Merry Christmas

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY

I am spending the day with my family and my parents at my brothers house. We'll be eating lots, drinking lots and playing lots of games with my son & his cousins.

Wishing you all a wonderful day too

Royal Caribbean increase gratuities charge

Royal Caribbean have announced this week that they are increasing their recommended gratuities charge on all sailings from 01 July 2011. They are now recommending $11.65 per person for a standard cabin and $13.90 per person in a suite.

Royal Caribbean do say that gratuities are at the discretion of the customer, however you do have to be on the ball if you don't wish to pay the set amount, as they are added to your on board account. You can have them removed from your account and tip individually but you have to do this on your first day on board.

You can also pre-pay the gratuities before you cruise and this would be my recommendation. The amount is fixed in sterling at £7.00 per person per day or £8.40 per person per day in suites. At today's exchange rate $11.65 is actually £7.41per person, so it is cheaper to prepay the gratuities. It also means that everything is paid up before the cruise and you then only need to find money for drinks.

More Royal Wedding Announcements

Having written about Cunard cruises and P&O's plans for the Royal Wedding, I thought it only fair to advise that Royal Caribbean, Celebrity and Azamara Cruises have also announced that they will be televising the wedding live across all of their ships. You will be able to watch in a choice of venues or in your stateroom.

On the two sailings that depart from Southampton, a little bit more is being offered - passengers on Celebrity Eclispe, which departs on the Wedding Day will be able to embark the ship and head for the theatre to watch the festivities before the ship sets sail. Whilst on both Eclipse and Royal Caribbean's Independence of the Sea's, champagne and  flags will add to atmosphere.

I'll keep you posted as more cruise lines announce their plans.

Thanks for voting for me...I won

Just a quick note to thank all my customers (and a few friends too) for voting for me in our recent Cruise.co.uk competition. I won the 'Best Blog' award, whilst my colleague Tina was 'Best Cruise Consultant.' I enjoy writing my blog and am glad that you all enjoy reading it.

We had a fantastic time onboard Aurora at the weekend and in the coming days I will write a full review of the ship, here is a little taster...drinks well priced ...kids facilities great...food and service not so good.
We're really busy though today with our 'Cunard Super Sale' so back to the phones for me and I will blog again soon.

Watch the Royal Wedding at sea

With Prince William and Kate Middleton announcing their engagement this week and the date being set for 29th April 2011, the cruise lines have had a race to announce their plans.

Cunard were the first to announce that the ceremony will be shown on in the Royal Court Theatre on all 3 of their ships. They will also serve a commerative dinner menu and a champagne toast in the evening.
I'm not sure how many people will be planning on watching the wedding but Queen Mary 2's theatre will hold 1000 passengers and if that's not enough the event will be screened in her planitarium Illuminations aswell.

Cunard have a Royal Heritage with Her Majesty The Queen naming Queen Mary 2 and Queen Elizabeth,  and The Duchess of Cornwall, formally Camilla Parker Bowles naming Queen Victoria. It is hardly surprising that they were the first to announce their plans

P&O followed quickly announcing that the wedding would be shown on all of their 7 ships but details are yet to follow.

Meanwhile - if you are considering travelling around this time you are best to book now. With Easter the weekend before prices are already high, and with the additional bank holiday being announced for the same weekend as the the May bank holiday on Monday 2nd May, the prices will remain high for the following week too. I am anticipating cruise lines increasing their prices as demand for travel this week increases.

The good news is you can now have 10 days off work from Good Friday through to Tuesday 2nd May with only 3 days leave being required. I think I'll put my holiday request in now.

Please vote for me

Thank you for getting this far and reading my blog. It's great fun to write a blog and gives me a real buzz to know that people are reading it and enjoying my comments.

With our Christmas party looming next week, Cruise.co.uk are trying to seeing who has the most popular blog and giving an award to the winner

....So as you enjoy my blog please click on the button to the right and VOTE FOR ME.

