Sailing with Silversea has never been more affordable with their fantastic range of all-inclusive fares starting from just £2,299. With most fares featuring complimentary flights and transfers, and up to $1,000 onboard spending credit per suite, there has never been a better time to book a Silversea voyage.

Plus Silversea offers complimentary business class flights on a selection of voyages. Hurry these offers are available for a limited time only!

Exceptional luxury. irresistible fares from £2,299

Fares include:

- Roundtrip flights and transfers*
- Up to $1,000 onboard spending credit per suite*
– Butler service for every suite
– Fine wines, spirits and champagne
– All ocean-view accommodation
– In-suite bar stocked with your preferred selections
– 24-hour room service
– In-suite dining served course by course
– All gratuities
– Expedition excursions (Silver Explorer only)
– Transportation into town (most ports)

*most voyages. Excludes Silver Explorer

Fares are in Vista Suites per person double occupancy in Pounds Sterling and On Board Credits are US Dollars per Suite

NORTHERN EUROPE 2012

08-May 1213 12 days Monte Carlo – Rouen (Paris) Silver Cloud £3,599 (B) $1,000
10-May 1214 10 days Rouen (Paris) – Copenhagen Silver Cloud £2,999 (B) $1,000
13-May 4211 11 days Roundtrip Southampton Silver Whisper £3,899 – $1,000
24-May 4212 11 days Southampton – Copenhagen Silver Whisper £3,699 (E) $1,000
30-May 1215 12 days Copenhagen – London (Tower Bridge) Silver Cloud £3,699 (B) $1,000
18-Jun 4215 7 days Copenhagen – St Petersburg Silver Whisper £2,599 (B) $500
10-Jul 1218 16 days Copenhagen – London (Tower Bridge) Silver Cloud £4,899 (E) $1,000
16-Jul 4219 10 days Stockholm – Southampton Silver Whisper £3,899 (E) $1,000
26-Jul 1219A 9 days London (Tower Bridge) – Reykjavik Silver Cloud £2,799 (E) $1,000
26-Jul 4220A 9 days Southampton – Lisbon Silver Whisper £3,699 (E) $1,000
04-Aug 1219B 9 days Reykjavik – London (Tower Bridge) Silver Cloud £2,799 (E) $1,000
04-Aug 4220B 9 days Lisbon – Southampton Silver Whisper £3,699 (E) $1,000
13-Aug 1220 14 days London (Tower Bridge) – Monte Carlo Silver Cloud £4,499 (E) $1,000
13-Aug 4221 10 days Southampton – Stockholm Silver Whisper £3,699 (E) $1,000
23-Aug 4222 7 days Stockholm – Copenhagen Silver Whisper £2,799 (E) $500
30-Aug 4223 7 days Copenhagen – Stockholm Silver Whisper £2,799 (B) $500
06-Sep 4224 12 days Stockholm – Southampton Silver Whisper £4,099 (E) $1,000

