Richard's Cruise Ramble

Valentines Cruises with MSC

2012-01-30T17:10:00.000Z

MSC Cruises are looking to make the most of their Arabian Gulf sailing packages by offering a special Valentines cruise this February.

The MSC Lirica will be transformed into a "lover's paradise" from the 12-19th February she heads on her Middle Eastern cruise.

As part of the Valentine-focused cruise MSC will be offering a rose petal package of luxury items for the romantically inclined.

The package will include a bottle of Il Vino dell'Amore along with a Moscato Spumante and petit fours.

What do you think about themed cruises like this, do you think they are a good way to attract like minded people onto a sailing or do you think it is all just a bit of a gimmick ?

How safe is it to go cruising ?

2012-01-20T11:58:00.000Z

I am sure we have all seen and heard the reports about what has tragically happened to the Costa Concordia recently (if not where have you been ?) and I guess it will lead to some people considering the safety of going on a cruise.

The Carnival Corporation who run many cruise lines including Cunard, P&O and Costa cruises have announced that they are going to review their safety procedures across their cruise brands in light of the recent incident with the Costa Concordia.

While it is a natural response from Carnival to do this it does make you think that some of these things should have been in place to begin with ?

For example international laws currently dictate that a muster drill must be conducted within 24 hours of a ship sailing, surely this doesn't make sense ? If you fly on an airplane then the safety procedures are conducted before take-off, not part way though the flight, surely the sensible answer would be to make sure that muster drills are performed prior to the ship sailing out ?

There really is no arguing however though that taking a cruise is one of the safest forms of travel. It is horrible to hear what has happened to the Costa Concordia but we all know that this type of disaster is such a rare occurance. In fact I should well imagine that statistically it is more dangerous to drive your car down to your local supermarket and back to get your weekly shop than to take a cruise.

I personally havent spoken to a person that has told me that the Costa incident would put them off cruising as they realise that this type of accident is very rare.

What do you think ?
Do you think that current safety procedures are good enough ?
Are you put off the idea of cruising by what has happened ?

Our Complete Cruise Brochure 2012/13 is here

2012-01-12T11:46:00.000Z

The wait is over, the Cruise.co.uk Complete Cruise Brochure 2012/13 is here. We will be posting these out to our clients in the near future but to save any wait I have the complete version here for you to view on my blog.

As well as being jam packed with all of the best offerings from a wide range of cruise lines, the Complete Cruise Brochure has lots of useful information on cruising so it is definately worth a look.

Please click the guide below to start and you can then browse through to your hearts content.

Open publication - Free publishing

Strictly Come Dancing Cruises come to Oriana

2012-01-09T10:16:00.000Z

It has been announced that there will be two Strictly Come Dancing cruises on the P&O Oriana in 2012.

The cruises will be a 12nts Canaries cruise departing on 28/05/2012 and a 14nt Fjords cruise departing 14/07/2012.

The cruises will allow passengers to experience first hand Strictly's dance professionals award winning routines.

Passengers will be able to learn dance moves from the dance professionals while on board and will also be able to see a collection of the outfits that have been worn by the professionals and the stars in the series.

Passengers can also join judge Craig Revel Horwood for a night in the theatre.

Cruising and dancing are a proven winning formula, here at cruise.co.uk we setup our own dance cruises with Warren Bullock and Jane Philips and have a variety of dance themed cruises to choose from, please let me know if you would like any further details on these by emailing me at richards@cruise.co.uk or by calling me on 0800 408 6095.

Themed cruises always seem to be popular, we always have very good responses from our Garden Themed Cruises, what type of other themed cruises would you like to see introduced ?

Happy New Year for 2012

2012-01-02T19:20:00.000Z

2012 has finally arrived and I am just about to return to work (3rd January) from my break to enjoy the festivities.
Now that the partying season has come to an end it is time to look forward to the year ahead.

There is going to be plenty going on at cruise.co.uk to kick off the new year, we will be sending our Complete Cruise Brochure towards the end of January which will be filled with the best offerings from a variety of cruise lines as well as lots and lots of very useful cruising information.

I know that from past experience that the beginning of the year is a very busy time, I think people start the new year and think to themselves "What are we going to do for our holidays this year ?". I think it's nice to get the holidays booked for the year and to have something to look forward to in the coming year.

There are loads of great offers around at the moment as the cruise lines will be wanting to get business coming in for the new year so keep your eyes peeled for our emails, mailings and forum posts so you can grab the best deals while they are hot.

I would like to take this opportunity to wish all of my blog readers and clients a very Happy New Year, I hope it is a good one for everyone.

Cruise Christmas Party on the Arcadia

2011-12-20T10:20:00.002Z

I'm back from the Cruise.co.uk Christmas party and I have had an excellent time.

We sailed out from Southampton on the 15th December on the P&O Arcadia for a 2 night sailing to Brugges. I personally didn't think it was very likely that we were going to actually get to sail into Brugges as I know that on recent attempts P&O haven't been able to sail the ship into the port due to the bad weather conditions and we were handed letters on embarkation stating that we may miss the visit to Brugges due to the weather.

After dinner on the first night there was an announcement by the captain that the weather may calm down enough for us to get into the port in the morning, I was really pleased to wake up the following morning to see that we had sucessfully docked.

I stayed in an NA grade ostructed view outside cabin (E125), it was large enough for both of us and had a bath/shower combo in the bathroom. The obstruction didn't bother me at all, you could still see out a bit and it let light into the cabin.

My impressions of the ship were good, personally I preferred the ship to the Aurora but preffered the Azura (I like larger more modern ships personally).

I did like alot of the public areas on the ship. I liked the fact that the Rising Sun pub, the Monte Carlo casino and the nightclub/show areas were all very close by each other.

Also I liked the pool area up on Lido deck as it was all fully covered and meant that we could enjoy that area of the ship even with the bad weather.

I ate in the main Meridian Restaurant in the evenings and in the Belvedere buffet for breakfast and lunch. The Meridian is a large split level restaurant, I liked it personally, I think it had a good atmosphere. The food in the Meridian was also to a good standard, pretty much as I expected it from P&O.

The Belevedere buffet restaurant on Lido deck was great, you really couldn't knock the breakfast in there Mmmmmm. Lunch in the Belvedere wasn't bad although I thought the selection could have been a bit better. If you go out if the doors of the Belvedere to the Neptune Grill you can grab something from there also though.

I am happy to report that after the service not being too good on the Aurora last year that the service on board the Arcadia this year was back to what I expected from P&O both in the restaurants and around the ship.

Drinks prices on board had gone up a little bit since last year but will still very reasonable, still slightly cheaper than my local pub (Stratford on Avon). The Rising Sun pub was great, it was a reasonable size and really captured that British pub atmosphere.

I went and spent some time up in the Crow's nest on the second night, this was a really nice area to chill out and chat with others with some nice background entertainment.

As I normally do I am now going to post my pictures so you can see things for yourself (please click a picture to enlarge and go into a slide show).

Happy Christmas and Happy New Year Everyone !

Us on the coach to Southampton.

A few of us by the bar in the Rising Sun pub.

Dresser of our cabin (with a bit of Blackadder on).

You don't notice the obstruction with the netting :)

Bathroom was large enough and had bath/shower.

The Globe.

Art Gallery/Globe area.

More Rising Sun pub.

The Monte Carlo Casino (where I lost at Blackjack).

Open Hot-tub on Sun Deck (it was far from Sunny when we were there).

Us in Brugges.

Me in "De Pub" in Brugges with a nice Hoegaaden beer.

Belvedere buffet.

Faz and James playing with each other.

Me sat by the Neptune Pool.

James and Faz outside the Oasis spa and salon.

The Cruise.co.uk guys working out in the gym.

Faz and Nicholas acting out a typical scene at the Blackjack table.

Section of the Piano bar.

This is the main Meridian Restaurant where I ate dinner on both evenings.

Faz and Nicholas at the entrance to the Meridian Restaurant.

Meridian Restaurant menu for the second day.

Celebrations bar.

The Library.

Internet Room.

Caffe Vivo.

Me, just about to have dinner on the Second evening.

Andrew Gardner, Vicki Morrison, James Crossland, James Brown, Hannah Wilson and myself ordering dinner on the second night.

Christmas is almost here !

2011-12-12T09:48:00.001Z

I can't believe how quickly the time has passed, there is now less than 2 weeks until Christmas is upon us.

Here at cruise.co.uk we are all setup for the festive season with some nice decorations and a fantastic Christmas tree in the office.

This year myself and most of my colleagues are fortunate enough to be going for a 2 night cruise on the P&O Arcadia for our Christmas party.

The cruise will be sailing on the 15th December from Southampton to Bruges and back. As well as having lots of fun and sharing the experience of the cruise with my co-workers I am also looking forward to find out first hand what the P&O Arcadia is like. I have already been on the Azura and the Aurora so it will be interesting to see how I think she stacks up.

Please watch this space and in the next week you will find a full report from me about my time on the Arcadia. I will try to get lots of photos (a couple of funny ones if possible).

Does anyone else have something out of the ordinary they get to go off and do for a Christmas party or is it generally just dinner and a disco at the local hotel ?

Oceania Cruises announce all you can drink packages

2011-12-02T21:34:00.000Z

Oceania Cruises will become the latest line to offer its passengers all-you-can-drink packages on board their ships. The option, begins on January 3 (Insignia and Marina), January 6 (Regatta) and January 26 (Nautica).

Oceania cruises will offer two different options. The first, at a charge of $29.95 per person, per day, includes house wine and beer with dinner and lunch. (Interestingly, it's available when ordering room service, but it does not cover mini-bar drinks.) The second package is more expensive at $49.95 per person, per day and includes beer and premium house wine (from a selection of red and white vintages that change daily), all beverages on the bar menu (except Remy Martin Louis XIII cognac) and room service beverages (but not mini-bar selections).

Royal Caribbean has been trialing similar packages recently on three of their ships the Independence, Grandeur and Legend of the Seas. From the reports I have had from my passengers the response to this has generally been positive. Other cruise lines like Thomson's and MSC cruises also offer all inclusive drinks packages on board their ships.

I think that people like to have the option to take one of these packages as it can put a cap on their drinks spend on board, I often wonder though if these packages encourage people to drink to excess though just to get their moneys worth out of their package.

What do you think about these packages ? Are they a good or a bad idea ?

P&O announce they are going to add pre paid gratuities

2011-11-25T11:47:00.001Z

I have received an email today from P&O cruises announcing that they will be adding pre-paid tips to their passengers accounts from Mar/Apr 2012 onwards.

P&O have announced that from a certain point all passengers will have a daily amount of £3.10 per person to be added to their on board account to cover tips which will be shared between restaurant and accomodation staff.

This P&O say is to remove confusion over tipping.

You will be pleased to hear that nothing has been said about adding mandatory tips to drinks or spa treatments as done on other American and European ships.

There are lots of reasons that passengers stay faithful to P&O for certain reasons, their tips policy was one of them although I think that their new policy is still going to go down alot better with the British passengers than the ones from alternative American and European cruise lines.

I personally don't mind pre paying the tips but I do understand that peoples opinions differ greatly on this subject.

If you cruise with P&O I would like to hear what you think about this, do you think it was just a matter of time before P&O jumped on the pre-paid tips bandwagon or are you furious with them ?

Below is the email from P&O with all of the nessecary information.

Important Information
P&O Cruises Tipping

From April 2012 (effective cruises below), P&O Cruises will be introducing a new scheme designed to remove the confusion over the age-old question of tipping.

We’ve always been a company both proud of and dedicated to providing our passengers with excellent customer service. Our reputation demands it and we are all passionate about delivering it. Our crew work extremely hard to deliver the high level of service that our passengers rightly expect of us. More recently many of our passengers have told us that tipping on board can be a source of confusion and embarrassment, not least for those who are trying cruising for the first time. And for our crew, this confusion can lead to some very significant variations in their take home earnings.. We have looked at how we can make it easier and fairer for both our passengers and crew and, as a result, have developed a new arrangement for tipping that will apply to all P&O Cruises holidays sailing from April 2012 onwards.

