Gon' Fishin'

Well not quite. I've been fishing once in my life and found it to be the most boring thing ever invented by man so have no plans to do it again. I am however going to be away for awhile as I'm now off work until the 3rd of January 2012.

For the curious I haven't a lot planned.
There's a mini cruise to Bruges on the 15th with work for our Christmas party, (it's on the P&O Arcadia this year), and I'll be down in Southampton on Monday having lunch onboard the QM2, (I've been shortlisted for cruise consultant of the year so I'll have to let you know how that goes), but the rest of the holidays I'm planning on spending with my lovley wife and children, taking a well deserved break.

Pop back on Tuesday to find out about how I did in the cruise consultant of the year competition, (I'm down to the final three so fingers crossed for me), otherwise I'll be back in the new year stunning you all with a new set of interesting or strange, (sometimes both), set of cruise stories/facts/gossip/rumours/tips.

Until then have a Merry Christmas and happy new year.

Which is better?

I was talking to one of my regular cruisers the other day and we were discussing the various merits and differences of the six star luxury cruise lines. As you can imagine, the service and quality you'll get from any ship that labels itself as six star will always be excellent but the one thing we couldn't agree on was onboard credit compared to free drinks and excursions onboard.

What's wrong with Titanic?

Obviously I mean the movie versions, not the actual ship, we all know what was wrong with her!I was channel surfing the other night when I came across a really interesting program about all the historical inaccuracies in the different Titanic movies filmed since the disaster.
Unfortunately I only caught the last 10 minutes or so and I haven't seen it repeated yet but the bits I did learn where fascinating!

Fjord cruises in southern climes

What do you think of when someone tells you to picture a fjords cruise? Snow?
Ice?
Glaciers?
Rugged Nordic beauty?
Gushing rivers and waterfalls?
Arctic/Scandinavian wildlife?
Would you think about Chile, (the country, not the food)?
 Did you even realise that Chile has it's own set of fjords with cruises going in and out of them as well?

Cruise line wordsearch game

It's a Sunday morning and I've arrived at the office a bit to early which means I didn't have anything to do for an hour or so. Because I'm such a generous soul I thought I post a bit of a cruise game to while away 20 minutes of your time today. It's free cruise wordsearch game that you can solve online so have fun and let me know what you think.
Happy cruising.

What are Cunard cruises like?

I've been writing a series of posts lately aimed at first time cruisers to introduce them to the different cruise 'brands' available to them. What they can expect onboard; what the cruise is like, the kind of people they'll find onboard etc.
Today's post will be aimed at what Cunard cruise lines are like.

Free carparking for your cruise

How many times have you seen a cruise advertised with free carparking only to find out that the 'offer' isn't applicable to what you want.Or have you seen a cruise suddenly advertised with free carparking only to find the price of the cruise has gone up by the exact amount the carparking would have cost you?
Well, it doesn't always have to be that way.

Parasailing from a cruise ship.

Can you parasail whilst on a cruise? Not anymore I'm afraid.Sadly there have been several deaths recently relating to shore excursions where parasailing was offered and as such many cruise lines are choosing to remove it as an option whilst you're in their care.

Can you cruise if you're a Sikh?

Probably not, which is a shame I think. At least you can't if you're an orthodox Sikh anyway.I had an enquiry about this a day or two ago about cruises from Southampton and I thought I'd share with you what I'd learnt today.

Are cruisers too unrealistic?

Cruisers, on the whole, are some of the loveliest customers I've ever booked anything for in my life.
And believe me, coming from an insurance background I'm more than used to being shouted at by irate customers.
So my general opinion of you all is that you're fantastic.
There, my backs covered now and the reason I say that is that I've noticed some peoples expectations of their cruise can be a little on, shall we say, the high side.
It's by no means all cruisers, but by the same token it's not really a small minority either.
Is it something particular to cruise holidays or do you think people are like this for all their holidays?

Flotsam, Jetsam and............

Someone emailed me a few days ago saying how useful they found my blog, especially the section for first time cruisers. The one thing they didn't like about it though was the title of James' Jetsam as they weren't sure if Jetsam was my surname or not and if it wasn't what it actualy meant.
Todays post then is for anyone who's been wondering the same thing.

Too religious to cruise?

How religious are you? Too religious to cruise? Does such a thing even exist?
I obviously don't mean that a religion has made it a sin to travel on a cruise ship, (at least I don't think so); what I mean is do you have to schedule your cruises around any religious festivals or holidays?
Well, not any more you don't.

Cruising all year round

You all know the feeling. You've just got home from your cruise, the post is waiting to be be opened, (and you know there are bills waiting for you), you need to unpack and wash all your clothes and you want nothing more than to capture that feeling of being back onboard.
Well know, thanks to Princess cruises you can, at least in part.

How can you cruise only half the Panama Canal?

Cruising down the Panama Canal has to be on the bucket list of every serious cruiser out there, normaly from Fort Lauderdale to L.A or vice versa.
For people who either don't want to or just don't have the time most cruise lines also offer the option of only cruising half the canal so you can say you can experience it without it taking up a good chucnk of your holiday.
But here's a question for you. In a great big cruise ship, how do you cruise only half a canal, it's not like you can turn around half way through?
Is it?

Royal Caribbean change age of of drinking

I wrote a blog last week about how I thought Royal Caribbean was perfect for families with small children or adults on their own but were sadly lacking for the 17-21yr old age bracket.
This is because at the age of seventeen the average British teenager is far too old for the kids clubs but won't be allowed to drink on any of Royal Caribbeans cruise ships until they turn 21, (you can read the full article here).

Now I'm not claiming responsibility for their policy change, I'm just saying it's a bit of a coincidence it happens a week after I write about it.

Hmmmmm, yes I know, I've got a big head! 

Alaska - Top ten little known facts

I was researching a cruise for a client recently who wanted to add a land tour to his holiday in Alaska. I was reading about the different tours that were available to him and trying to match them up to his cruise when I stumbled over a website full of unusual facts about Alaska.
I'd always known that Alaska was a pretty special destination to cruise to but I hadn't realised how many unique features it had as well.
I've put together a top ten list of little known facts about Alaska below.............

What does customer service mean to you?

It's a thought that's been prying on my mind over the last couple of days after a bit of a run in with Boots online.
What, for you, would mean good customer service from a company?
Always answering your calls?
Always being polite?
Never making a mistake?
Well read on to find out what I think real customer service is..........

Silversea to partner with Choozi entertainment

I'll be the first to admit that I'm not a huge fan of cruise ship entertainment. I'm not even sure I've ever sat through an entire performance onboard.
Don't get me wrong, I love cruising, I've just always found the shows a bit, 'cheesy', like a bad Abba tribute act at a social club, (although that's just my opinion, I know loads of people who love the shows).
With that in mind you can imagine I was quite sceptical when a piece of news crossed my desk this morning stating that Silversea cruises had partnered with a company called Choozi Entertainment to completely revamp their onboard shows.

Booking a back to back cruise

I wrote a post yesterday about one of the pitfalls of booking a back to back cruise, (it was just from America), but it occurred to me that the post was a bit one sided as there are some great benefits to booking a back to back cruise as well.
Todays post then will be all about the pros and cons of back to back cruising. Feel free to add your own underneath if you think I've missed any.

Problems with back to back cruises.

It's true what they say you know. You're never too old to learn something new.
At least that's the conclusion I've come to this morning after speaking to a client and then the cruise line about booking a back to back cruise for him.
I'm posting what I found out here for you as it's possible it could ruin your holiday; so if you're planning a back to back cruise it's worth double checking with your travel agent/cruise line.

Lidl cruises

I've always tried to bring you the most up to date gossip and rumours that cross my desk relating to the cruising world. Combined with that I've always enjoyed sharing crazy or unusual cruising stories with you.
The nice thing about the rumour I heard today was that it ticked both the above boxes.

Off on my hols

Don't worry if you don't hear from me for a few days; I've not disappeared anywhere I'm just off down south for a long weekend with the family.
I'm going to be stopping on a Haven site, (I've never done that before so I'll have to let you know how it goes), so fingers crossed the weathers nice and I'll be back and posting again come Tuesday, (1st Nov).
In the meantime voting's now open so don't forget to cast your vote for me on the link below...

http://www.twcoverstars.com/jamescrossland
Thanks in advance again and see you soon.


Happy cruising. 

Can I ask a favour?

Hi guys and gals.
As you can see from the title of today's post I'm asking you all for a little favour.
I've entered an online competition for travel agents to win a trip to New York for an exclusive make over. (You only need to see a few pictures of me to see I could do with it).
If you've read this blog and enjoyed it could I please ask you to click the link below and vote for me.
Voting will run from the 27th October to the 08th November.

http://www.twcoverstars.com/jamescrossland

Thanks in advance, (I'll keep you posted if I win).

