Cruise

The city of Aalborg, in northern Denmark, is now allowing only one cruise ship to dock at a time at the country’s only inland cruise port, despite its being able to accommodate multiple ships of 800 feet in length at once. The number of cruise passengers visiting Aalborg had risen from 1,000 in 2014 to 40,000 in 2018.

Richard Branson’s new cruise line, Virgin Voyages (Plantation, FL; 954/361-9500, www.virginvoyages.com), will commence sailings April 1, 2020, with its first ship, The Scarlet Lady. Cabins can now be booked.

Offering 4- and 5-night Caribbean cruises, all leaving from Miami, The Scarlet Lady can hold 2,770 passengers. The ship will be adults only, with no one under 18 on board. There will be 20 bars and restaurants, and food and drink will be included in the fare.

15-day, 14-night round trip on the Danube. Departures April-June, Aug.-Oct. 2020. Highlights: Embark in Budapest, HUNGARY/in Kalocsa, Paprika Museum/in Pécs, 4th-century Christian mausoleum/130-foot-tall rock relief of Romanian hero in Iron Gates Gorge/in SERBIA, medieval Novi Sad/in CROATIA, Vukovar, Old Town of Osijek/in BULGARIA, cross Danubian Plain to Pleven/in Bucharest, ROMANIA, Palace of Parliament. $3,639-$7,359 ppdo (based on date). $3,639-$14,718 single (per date and availability).

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Dear Globetrotter:

In order to reduce the number of tourists visiting Bruges, Belgium, on June 16 the city reduced the number of cruise ships allowed to dock at its port, Zeebrugge, to two at a time. The port can accommodate five large cruise ships. The city has also limited to weekdays the days on which cruise ships can dock there, eliminating dockings on Saturdays and Sundays.

Russia unexpectedly seized two docked research vessels leased to the Arctic- and Antarctic-cruise company One Ocean Expeditions for passenger service — the Akademic Ioffe and Akademik Sergey Vavilov — in May 2019, saying the ships required maintenance. The ships, which each can carry about 100 passengers, have been in the service of One Ocean since 2012.

A company spokesman said they had no advance notice of the seizure and have been forced to cancel all scheduled 2019-2020 sailings of the vessels.

Before we left Ushuaia, Argentina, for our expedition-ship cruise to Antarctica in December 2018, our guide Sebastian held a meeting with our group of 23. By that time, he had already made this trip many times, but he shared an experience with us that had occurred on his first trip.

The first night on the ship, his phone rang at 3 a.m. Reception said he needed to come deal with one of his tour group who was demanding they call for a taxi.