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Uniworld’s S.S. Beatrice sets sail on maiden voyage

Uniworld Boutique River Cruise Collection’s newest Super Ship, the S.S. Beatrice, set sail on her maiden voyage along the Danube from Budapest to Giurgiu, with a land extension in Bucharest. Debuting with a fresh, sleek yacht-like design, the S.S. Beatrice is the first vessel in the brand’s award-winning fleet of floating boutique hotels to be upgraded to a Super Ship.

“We’re thrilled to continue to offer guests the highest standard in river cruising with the debut of S.S. Beatrice,” said Ellen Bettridge, Uniworld CEO and President. “We’ve seen great success with all of our Super Ships and their level of luxury demonstrates the way forward for the brand. We’re excited to bring all of our ships up to this impeccable standard, with plans to upgrade the River Empress and River Royale to Super Ships in 2019.”

The S.S. Beatrice boasts yacht-style light wood with blue and white finishes throughout. Its renovated lobby features elegant mirrors, marble floors, a white Murano chandelier with blue shades, and a grand staircase made of nickel and black iron – a signature design element of Uniworld’s Super Ships. The ship’s redesigned lounge includes sofas and chairs with hand-made upholstery, a parquet floor and upholstered ceiling panels, solar shades, and new USB ports allowing guests to recharge anywhere they are sitting. The artwork throughout the ship includes pieces from Pablo Picasso, Alexander Calder and Pino Signoretto.

The ship offers four dining options all inspired by famous Austrian composers, including Mozart’s, the ship’s main restaurant; Wolfgang’s bar and lounge and newly added Schubert’s and Max’s. For guests seeking an immersive culinary experience onboard the S.S Beatrice, Max’s restaurant offers intimate cooking classes where guests can create local European cuisines alongside the chef. Menu highlights at Max’s include broccoli coleslaw, regional Bohemian bread pudding dumplings and homemade apple strudel. Schubert’s, an 18-seat café located at the bow of the ship, offers guests shared plates from lunch through dinnertime. The cosy Austrian-styled eatery features menus reflecting the cuisine of the ship’s destinations, including brisket bouillon, Wiener Wurst with mustard, and an Austrian Kaiser Burger.

Additionally, the ship offers two new Grand Suites each measuring 29 square metres and a second 36 square metre Owner’s/Royal Suite. Connecting rooms, ideal for friends and families travelling together, have also been added. The S.S Beatrice sails on six itineraries to destinations including the Czech Republic, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Romania, Bulgaria and Serbia.

The Zeppelin Times 4CRB Travel ShowSaturday 14 April, 10am on 89.3FM

The Professional Centre, Suite 1, 189 Ashmore Road, Benowa, Gold Coast QLD 4217Phone: (07) 555 79 888 | Free Call: 1300 786 888 Email: [email protected] | Website: www.zt.com.au Facebook: www.facebook.com/zeppelintravel

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Coast’s Games legacy is GoldGold Coast is a city riding an exciting wave of change.

Hosting the Commonwealth Games has inspired a fresh new direction for Australia’s tourism capital.

Glitz has made way for sophistication. Adventure, discovery, healthy living, innovation and the arts are now firmly weaved into the fabric of the country’s fifth largest city.

Welcoming the world for the Games has reaffirmed the Gold Coast as a world-class destination.

And the journey of transformation is far from over.

There is no doubt the Gold Coast will shine during the 2018 Commonwealth Games – no major games have ever been held in such a stunning beachside location.

An estimated 1.2 billion viewers around the world will see the region showcased like never before.

More than a million Games ticket holders will experience the Gold Coast first-hand, many riding on the $5billion G-link light rail network.

The legacy of the Games will be even more impressive. And it will go far beyond stadiums and venues.

From the changing skyline of Surfers Paradise to the trendy cafés of Burleigh and the laid-back vibe of Kirra and Coolangatta, the Games have raised the bar higher than ever.

The Gold Coast, as a place to live and a destination to visit, is booming. The coastal city is once again a magnet for investment.

The $345 million expansion of The Star Gold Coast Hotel and Casino is a prime and proud example.

It’s new tower, known as The Darling, is the Coast’s first six-star hotel and just the start of a proposed $850 million upgrade and expansion of The Star’s Broadbeach property.Across the road at Pacific Fair, a $670 million upgrade has taken the Gold Coast landmark into a new era of retail experiences.

