Cruises from Southampton and Beyond!

Passengers aboard the Spirit of Discovery—Saga Cruises— recently endured a traumatic experience as the ship battled a fierce storm in the Bay of Biscay. The storm triggered the ship’s safety system, resulting in a sudden veer to the left and a prolonged standstill—15 hours.

The incident occurred on a 14-day cruise to the Canary Islands. About 100 of the thousand or so passengers sustained mostly minor injuries, while five individuals required hospitalization.

In response to the injuries, the dining room was transformed into a makeshift medical area, and passengers were instructed to stay in their cabins, emphasizing the severity of the situation.

Despite the turmoil, many passengers commended the crew and captain for maintaining regular communication and providing updates and reassurance. This proactive approach was crucial in managing the situation and maintaining calm during the storm.

Saga, the cruise company, confirmed “very limited” damage inside the ship and assured that safety was maintained throughout.

P&O Cruises has announced its new holiday collection of cruises for the winter of 2025/26. It features a variety of exciting options to choose from, including Caribbean fly-cruise holidays aboard Britannia, an extended northern lights cruise on Aurora—a 75-night Grand Tour around South America— a 100-night Eastern Circumnavigation World Cruise on Arcadia and a special Christmas markets cruise on Arcadia.

Cruisez is slowly adding these cruises.

Earlier this year, P&O Cruises revealed plans to improve Wi-Fi connectivity on its ships by partnering with SpaceX’s Starlink. With Starlink’s cutting-edge Low Earth Orbit satellite technology, guests can expect faster speeds for activities like streaming movies, sharing media, and accessing onboard content.

It is common for satellite internet services to rely on geostationary satellites positioned 35,786 km from Earth, resulting in higher latency—the time data takes to transfer across a network. However, Starlink has a network of satellites that orbit much closer to Earth at approximately 550 km, which significantly reduces lag to around 25 ms compared to 600+ms previously.

The Starlink service was launched in public areas on P&O Cruises ships Britannia and Azura in July 2023. The goal is to expand Starlink’s accessibility to public spaces and cabins in Arvia, Iona, Ventura, Arcadia, and Aurora by the end of 2023.

Silver Dawn entered service with Silversea Cruises in April 2022. This new ship is a sister ship to Silver Moon and, until Silver Nova arrives in the summer of 2023, at 40,844 tonnes, the largest ship in the fleet.