Thanks
Jo

P&O respond to changing markets

P&O have decided to turn Oriana into an adults only ship from November 2011. This will give them 3 adult only ships - Adonia, Arcadia and Oriana. This is a great move by P&O who have started to lose a number of loyal customers, following poor reviews of Ventura and Azura.

The cruise market is rapidly expanding and it is the families market that has grown the most. P&O have recognised the need for family ships and particularly with Ventura they have seen their business in this sector grow. However, it has been to their detriment in some respects, alot of older and more traditional cruisers have not been happy with children on board and have started to take their business elsewhere.  By adding  Oriana into the adults only market, P&O will be able to offer more of a choice to their customers and continue to grow as a business.

Aurora, Azura, Oceana and Ventura will continue to welcome families on board.

P&O's Oceana is first back to St. Lucia

P&O's Oceana was the first ship to return to the hurricane stricken island of St. Lucia yesterday, closely followed by Holland America's Noordam.


The Foreign Office warning is still 'a state of disaster' until at least the 14th November but the port is now operating and duty free shops are open. A number of shore excursion destinations are also operating as normal including Dolphin Watch, Zip lining, and the aerial tram.

I think it is great that the cruise ships can now dock again, I imagine it will be upsetting to visit an island that has been hit by such a disaster but St Lucia depends on the tourist trade and will desperately need people to spend money on the island. My advice would be to please go and spend some money on this island and help them get back up and running as soon as possible.

It will be interesting to see though what customers think - would they rather P&O moved to alternative ports of call or do they see this as an opportunity to help.

Following my ESTA blog...

I have been called by a customer who advised me that she hadn't applied for her ESTA and when she got to the States they still allowed her in!


This is reassuring that she wasn't turned back as it is a new system and I'm sure there are travellers who don't realise that they now need one. However I wouldn't advise that you try to travel without one, in order to avoid the charge, US officials are not normally known for their leniency.

I have also been told by a number of people that the ESTA isn't cutting down the waiting times upon arrival to the States which is a shame. It seems this immigration queues are as long as ever.

Your even need an ESTA to transit

Just a quick note that not only do you know need to pay $14 for an ESTA visa, in order to visit the States, but you  need to apply for one even if you are just passing through.

This means that anyone travelling to Acapulco, which is the main embarkation point for P&O cruises Oceana Caribbean and Panama Canal cruises or to the South American countries on an indirect flight will have to apply for the visa.

I can 't really understand this - other than as a money making exercise for the US authorities. I'm all for the US doing security checks and cutting down time by doing it in advance, but I don't agree with paying for it, and certainly not if I'm not even staying there.

What do you think?

If you do need to apply for an ESTA the link you require is

https://esta.cbp.dhs.gov/esta/esta.html

Airport Hotels for Caribbean flights

With the Caribbean season upon us, I am busy giving out flight times now and warning passengers about early morning starts and  the 3 hour check in time required. Why not start your holiday a bit more relaxed with an overnight hotel at the airport the night before the flight.

Prices are as follows:

Manchester - 4* Crown Plaza - from £30pppn
Birmingham - 3* Holiday Inn - from £19pppn
Glasgow - 3* Holiday Inn - from £19pppn
Heathrow - 4* Sheraton - from £32pppn
Gatwick - 4* Hilton - From £48ppn

These are all hotels that are either on the airport or very close to the airport for the greatest convenience, cheaper hotels are available if you are happy to be a bit further out.

The prices are all based upon room only - packages are also available with car parking included - just give me a call for details.

It's just like a scene from Poirot

That is what my partner said when we were going through my photos from Queen Elizabeth at the weekend. He was referring to the photo of the Grill’s sun deck below and he was exactly right. Cunard had promised a ship that was more art deco in design and that is what they’ve delivered. It is subtle and elegant, admittedly the art deco is more browns and creams in design than the more traditional pinks and turquoises, however had they taken this route they would have risked being too tacky. They do have the Cunard branding to maintain, which their customers love and which brings them repeat business year after year.

