P&O have today announced that Oceana is leaving the P&O fleet. In practice, with the current pause this is happening immediately – the announcement says “this month”. I’m not surprised by this. I have a feeling that this is all to do with Venice…. I’ll explain. For the last several years there have been de-facto […]
Category Archive for 'Venice'
Venice – more confusion and politics…
Posted in Cruise industry news, Venice on Aug 9th, 2019
There were several announcements yesterday (8 August 2019) which seemed to be indicating that as from September, cruise ships would be banned from Venice! I’ve been covering issues concerning cruise ships and Venice for quite some years, so obviously this story interested me. On investigation, the truth seems to be – well, I’m not quite […]
I’ve dug up some further information about the recent accident in Venice, and also some suggestions as to why nothing has happened about this issue over the last two years. First, it does now appear that the ship, MSC Opera, suffered some failure of the engine management system as a result of which it was […]
Following the collision between MSC Opera and a river vessel on 2 June, MSC Opera has remained docked in Venice at the Venice cruise terminal. During this time unspecified repairs have been performed on MSC Opera. MSC have published an update on their website as follows:- “Following the recent incident in the Port of Venice […]
More problems at Venice
Posted in Venice on Jun 3rd, 2019
Many readers will already have read about the collision yesterday between MSC Opera, a cruise ship of about 66,000 tons, and a river cruise boat. The collision happened as the Opera was passing along the Giudecca Canal. The ship went out of control and went into the quayside where the river cruise boat was moored. […]
New tourism charges in Venice
Posted in Venice on Jan 1st, 2019
Well, it has been nearly two months since i last posted here, for which I can only apologise. This has not been a cruise-y winter; I have been doing other things. But this will change in the New year! Here’s a link to an overview of what I’ll be doing then, and I shall be […]
Oceana cruise – pictures from Venice
Posted in 2018 Cruises, Oceana, Oceana 2018, P&O, Venice on Oct 1st, 2018
Now for the good stuff (I hope) – pictures from the day in Venice. These were all taken with the iPhone. I already knew that photography wasn’t allowed in the basilica on Torcello so I decided to go light and just take the phone. You can be the judge of how well that worked. First, […]
New Restrictions at Venice
Posted in Venice on Aug 7th, 2018
Continuing yesterday’s theme of protecting fragile environments, it’s time to look at Venice again. In fact, it turns out that I’m about 9 months or so late on this story – some decisions were made in November 2017 that I completely missed. I’m disappointed that I didn’t spot this at the time as over the […]
"Cruise tourists overwhelm Europe's ancient resorts"
Posted in Cruise industry, Venice on Jul 17th, 2017
I’m sure many people will have read this story on the BBC News website yesterday (16 July 2017). My response to the story has gone through the usual gamut of reactions – annoyance, analysis of the errors in the article, and eventual acceptance that there is a problem. I did notice the following issues that […]
Venice UNESCO 'World Heritage Site' possibly in danger – and cruise ships are being blamed
Posted in Cruise industry, Venice on May 30th, 2017
UNESCO currently lists 1052 sites, world-wide, that are officially recognised as ‘World Heritage Sites’. Italy is the current champion nation – it has 51 world heritage sites (the UK and British overseas Territories has 30). One of Italy’s greatest World Heritage sites is ‘Venice and its Lagoon’, and quite right too. However, there is a […]