Tuesday 20 July 2021

Freedom?

19 July 2021. Freedom Day apparently. But not if you invoke the rath of the more vocal residents of Mann Island in Liverpool, nor of their representative Councillor Nick Small. 

On Sunday Cllr Small tweeted:
(Note he had already restricted who could reply)
 
It was the last line that infuriated me, and others, “We need a new dispersal order”. Together with the suggestion in other tweets that young people should only be allowed to engage in “organised” and controlled activities, at a cost of course. 

My response (below) earned me an immediate block from Cllr Small.
Scallymag had picked up the story, and alas their response got them blocked too. Cllr Small seems to have spent his Sunday evening blocking anyone who dared to disagree with his stance.

They also posted a link to the excellent piece by The Wilk entitled:
Criminalising the youth problematic headlines and dispersal orders/

There was a lot of twitter traffic about it over the course of the following 24 hours, and I’m grateful to @ArmitageAndi and others for trying to get to the bottom of what the problems are at Mann Island.

Moving onto “Freedom Day” and on my way home from work I walked along the waterfront. As I got by the Museum of Liverpool I noticed the Merseyside Police Van parked up at Mann Island, three officers armed with their green pads were busy telling kids, and adults, that a Section 34 Dispersal Order was in place and they should move on. This was not true and there was no such Order at that time. If a Dispersal Order is in place it must be displayed in an obvious place or published in a local newspaper, none had been. In fact I contacted Merseyside Police to ask if an order had been issued. I still haven’t had a reply.  I spoke to one of the officers and asked him for details of the Dispersal Order, he just walked away without answering.

What then transpired, apparently, is that (two hours before) complaints were made about youths playing on the inflatable installation in Dukes Dock and pushing children into the dock.  A group of youths had run off towards the Arena and later a 17 year old was arrested on suspicion of carrying a knife.  So that at 21:32, the Arena and Dukes Dock matters, and Cllr Small's call for action had been combined and the Police issued a Dispersal Notice for the entire waterfront area. Remember, this was over two hours after the officers were saying it was already in place.
The incident where a young man from Walton was arrested is unfortunately being mixed up with the issue of young people swmming in Dukes Dock, and with people using the Amphitheatre in Mann Island. The three matters are unconnected, but serve as a useful ploy for the Mann Island residents to get what they really want which is a ban on the public from using what they see as their private space.

Tuesday morning and as if on cue the Liverpool Echo have put their usual negative spin on events with an article entitled Yobs gatecrash aqua park  accompanied by the usual replies of “feral youths” wandering the streets stabbing people.

 Neither the Police nor the Echo ever mentioned a “stabbing” and to the best of my knowledge nobody was stabbed, but that doesn’t stop the image, conveniently, getting out that there was, and thus the draconian use of S34 Dispersal Orders is justified. The Echo haven’t investigated any of this btw, they just print what the Police want them to print and add a few sensationalist nouns into the mix for dramatic effect. 

A wider question though is who actually owns and controls what we think of as OUR city. Mann Island – private. Albert Dock – private – Princes Dock and Parade – private. Canning and Salthouse Dock – private. Liverpool ONE – private. Just how much of the city have the council sold off? Under what conditions are We the People of Liverpool permitted to use these areas?

The council is currently spending huge sums of money, and causing months of disruption in remodeling The Strand and Lime Street, as part of this remodeling is the creation of large areas to allow events to take place. Are all these areas going to be subject to the same "conditions" in that we are only permitted to do what our modern day Lords of The Manor, in private apartment blocks, deem is acceptable.

What price do we put on Freedom?  What price does Cllr Small?

Wednesday 20 January 2021

A new start for Azamara?

The news (19 Jan 2021) that the Royal Caribbean Group had sold its subsidiary Azamara Club Cruises to private equity firm Sycamore Partners was unexpected, although not really a surprise.

Azamara has long been the unloved child in the Royal Caribbean family, having started life in 2007 with just two second hand ships, Azamara Journey and Azamara Quest, both originally units of the R Class of Renaissance Cruises, launched as R Six and R Seven respectively.  A decade later, and having been unable to pursuade their Royal Caribbean parent to let them build any new ships, they were instead allowed to add another R Class, the former R Eight which following a £50m refit in Belfast entered service in 2018 as Azamara Pursuit.  It must have been pretty galling to be given a 17 year old ship on the 6th stage of her career when your group stablemates, Royal Caribbean, Celebrity and Silversea, were spending $billions on new builds.