The recommended daily rate of £3.10 will now automatically be added to a passenger’s on board account on a daily basis. This will be shared out among restaurant and accommodation staff.

The new scheme is effective from the below cruises
Ventura - N206 - 23 March 2012
Oceana - E204 - 21 March 2012
Azura - A207 - 30 March 2012
Adonia - D203 - 9 April 2012
Oriana - X202 - 10 April 2012
Aurora - R202 - 12 April 2012
Arcadia - J202 - 27 April 2012

We have written to all passengers who have a cruise booked with us on a 2012/2013 sailing to advise them of the changes.

Get a job well done with good customer service

2011-11-17T22:11:00.000Z

Working here at cruise.co.uk we strive to offer a friendly, professional and compentent level of service to our passengers. I personally try my best to offer the best service I can to new passengers that come into contact with me. Something which is very important to me is retaining my customers by keeping them happy from the enquiry process all the way through to them returning back from their cruise.

At cruise.co.uk we try to provide a personal service to our clients, that is why if I book a cruise holiday for you, I am also responsible for looking after your needs should you need anything else after your booking (via a freephone number). We think that this is the best way to provide an outstanding customer service to clients.

For me returning customers are very important, they give me great job satisfaction and also I think it gives my passengers the peace of mind that they will be in "safe hands" with me looking after their cruise booking. I do get a lot of repeat passengers, some of which book a lot of cruises with me and recommend me to others, I know a lot of you read my blog so I would like to say thank you to you all.

I recently had a very bad experience with a garage that I don't normally use (clutch pedal broke on the way home one evening) as I needed things done in a shorter time frame than my normal garage could do. Without going into too much detail the whole experience has been a nightmare from start to finish and has escalated to the point where I had no choice but to report them to trading standards. I really feel that I should have been better off sticking to what I know.

Situations like I have had with that garage can happen in any type of industry, unfortunately there are plenty of incompetent morons in the world, I can confidently say that I am not one of them.

Next time you are interested in booking a cruise and you see even a marginally cheaper price than I can offer with someone else then please think of the above, I think there is a lot to be said for getting things done competently.

It's a small world......

2011-11-09T14:51:00.001Z

The strangest thing happened to me at work today. What are the chances of this happening ?

A few years ago before my time working at cruise.co.uk I lived on the South coast in Bournemouth and spent most of my working years as a mortgage broker.
I was making a call to of of my past passengers to get some feedback about their cruise today, I had spoken to this passenger previously on her work telephone number as this is the best way to contact her during the daytime hours.

Imagine my surprise when I called to speak to my past passenger and my old boss answered the phone, who I immediately recognised from the sound of her voice, what are the chances of that happening ??

Anyway we had a quick chat (was really nice to speak to you again Lindy) and exchanged some details and will hopefully have a catchup sometime...... spooky :)

It great when a nice surprise like this comes out of the blue, I would love to hear any other similar experiences from my blog readers, just leave a comment and share it with me.

Back from my hols and Xmas Party news

2011-11-03T12:01:00.000Z

I am now back from taking some annual leave, I didn't go abroad or on a cruise but just took some time to chill out and visit family and friends.

I am now back in the office feeling fully rejuivinated and back into cruise consultant mode.

On returning back to the office I was pleased to hear the annoncement that we would be having another P&O Christmas party cruise this year on the P&O Arcadia.

The cruise will be for 2 nights on the 15th December 2011 and will be going from Southampton to Bruges in Belgium.

I am really looking forward to both the partying with my pals from work and also to check out the P&O Arcadia as I am interested to see how she compares to the Azura and Aurora that I have already sailed on.

This cruise is still on sale to the public with inside cabins starting at £199 per person so if you want to come along as well then let me know.

I'm going off on my hols 19th October - 1st November

2011-10-17T18:39:00.000+01:00

The time has come for me to take a short break from Cruise.co.uk and recharge the batteries.

I will be finishing work at 8pm on Tuesday the 18th October 2011 and returning to the office on the 1st November 2011.

If you have a current quote with me and would like to make a booking please contact me before I go.

In my absence please call on of my colleagues on 0800 408 6200 and they will try their best to help you.

Booking your next cruise on board

2011-10-07T11:12:00.000+01:00

Whether you cruise often or you haven't gone on your first cruise yet the chances are (hopefully) that you will love it and you will want to cruise again.

Generally it can be beneficial to book your next cruise on board as it can still be transferred to your favourite travel agent (hopefully me) and you will get extra benefits, normally in the form of extra on board credit for your next booking.

It might be that when you are on board the ship you don't want to deceide when your next cruise will be, fortunately some of the cruise lines have this covered too and often you can hold your future cruise deposit on a "deceide later" basis to use on your next booking (which can be made through me).

Below are some of the current on board booking benefits offered by popular cruise lines.

Just make sure that when you are on board you make clear to the cruise line that you would like your travel agent to take over your booking.

P&O Cruises

(for a particular sailing or on a deciede later basis)
On board credit is based on the duration of your next cruise booking.

2 - 7 nights on board = £25pp

8 - 14 nights on board = £50pp

15 - 21 nights on board = £75pp

22 or more nights on board = £100pp

Oriana refurbishments delayed, cruises cancelled

2011-09-28T10:54:00.000+01:00

The P&O Oriana is due to go into dry dock later this Autumn as she is scheduled to have some changes made to her.

The main change for the Oriana will be that she will be changing from a family friendly ship to an adult only ship.

This I am sure will be welcomed as this will even up the spread of adult only and family friendly ships in the P&O fleet.

Unfortunately I have had some of my passengers effected by this and their cruises have been cancelled by P&O due to the delay.

Fortunately P&O has let my passengers either book onto an alternative Arcadia sailing which is a day longer at no extra cost or has let them cancel free of charge with on board credit held for them for their next booking.

I can't really blame P&O, they have dealt with these matters well and I think and I am sure that they aren't too happy about the Oriana delay either, it must be costing them a fortune.

A tour of the Grand Princess

2011-09-19T19:14:00.001+01:00

On Saturday the 17th September I was lucky enough to visit the Grand Princess on a self guided tour with some lunch. I was pleased that the tour was self guided, it meant we could see things at our own pace.

As usual I have taken lots of photo's from my camera phone as they give a good idea of what the ship is like. Some of the images can be clicked to load up a full screen slide show.

I was very impressed by the ship personally, I thought that it had character and was of a high standard. I liked the fact that there were so many different areas to go, something for everyone. I haven't put any photos of my lunch this time but I can tell you that I was not disappointed, it was lovely.

The movies under the stars screen didn't look too bad, my camera didn't pick it up too well.

We found the above area which has a small shallow paddling type pool and lots and lots of sun loungers.

The area above and below carries a surcharge of $10 per person for a half daily basis

This is the drinks station in the buffet restaurant, there were a couple of these.

Fact of the day... When I was on Crystal cruises a 16oz bottle of budweiser was $4, on the Grand Princess it is $5.25, then $7.25 for a 20oz can of Fosters, seroiusly !

The above and below photos are from the buffet area.

There was a model of the Grand Princess by the lifts to remind you where you are in case you forgot :)

The nightclub area was very fancy and well lit.

There were some really nice areas to chillout in like the one above.

An adults only pool is welcomed by some during the school holidays I'm sure.

There is a chapel on board just in case you fancy getting married.

Safety First :)

The pictures above and below are from a Deluxe outside cabin.

The pictures above and below are from a standard balcony cabin.

This is what the pullman berths look like when pushed away, hardly noticable.

We stopped these on a room service trolley.

This is what the bathroom on a disabled access balcnony cabin looks like.

The above is a disabled access balcony cabin.

The above is a mini suite.

Above is an obstructed view outside cabin.

Above is the view from an obstructed view outside cabin, I didn't think it was too bad at all.

The above are is a sports bar that will allow smoking.

We couldn't get into the kids clubs as the doors were locked so I took photos through the glass doors.

The gym area was massive.

Bag a Christmas Cruise bargain on the Independence of the Seas

2011-09-13T09:47:00.000+01:00

Christmas is a very busy time of year for cruises and availability is always limited.

As expected the price of a cruise over the festive period is going to cost more than one not at peak season, sometimes the cost difference can be phenomenal.

I have seen that the Christmas cruise this year on the Royal Caribbean Independence of the seas has some amazing deals that shouldn't be missed.

Passengers that speak to me will know that I am a big fan of the Royal Caribbean Independence of the seas, having been on her myself, booking a large amount of passengers on her and having very good feedback from returning cruisers. I booked passengers on the Christmas 2010 cruise and I had a very good response from people once they came back.

Here is the itinerary.

INDEPENDENCE OF THE SEAS

Sat 17 Dec SOUTHAMPTON, ENGLAND 13:00 16:30 DOCKED

Sun 18 Dec CRUISING

Mon 19 Dec VIGO - SPAIN 09:00 16:00 E DOCKED

Tue 20 Dec LISBON - PORTUGAL 08:00 18:00 E DOCKED

Wed 21 Dec CRUISING

Thu 22 Dec MADEIRA (FUNCHAL) - PORTUGAL 08:00 17:30 E DOCKED

Fri 23 Dec GRAN CANARIA, CANARY ISLANDS 09:00 19:00 E DOCKED

Sat 24 Dec TENERIFE, CANARY ISLANDS 08:00 17:00 E DOCKED

Sun 25 Dec CRUISING

Mon 26 Dec CRUISING

Tue 27 Dec LA CORUNA - SPAIN 09:00 18:00 E DOCKED

Wed 28 Dec CRUISING

Thu 29 Dec SOUTHAMPTON, ENGLAND 05:30 E DOCKED

The prices quoted are based on 2 passengers sharing a cabin and include all taxes and fees.

Pre paid gratuities are excluded from the prices quoted.

There would also be $75 on board credit with the cabin.
For a Z grade inside cabin on an allocation on arrival basis the price is just £1014 per person

For a PR grade promenade view cabin the price is just £1159 per person

For an X grade balcony cabin on an allocation on arrival basis the price is just £1374 per person

If I can be any assistance please get in contact with me by phone on 0800 408 6095.

North Korea launches a cruise liner

2011-09-05T16:25:00.000+01:00

North Korea has launched a cruise ship named MAN GYONG BONG. The cruise ship isn't quite what we are used to dealing with here. The ship does have fresh coffee and karaoke but some guests sleep on the floor and the lower decks dont have running water in the bathrooms.

The 39 year old ship will be cruising from the rundown northeastern port city of Rajin to the scenic resort of Mount Kumgang.

Apparently more than 100 tourist agencies from Europe will be invited to trial the ship and although I love to go and see different ships whenever I can, I don't know if I would be quite so keen on this one should I have the opportunity to visit it.

I don't think I could recommend this cruise unless you were particuarly adventurous to say the least !

Watchdog to investigate compulsory tipping on cruise ships

2011-08-28T14:00:00.001+01:00

On Thursday 1st September 2011 at 20:00 it has come to my attention that one of the topics that BBC Watchdog will be covering is compulsary tipping on cruise ships.

It will be interesting to see what they have to say as this is a topic that often comes up in conversation with my clients.

Different cruise lines have different policies when it comes to the tipping policies, P&O's policy is one that is popular with feedback that I have had from my clients.

American ships such as Royal Caribbean and Celebrity cruises seem to cause the most controversy when it comes to tipping, American tipping culture is completely different to ours.

I could go into my views and opinions on the tipping policies myself but I won't as from my experience people are very passionate about the subject and I don't want to start any arguments. I will certainly be interested in what comes to light on Watchdog though.

Voyages to Antiquity - Exclusive, small and interesting......

2011-08-16T17:01:00.000+01:00

Today I learnt about Voyages to Antiquity. They are a niche cruise product as they only operate one ship called the Aegean Odyssey which holds only 350 passengers.

