While processing the latest set of photos taken on the most recent cruise it struck me that cruise ship-spotting while on a cruise ship is something I really enjoy and I don’t think I’m alone by a long stretch. I think it’s because people who cruise are either different anyway or find themselves temporarily transformed from people who travel by other means when they’re at sea. Have you ever been sat on a train, looked across the platforms, and really been keen to see what that other train was over there, where it was going, wonder what it was like aboard? Pretty unlikely. Have you ever in your adult life been on a bus as another one pulls up alongside and thought about waving to the complete strangers trying hard not to catch your eyes? Only if you want to get dragged off and thrown into an oubliette. Being on a cruise is different.
We’ve seen a lot of other cruise ships during our cruises. For some they have been ships that we’ve cruised on before or cruised on afterwards but in many instances the ships were from fleets we’ve not tried and, in some cases, probably never will. But they were all interesting enough to stare at, to photograph, to wonder where they were going and what it was like on them, and to wave at the people looking back at us who were probably thinking the same things. We’re definitely not at that train-spotting or plane-spotting level of fixation with other maritime passenger vessels (although we know some people who are) but just being on a cruise ship seems to automatically instil in us a certain level of interest in strangers sharing our passion for travelling at sea. It’s a good feeling.
This post, therefore, because the idea hit me, is simply a collection of cruise ships we’ve seen from the cruise ships we’ve been on to date.
On our first cruise (Diamond Princess in Asia in 2008) we never spotted another cruise ship the entire time. I’ve gone back and checked all the photos and videos we took from that occasion and while we saw plenty of oil tankers and cargo ships it was as if we were the only people cruising in that part of the world.
It would be five years before we took our second cruise and this was when we started to become aware that we weren’t alone on the sea in the slightest. As we left Southampton for the Norwegian fjords on Crown Princess in 2013 we were the first of four ships leaving the port. The honour of being the first other cruise ship we spotted while on a cruise belongs to P&O‘s Ventura while the other two ships in port on the same day were Royal Caribbean‘s Adventure of the Seas and P&O‘s Oceana (which was about to start a Strictly Come Dancing cruise).
The AIDA ships are so easy to spot from a distance thanks to their distinctive prow artwork and the first of their cruise ships we ever spotted from another one was the AIDAsol as we hit our first Norwegian port, Bergen.
The next port on this cruise saw us in Geiranger and here we found our ship sharing the stunningly beautiful location with P&O‘s Adonia and Celebrity Eclipse. This wouldn’t be the only time we’d see that latter ship on our travels.
When our ship Star Princess docked at Puerto Madryn in 2016 on our cruise around South America we spotted the distant sight of Celebrity Infinity.
Something a little different ship-wise alongside us when we arrived at Ushuaia (still our favourite port to have ever visited) was the National Geographic Explorer. Technically, it’s an expedition ship rather than a cruise ship but that’s quibbling; it’s a ship that takes paying passengers to far-flung destinations and, besides, this is my post and I can include it if I want.
We’d had such an incredible time on that South American cruise on Star Princess that immediately upon returning we’d looked for a good deal for another cruise as soon as possible. This led to us booking a week’s cruise aboard Royal Princess in the Mediterranean and as soon as we got into our cabin at Civitavecchia we saw we were not alone as Celebrity Eclipse had turned up at the same port as us for the second time.
Not exactly a cruise ship – actually a cruise ferry – but interesting enough to notice at the port of Naples (even if most of it was hidden behind some of the buildings along the dock) was the Moby Zazà with its distinctive Looney Tunes decorations.
In the gorgeous port of Kotor in Montenegro our ship had to tender ashore but there was no such inconvenience for the ship ahead of us, Cunard‘s Queen Victoria. We’ve always liked the look of Cunard ships but their policies regarding evening wear for men aboard are just too restrictive so it will take something pretty special to get us on one of their ships for a cruise.
The Queen Victoria accompanied us to our next port of call too, Corfu, but it was a busy day for the Greek island as we found ourselves sharing dock space with TUI‘s Mein Schiff 2 and the Costa Mediterranea. Mein Schiff 2 was formerly the Celebrity Mercury and is a sister ship to the Marella Explorer operated by TUI which was formerly Celebrity Galaxy. Got all that? Costa Cruises are a line that keeps interesting us because of their low prices. We know that will come at a cost but if we can ever find a good deal and interesting itinerary and have the time available to try them out we’re certainly going to.
As we approached Crete I was able to grab a shot of the docks before our cruise ship turned around and it was here that I spotted a few ferries (including Minoan Lines‘ Festos Palace) but nestled among them was the cruise ship Celestyal Olympia. This ship has had a long history and under one of its previous guises, Thomson Destiny, it was one of the first ships that my wife’s parents ever cruised on.
It took until our third cruise with P&O before we spotted any other cruise ship while aboard one of theirs. While we were awaiting a late departure from Southampton aboard Ventura I spotted in the dark and distance another P&O ship, Aurora.
Our last cruise with P&O was aboard Arcadia on a trip to France and Guernsey. While we were anchored off St Peter Port we saw CMV Magellan which was of some interest as we knew we’d be spending a night aboard another CMV ship (Astoria) later in that year. We actually bumped into some passengers from Magellan in the island’s capital and asked them about the ship and service; they were overflowing with praise for it and we did end up enjoying our short cruise on Astoria although our general opinion is that the ships of that fleet are just a little too small for us.
We got to see P&O‘s Ventura for the second time from a cruise ship when we ourselves were on Crown Princess for the second time on our Baltics cruise in 2017. We had a great view of the ship that we’d decided was our favourite of the P&O fleet as it sailed out of Southampton close to our aft balcony. There was plenty of staring and waving and photographing from the passengers of both ships, just the way it should be.