The complex now has more than 400 stores (including numerous high-end labels) across a staggering 14,500 square metres which includes a stunning outdoor leisure and entertainment precinct.

Other new developments include Ruby, $1.4 billion three-stage integrated residential resort precinct; the $1.2 billion 89-story Spirit (which will be taller than Q1); a new 219-room apartment tower operated by international five-star hotel brand, Avani and Jewel, a $970 million five-star hotel and residence.

The Commonwealth Games arts and culture program, Festival 2018, will add a further layer to the legacy.

The association with Festival 2018 has ensured the Gold Coast’s annual Bleach* Festival has been elevated to an unprecedented level of world-class arts and entertainment.

The live music scene is electric with venues including Night Quarter and Miami Marketta leading the way with integrated food and entertainment.



Top chefs have also brought their awarded hats to the Gold Coast while the city boasts a bevy of boutique brewers.

The Coast’s film industry is buzzing again and, of course, the Gold Coast is the new home of the Logies.

Annual events including the Magic Millions, the Airport marathon and the Quiksilver Pro, to name just a few, have already highlighted that the Gold Coast is a successful event location.

Hosting a major international event like the Commonwealth Games was as deserving as it was inevitable for a city with a proven can-do attitude. It begs the question, what’s next?

Whatever the answer, there’s no doubt everything Gold is new again!

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Book now for spaceFULLY refundable deposits are now being accepted for a stay in the first ever “Space Hotel” which was announced overnight.

Named ‘Aurora Station,’ the fully modular space station will host six people at a time, including two crew members.

“Space travellers will enjoy a completely authentic, once-in-a-lifetime astronaut experience,” the promotional blurb enthuses.

A 12-day journey starts at (just!) US$9.5 million per person, with Aurora Station set to launch in late 2021 before hosting its first guests the following year.

It’s being created by a company called Orion Span, with the price of a visit including three months of intensive training.

“Our goal is to make space accessible to all by continuing to drive greater value at lower cost,” said Orion Span ceo Frank Bunger.

Reservations can be made now by depositing US$80,000 at www.orionspan.com.



Agents key for internationalMOST Australians continue to use a travel agent for booking overseas trips, according to a study released overnight by Roy Morgan Research.

The ‘Travel Agent Monitor Market Indicator Report’ says that while online is increasing as the main information source when planning both overseas and domestic trips, more than 42% of Australians used a travel agent to book their last overseas trip in the year to 31 Dec.

Roy Morgan noted this was significantly more than online-only travel booking websites, which were used by just 15.5% of travellers on their last trip abroad.

The research found 32.4% of overseas travellers from Australia booked their flights directly with the airline, while 26.9% booked their international accommodation directly.

In terms of researching their trip, Tripadvisor was the most commonly cited travel website, visited by 15.7% of travellers when planning their holiday.

Booking.com was in second place with 13.6% of travellers using the site in the last four weeks, just ahead of Qantas.com (13.5%) followed by Jetstar (9%) and Virgin Australia (8.1%).

About 6-7% of online researchers had looked at Expedia, Airbnb, Webjet or Wotif.

Roy Morgan ceo Michele Levine said the figures showed many Australians “turn to their travel agent to organise their trip in a concise way to keep their itinerary in check, and even pay for multiple accommodation bookings in a single purchase”.

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River Murray whisky on top of the worldA small whisky distillery at the River Murray mouth in South Australia has been awarded Best International Whisky at the American Distilling Institute Awards.

Fleurieu Distillery’s River’s End single malt whisky was awarded a Gold Medal, Best in Class and the Trophy while the Goolwa distillery’s other entry, Atlantic Crossing, won a Silver Medal and was name Best in the International Smoked Whisky Category.

Run as a the Steam Exchange Brewery for more than a decade, the wharf-side production facility was rebadged Fleurieu Distillery when brewer turned distiller Gareth Andrews released his first whisky in November 2016.

The distillery was also awarded a Gold Medal in the Peated Whisky Class with its 61.2 per cent Bogart and Bacall at last month’s Australian Distilled Spirits Awards in Melbourne.

