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 Carnival Dream

After much consideration, I think the best way to describe Carnival Dream is that she has gravitas. The ship is confident, substantial and important.

For nearly a decade Carnival Cruise Lines has been developing the design that first debuted with Carnival Destiny. With each ship, new features were added and the size of the ships grew somewhat.

With Carnival Dream, the line took a substantial step up in size. Its previous ship, Carnival Splendor, is 113,000 gross tons while Carnival Dream is 130,000 gross tons.

This difference in size gives the ship better proportions and makes her more substantial from her predecessors. It is like everything that had gone before was leading up to this.

This is so not just with the ship’s physical size but also with what Carnival is doing onboard. For example, the line has been moving steadily away from its origins as a party venue for young people towards being a family vacation experience. With 19,000 square feet devoted to children - - not placed off in some out-of-the-way corner of the ship but right in the center - - Carnival line is making clear that it is a family vacation experience.

One can also see that the line is increasing the overall quality of its product. Carnival has always been good value for money but it has been pushing upwards, offering items that with the Dream are the equivalent of those found on premium market cruises. A clear example is the multi-deck spa.

Carnival has also taken a step upward with the new shows it is featuring in the ship’s theater. These are not just musical revues but rather more akin to Broadway productions. While they still rely primarily on popular tunes, they are packaged in a more thought-provoking production.

The Dream is not just a good development of some old ideas. The Carnival experience is enhanced by the addition of several new features. One of these is the transformation of the outdoor promenade into the Lanai. In the past, the outdoor promenade was the gloomy area under the lifeboats where only a few souls went primarily to have a smoke. The Lanai is a much wider area that is protected from the wind and which is sunlit due to the fact that the lifeboats have been placed underneath it. There are also whirlpools, nice padded furniture and an area of tables where one can bring drinks and/or food.

The Lanai opens into the Ocean Plaza, which includes a bar, the specialty coffee bar, seating and a stage for live performances. This area gives the public rooms a centerpiece that was lacking on prior Carnival ships. It is a user-friendly place for the ship’s programmed activities as well as a crossroads.

Beyondships profile of Carnival Dream is at and the photo tour and commentary begins at http://www.beyondships.com/CarnivalDream-Profile.html and the photo tour and commentary starts at http://www.beyondships.com/CarnivalDream-Tour-1.html

Turning to the news, Carnival Corporation, the parent company of Carnival Cruise Lines, Princess Cruises, Holland America Line, Cunard, Costa and several other lines, announced that it earned $193 million in the fourth quarter of 2009. This was better than what Wall Street analysts had been expecting and indicates that even in poor economic times, people are reluctant to sacrifice their vacation and that the public recognizes that cruising is a very economical way to vacation.

Winter has commenced early in the northeast and Cunard’s Queen Mary 2 managed to arrive in New York on schedule during the first blizard of the season. The ship encountered 30 foot waves coming up the coast from the Caribbean and managed to maintain a speed of approximately 25 knots. The ship is doing a series of Caribbean cruises from New York before beginning her world cruise.

Meanwhile, NCL’s Norwegian Gem returned to New York on December 12 for a season of winter cruises to the Bahamas and the Caribbean. The Gem is the only ship sailing from Manhattan this winter. On the other side of the harbor, however, Royal Caribbean’s Explorer of the Seas will be sailing again this winter from Bayonne, New Jersey.

Interview with Captain Ian McNuaght and Other Cruise News.

I recently had the opportunity to sit down and talk with Captain Ian McNaught of Cunard Line. This was indeed an enjoyable experience as I have known Captain McNaught since he was a young officer on Queen Elizabeth 2 in the 1990s. Captain McNaught is perhaps best known for being the last Cunard captain of the QE2 and his vibrant personality has made him a great favorite of regular Cunard passengers.

Our conversation touched upon a number of topics but the primary focus was on Captain McNaught’s latest command Cunard’s Queen Victoria. The ship is the second largest Cunarder ever built and was designed to bring the Cunard transatlantic crossing style to cruising. Cunard has had cruise ships in the past but their style was always different than its transatlantic liners. Some were mass market, some were luxury, and some reflected the Norwegian style of their previous owners.

Captain McNaught sees the Queen Victoria as carrying through the Cunard experience of QE2 and more recently Queen Mary 2. There are differences but then each ship is different. He attributes much of Cunard’s success in carrying over the Cunard style to his crew and their Cunard training. He is also very impressed by the technology on Queen Victoria, which he feels enhances the product.