There are other cruise lines that boast smaller ships that get into more interesting ports but it became evident that Voyages to Antiquity have something different to offer people. When I had a look through the itineraries available it really became evident that there were a lot of interesting desinations being visited by Voyages to Antiquity that I rarely see listed with other cruise lines.

Here is a list of things that are included in the price and benefits of a Voyages to Antiquity cruise.

•Meticulously planned itineraries in conjunction with noted historians

•A full, included excursion programme with sightseeing in each port of call (except on the odd occasion where no organised sightseeing is available)

•Experienced team of guest speakers giving talks on subjects relevant to each itinerary

•Included pre and/or post-cruise hotel stays in Athens, Istanbul and Rome

•Many night-time stays in port so you can choose to explore on your own

•Included economy class scheduled flights with British Airways to and from your cruise

•Free regional departures from selected UK airports, subject to connecting times

•Transfers and porterage of your luggage from the overseas airport (once you have cleared customs) to your cabin on arrival and vice versa on departure

•All meals on mv Aegean Odyssey with a choice of restaurant and open-seating dining so you can choose when, where and with whom to dine.

•Complimentary choice of wine, beer or soft drinks with your evening meal on board

•Included gratuities to your cabin steward and restaurant staff.

Voyages to Antiquity don't try and put themselves the luxury market with the six star ultra luxury brands, they are like I say, more of a niche product. They class themselves more of a 4* + because of the size of the ship and facilities, although I have been infomed that the service is on par with 6* brands and the food is fantastic.

The ship is 40 years old however I have been told from people that have sailed on her that she is spotlessly kept and meticulously clean.

I really think that this sort of cruise is ideal for people who are really interested in traveling to, visiting and learning about some really fabulous and historical destinations. This cruise is not for people who want to spend all of their holiday on a sun lounger.

Get an amazing family cruise deal in the School Summer holidays

2011-07-29T23:18:00.000+01:00

Well, the school summer holidays are now here !

I don't have any kids myself so that doesn't make much of an impact on home life but this time of year and the recent times preceeding it definately has an impact on my work at cruise.co.uk

It is my job to book cruises for my customers and I take great satisfaction from delivering what people want and I getting them a fantastic deal on a cruise they will love.

In recent times though I have to say that I have had quite a lot of unfortunate occassions where people have called for "last minute" cruises for the family and they have had to leave empty handed as the availability just isn't there.

There are a number of reasons that availability is low. There are a lot less 3 and 4 berth cabins on ships than 2 berth cabins so these are mostly all gone. The other options such as 2 cabins of 2 or a 2 berth and a single rarely work out for many reasons.

A lot of families are tied to go on their holidays in the set school holiday dates, this means a very high demand and causes availabilty bottle necks.

A lot of ships only allow so many children on board, once so many children are booked then no more are allowed to book.

Cruising is such a great idea for families in the summer holidays with so much that the ships can offer, I have to say that I find the demand in summer holidays from Southampton is the greatest, this is probably due to the convenience of UK departure.

My suggestion is to look for a cruise in summer 2012 now, alot of people have done this and are doing this already. There are really some great cruise offers for summer 2012 and you are likely to get the cruise you want and the cabins you want.

Also isn't it nice to have something to look forward to ?

Don't be another empty handed cruiser next summer and look into 2012.

Gill's cruise centre has been forced to stop taking new business....

2011-07-17T23:52:00.002+01:00

The big news this week has been about the "financial failure" of Gill's Cruise Centre.

The news started when Carnival, Royal Caribbean and Fred Olsen had cut ties with the company fearing it's level of debt.

Shortly afterwards Gill's said on their website that they weren't accepting new bookings. Lastly ABTA withdrew Gill's membership due to their "financial failure"

The worst news really has to be the job losses that will come of this, I have been in the same situation before and it is not nice to have your boss on the end of the phone saying that their company is going insolvent and you don't have a job anymore.

Fortunately Gill's were ABTA bonded agents and so their clients bookings are protected.

For people wondering what happens next .... An ABTA spokesman said, "Any holiday booked through Gill's is fully protected financially and the cruise companies providing these holidays will honour all paid-for travel arrangements. Customers should expect to hear from their cruise line shortly. Customers who wish to contact their cruise line can do so using the contact details on their confirmation invoice."

If anyone would like any help or extra information about this then please contact me.

More ways to keep in contact and see what's going on.... Facebook and Twitter

2011-07-10T21:53:00.001+01:00

Online social networking has been around for a while and has really taken off, it seems like it's popularity is still growing ever larger. Alot of you I am sure have joined facebook to keep up with friends and family as well as some other sites like twitter.

Well, one thing about us here at cruise.co.uk is that we are always trying to be at the forefront of things. We have really tried to make our website the biggest and best with a massive amount of questions and answers, reviews, pictures and videos for example.

One thing I have noticed, and I am sure you have as well is that recently there seems to be more and more companies trying to encourage you to visit their facebook page or "like" them. We have deceided that we are going to go one step further and now myself, as well as all of my colleagues, have set up our own personal cruise experts facebook and twitter pages.

We feel that if people have enjoyed our service then they can easily keep in touch with us and what we are doing by "liking" us on facebook and/or following us on twitter.

Please click the following links to my facebook or twitter page where you can "like" or "follow" me.

Cruise E-tickets and Online Document systems

2011-07-03T21:20:00.000+01:00

Electronic documents (e-tickets) are now in full effect across most of the cruise lines.

Cruise lines used to send tickets, luggage labels and shore excursion booklets though the post but now, as a sign of the times, most, if not all documents have to be accessed online and printed off.

Of course there are plenty of people that are not online and do not use email, we print and post the documents to these people. Also please let us know if you do not have a printer and we can print and post the documents to you.

Different cruise lines have different systems, here is what is happening with some of the major cruise lines at the moment :-

P&O

SHORE EXCURSIONS/ LUGGAGE LABELS – sent direct from P&O 4-6 weeks prior to sailing

CRUISE / FLIGHT E TKT – an email is sent from cruise.co.uk advising you to print tickets (we will automatically print and post if you do not have an email address)

PRINCESS

SHORE EXCURSIONS/LUGGAGE LABELS – need to download off Princess cruise Personalizer

CRUISE E TKT - 3 WEEKS BEFORE - an email is sent from cruise.co.uk advising you to print your tickets (we will automatically print and post if you do not have an email address)

FLIGHT E TKT – 3 WEEKS BEFORE - emailed direct to you (if you do not have an email address we will post)

CUNARD

SHORE EXCURSIONS/ LUGGAGE LABELS – sent direct from cunard to you 4-6 weeks prior to sailing

CRUISE / FLIGHT E TKT – an email is sent from cruise.co.uk advising you to print your tickets (we will automatically print and post if you do not have an email address)

ROYAL CARIBBEAN / CELEBRITY / AZAMARA

SHORE EXCURSIONS - need to download off cruise lines web site

LUGGAGE LABELS – you can request luggage tags via the cruise lines web site within 40 days of sailing but no later than 14 days prior. You will receive the tags within 6 days of the request

CRUISE / FLIGHT E TKT – 3 WEEKS BEFORE an email is sent from cruise.co.uk advising you to print your tickets (we will automatically print and post if you do not have an email address)

NCL

PRE CRUISE INFO / LUGGAGE LABELS – are received in our office and posted to you when the EDOCS are available to print.

SHORE EXCURSIONS – you can download off the cruise lines website

CRUISE / FLIGHT E TKT – 3 WEEKS BEFORE as above

IMPORTANT – NCL WILL NOT PERMIT ANYONE TO TRAVEL WITHOUT THEIR CRUISE DOCS!!

These electronic documents systems have been operating for a while now and I think that more people are getting used to them. What do you think of them ?

I have to say that I don't mind the new document systems, but then I am very used to buying things online, a lot of things have been this way for a long time now. One thing that that I am not too sure about to be honest is the printed off luggage labels, luggage labels on a4 paper, surely these are about as useful as a chocolate tea pot ! I suggest strengthening them with selotape (blue peter style) so that they don't get acidentially ripped off.

Do you prefer the new way, or the good old days of everything being sent in the post ?

If you prefer the old ways them I'm afraid to say that I think those days are gone.

The importance of good travel insurance

2011-06-26T21:34:00.000+01:00

When you book your cruise we tell you that it is a condition of the cruise line that you have adequate travel insurance cover while you are away on your cruise.

If you don't already have existing cover in place then travel insurance should be arranged sooner rather than later.

As well as covering you while you are away, travel insurance can also cover potential loses if your cruise needs to be cancelled for certain reasons. If something happens that means that you have to cancel your cruise then the situation is obviously going to be far from perfect, if you are not covered then it isn't going to help matters by losing a potentially large sum of money.

When we look for insurance we are often attracted by a low premium, however it is very important to look into the details of your policy to find out what it does and doesn't cover, there is no point is having a practically useless policy, no matter how cheap it is.

If you need travel insurnance then it is something that I can help you with. You can either call me for a quote or instead just click this LINK and you can get a quote straight from our website.

Explosions and fires cause problems at Falmouth Docks

2011-06-19T15:56:00.000+01:00

Earlier this week (17th June 2011), there was a massive fire at Falmouth Docks.

The blaze at started at about 810am among acetylene cylinders outside a warehouse. Witnesses reported hearing explosions.

Forunately it appears that there were no injuries.

There were 40 fire crew needed to tackle the blaze.

Fortuately there were no ships due in to Falmouth on that day but Silversea's Silver Cloud is due on 26th June 2011 and Swan Hellenic's Minerva is due on 04th July 2011.

The situation will be monitered and people will be informed as soon as possible if their cruise's could be affected (I personally doubt it though).

It is a good thing that Falmouth doesnt deal with as many passengers or sailings as Southampton, could you imagine the chaos should something like this happen there.

It was only last week I heard that Royal Caribbean's Independence of the Seas had to make a hasty exit from Gibraltar as there was a fire from an oil tank explosion at the port.

My day on the Regent Seven Seas Voyager

2011-06-12T20:42:00.000+01:00

Last week I was fortunate enough to go and visit the Regent Seven Seas Voyager for the day in Southampton. This was something I was really looking forward to as Regent are a six star ultra luxury cruise line. I sailed with Crystal last year, but hadn't been on any other six star cruise lines so I was really interested to see how Regent compared.

Well I took loads of photo's while I was there and I thought I would share them with you as you can really get a good feel for the what the ship and cruise line are like from them.

Please look below the pictures as I would like to let you know what my thoughts were on Regent Seven Seas Cruises ....

The last few pictures are what some of what I had to eat for my lunch on board. I also have to say that the red wine that I was given with lunch was some of the best I had in a long time, I wish I could afford to drink wine like that at home !

I would like to point out that this picture is what the lowest grade of cabin on the ship looks like !!

The picture below is the walk-in wardrobe that you will find in every single bookable cabin on the ship !

One thing I really liked about the ship is that it is luxurious and classy, while at the same time not going over the top. Although I was just on the ship for the day, I got the feeling that the experience wasn't going to be that different to the one I had with Crysal cruises (and that is a very good thing).

I would say that the ship would be great for couples or groups of friends that wanted a really relaxing and luxurious time away. I would especially recommend Regent for a special occasion or treat, of course if you can afford to, you don't always need a special occassion to experience the "better things in life".

I would also recommend Regent to experienced cruisers that normally book high end balconies and suites on more mainsteam ships, you may find that all told Regent costs you the same or less !

Regent cruises also cater for children but to be honest they are not a cruise line that I would recommend to go on for that summer family cruise with the kids, more a case of they could go along and it wouldn't be a problem.

Regent Seven Seas are an all inclusive cruise line, with Regent included in the price you get....

Alcoholic and non alcoholic drinks including premium brands (bar a very few ultra premium drinks)

Gratuities

Speciality Dining

Return flights and transfers

Shuttle buses and ports of call

Unlimited Shore excursions

I have made the shore excursions bold as Regent are the only cruise line I know of that include unlimited shore excursions within the price of the cruise. There are of course some shore excursions that aren't free due to the nature and cost of them but there is a very good selection of free ones on offer which can be pre booked with Regent before you go.