PS feel free to share the link with friends on Facebook and Twitter etc

Problem with Royal Caribbean cruises?

You may or may not remember me mentioning before that one of the things I like to do after I've booked a cruise for someone is to give them a call when they get back from said cruise just to make sure they've had a good time and that nothing went wrong.
It's also useful in finding out what the different cruise lines are up to onboard and which lines are best recommended to different people.
I was making one of these calls today when my passenger highlighted what he thought was a major flaw with Royal Caribbean.
But what do you think..........?

Cruise industry set for a massive shake up

I've said it before and I'll say it again, I'm not a big fan of sea days. Cruising for me is all about seeing the different ports of call on my itinerary, not relaxing onboard staring out at the ocean.
Don't get me wrong, the occasional day at sea in between ports is nice to break things up but four or five days in a row? No thanks!
The problem is that some new fuel regulations that will come into play in 2015 may well mean a massive increase in sea days.

Celebrity cruises - Behind the scenes

Hmmmm, it's not often you'll hear me criticising Celebrity Cruises. I think they're a great cruise line with some of the most amazing ships at sea, (click here to see my review of the Celebrity Eclipse).
The one thing that does bug me about them however is the amount of things you're charged for whilst your onboard and the cost of those things in general.
If you're not careful you can walk away from your cruise with a huge bill on your onboard account and I don't think Celebritys latest brain wave is going to help this situation much.

Does all inclusive = Chav cruisers?

I added some news recently to our forums at cruises.co.uk about how MSC have a deal on at the moment for an all inclusive drinks package.
One of the comments made about this was that MSC were obviously lowering there standards and that there would would be lots of horror stories "of people being ejected at ports and numerous cruisers lost at sea."
On first reading it I thought it was a little harsh but on further thought it did have me thinking, when you offer something like an all inclusive drinks package does it attract the 'wrong sort' to the cruise?

Disneys AquaLab, a must for children

The AquaLab on the new Disney Fantasy ship has been custom made by Donald Duck especially for his nephews Huey, Dewey and Louie with a variety of different water experiments for them to play with and enjoy.
The problem is just as you board the ship you will find that they have had to rush out on an adventure leaving a hand written note for your kids telling them they're in charge of the lab till they get back.
Your children will be in charge of the Aqua Coaster and by turning wheels and pulling levers they can change the speed and temperature of the AquaDuck.
The problem is, the AquaLab, having been built by Donald Duck, wasn't made very well. There is a leaky wall where kids will have to try and keep the water circulating by covering the holes in it with their hands and in other areas they'll have to be quick to stop the leaky pipes from filling Uncle Donald's row boat.

River cruising - The naked truth

I recently wrote a post about a swingers cruise on an Azamara ship sailing in 2013, (you can read the post by clicking here), and at the risk of giving myself a bit of a reputation I've just come across another cruise in a similar vein.

Top five tips for how to sleep on a plane

You say the word cruise and people automatically think luxury and comfort and when you're sailing out of your home port I think I'd agree with that.
But what if you have to do a long haul flight first?
Now I deliberately don't take long haul flights as with two small children in tow, (Harry's 3 and Summer is only 7 months), the thought of a long haul flight terrifies me. I'd have no idea on how to keep them entertained for that long!
But for those looking to connect with a cruise ship on the opposite side of the globe a long haul flight can sometimes be a torturous ordeal. Sleeping through it is normally the best option but I know a lot of people do struggle to sleep on planes.
That's where this guide comes in...........

How to beat a cruise ship casino

Cruise ship casinos work a bit different from their land based counterparts. To start with they're obviously a lot smaller. They're also much more focused on entertaining you rather than emptying your wallet.
That being said however they're still, at heart, a casino and all casinos the world over tend to operate on the same rule, "the house always wins".
There are however a few simple rules you can follow that, whilst they may seem obvious, should give you an edge.

Language mix ups

Most of us will have done it at some time or another, you're abroad, you're trying to make yourself understood to Johnny Foreigner and you've resorted to the Del Boy method of communicating.
You've repeated what you've just said, in English, slowly and loudly just expecting to be understood. Obviously you weren't but it's nice to know that it's not just us that have these problems. It also affects big multinational companies as well.

My babys first word!

Sorry if this post sounds a bit mushy but I'm doing the proud Dad thing today. My little daughter Summer has said her first word and it was Dada!!!!
I missed it unfortunately as I was busy at work organising lots of nice cruises for you all but she said it again when I got home, "Hiya Dada". Not bad going for a seven month old; obviously genius runs in the family, (cough, cough).

Are Fred Olsen trying too hard?

First off, I like Fred Olsen. I like their ships, (well the Balmoral); I like the atmosphere onboard; I like their staff and normally I like the way they operate, but just lately it's started to feel that Fred Olsen are trying to be something they're not.

Sex n' Drugs n' Onboard Credit

Well two out of three isn't bad. As you may have already guessed todays post is going to be about the slightly darker side of the cruise industry.

A famous luxury cruise brand has just announced that one of their ships has been chartered out for early 2013 to host a swingers themed cruise. (For the more innocent amongst you I'm not talking about dancing either).

Does a river cruise have to be expensive?

Does a river cruise always have to be expensive? I don't think so, for several reasons.
Before I answer it though a bit of background information on river cruising may help, (you can click here for a previous post I've done on the pros and cons of river cruising).
River cruises are the smaller cousins of their ocean going counterparts. For obvious reasons they are built on a much smaller scale so you get a much more intimate atmosphere onboard and they just sail up and down the different rivers of Europe, Russia or China, dropping their passengers right into the middle of a town so they don't have the long transfers from port to town like so many ocean cruise have to do, (Civitavechhia to Rome anyone?)
This means that the focus of a river cruise really is on the itinerary and not the ship itself.

Is my Canaries cruise still safe?

If you've been watching the news over the last few days and you've a Canaries cruise booked you might be feeling rather nervous.
If you've not heard then to just catch you up the Spanish government has issued a yellow alert to all travellers and residents in the Canaries area due to an increase in seismic activity in the last few days.
El Heirro has suffered what is called an earthquake swarm, over 8,000 tremors in the last two months!
Experts say that this is normally a good sign that a volcanic eruption is imminent.

There are over 10, 000 people living on El Heirro although so far only 53 of them have been evacuated but the Spanish army has been mobilised and is ready to perform a mass evacuation if one becomes necessary.

Where have you been?

I found a great little website today that I thought I'd share with you all. It allows you to create a virtual map of all the countries you have been to in your life and also calculates what percentage of the globe you've traveled to.
If you interested the link is enclosed below.

Did you know?

Do you want to hear something really strange?

I was shopping for a birthday present for my son Harry the other day, (he turned 3 today), when I noticed a book called 'The Wreck of the Titan' by a man called Morgan Robertson.

Nothing strange about that you may say. No? Well read on.

Owling - What is it?

I've said it before and I'll say it again, the internet is a strange place!
You may remember a post I did a few months ago about a craze sweeping the internet called planking, (you can read the post by clicking here).
In essence you had to lie down as stiff as a plank and then up load a picture of your self doing it to a site such as Facebook to share with all your friends. The weirder the place you did it in the better. Well this craze has now led on to a new internet fad called owling.

Crazy American laws

It's Friday, I've got the weekend off and I'm feeling pretty good about it. In honour of that I've decided todays post is going to be fun and light hearted; especially after what one of my past passengers told me yesterday.
He'd just come back from a holiday in Las Vegas where he had been charged a $20 a day resort fee to help pay for the complimentary teas and coffees in the morning.
What???!!!!!
If any of my lovely readers have a spare dictionary knocking around could they please highlight the word complimentary and send it over to America please. Clearly they're not sure what the word means.
In honour of this amazing piece of abuse of the English language I'm going to share these with you.
This isn't a joke.
All these laws are real in America, still on the books and you can be arrested and prosecuted for breaking them. If you're planning a trip to America any time soon be careful.
You have been warned!

What's a Thomson cruise like?

Todays post will be another entry into my current series of blogs, introducing the different cruise lines for first time cruisers. That's not to say more experienced cruisers might not also find this of some use, especially if you've never cruised with Thomson, but it's primarily designed for people looking to take their first cruise.

Can you scatter someones ashes from a cruise ship?

I know most of you who read my blog will be, by now, used to my tongue in cheek style, however this could be quite an emotive subject for some people so I'm going to try and keep it brief but respectful.
"Do cruise lines allow you to scatter someones ashes from a ship?"

When's the best time to to do a Fjord cruise?