My conversation with Captain McNaught is posted at: http://beyondships.com/QV-McNaught-1.html

Turning to the week’s other news:

Princess Cruises has announced that in 2011, it will transfer the Royal Princess to sister company P&O Cruises. Royal Princess is one of Princess’ small ships (see our profile and photo tour at http://beyondships.com/Princess-RP-Profile.html ) She will be following in the footsteps of the previous Royal Princess, which became P&O’s Artemis (http://www.beyondships.com/PO-Artemis-Profile.html). Artemis will be leaving the P&O fleet and thus the addition of Royal Princess to P&O will allow that line to maintain its presence in small ship cruising. The ship is to be renamed Adonia.

Meanwhile, life is changing for some of Royal Princess’ sisters. Royal Princess is one of eight nearly identical ships that were built for Renaissance Cruises. Following the demise of Renaissance, three of these ships went to Princess, three to Oceania Cruises and two to Azamara Cruises.

This week Azamara announced that it was changing its name to Azamara Club Cruises. Its new president, Larry Pimintel, explained that the new name was more in keeping with the club-like atmosphere onboard its up-market ships. The line is also changing its approach to become more destination focused with longer stays in port including more overnights. I’ll be writing more about Azamara’s plans in the near future.

I recently heard from two of the officers who have been interviewed on Beyondships. Trevor Lane, who had been Staff Captain on Queen Mary 2, has been promoted to captain and is the master of the Pacific Sun of P&O Cruises Australia. Meanwhile, Captain Francesco La Fauci, who I interviewed on Carnival Triumph, is now in command of Carnival Conquest.

Photo Tour of Fred.Olsen's Balmoral and Cruise News

Balmoral is the newest and largest ship in the Fred.Olsen Cruise Line’s fleet. However, veteran cruisers will remember her first appearance as the Crown Odyssey of Royal Cruise Line in 1988. More cruisers will remember her as the popular Norwegian Crown of Norwegian Cruise Line as she spent most of her prior career with that line.

After purchasing her from NCL, Fred.Olsen sent her to Germany to have an additional section inserted. This increased her passenger capacity as well as the public space. However, the ship still retains a small ship atmosphere.

At 40,000 gross tons, Balmoral is not a yacht. However, the atmosphere onboard is much different than the megacruise ships coming out of the shipyards today. In many ways, it has the flavor of late 20th Century cruising when the emphasis was more on relaxation in comfortable surroundings than on the number and variety of onboard experiences that a ship can provide. In my view, both styles of cruising have merit and thus it is good that someone is still offering the old style as an option for travelers.

Balmoral is primarily geared toward the British market. The line is well known in the UK and for most of the year, Balmoral operates from Dover, England.

Beyondships new profile page for Balmoral appears at http://beyondships.com/FOL-Balmoral-Profile.html and the photo tour and commentary starts at http://beyondships.com/FOL-Balmoral-Tour-1.html

Turning to the events of the last week, Royal Caribbean’s Oasis of the Seas was officially named in a ceremony in Fort Lauderdale on 30 November. The ship has already achieved notoriety as the world’s largest passenger ship. At 225,282 gross tons and capable of serving 5,400 passengers at double occupancy (that means she can carry even more if the upper berths are used), Oasis is not just a little larger than the previous record holder of the but almost half again larger. (The previous holders were RCI’s three Freedom class ships of 158,000 gross tons. Cunard’s Queen Mary 2 is a bigger physical object than these ships but has less gross tonnage).

RCI had seven godmothers for Oasis - - one each for each of the “neighborhoods” on the ship. The neighborhoods are sections of the ship geared toward different concepts or interests. For example, there is an entertainment neighborhood. This allows “guests with the opportunity to seek out relevant experiences based on their personal style, preference or mood.”

Not to be outdone, Princess Cruises is inviting everyone to be a virtual godmother for the former Tahitian Princess, which has been renamed Ocean Princess. The ceremony will be conducted entirely on line during Ocean Princess’s current cruise. People can log into Princess’ site at http://www.princess.com/oceanvirtualchristening until 18 December to participate.

When I was on Carnival Dream last month, I ran into Gerry Cahill, President of Carnival Cruise Lines, who mentioned that he was onboard talking to some people about plans for Carnival’s next ship. This struck me as odd as Carnival’s next ship, Carnival Magic (a sister to Carnival Dream), is already under construction and is scheduled to join the fleet in 2011. The mystery was cleared-up last week when Carnival announced that it will be building a third ship based upon the design of Carnival Dream. As such, the new ship will be 130,000 gross tons and will accommodate 3,690 passengers double occupancy. She will be built at the Fincantieri shipyard in Monfalcone, Italy and is scheduled to enter service in 2012.

One of the nice things about the Carnival ships is that they are not mere clones of each other. Even when they are part of the same class, there are differences such as distinct interiors and often new features. This makes going aboard each ship more interesting as it is an exploration. It looks like this trend will continue as Carnival says that the new ship “will offer many of the same innovations featured on the recently launched Carnival Dream, as well as some exciting new elements to be announced at a later date.”