To give you an idea of prices (which can of course differ greatly), I have recently quoted 2 passengers sharing a verandah suite for 7 nights a cost of around £2100 per person, that is a cruise from Istanbul to Rome. If you consider that you aren't going to get any drinks, gratuities, shore excursions or shuttle buses costs at the end of the cruise, it might not be as expensive as the initial outlay originally sounds.

The Regent cruises website can be viewed HERE if there is anything that you would like to ask me or would like me to look into for you then please get in touch and I will try my best to help.

If Cruise lines were cars, what would they be....

2011-06-05T19:22:00.001+01:00

As well as a good knowledge of cruise lines and cruise ships, I also would like to think that I have a good knowledge and interest of cars.

I often compare cruise lines and ships to makes or models of cars as they can both differ so much.

I thought I would come up with a list of some of my thoughts, these opinions shouldn't be taken seriously and are a bit of fun really, so go easy on me if you disagree, here we go.....

Royal Caribbean - Allure or Oasis of the Seas - Hummer H2

P&O Arcadia - Rover 75

MSC Splendida or Fantasia - Alfa Romeo Spider

Thomson Cruises - Ford Mondeo

Fred Olsen - Jaguar Soverign

Celebrity Solstice Class - Mercedes S-Class

NCL - Dodge Viper

Cunard - Rolls Royce Silver Spirit

Island Escape - Dell's Robin

Please let me know if you think of any others.... its nice to have a chuckle now and again so anything humourous especially let me know :P

The new Celebrity Silhouette makes an appearance

2011-05-30T22:17:00.000+01:00

Here is a glimse of the new Celebrity Silhouette as she appears from the doors of the ship yard.

It is good to see that things are looking good and that hopefully she will be ready in time for launch.

I am a really big fan of the Celebrity Solstice class ships which include the Solstice, Equinox, Eclipse and soon the Silhouette. They really are beautiful, state of the art ships.

The Silhouette will be embarking on her inaugral sailing 23rd July 2011 from Hamburg to Civitavecchia (Rome). I would love the opportunity to go and see the ship myself sometime, fingers crossed. One of my colleages Robert has won a cruise on the inaugral sailing, what a lucky man !

Celebrity will also be releasing another ship like this called the Reflection in 2012, there are so many new large ships being launched, it is a good job that the demand for cruising is on the up.

The Adonia is finally here

2011-05-22T17:40:00.002+01:00

The new P&O ship Adonia was launched this weekend in style by her godmother, Dame Shirley Bassey. She smashed a bottle of sparkling wine against the ship from a 100 metre zip wire they had setup (couldnt they have used champagne ?)

The new Adonia is a 30,300 ton ship and carries just 710 passengers and 385 crew. It is an adult only ship and because it is smaller is is more intimate than the rest of the fleet and can get into more ports of call.

The new Adonia will be embarking on her maiden voyage today (22/05/2011) for 16 nights to the Western Mediterreanean.

Here is a video of the ceremony.....

Reports of passengers getting thrown off cruise for taking own alcohol

2011-05-15T22:09:00.001+01:00

I have seen lots of blogs and forum discussions in the past about passengers wanting to take their own alcohol on ships.

There do seem to be many tips from so called "booze smugglers" knocking around.

The main reasons for this I hear are people wanting to save some money on their drinks bill and others saying that they like their own drinks to keep in the cabin.

Different cruise lines have different policies about taking your own alcohol on board and some seem to be stricter than others. P&O seem to let people take what they like for example (as long as it is not for use by others) and even sell bottles of spirits and mixers cheap on board for consumption in the cabin.

On the other hand Royal Caribbean seem to be very strict on this matter and I recently was reading on our cruises.co.uk forum site that some passengers on board the Independence of the Seas were asked to leave the ship after alcohol was found in their cases.

From what I had heard previously I gathered that people would normally get warning and their alcohol confiscated from them should they be caught, so I was quite surprised to hear about these people being asked to leave the cruise.

I may well look further into this matter myself as although this may be true, you can't believe everything you read on forum posts. If I hear any more information on the matter I will post back here.

I was wondering if anyone has any experiences of people being caught and what happened, please let me know if you do.

What is MSC Opera like ? - I have just been on her so let me show you

2011-05-08T17:09:00.002+01:00

Having not been on an MSC ship before I was pleased to be given the opportunity on Saturday 6th May to go and visit the MSC Opera in Southampton for the day.

I have booked many passengers on the Opera from Southampton this summer and the deals that MSC have offered have been quite outstanding.

Here is an idea of what you can expect....

The main open decking area is nice enough and has a generous sized swimming pool and the hot tubs (they looked inviting but didnt get time to have a dip unfortunately).

A lot of passengers will be pleased to hear that MSC have now put this drinks station out on deck of the Opera where passengers can get some tea coffee and soft drinks for free.

There are also pizza and grill sections out on deck to get an afternoon snack.

Fancy a drink out on the deck in the sunshine ? Sounds good to me, the pool bar looks just the job :)

This is the main reception area of the ship, looks pretty good I think, gave me a good impression as I boarded her.

There is a video arcade on board for the kids/teenagers (I would probably have a go as well)
There are a few classics in there that I remember playing myself.

This is part of the disco area up on deck 12, it was quite large in there actually, has good potential, didn't see it in action I'm afraid....

... that didnt stop one of my colleages thinking it was time for a bit of Saturday night fever :)

This is the gym, plenty of equiptment in here, as well as this the ship has spa and salon facilities.

We went and had a look at a balcony cabin, the cabin was a bright, spacious enough and had a flat screen tv, here is my colleage Drew showing it off for you :)

I thought I may as well also include a picture of the bathroom, couldn't fit the shower in as well but I am sure you get the idea.

The ships main dining room..... this is a smaller section of it away from the main part.

This is the ships main dining room.

The main dining room has plenty of window tables. Look at that beautiful view of Southampton :) haha

This is the buffet restaurant. MSC have now said that the buffet will now also be open in the evenings as an alternative the the traditional main dining option.

As we were there in the morning of embarkation/disembarkation they hadn't got the buffet loaded up yet, however there was a fruit salad we found (Drew loves fruit salad :) )

The Opera has a decent sized casino, I like the odd game of poker and blackjack and I was impressed with the amount of gaming tables they have.

Kids Club, this is the best shot I could get as we wern't allowed any further in for some reason.

The ship also has a cyber cafe onboard.

Whilst on board we were taken to the Theatre to see a show and it was very good, a mixure of different acts from performers and dancers. There was something for everyone really.
I found the perfomances quite fun, they didn't take things too seriously but everyone was talented and professional.

There is also a lot more bars and lounges on board that I haven't got pictures of here, there is certainly lots to do on the ship.

Finally we had some lunch before heading home. The lunch that I had on board was good, I had a mixed seafood starter, a mushroom tagliatelle, pork leg with trimmings and an apricot tart.

I was pleased with what the Opera had to offer, they have free car parking on Southampton Opera bookings at the moment and also have excellent all inclusive alcoholic and no alcoholic drinks packages.

If you have any more questions, or would like a quote please get in touch with me.

Cruise deposits on the up and balances required sooner

2011-05-03T19:05:00.000+01:00

It has recently come to my attention that Complete Cruise Solution who run P&O, Cunard and Princess cruises are making some changes to their booking conditions that will soon effect everyone.

I already did a blog not so long ago about how Complete cruise solution have deceided that they are doing away with travel agent discounting.

They have now said said that all cruises booked on their 2012 programme from 1st June 2011 will now require a 15% deposit (instead of the current 10%) and that the balance of the cruise must be paid 1 month sooner than it is required currently.

Whether this will make any difference to people making their decisions in booking, only time will tell.

They certainly have been making some big changes in recent times.

How do you feel about the changes that Complete Cruise Solution are making ?

Azamara Cruises a great step towards luxury cruising at great value

2011-04-26T18:57:00.000+01:00

There are many cruise brands that I discuss with clients on a daily basis, Cunard, P&O and Royal Caribbean being the main ones.

While the 4* mainstream cruise brands are very good and provide excellent value for money there are more luxurious and exclusive brands on offer.

Six star cruising is amazing but everybody has a budget to work with and sometimes the initial cost of booking those cruises can be a bit too high for people.

Azamara cruises are a 5* Deluxe cruise brand so although they are not 6* rated like Silversea, Crystal, Seabourne and Regent, they are not that far off in terms of quality.

Azamara are owned by the same company as Royal Caribbean but they are very different to them, they have 2 ships named the Journey and the Quest that carry just 694 guests.

Being smaller ships they can visit smaller more exclusive ports of call and stay there longer than their mainstream counterparts.

Azamara cruises also have a smart casual dress code throughout the cruise and open dining.

I have recently made some bookings with Azamara and have been pleasanty surprised how good the prices were considering the quality of the product and what is included.

As well as all of the normal cruising extras Azamara also include :-

Free shuttle transfers at each port of call
Gratuities are all included in the price
Boutique red and white wines with lunch and dinner
Bottled water, soft drinks, speciality coffees and teas
Self service laundry

At the moment Azamara have some outstaning offers with free flights and lots of on board credit so if you are interested in getting a quote please contact me.

Portsmouth open their new Cruise Terminal

2011-04-19T19:12:00.000+01:00

Portsmouth have recently opened their doors on 01/04/2011 to cruise passengers from their new terminal which is designed to accomodate cruise and ferry passengers.

Portsmouth say that they are expecting a total of 34 cruise ships to be departing from now until the end of December this year.

Cruise lines that will sail from Portsmouth already include Voyages of Discovery, Silversea, Swan Hellenic and Fred Olsen.

It will be interesting to see how the operation gets on, especially with Southampton only being just down the road and them already having such a successful cruise terminal.

I often here from many people from the North of the UK that find Southampton quite a distance to travel for a UK sailing, I am surprised that there hasn't been more cruises setup to cruise from the North as I am sure there would be quite a demand for them.

What do you think ? Where would be a great major cruise terminal alternative to Southampton ?

10 Great reasons to book MSC cruises

2011-04-12T21:38:00.000+01:00

You may of heard of MSC cruises but may not know a lot about them. Well they are a 4 star luxury Italian cruise line with a large fleet which includes some really beautiful looking ships.

I have booked many passengers on MSC cruises and have had good feedback from them, especially as they can often be extremely good value for money.

Below are some good reasons why it can be a good idea to book your cruise on MSC cruises.

The Most Modern Fleet In The World

With it's refined style and welcome, Elegant Decor and contemporary design MSC offers Italian tradition at its best. On the Musica Class 70% of external cabins have balconies and 80% on the Fantasia Class.

Respecting People And The Planet

MSC have won numerous environmental awards including: Venice Blue Flag for reducing emissions, Green Planet Award 2008-2009 for its commitment to environmental management, Clean Sea2 and Clean Air Awards. CIAL Award for recycling and 6 Golden Pears from the bureau Veritas for health safety management and environmental protection

New and Exclusive MSC Yacht Club

Spacious suites with every comfort, with a team of butlers available round the clock and a dedicated concierge service available 24hs a day. Use of the panoramic lounge bar and private Yacht Club pool. Free access to sauna and Turkish bath, free laundry service and daily newspapers.

Great Leisure and Relaxations Facilities

Spa and fitness centres on all ships, which offer Balinese massage, sauna and Turkish baths, whirlpools, acupuncture, aromatherapy, thalassotherapy and much more.
Excellent sports facilities including tennis, basketball, squash, shuffleboard, mini golf and bowling.

The Art Of Cooking and Entertaining

As well as the numerous home-made products to emphasis the Italian cuisine MSC offers International cuisine to suit all tastes, special diets and exotic themed A La Carte restaurants.
Wide international variety of of activities and entertainment.

