Sam's Sea Stories

Britannia is revving up her engines! Yesterday marked a very exciting day in the continuing construction process of P&O Cruises brand new Ship Britannia.  At Fincantieri’s Monfalcone shipyard near Trieste in Italy the engines were started up for the very first time by Formula One racing presenter Suzi Perry, along with…

It's happened again, P&O Cruises have just released their Winter Deals. Prices have been slashed on thousands of holidays in their winter sun sale, with some sailings reduced by as much as 35%. The two-week sale runs from September 1st-15th with 11 night cruises now available from only £499 per…

The cruise world is buzzing today after the announcement of the very latest technological innovations to be featured on the brand new Quantum of the Seas from Royal Caribbean. Bionic bar tenders, RFID Smart Luggage tracking systems, the Royal iQ downloadable app - wow! This however got me thinking, we…

Following last years christening of the Princess Cruises ship Regal Princess by Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge, Princess Cruises are once again enlisting the help and reputation of more stellar names to christen and serve as godparents to their newest vessel the Regal Princess. This time the company have bestowed…

I've written before about alcohol consumption on cruise ships, and last week I looked at the ever increasing number of cruise lines offering all inclusive drinks packages on board. It is for that reason I have to mention this week some quite frankly staggering statistics I came across regarding the…

Norwegian Cruise Line are the latest major cruise operator to offer a new all inclusive package. Unlike other operators though, who offer all inclusive drinks or all inclusive drinks and tips, Norwegian Cruise Line have taken this one step further. Available for 2015 sailings from three to 14 days in length…

Norwegian Cruise Line are the latest cruise operator to ban smoking on private balconies on its ships. The ban will begin on all sailings from November 1st following in the footsteps of Carnival Cruise Line who recently banned smoking on balconies for ships departing after October 9th this year. This now means…

I have written about the subject of wheelchair accessible cabins (or lack of them) before, but more recently the subject has reared it's ugly head again. Just as an example, the Cunard Line Queen Mary 2 has 1310 cabins on board, 30 of which are wheelchair accessible, that's just over 2% of all…

We all know what a dangerous place the world can be and most of us can say our holiday plans have at some point been influenced by the events going on around the world, be it due to extreme weather conditions, terrorist activity or civil unrest. Only recently certain cruise…

With modern cruise ships bringing ever more spectacular technology, innovative concepts and ground breaking features designed to amaze and astound, I found it interesting to read about the sheer volume of people which turned out to celebrate the arrival of Cunard's Queen Victoria upon her return to Merseyside. A rare…