This may well sound like a bit of a strange question as 90% of cruise lines only offer Fjord cruises during the summer months but the answer isn't what you might expect. The best time to cruise the Fjords is anytime.
The unique geography of the Fjords offers something a little different depending on which season you travel in, offering something a little different each time.
Find out what below.

Free cruise game

It's been awhile since I brought you any cruise themed games so I thought for todays post I'd provide a little sailing challenge. I've been thinking about Star Clippers a bit over the last week as an old passenger of mine was enquiring about their Southampton departures next year. In honour of that I thought today I'd give you a free game you can play online all about tall ships.

Happy cruising

Do you like your toast done on one side?

This may sound like a really random question but it was bugging me last night. I was listening to some old Sting songs when An Englishman in New York came on.
For anyone that doesn't know it, it's about a quintessential Englishman complaining about how things are different in New York.

"I don't drink coffee I take tea my dear

I like my toast done on one side"

It caught my attention because I remember on my first ever Cunard cruise ,(click here for a review), this was how they served my toast at breakfast, only toasted on the one side. I remember thinking at the time it was really strange but what with it being my first ever cruise, (as well as my first Cunard cruise), I just assumed this was how all toast was served on a cruise ship.

It wasn't until I heard those lyrics last night that I thought there might be something more behind it.

Who are Fred Olsen?

I'll be continuing my series of posts today looking at the different cruise lines first time cruisers might be interested in and just providing a bit of background to them with some pros and cons.
Todays post will be all about Fred Olsen.

Nautical terms on a cruise ship - explained

Continuing my series of posts about top tips for first time cruisers I thought it might be useful if I put together a short guide about some of the terms that commonly get used by travel agents or cruise lines whilst talking about cruises and ships in general. A lot of them you could probably figure out but some of them can be a bit confusing, hopefully this guide will help.

The Queen Victoria - Three of a kind now!

Sorry it's a bit late but I've only just got around to taking the pictures off my camera. You may remember me mentioning back in July that I was off down to Southampton to visit the Queen Victoria.

I was especially excited as this would complete my Cunard set; trip Queens. I've now seen all three of Cunards current ships, although I'm still gutted that I only started cruising after the QE2 had already retired. Hey ho, such is life. 

So what did I think of her? Very nice. Still not a touch on the QM2 mind, (you can read my review of her here), but still nice. I think I preferred her to he sister ship the Queen Elisabeth, (you can read my review of her here), but it was a close run thing. The art deco theme done out in beiges and browns on the QE was nice but I think the QV was just that bit more traditional and more in line with what I expect from a Cunard ship.

But you don't need to take my word for it, check out the pictures I took onboard below.

What are P&O like?

A while back I wrote a post titled What are MSC Like? You can read it by clicking the words in bold. It was an introduction for first time cruisers as to what they could expect from an MSC cruise. One of my regular readers, whom I was talking to the other day, suggested it might be handy if I started a series of posts just introducing the other cruise lines to help first time cruisers make up their mind about the suitability of different cruises and what they offer. I've decided to kick the series of with the cruise line P&O.

Oceania Insignia - The best food I've ever eaten, oh and some cabins and stuff

I spent most of the past weekend in the car. On Saturday I spent four hours driving to and from Legoland Windsor with the kids and then on Sunday spent another four hours driving down to Dover to see the Oceania Insignia with another four hours coming back the next day.
Now that may well sound like a lot of driving to you but I'm here to tell you I'd go twice as far again for another lunch onboard an Oceania cruise ship. Not only do they offer the best food I've ever eaten at sea, I'd go so far as to say it's some of the best food I've eaten ever!
I was onboard the Insignias sister ship the Regatta last year and you can see a full pictorial tour of her by clicking here, (they're both very similar). Today's post will just be a highlight tour of what I think makes Oceania special.

Automatic grats - What they aren't telling you

I've gone back and forth on this subject more times than I can count now and I'm still not sure where I fall on the subject. On the one hand I tend to think how dare someone tell me I have to tip; on the other hand I also know how hard the crew work and how much they rely on those tips to make up their wages.
However I found out something today that several large cruise lines all do that really shocked me.

Driving to Southampton

I've had to drive down south on the M40 twice now in the last couple of days. The first time was on Saturday to visit Legoland Windsor with the family; the second time was on Sunday, driving down to Dover to see the cruise ship Oceania Insignia, (I'll add a review of her soon).
The reason I mention this is that in the last couple of years I must of driven up and down the M40 over a dozen times on my way to Southampton to catch a cruise and every time I do do I pass a strange shaped building and every time I wonder to myself, "what is that"?
This time I remembered to take a picture of it and I'm wondering if any of you have ever seen it on your way to catch a cruise as well and wondered what it is, (or fingers crossed can actually tell me).

My Top Ten List of things you didn't know you could do on a cruise.

We all know cruising is becoming a more and more attractive option, especially cruises from the UK without the worry of flights. Many more people are looking at cruising as a viable option for their family holiday but there are still loads of activities and entertainment that a cruise ship offers that most people don't even know about.
Here's my top ten list of things you didn't know a cruise ship offered.

What happens when you fall sick on a cruise?

To a lot of people booking a cruise may not be an annual holiday, it may be a once in a life time experience where it's important that every single aspect is perfect. To be honest even if it's not a once in a life time experience, even if you're the kind of person that likes to cruise three of four times a year, it's still nice to know that everything will go according to plan.
But what happens when things don't? What happens when you fall ill on a cruise ship?

Do I need a visa?

I've been writing a series of blogs recently called top tips for first time cruisers, (you can see the full list on a tab at the top of this page, or just click the words highlighted in bold).
However it's been pointed out to me by a very nice lady on our cruise forum, that it's not only first time cruisers that need help, there are some things that all cruisers struggle with, no matter how many times they've cruised before.
One of those issues is applying for a visa.

When is a Union Jack not a Union Jack?

Well actually it always is.......... On the last cruise I was on there was a very snooty man on the next table to us lecturing his dinner companions who had mentioned seeing the Union Jack in some art work onboard.
"Actually, it's only called a Union Jack when it is flying from the back of the ship, you should call it the Union flag"

Hurtigruten are great for disabled passengers

Hurtigruten would of been the last company I ever looked at if someone had rang me up looking for a disabled cabin going to the Fjords. Not because there a bad company but just because of the type of ship they operate.

Southampton cruise berths

We all know that when you're off on holiday, (whether it's a cruise or a land based holiday), it's sometimes the little things that can worry you the most.
One of the questions I'm asked most frequently by people about to travel on a cruise, (or at least those that are about to cruise from Southampton), is which berth they will be leaving from at Southampton docks.
If it's an emergency I've no problems ringing the cruise line and asking them for my clients but if you're just looking for the address to load into your satnav I've found this handy little website that lists all the berths that cruise ships will be laving from for any upcoming cruises. Just click this link here - Which berth is my ship docked in at Southampton? Hope you'll find it as useful as I have.

Happy cruising.

Nasa have recommended cruising

Well ok that might be a slight exaggeration, or what some people might call a lie but they have just released some information that might be good news for anyone looking to book a cruise to the fjords this winter.

Can I cruise if I'm pregnant?

No, not really. You can get pregnant if you want but you can't cruise. Well not entirely........
You can sometimes subject to certain terms and conditions slightly different for each cruise line.

I hate Big Brother!

In fact even that statements probably a little too specific. I hate all reality TV!
Big Brother, X-factor, Britains Got Talent, I hate the lot. The problem is my wife is a massive fan so I normally end up having to suffer through some of them, (woe is me).
The reason I mention this is that a reality TV show has cropped up in the schedule that I think might actually be worth watching.

Dietary requests on a cruise ship

A lot of people worry about their dietary requirements on a cruise ship.
I don't just mean worrying about what the food will be like but about specific requests like Halal or Kosher food. You may be vegetarian or a vegan; you may have a lactose or wheat intolerance; you may even be deathly allergic to certain food groups.
Well you don't need to worry, comparing it to a land based holiday nothing could be easier to manage for you.

Child of the 80's

Looking back over my posts for the last couple of weeks and I've noticed there's a bit of a theme developing of me getting on my soap box and moaning, whether it be about Liverpool cruise terminal, Windstar cruises or Princess cruises out of the UK.
Well no more!
Tonight I'm going for something a little more light hearted.
It all came about chatting to a past passenger of mine who was reminiscing about the now gone QE2. She made the comment
"you know you were born in the sixties when you always dreamt about booking a cruise onboard the QE2".
Well I'm afraid I wasn't born in the sixties, I'm a child of the 80s so just for a bit of fun for all the rest of you out there.........

What's the point of Princess cruises

P&O vs Princess cruises.........
It's an incendiary question and I'm sure there will be hordes of Princess cruise fans baying for my my blood out there by the time they finish reading this.
Stick with me for a minute though and let me know what you think before lynching me; I think I've got a fair point here, (he says).
First though a bit of background on Princess cruises might help anyone that hasn't cruised with them before.