MEDITERRANEAN 2012

26-Apr 5211 9 days Lisbon – Monte Carlo Silver Spirit £2,399 (E) $1,000
05-May 5211A 12 days Roundtrip Monte Carlo Silver Spirit £2,899 (E) $1,000
17-May 5212 7 days Monte Carlo – Barcelona Silver Spirit £2,599 (E) $500
04-Jun 2217 9 days Piraeus (Athens) – Civitavecchia (Rome) Silver Wind £3,099 (B) $1,000
25-Jun 5217 7 days Istanbul – Piraeus (Athens) Silver Spirit £2,699 (E) $500
02-Jul 5218 7 days Piraeus (Athens) – Venice Silver Spirit £2,699 (E) $500
16-Jul 5220 7 days Monte Carlo – Barcelona Silver Spirit £2,899 (E) $500
23-Jul 5221 11 days Barcelona – Venice Silver Spirit £4,599 (E) $1,000
29-Jul 2223 9 days Piraeus (Athens) – Venice Silver Wind £2,899 (E) $1,000
03-Aug 5222 10 days Venice – Istanbul Silver Spirit £4,199 (E) $1,000
07-Aug 2224 9 days Venice – Monte Carlo Silver Wind £3,299 (E) $1,000
13-Aug 5223 7 days Istanbul – Piraeus (Athens) Silver Spirit £2,699 (E) $500
20-Aug 5224 7 days Piraeus (Athens) – Venice Silver Spirit £3,099 (E) $500
23-Aug 2226 11 days Civitavecchia (Rome) – Piraeus (Athens) Silver Wind £3,199 (E) $1,000
27-Aug 1221 9 days Monte Carlo – Barcelona Silver Cloud £3,099 (E) $1,000
27-Aug 5225 7 days Venice – Monte Carlo Silver Spirit £2,699 (E) $500
03-Sep 5226 7 days Monte Carlo – Barcelona Silver Spirit £2,599 (E) $500
05-Sep 1222 9 days Barcelona – Civitavecchia (Rome) Silver Cloud £3,099 (B) $1,000
10-Sep 5227 7 days Barcelona – Civitavecchia (Rome) Silver Spirit £2,599 (B) $500
17-Sep 5228 7 days Civitavecchia (Rome) – Venice Silver Spirit £2,599 (E) $500
24-Sep 2230 7 days Piraeus (Athens) – Venice Silver Wind £2,299 (E) $500
24-Sep 5229 7 days Venice – Piraeus (Athens) Silver Spirit £2,599 (E) $500
01-Oct 5230 7 days Piraeus (Athens) – Istanbul Silver Spirit £2,599 (E) $500
08-Oct 5231 7 days Istanbul – Piraeus (Athens) Silver Spirit £2,599 (B) $500
10-Oct 2232 9 days Istanbul – Piraeus (Athens) Silver Wind £2,899 (B) $1,000
15-Oct 5232 7 days Piraeus (Athens) – Civitavecchia (Rome) Silver Spirit £2,599 (B) $500
19-Oct 2233 12 days Piraeus (Athens) – Istanbul Silver Wind £3,799 (E) $1,000
22 Oct 5233 7 days Civitavecchia (Rome) – Barcelona Silver Spirit £2,599 (B) $500
29-Oct 5234 9 days Barcelona – Las Palmas Silver Spirit £2,999 (B) $1,000
31-Oct 2234 12 days Istanbul – Piraeus (Athens) Silver Wind £3,499 (B) $1,000
07-Nov 5235 9 days Roundtrip Las Palmas Silver Spirit £2,999 (E) $1,000

FAR EAST 2012

14-Mar 4207 12 days Shanghai – Bangkok Silver Shadow £4,799 (E) $1,000
06-May 3212 11 days Shanghai – Tokyo Silver Shadow £3,599 (E) $1,000

ALASKA 2012

07-Jun 3215 7 days Vancouver – Seward Silver Shadow £2,299 £499 $500
30-Aug 3226 7 days Seward – Vancouver Silver Shadow £2,299 Call $500

ARABIA 2012

13-Apr 4209 18 days Dubai – Monte Carlo Silver Whisper £6,099 (E) $1,000
12-Nov 2235 16 days Piraeus (Athens) – Dubai Silver Wind £4,299 (E) $1,000

CARIBBEAN 2012

24-Mar 5208 10 days Roundtrip Fort Lauderdale Silver Spirit £2,799 (E) $1,000
03-Apr 5209 9 days Fort Lauderdale – Bridgetown Silver Spirit £2,599 £399 $1,000
12-Apr 5210 14 days Bridgetown – Lisbon Silver Spirit £2,899 £199 $1,000

