SOVEREIGN TO SAIL TO SOUTH AMERICA IN NOVEMBER

Currently in the middle of a season of seven night Mediterranean cruises sailing from Barcelona and Rome, Pullmantur's 74,000 ton, 1988 built Sovereign, is slated for a Brazil season this coming winter. The former Royal Caribbean flagship will emerge from a winter dry docking, embarking passengers in Cadiz on November 27th and Lisbon on the 28th, for a line voyage to South America.

Sailing via Lanzarote and Tenerife, the ship will spend several consecutive days at sea before she makes a scheduled landfall at Recife, the nearest Brazilian east coast port, on December 9th. From there, the Sovereign will embark on a winter long season of three and four day cruises along the coast of Brazil, before recrossing the Atlantic to resume sailings from Barcelona on March 26th, 2018.

Mainly technical and remedial work will take place during the ship's November dry docking in Cadiz, with refreshment of furnishings and fittings in the main public areas, as well as some cabin upgrades and, likely as not, a cleaning and repaintning of the ship's exterior as well.

Sovereign is one of two ex-Royal Caribbean mega ships to be owned and operated by the Spainsh accented Pullmantur Cruises. Her sister ship- the Monarch- will be sailing in the Caribbean right through the winter, embarking passengers in Panama City and Oranjestad, Aruba. While still instantly recognisable as ex-Royal Caribbean stalwarts, both ships have developed a distinctly Latin style and flair of their own.

Pullmantur sells both ships as an all inclusive product, with most soft and alcoholic drinks on board included in the fares, and a slight supplement charged for the real premium brands. Fares on board are charged in Euros. Most speciality teas and coffees are also included in the base fares.

The downside of both ships is that they have small inside and outside cabins. While these are comfortable enough, they are not really expansive spaces to linger in. That said, there is a full deck of balcony cabins and even some suites, coming in at not too extravagant supplements, that up the lounging ante by no small degree.

The ships are essentially four star products, with consistently decent and sometimes quite outstanding food. While they may lack the newer, state of the art facilities of many more modern ships, both Sovereign and Monarch are big, supremely comfortable ships that offer excellent value for money, given their size and range of on board amenities.