Update on Star Clippers

Just a quick follow on tonight to Tuesdays post about Star Clippers. Several of you have emailed me some interesting facts and figures about Star Clippers cruises, some of which I already knew, some of them I didn't.
My favourite little known fact however is about the Royal Clipper, Star Clipper cruises largest yacht.
Whilst onboard you have to make sure you get a drink in a bar called the Captain Nemo lounge. As the title suggests it's located under the waterline and has portholes from which you can see out under the waves.
Maybe not so useful cruising the Baltics but perfect for those Caribbean itineraries for looking out at all the tropical fish.
It's also the only cruise ship that I know of to offer this amazing facility.

Happy cruising

Star Clipppers VS Windstar

I was talking to a client today who was bored of the usual big ocean going cruise vessels and wanted to try something new. She still wanted to cruise, she just wasn't sure what she was looking for.

After chatting to her for a bit I recommended to her that we have a look at some Star Clipper cruises and some Windstar cruises. Like a lot of other people out there, including a lot of experienced cruisers, she had never heard of either of them.

What's the point of Liverpool?

You may, (or may not), have been reading recently about the growing dispute between Southampton cruise terminal and it's Liverpool rival. If you haven't it's quite simple.
 In a nut shell Liverpool docks want a much larger share of the ex-UK cruising market and to that effect have invested nearly £20,000,000 in improving the Liverpool cruise terminal. The problem is they have largely done this out of public funds. Southampton obviously don't want to give up their share of the cruising market and whats more the Southampton cruise terminals have been mostly if not solely built from money raised by private investors.

Top nude cruise destinations

Ok so todays post is a bit tongue in cheek, but considering the response I got to my post about topless sunbathing on Royal Caribbean cruise ships there's clearly an interest out there for nude cruising. It's not going to be about naturist cruises per se, more about some naked beaches you could visit on some of the more popular cruise itineraries as a shore excursion. Feel free to recommend some more if you know of them, (and you're brave enough to admit to it!).

Wheelchairs on a cruise ship

Someone called me up looking to book a first time cruise for their 50th birthday and wanted to know if I could offer them some advice. They had never cruised before and were a little worried as they were in a wheelchair and were wondering if a cruise would be a suitable holiday.
I gave him all the advice and help he wanted and he ended up booking a cruise but it occurred to me that if he had questions about taking a wheelchair on a cruise ship then other people might have the same questions.
It's with that in mind that I've written todays post.

Confused by Harry Potter

Hi all. Today's post doesn't have anything to do with cruising, instead it's a question that's been bugging me for the last few days and I was hoping one of my readers might be able to help me.
Being the decent gent that I am I took my wife out to see the last Harry Potter movie recently. She's a massive fan and has been looking forward to seeing it since she saw the previous film.
I haven't really seen many of the movies, and this one was part two and I'd only seen half of the first one so perhaps my confusion is understandable.
Here's my question........

Are cruise ships a good thing for a city?

Cruise ships bring a lot of money to a city in the form of tourism and port taxes etc but is a large number of cruise ships always a good thing?
I'm thinking about this after having just read a report about Barcelona which so far this year has been visited by 355 cruise ships, bringing in a total number of cruise passenger tourists of over 1,000,000!
Now Barcelona is a big city and can cope with that number of tourists, (the pickpockets and thieves preying on the tourists of Barcelona being a separate issue), but I'm thinking of the small Caribbean islands, or the small Fjord village ports that play host to the likes of Allure of the Seas or P&Os Ventura and Azura.
When these ships come into port the population of these places can sometimes double and that's assuming only one ship is docked; most experienced cruisers will be able to tell you nightmare stories about two or three big ships being docked at a small port at once. Whilst there's no doubt that these ports benefit from the revenue that level of tourism brings I can't help thinking what happens the day after when there aren't any ships in and the residents need to clean up after 2,000 to 3,000 cruise passengers, or what happens when in the off season if the ports don't get any cruise ships visiting them at all. What happens to all the jobs created by the ships visiting and the people that depend on them?
What do you think?

Happy cruising?

Would you book this airport?

I was speaking to a client the other day who was looking for a Christmas cruise. He wanted to cruise the Caribbean and he wanted to cruise for at least a month. Beyond this all he was really looking for was a cheap deal as he was going to be cruising as a single passenger so he wanted to avoid any massive single person supplements.
We finally settled on a P&O back to back cruise of 28 days. The only problem was although P&O still had plenty of flights to get him out there, because it was a Christmas cruise they didn't have any flights coming back. It was then that P&O offered us a really strange solution........

Who are the Blue Man Group

I was talking to a customer today about a cruise he wanted to book on the NCL Epic when I happened to mention offhand that one of the shows onboard was the Blue Man Group.
"Ooh, that sounds interesting", he said. "What do they do?"

I cannot tell you how much this question irritated me. Not because he'd asked it and not because I didn't know. I just couldn't find a way to put it into words. And I've seen them live!

Well, they're a sort of comedy act; with paint and music and stuff, and they're sort of alternate and different and........

I must of sounded like a blathering idiot to this poor passenger!
My best advice to him was to look up some videos on YouTube of them as they're one of those things that need to be seen to be understood.
If anyone's ever seen the Blue Man Group and can come up with a better explanation for them than I could please let me know. In the meantime for anyone who's looking to book a cruise on the NCL Epic or for anyone who's just interested in seeing them I've put a couple of videos below for you to have a look at.

Happy cruising

Cruise lines to pull out of Greece

I've been hearing some worrying gossip recently that several major cruise lines are getting fed up of the disruptions in Greece and are threatening to pull all their cruises to Greece unless the Greek government does something to resolve the situation.

Free upgrades on a cruise ship

I've always liked to think I'm quite a fair person, so when I took a call the other day from a passenger who wanted to complain about a cruise I'd booked for him I was obviously concerned. As it turns out the complaint was about P&O cruises, not me, but it really did leave me gobsmacked.
I really wasn't sure what to say to the passenger. Have a read and see what you think.............

Fred Olsen finally go on line! But will people be happy?

It's finally happened! Fred Olsen have joined the 21st century! But is it a good thing?
Fred Olsen have finally jumped on the dreaded e-ticket bandwagon and from today all your tickets will be available to print out direct from their website.

Is Azamara a five or six star cruise ship?

I was having a debate with someone in the office the other day about this. Do people tend to class Azamara as a five or six star cruise line?  I've always tended to class her with other six star lines like Seabourn or Crystal but I've heard other people only class them as a five star line.
So what do you think.................?

Confiscated luggage

Have you ever had any luggage confiscated from you on your cruise?
A bottle of wine perhaps?
A sneaky bottle of whisky?

Well don't worry you're not alone! A recent report from Southamptons port and operations security manager Glen Gardner revealed this rather scary picture.......

Repositioning cruises, what are they?

If you've been looking for a cruise at any point in the last, well ever, you may have heard the term repositioning cruise mentioned. They're not common in the cruising world but they do tend to happen once or twice a year for each ship; but what actually are they?

Problems with taking children on Royal Caribbean cruises

There's nothing quite as special as taking your kids on their first cruise, (apart from leaving them at home and cruising in the peace and quiet on your own - I'm joking), but if you're not careful you can have a lot of problems with some cruise lines; in some circumstances I've heard of people being refused boarding!

P&O going green - What they aren't telling you.......

If you've booked a cruise with P&O lately and had a look at your cruise personaliser you may have noticed something new. There is now an option on there for you to go green.
Now we all know about global warming; we all now about deforestation; so the automatic reaction is to tick the yes box on something like this; yes please I'd like to go green!
But what aren't P&O telling you?

Have you ever seen a horse on a Fred Olsen ship?

No this isn't a joke, I'm genuinely asking if you've ever seen a horse on a Fred Olsen ship.
Obviously not the live variety, that really would be weird. What I meant is have you ever seen a picture of a horse in a painting?
Or a statue of a horse as a decoration?
Or anything else even remotely 'horsey'?
I bet you haven't!

Fred Olsen fuel surcharges - Are they being unfair again?

A few months ago I wrote a blog about Fred Olsen imposing gratuities on their guests automatically, (you can read the post here). I thought it was a bit unfair of them at the time but since then I've not hear much from them. There latest move however strikes me as really unfair!
A couple of my colleagues have blogged recently about the Fred Olsen fuel surcharges currently being added to existing bookings.
For those of you who don't know, because the price of fuel has risen so much in the last few months Fred Olsen have been contacting passengers who have already booked their cruise and adding a fuel surcharge to their bookings. If I'm going to be honest with you that's all passed me by a little.
Yes I think it's a little unfair that Fred Olsen are doing this to passengers that have already booked but it is in their Terms and conditions.
However........