SILVERSEA EXPEDITIONS 2012

16-Mar 7207 12 days Callao – Puerto Caldera Silver Explorer £2,399 Call for flights
04-Apr 7209 10 days Colon – Bridgetown Silver Explorer £1,999 Call for flights
07-May 7211 12 days Lisbon – Portsmouth Silver Explorer £2,899 Call for flights
19-Aug 7220 14 days Tromso – Dublin Silver Explorer £4,099 Call for flights
02-Sep 7221 14 days Dublin – Santa Cruz De Tenerife Silver Explorer £3,899 Call for flights
16-Sep 7222 17 days Santa Cruz De Tenerife – Accra Silver Explorer £5,299 Call for flights

E = Complimentary Economy Class flights & transfers B = Complimentary Business Class flights & transfers

To book your ocean-view suite or for more information, please call Gay Scruton at The Cruise People Ltd in London on 020 7723 2450 or e-mail cruise@cruisepeople.co.uk.

Subject to Silversea’s terms and conditions and subject to availability.

days

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A choice of 6-, 7- and 10-night departures from Venice plus a 10-night itinerary from Venice to Piraeus (Athens) or a special 5-night sailing from Itea to Venice to begin the season in May all beckon.

Consult Compagnie du Ponant’s 2012 Adriatic yacht cruise brochure here.

For further details on any Compagnie du Ponant cruises please call The Cruise People Ltd in London on 020 7723 2450 or e-mail cruise@cruisepeople.co.uk.

          by Kevin Griffin

Three ships run in cargo-passenger service from Tilbury to the US East Coast, the Pacific islands of Tahiti, Fiji and New Caledonia and on to Australia. A twin Owners cabin and two double cabins are offered on each of the CMA CGM Manet, CMA CGM Matisse and CMA CGM Utrillo from Tilbury, Rotterdam, Dunkirk and Le Havre to Australia. Each carries six passengers but they are all fully booked through to 2013 so bookings have to be made a year or more in advance.

However, due to a cancellation, the Owners Cabin is once again available on board the CMA CGM Matisse from Tilbury, with departure on or about May 18, 2012. But book it now if you want it as it won’t be available for long.

The fare is €4,730 (£4,095) per person including full board, port charges and complimentary French wine with lunch and dinner. Sole occupancy of the same cabin is €5,160 (£4,465). Non-US and Canadian citizens will need full US visas as cargo ships are not included in the various visa waiver programs (also known as ESTA).

The Owners Cabin has twin beds and its own door into the Passenger Lounge. Common areas include a Gymnasium and Library on Deck B, Passenger Lounge on Deck E with TV, video, DVD and indoor Swimming Pool.

Port rotation for this voyage is Tilbury – Rotterdam – Dunkirk – Le Havre – New York – Savannah – Kingston (Jamaica) – Manzanillo (Panama) – Panama Canal – Papeete (Tahiti) – Lautoka (Fiji) – Noumea (New Caledonia) – Sydney.

To book this cabin please call Miri Lopusna at The Cruise People Ltd in London on 020 7723 2450 as soon as possible or e-mail cruise@cruisepeople.co.uk.

CMA CGM is now the third largest container line in the world, but its illustrious history includes some of the world’s greatest ocean liners, such as the Paris, Ile de France,  Normandie, Liberté and France. It was in recognition of this past that, after CMA acquired the state-owned CGM in 1996, CMA CGM chairman and ceo Jacques Saadé instructed that passenger accommodation be installed in a number of their newbuilding container ships. Many CMA CGM ships to this day still carry up to twelve passengers each, the maximum number allowed on a cargo ship.

The Cruise People first announced the introduction to service of the giant container ship CMA CGM Christophe Colomb in November 2009 but in her initial period of service the passenger accommodation was reserved for company guests and VIPs. More recently, the 13,800 TEU CMA CGM Christophe Colomb and sister ships have been operating on French Asia Line 5, but with a recent realignment of Far East schedules with the Mediterranean Shipping Company, these ships are now transferring to the French Asia Line 1.

