At Sea with Doug Newman

Voyages of Discovery and its US subsidiary Discovery World Cruises have announced the summer 2008 itineraries of their flagship Discovery.

The company has also chartered Explorer II, which will enter service for Discovery in May 2008. Explorer II’s itineraries should be announced soon; I’ve seen preliminary ones (not for public consumption yet) and they look wonderful. With Orient Lines seemingly having reached the end of the road and the reincarnation of Swan Hellenic rumored to be years away, Discovery seems poised to grow its niche in port-intensive, enrichment-centric cruising, going up against Saga’s Spirit of Adventure for former Orient and/or Swan passengers. The company has already announced that past passengers of Minerva, now Explorer II, will be welcomed into its past-passenger program - a clear bid to attract Swans back to their former ship.

Meanwhile, Discovery will continue in 2008 with a similar program to that which has proved successful in past years, beginning with 13 Northern Europe voyages from the UK and then continuing on to the Mediterranean in autumn. Maiden calls include Invergordon and Leith, Scotland and Santa Margherita, Italy.

For the full press release see here from Voyages of Discovery or here from Discovery World Cruises.

For more about Discovery, see my good friend Peter Knego’s Ice Water Blog about his recent Discovery cruise to Antarctica.