The games deck was amazing and followed this 1920’s theme perfectly. Customers have the choice of 2 golf driving ranges, a croquet lawn, short mat bowls and a paddle tennis court. There was also a giant chess board and 2 table tennis tables. I really wanted to get dressed up and try my hand at croquet – I’m sure they would benefit from an old time photographic studio. Customers would have a great time dressing up and having their photo’s taken playing traditional games before sampling a fresh cream tea.

 

The cabins were well appointed, although nothing particularly different to any other cruise line. As always I found the shower too small. The main point of note was that they had plug sockets for the British 3 pin plug so no need to pack your adaptor. And yes, you can still smoke on your balconies if you wish to. I was disappointed in the Princess Grill’s though, the P1 was hardly any difference in size to my A3 balcony. I also didn’t feel it looked like a suite at all, with the living area and bedroom not being particularly separate. (see photo below.) You do get the open dining and separate restaurant with the Grills, but I really enjoyed my dinner in the Brittania restaurant anyway, so probably not worth the money.

After dinner, I enjoyed a good dance in the Queens room. This is something that I haven’t seen on any other ship and really makes Cunard cruises stand apart. It was a fantastic room for ballroom dancing and had plenty of space. If you enjoy dancing then my first recommendation from now on will always be Cunard.

There is so much to write about the different aspects of the ship, but I don’t want to go on too long. In terms of service and standards, she was great, it gets hard when you’ve been on so many ships and I’ve never been a picky person, but she delivered what I was expecting of a Cunard ship. Some of my colleagues moaned that the weren’t enough pictures on the walls or that there was a mix of silver and gold edging, but to be honest I really can’t imagine this spoiling my holiday.

Many of my customers were lucky enough to be on board this weekend and all seemed very impressed with Queen Eizabeth - if you've been on board I'd love to hear your comments.

More photo's

The reason the Queen is just on the big screen, is because she is currently being shown around the ship.

Here she is coming down one of the grand staircases

First photo of Her Majesty the Queen

My roving reporter has sent this photo...unfortunately you can only see the Queen from behind and on a big screen, but it's still a scoop as far as I'm concerned.

Wish I was there.



Who's who at the Queen Elizabeth launch

As a big fan of the new Queen Elizabeth I have an inside roving reporter at the Oceans Terminal now and he has reported back with a list of who's who at todays launch.

There are some very obvious names on here and a few surprise appearances too. I wonder how they chose the guest list.

Currently spotted are:

Judith Chalmers - its been years since she presented 'Wish you were here' but she's obvously still influential
Jimmy Saville - he'll be pleased to know that you can smoke on her balconies
Falklands Veteran Simon Weston
Esther Rantzen - TV & Radio presenter
Terry Waite - Hostage negotiator and former hostage
Robert Powell - Actor - Holby City and The Detectives
Liz Dawn - I wonder how her more famous charater Vera Duckworth would fit on Queen Elizabeth
Alan Titchmarsh - Celebrity Gardener and guest speaker on several Cruise.co.uk past and future voyages.

and of course...Her Majesty the Queen.

If you didn't already know Queen Elizabeth is being named at 3.25 today and is expected to be broadcast across the world this evening.

If you spot anyone else, just let me know.

I am a very lucky lady..

...because today is the day I'm going to look around the new Queen Elizabeth, and because I'm so excited I'm ready an hour early and sitting waiting for my lift.

I watched her arrive in Southampton  on the news yesterday and as always was amazed. Cruise ships have such glamour and prescence as they sail along. They simply command that everyone looks at them. A fantastic feat of engineering and design.

I haven't been on board a Cunard ship before, despite working in the business for so long and I'm really looking forward to it. They have always been the ultimate cruise line renowed for their service and style. This year I've been lucky enough to be entertained on P&O's Azura and Norwegian Epic, both very good ships and very different. Azura was stylish and sleek in a cosmoplitan kind of way, whereas  Epic was bold, colourful and full of toys and entertainment.

