Queen Mary 2

The Daily Mirror’s cruise correspondent, John Honeywell, recently embarked on a cruise to Hamburg on board the Queen Mary 2.

John was pleasantly surprised by the condition of the ship. Being seven years old and having transported thousands of passengers across the seven seas, the Queen was still in admirable shape.

The only complaint he could come up with was the rather outdated CRT television in his cabin – which is soon to be replaced with a flat screen model.

The Queen Mary 2 is of course due for an extensive overhaul later this year.

Fred Olsen Cruise Line

Over the years the Norwegian owned Fred Olsen has become somewhat of a British institution. With its rather traditionalist approach, the company still offers formal dress evenings and solid, reliable food.

Over the years passengers have become used to contributing to Fred Olsen’s favourite charity, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution.

A new charity has now been added to the line-up: from now on passengers will also be able to contribute to the work of the Black Watch home and museum in Perth.

P&O

The latest addition to P&O’s fleet, the Adonia, was christened in Southampton by Dame Shirley Bassey a week ago. Adonia, of course, used to be known as Royal Princess and earlier as Minerva II and R8.

A nice touch that P&O added to the ship during the refurbishment process was fitting standard UK-style three-pin plugs to all the cabins. This will eliminate the inconvenience for passengers of having to carry adaptors around with them while on a cruise holiday.