“Winning gold Nationally and Internationally in both peated and single malt categories is a great result for us and for our coastal region,” Andrews said.

“Fleurieu Distillery is uniquely production and tourism based right in the heart of the Goolwa Wharf Precinct so when we gain recognition like this we are not only representing our business but also our community.”

The trophy-winning River’s End whisky is a un-peated single malt that gets its sweet and salty characteristics from the former Seppeltsfield port barrels it is matured in and the sea air blowing in from the Southern Ocean.

River’s end has an ABV of 53 per cent and sells for about $215 for a 700ml bottle while the newly released Atlantic Crossing weighs in at 52 per cent and sells for $198.

They are the seventh and eighth whiskies released in the Fleurieu Distillery’s 18-month history selling whisky with batches ranging in size from 200 bottles to 800 bottles per batch.

The town of Goolwa is 80km south of the South Australian capital Adelaide and is on the River Murray just a few kilometres from where Australia’s longest river meets the Southern Ocean.

Andrews is having a 36-hectolitre still custom made by Knapp Lewer in Tasmania, which he will pair with his existing Knapp Lewer 12-hectolitre still to ramp up production while maintaining consistency.

“With the 36 hectolitre still doing the first distillation and the second distillation done in our existing 12-hectolitre still it becomes a more efficient process, it’s still hands on but it will increase in our efficiency and in time our output,” Andrews said.

“We’re doubling our output every year but effectively whatever we produce we’re not finding any difficulty in selling.

“It’s early days but we have been looking at several different export countries.”

Andrews said while it was always his dream to become a distiller, more than a decade as a commercial brewer and 28 national and international beer awards had provided a solid foundation for his whisky business.

“The beginnings of beer and whisky are very similar and there’s a very good chance I’m the first person to win a gold medal at the Australian beer awards and spirits awards,” he said.

“It’s not an overnight thing, you can make gin pretty fast but whisky takes time and patience.

“Whisky making for us is all about the importance of quality, location and time.”

The American Distilling Institute Awards have been a happy hunting ground for South Australian craft producers.

Adelaide Hills Distillery took out the Trophy for Best International Gin at last year’s awards while this year it was awarded a Silver for its Bitter Orange Apertif The Italian and a Bronze for its 78 Degrees Gin. Fellow Adelaide Hills Distillery Applewood was awarded a Bronze Medal for its Gin and its Okar Amaro. Applewood Distillery also won an Excellence in Packaging Silver Medal for its Espressocello.

Fleurieu Distillery’s award winning whiskies and many other local craft spirits will be available at the Tasting Australia Spirits Awards Party in Adelaide on April 19.



SIGNATURE TOUR Escorted from Gold Coast & Brisbane

BRINGING YOU CLOSER TO GOD • Tel Aviv • Haifa • Sea of Galilee

• Jerusalem • Bethlehem • Dead Sea • Cairo

TOUR HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE: • Discover the ancient cities of Nazareth & Bethlehem • Mount of Olives, the site from

where Jesus ascended to Heaven • The special baptism site of Yardenit • Visit UNESCO World

Heritage Site of Acre • Visit New and Old Jerusalem • Spiritual visit to the Western Wall • Room of the Last Supper, King David’s Tomb, Church of Nativity • Visit to the Garden Tomb • Experience a traditional Shabbat dinner in a religious home • Swim in the Dead Sea • Visit the mountain fortress of Masada • Visit the

Pyramids of Giza, the Sphinx and the Egyptian Museum PLUS MUCH MORE!

17 Days - Departs 30 September 2018

Tour Cost from (Including flights): $8,945pp, twin share* | Single Supp $2,300pp*

Package Includes: • Professional Tour Director from Brisbane • Return airfares from Brisbane

• 14 nights accommodation • 7 Dinners • Entrance fees and sightseeing & MUCH MORE!

Israel & EgyptA JOURNEY OF FAITH

THE BIBLE COMES TO LIFE AS YOU WALK WHERE JESUS WALKED

Tour Escorted from Brisbane by Steve Stuttle

CALL ZEPPELIN TRAVEL - 1300 786 888 www.zt.com.au | [email protected]

*Terms and conditions apply. Subject to change.

SAVE $50pp

Valid to 30 April

*Gold Coast residents

receive free airport

transfers

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