Queen Elizabeth I imagine will be like stepping back in time with her grand staircases and bowling green. My favourite so far this year is Azura, I think I will like Queen Elizabeth but at the moment don't think she would necessarily be my first choice for a holiday, perhaps a bit too refined for me. I'll wait and see this afternoon.

Rome deserves more than a day

Rome is a fantastic city but unfortunately it is a good 90 minutes from Civitavecchia port. Whilst you can take an excursion to it for the day and pick from the many beautiful places to visit, you really cannot do it justice in a day.

How do you decide what to visit – do you tour the Vatican and wonder at Michaelangelo’s Sistine Chapel? Or do you take a break on the Spanish Steps having been shopping along the Via Condotti. You also mustn’t miss the Colosseum or the Pantheon

Clearly there is too much to do in one day.

Fortunately though a lot of cruises start or finish at Civitavecchia port and give you the opportunity to add on short city break before or after your cruise. I have put together a package with Cunard’s Queen Victoria for September 2011. The combination of a classic cruise company and this classical city go well together and September is the perfect time to visit Rome, which is far too hot for sightseeing during the summer months. This cruise also has the bonus of having an overnight stay in Venice at the end and an afternoon, overnight and full day in Istanbul.

07 September 2011 – fly London to Rome

Transfer to the 4* Cicerone Hotel for a 2 night stay. This is well located, just a 10 minute walk from St Peters Square at the Vatican and 5mins from a bus terminal for access to the other sites.

09 Sep 2011 – 12 night Mediterranean cruise on Queen Victoria – calling at Naples, Santorini, Izmir, Istanbul (overnight), Samos, Athens, Zakinthos, Dubrovnik, Venice (overnight)

21 Sep – transfer back to Rome for your return flight to London.

Prices for this package as follows

Inside cabins – from £2099pp

Outside cabins - from £2209pp

Balconies – from £2469pp



Please call or e-mail me directly for further details on this package, or if you would like me to look at adding Rome as a pre or post cruise stay on any other cruise for you.

Ciao

Get extra on board credit with Royal Caribbean...

If you're looking to sail with Royal Caribbean next year, then now is the time to book.

For 2 days only - today and tomorrow they are offering on board credit on ALL 2011 sailings as follows:

3-5 night cruises $50 per cabin
6-9 night cruises $100 per cabin
10+ nights $200 per cabin

This offer will not be extended so please don't miss out.

Just to warn you our phones are very busy with this sale so please call me directly and leave a message, or e-mail if you would like a quote.

Why not have a look at some Royal Caribbean cruise reviews to see what other cruisers think?

Still looking for a Christmas Cruise?

As availability gets tight for Christmas and New Year, MSC cruises have offered extra incentives to sail with them this festive season. If you book a balcony cabin on MSC Magnifica, Splendida or Fantasia for a Christmas sailing you can pick your own 'Christmas Present' from a choice of the following:

Free flights (although there is limited availabilty left)
£250pp on board spend (£300pp on Fantasia)
All Inclusive drinks package
An extra £250pp discount.

For New Year the presents aren't quite so generous but they are still giving a choice of:
Unlimited drinks package - this is free drinks with your meals
£100pp on board credit
£100pp additional discount.

MSC Fantasia sails on the 21st December for 8 nights and with prices starting from £889pp for a balcony and that's before the Cruise.co.uk discount you really can't go wrong.

To book it just give me a call / e-mail and let me know which present you would like.

Pre-book your flight seats for your P&O fly - cruise

P&O have today announced that customers can prebook their flight seats for their charter flights to the Caribbean. This is great news as it gives customers the chance to select where they sit and who they sit with instead of taking pot luck. The only downside is that there is a charge - and a steep one at that. Prices start from £25pp to select your seat.

