John Mavin's Cruise Ship Review of 2006

On 12 October the Cruise season at Dover ended with the departure of Fred Olsen’s Boudicca.

Interestingly enough this was the ship that started the season on a freezing day back in February when she arrived to complete her fitting out and to accept her first passengers under her new name. Originally christened Royal Viking Sky in 1973 she has sailed under a number of names, the last being Grand Latino, and now joining her sister ship Black Watch and the Braemar on the popular Dover based cruise schedule.

However, before the season got well and truly under way we were visited by the Royal Navy to celebrate the inauguration of the Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports. The RFA Wave Knight and HMS Kent spent a few days at the Admiralty Pier and were popular attractions for sightseers and visitors.

As for the cruise ships I have included some photographs of the less regular arrivals and some new additions we hope to see again.

 The weather did interrupt the schedule with some early cancellations in mid-May of the Amsterdam, Princess Danae, Costa Magica and the Constellation had to be diverted to Harwich.

However, the newly built Costa Magica did visit on 12 September. I took a lot of pictures of this one but tragically lost the best of them due to “technical difficulties” (that’s what the business world calls a cock-up! – Nigel and Ray did better though’).

Other Costa arrivals, bearing their stovepipe funnels, were the Costa Classica and the enormous Costa Atlantica.

The expected arrival of NCL’s mighty Pride of Hawaii on her inaugural sailing did not occur due to scheduling problems – funnily enough the same thing appeared to have happened last year with the Pride of America.

 The former NYK ship Asuka visited on 10 May, operated by Phoenix Reisen under her new name Amadea whilst the Asuka 2 (formerly Crystal Harmony) called on a gloomy 28 May.

Another newcomer was Celebrity Cruises Century, which looked a bit like a smaller version of the very familiar Constellation.

 A very foggy 5 September saw the arrival of MSC Lirica which has resulted in MSC Cruises booking ten arrivals for the 2007 season.

A further snippet of news for next year is that Norwegian Cruise Lines, in addition to the “regular” arrivals have arranged for two visits from the new 93000 tonne Norwegian Gem.

In September it was announced that Holiday Kreuzfahrten had ceased trading and that the subsequent expected arrivals of Mona Lisa and Lily Marleen were cancelled -  although Mona Lisa had made her last call on 1 September. No doubt we will see these ships again, possibly under new names.

Another final departure was that of Swan Hellenic’s Minerva II  which has been redeployed to another Carnival subsidiary and to re-emerge as the Royal Princess of Princess Cruises.

Comparing the big with the small on 24 Sept we saw Princess Cruises whopping Star Princess while Caledonian Cruises tiny but very luxurious Hebridean Spirit called in June (I am told that the even smaller Hebridean Princess is still due on 9 November).

On the subject of size The Star Princess and the Grand Princess are probably the largest ships ever to visit Dover. It must be remembered however that tonnage is a measurement of space so the whole thing becomes a bit academic! Nevertheless, these ships are HUGE.

Whilst compiling this brief gallery of cruise ships it became quite apparent one of the principal operators had been omitted – so I’ve included a picture of the Saga Rose – isn’t she lovely?

Not only cruise ships visited the terminal. Nature lovers would be delighted to see our resident seal frolicking around in the inner basin by the Spur Jetty showing off his catch of fish to disgruntled seagulls that clearly weren’t quick enough for him.

A solitary Brent Goose strutted majestically around the dragon’s teeth in August, and also seen in residence were a pair of kingfishers. A rather odd addition to the menagerie was a stoat observed occasionally scurrying up the quayside!

That’s about it for the moment – if any web surfers are interested in photos of any cruise ships that have called at Dover during the past, say, four years please contact John through Ray’s website.