Voyages now commence in Southampton and calls are made in  Hamburg, Bremerhaven,  Zeebrugge, Le Havre and Malta before the ship sails for Khor Fakkan, Jebel Ali, Ningbo, Shanghai, Xiamen, Nansha, Hong Kong, Chiwan and Yantian, returning via Port Kelang and Tanger Med to Southampton, a full round voyage of 77 days.

Along with five ships of the 11,400 TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit) “Cassiopea” class, five French-flag and two British-flag 13,800 TEU ships, the largest passenger-carrying container ships in the world, have been placed onto the French Asia Line 1 route and a brief description follows:

French flag:  CMA CGM Christophe Colomb, CMA CGM La Perouse and CMA CGM Amerigo Vespucci.  British flag:  CMA CGM Magellan and CMA CGM Corte Real.

Cabins and Suites: Each ship has five passenger cabins on Deck F. Each Cabin or Suite is fitted with: refrigerator, sofa, coffee table, desk, an easy chair, wardrobe and chest of drawers, wall mirror and private lavatory unit with shower, washbasin and WC. Double beds measure 200 x 160 cm (6’6½” x 5’3″) and twin beds 200 x 120 cm (6’6½” x 3’11¼”) each. Suite E-718: about 37 m² (398 sq ft), twin beds, two side windows and three windows aft, plus 14 m² (150 sq ft) Terrace Deck with the cabin; Cabin A-701: about 30 m² (323 sq ft), one double bed, three forward and two side windows; Cabins B-712 & C-714: about 23 m² (248 sq ft), one double bed, three forward windows; Cabin D-716: about 23 m² (248 sq ft), one double bed, two forward and two side windows.

Public Areas: Gymnasium, about 28 m² (300 sq ft), on Deck A, Ping-Pong table, rowing machine, home trainer, darts; Swimming Pool on Deck A; Passenger Lounge, on Deck F, fitted with a game table, TV and DVD reader ;Library on Deck F with a desk; Officers Mess Room (by invitation only). Like the “Christophe Colombe” class ships, the slightly smaller (but still huge)  “Cassiopea” class also feature five double cabins and similar public areas.

Fares: Valid from February 2012 in Euros, per day and per person, covering travel with full board and complimentary wine with lunch and dinner, including port charges.  Cabins €110 per person per day in double occupany, or €110 for single occupancy. For Owners Suite, please contact us for details. Note: For voyages of less than 10 days duration, daily fare is €130 (double occupancy), and €150 (single occupancy).

For further details and information on any of these voyages please call Miri Lopusna at The Cruise People Ltd in London on 020 7273 2450 or e-mail cruise@cruisepeople.co.uk.

The Spirit of Chartwell’s owner, the Magna Carta Steamship Company, also owns the Lord of the Glens, cruising in Scotland. The décor on Spirit of Chartwell includes artefacts from the Lalique-designed Orient Express dining car “Côte d’Azur,” highlight of which is a series of exquisite glass panels of classical figures, together with thirty-three original armchairs that have been painstakingly restored.

She also displays fittings from the ocean liners France, including wall lights in most of the cabins, and Windsor Castle, from which have come two magnificent portholes in the main lounge, bathroom fittings, bar stools and a fine clock. Above this, Spirit of Chartwell’s observation deck offers alfresco dining and the ideal vantage point from which to view the passing scenery, with her opulent lounge bar providing a tranquil retreat from English weather.

The big news broke just before Christmas when Spirit of Chartwell was chosen to be the Royal Barge for the Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant, carrying Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II down the Thames in celebration of her sixty-years on the throne. The pageant, to take place on Sunday, June 3, will see almost 1,000 vessels of different kinds either travelling the Thames or greeting the flotilla as it makes it way downstream. Up to 30,000 flag-waving members of the public are expected to be on board the various passenger-carrying vessels.