With Silversea obviously being the favoured "small ship", premium brand in the group, it was difficult to see where Royal Caribbean saw Azamara fitting into its portfolio.  With a trio of ships now twenty years old it must have been getting harder to sell the brand to affluent, and discerning cruisers.

Azamara like to have a couple of our Ambassadors go onboard their ships, which we always do for them, setting up a hospitality desk in the atrium to give out city maps, advise on things to see and do ashore, and answer whatever questions their guests have on spending the day in Liverpool and the wider area.  The ships normally berth alongside, but on 23 July 2017, and coinciding with the Open Golf Championship taking place at Royal Birkdale, we had two ships visiting Liverpool and with Celebrity Silhouette occupying the terminal berth, Azamara Journey had to anchor mid river and guests were taken ashore onboard the Mersey Ferry Snowdrop. Myself and Alan, who we sadly lost from our Ambassador family last year, were taken out to the anchorage to run the hospitality desk.

Although I've never cruised on the ships, having spent some time onboard Journey and Quest I was impressed with their beautifully appointed decor, although with few facilities due to their size I feel I'd quickly find the small number of public areas a downside compared to newer and larger ships with their multiple lounges and bars.

One unique offering from Azamara on each cruise was an onshore event called an "Azamazing Evening" and these have often taken place on their Liverpool calls, with guests being taken by coach to  a private concert at either Liverpool Cathedral or St George's Hall, before returning to the ship for a firework display as they sailed away down the Mersey.  It'll be good for these to continue as they were always well received.

The Azamara trio are currently laid up together in the King George V Dock in Glasgow, and are scheduled to resume service from 1st May 2021. At the moment their new owners have not announced any changes to these plans, and it'll be interesting to see how their resumption of sailing proceeds, and what Sycamore decide to do with their new acquisition in the future. 

Azamara is a great brand, with a small fleet of good looking ships, able to sail into ports denied to larger vessels, meaning their loyal customer base is able to get closer to the action in cities, islands and harbours around the world. However with newer competitors from the likes of  Viking Ocean Cruises, Silversea, Seaborne etc entering service each year, I expect they'll need to consider fleet replacement or addition before very long.

Update 26/01/2021:
Following the announcement last week that Princess Cruises had sold their Pacific Princess, another R Class ship, originally R3, Azamara today confirmed that they are the buyers, and that the ship will join the fleet later this year on European itineraries. Her new name has not yet been revealed.  

Update 21/03/2021:
The new name for the former Pacific Princess was revealed a few days ago and she will re-enter service as Azamara Onward.

Friday 20 November 2020

Liverpool Cruise Season 2020


2020 certainly turned out very different to how we anticipated it would at the start of the year. We had over 100 ships scheduled into Liverpool this year, it was due to be our busiest season yet, with over 120,000 passengers and thousands more crew expected to explore the city and region, not to mention spending money in our shops and attractions.

Even as the first visitor of the year, Virgin Voyages "Scarlet Lady" sailed into the Mersey in February, the pandemic storm clouds were already gathering on the horizon, with cruises being curtailed and cancelled, but even then we didn't think the disruption would last for the entire year, and beyond.

As I've said the 2020 season started as expected on 25th February with the northern media launch for the new Virgin Voyages brand. The striking grey and red liveried "Scarlet Lady" arrived after a overnight sailing from Dover with a complement of social media influencers and journalists. The upper cruise terminal had been transformed into a setting more nightclub than passenger lounge, and hundreds more invited guests arrived for lunch and ship tours during the day, and for a dinner and overnight experience. 
The following day they were replaced by guests who were to sail out into a winter north Atlantic bound, they thought, for New York where further media events were planned. However with the Covid19 pandemic getting worse Virgin cancelled the New York programme whilst the ship was mid Atlantic and she changed course and headed for her home port of Miami.
With "Scarlet Lady" having put to sea it was time for the scaffolding lads to decend on the floating landing stage to build two towers to enable 13,000 ticket holders to board the next newcomer to the Mersey as the second of the Royal Navy's new Aircraft Carriers "HMS Prince of Wales" made her public debut.
The carrier is enormous, and of course easy access for members of the public wasn't high on the architects plans hence the shore towers from which gangway access could be made to the starboard side aircraft lifts, and then into the vast hanger were various ships departments had set up stalls to explain how their work contributed to the effective operation of the vessel.
Although "Prince of Wales" was only open to the public during the weekend, she remained in port all week as trade visits were made as the many companies involved in her construction tried to secure further work and sales.
The following week was the turn of a smaller but equally impressive new ship, the Norwegian exploration cruise ship "Fridtjof Nansen" to visit as she launched with a series of 5 day cruises around the British Isles, one of these cruises ended in Liverpool, and the next sailing embarked here.
One of the interesting aspects of the Hurtigruten ship is her ability to run on battery power, and it was noticeable how silent she was coming alongside the stage.
"Fridtjof Nansen" and her sisters have a team of scientists onboard and laboratories where their guests can learn about the flora and fauna of the environment.
Unfortunately Nansen's departure on 11th March also marked the final passenger movements of the year, although not the final ship. Whilst cruising is the main purpose of our terminal, we have a flexible berth that can handle most ships coming into the river, and is especially useful for ships needing a berth for maintenance and crew changes, with those employed on the Irish Sea windfarm and gas rig sectors frequently handled.

