The 5,000-ton Royal Star, long idle at Mombasa, has been sold to Cambodian owners and renamed Ocean Mist. After a long and varied life, the ship began her days in the inter-Mediterranean service as the San Giorgio of Italy's Adriatica Line, then became the Greek City of Andros and cruised in the '80s for Ocean Cruise Lines as the Ocean Islander. She had been in Indian Ocean cruise service since 1990, but her owners went bankrupt several years ago.

The Australian cruise business is booming. The 133,000-grt Celebrity Solstice is being deployed to cruise service from Sydney beginning in fall 2012. Beforehand, the 2,850-passenger ship will make an extended positioning cruise from the Mediterranean via Suez out to Australia. 

One of my favorite bygone steamship companies was the British-flag Furness-Bermuda Line.   They ran two wonderful ships in later years, until 1966, on mostly cruise service out of New York.   There was the 1933-built Queen of Bermuda and her smaller consort, the 1951-built Ocean Monarch.   The Queen could carry 733 passengers, the Monarch had a capacity of 440.   They were best known for their 6-night cruises to & from Bermuda, with minimum fares of $150, but also offered occasional summer cruises to Canada & others to the Caribbean.  In later years, Furness ran cruises from Fort Lauderdale.   But with an aging fleet and in the face of new, very strict marine safety standards in the US, the Company pulled the plug on its liner operations in Nov 1966.  But Furness will, in ways, return to life this spring.

Ships' crew, who sailed on Furness Bermuda Line's Queen of Bermuda and Ocean Monarch in the 1950s and early 1960s, are reuniting on Saturday, May 14th at The Merchant Seaman's War Memorial Society in southern England.

"Following the success of our first reunion in 2009, we are hoping to find more shipmates from across the globe for this next one," says Bill Cox, reunion organiser, "especially with the help of our own website at www.furnessbermudaline.com" .

Queen of Bermuda and Ocean Monarch departed on Saturday afternoons from Pier 95 on New York's Hudson River to make the 700-mile voyage to Bermuda.  Stephen Card, born in Bermuda and renowned for his paintings of these and other ships, will be guest speaker at the reunion.  He recalls "the many Monday mornings when I would arrive by ferry in Hamilton and, instead of rushing to school, wait to watch the Queen slowly come alongside at No 1 dock.  On Wednesday afternoons, as sailing time approached, her triple-chime steam whistles could be heard all over the island."

He adds, "Queen of Bermuda was particularly famous for her profile.  Her grey hull and white superstructure were topped with three graceful red and black funnels and she was the only liner in history to have sailed with three, two and, from 1962, one funnel.

Hapag Lloyd, the German cruise operator has chartered the 30,200-ton Insignia from Oceania Cruises. The charter runs for two years, beginning in Apr 2012.

P&O Cruises to mark its 175th with Grand Event All seven ships in the P&O Cruises fleet are to dock together for the first time in Southampton next year. The vessels will come together in their home port for The Grand Event on July 3, 2012 as part of a year of celebrations in 2012. The company will be marking the 175th anniversary of the Peninsular Steam Navigation Company being awarded the Admiralty contract to carry mail to the Iberian Peninsula and beyond.

Following the event in the port, each ship will depart on its own Grand Event cruise, forming a procession as they leave Southampton. Once in the open water, the ships will meet again, saluting one another before they sail to their various destinations.

The seven cruises will be heritage themed with special on board entertainment including a 175th Anniversary Gala dinner, heritage art display and guest speakers. A full world cruise prize draw will be held on each cruise and a total of seven passengers plus guests will be travelling in 2013. They are detailed in the company's 2012-13 brochure which goes on sale on April 5.

The Crown Princess will offer cruises from Galveston beginning in Dec 2012.