The first port of call on that cruise was Zeebrugge and after we’d docked but before we headed off on our excursion we got to see Oceania Marina slide in behind our ship. Being a luxury cruise line it’s unlikely – barring a lottery win – that we’ll cruise on any of Oceania’s fleet anytime soon although its itineraries look great.
On our approach to Stockholm through its famous archipelago we spotted the Silja Line Baltic Princess, another cruise ferry, in the same stretch of water. As we left Stockholm at the end of a day in port there we were followed all the way out to sea by a similar ship, possibly the Baltic Queen.
The first of our two days in the highlight port of this cruise, St Petersburg, had been without the company of any other ships. Waking on the second day we discovered that the AIDAdiva had docked while we were sleeping and when we left the Russian port later that day we realised it was not the only ship from that German cruise line there as the smaller vessel AIDAcara came into view as well.
We’ve never spotted a cruise ship at sea cruising while we’re cruising (I’m not counting when ships leave port at the same time as the vessel you’re on) but we did hear one on this Baltics cruise. We were in the pool on one of the sea days when an announcement was made that the Crown Princess would be passing by the Regal Princess heading in the opposite direction to us. We decided against getting out of the pool just to see this but were treated to duelling horn sounds from the two ships with the sounds of the Love Boat theme drifting across the water from Regal.
As we left Southampton on our 2018 cruise aboard Sapphire Princess we passed the Holland America Line ship Zuiderdam. HAL is another line we’ve not cruised with but they’re definitely on the radar. Like the Cunard ships we really like the classic, dark colouring on the hulls of their cruise ships and everything we’ve read seems to indicate they’re a bit like Princess but for the slightly older generation which might suit us in years to come as we generally can’t stand young people.
The next cruise ship we got to see on our travels was another HAL ship, this being the smaller vessel Amsterdam. This was at Yokohama and the view from our balcony where we started our 2018 cruise aboard Diamond Princess.
On the opposite side of Diamond Princess we could see another ship nearby. Clearly a lot older, this was the Hikawa Maru, now a museum ship but formerly a Japanese ocean liner that made its maiden voyage in 1930.
As Diamond Princess came alongside in Xiamen, China we could just about see that there was another ship ahead of us in the dock. Our view, though, wasn’t great and the best shot I could get of the ship was an abstract reflection in the windows of the building opposite our balcony. We could see it had a yellow funnel but we could also tell that all the passengers disembarking it and heading ashore were Chinese, many of them in matching outfits for some reason, and as we couldn’t see any other cruises scheduled for the port we assumed that what we were seeing was a Chinese cruise line’s ship of some description.
This turned out to be wrong, though, as while the ship was only carrying Chinese passengers it was from a well-known cruise line, Costa. A little bit of detective work after the fact led me to this page where it indicates:
The passenger volume [in Xiamen] exceeded 10,000 in just one day, when the Diamond Princess and Costa Atlantica, two major international cruise ships, docked simultaneously on Oct 20. […] The Costa Atlantica, from the largest cruise ship company in Europe, Costa Crociere, carried more than 2,600 domestic visitors headed for Manila, Philippines, marking the peak season of routes along the route of the Belt and Road Initiative. […] Over 90 percent of the cruise tourists are hoping to experience Mazu culture, said a spokesman of the Chunhui Tourist Group. It is the second time this year that the port has opened a themed cruise route featuring cultural experiences to enhance economic and cultural exchanges with the countries and regions involved in the Belt and Road Initiative, according to a spokesman for Xiamen International Cruise Home Port.
The article helpfully provides a view of the two ships in port too. Photo by Xiamen Daily.
In Hong Kong harbour it was great to see Starry Metropolis operated by Metropolis Cruise. This 1976-built ship is closer to a floating hotel than an actual cruise ship but she still counts as far as I’m concerned and she’s got a great history. One of five Belorussiya-class cruise ferries built in Finland for the USSR and in use on the Black Sea she was originally named Karelia before a stint as the Leonid Brezhnev. She was converted to a cruise ship in the 1980s and is now a casino-based cruiser in Hong Kong waters.
On this year’s cruise from Chile to Los Angeles (write-up still to appear on this site at time of posting) aboard Star Princess it took us until the 11th day before we saw another cruise ship. This happened in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico where in addition to us the port was receiving passengers from Royal Princess and Carnival Splendor. We’ve not been on any Carnival ships and it would seem unlikely that’s going to change in the future; they’re not really our sort of thing by all accounts and I don’t particularly like the look of their ships either.
On the following day we cruised past Cabo San Lucas and could see a cruise ship docked at the popular resort. Based on the hull artwork I’ve determined this was the NCL Norwegian Star. We know some people who’ve cruised with NCL and liked their experiences but for some reason they’re not a line that seems to factor into our planning whenever we’re looking ahead at future cruises.
Our most recent cruise has been on the Celebrity Silhouette (again, write-ups yet to be posted at time of posting) for a taster trip to Amsterdam. In the Dutch capital we got to see two brand new ships of two different lines in the port on consecutive days. Already there when we docked was the HAL cruise ship Niuew Statendam, only a few months old and a ship whose godmother is Oprah Winfrey. We passed very close to this cruise ship.
On the following day as we left Amsterdam the dock space previously occupied by Nieuw Statendam had been taken over by the latest addition to the Viking Cruises fleet, Viking Jupiter, which just prior to our visit to the Netherlands had stopped in at our home city of Portsmouth. Viking do interest us and they’re a definite maybe in future years.
So far, then, that’s all the cruise ships we’ve seen and seen fit to photograph while on our cruises around the world. We’ve plenty more booked up, though, so loads more opportunities to add to this collection over the coming years.