Fantastic Prices

A superb range of great value fares to let you book your holiday at the best ever price.
MSC Club is the loyalty program run by MSC offering returning passengers special discounts and well as many advantages and discounts on excursions & Spa treatments.

Great Advantages for Families

Children and teenagers under 18 travel FREE in a cabin with two full paying adults. Loads of special offers to siut every family including 'All in One' deals for one-parent families traveling in the same cabin. fun and exciting kids clubs for children of all ages up to 18.

Right From Your Doorstep

MSC's new 2011 departures from Southampton, including itineraries to Northern Europe and the Western Mediterranean on 8, 10 and 11 nights voyages. Free coach transfers via National Express from scheduled UK departure points and free airport/port transfers.

Appealing Destinations

Stunning destinations to discover including the Mediterranean, Canary and Balearic Islands., Northern Europe, the Baltics, Fjords and Iceland. and further afield the Caribbean, USA and Canada, South America, Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay. South Africa, Mozambique Maritius and Madagascar.

MSC Preferred Partnership

The Preferred Partner Scheme is only available to selected top cruise agents such as ourselves at cruise.co.uk giving us the opportunity to pass on great deals and special offers direct to you. If I can help you with any information about MSC cruises please get in touch and I will try my best to help.

Fred Olsen announces a no fuel surcharge guarantee

2011-04-05T19:46:00.001+01:00

Fred Olsen have been under the spotlight lately as they deceided that they were going to go back to passengers that had already booked their cruises and charge them extra fuel supplement costs.

As an acting travel agent this hasn't been a great situation to deal with, people get an extra bill from me after they have paid an agreed price on booking.

I should imagine that Fred Olsen have had a lot of feedback from their passengers on this issue, certainly alot of my clients said that they would write to them about it.

Well it seems that Fred Olsen have understood that this may put people off from making bookings and they have announced the following.

"Fred Olsen has announced a “no fuel surcharge guarantee” on all bookings made up to August 31 for cruises departing from January 1, 2012.

Any fuel cost supplement already applied to 2012, which is currently levied at 5.5% of the cruise fare paid, will remain on the booking. However, the new guarantee will now provide protection against any future fuel increases."

Fred Olsen say that they are only going to do this until the end of August.

It is difficult with oil prices as they are these days, we all notice the impact the the situation has at the petrol pumps, I am glad I drive a diesel economical car to work, that's for sure.

Crystal Cruises go all Inclusive !

2011-03-29T20:07:00.001+01:00

Many of you will have read my blog about my amazing cruise on the Crystal Serenity last year and you know how enthusiastic I am about them.

Well it has just come to my attention that Crystal Cruises have announced that from Spring 2012 their cruises will be all inclusive (including alcohol).

This I think is excellent news for the cruise line as their competitors Silversea, Seabourn and Regent are already including alcoholic beverages with their cruises.

Of course there are many people that don't drink a lot, but most of us I am sure like to have a few drinks when on holiday and enjoy some nice wine with a evening meal.

I think this may attract more people to the cruise brand as it just means that you can pay for your cruise and then you know that the following is now all going to be included in the fare :-

* All soft drinks, premium alcoholic drinks (excluding but a few "ultra premium" brands

*Dining in the ships' specialty restaurants and sushi bars

*Fitness classes, including specialty sessions like Pilates or spinning

*Golf lessons with PGA pros

*Walk-on-Water weighted vests and Nordic Pole walking equipment

*Shuttles to town

*Enrichment programming

*Self-service laundry facilities

*Children's programming

Although Crystal Cruises aren't the cheapest to book, I think once you take into account the amazing quality of the brand and everything that is included, it actually can work out to be very good value.

If you would like any extra information on Crystal Cruises please get in touch as I can give you first hand experience, having sailed with them recently.

Ben and Jerrys Sweet on Independence of the Seas

2011-03-22T14:35:00.000Z

I have just booked a couple of my passengers into the Ben and Jerrys Sweet on board the Royal Caribbean Independence of the Seas.

As I am sure many of you will know the Freedom class of Royal Caribbean ships has a promenade running through the centre of the ship which has a Ben and Jerrys ice cream parlour on it.

One of the Promenade staterooms is above the Ben and Jerrys as pictured here and the window is obstructed by the back end of the cows :)

You may think that this is an inconvenience, however Royal Caribbean have gone some way to compensate people that are staying in this cabin numbered 6305.

The "sweet" has been completely decorated in cows from the bed covers to the towel rails, pictures and alarm clock.

Also staying in the "sweet" you benefit from free Ben and Jerry's ice cream that you would normally have to pay a supplement for as well as Concierge club access.

Because of this you can imagine that this cabin gets booked quickly as it is only priced as a normal promenade stateroom.

Below is a video tour of the "sweet" I found on you tube, if you would like to know about availability for this on any sailings just give me a call.

Record number of British people now Cruising

2011-03-15T22:13:00.001Z

Cruising is becoming more and more poplular, we certainly have noticed that here at Cruise.co.uk.

Sometimes passengers will mention to me on the telephone because of the current state of the economy they think that cruise companies may be struggling to sell the cruises, this on the whole couldn't be further from the truth.

A lot more people now are "wiseing up" to what a fanstastic product the cruise holiday can be, there may still be people around that are short of money, but there are still plenty of people with enough for their holidays and cruise holidays can be very good value.

A record number of Britons took a cruise last year, up 6% from 2009, the latest figures from the Passenger Shipping Association have shown.

Some 1.62 million cruises were taken – more than double the figure recorded in 2001.

The PSA said the increase was set to continue, predicting that Britons will take 1.7 million cruises this year and two million by 2014.

Cruising now accounts for 11.7% of the overseas package holiday sector, compared with 10.6% in 2009. In 1997, less than 3% of package holidays booked were cruises.

Meanwhile, cruising from British ports increased by 10% - with more than 650,000 people choosing to cruise from the UK. Fly-cruises were also up, with 968,000 people choosing to take a cruise abroad, a rise of 3%.

The Mediterranean continued to be the most popular cruise destination, with 43% of Brits choosing the region – an 18% increase compared with last year. Northern Europe retained second place.

It's almost launch time for Cruises 2012

2011-03-08T22:51:00.003Z

I thought I would let everyone know about what cruises are to be launched for sale in the near future.

This time is very busy for us here at cruise.co.uk as lots of people pre register to book cabins on cruises as they are released for sale.

The cruise lines have some excellent offers and incentives to get you to book early and you also have the pick of the best cabins available on offer.

Here are the details I have so far of when cruise line's are releasing their Cruises 2012 sailings for booking.

Celebrity - Eclipse
09/03/2011 9am - Captain's Club members only
10/03/2011 9am - Everyone

Royal Caribbean
15/03/2011 9am - Crown and Anchor members only
16/03/2011 9am - Everyone

P&O
02/04/2011 9am - All sailings for Portunis Gold Tier members only
05/04/2011 8am - March, April and May 2012 departures
06/04/2011 8am - June, July and August 2012 departures
07/04/2011 8am - September, October and November 2012 departures
08/04/2011 8am - December 2012, January, Febuary, March and April 2013 departures

Cunard
04/04/2011 9am - World Club members only
04/04/2011 1pm - Everyone

I hope this information has been useful, if you would like to discuss or pre register your interest in booking for these new departures due to go on sale shortly, please contact me and I will try my best to help.

Plans for big cruise ships to dock in London

2011-03-01T20:38:00.000Z

Cruise ships could be heading for London under new development plans awaiting the go-ahead from Boris Johnson.

The proposal would see Enderby Wharf in Greenwich become the capital’s first terminal.

The project has already been approved by Greenwich council, and work is expected to begin this year, subject to the mayor’s approval. There are hopes that the terminal will be finished in time for the Olympic Games.

It will have facilities for big cruise ships to dock, as well as the Thames Clipper service, and will also include 770 homes and 251-room hotel.

I still haven't heard which ships are planning to use this port, it will be interesting to see what further details develop from this.

I personally would be put off a cruise knowing that it is departing from London, knowing that the journey there due to traffic is likely to be hell (I have spent a lot of time driving in and around London). I also imagine parking there wouldn't be too cheap either.

Will Cruise Discounts become a thing of the past ?

2011-02-22T21:36:00.000Z

After working in the cruise industry for the last couple of years it has become very apparent that the industry is quite highly based around special offers and discounts for passengers when booking with their favourite travel agent (hopefully me :p)

I recently wrote a blog about Royal Caribbean cruise line's introducing a new "What you see is what you get" campaign which does away with extra's such as onboard credit or free car parking.

It has now come to my attention that Complete Cruise Solution who run P&O, Princess, Cunard and Seabourn cruises is to completely change the way it prices via it's agents.

They now say that they are going to massively cut travel agent's commisions to a flat rate to make the prices the same whether a passenger books with the cruise line directly or with a travel agent. The exact details of how this will change things are yet to be announced, but it will most certainly do away with the current level's of discounting seen on these cruise brands.

This will mean that the customer service passenger's get will most likely help them deceide who it will be best to book with. Personally I feel that the service I offer clients goes way beyond what the cruise line's would offer directly and people would still want to book with me.

It will also be interesting to see if prices are lowered to ofset the lowering of discounts and that passenger's hopefully don't miss out.

Unfortunately I don't have more information at this time on what will happen but I am sure more details will emerge in the future.

What do you think ? Is this a good or a bad thing ? I would appreciate people's comments on this.

One of the best is just about to get better...... the Crystal Serenity

2011-02-15T21:20:00.001Z

My favourite cruise experience by far has to be the cruise I took on the Crystal Serenity last year, it was amazing to say the least.

If you haven't already read about it, you can do by clicking HERE.

I have just heard news that she is going in for refurbishment in May 2011 and it looks like they will be doing some extensive work on her.

Here are the details of what will be done, I really hope I get an opportunity in the future to sail on this ship again and see the changes for myself !

CRYSTAL SERENITY TO UNDERGO MAJOR REDESIGN IN MAY

While Crystal Cruises’ ocean resorts have racked up countless awards since entering service, the ultra-luxury line has never been one to rest on its laurels. This spring, Crystal will be spending $25+ million dollars to keep its largest ship, Crystal Serenity, on the cutting edge of luxury style.

More than 400 expert technicians flown from around the world, working round the clock for just 14 days, are scheduled for the massive redesign of her 531 Deluxe Staterooms, Penthouses and Penthouses Suites; retail centres; expansive outdoor pool deck and other design projects during an 8th to 22nd May dry dock at Hamburg’s Blohm + Voss shipyard.

“In the past two years, we have invested well over $50 million in our ships,” says Gregg Michel, president, Crystal Cruises. “Our guests can look forward to dazzling new spaces, which will serve as a stunning backdrop to the incomparable service and choices that always characterises a Crystal holiday.”

Interior designer, Keith Rushbrook, principal at the Toronto-based II BY IV Design Associates, summarises the vision: “We wanted modern classic elegance. We wanted Fifth Avenue – crème de la crème New York-inspired living and retail spaces that people love and look forward to spending time in.”

All of Crystal Serenity’s Deluxe Outside Staterooms, Penthouses, and Penthouse Suites will sport new, floor-to-ceiling tufted headboards, bedside cabinets, wallpaper, sofas, curtains, pillows, and custom carpets in contemporary lines and classic stone, silk, velvet, leather and crisp linen textures. New modern lighting features and electronic “do not disturb” and doorbell system will allow guests greater personalisation of their home-away-from-home.

Crystal Serenity’s retail shops will receive a similar, sophisticated metamorphosis. The Facets fine jewellery store will mirror a jewellery box, with mother-of-pearl feature wall, bevelled chrome display cabinets and new, private sales area. The Apropos boutique will become three-shops-in-one, with a flagship Christian Dior cosmetic/skincare area showcased amongst rich Zebrano wood and herringbone rosewood, arresting black-plum-magenta carpeting and tufted leather seating.