Did you know - The Jade and Jewel

I was chatting to a customer today on one of my regular pre cruise calls, (I like to call everyone up just before their cruise to make sure they're all set for their cruise and that no last minute problems have arisen), when we got talking about the NCL cruises he had done in the past. He told me an interesting piece of gossip about the NCL Jade and the Jewel that I just couldn't resist sharing with you today.

Choosing the right cruise ship

Lets ignore costing issues for a moment and lets forget about itinerarys and flights and everything else. If the only decision you had to make was how to choose a cruise ship how would you do it?
What for you are the hallmarks of a great cruise ship? Or looking at it in a different way, what for you makes a bad cruise ship, (does such a thing even exist?)

The I-Phone cruise.co.uk app is here!

You all demanded it and it's finally here. I know all us I-phone users have had to wait a bit longer than our android cousins but I checked it out last night and the wait was worth it! Just search the I-phone app store for cruises and it will pop straight up for you. (The delay was Apples fault, surprise, surprise).
The app links back to our forums so is perfect for anyone with any emergency questions whilst out and about, or even whilst they're on their cruise. It almost acts as a 24/7 help centre as so many of are members are on there around the clock.
Not to mention the fact that you can keep up with all the latest cruise, gossip, chat, deals and discussions whilst on the go.
So why are you still reading this? Go download it now!!!

Happy cruising

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What's wrong with American check-in staff?

Hmmm, where to start. Most of them seem to be rude, obnoxious, racist xenophobes who delight in making visitors to their country jump through hoops for their own amusement, or so past passengers have told me from there own experiences.

Live Hurtigruten broadcast - 134 hours!

Hurtigruten have been on my radar for a year or two now. I simply love everything this companies marketing department do. They converted the top couple of decks of their mail ships into passenger decks and started selling cruises to see the northern lights, (for those of you who hadn't realised Hurtigruten go further north than any other cruise line so they are perfect for the 'light hunters' out there looking to see the Aurora Borealis).
But the latest marketing ploy is simply genius!

Project Sunshine - Have you heard?

As you know I always try to keep you all informed of the latest cruise news, gossip and rumours. Working for a specialist cruise travel agency I obviously get to speak to a lot of reps from the different cruise lines and hear some of the juicer gossip.
Something I heard today however has got me quite interested so I thought I'd share it all with you straight away.

How to overcome a fear of flying

Don't fly, book a cruise! There we go that was nice and easy! All joking aside though the thought of flying terrifies a lot of people so I thought today I'd give you a few handy 'tips' I've picked up over the years to help if it is a worry for you.......

Cruise line Godmothers - What do they actually do?

At the risk of committing blasphemy to certain cruisers this question has been bugging me for awhile now........
What do the Godmothers of cruise ships actually do?
As far as I can see they turn up for the launch party, maybe the inaugural cruise and then that's it.
Then they're never heard from again!

MSC Opera - I'm in love with Italian style cruising!

In case you didn't already know I spent all of Tuesday just gone down in Southampton visiting the MSC Opera. As is the case every time I visit a new cruise ship I've put together a bit of a virtual 'pictorial' tour of the ship for you. Before you have a look at them however let me tell you a bit about my impressions of her.

I was so impressed!

If I'm going to be quite honest with you I was a little apprehensive traveling down to Southampton. Whilst I have spoken to plenty of people who have loved sailing on her I was also aware she wasn't to everyones taste. She is after all an Italian cruise ship and the Italians have a unique way of doing things which not everyone will enjoy. I also knew there were bigger, newer, 'better' MSC ships in the fleet like the Fantasia.

Well all I have to say to that now is lets have three cheers for the Italian way of doing things and if there are better MSC ships out there I for one can't wait to see them!

E-Tickets; the whats, whys and wherefores.....

Cruise E-tickets. Always a controversial subject and one of the most common complaints for modern cruisers, but why do they annoy so many people? After all airlines have been using e-tickets for years.
I think the problem stems from the perception ,(quite rightly), that many people have about cruising.
Cruising is stylish, sophisticated, elegant and luxurious so turning up at the port with a piece of paper you've printed out yourself just doesn't sit right with some people. Especially as it was only a few years ago when all the cruise lines where sending out ticket 'packs' to people that included luggage labels, excursion information and their tickets. Indeed some cruise lines even went so far as to send this information in a nice leather wallet that people could bring with them. But no more I'm afraid.

Cryptic clues cruise crossword -

Thanks again to Pete from our forums at www.cruises.co.uk for supplying the clues to todays cryptic clues cruise crossword, (now there's a tounge twister for you)!
All of this weeks clues are based on occupations you might find on a typical cruise ship.

Happy cruising

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Why does it always rain at the weekend?

Why does it always rain at the weekend?
Or does it?
Looking back at my childhood it always seemed that whenever we had a family trip or holiday planned it would rain non-stop at the weekend. At the time I just chalked it up to sods law, (I didn't call it sods law as a child obviously), and made the best of it but it turns out my child self might not of just been unlucky. It really does rain more at the weekend.........

Have you ever cruised in a staff cabin?

One of the questions I get asked a lot about cruising is 'where do the crew sleep at night?'
On one memorable occasion I remember one person asked me if the crew went home at night!
The easy answer is that staff and crew cabins tend to be below the water line at the bottom of the ship; well out of the way of the guests.
The staff quarters tend to be a lot smaller and more crammed in than guests cabins but can be quite nice still.
A lot of guests sometimes show an interest in crew cabins and want to see them but they're normally told that the cruise line won't allow this.
However after a phone call to a cruise line this morning I've found out not only can you view some crew cabins you could book a cruise in one if you wanted!

Does the nationality of your cruise staff matter?

Unusually for me I actually feel a little awkward talking about this, (I never normally feel awkward talking about anything), but a lot of my passengers spend a lot of time either talking or thinking about this when they are planning their next cruise.
Does the nationality of your cabin crew and waiting staff on your cruise ship make a difference to you?

Did you know............?

I was talking to a past passenger recently about an Alaskan cruise he wanted to book. He wanted to cruise in 2012 but also had several strict requirements that the cruise had to include. After adding a couple of nights to his cruise in a hotel at the start and end of the holiday we managed to include everything that he wanted.
It was whilst researching his requirements however that I came across some interesting facts and figures about Alaska that, (being the geek I am), I couldn't resist sharing with you........

P&Os big ships - Are there too many cabins?

The rumour mills have been buzzing recently with the news of P&Os new superliner due for launch in 2015 and speculation has been rife as to what extras P&O will be adding onboard to make this ship 'extra special'.
Anyone who regularly reads my blog will know that I absolutely love the big cruise ships; Oasis of the Seas, Independence of the Seas, the Celebrity Eclipse and their like. One of, if not the only reason I love these ships so much is that there is always so much to do onboard, with loads of features that you just don't see on the smaller cruise ships.

Which do you prefer...........?

I was chatting with a past passenger of mine last week who happened to be looking at a 36 night cruise. We had a bit of a laugh and a joke about how jealous of her I was as I've always wanted to book a really long cruise. Not necessarily a world cruise but something like cruising to the Caribbean and back from Southampton, about a month or so long.
I've never done it though as I just can't afford to take that long off work or spend that long away from home; but it did get me thinking about which option is better, one really long cruise a year or two or three short ones? (Obviously the best option would be two or three long cruises but you'd need a lot of money for that)!

30th Birthday blues

Just a quick one today guys and gals. I'm going to be out of the office for the next week or so so you won't hear from me for a bit. I'm down to Southampton on Friday for a day visit to the Fred Olsen Balmoral, (You can read my review of her next week, so make sure you check back), then I turn 30 on the weekend.
I'm just going away for a few days with the family to celebrate the fact that I'm getting really old now.
In the meantime if you need anything you can contact my colleauges on 0800 408 6200 or you can check out this link here for your daily blog fix.

Happy cruising

The secrets of Royal Caribbean - A round up

This is just going to be a quick round up post for you all today.
recentley Ive been writing about some of the hidden gems available onboard Royal Caribbeans ships. Just little known facts about them that you may not have realised before. However I've noticed that the different posts are all scattered over the last couple of months so I thought it might be helpful for you to collate them all in one place for ease of use.....

Let's hope they're insured

Does anyone know if the Captain of P&Os Oriana is female?
Ok, Ok before all the hate mail starts I'm just joking but have you seen the pictures of her after her little accident?

Royal Caribbeans cow room

No I'm not going mad there really is a room on the Independence of the Seas called the cow room.
Once again continuing with my series of posts I'm writing about the little known features of some Royal Caribbean ships.......... did you know the Independence of the Seas has a cow room?

