2021 again was a very slow year for cruising as for most of the year, ships were forced into lay up because of the COVID-19 pandemic. All eyes were on the US cruise market, where the CDC (Center of Disease Control) issued a cruise ban which was partly lifted later in the year. As of […]

2014 The Russian passenger ship Lyubov Orlova -arrested three years earlier in Canada because of unpaid debts- which was on its way way under tow to the breakers almost a year earlier and broke free during a storm still seems to be afloat. The abandoned ship is inhabited solely by rats and is drifting towards

The end of the pandemic: cruising restarts MSC Magnifica is an excellent example of the way cruise ships returned to service after the pandemic. She was one of the pilot-ships when she was pushed back into operation late 2021, but unfortunately was forced to quit sailing her North Sea itinerary when several ports closed down because

2013 – The QE2 could be on her way back to London, after four years of languishing in the port of Rashid, Dubai. Recent reports say the owners of the ship, Dubai-based Istithmar have sold the ship to the Chinese for £20m to be scrapped. Just before Christmas a 20-man Chinese crew replaced a crew

2012 – Royal Caribbean’s third Oasis-class vessel will be built by STX’s shipyard in France and will be delivered summer 2016. The cruise line has also opted for a second ship with a potential delivery of mid-2018. – Costa Cruises’ Costa Pacifica hit a pier in Marseilles on the morning of December 11, leaving an

2011 – P&O Cruises Australia has announced that is has sold Pacific Sun, which has sailed for the company since 2004, and before that operated as Jubilee for Carnival Cruise Lines. Rumour has it the buyer is a Chinese company and that she will sail from China’s mainland. – Paul Gauguin Cruises announced today that