The otherwise empty berth was used by the Cammel Laird shipyard as a handy facility for ships waiting to gain access to their Birkenhead yard, with the Royal Fleet Auxiliary replenishment ships "Tiderace" and "Tidesurge" both spending time alongside
A high profile ship visiting twice was the Antarctic Research ship "Sir David Attenborough", aka Boaty McBoatface
Her first call in August was unexpected due to the drydock not being prepared correctly, then she made another call in October for final adjustments to be made before she headed into the Irish Sea for sea trials
Another unexpected caller appeared on 4th July when Viking Ocean Cruises "Viking Sun" sailed in. She had been laid up in Belfast but the Harland and Wolff berth she was occupying was needed for an incoming ferry refit, so the plan was that she would anchor off the Isle of Man for a week, however with unseasonably bad weather incoming her captain went for the safer option and headed into Liverpool instead.  
Viking Sun, and her sisters have become frequent visitors to the Mersey so it was good to see her again, although of course she had no guests onboard and even her crew were not allowed to leave the ship. The seventh vessel in the series, Viking Venus, currently being fitted out at the Fincantieri yard in Ancona is scheduled to call here seven times next year, in addition to two return calls from Viking Sun.

Sadly 2020 has also been an awful year for our cruise terminal family, as we lost three of our dear friends and colleagues.  In April, Alan, the team leader of our volunteer Ambassadors died, and then in August we lost Paula too.  Alan and Paula were both incredibly kind, warm and entertaining characters, who lived life to the full, and were so proud of their city. Their enthusiasm and love of people was inspirational to the whole team and we will miss them with all our hearts.  In February we were shocked to hear that Roy from the security team had unexpectedly passed away, Roy would always go above and beyond to ensure that our guests came first and received a warm Liverpool welcome.  Rest in Peace dear friends.

So as we wind down what remains of this most unusual years, we hope that those working so hard to combat this dreadful illness enjoy continued success and it won't be too long before we are able welcome new and returning guests to Cruise Liverpool.

Monday 23 March 2020

Where are Liverpool's Ships?

I started to map the world cruise fleet locations during the Covid19 suspension, it is quite a task, so as a first installment, here are the current locations of all the ships scheduled to call at Liverpool this season:

AIDAbella - Piraeus Greece 
AidaVita - Dubai UAE
Astor - Sea for Bremerhaven
Astoria - Tilbury UK
Azamara Pursuit - Sea for Panama 
Black Watch - Firth of Forth Anch UK 
Bremen - Auckland NZ
Celebrity Reflection - Bahamas Anch
Costa Fortuna - Salahah, Oman
Crystal Symphony - Singapore 
Deutschland - Sea for Bremerhaven
Disney Magic - Cape Canaveral Anch
Europa 2 - Marseille France 
Hamburg - Setubal Anch Portugal 
L'Austral - Rio de Janeiro
Le BorĂ©al - Sea for Rio de Janeiro 
Magellan - Tilbury
Mein Schiff 3 - Tenerife Anch
Nautica - Dubai UAE
Norwegian Star - Sea for Panama 
Ocean Dream - Hiroshima 
Queen Victoria - Sea for Southampton 
Regal Princess - Bahamas Anch
Rotterdam - Sea for Puerto Vallarta Mex
Saga Sapphire - Tilbury 
Seven Seas Explorer - Nassau, Bahamas 
Seven Seas Splendor - San Diego
Sirena - Miami 
The World - Fremantle Anch Australia 
Vasco de Gama - Sea for Fremantle 
Veendam - Bahamas Anch 
Viking Jupiter - sea for Barbados
Viking Star - Tilbury 
Viking Sun - Dubai 


Sunday 29 December 2019

Liverpool Cruise Season 2019

2019 has been the busiest season so far at Liverpool Cruise Terminal with 86 calls including 9 ships visiting the Mersey for the first time.  In all we welcomed 165,000 passengers and crew to our city.