It's very quick and easy to do - just log onto the P&O website and enter your 'Cruise Personaliser'. From here select the flight details section and enter your e-mail address. You are then given the aircraft plan and can select your seats. Seats are available to book from 12 weeks before departure up until 7 days before departure.

It is available now for the Thomas Cook and Thomson flights from the 5th November 2010 onwards. I would suggest that for the earlier flights you book now, before everyone else does.

Garden Themed Cruises - they're all at it now.

Here at Cruise.co.uk we consider ourselves the experts on Garden Themed Cruises. Each year we run a programme of specialist cruises on board Fred Olsen's ships featuring top garden experts such as Alan Titchmarch, David Hurrion and Tony Russell. It seems that these have been so popular that others are jumping on the bandwagon.

Windstar are featuring Andrea Guthrie on their Barbados to Barbados sailing on board Wind Surf in January 2011. Andrea is an award winning garden designer and has won 13 Royal Horticultural Society medals. Whilst on board she will be providing tips to customers and will even give advice to customers that take photo's of their gardens on board with them. At Cruise.co.uk we take this as a compliment that others are building on our ideas, and don't see this as competition - afterall we sell Windstar too.

I now have the opportunity to offer you both our own Garden Themed cruises and to offer you others at a cheaper price than the cruise line are offering themselves. Although I must admit I can't offer any advice on gardening as mine is in serious need of an overhaul. Perhaps I should book on to Wind Surf myself.

Me in the Ice Bar

I have blogged in the past about Norwegian Epic's charges for speciality restaurants. Whilst I tried to keep this generic I feel it may have been negative to the cruise line so thought I would balance this out.

Whilst I was on board Epic I was lucky enough to go into the ice bar and it was fab. It is only 1 of 14 true ice bars in the world, and is currently the only one at sea. The bar and seating were made entirely of ice. It is kept below minus 8 degrees celsius (17 degrees fahrenheit) and you are given gloves, hats and capes to keep you warm. In proper ice bar fashion they served only flavoured vodkas in shot glasses and you get 2 included in your $20 cover charge. I confess I drank my drinks in alot less than the 45 minutes allowed in the bar.

Whilst the charge is quite pricey (can you tell I'm not keen on opening my purse?) It is truly justified, Ice Bars are not common and are expensive to maintain. You are unlikely to come across one on your normal holidays, unless you are a skier, or like city breaks and cold destinations, so if you are lucky enough to find yourself on Epic, I would recommend that you give it a go.

Grand Princess - refurbishment details

I have been asked several times in the last few days is Grand Princess is being refurbished next year and I can now confirm that YES she is.

She is due to go into dry dock for major refurbishment between 11th April and 5th May 2011. This gives them plenty of time to make her sparkling again and restore her to her original 'Grand' status.

 I would really recommend this ship for summer 2011. She sails from Southampton - no messing around with airports and early morning starts. She offers a great choice of itineraries, with cruises to the Fjords, Canaries, Classic Meditteranean and even a transatlantic from Fort Lauderdale that takes in the Azores (a much sort after destination) in May 2011, when she will be at her best.

On board the service this year has still been good and she has plenty of facilities for the whole family, from kids clubs and splash pools for the little ones, to Movies under the Stars for your teenagers, the Lotus Spa for Mum and the Steakhouse for Dad. Despite being 'tired' this year Princess cruise reviews have still come out well so with this refurbishment planned I think she is the no 1 choice for cruising from the UK next year.

Hooray I'm going on Queen Elizabeth

Thank you to everyone who looked at my blog over the past 2 weeks, and especially those from the Cruise Forum who answered my plea at the weekend, before my thread was removed. I have now won a place to stay overnight on her before the maiden voyage in October.

I'm really excited to be going on a Cunard ship, having never been on one. I want to see if they are really as good as everyone says, my expectations are high so I hope she doesn't disappoint me.

