Titanic Anniversary Cruise; Azamara Journey Profile and Photo Review

This month marks the 100th anniversary of the sinking of RMS Titanic. To commemorate this event, a British travel agency, Miles Morgan Travel chartered two cruise ships to bring guests to the wreck site in the North Atlantic on the anniversary night. One ship, the Fred Olsen Line’s Balmoral sailed from Southampton, England. The other the Azamara Journey, sailed from New York.




There was a great potential for these cruises to turn out badly. They could have been a tasteless attempt to commercialize a tragedy. Nonetheless, I felt this was too significant an event to miss and so I booked passage on Azamara Journey.



As it turned out, the cruise was a very worthwhile experience. The days were mostly spent listening to an impressive battery of maritime historians and Titanic experts discuss various aspects of the Titanic story. When there wasn’t a lecture or event, you had the amenities of Azamara Journey.



However, what made the cruise special was being at the wreck site on the anniversary night. We had had poor weather for most of the cruise but that evening it cleared and the conditions became like they were 100 years before. It was a cold, dark moonless night. The sea was relatively calm. Overhead were a multitude of stars. Whether you looked out into the blackness or at the lights of the Balmoral nearby, you could not help but feel moved.



I have posted a full account of the cruise at http://www.beyondships2.com/titanic-anniversary-cruise-preface.html



In addition, I have added a profile of Azamara Journey to Beyondships. Journey is one of the eight R-class ships built for Renaissance Cruises. Thankfully, Azamara Club Cruises has retained much of the ship’s original décor and so she still has the feel of an upper class English country house.



The profile of Journey is posted at http://beyondships.com/Azamara-Journey-Profile.html. It has copies of daily programs, menus and information about the ship. The multi-page photo review of the ship begins at http://beyondships.com/Azamara-Journey-Tour-1.html.



In addition, I’ve posted an interview with Edie Bronstein, Azamara’s Senior Vice President, in which she talks about the cruise experience Azamara aims to provide on its ships. http://www.beyondships2.com/azamara-svp-interview.html.

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.”