How to ‘cruise’ at home during the coronavirus lockdown

With Britons ordered to stay indoors during the coronavirus outbreak, how can you relive the experience of being at sea from within your four walls? One couple went viral on social media as they recreated their cancelled cruise at home, sitting in front of a TV screen showing moving footage of the ocean blue while in their dresssing gowns and sharing a bottle of wine. Yoiu could even hear a ship’s horn honking away. There’s no need to go that far, but here we look at the TV shows, films, books and social media that might help you feel like you’re back on board… 

Television 

Cruising has had a lot of air time recently, thanks mainly to Cruising With Jane McDonald and a series about Seven Seas Explorer called Secrets Of The World’s Most Expensive Cruise Ships (both available on the Channel 5 catch-up service My5).

Documentary channel Discovery Science regularly reruns Mighty Ships on vessels including Crystal Serenity, Norwegian Epic and Le Boreal (all three are showing on March 29), while Yesterday series Monster Ships includes Royal Clipper (available on UKTV Play) and there is an Impossible Engineering episode about Oasis-class ships. 

MSC Meraviglia is featured in the Channel 4 programme Building Giants, now available on demand, while Britbox has a two-part documentary on the QE2. Sadly, a Channel 4 series about the world’s biggest ship, Royal Caribbean’s Symphony of the Seas, due to air this month, has been postponed until later in the year.  

There are lighthearted shows too. QE2 also pops up in an episode of Keeping Up Appearances, Sea Fever, available on Gold or Britbox. Columbo, reguarly showing on 5 USA, is faced with a murder on a cruise ship in Troubled Waters and the same channel airs Murder She Wrote, in which Jessica Fletcher solves a mystery death at sea in My Johnny Lies Over The Ocean. 

For a laugh on the ocean wave, you can’t beat the Frasier episode Voyage Of The Damned where the fictional Seattle radio host is invited to give a lecture on a cruise ship. It is next due to be screened on 4seven at 4pm on April 1. 

Another US comedy, Everybody Loves Raymond, showing regularly on Channel 4, has an episode called Cruising With Marie where the titular character has to share an inside cabin with his mother and is mistaken for her lover. Catch it next on 4seven on April 1.

And who can forget the vintage US comedy series The Love Boat? 

Moving on, from nostalgia to the future… if you want a glimpse of what cruising could be like in space, see the new HBO series Avenue 5, now showing on Sky One.  Finally, real die-hard addicts even have their own Cruise Channel on Sky 199.