I will report back in due course and let you know what she's like and in the mean time keep reading my blog and thanks for your support.

How to avoid a noisy cabin

Did you know that as well as the standard lifts shown on deck plans, most cruise ships have hidden lifts and stairwells for crew use only. On Arcadia there are 9 additional elevators that aren't shown on the deck plans.

They are used from early morning to bring the sanitary trolley’s up and down between decks and can lead to noise for those around them.

Now there is no way of telling where on board these lifts, stairwell and storage cupboards are situated - not even the most specialist of cruise consultants would be able to tell you. However, I can tell you how to avoid being by one of these. Make sure you always have a cabin opposite you. When choosing an outside or balcony cabin, always pick one facing an inside cabin.

If you have customers opposite you, you will not have a lift and will be ensured a nice lie in the morning....although I can’t be held responsible if your fellow cruisers people are late night party people.

Are the rules for changing your cruise fair?

Cunard are normally quite reasonable with their terms and conditions when transferring cruises. They will allow you to transfer your cruise to any other cruise travelling within 12months of the original departure date, just as long as you are still spending the same amount of money with them.

To me this seems pretty reasonable, they retain your same level of business and you have plenty of flexibility to swap. However - what happens if you need to change your world cruise? Similar conditions apply, you can still transfer as long as you are still spending the same amount of money,and they do allow you to spread this cost across two cruises. However both of these cruises must be within 6 months of the world cruise date. To me this doesn't seem very flexible at all - if you need to cancel a 3 month cruise I imagine it is hard to fit in 2 long cruises (to reach the cost value) within 6 months. Which leaves you no choice but to cancel at loss of deposit.

I know they are running a business, and therefore have to have rules in place to maintain the business. It must cause all sorts of problems having customers cancel  high value world cruises at a late stage. But I am sure there are better solutions for everyone. I would suggest that they cut off the transfer date earlier - ie 4 months before departure to give them plenty of time to resell the cabin, but allow customers to transfer to the following years world cruise. Or  allow customers to spread the value to 2 or 3 cruises all travelling with 12 months of the cruise.

I don't own my own business though and maybe you agree with Cunard - I'd love a few comments?

Apply for your ESTA now and save $14

If you are travelling to the States you have to apply for an ESTA visa. Until now this has been free of charge however from 08 September the US Government will be charging $14pp for the visa.

The visa is actually valid for 2 years so if you are travelling within the next 2 years apply for your ESTA now whilst it is still free. In future you will be charged $10 to renew your application, so again my advice is that if you are going to have to renew - just apply for a new one before the 08th September and then you will have a full 2 years for free.

Once the charges are in place always check your charges before you apply - there are a lot of visa service wesited out there that will charge you more to apply for the visa. Never pay more than $14pp. The official US imigration website can be reached via https://esta.cbp.dhs.gov/esta/esta.html

Pre-pay your gratuities......and then pay more.

One of my customers happily prepaid her gratuities for Celebrity Equinox and was happy to do so as she understands the reasons for them and it saved her the hassle of paying at a later date.

However she was surprised that at the end of the cruise an envelope was placed in her cabin for additional gratuities. Whilst there was no obligation to pay she ended up paying an additional $11per day as she felt bad leaving an empty envelope.

Personally I think this was cheeky of Celebrity - you can't encourage customers to prepay the gratuities and then expect them to pay more. Apparently not everybody had additional envelopes and I'm wondering if they'd chosen her as they'd judged her character and knew she'd feel obliged to pay.

Has this happened to you with Celebrity or any other cruis line? If so I'd love to hear from you.

Speciality Restaurants - I think they should be free.

Having just recently been on board Norwegian Epic I came away questioning whether cruise lines should charge for Speciality Restaurants.

When you book a cruise holiday you pay a lot of money, but some of this is offset by the fact that your meals are included. However I do find it cheeky that more and more of the restaurants carry a cover charge to dine in them. On Epic - Cagneys Steakhouse charged a $25pp cover charge and then some of the dishes also carried a supplement. La Cucina, which whilst being an Italian restaurant was basically just a pizza and pasta place and again charged an extra $10pp.

