Sail the world on Cunard - and join royalty on Sydney Harbour 2011

If you scroll down the right hand side of this blog you will find the photos I took when we joined the throngs to see the Queen Elizabeth and Queen Mary 2 berthed in Sydney Harbour. It was a warm summer dusk and we walked down to the ferry wharf at Kirribilli and caught the ferry across the harbour, planning when we arrived at Circular Quay to walk round to see the QM2 at Garden Island. But the crowds were too much for us. You could have walked from one side of the harbour to the other on the spectator craft around the Harbour Bridge - it was amazing that there were no serious collisions! and once we arrived at Circular Quay after our ferry inched its way past the QE2 there was no easy way through the crowds to the walk through the Botanic Gardens.
Cunard has announced that two Queens will once again arrive in Sydney when the Queen Elizabeth on her maiden visit to Australia in 2011 meets up with the QM2 in Sydney Harbour in 2011 on February 22. Queen Elizabeth will visit Fremantle on February 17 and Adelaide on February 20 on her way here.
New Yorkers will have the opportunity to see 3 Queens on these world voyages when QM2 and QE meet up with Queen Victoria on January 13, following a tandem Atlantic cross by Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth.
There is a bonus for those who love to sail on Cunard. For the first time it will be possible to sail the world on the 3 Queens...

If you are interested in booking on the 2011 Cunard voyages - they go on sale on 2 July 2009 - contact us asap and let us know you are interested so we can make sure you get the booking you want. Email travel@travelchoice.com.au - or you can phone us 02 9968 1600.

Life is what happens...

On June 18th Royal Princess suffered a fire in her engine room and has now put back to Port Said, Egypt for repairs. The current cruise is terminated and the cruise scheduled for 25th June cancelled. All passengers will receive a full refund, plus a 25% future cruise credit and be flown home with all expenses paid by Princess.

Life is what happens while you're busy making plans. Reading of the fire aboard Royal Princess brought home that sea voyages carry the thrill of unpredictability: an adventure is there as a possibility every time we embark on a cruise. This mishap aboard Royal Princess is unfortunate and quite uncommon. Nevertheless it seems to have been dealt with promptly and efficiently, and happily there has been no injury, only personal inconvenience and interruption. Passengers are suffering disruption but will be generously compensated by Princess - and it's even possible some may remember their real adventure in a positive light. After all, travel is about the experience, and the enjoyment of telling the tale is part of it!

Dance hosts and cruise ships

In recent years I have taken up dancing Argentine tango in my spare time, so I am always interested when a client comes who is looking for a ship that offers dance hosts. This is on my mind because one such client did come in this week and because a friend I met at lunch said he was considering working as a dance host - he is an excellent all-round ballroom dancer. This train of thought of course led me to the Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau movie, 'Out to Sea'. An enjoyable comedy about 2 con-men who get up to all sorts of antics when they take on the jobs of dance hosts on a luxury liner! Nothing real about it, but fun.
If you like to dance it can be a great activity on a cruise ship as many of them have excellent dance floors - some bigger than others. Cruise lines that offer ballroom classes will often also have dance classes, Cunard and Regent Seven Seas being two of them. For people like me, for whom tango is The Dance, there are even cruises which offer tango festivals, included classes, dances and tango bands. We have yet to have a tango cruise call into an Australian port, but they do sail the Caribbean and Mediterranean each year, so you never know.
If you would like to dance be sure to let me know if you are asking for cruise suggestions.

Cruise terminal for Sydney

The lack of space for cruise ships to dock in Sydney Harbour is an ongoing discussion among many who are involved with the cruise industry - particularly those who live in our magnificent city.
For three to four months a year the harbour welcomes new cruise ships every day, many sailing between the Heads as the sun rises... a memorable experience for those on board.
However there is a shortage of suitable places for ships to dock. Recently the State Government announced a committee to look into the problem of cruise ship facilities in Sydney Harbour, especially east of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Many ships are too big to pass under our famous coathanger so establishing cruise terminals at Darling Harbour (Barangaroo) or White Bay Terminal (not an attractive option with its lack of public transport and industrial port look) is not the answer.
Circular Quay did the job for years but is now dwarfed by many of the visiting ships and because it has been given over to restaurants does not work as well as it should.
However a report in the Sydney Morning Herald on 25 May stated that the Defence Department, which controls Garden Bay where the Queen Victoria docked on her last visit, is planning to base additional naval vessels there and this is not an option.
I hope that the committee has some teeth and is capable of making suggestions that are workable - as the White Bay Terminal currently is not. Another possibility might be Chowder Bay with the old Georges Heights military establishment. This area has enormous historical significance as the site of one of the largest military hospitals after World War I. Would a sympathetic development with a ferry wharf taking passengers across to the city be worth considering? I often walk that way and realise I don't have any photos to illustrate this idea... must get my camera out next time!
Let's hope something happens sooner rather than later. There is tremendous competition between ports for cruise line traffic and we want the cruise lines to have an easy choice when planning to include Sydney.