Cruising Boston and Manhattan Ship Pics

Spring has finally come to thenortheastern United States. Leaves are on the trees and theflowering plants are in bloom.

With the Spring, the northeasterncruising season begins. Ships come up from their winter bases inFlorida and the ships that stay the winter in the northeast start tochange their itineraries to include places like Bermuda, Canada andNew England.

Carnival Glory Photo Tour 2013 Pics

This week the focus is on CarnivalGlory. The Glory has recently been through what Carnival calls theFun Ship 2.0 revitalization. Under this program, ships in theCarnival fleet are being augmented with new features and venues foundon Carnival's latest ships such as Carnival Breeze.

Abandon ship of Queen Elizabeth 2 Pics

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Last month was the 21^stanniversary of the grounding of Queen Elizabeth 2 (QE2) off ofMartha's Vineyard Massachusetts. This accident required theevacuation of the passengers from the ship and severely damaged theship.

I happened to be aboard during thatcruise. It was a typically pleasant QE2 cruise to Canada and NewEngland up until the accident. Then it became something of anadventure. Inasmuch as no one was hurt by the accident, the suspenselay in how we were going to get ashore and what would happen to whatwas then thought to be the last of the great ocean liners.

Royal Caribbean's new Quantum of the Seas

It is hard to believe that people arenot already lounging by the side of the pools or enjoying theentertainment on Quantum of the Seas. After the media preview heldlast week in New York City, I felt that the ship is out there sailingthe seas somewhere. In reality, however, that is still some 18months in the future.

What made me feel that Quantum mustalready exist? To begin, we were shown a video with realisticlooking images of the ship cutting through smooth seas. Then we wereshown Royal Caribbean Chairman Richard Fain flying in the ship'sskydiving simulator and Royal Caribbean International President AdamGoldstein playing table tennis with Kristen Chenowith, the ship'sgodmother, in the Seaplex - - a venue that transforms from sportscomplex to entertainment center. We then saw Ms. Chenowith invarious other parts of the ship.

Cruise ships in Southampton Pics

Southampton in southernEngland is a great place for cruise ship enthusiasts. Not only doquite a few ships call there during the warmer months but there areseveral places around the harbor from which you can get a good viewor photograph the ships. There always seem to be a few people aroundtaking photos as the time for the ships to sail draws near.

Great Stirrup Cay Cunard's Queen Elizabeth Ship

Norwegian Cruise Line's private island,Great Stirrup Cay, keeps changing. Despite a hurricane last fall,Norwegian continues to make noticeable progress on its ambitiousplans to develop this Bahamian island into a vacation paradise. Newbeaches have been created and landscaping has been done to thefinished sections.