Disembarking from a Cunard ship.

For anyone who's ever booked a cruise through me, (or cruise.co.uk), you'll know we pride ourselves on our customer service. Part of this service is calling people back after the end of their cruise to make sure everything went according to plan and that they enjoyed the cruise. The service doesn't stop with us collecting your money like with some companies, we like to make sure you enjoyed the cruise we booked for you.
Following on from these calls though I've been noticing a trend with the disembarkation process from Cunard and I was wondering how many others had experienced this......

Glass bottomed cruise ships

We were talking in the office today about the new P&O ship that has just been announced to be built and launched exclusively for the UK market in 2015. It's going to be the biggest and apparently, the most innovative of all the P&O ships currently in service.

With all the new ships either out at the moment or to be released soon we were wondering what P&O could do to make her stand out from the crowd.

As you've probably guessed from the title of this post we think we've come up with an idea that might help them.......

An ash cloud follow up

Now that the dust, (or ash), is finally settling, (pun intended), from the latest series of eruptions from Iceland I thought I'd just give you a quick round up of the news, what's happened, where we're going from here in the short term and what's likely to happen in the future.

A cruise jigsaw for you

It's Sunday so it must be time for another cruise game again and this week I thought I'd put together a jigsaw puzzle for you of the flow rider onboard the Independence of the Seas. You'll have to post how quickly you manage to solve it.

Happy cruising

Cruise.co.uk now has an app!

Just a quick update for you all today. As you've probably guessed from the title of this post cruise.co.uk has finally joined the 21st century and released its own app. I know it's been a long time coming, (you know you're behind the times when Fred Olsen has an app before you), but it's finally here.
At the moment it's only available on the android market but fingers crossed it'll be released for I-phones soon as well. If anyone reading this has an android phone just do a quick search and download us. Let me know back here what you think of the app and who knows your suggestions might be included in version 2.0

Happy cruising

Dreamworks with Royal Caribbean - Did you know?

It seems I'm having a bit of a Royal Caribbean month this month on my blog and no for the cynical amongst you they're not paying me, (although if anyone from Royal Caribbean's reading this feel free to call me up and offer me some money). The other day I wrote about how most RCCL ships have boxing rings in the gym, (you can read the post by clicking here), and I recently wrote about the secret topless sunbathing deck on the Independence of the Seas, (which again you can read by clicking here). Today's post is going to have a bit more of a family cruising theme as I'll be telling you how some Royal Caribbean ships have Dreamworks characters onboard to entertain the kids, (and any young at heart adults).

Planking - Have you tried it yet?

I'm normally pretty good with internet fads, being right there at the front when they start, but I''ll admit this one passed me by a bit so if you've already heard of it my apologies for todays post.
For those of you that haven't 'planking' a variation on an old game called, imaginatively, the lying down game, is the latest craze to be sweeping the internet.
But just what is it?

Fight Klub - Another secret gem of the Indy

I've written a couple of articles recently about the different little known extras you get on a Royal Caribbean cruise. I think the last one I wrote about was topless sun bathing, (which, if you want, you can read by clicking here). Following on with the same theme I'll be posting today about the Fight Klub onboard the Independence of the Seas.
Did you know she had a usable boxing ring in the gym?

Latest ash cloud news

It looks like it's happened again although fingers crossed this time all the experts are saying it shouldn't be as bad.
What am I talking about?
Well if you haven't heard already another volcano has erupted up in Iceland and is once again spewing ash and dust throughout Northern Europes flight lanes.

American vs British service

One of my colleagues recently wrote a post about how much better the service was on an American cruise ship as opposed to a British one, (surprise surprise she's American herself). If you're interested you can read her thoughts on the matter by clicking here.

Obviously my patriotic pride wasn't going to just sit back and take that lying down though so I thought for todays post I'd explain to you all why the service on a British cruise ship and by extension British service in general, is so much better than the service you can expect from our Colonial cousins.

Britons refuse to sample new food

I was reading an article in the paper yesterday about Britains eating habits that shocked me,(yep, you guessed it I'm about to jump back up on my soap box). One of the big things I love about cruising is the amazing menus and the chance to try local cuisines first hand but according to the article in the Metro one in five British adults were so unadventurous that they had never tried an olive! Not once!

Sneaking Alcohol onto a cruise ship

First off, this isn't a continuation on the debate about whether it's right to sneak alcohol onto a cruise ship or not. That debate's been done several times in the past and I don't think either side are ever going to agree with each other.
From my point of view I can see two main reasons for bringing alcohol onboard yourself. Firstly, you fancy a quite drink in your cabin before you go out or as a night cap without having to wait for room service or walk all the way to a bar yourself. The second reason is that you have decided the cruise lines prices for drinks are too expensive so you bring your own booze to get drunk in your cabin before going out for the evening.

Will the British market say no?

Unless you're a dedicated cruiser until a couple of years ago you probably hadn't ever heard of MSC. They're an Italian cruise line that have grown very large over the last few years. Currently they're trying to break into the UK market by offering cruises from Southampton onboard the MSC Opera.

A cruise anagram game

It's Sunday morning so it must be time for another cruise style game. This week I've set you a series of cruise anagrams to solve. If you get stuck there are hints available but see how far you can get without them first.

Happy cruising

My top five cruise movies

I was chatting with some friends last night about the amount of times a cruise ship gets used in a movie either as a setting or as a plot device and someone made a comment that there always seemed to be hundreds of movies featuring cruise ships about.
As one, everyone turned to me as though I'd be able to list every movie ever made to feature a cruise ship. With a bit of thought though I was hard pressed to come up with even ten, let alone ten good ones.
It's with that in mind that for todays post I've listed my top five favourite movies featuring cruise ships. Bear in mind it was a slim list I was picking from so if you can come up with a better top five, or you can even think of some cruise movies I've missed, feel free to add them below.

Timeline of a cruise; Booking to Packing

A lot of people get nervous about booking their first cruise, (or even there 50th), they're never sure what to do when; when they can expect flight tickets; their cruise tickets; how they get their luggage labels etc.
I thought some people might find it useful if I put together a time line of how the perfect cruise, (barring any problems), should proceed just so you know what you have to do/what you should expect and when.

Happy cruising

Do you know where you're really cruising to?

"Of course I do! Why wouldn't I know; my cruise line has given me a clear itinerary!"
Well, it's not always that easy, strange as it may sound, especially if you're new to cruising or haven't traveled a lot in the past.
So, on the assumption that all the cruise lines aren't deliberately lying to you, just what am I talking about?

Three and four berth cabins

One of the big questions I get asked a lot from families booking a cabin on a cruise ship is what will the three or four berth cabins look like.
It can be quite worrying, especially if you've never seen one before, as it's quite hard to imagine how they will be set up. I had a quick look on the internet this morning and there aren't even that many pictures. With that in mind I thought I'd show you some pictures of three and four berth cabins on a cruise ship so that you can judge for yourselves as to whether you'd be happy in one.
There are however a couple of points with this kind of cabin that you should remember......

Celebrity Eclipse - The best ship I've ever seen, (so far)

I've just got back up from Southampton after a travel agent day visit to the Celebrity ship, The Eclipse, (It's a hard job but somebodies got to do it). The cruise lines invite us all down every so often to tour their ships and enjoy some lunch in the dining room so that when my lovely passengers ask about a particular ship we can comment from personal experience.
Today was the turn of the Celebrity Eclipse.
If you'd asked me about it before I would have told you that Celebrity cruise lines were Royal Caribbeans big sisters.
Stylish, sophisticated, elegant, innovative, modern and relaxed.
My opinion of them hasn't changed after today, Celebritys ships, especially the Eclipse, are all these things. What I didn't realise till this morning was that those descriptions were just words.
I didn't realise how stylish she was. I didn't realise how sophisticated she was. I didn't realise how innovative she was. And neither will you until you sail on her. The pictures I've added below, (and there are a few), don't do her justice at all. Until you're onboard, surrounded by her elegance, bathed in her mood lighting and relaxing in one of her many bars, (the martini bar is my favourite, more on that later though), you won't be able to appreciate her either. I really do have to repeat, these pictures don't do her justice; however, hopefully they will wet your appetite just enough to book a cruise on her. Trust me, you won't regret it!

The problem with airplanes

A passenger of mine recently sent me an email about some engineers reports who had been sent in by the pilots when they had noticed a problem with the plane.
As the weekends fast approaching I thought I'd share some of them with you to bring you a bit of a smile before Saturday gets here.

Happy cruising

Topless sunbathing on a cruise ship

I've just had a past passenger come back from a cruise onboard the Independence of the Seas and they reminded me about something on the Indy that I hadn't thought of for quite a while. Now I'm not sure if it's just the Indy that has this or all RCCL ships as I've only been on the Independence but have you ever been on the San Tropez deck?