One of my last land based package holidays was to a Sandals resort in Cuba. Being a 4* All Inclusive hotel my food in the main restaurant was included. However they also had 3 speciality restaurants. I was allowed 1 night in each of these restaurants during my 10 night stay free of charge - and could book more subject to availability. This is fairly standard to hotel holidays - there are sometimes a la carte  dishes that you can pay for but generally you can dine in other venues as part of your holiday package.

This I feel is a much better way to run the system, cruise lines are alienating customers by charging for the privilege of dining in a smaller restaurant. It's great that with each new ship there are more choices of dining venues, but as they have a captive market I personally think its just a clever way to take more revenue on board.You've paid for food and service anyway so why pay more?

 What do you think?

Restricted View Cabins

Cruise ships have to have life boats in case the worst occurs and these have to be positioned somewhere, which unfortunately results in some cabins having a restricted view. These cabins though often offer great value for money, outside restricted views can be cheaper than a high grade inside cabin and give you the benefit of some natural light in your cabin and balcony cabins can offer substantial savings.

You can still sit out in the open and enjoy the breeze and privacy, albeit without the full view. Customers also forget that even with a clear view the view is not always that pretty. When in port you often just see cranes or buildings and whilst at the sea you cannot always see the coast. If you want to make your money go further I would strongly recommend an obstructed view cabin.

These photos give a good indication of a restricted view cabin and are taken from Fred Olsen's Boudicca. - BS grades with restricted view.

Swan Hellenic lead the way with podcasts

Swan Hellenic have announced that their respected cruise director Paul Carter has produced a series of podcasts to accompany their 2011 itineraries.

These podcasts are a first for the cruise industry and present Paul's expert insights, highlighting elements of each cruise on board Minerva that cannot be seen in the brochure. They provide a personal narrative that really bring each cruise to life.

The podcasts are available to download from www.swanhellenic.com/podcasts

Looking for a family cruise this August..read on

Royal Caribbean have still got availability for families of 3 or 4 on Voyager of the Seas this August.

The sailing which goes from Barcelona on the 22nd August for 7 nights calls at Naples/Capri, Rome, Florence/Pisa, Nice and Provence has family availabilty on inside, outside and balcony cabins.

 She is  a great ship for families with an ice skating rink, rock climbing wall, sports court and teen disco on board. Along with a spa and fitness centre, theatre and champagne bar for adults.

The prices are good for school holidays too - cruise only rates for a family of 4 start at;
£2530 for an inside cabin, £3150 for an outside cabin and £3430 for a balcony cabin. Flights and transfers can be added with Royal Caribbean from London for £390pp or you can add your own low cost air. Many companies offer flights to Barcelona and the port is just half an hour from the airport so can be reached easily by taxi.

Azamara Journey - my recommendation for the Caribbean this winter

If you're looking for a Caribbean deal this winter then my absolute recommendation would be Azamara Journey.

Azamara Club Cruises are an informal luxury cruise line, with more intimate ships that can reach smaller ports of call, and with just under 700 passengers on board you receive excellent service and experience a friendlier ambience on board, than many of the larger ships in the Caribbean.

They class themselves as ‘Primarily All – Inclusive’, this means that as well as your food being included in the cost they also include wine with your meals, bottled water throughout the day, speciality tea and coffees (which are often $5 each on other ships), gratuities, free shuttle buses in ports of call and the self service laundry.

Now with all of this included you would expect the prices to be high, however they are actually on a par with P&O’s Azura. I have just priced a balcony cabin on Azura in November for £1959pp whereas Azamara Journey comes in at just £40 more - £1999pp. What’s more – P&O are offering £50pp on board credit, whereas Azamara are currently offering $500pp. And don’t forget with P&O you have to pay for all of your drinks and pay gratuities. This Azamara sailing is 2 nights shorter in duration being just a 12nights cruise, but this can often be preferable by the time you’ve allowed for a hotel stay before the cruise and overnight flights returning. Both prices quoted include return flights from London.

