation process I have experienced. From then on, the time was packed with action - - ice shows, production shows, street parades in the Royal Promenade, comedians, waiters singing in the dining room. Yet, there was also time for a round of mini-golf, unwinding on the stateroom balcony, a drink in the champagne bar, joining in a trivia contest, and for sitting and having pizza in the Royal Promenade and watching the people go by.

My profile of Navigator of the Seas is at http://www.beyondships.com/RCI-NOS-Profile.html and my photo tour and commentary - - including some comments by Captain Standal - - begins at http://www.beyondships.com/RCI-NOS-tour.html.

A Royal Gem

Royal Princess is a remarkable gem of a ship. At a little over 30,000 gross tons, she would be considered a small cruise ship. However, she is large enough to have scaled-down versions of many of the trademark Princess features familiar to travelers on the Princess mega-cruise ships. In addition, the ship is tastefully decorated throughout with extensive use of wood paneling and the type of furnishings that one would expect to see in an English country house.

This ship was the last of a nearly-identical series of eight ships built for Renaissance Cruises. Following Renaissance’s bankruptcy in 2002, the ships were scattered and are now favorites of travelers on several cruise lines at the upper end of the market including Azamara and Oceana. Princess has two others in its fleet (Pacific Princess and Tahitian Princess). After a refit, Royal Princess joined her Princess sisters in 2007.

Because of her size, Royal Princess can go where larger ships cannot. Accordingly, Royal Princess does longer than average cruises and includes in her itinerary some ports that are less visited. This tends to attract more mature, experienced travelers.

My profile of Royal Princess can be found at http://beyondships.com/Princess-RP-Profile.html. The in-depth photo tour and commentary starts at http://beyondships.com/Princess-RP-Tour-1.html