Unique luxury hotels, fashionable travel and much more

Cruise ships have long been called floating luxury hotels. With their butler service, designer shopping, choice of restaurants and spa facilities some are certainly in the same league. The latest idea being trialed at Echo Bay Marina on Lake Mead, NV are luxury floatels.

These moored lodgings are ideal for larger parties, families and gatherings of friends but can they really compete with luxury hotels in Las Vegas? Thankfully the boats are climate controlled for the dry desert environment, and they do come with a kitchen, four bedrooms, a TV and a sundeck with hot tub. Waterfront views are a given.

However, room service is not available and it is a long drive back to bed after dining on the Strip. While some places spring to mind as being a pleasant place to stay on water - Vancouver Harbour or Sidney Australia for example - most marinas with spare capacity for floatels tend to be seedy docklands and places you certainly would not want to return to alone after dark.

On the plus side, pets are welcome at these floatels and prices are lower than comparable luxury hotels. For me, floatels are closer to camping than pampering, despite what their optimistic advertising claims them to be.

by Gillian at Luxique Luxury Hotels

Scotland’s only year-round passenger ferry service to mainland Europe is to be scrapped.

The operator, DFDS, said the Rosyth to Zeebrugge (Belgium) sailings would end in December after failing to attract enough passengers. Travellers who have booked later trips will be offered a full refund.

The 489-passenger ferry Scottish Viking was purpose-built for the three-times-a-week service, which was launched in a blaze of publicity in May last year.

Despite a busy summer and heavy promotion, the company said it had managed to achieve only 60 per cent of its expected passenger numbers for the year.

DFDS Vice-President, Andreas Teschl, said: “We are aware that the ferry service has provided an important link between Scotland and the continent so it is a matter of deep regret that we have had to take the decision to no longer operate passenger services on the Rosyth to Zeebrugge route.” He said he believed the route had a future as a freight-only service.

Several people who posted messages on the website of the Scottish Daily Record complained that the passenger ferry service had simply been too expensive.

by Andy Moreton

Luxique offers a range of luxury hotels in Edinburgh, Glasgow and many other cities in Scotland.

A couple who lost their camera overboard from an ocean liner in the Atlantic have had it returned to them – by a Spanish trawlerman who found it in his nets.

Barbara and Dennis Gregory, from South Africa, were en route from New York to Southampton on Queen Mary 2 in 2008. When their camera went over the side, they didn’t expect to see it again, let alone any photos.

But Benito Estevez, fishing off the west coast of Europe, caught it in his nets, with five photos still intact on the memory card. He posted them online and they were then shown on a TV programme in the UK. Friends of the couple recognised them.

Speaking through a translator, Mr Estevez said:

“It makes me really happy to see that they have recovered the memories they lost. If it had been any other thing we would have thrown it back into the sea … but these circumstances were different. I think it’s because of destiny.”

Mrs Gregory said it was ‘absolutely mindboggling’.

And if you’re wondering what sort of camera could survive such an ordeal, it was the Nikon P90. Expect the company to advertise its hard-wearing qualities very soon …

by Andy Moreton

A debate has been raging in the media about the decision by the cruise line Royal Caribbean International to continue to dock its ships at a private luxury resort in Haiti.

Passengers have been enjoying the beautiful expanse of white sand at Labadee, only 60 miles from the capital, Port-au-Prince, where up to 200,000 people are believed dead in the devastating earthquake.

The burning question has been: Should vacationers relax and have fun with so much suffering elsewhere on the island, or would it be worse to stop the port calls and deprive locals of what they earn from tourism?

One cruise passenger wrote:

“I just can’t see myself sunning on the beach, playing in the water, eating a barbecue, and enjoying a cocktail while [in Port-au-Prince] there are tens of thousands of dead people being piled up on the streets, with the survivors stunned and looking for food and water.”

But Royal Caribbean President and CEO, Adam Goldstein, defended the decision to continue with scheduled stops in Labadee. He said the site had sustained no damage and the Haitian government had welcomed the ship. The country reaped a fixed cost per passenger, plus annual fees and the cash that tourists spent on goods at a market where locals sold trinkets and crafts.

In addition, he said, Royal Caribbean was delivering food and water during every call and pledging $1 million (£620,000) plus net revenue from Labadee to the relief effort.

by Andy Moreton

Like many other people, I’ve always had a fascination with the Titanic, but I’m not sure it stretches to going on a cruise to recreate the ship’s maiden (and final) voyage.

It’s been announced that the cruise liner Balmoral will set sail from Southampton on April 8th 2012 to follow the exact route of the Titanic to commemorate the 100th anniversary of its sinking.

The passengers will enjoy the same menus as their Titanic predecessors, while music and dancing will also be from the era. Titanic experts will give lectures during the voyage.

A memorial ceremony will be held at the exact location where the Titanic sank in the early hours of April 15th 2012, claiming the lives of 1,517 passengers and crew. The journey will then continue to Halifax, Nova Scotia - the final resting place of many who were on board - before sailing on to New York, the doomed liner’s planned destination.

Will there be a rush for this rather sombre cruise? A spokesman for Miles Morgan Travel, which has chartered the Fred Olsen cruise liner for the voyage, is convinced there will be. “The Titanic still grips the imagination of people throughout the world and this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be part of a unique cruise packed with interest for those with a fascination for the Titanic story.”

The Balmoral will carry 1,309 paying passengers – the same number that travelled on the fateful Titanic voyage. The 12-night cruise, including flights back to the UK, will cost between £2,595 ($4,100) and £7,995 ($12,700). Details at www.titanicmemorialcruise.co.uk

Soon after the announcement of the memorial voyage came news that the last remaining survivor of the disaster, Millvina Dean, had died, aged 97. She was two months old at the time and survived in a lifeboat with her mother and brother. Her father died.

by Andy Moreton

One of the most famous cruise liners in the world, the QE2, is on her final voyage before she comes a floating hotel – in Dubai, where else?!

The Grande Dame of the seas had a slightly inauspicious entry into her home port of Southampton when she ran into a sandbank at dawn. But she was pulled off quite easily and arrived just 25 minutes late.

“No one on board was injured. A lot of people will have been in bed when it happened and wouldn’t have noticed,” said a spokesman for the owners, Cunard.

The Duke of Edinburgh was at Southampton to lead the farewell ceremonies for the ship, which has carried more than two-and-a-half million passengers since being launched by the Queen in 1967. It served as a hospital ship during the Falklands War in 1982.

Tickets for this last voyage were quickly snapped up, with the highest-priced berths going for around £28,000 ($41,000).
With the Queen Mary 2 now the flagship of the Cunard fleet, and with other vessels due to join, the company announced last year that the QE2 would be sold for £50 million ($73 million).

She’ll reach Dubai on November 26 and be handed over to Nakheel, part of the Dubai World company, which created the planet’s largest man-made island, the Palm Jumeirah.

After refurbishment over the next few months, the ship will dock permanently at a specially constructed berth to add yet another astonishing feature to an island that’s fast becoming one of the wonders of the modern world.

by Andy Moreton

Luxique offers the best rates at a dozen superb luxury hotels in Dubai.