Cunards Grills - Another name for first and second class?

I recently wrote a post about all the different benefits you can enjoy when you book a Princess or Queens Grill onboard a Cunard ship, (if you're interested you can read the post by clicking here). Ever since I wrote it though it's been praying on my mind a little. Are the Cunard Grills just a higher grade of cabin, as available on all other cruises lines or are they a sneaky form class system ie first, second and steerage?

A cruise game for you

I know today is normally when I'd bring you your regular cruise crossword but I thought I'd try something different for a change. Rather than designing a cruise crossword I've built a cruise style hangman game for you to enjoy. Let me know how you get on.

Happy cruising

The who/what/wherefore of luxury cruise lines

With all the cheap cruise deals around at the moment a lot of my passengers have been making the jump up to six star cruising, picking a cruise line they might not ever of thought of booking with before.
However, for a lot of people it can be a bit of a nerve wracking jump. Whilst they might know everything there is to know about the the cruise lines they're used to picking a brand new cruise line to try can be a bit daunting.
Will I enjoy it?
Will I hate it?
What will it be like?
What's included?
I thought it might help if I put a quick guide together of some of the big players within the six star market with a bit of information about what they can offer. I've also linked the name of the cruise line back to www.cruise.co.uk so if you're interested you can just click them and check out some prices.

So what are Cunards Grills all about?

First off, I've never had a chance to stop in one. The closest I've come is walking enviously past the Queens Grill restaurant, craning my neck trying to see how the other half eat.
Secondly, if, like me, you've never had a chance to experience a Grill, (Princess or Queens), don't worry the service in the Britannia restaurant is still some of the best at sea and Cunard are still one of my favourite cruise lines even if I haven't tried a Grill.

Now I know a lot of people get a little offended by the idea of the Grills, thinking it hearkens back to the bad old days of a three tier system, ie first , second and third class. but if you ask Cunard they'll deny this strenuously, stating that their Grills aren't a class system,  you're just paying for extra facilities onboard.
It's all rubbish of course. It is a class system, just based on money rather than birth. But, playing Devils Advocate who can lay hand on heart on say they wouldn't book a Grill if they could afford one?

But what do you get extra with a Grill........?

Why are cruise ships always named after women?

Who's her you ask, the cats mother?
But it's a good point I think; why are cruise ships always named after women, or refereed to as a her? Off the top of my head, and I'm prepared to stand corrected here, I could only think of one cruise ship currently in service named after a man and that's the Paul Gauguin, named after the French impressionist of the same name. So why is this; how did this situation arise?
Well as always there's no easy answer to the question, however there are a couple of pretty good theories to explain it........

Paul Gauguin........Who are they?

Paul Gauguin was a leading French post-impressionist artist. He was a leading figure in the Symbolist movement as a painter, sculptor, print maker, ceramist and writer. But more importantly he has lent his name to one of the most luxurious cruise ships at sea......
The Paul Gauguin, sailing year round in the waters of French Polynesia and Tahiti.

Unwanted souvenirs

We've all been there. Caught up in a haze of good times and enjoyment we've bought some strange little souvenir from some dodgy street vendor thinking,
'Ooh that'll look nice on the mantle piece.'
Only to get home to realise we've bought, well lets face it, trash.
Well no more! Playing around on the Internet earlier I found the perfect use for all those useless souvenirs you've been stockpiling. In fact after looking at some of these pictures you may decide you don't need to go on holiday at all!

I'm starting the trend off with these pictures I've found here but if you think you can beat them then feel free to send me your pictures and I'll publish them all here for you.

Happy cruising

Recommended gratuities for your cruise.......

Several clients have been asking me to compare the different levels of gratuities that different cruise lines ask for/expect for them. I've put together a handy little guide so that you can compare them. This probably isn't going to be the most interesting post I've ever written but fingers crossed you'll find it useful and informative.

Happy cruising

Lifes imponderable questions

I was speaking to a customer yesterday who had booked a cruise with me a couple of weeks ago. He'd checked the price of the cruise yesterday out of curiosity, only to find the cabin grade he had booked had dropped in price by £50 per person. It wasn't a lot but it was annoying for him so I called the cruise line to see if they would honour the new price for him.
Surprise surprise they wouldn't!
My customer was a little disapointed but understood and wondered why a cruise always seemed to drop in price after he'd booked it.
"Oh well, just one of lifes imponderable questions I guess" , he said.

Well to cheer him and all you up on a Monday morning I thought I'd put together a list of other imponderable questions.......

Your regular cruise crossword

It's Sunday so it must be time for your regular cruise crossword again.
I've tried for something a bit different today so I've based all of todays answers on Mediterranean ports of call. All the answers though are based on general knowledge questions of that port rather than the standard cryptic clues.
Just clearing up a bit of confusion, some times the crossword technology doesn't display all the clues at once, which means once you've solved it you can start over with a different set of clues.

Enjoy

Florentine Football

I was watching a program on T.V last night about weird sports from around the world; well I say I was watching it, it was on in the background, when the word Florence grabbed my attention. Not for any real reason, it just so happened that I'd booked a couple of cruises that day with Florence as a port of call so I started watching and actually found it quite interesting.

The Thomson Spirit - A British institution...........Back in Britain!

You may or may not know it but if ever a client calls looking for a low cost cruise, or a really last minute cruise, it tends to be a Thomson cruise I end up offering. They always have plenty of departures from regional airports as opposed to the normal Manchester/London option offered by other cruise lines with great affordable prices for people.
If I have any problems with Thomson cruises it's been that they never offer any deals on cruises leaving the UK, so if you don't want to fly you've been stuck a little for choice with them.

Who has the most modern fleet?

'Book a cruise with us. Recommend a cruise with us to all your customers, we have the most modern fleet in the world'.
You've got no idea how many times I've heard that from the different reps that come to visit us from the different cruise lines. The only problem is they always seem to have a different definition of what the most modern cruise fleet means.
I can see why so many cruise lines want to be able to advertise this on their promotions as it does sound good, 'The most modern fleet at sea'. But with so many different brands saying the same thing how do you define it?

It's yachting, not cruising

I know, I know. This is meant to be a blog about cruising not yachting. Who wants to hear about pampered millionaires on their private yachts when you could be reading about the latest cruise news?
Well actually.......
The line between yachting and cruising might not be as clear cut as you once thought. Have you ever heard of a  cruise line called Sea Dream Yacht Club?

Don't miss out in Monte Carlo

It’s been awhile since I've written any city guides for you to plan out your shore excursions with so to kick it off again I’ll be writing about Monte Carlo, playground of the rich, the famous and James Bond.
As always with these guides if anyone has any better ideas or opinions about Monte Carlo, feel free to add your comments below. The more information we get, the easier it is for people to plan their cruise excursions.

Monte Carlos's a small city so it’s quite easy to take in in one day. However if you’re a disabled or older customer it’s worth noting a lot of the city is quite steep so you may want to make use of the local taxis, buses, trains etc.
The centre of Monte Carlo is always a good place to start your excursion as it’s packed with shops restaurants and bars and it’s actually sloped quite gently down to the port. So it’s quite easy to reach.

There's a first time for everything

Sorry I've been away for a few days folks but I've had a bit of a busy weekend enjoying the weather, (when I say busy obviously I mean completely chilling out and relaxing!). Fingers crossed your weekend's been as good as mine. I've spent all today chilling out in the back garden with a cold drink enjoying a barbecue whilst Harry, (my little lad), splashed around in the paddling pool.
Yesterday though we went for a picnic in the woods.

Top ten reasons to cruise with ..........Silver Sea

Continuing my series of blogs on luxury cruise lines I'm today asking the question;
'Have you ever sailed with Silver Sea? If not, why not?'
 Silver Sea always seem to get left out when people make a list of the top six star cruise lines which can be a bit of mistake as this cruise line has a lot to offer that other six star cruise lines don't.

Funny hotel names

One of my passengers has just come back from a cruise around Australia and New Zealand. Whilst there he noticed a hotel called the Hotel Mediocre. It had been opened by a Vietnamese couple several years earlier whose English wasn't very good. They had asked around for a name that meant ordinary, average and down to earth, apparently settling on mediocre because they liked the sound of it.
Needless to say me and my passenger both found this quite amusing, my only gripe being that he had forgot to take a picture of it. It did get me thinking though, so one quick Google search later here are some other hotels from around the world I thought you might find amusing.
(I've only used the more polite ones though, you'll have to Google it yourself for some of the ruder sounding hotels).

How to get a great cruise deal..........

Have you ever thought about booking your next cruise whilst your still on your current cruise? Most people haven't. In fact most people don't even realise you can do this or that there are extra benefits for doing so.
Cruise lines love for people to book their next cruise whilst they're still onboard and very often give people tremendous offers for doing so......

