CLASSIC CRUISES


The


Louis Way


Anthony Nicholas highlights a Mediterranean operator with a reputation for doing things the old-fashioned way


W


ith seven ships of its own cruising almost every part of the Mediterranean, and many more chartered


out to the likes of Thomson, it is quite possible Louis Cruises is the largest cruise line you have never actually heard about or considered. In the last few years it has expanded


considerably, absorbing largely redundant tonnage from NCL in particular, plus Royal Caribbean and Holland America. At the same time, the company shed a raft of


mostly 1950s and 60s tonnage that had carried it through from the mid-1980s almost up to the present time. The current flagship is the Louis


Majesty, fondly remembered by many as the Royal and Norwegian Majesty. With her, Louis instituted its first ever season of year-round cruises from Italy and France. The ship ranges down to the Canary Islands and over to Egypt and Israel in the winter, with a more tradi- tional summer programme sailing to the hot spots of the western Med.


The arrival of the Majesty allowed the


line to diversify in other ways as well. For the first time, a Louis ship features an extra tariff, a la carte restaurant in the area once occupied by Le Bistro. Strangely, there was no alternative to this and the main dining room at night. No casual eatery operated on our cruise in the evenings. The company does not offer fly- cruise packages in its brochure, though interestingly, it does advertise overland rail connections from London to several European ports such as Marseilles, to


Autumn 2010 I WORLD OF CRUISING  55


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