By Simon & Susan Veness Fashion week. Baseball. Science fiction. Legends of wrestling. 1970s rock music. What do all of these things have in common? You can find each and every one of them on a themed cruise. It used to be the case that a ‘themed’ cruise meant one of only a handful of […]
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Author Archive | Simon Veness
The Evolution of Crystal’s Luxury Style
How do you improve on six-star style? Seriously, how do you take one of the very best cruise experiences and add to it, enhancing the essence of what it is and what it does? Those were the questions that immediately occurred to us when we heard earlier this year about the huge refurbishment that Crystal […]
The Best Time To Cruise the Caribbean (PS: It’s Soon!)
Ready for the winter yet? No, neither are we. Sure, it’s been a pretty mild (and positively clement) October so far, but we know the howling gales, grey skies and icy pavements of the true British midwinter are just around the corner. That always sets us thinking about some of the obvious cruise bolt-holes […]
Are Cruise Ships Bad For the Environment?
French company Ponant Cruises was fined $70,000 this week for the unintentional grounding of its ship L’Austral on a sub-Arctic island just off New Zealand in January 2017. The ship’s captain, Regis Daumesnil, was fined an additional $30,000 for his role in the incident. It’s the kind of occurrence that grabs headlines and gets the […]
Crystal’s Crown Jewel Takes Shape
The poet Robert Browning first coined the phrase in 1855. Architect Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe (now there’s a name to conjure with) picked it up and ran with it in the 20th century, and countless others have used it to varying degrees of success ever since. ‘Less is more’ has become the mantra of the […]
Who Invented Cruise Ships?
Who Invented Cruise Ships? By Simon & Susan Veness The provenance of the very first cruise ship is probably lost in the mists of time. It might have been a Phoenician trader who, fed up with the daily grind of dealing in Tyrian purple, set his sights beyond the Mediterranean for a little jaunt to […]
Five Small-Ship Lines You Need To Know About
We’ve reported this year on small cruise line takeovers by the big boys (Royal Caribbean & Silversea), big ships that are just plain ugly (Norwegian Cruise Line, and others), and when big is just TOO big (last week’s missive centred on MSC’s newest) in cruising terms. So we thought it was time to redress the […]
Cruise Ships: When is Big TOO Big?
By Simon & Susan Veness We all know that cruise ships have increased in size in the last 20 years or so, dramatically in many cases. Where 100,000 tons was once considered gargantuan, it is now merely ‘mid-size’ to some cruise lines. This point came home loud and clear this week as the busy Meyer […]
5 New Cruises For 2019
By Simon & Susan Veness If like us, you already have one eye on next year in sea-going terms, you might like to consider some of the intriguing new options for cruises in 2019, as there are an array of really original voyages on offer. With so many high-quality ships to choose from these days, […]
South Pacific Cruise Guide
Some call it the ultimate paradise, others merely insist it is heaven on earth. It has attracted authors like James A Michener, and artists like Paul Gauguin. It is more prosaically called the South Pacific, but it is a vast cruise region of true scenic beauty and pristine, natural splendours. The South Seas are typically […]
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Crystal Ravel Review
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Six Cool Themed Cruises For 2019
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The Evolution of Crystal’s Luxury Style
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The Best Time To Cruise the Caribbean (PS: It’s Soon!)
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The Do’s and Don’ts of Cruising
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Are Cruise Ships Bad For the Environment?
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Marina, you’ve gotta see her!
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Small Ship Cruising
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SeaDream Yacht Club Blog
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EUROPA 2 – Try it, you WILL love it!
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Baby Love – Tips For Cruising With Infants
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MS Europa 2 Review
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Simon Veness: Hi Amanda. Thanks for your comment and yes, we can...
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AmandaB: I am a huge fan of Silverseas, my next trip, in 20...
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David Smith: Glad you enjoyed the post, Mr Peel. One of our Voy...
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Tom Peel: We've used The Cruise line for several cruises on...
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Simon Veness: It was a great boarding experience and got the tri...
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Sans Spinks: Seems as though they have boarding down to a T ins...