I was a cruise virgin until two weeks ago when I finally found my sea legs on the good ship Ambition, sailing from Dundee to visit the ‘Hidden gems of France and Spain’.
I thought if I was going to try a new kind of holiday it made sense to do it from my own doorstep, without the extra hassle of airport travel to board a boat many miles away.
It proved to be a great success. And for the city of Dundee’s sake I hope the cruise scene continues to flourish.
It’s a business that’s been on the up lately, drawing in locals and those from further afield who get the opportunity to see what the city of discovery has to offer, as well as the varied foreign locations on the itineraries.
The ports we visited weren’t necessarily ones I’d have chosen beforehand but ignorance can be bliss.
Who knew, for instance, that Bilbao in Spain was such a magnificent architectural delight with majestic boulevards and a thriving outdoor cafe and restaurant lifestyle scene?
There’s also that Guggenheim museum designed by Frank Gehry, the mastermind behind Dundee’s Maggie’s centre.
Bilbao is just one of the many jewels in the crown in the stunning Basque region.
A bustling post-industrial city, shorn of many of the industries which originally sustained it, it has successfully reinvented itself as a service economy and cultural hotspot.
And it is perhaps an object lesson for us in Dundee, where names like Timex, along with many other formerly large employers, have long departed.
The world does not owe us a living. And we have to find the sort of niches which will make our city a destination worth visiting.
Cruise offered a relief from Dundee football chat
It was Ambition’s maiden voyage, and something of a novel experience for me.
For the first time in more than 30 years in the media game I had switched the phone off, ignoring requests from the BBC and others to comment on the machinations at Dens Park and Tannadice.
However, I was aware of some moans and groans reaching back home over teething problems on the trip.
There were indeed a couple of issues, but they were swiftly addressed.
The crew was a truly international congregation with 200 from India, and a large contingent from the Philippines, and every other part of the globe.
Among the first rate entertainment in the ship’s top class theatre was a cast of 10 young stars whose energy, vocals, dancing, costumes, and production values, would give London’s West End a run for its money.
Accommodation and pricing on board was very decent and all round I thought it was a superb experience.
Cruise market offers Dundee an opportunity
The prospect of attracting other cruise lines to and from Dundee is one which we should embrace wholeheartedly.
Many of the destinations we visited like Getxo (which was the stop for Bilbao), La Coruna, and Brest, and Le Havre, appeared to be investing heavily in their ports structure with the intention of luring the resurgent cruise market.
The industry is finding its feet again after Covid. And those cities and towns which see the opportunities and respond swiftly, offering visitors memorable experiences, will score heavily in attracting repeat business, and generating visitor income.
There’s no reason why Dundee shouldn’t be right at the forefront of that drive to make itself both a leading departure point and a must-see destination for the cruise industry.
Visitors who had begun their Ambition trip at Newcastle were effusive in their praise of what they had seen of Dundee in their short stopover.
The success of Ambition’s maiden cruise from the city will hopefully herald a determined ambition to push our credentials in attracting a new wave of visitors to Dundee.
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