Your regular cruise Crossword

It's that time again! Except that todays cruise crossword is going to be slightly different. This cruise crossword is based on speciality restaurants onboard cruise ships but all of todays clues are going to be a lot more cryptic than you'll be used to as they've been very kindly written by Pete, Caerphilly, a member of our forums at http://www.cruises.co.uk/
So if you find it a lot harder/fun you can blame/thank him. Thanks Pete!

Happy Cruising

Minimum child ages allowed for travel

A past passenger of mine called me yesterday looking to book a new cruise for this summer. She hadn't been on a cruise for awhile as she'd just had a new baby so after I'd congratulated her and swapped some sleepless nights horror stories we got to talking about who she could cruise with. Her baby girl would only be five months old at time of travel and she hadn't realised this would be too young for many cruise lines.
It's with this in mind that I've wrote todays post, giving you all the minimum child ages need to travel with the different cruise lines. I hope you find it useful. - As a quick guide, if you are traveling with a child under six months MSC seem to be your best bet, especially as they normally give free child places aswell!

P&O Aurora..........Is she Haunted?

My regular readers may remember that I sailed onboard the P&O ship Aurora last November; you can read the review for it here. 

Well last night I was printing some pictures off my computer when I noticed the below photo I took in the theatre. 

A blur on the lens?

A reflection of the light ?

Or is the theatre haunted?

Lobster golf balls!

And the award for most pointless improvement goes to......

I came across this story earlier today and thought to myself that I just had to share it with you.
Now we all know cruise lines will go to extreme lengths to keep guests happy onboard, paying attention to the smallest details of your cruise holiday. Indeed, I think I've said it before here that it tends to be the silly little small details that can really make a holiday. But have they finally gone one step too far.......?

Star Clippers - What are they like?

This cruise line is rapidly becoming a bit of an obsession of mine. I really, really want to go on a cruise with Star Clippers!
The problem is my wife isn't a huge cruise fan, (she loves the holidays, she's just got a bit of a phobia of being out at sea). She's happy on the big cruise ships but something like Star Clippers puts her off a little. The thing is these ships really are amazing. I thought it might help others in the same sort of position as myself, either wondering whether to go or trying to convince others to go with them, if I posted a bit of info about them for you today.

QM2 vs Independence of the Seas

I've been watching a show recently, (I think it was originally on Bravo), called Deadliest Warrior. It's a semi historical show where two groups of 'practical' historians will represent a warrior from the past ie a Ninja vs a Samurai. They test all the different weapons/armour that these warriors had to offer, (normally on an un-suspecting crash test dummy), and then at the end of the show all the data is collected and loaded into a computer which then determines who would of won in a fight, had they ever of met in real life.

It's actually quite fun and at they end they get two actors to enact the final result, it's definitely worth a watch.

The point of all this is that it's given me an idea for a series of blogs based on the same principal. I'm going to pitch two different ships together in a head to head 'fight' to see who comes out on top. The first match will be between.........

Did you know..........

You all know how much I love weird facts and figures, or you should do by know, so when I came across this little statistic I had to share it with you.
A countries Naval power is measured in one of two ways. You can measure it in terms of its deployment power, which measures it's ability to deploy it's troops to a war zone, ie most aircraft carriers etc. In these terms America has the largest Navy followed by the UK.
The second way normally used to measure a counties Naval power is in terms of gross tonnage, ie who has the largest, most powerful ships. Again using this technique America come out top, again followed by the UK.

A first hand review of ...........Hurtigruten

One of my past passengers recentley just came back from a cruise on Hurtigruten, (a cruise line specalising in cruises above the Northern circle for anyone who hasn't read my previous blogs on this cruise line), and they wrote this review when they returned which they have asked me to share with you.
If anyone else has ever sailed with Hurtigruten you'll have to let me know if their comments match up with your experiences. Do you agree with them? Or have you anything further to add for anyone thinking of booking a Hurtigruten cruise?
If you wish to read the other posts I have written about Hurtigruten, you will find the word Hurtigruten highlighted in blue at the botton of this post. If you click this it will load up all the old posts about them.

Is Sorrento a city or a town?

Help me settle an argument. This was bouncing around the office yesterday and we're fairly divided on the answer.......
Is Sorrento a town or a city?

Your regular cruise crossword

Has it been two weeks already? Well not to worry your regular cruise themed crossword is here again. This weeks edition has been themed on Cruise ship names.

Enjoy

Top ten reasons to book a .............River Cruise

I've been looking at a lot of 'niche' market cruises for passengers lately. People looking to try something completely different to what they are used to. River cruises used to be considered 'niche' but to be honest more and more people seem to be trying them. And quite rightly, they offer some amazing opportunities that you just don't get with ocean going cruises.....

Update about Kosher dining at sea

Don't worry I'm not going to be getting up on my soapbox today about the standards of Halal and Kosher food at sea again. For a change it's actually some good news I'm sharing regarding this little pet hate of mine.
We had a rep in from Crystal Cruises  the other day talking to us about Crystal cruises, (duh). Just chatting to him it turns out Crystal have been doing Kosher food at sea for awhile now, and unlike most other cruise lines doing it well.

How to avoid the Norovirus on a cruise ship

This is one of those subjects that tends to gain and lose prominence in the media and the public consciousness depending on what else is going on. However for some reason I’ve had a lot of passengers calling me lately worried about it on their cruise ship. They have been, quite rightly, worried about catching this and not being able to enjoy the cruise. The funny thing is with just a few simple precautions there really isn’t any reason for this to spoil your cruise holiday.

What would you like from these blogs?

I was looking through some old blog posts today when I realised I'd been writing this blog for nearly a year. I hope you've all enjoyed reading it as much as I've enjoyed writing it. For todays post I'm looking for a bit of feedback to try and find out just how much you've enjoyed it.
It's fairly easy to keep a track of how many people have been reading my posts but the question I wanted to ask you all today was why.

Which of my posts have you enjoyed the most.
The descriptions of the ships?
The advice for first time cruisers?
The jokes?
The games?
Is there anything you'd like to see me add going forward? Or change? Or see more of? As I've said I'm glad you've all enjoyed things up till now but I'd love to get some feedback on what you've thought so far and what you'd like to see added. (Fingers crossed you vote for more ship reviews as it'll mean work will have to send me down to Southampton more).

So let me know what you think and I'll see what I can do.

And as always, happy cruising

Top ten reasons to book with...........Hurtigruten

You may have read a few posts I've written about Hurtigruten before. They're very much a 'niche' market cruise line, sailing people up beyond the Northern Circle.
To learn more about them you can click here, here or here to read my old posts. In them I've tried to describe who Hurtigruten are and what they have offer. Today I'm going to really try and hammer it home with a top ten list of activities/excursion you can enjoy whilst cruising with Hurtigruten.

Win a free World Cruise for P&Os 175th anniversary!

Did you know P&O is 175 years old next year? I know they're part of the Carnival corporation now but they're still British run and there's not many other companies that can claim a record that long.
As you'd expect for their cruises 2012 they've got a lot of plans with new cruises, destinations and deals planned.
The bit I'm most interested in for 2012 though has to be the date of their anniversary, 03rd July 2012!

Name your own cruise ship.........

It's a busy time at the moment in the cruising world. We're all getting ready for the cruises 2012 release, there's new ships being launched this summer, with the gossip being there's going to be even more for 2013 and 2014. All the new ships for 2011 have been named now;
The Seabourn Quest,
The Celebrity Silhouette,
And the Costa Favolosa just to name a few. Most of the ships for 2012, 2013 and 2014 though have yet to be named, so.......

What are you giving up for lent?

I don't know if any of you read my blog the other day on whether you should cruise with MSC or not. If you missed it you can read it by clicking here.
Someone reading it obviously wasn't too keen on MSC and said my recommendation of them sounded like a used car salesmans!
A little unfair I thought as I'd made a conscious effort to give the good and bad points of the cruise. I suppose I may have come across enthusiastic but that's just how I talk about cruising in general, it's not just MSC. I'm a big cruising fan and I'm on the hunt right now for my next cruise.

The dark side of cruise lines

I received a really interesting email today from a lady that writes an educational blog in America. She wrote a blog back in March about the darker side of the cruise industry and I thought I'd share it all with you.
For instance, did you know.....
Since 2006 Carnival corporation has made $11.3 billion in cumulative profits, but has only paid 1.1% of that out in taxes or that quite often ships are registered in foreign countries to deliberately avoid U.S and U.K labour laws?

For these and even more interesting facts feel free to click the link below.

Did you know........Inside secrets of the cruise lines. 

Happy cruising