Nautical Notebook

Norwegian Breakaway kicks off Boston’s 2026 cruise season

Norwegian Breakaway kicks off Boston’s 2026 cruise season Boston opens its 2026 cruising season with the largest passenger ship to homeport here.

What I’m reading, Titanic Week 2026

What I’m reading, Titanic Week 2026 Reading list for Titanic Week 2026.

Memories! One of today’s questions on John Heald’s FB page was on the Fantasy-class ships, which brought me back to a nice cruise on CARNIVAL ELATION back in 2010. Enjoy!

Carnival Elation Welcome to NauticalNotebook.com, a Web magazine focused on the enjoyment of travel by cruise ship and ocean liner. Cruise journals. Feature articles. Cruise reviews. Port reviews.

Book review: A Brilliant Night of Stars and Ice, by Rebecca Connolly

Book review: A Brilliant Night of Stars and Ice, by Rebecca Connolly I typically avoid historical fiction about TITANIC as I’ve studied the actual history for more than 25 years and am highly protective of it. That said, I’m glad I gave this novel a chance.

I once wrote that Portland, Maine, has the most beautiful approach I’d ever seen. It’s still way up there. Come along as I share my verbatim journal entry from our recent cruise....

Views of Portland from NORWEGIAN JEWEL I once wrote that Portland, Maine, has the most beautiful approach I’d ever seen. It’s still way up there. Come along as I share my verbatim journal entry from our recent cruise.

Our weeklong itinerary is scheduled to take us to Québec City via Portland, Halifax, Sydney, Charlottetown, and Saguenay (La Baie). Only Saguenay is new to us—the rest are like old friends....

Boston sailaway on NORWEGIAN JEWEL Our weeklong itinerary is scheduled to take us to Québec City via Portland, Halifax, Sydney, Charlottetown, and Saguenay (La Baie). Only Saguenay is new to us—the rest are like old friends.

New on the blog (although a couple of days late)

Cruise ship Brilliant Lady makes her Boston debut Earlier this week, I stopped by the cruise terminal in Boston to welcome Brilliant Lady, the newest ship from Virgin Voyages, on her first visit to New England. The Virgin Voyages ship Brilliant La…

I finally finished posting my journal entries from our Spring 2025 on . Link in bio; scroll down to June 1, 2025, to begin.

The final installment. Thank you, Cunard, for another wonderful crossing on .

QUEEN MARY 2 eastbound transatlantic, debarkation day April 6, 2025 7:20 am BST Our final meal onboard Queen Mary 2—croissant with orange marmalade: smoked salmon with cream cheese, onion, and capers; toasted bagel, and a hash brown. I will miss this …

I’m still getting caught up on daily journal entries for our springtime crossing. There’s just one more left after this one

QUEEN MARY 2 eastbound transatlantic, day 8 April 5, 2025 9:49 am The family got a late start today after a night of karaoke. I woke up early to view the sunrise, but the time printed in the daily program turned out to be a little late. I di…

Excerpt from Day 5: “We actually set an alarm so that we would not have another rushed morning. I also wanted to have breakfast in the Britannia restaurant as I prefer its ambiance. (This has got to be the most beautiful restaurant at sea.)”

Click or tap below to read full article.

QUEEN MARY 2 eastbound transatlantic, day 5 April 2, 2025 3:32 pm GMT-1 We have been so busy today that this is my first chance to write. Our location at 7:30 this morning was 45°28.2N, 041°13.8W. Speed was 18.4 knots. Air temperature was 7°…