Inspired by Crystal Symphony’s recent transformation, the Seahorse Pool teak deck will be refashioned with circular pod beds, plush sofa groups and lounge chairs in a kaleidoscope of lime green, azure and mango.

The corridors throughout the ship will be transformed with new, custom carpeting, inspiring artwork and mood lighting. Dramatic new lighting will also be installed in the Crystal Dining Room, as will new furniture on all stateroom verandas.

Following the dry dock, Crystal Serenity will embark on a series of Baltic, North Cape and British Isles cruises before heading to the Mediterranean for a late summer and autumn cruise series, where guests will not only enjoy the resort’s new look but exceptional value with veranda savings and a new autumn fare sale.

Benefit fraudsters caught out by Cruise

2011-02-08T19:47:00.002Z

A FATHER who cheated the taxpayer out of £30,000 benefits was caught and jailed after his seven-year-old son wrote an online blog detailing the family's — TEN MONTH Caribbean cruise.

Fraudster Simon Daymond-Harris, 37, claimed £560-a-month in housing benefit from August 2006 due to his 'low income' as a barman. He told authorities he worked 16 hours-a-week and, because of his modest wage, could not support his wife and three children.

Daymond-Harris claimed he was paying £925-a-month in rent at a four-bedroom waterside apartment in Millbay Marina Village, Plymouth, for four years, but the flat was actually owned by his parents and he lived there rent-free, meaning he illegally pocketed £28,778.45 between 2006 and last year.

Irving of Exeter Daymond-Harris was caught after his son Oliver wrote an online blog about their ten month cruise of the Caribbean.

The blog, which has since been removed, led to further investigations which showed Daymond-Harris had doctored bank statements to try and hide the fact he was out of the country.
Sentencing Daymond-Harris to 12 weeks in prison at Plymouth Magistrates' Court, district judge Paul Farmer said: "This was a deliberate fraud which was dealt with in a sophisticated way.
The final piece of evidence emerged after investigators found the blog by his then seven-year-old son — which documented in detail their Caribbean cruise to St Lucia.

Travelling to Israel unplanned

2011-02-01T19:41:00.000Z

I had a situation develop at work recently that I had not dealt with before.

Some of my clients are booked onto the Thomson Celebration - Red Sea Magic sailing on the 3rd February, because of the problems that have recently been affecting Egypt, Thomson Cruises changed one of the destinations to Eilat in Isreal.

Now normally I wouldn't have thought that this could be an issue, however it turns out that this could have caused disasterous concequences for my client.

My client does a lot of work in Libya and informed me that if he was to have Israeli stamps in his passport it would mean that he would lose his job !

Well I spoke with Thomson's and did some checking about and it turns out that they already have this issue covered on page 200 of their new brochure.

If travelling to Israel, rather than your passport being stamped, you are provided with an extra piece of paper to show your visit, leaving your passport unaffected.

This made me wonder what other situations could arise similar this issue, to be honest the only other example I could think of was the recent Top Gear special that I watched where JC and the gang potentially had similar issues :)

I hope everything works out for my passengers and all goes to plan. I hear news just in that the Egyptian President has just stood down, so let's hope things get back to normal as soon as possible.

More information can be found at http://www.ips.gov.uk/

The new Thomson brochure that I have mentioned can be viewed in full HERE

Royal Caribbean and Celebrity Cruises CRAZY DISCOUNTS !!!!

2011-01-25T21:44:00.000Z

I would like to take this opportunity to make my blog readers aware of a discount increase for Royal Caribbean and Celebrity cruises that we are just about to introduce to our website cruise.co.uk.

For almost the last 2 years, since I have been working at cruise.co.uk the Royal Caribbean and Celebrity online discount has mostly been set at 10% off.

For the moment however, we have deceided to increase our disounts by a reasonable amount to give people an extra incentive to book, the discounts will be increased for a set time as follows :-

Inside Staterooms - 12% discount

Outside Staterooms - 13% discount

Balcony Staterooms - 14% discount

Suites - 15% discount

There are some fantastic offers out there already and this is just going to make them a whole lot better, my suggestion is that if you are considering one of these fabulous cruises, get a quote from me while the discounts are increased. It could make all the difference.

An eye for a great cruise deal.... try the Cruises.co.uk forum

2011-01-18T23:26:00.001Z

While I am at work something often my clients will say to me is "if you spot a great deal, let me know".

Obviously our company has lots of amazing deals on our main website http://www.cruise.co.uk/ and we also like to post out information on great deals too.

The thing is though, with so many cruise offers about, sometimes it can be a bit daunting trying to find something with so much to look through.

This is where the cruise.co.uk sister site, http://www.cruises.co.uk/ comes in. Cruises.co.uk is a forum site and as well as it having a wealth of cruise related topics and information it also has a "top deals" section.

My colleages and myself have recently been keeping our eyes peeled for great cruise offers that we spot while at work. The beauty of this is that we are quoting and booking cruises all day so we naturally have an eye for spotting an offer that is generally outstanding. When we notice one of these offers we now post a topic on cruises.co.uk to bring it to peoples attention.

My advice is if you havent checked this area of cruises.co.uk out yet then you should go and have a look because I have seen some awesome offers posted there, and we all love a bargain don't we ?

Please click HERE to jump straight to the offers section.

Discover complete luxury in paradise with Paul Gauguin Cruises

2011-01-11T21:55:00.002Z

I recently booked some of my clients onto the m/s Paul Gauguin, I didn't really know much about this before but I wanted to let you know about this cruise line as it looks to be an amazing experience.

Paul Gauguin cruises operates year round in the South Pacific and offers a small ship with 332 guests and 215 crew.

This is the sort of scenery you can expect to see when cruising with Paul Gauguin, the South Pacific is so beautiful.

The cruise offers :-

*Inclusive gratuities*

*Complimentary beverages including fine wines and premium spirits, soft drinks, bottled water, coffee and tea served throughout the ship*

*In-suite mini-bar replenished daily with soft drinks, beer and bottled water*

*Inclusive watersports with the State-of-the-art retractable Watersports Marina*

*Open seating dining*

*Complimentary 24-hour room service with complimentary in-room dining*

That retractable water sports marina just looks awesome !

More information on this cruise experience and itineraries can be found by visiting the Paul Gauguin website which can be visited .... HERE.

Sea Dream Yacht Club - 112 guests, 95 crew on a luxury mega yacht

2011-01-04T22:24:00.002Z

Just recently I have been finding out about some lesser known, ultra luxury brands and I have come across Sea Dream Yacht Club. I thought I would share my finding with you.

Who are they ......

Sea Dream Yacht Club is a family owned, boutique yacht company. There is only a maximum of 112 guests and 95 crew so I would say that this is quite exclusive.

Let's have a look at what Sea Dream can offer.....

With a draft of only 14.3 feet, SeaDream I and II visit the yachting playgrounds and harbors where larger cruise ships can not go.

"Resort Casual" dresscode.

Each yacht features a large retractable water sports Marina providing a variety of water sports activities including kayaking, a Zodiac® for water skiing, a banana boat, tubing, boarding, wave running, snorkeling, Sunfish® sailing, snorkeling, swimming, a floating island and the assistance of the yacht’s Marina staff.

5* quality open dining experience

There is a complimentary open bar policy in public rooms and in public spaces on deck, featuring select premium brands.

The Wine Cellar –SeaDream’s Wine Cellar features many of the top Old World and New World varieties as well as an array of little-known, but surprisingly enticing wines all available for purchase. The Sommeliers also pour a complimentary selection of reds and whites at lunch and dinner.

Balinese Dream Beds – Each of our yachts feature the sensational Balinese Dream Beds. These, highly popular, double sun beds are on Deck 6 aft by the Top of the Yacht Bar. The Dream Beds are raised above the sightline of the yacht's railings to provide unobstructed views. Large umbrellas are available to provide shade when desired. The perfect place to sunbathe, read a book, gaze out to sea, enjoy the breezes or take a well deserved nap. We also offer turndown service with feather pillows and cozy duvets should a guest choose to sleep under the stars.

Where do they sail to ........

From May through October, SeaDream I and II sail on 7 night itineraries to classical yachting ports in the French and Italian Riviera, Costa del Sol, the Amalfi Coast, the Greek Islands and the Adriatic and Black Seas, including the classical yachting ports of Nice, Monte Carlo, Cannes, St. Tropez, Santorini, Barcelona and Portofino.

From November through April, SeaDream I and II offer 5, 7 and 9 night itineraries in the intimate yachting harbors in the Caribbean - St. John, St. Croix, St. Martin, Virgin Gorda, St. Barts, Jost van Dyke, Barbados, the Grenadines, Saba, Nevis and more.

Trans-Atlantic voyages feature special speakers focusing on wellness, health, world affairs, current news and aviation.

For guests that can stay a bit longer, the itineraries are designed to be taken back to back without repeating a port of call, for a unique 14-night yachting experience. SeaDream offers an additional 10% savings on the second 7-night voyage when both are booked back-to-back.

More information on this interesting brand can be found directly at their website HERE.

As always, if anyone has any questions or queries regarding this brand or are wanting prices or availability information, call me directly on 0800 408 6095 and I will try my best to help.

Time for a Christmas break......

2010-12-21T17:30:00.004Z

I am just about to break up for my Christmas holidays today (21st December) and will be returning to the office on Sunday the 2nd January 2011.

We are due heavy snow this way tonight again, also my girlfriend has fallen on the ice and has broken her ankle so the time off will certainly not go amis.

I would just like to take this opportunity to thank everyone that has booked with me this year, voted for me and rated my service, I really appreciate your support.

If anyone needs any assistance in my absence then please call our office on 0800 091 5254 and one of my colleages will be able to help......or please use our website HERE.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to Everyone.

New Cruise entertainer talent show announced

2010-12-14T09:00:00.001Z

I was just keeping up to date with recent cruise related news and I came across an article about a new 20 episode television talent show to be filmed in 2011.

The show will have ten contestants competing against each other on a cruise ship (yet to be confirmed) to see who will be crowned the star entertainer.

The show has been commissioned by Sky One and will be called "Show Boaters", it will be made by Jamie Oliver's production company called Fresh One Productions.

The show's contestants, as well as having to entertain, will also have to partake in other duties on board including serving in the restaurants.

It will be interesting to see which cruise line and ship this show will be on.

Would you want this sort of thing happening on your next cruise ?

What can the kids get up to cruising at Christmas with P&O ?

2010-12-08T09:57:00.000Z

There are a lot of very good facilities for kids on many cruise ships these days, which make cruising ideal for families that want to get away for a break.

I have managed to get hold of some cruise club programmes for the P&O Oriana Chrismas sailing of 2009. While these are now a year old they should still give a good indication of what to expect from a P&O kids club program at Christmas time.

Please click each image to enlarge......

Splashers - 2-4yrs old

Scuba's - 9-12yrs old

H20 - 13-17yrs old

It's Sale time..... again !!!!

2010-12-07T15:17:00.000Z

People that have dealt with us here at cruise.co.uk will probably have noticed that there is always some sort of sale on, all or most of the time.

Is it getting a bit like "DFS" ??

I always find it a bit of a chuckle that some companies seem to have a sale that lasts all year round, I guess that's just the way that they like to market themselves.

A large part of the reason that we are always promoting sale's at cruise.co.uk is because there are quite often promotions from the cruise operators and we want to bring these to your attention.

One of the companies that I have noticed have a lot of sale's going on is Royal Caribbean/Celebrity.

If I got a pound for everytime I had been in a sales brief meeting at work and heard the words "Royal Caribbean and Celebrity have extended their special offer campaign.....", I'd be better off put it that way.

Well, I was having a look through the cruise news on TTG Live recently and noticed the below article....

Agents back scrapping early discounts

Basically the article says that Royal Caribbean are going to do a u-turn on these type of offers and instead launch a new campain on the 26th December called "What you see is what you get".

