Does anyone on this board know anything about the Island Cruise Line?

MsSocial,

is this Island Cruises (operating the "Island Escape") you are talking about? There was to be another line called Island Cruise Line which planned to acquire one of the bankrupt ROCL's ships - but that operation never materialized.

Island Cruises OTOH is a joint-venture between First Choice Holidays and Royal Caribbean Cruises. The line's ship, "Island Escape" used to be operated by Royal Caribbean as the "Viking Serenade". RCL recently announced that Celebrity Cruises' "Horizon" will join the Island Cruises fleet later this year. She will be renamed "Island Star".

Island Cruises offers a very relaxed, informal product - mostly for passengers from the UK - which is similar to what Ocean Village (Carnival) offers.

Here's a photo of the "Island Escape" I took in 2002:

We also have a fair amount of reviews on her located at:

http://www.cruisereviews.com/IslandCruises/IslandEscape.htm

Hope that helps,

Tom

Ms Social,
You can also find more information on their website. There is a link on cruise-links.com that will take you directly to their site:
http://www.cruise-links.com/CruiseLinesAlphabetically.htm

Hope that helps-

Raoul, do you see this as a growing market?

Tom

Thanks for all the responses. I have a friend who wanted me to join her and I had never heard of them.

Hello,

On the subject of Island cruises, i've recently seen the plans for the rebranded 'Horizon' and to be honest its not my cup of tea.
Im all for opening up the cruise market to passengers who wouldnt normally cruise, or to those on limited budgets. But as for a growing market, i can't help but think that this and the announcement to rebrand the Regal Princess as another Ocean Village ship is in danger of saturating the market somewhat.

These are all sold from UK, we have Island, next year x 2 ships, Ocean Village which will be x 2 ships, and also 4 Thomson ships, all catering for more or less the same market, yes there are differences, If any I'd plump for Thomson, good standards in class, Island least favourite, too... school canteen like, and OV, tries to be young and trendy, but i dont get it!

Last year saw the demise of Airtours 'sun cruises' for cost reasons, and yes the mytravel group were a stuggling group of companies needing to lose some of their assets, but they chose for cruise to go and they were one of the leaders in this particular market, the reason, they had to keep costs low to remain competitive and therefore were not making the desired profit.

Ill leave you to make your own judgements, there are of course pros and cons.

Rosey

Helo everybody,

Island Cruises has published the following picture showing "Horizon" in her new livery as "Island Star":



Frankly, I don't like the new look.