Cruise News

 

Cruising has fast become a favourite holiday among South Africans - every year more and more take advantage of cruise ships visiting the South African coast.
 
Some ships, like the magnificent Crystal Cruise ships, Cunard's majestic QM2, P&O Cruises' Oriana, Hapag-Lloyd's award-winning Europa or one of the Silver Seas cruise ships are now regular sights in the ports of Durban, Cape Town Port Elizabeth, Richards Bay or East London, with even Mossel Bay getting an increasing numbers of calls, while neighbouring Walvis Bay is now also a favourite destination as is Maputo in Mozambique.
 

Apart from cruising between local ports or to Mauritius South Africans can also make use of numerous fly/cruise options that enable you to join cruise ships in the Mediterranean, the Caribbean, Alaskan waters, the Baltic, South East Asia or any of the other exotic and exciting destinations that are available. Many of these work out costing much less than one might expect.
 
Much credit for the rise in popularity in cruising must surely go to the organisers of the popular 2, 3, 4 and 7-night cruises that have operated out of Durban every summer since the mid 1990s. The Starlight Cruises on board ships like the Symphony, Monterey, Melody and now the 2,000-passenger MSC Sinfonia have introduced hundreds of thousands of South Africans to cruising - no doubt whetting the appetite for more. Many happy South Africans take several of these weekend or longer cruises each season, regarding them as another opportunity of 'getting away from it all'.
 
We still hope to enlarge with 'Time to go Cruising' features and articles, providing details of the most popular cruise destinations as well as personal views and impressions of some of the ships. In this repspect we welcome input frm readers with views about ships, destinations etc. A schedule of cruise ships calling at South African ports is included. While this is kept as accurate and updated as possible, no responsibility can be accepted for any errors or cancellations - please confirm your cruise arrangements with the agent responsible.
 
The 2011/12 summer schedule is in the process of being further updated. Please refer back to it regularly.