The new campaign will do away with early booking discounts completely and instead base prices on good honest, "no gimmicks", uninflated, stripped back pricing. Dominic Paul, Royal Caribbean managing director for the UK and Ireland, said cruises would be sold in a similar way to airline seats, with prices rising as the departure date nears.

I will be interested to see how this works, will they resist the temptation to reduce prices at the last minute to fill spaces ?

Back from Xmas Party and the Votes are in !

2010-11-30T21:51:00.000Z

We just came back yesterday from our Christmas party cruise on board the P&O Aurora. I must say that I had an excellent time and lots of fun !

The Aurora is the second P&O ship that I have been on, I went to the launch party of the Azura earlier this year. I have to say that the Aurora is a lovely looking ship and I can recommend her, I do personally prefer the Azura but that is down to personal preference as I prefer the larger more modern ship.

I stayed in a DB grade Deluxe balcony stateroom. It had more than enough room and had everything that we needed. There isn't anything bad I can say about that cabin at all, it really was perfect.

There was an electronic safe, a living area with a sofa, a fridge with pre stocked mineral water.

I shared a cabin with one of my colleagues Kris Hestler, we had a good laugh on the cruise and he was a good cabin mate.....

That's us having one of many beers in the Champions sports bar.

Overall I found the food and service on the cruise to be okay but not amazing, I think that this was mostly due to the fact that a 2 night mini cruise is different to a longer cruise and there was a lot of partying and drinking going on. I did in my younger years work as a head waiter so for example when the waiter opened the wine and didn't offer anyone to taste it and instead just went and filled everyone's glasses, put down the bottle and walked off I was quite surprised.

After too many drinks and not enough sleep I managed to get the coach into Bruges which I am happy about as I have been to Bruges before and I do really like it there, it was cold though.

The second night was a formal night and I was a little tired although we organised a game of texas hold em poker, I didn't win but it was a great night and we had some great laughs.

Here we are getting ready for the game.

It was an early departure on Monday morning to get back to work just in time to work my shift. I did take it a bit more easy on the second night though and got more sleep so I actually didn't feel too bad at all when I got back to work.

Next onto the vote results......

I would just like to say a big thank you to everyone that voted for me, your votes really are appreciated, I was really pleased to be in both of the top 5 lists.

The Final Countdown !

2010-11-23T23:57:00.000Z

It is nearing the end of November and the countdown is now on 'till the end of the year. There is quite alot to be excited for us here at cruise.co.uk as not only is the Christmas season nearly upon us, we are also just about to go on our annual Christmas cruise. This will be this Saturday the 27th of November on a 2 night cruise to Bruges on the P&O Aurora.

It has been big year for us here to try and establish our blogs and I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has taken the time to read by blog posts and also the people who have left me some really nice feedback messages.

Before we head off on our Christmas party our company is taking votes from our customers / blog readers on who is the best consultant and who has the best blog. If anyone could put the votes in for me it would really be appreciated.

Votes can be made.....

HERE

Flexi Dining or Fixed Dining ??

2010-11-16T18:35:00.000Z

"Flexible" or "open" dining options are now becoming more and more popular on cruise ship's. There are alot of people who like to be able to eat what they want, when they want, with who they want.

While some cruise brands like NCL have "freestyle" dining as standard with no set dining times, most cruise lines seem to be opting for a mixture of both open and fixed dining times in an attempt of being able to keep everyone happy.

There are certain case scenario's and reasons why people may want to go for either option really.

On fixed dining you are going to be sitting with the same people each night, this means that you are likely to get to know the people over the length of the cruise and hopefully make some new friends. It maybe that if you are booked in a large group that fixed dining is a safer option, if there was say, a group of 8 people that wanted to sit
together on the open dining option you may be waiting for a while for a table of that size to become free, on fixed dining the table would be ready and waiting for your group at the same time each evening.

I personally prefer the open dining options as it really does give you the flexibility of letting you do the things you want to do without worrying about either rushing back from a port of call to get ready in time for the early dinner sitting, or on the other hand finding that the late dinner sitting is too late when you have spent at sea.

I like many of my passengers that I speak to actually like the fact the on the flexible dining option I would be dining with different people on different nights, I think this just makes things a bit more interesting.

At the end of the day circumstances and preferences will normally dictate what the best option to pick is but I think that it is good that these options are now more common place.

Royal Caribbean do insist that gratuties are pre-paid to go on their "My time dining" option, this can sometimes be a problem for people but hey, thats a completely different and well debated subject !

We are the Best in the World...... again !

2010-11-09T17:27:00.000Z

Just in case you haven't heard the great news already, its official, Cruise.co.uk have just won the World's Leading Travel Cruise Agent award again !

We have also won Europe's Leading Cruise Travel Agent as well as the World's Leading Online Cruise Community Award.

As I am sure you know there is a lot of still competition out there in our industry so we are really excited about the fact that we have retained our title.

The awards were presented to us at the World Travel Awards ceremony which took place on Sunday the 7th of November in London.

As well as members of our own staff we took some of our cruise forum contributers along with us to share the celebrations.

Thank you to everyone for voting for us and helping us to continue what we do here.

Smoking at Sea

2010-11-02T16:04:00.000Z

A very good example of a topic that will always have great divisions on opinion is smoking. Here at cruise.co.uk I often get asked about smoking policys on ships by passenger's interested in cruising. This can be from anti-smokers making sure that they don't have to breath the smoke, or from smokers making sure that they won't have to go without.

I have found that this sometimes can be a large contributing factor for passengers thinking about booking a cruise from both sides of the smoking perspective.

I personally choose to smoke but I have to say that I understand that it's a bad habit and I certainly wouldn't want to cause anybody any inconvenience with my smoking habits.

Smoking laws have become more and more strict here at home and it should feel quite normal now for smokers not being able to smoke in any public enclosed areas so why some people feel they should be entitled to do this when they are on a cruise ship is beyond me.

I guess the only thing that I need personally is some sort of open space where I can go and have a smoke at my leisure and not cause anyone any inconvenience.

I have listed details of different cruise line's smoking policys below to help you deceide whether it would suit your needs whether you are a smoker or non smoker.

Please click the below image to enlarge it

Married at Sea ! (Congratulations Mr and Mrs Mellings)

2010-10-26T17:17:00.000+01:00

My friend's have just got married on the P&O Ventura transatlantic crossing from Southampton to Barbados.

I would just like to congratulate Mr Gareth and Mrs Lorraine Mellings on their marriage and wish them both a happy and successful future together.

For anyone interested in P&O wedding packages please click "read more" to find out what is included.

Wedding cruise packages on board are incomparable to anything you could ever experience ashore. This is what makes your wedding cruise package so remarkable. Not only do you have your own private wedding venue dressed with delicate fresh flowers, but you have the dedicated services of a personal wedding coordinator and a beautiful wedding ceremony hosted by the ship's Captain. All for just £1000 (including the legal paperwork).

As you immerse yourself in the atmosphere of the occasion, we will ensure everything is in place for your wedding day. In fact, everything is taken care of for you if you are getting married on a cruise, so it's easy to see why some say the honeymoon begins before the wedding. After all, the beauty of being on board a superliner is that everything you could need is on your doorstep.

If you are interested in getting married on a cruise with P&O Cruises all of the following are included in your wedding cruise package:

*** Full wedding planning service and on board wedding coordinator ***

*** Invitations delivered to your home address prior to cruise departure ***

*** Pressing of bridal outfits prior to ceremony (service dependent on nature of garment) ***

*** Attractive wedding ceremony venue on board ***

*** A wedding ceremony at sea conducted by the Captain ***

*** Two fresh floral arrangements for the ceremony ***

*** Classical wedding music (or your choice of music) ***

*** Commemorative wedding certificate ***

*** Bottle of champagne ***

Thank You notes for those guests attending your wedding at sea

*** An additional 5kg luggage allowance for both bride and groom if travelling to the ship on a P&O Cruises charter flight ***

*** 5% discount for parties of 10 or more ***

Do I book a named cabin or an allocation on arrival ?

2010-10-19T18:46:00.001+01:00

When working here at cruise.co.uk I look at prices and availability all day long on behalf of my clients.

One thing that I often notice is that a lot of the best deals that are offered are on a guarantee (allocation on arrival) basis.

Booking a cabin on a guarantee can have it's pro's and con's. Obviously one of the major benefits of booking this way is that the price can be substantially lower than booking a named cabin.
I do notice that some of the best guarantee cabin offers are on Royal Caribbean or Celebrity Cruises but some other cruise lines have also had some amazing offers on this like some recent Cunard offers for example.

Booking a guarantee cabin can be a good way to get you in the running for a good upgrade (but don't bank on this happening obviously !). I have seen people book inside cabin's on allocation on arrival with Royal Caribbean ending up with balcony cabins, clients on Celebrity Cruises get Sunset Verandah's instead of outside cabins and people on Cunard booking metal fronted obstructed view balconies get clear view glass fronted balconies.

Unfortunately there can be downsides to booking this way. You could end up being in a position you don't like on the ship, with an obstructed view or directly opposite the lifts and stairs.

I guess as with most things, the best thing to do with these kind of cruise deals is to weigh up the pro's and con's of each deal on an individual basis.

My Cruise holiday aboard the Crystal Serenity

2010-10-12T16:53:00.000+01:00

My girlfriend Krissy and myself have just returned from an amazing cruise holiday on the 6* Crystal Serenity Fashion Capitals cruise from Venice to Monte Carlo.

I had not sailed on a 6* ship before and my girlfriend hadn't even set foot on a cruise ship before so we were both excited to see what Crystal cruises would have in store for us. We certainly weren't disappointed, this really was a perfect holiday for us.

We started by flying out to the Marco Polo airport in Venice, when we got there we found that the water taxi's were quite expensive, so we took a normal taxi to the ship, this was 40 euro's which wasn't too bad really.

The check in at the terminal was very smooth, our bags were taken away and we went straight onto the ship. Once we got onto the ship we were both shown to our cabin by someone who showed us where everything was.

We stayed in a Verandah stateroom on deck 10 (penthouse deck). We found the stateroom to be luxurious, comfortable and had everything we needed. There was European and US power outlets. A tv with a dvd player and cd player (a massive collection of dvd's and music cd's can be borrowed from the library free of charge) the music or sound from the tv also plays through speakers in the bathroom.

There was also an electronic safe in the wardrobe and a minibar fridge that was stocked up daily with soft drinks.

Our stateroom stewardess called "Jas" came and introduced herself to us, she had a good chat to us and was lovely to deal with and was very helpful to us with anything we needed to ask. She serviced our stateroom at least two times a day and everything was kept spotlessly clean and well organised.

We had an overnight stay in Venice on the first night of the cruise so we deceided to stay on board the ship for the first evening and then go out to explore Venice the next day.

We went to dine in the Crystal dining room on our first evening on board and were introducted to our senior waiter Krysztof and our waiter Darko. These guys were extremely professional and friendly and the service they gave us was second to none, we couldn't have asked for anymore. Thank you so much both of you.

The food we ate was some of the best we had ever eaten, we were both completely blown away by the quality of it, food heaven !

We headed out to see Venice the next morning, Crystal cruises had arranged a boat for their passengers from the ship to the centre of Venice free of charge. I hadn't been to Venice before, it really is a beautiful sight, we were lucky that the sun was shining for us too.

Next onto Dubrovnik, where we went and explored the walled city.

We took the tender to the pier and then took the free shuttle supplied by Crystal to the entrance of the walled city.

Our next stop was Sorrento, we deceided here that we wanted to visit the Pompeii ruins. We took the free shuttle bus from the ship into the middle of town where we walked round the corner to the train station. We paid approx 17euro's each for a return train to Pompeii with inclusive entrance to the ruins, the ruins are right next to the train station so no long walking involved.

We had some amazing views from our verandah, the sea was so calm and there were some lovely sunsets...

Our next stop was Civitavecchia for Rome. The train station there is only 5 minutes walk from the entrance to the port. We took a return train to Rome, a return train ticket cost us about 9 euro's each and took just over an hour each way. When we got to Rome we deceided to go around the city on an open top tour bus, this was a hop on hop off service and cost us 16 euro's each.