Accommodating the Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh and other members of the Royal Family, Spirit of Chartwell will be the centrepiece of the pageant, decorated and adorned for the occasion at the head of the royal section of the flotilla. The Prince of Wales will also play a key role as Patron of the Pageant. The Spirit’s owner, Philip Morrell, who founded Voyages Jules Verne in 1978 and sold that firm to Kuoni in 1998, has donated the use of Spirit of Chartwell to the Queen for the pageant, after which she will return to cruising the Thames.

Spirit of Chartwell’s usual voyage, called “Memories of London,” starts at Canary Wharf, sails downstream towards the Thames Barrier then upstream past London’s iconic landmarks and the Houses of Parliament before returning to Canary Wharf. Calls are made at Greenwich and Tate Britain and an overnight stay is offered in stateroom accommodation. For this voyage, guests embark at noon at Canary Wharf, where there is parking available, and either disembark at 9:30 pm after dinner or remain on board overnight in a stateroom.

This celebratory package includes champagne reception, three-course luncheon, afternoon tea and five-course gala dinner, and is priced from £195 per person for six or £265 per person as a couple. An overnight stay is an additional £75 per person and a further optional excursion from Windsor to Cliveden is available for £95 per person.

For passengers sailing on cruise ships from ports in the south of England, a special 2- or 3-night package will be available as a pre- or post-cruise visit to London’s River Thames. Including both the Spirit of Chartwell and her smaller fleetmate Passepartout, this package will depart on Sundays and cover both the lower and upper Thames.

Travellers will embark Spirit of Chartwell at Canary Wharf in the late afternoon, with the evening reserved for an exploration of London or the theatre before retiring to the vessel at her overnight moorings. Rising in the morning for breakfast among the gleaming towers of the new era, guests will later join the Captain for a champagne reception before sailing downstream towards the Thames Barrier. Lunch will be served while sailing upstream to Greenwich, the first call.

There will be time to explore Greenwich’s Maritime Museum, the Observatory, the Cutty Sark and the village itself before setting off upstream again, passing the famous Prospect of Whitby pub, the wharves at Wapping, Tower Bridge, the Tower of London, St Paul’s Cathedral, Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, the Millennium Wheel, the Houses of Parliament and Lambeth Palace. Afternoon tea will be served before reaching Millbank, for the Tate Britain Gallery and Westminster Abbey.

A gala dinner will then be served in the George Bradshaw Lounge, during which the voyage will conclude with a pass under London’s impressive bridges, to re-enter Canary Wharf’s West India Dock for another overnight stay.

On the third day, after breakfast, guests will disembark from Spirit of Chartwell and travel by limousine to Windsor for an exploration of the town and castle before continuing on to the Thames-side Oakley Court Hotel. From that hotel’s private quay, guests will embark on the 75-foot Passepartout, a vessel resembling an Amsterdam canal cruiser with very large scenic windows, at both sides and overhead, travelling upstream from Windsor to Maidenhead and Bray, as far as Cliveden Reaches, with its impressive river views up to Cliveden House.

Set in 375 acres of grounds, Cliveden House, once home of the Astors, has hosted every British monarch since George I as well as Charlie Chaplin, Winston Churchill, Harold Macmillan, Franklin Roosevelt and George Bernard Shaw, among many others. From Cliveden, the Passepartout will return to Windsor in the early evening, for a shoreside sojourn at the delightful Oakley Court Hotel, set of many films, that overlooks a pastoral river scene full of graceful swans, all owned by HM the Queen. Lunch will be served on board and an overnight stay at the Oakley Court Hotel will be optional.

Meanwhile, north of the border, in Scotland, Magna Carta’s third vessel, the 729-ton Lord of the Glens, is another vessel with the appeal of a luxury yacht, with all-round teak-clad viewing and promenade decks and rich mahogany interiors. She features twenty-seven luxury staterooms to accommodate 54 guests, a bar, lounge and a restaurant that accommodates all passengers in one sitting.

The 150-foot Lord of the Glens can navigate both the Caledonian Canal that crosses Scotland and the open sea, and was designed to meet exacting criteria in terms of her dimensions and to satisfy the stringent safety requirements of the UK Marine authorities. To this end, Spanish craftsmen rebuilt the vessel in 2000 using the finest materials and equipment.

