‘Cruising with Jane McDonald’ is set to air on Channel 5 onboard MSC Divina for a seven-night cruise from Miami around the Caribbean.
TV presenter, Jane McDonald, first shot to fame in 1998 with the reality show, The Cruise, and after 18 years away from the world of cruising she is setting out as part of a new four-part travel show, ‘Cruising With Jane McDonald’.
The purpose of the show will be to discover why cruising continues to be such a popular holiday choice for millions of people each year and what has changed since Jane was last at sea.
The first cruise that she undertook as part of the show was with one of MSC Cruises’ largest and most modern ships, MSC Divina, calling at Nassau, St Martin and Puerto Rico before heading back to Miami.
This series will set out to explore the booming cruise industry which has seen incredible growth since Jane first found herself at sea. Back in 2009, 17.8 million passengers took a cruise globally and this figure is set to rise by 25.3 million by the end of 2017.
Cruising is particularly continuing to grow in popularity in the UK & Ireland, achieving the highest growth rate of all major European markets and in 2015 saw its largest annual rise for seven years. This notion is reflected in the growth of MSC: the UK saw a 35% anual increase in guests, reaching record breaking highs in the Caribbean, Emirates and Mediterranean.
Although the biggest change in the industry has been the guest demographic; the average age of the MSC guest from the UK is 46, along with an ever-growing number of families choosing a holiday with this international cruise line, which offers high quality, effortless cruises, with plenty of opportunity for fun and relaxation onboard modern ships for affordable prices.
The new show, ‘Cruising with Jane McDonald’ will air on Channel 5 on Friday 10th February at 9pm.
*Update*
Uniworld has now also announced plans to star in the hit TV show ‘Cruising with Jane McDonald’.
The boutique river cruise collection is now expecting a huge uptick in enquiries over this coming weekend as the third episode of the series is broadcast.
Epsidoe 3 will take place onboard Uniworld’s S.S Maria Theresa where McDonald will take a luxury river cruise down the Danube and meet Princess Anita de Hohenberg.
Uniworld’s UK managing director, Kathryn Beadle, has stated: ‘The show has been a huge hit on Channel 5 and we are expecting a large increase in the number of calls to our call centres. For the first time we are opening the call centre on Sunday; we have also called in tech support to make sure the website can cope.’
Beadle has also sent out a marketing kit to UK travel agents ahead of the show’s broadcast where she furthers: ‘Having had an advance peek at the episode we are thrilled and we know that it is going to attract significant interest’.
The show pulled in just over two million viewers for its very first episode, making it the channel’s most popular programme that week.
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What are your thoughts on the news? Will you be tuning into Jane’s exploration on MSC Divina, or Uniworld’s S.S Maria Theresa? Do you wish there was more cruise-based television shows? Have you sailed with either of these vessels before? Leave us your comments below!