Our next port of call was to Porto Venere, this was a very picturesque little port. We were taken in on a tender here, lovely views to be seen. There was some sort of naval base close by though and we could here explosions going off all day, we had a war ship come up by the side of our cruise ship before we left.

The next day we went to Livorno for Florence and Pisa, we deceided to go to Florence as we thought it would be more interesting to see. We took the free shuttle into town and from there it was a 10 euro ride to the train station. The train was about 10 euro's each return direct to Florence and leaves and comes back once an hour.

The last place we cruised to was Monte Carlo, rather than the ship docking in Villefrance, the ship docked in Monte Carlo bay and we had an amazing view from our Verandah in the morning. My mother and step father were taking a holiday in Nice at this time so they came and met us from the ship. We took a bus from Monte Carlo to the centre of Nice for just 1 euro and left our luggage in their appartment while we enjoyed the day in Nice with them before flying home.

For us what really made this cruise special was the quality of the ship, the service and the food. The level of service from the crew was always of a very consistently high standard, nothing was too much trouble for them and they were all really friendly. They called us by our first names and treated us like royalty. We didnt really go to the shows on the ship as we ate on the 20:30 dining and went up to bed at a reasonable time so that we could get up early and make the most of our days.

We did get chance to try the two speciality restaurants on board the ship, the first one was called Silk Road which is created by Nobu Matsuhisa. The food here was really good I especially liked the Rock Shrimp but everything we ate there was out of this world and if you get chance to sail on this ship you must eat here.

The second speciality restaurant is called Prego's which is an Italian restaurant. This was our favourite restaurant and we felt it has the best food (we love itialian food) the atmosphere was really good here too. The mushroom soup in a bread bowl, the crab meat salad and the lasagne here are amazing, also you must try the suggested chef's daily special's !

The speciality restaurants do not have an extra charge, just suggested gratuities at $7 per person.

We had breakfast each day in the Lido Cafe, this was surrounded by floor to ceiling windows and also had a section outside where you could sit at the rear of the ship. The crew here are brilliant, so many people dealt with us but there are a few that Krissy and myself would like to mention, Clark, Demi (waiters) and Christian (cooked our omelettes) these guys put a massive smile on our faces every morning.

On the days at sea they have speciality buffet lunches that we went to. They had an asian food and a mediterrainian one these are well worth going to. One the other days when we had time to eat in the day on board we went to the Trident bar and grill and the Scoops ice cream bar, again everything was cooked perfectly and tasted great.

There is also a little cafe called The Bistro, this has a small buffet and serves coffee's. We didn't really use the buffet here but they did do take out coffee's which we often grabbed as we were passing by.

We had a shipboard newspaper delivered to us called Reflections every day which told us what was going on board the ship the next day and also told us any useful information we needed to know concerning our cruise. We also had mini newspapers with the latest headlines delivered to us everyday, a British one for myself and a German version for Krissy. There are also plenty of Crystal on board tv channels, these are quite useful to keep informed of what is happening on board and also what you can see and do at the various ports of call. We always watched Gary Hunter's (cruise directors) show while getting ready for dinner in the evening. We met Gary on the way to dinner one evening and he stopped to chat to us, what a nice chap.

The ship is 68,000 tons and holds 1072 passengers. We felt that there was so much room around the ship, nowhere ever felt crowded. We never had to queue or wait anywhere.

I really could go on for a lot longer about our cruise and this ship but it would take me forever so I will leave you with some more pictures.

For anyone considering a 6* luxury cruise I really feel that you should look into cruising with Crystal, for us it was perfect in every way and we look forward sailing again with them one day. I will certainly be recommending Crystal cruises to anyone who would like a luxury cruise !

Off on my holidays....... back 11th October.

2010-09-27T09:43:00.000+01:00

Today (27/09/2010), will be my last day at cruise.co.uk until I return from my cruise holiday on Crystal Cruises.

I will be returning to the office at 0900 on Monday the 11th October.

If anyone requires any assistance while I am away please call my colleages on 0800 091 5254.

I will let you know how my holidays went on my return so please watch this space !

Exercise your right to vote !

2010-09-20T19:20:00.000+01:00

Here at cruise.co.uk we won the world's leading cruise travel agent awards in 2009 and are very proud of it.

Well that time of year has come round and people need to vote again.

You can vote for the worlds leading travel agent as well as many other awards by following this link...

http://www.worldtravelawards.com/

You will need to click "Vote" at the top left corner of the page and register your details.

Of course it is up to you who you vote for but I don't need to tell you who my suggestion would be :)

Using your own flights and transfers

2010-09-13T19:46:00.000+01:00

When dealing with clients here at cruise.co.uk I book a very large range of different cruise based holidays. One thing that is worth considering on occasions is independent flight and transfers, as opposed to the ones that the cruise line offers.
This can have some great advantages in certain case scenarios but in others not even be worth considering. I thought I would let you know some of my experiences of generally when to look at this and when not to.

One of the most common occasions I see people booking their own "low cost" flights is on Mediterranean cruises, especially ones going from places such as Barcelona, as there it is very easy to get from the airport to the port. This can save a lot of money compared to the flights and transfers that the cruise line can offer. Another factor in favour of people doing this is that they will know their flight timings and route. One thing about most of the cruise lines I deal with is that they say "flight details may be subject to change and may be indirect", this means that there is the possibility (and this can often happen) that if you were flying from Manchester to Barcelona for example the flight may be routed via another airport which could be frustrating.
When getting a quote for a cruise where this could be an option it is always worth weighing up the options with your cruise consultant.
Now for the down sides. We all remember the volcanic ash cloud that caused all of the disruption earlier on in the year, you must make sure that if you book your own flights you are covered by insurance for certain circumstances which may mean you cannot fly, if not it could be quite risky. If this was the case the cruise line would class this as a "failure to embark" as you had only booked the cruise element with them. Many people I deal with try and reduce the risk of failure to embark due to a flight cancellation or delay by booking flights a day early with a hotel stay overnight.
A lot of cruise lines have either chartered or good value flight included with their cruises and going down the avenue of booking your own would not be of any advantage.
I have to say that most of the times when I have arranged cruises for people on a cruise only basis with them arranging their own way to the ship it has been with Royal Caribbean or Celebrity Cruises.

What is the weather going to be like ?

2010-09-06T19:09:00.000+01:00

People often ask me what the weather is going to be like while they are away on their cruise. While I am confident in answering most queries that people give me, I have to say that I am always cautious when advising on the weather.

I guess the only thing that I can advise is to find out what the average conditions and temperatures are for the places that you will be travelling to and keep your fingers crossed.

I recently spoke to a couple that had just returned from their P&O round the UK cruise in the middle of August this year, statistically you would imagine that the middle of August would be the best time to go but the weather was terrible, it really has been a terrible August weather wise hasn't it ?

The cruise lines do generally tend to send their ships to destinations during the right times of year but sometimes this isn't always the case. I would always advise to do a bit of reasearch on this when considering your cruise.

Has anybody got any interesting stories about weather that has effected them on the cruise ??

Should I take a complimentary upgrade ?

2010-08-30T19:37:00.000+01:00

Most cruise lines have a complimentary upgrade policy. If you book on a cabin on a guarantee (allocation on arrival basis) then you have no choice about whether you are included in this or not, you must take the cabin allocated by the cruise line. If you book a cabin where you can pick your cabin number then you have the choice whether you would like to accept a complimentary upgrade or not, should one become available. Generally the way that this upgrade policy works is that the cruise line could move you to a higher grade of cabin than you have paid for free of charge.

While this all sounds good there are quite a lot of circumstances where it would be advisable to opt out of the upgrade policy, as if you are given an upgrade you must accept it and cannot return to your original chosen cabin number. Cabin upgrades can also be within cabin type sub categories so you could just end up getting an upgrade from a BG to a BE grade balcony cabin for example.

I always discuss the case scenarios with my clients where necessary as the last thing I want is for someone to end up with a cabin that they are not happy with.

Some reasons to not accept upgrades are :-

You are booking multiple cabins close or next door to one another and want to stay that way, if one or all cabins were upgraded they might not necessarily stay together.
One some ships you could book a clear view outside cabin, be upgraded to an outside cabin on a higher deck but have an obstructed view (Fred Olsen Balmoral, C grade superior outside to B grade superior outside is a perfect example).
You might specifically want to be on the port or starboard side of the ship.
You specifically like the location of your chosen cabin, the upgrade position of cabin may not be to your liking.
You may get upgraded, but end up opposite lifts and stairs or next to the on board laundrette.

As a travel agent I have no way of knowing or a say in who does or doesn't get upgraded, that is purely down to the cruise company. I have seen some very nice upgrades happen, I recently booked two inside guarantee cabins on the Royal Caribbean Independence of the Seas for a client and they were both upgraded to Superior deluxe balcony cabins.

Has anyone else got any interesting upgrade stories ? Please let me know.

Oceania cruises, what are they like ?

2010-08-23T19:36:00.000+01:00

Last week I was fortunate enough to be invited down to Southampton to go and have a look around the Oceania Regatta. Oceania cruises are an American brand 5* Deluxe cruise line, this ship holds 684 passengers and Oceania describe their ships as having a "country club" environment. The ship felt to have a very good quality to it when I was looking around and had quite a warm and homely feel to it. The ships are quite small in today's standards and I feel would be well suited to couples who would like a relaxing time away together rather than families.

One of the things that Oceania shout about is their dining experience on board. I was treated to a six course lunch after taking a tour of the ship and it was excellent, best meal I have had in ages. Oceania cruises as usual with cruise holidays include all food and entertainment, soft drinks are also included with Oceania cruise bookings.
A picture tells a million words they say, I took plenty on board. Please have a look through and you will get a good feel for the ship and brand.

When is the best time to book a cruise ?

2010-08-17T07:37:00.001+01:00

People often ask me, when the best time to book their cruise should be, early or late ?
The honest answer to that question is, I really don't know, as their as so many factors to take into account.
I thought I would list a few things that people should think about when trying to make this decision to help make their minds up, based on my experience.
Before doing that though, one hot tip from me is that if you get a chance to book a cruise on board a ship and then transfer it to me you are likely to benefit from "the best of both worlds", meaning that you are likely to get a great discount from me but also most probably benefiting from extra on board credit by booking that way.

Reasons to consider when thinking of booking early :-

Do you need a disabled access cabin (or taking a wheelchair at all as Fred Olsen are restrictive on the amount allowed on board and for tour use) ?
Do you need a cabin for an occupancy of more that 2 people ? (3 or 4 berth cabins have a lot less availability that 2 berth ones).
Is the cruise going to be a popular one ? (Look at how quickly the maiden voyage of the new Queen Elizabeth sold out, if you think you are going to get a last minute bargain on that voyage, think again !).
Does the cruise involve flights ? (I find that often the flight availability runs out well before the cabin availability on cruises).
Are there any goodies thrown in on a current special deal ? (often there are some good extra benefits thrown in to encourage people to book early such as on board credit and free car parking).
Do you want to pick a well placed cabin ? (cabin's are first come, first served).
Are you tied to a specific date, time and ship ? (would you really want to risk missing the cruise by waiting).
Do you want a specific dining time ? (the most popular dining time allocation will fill quickly and often be on a wait list or full).

Reasons to think about for booking last minute. (last minute as in a month or two before the cruise, sometimes I get a phone call asking for a "last minute special offer, in the next few days for a 4 berth cabin in the school holidays, that is not likely to happen.)

Best last minute deals are definitely based on two people sharing a cabin.
The price could be way lower than the offers that preceded it.

To be honest, I can't think of as many factors for last minute booking against early booking, however, the largest factor has to be taken into account and that is PRICE.
Some cruises do have some great last minute offers and others do not, unfortunately it is hard to speculate from the outset which cruises will get these offers.