Tom Burke’s Blog

Yes, this is the non-cruise for 2 nights from Southampton to Zeebrugge and back on 11 April, on the non-Ventura….

It went on sale at 8:30 this morning (UK time) and had apparently sold out by 9am or very shortly afterwards.

I shall continue looking forward to my cruise on Ventura in late September, relaxed in the knowledge that others have been the guinea-pigs for a new ship!

I have come across another interesting reason as to why the cruise on Ventura on 11th April won’t be the maiden cruise but the one beginning 18 April still will be. It’s because the cruise beginning 11 April won’t technically be on Ventura. Yes, it will be on a big ship with ‘Ventura’ written on the bows & stern, but at that point it won’t, technically, be Ventura. She won’t be named until some time between the 13th and 18th of April, and if she hasn’t been named, then a cruise on her is a cruise on an unnamed ship, and cannot possibly be the maiden cruise of Ventura.

Convinced? – I don’t think I am!

P&O’s new ship Ventura will debut next April. She’s currently in the final stages of construction in Italy, has been christened, floated out and is now undergoing fitting-out. P&O have been marketing her very heavily: she’s the main attraction in the 2008 brochure, and in fact had her own mini-brochure or two. P&O have arranged a full first season of cruises from Southampton, with the ‘Maiden Cruise’ (14 nights to the western Mediterranean) due to start on 18 April. And that’s how the brochure describes it: “The Maiden cruise”. But perhaps construction of Ventura has proceeded faster than expected because P&O are about to announce an additional cruise *before the Maiden*. Yes, that’s right, Ventura will be at sea for two nights from the 11th of April, with paying customers.

So which of these cruises is now the true ‘Maiden’? We all know of course that there will have been a shake-down voyage or possibly two before a new ship goes into service, but these aren’t generally made available to the paying public. I can’t help thinking that if I had booked a cabin on the Maiden cruise I would have done so in the expectation that I would have been in the very first group of paying passengers on the ship, and I would have felt disappointed if, having so booked, I later found out that there was an earlier cruise.

Some people have suggested that the Maiden cruise on a ship such as Ventura isn’t very significant. After all, they suggest, it’s not a very special ship – it’s a near-clone of Diamond Princess and is therefore the latest of the Grand Princess class, so not a new design at all. (Nor, many would say, an especially beautiful ship.) I think this argument is wrong. People are attracted to different ships for different reasons, and anyone who booked on the Ventura maiden cruise must have an interest in the ship, and presumably wants to think that their cruise will be extra-special because it’s the first.

‘jademongoose’ posted the following very witty response in a thread discussing this topic on Cruise Critic (http://www.cruisecritic.co.uk):

“For those of you waiting for this sailing to appear on the P&O website, you’ll have to wait a long time. It won’t be appearing on there because (you’ll like this) it isn’t actually a cruise!

So, to those of you booked on the *REAL* Maiden cruise on 18 April, firstly, I am very, very jealous and secondly, forget the fact it has been at sea with paying passengers a little bit before you and ENJOY IT!”

Well said, I think.

This weekend the ships have been leaving Southampton for their world cruises.

Saga Rose & Saga Ruby were the first to leave, I believe – these two grand veterans ( the former Sagafjord and Vistafjord) left together on 5 January, and won’t return until mid-March or later. Then today (Sunday) Cunard’s QEII and Queen Victoria left Southampton together, and will stay together across the Atlantic to New York, then onwards to Ft Lauderdale. From there their paths will diverge, with Queen Victoria doing a true circumnavigation and returning to Southampton on 26 April after 106 nights; QEII will perform a Grand Voyage, going down the coast of South America, rounding Cape Horn into the Pacific, circling the Pacific with calls at New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Hawaii and the west coast of the US, before transiting the Panama Canal and returning to Southampton on 18 April.

P&O are world cruise regulars, of course, and Aurora will depart westwards tomorrow for an 80-night circumnavigation, returning on 28 March. Oriana in fact left today for a 101-night ‘Grand Voyage’ round Africa, into Asia, then around Australia, to China, and then westwards back through eastern Asia, India, the Suez Canal, the Mediterranean, and returning to Southampton on 16 April.

Finally (of those I know about) Fred Olsen’s Black Watch left Southampton on the 5th to begin a 107-night circumnavigation, while her sister ship Boudicca will start a 72-night circumnavigation of South America on 18 January, returning on 30 March. Black Watch doesn’t get back until 21 April….

It all sounds very romantic and ‘trip of a lifetime’ but here’s a heretical thought: in practice I’m not sure I could hack it. Many of these world cruises have long stretches of many days at sea, sometimes a week or more at a time. And I think you would have to have a suite to make it bearable – I really don’t think I could manage 100+ nights in a small inside cabin on an older ship! (which is what many of these ships are.) Nonetheless there is a long tradition of ‘going on a world cruise’ among wealthy or fortunate Brits, and the tradition is obviously not fading: twenty years ago and more there were only two ships available (QEII and P&O’s late lamented Canberra), and they didn’t both do them every year. Yet here we are with at least 8 ships doing these voyages this year.