Here are just some of the beautiful ships which I photographed when I was at the terminal this year.

Costa Cruises "Costa Mediterranea" opened the 2019 season on 12th April, she called again in May and August.
Costa Mediterranea

Celebrity Cruises "Celebrity Reflection" called 4 times this year.   These two alongside shots were taken on her visit on 17th June. 
Celebrity Reflection

Celebrity Reflection
She is shown here sailing away on 13th July
Celebrity Reflection

Aida Cruises had three ships calling this year, I was able to capture AidaVita on 18th May
AidaVita
AidaAura arrived for an overnight stay on 5th August
AidaAura
and AidaBella arriving on 17th August
AidaBella
You may have been watching the Channel 5 Programme about the "Most Expensive Cruise Ship In the World" this year, the star of the show Seven Seas Explorer called on 9th June
Seven Seas Explorer
Seven Seas Explorer
Oceania Cruises sisterships Nautica and Insignia called this year.  Here Insignia is shown sailing away on 21st June
Insignia
Whilst Oceania own 4 of the 8 "R Class" ships originally built for Renaissance Cruises, a further 3 sail for Azamara Club Cruises, here Azamara Journey is alongside on 25th July.  The 8th member of the class "Pacific Princess" called at Liverpool last year.
Azamara Journey
Another class of ships which have called at Liverpool this year are the Ocean Class of Viking Ocean Cruises.  We welcomed 3 of their fleet, making a total of 8 visits this year, including inaugural calls by Viking Sea and Viking Jupiter.

Here Viking Jupiter moves off the landing stage on 3rd August.
Viking Jupiter
Here we are 2 shots of Viking Sun, alongside in weather more befitting her name on 25th August
Viking Sun
Viking Sun

The flagship of the Cunard fleet, Queen Mary 2 called on 16th July with a late sailing into the sunset
Queen Mary 2
The following day we also had a late sailing of the brand new Spirit of Discovery which was on her maiden voyage for Saga Cruises, having only been named by the Duchess of Cornwall the previous week
Spirit of Discovery
Princess Cruises "Crown Princess" made 4 calls this year and is seen here approaching the Landing Stage on her final visit on 14th September.  
Crown Princess
Making her first, and last, visit in Pullmantur colours was Zenith on 14th July, she has since been sold to Peaceboat so we may see her again under a new name
Zenith
Zenith
Liverpool is popular with cruise lines catering to the German market.  Here we have Hapag Lloyd's Europa 2 alongside on 14th August
Europa 2
Transocean's  "Astor" called on 24th August
Astor
And Tui Cruises "Mein Schiff 5" is shown alongside on 2nd August
Mein Schiff 5

Another ship calling for the first time was Ponant's expedition ship "Le Dumont D'Urville on 16th September
Le Dumont D'Urville

On 3rd July Norwegian Cruises "Norwegian Spirit" made the second of her three visits in 2019.  Her first visit on 2nd June coincided with Liverpool FC's European Champions parade, an event which made her LFC supporting Captain extremely happy!
Norwegian Spirit
Finally in this review are two of our most regular callers.  Fred Olsen Cruises "Black Watch" was our most regular visitor, with 22 sailings in 2019.  She is alongside here in the autumn sunshine on 12th October
Black Watch
CMV's Magellan made 9 calls this year, and also stayed alongside for 2 overnight party events.  She is seen here at her berth on 27th October for her Halloween Party event.
Magellan
Of course none of our ships can make it alongside without the muscle power of our team of boatmen, and with over 100 ships scheduled for 2020 they'll be even busier next year!  


I hope you've enjoyed this gallery of just a small collection of the ships which graced the River Mersey this year.  We also had calls by ships of Crystal Cruises, Disney Cruises, Holland America Line, Phoenix Reisen, and Seabourn.  It has been a pleasure to welcome passengers and crew from all corners of the world this year and I'm looking forward to even more ships making their way into Liverpool "The Birthplace of Passenger Shipping" in 2020.