Freighter Cruises

[stevesherratt]

Hi I retire in June and we fancy one more trip!

Has anyone used Freighter Cruises as I don’t fancy arriving at Gibb with a few thousand others?

Steve R770014 South Derbyshire

[Graham Payne]

Hi Steve, awaite any responses with interest, good idea.

[Captain Kong]

Hi Steve,
The problem with cargo ship cruises, that they are all container ships and all container berths are miles out of town, there are no coaches laid on, also they are only in for a few hours, go down the quay dodging containers under the cranes, and try and phone a taxi to get up town and then get a taxi back and in that short time what have you seen ? crabs nada. Not a bit like the old ships of Blue Star or Fyffes that carried 12 passengers and had plenty of time in some good ports
They do not have the facilities for entertainment, you dine in the officers mess, with maybe a couple of Croatian engineers, a Nigerian Second Mate, an Iranian Mate and a Polish Captain. Not very good for a stimulating conversation every day, with the reduction of crews on most ships they could be quite lonely ships.the watch keepers turn in early and you sit alone in the lounge.BORING. A friend of ours did it about three years ago, not happy, Also I believe they are quite expensive for what you get, you stay in an spare engineers cabin.

Give me a Queen any day.excellent service, entertainment, lots of good company. and a better class of Ports,
I am off in five weeks to San Diego, I am staying on the old Queen Mary, in Long Beach, for a few days, lovely ship, been on her now about seven times every time I go to California.
Then I join the ROTTERDAM, HOLLAND AMERICA, max 1400 passengers, in San Diego, then it is a 30 day cruise to four Hawaiian Islands, Fanning Island, Kiribati , the Cook Islands to Rarotonga, got friends there, the Marquesses, Nuke Hiva, Tahiti to see friends there, Moorea to see some more friends, Bora Bora, Raiitai then a five day sail back to San Diego, three days in San Diego and then two days on the Queen Mary again then Fly home from LA,
Paradise, beats the hell out of a container berth.
Enjoy your retirement Steve. If I had known retirement was so good I would have retired 50 years ago.

[Gulliver]

Check out the Grimaldi website. 35 day round cruises from Soton or Bristol to the Med.(departing every week) on their car carriers-lots of open space on top deck !
You can check out details,itineraries,prices etc. by clicking Euro Med link on their webpage.
Regards
Gulliver

http://www.grimaldi-freightercruises.com/indenen.htm

[stevesherratt]

Will take on board what you say Brian, and I will have a look at Gulliver’s “grimaldi” site. However with 10 years in VLCCs I know all about terminals “out of town”

It does seem to be almost as costly as passenger liners and Cruise ships.

I am enjoying the research, regards and thanks again.

Steve R770014

[happy daze john in oz]

Interesting thing about cruise ships and their tonnage. Last one I was on was registered gross tonnage of 77,441 and net of 44,193.
I know the net is calculated by taking engine, store room, fuel cappacity and all other non public area from the gross to obtain net for the purpose of port taxes and charges.
But why is the Suez N.R.T. 71,000? Why is that calculated in a different manner, any answers?

[robpage]

The Suez Canal Net Tonnage (SCNT) is derived with a number of modifications from the former net register tonnage of the Moorsom System and was established by the International Commission of Constantinople in its Protocol of 18 December 1873. It is still in use, as amended by the Rules of Navigation of the Suez Canal Authority, and is registered in the Suez Canal Tonnage Certificate.

In 1849 Great Britain appointed a Commission with Admiral George Moorsom as secretary to resolve the problems. The Commission determined that fees should be proportional to the earning capacity of the ship, whether for cargo or passengers.
The result was called The Moorsom System, which set forth the rules for the measurement of the internal volume of entire ship. The total internal volume was then divided by 100 ft³ to produce the gross tonnage. Net tonnage was the volume remaining after subtracting the volume of the space used for machinery and other non-revenue producing functions[1].
The Commission sought to avoid a significant change in the fees charged to an existing vessel when the new system was implemented. George Moorsom ordered the entire fleet of British merchant ships to be measured according to the new System and then divided the total gross tonnage by the total registered tonnage. The result was 98.22 ft³ per gross ton, which was rounded to 100 ft³ per ton.[2]

From Wikipedia

[happy daze john in oz]

Thanks Rob, that answerers that one very well.

[corrientes]

Try this:

www.cruisepeople.co.uk/transat.htm

There are some others of the same ilk.

[bill roberts]

HI ALL HERE IS A NOTHER SITE ABOUT FREIGHTER CRUISES HOPE IT OF HELP http://www.seaplus.com/shipping.php ALL THE BEST BILL BE GOOD.