The Lord of the Glens’ spring and autumn seasons offer 5-night sheltered water cruising through the Scottish Highlands from £744 per person, while summer offerings include 7-night cruises from Inverness to the Kyle of Lochalsh from £1,481, and 10-night cruises from the Kyle of Lochalsh to Inverness from £1,994 per person.

For further details on any of these departures, other than the Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant, please call The Cruise People Ltd in London on 020 7723 2450 or e-mail cruise@cruisepeople.co.uk.

Both Sea Spirit and Ocean Diamond will be used in Antarctica, together with a third ISP fleetmate, the 4,376-ton 122-berth Clipper Adventurer, all of which will sail from Quark’s usual base port of Ushuaia, Argentina.

In the meantime, two of Quark’s previous mainstays, the 110-berth Russian-owned 6,450-ton Akademik Ioffe and 6,344-ton Akademik Sergey Vavilov, are moving over one at a time to be operated by Vancouver-based independent One Ocean Expeditions.

In her first season with Quark, from November 2012 to March 2013, Ocean Diamond will perform two 19-night cruises to Antarctica, the Falklands and South Georgia, from $9,695 per person on November 3 or $12,795 on December 26, and eight departures to the Antarctic Peninsula, from $4,295 for 9 nights or $4,795 for 11 nights.

As part of her introductory season, Quark is offering a 25% early booking reduction on all Ocean Diamond departures booked by 30th April 2012. Savings of up to $7,000 can be applied to upgrades to larger cabins or shore excursions or simply remain in your bank account.

Sea Spirit will undertake nine cruises to the Antarctic Peninsula and a cruise to Antarctica, the Falklands and South Georgia, at the same starting fares as Ocean Diamond, plus a 13-night departure to the Weddell Sea, from $11,995, and a 14-night cruise to the Peninsula that will cross of the Antarctic Circle, starting at $12,795, and a 15-night early season cruise on October 28 that will concentrate on South Georgia, from $10,295 per person.

Clipper Adventurer, meanwhile, will perform two new expedition voyages for Quark. Known as the “Antarctic Express,” this will involve two charter aircraft flying the Drake Passage to King Edward Island, where passengers will join ship, 7 nights from $7,995 per person. At the beginning of these cruises, the option will be to sail south and fly north, from $9,995 for 9 nights, and at the end fly south and sail north, from $6,395 for 8 nights, for a total of four shorter cruises that will avoid a double crossing of the Drake Passage.

Clipper Adventurer will kick off the season with a single Antarctica, Falklands and South Georgia voyage and will also perform nine Antarctic Peninsula voyages from Ushuaia, with fares similar to Ocean Diamond and Sea Spirit.

Various ships will be chosen to perform different cruises in the Arctic thereafter. For this summer, these will be offered by the Akademik Sergey Vavilov, in her final Quark season, and the chartered Russian icebreaker Kapitan Dranitsyn, which will be offering two cruises from Murmansk, one to Franz Josef Land, 12 nights from $12,995 per person, and one to both Novaia Zemlia and Franz Josef Land, 14 nights from $15,995. Either the Sea Spirit or Ocean Diamond will be used in the Arctic and Spitsbergen in 2013.

And speaking of Russian icebreakers, efforts are apparently also being made to bring back the Kapitan Khlebnikov for further Antarctic departures in the future as well. While we await further news from Quark, it is quite clear that they are in the course of upgrading their fleet to a higher level of comfort than in past years, with ice-strengthened cruise ships replacing the chartered scientific research vessels used in the past. Both the Sea Spirit and Ocean Diamond are known for having worked for more upmarket concerns during their own past careers.

For further details on any Quark Expeditions departure please call Miri Lopusna at The Cruise People Ltd on 020 7723 2450 or e-mail cruise@cruisepeople.co.uk.