If you’re worried as to why the prices are so good – don’t be. Azamara cruises are a fairly new brand are are trying to build their presence in the UK market, they have good reviews which you can read on our main website. With offers like this they won’t need to promote themselves for long so my advise would be to try them now, before everyone else has heard of them.

By the way -  I believe the on board credit on selected sailings is being increased next week in a four day sale too.

Cunard and P&O 2012 World Cruises

Cunard and P&O will be launching their 2012 world cruises on the 15th July, but I can give you a sneak preview of what is to come and if you want prices in advance just give me call.

Queen Mary 2 and Queen Elizabeth are offering full world cruises from Southampton, both departing on the 10th January 2012. Queen Mary 2’s World Voyage includes a 22 night inaugural Circle Australia voyage after which she returns to Southampton via the Far East, arriving home on 27 April 2012, whilst Queen Elizabeth sail a more traditional itinerary of Southampton to San Francisco, Australia, New Zealand, the Far East and Dubai. She also arrives home on the 27th April. Queen Victoria is doing a series of Exotic Voyages between 8 and 25 nights in length through the Panama and Hawaii, but on a fly cruise basis from the USA.

P&O’s Adonia embarks on her first World Cruise from Southampton to South America and the Amazon, around Cape Horn and into the Chilean Fjords. Aurora and Oriana will take passengers on a full world circumnavigation. Aurora heads west towards the Caribbean, while Oriana heads east out through the Mediterranean. Finally, Arcadia will undertake an epic 109-night Grand Odyssey, which takes in the Orient, Australia and South Africa.

Early booking offers include additional discounts and on board credit for both cruise lines, the amounts varying dependant on the cabin grade and length of cruise chosen. Cunard are also offering to free gratuities on the full world cruises.

There is too much information to detail all the prices and benefits here but if you would like further information on any of the voyages or sectors then just give me a call or send me an e-mail. I’m offering great discounts too!

Calling all Portunus members

Don't forget that if you want to benefit from double on board credit, early booking prices and free car parking for P&O sailings for 2011. Then you must book by close of business tomorrow. This is also the best time to get the cabin of your choice.

Cunard's early booking offers also end tomorrow..so don't delay & book today!

Why are the swimming pools so small?

I was also one of the lucky people who got to sample NCL Epic's launch party last week. The weather was fantastic and on Wednesday, I was able to chill out by the pool.


The main pool area, as shown in the photo above, consists of two separate swimming pools and lots of cooling blue tiles around it. It looked amazing and my colleague Sian and I enjoyed dipping our toes in the water. However there was a huge amount of wasted space and we questioned why they hadn't made the whole area into one giant pool. Individually you could probably fit around 20 people in each pool to cool off, and the ship holds over 4000 passengers.

This isn't just an NCL design fault but seems to be the case on many ships. This photo shows a pool area on P&O's Ventura - again look at the space of the pool compared to the deck area

What I'd like to know is - are the pools small because cruisers don't like to swim and would prefer to have more deck area? Or is it an economical reason - ie does it cost too much to keep maintained or to build? Or is it an actual physical limitation - does a large body of water weigh too much for a ship to sustain. Please excuse me if these questions sound a bit daft (you can see that I am blonde) but if anyone actually knows why cruise ship pools are small please let me know.

Hotels in Dover

Since writing about hotels in Southampton I have been asked to provide info on hotels in Dover. The choice is more limited but here are two to choose from.

For a budget hotel - pick the County hotel. Just 2km from the ports it offers basic accommodation, it's reviews aren't fantastic but if you just want somewhere to lay your head it's fine. Starting at £65 for the room its a cheap offering.

For a better quality property I can offer the Ramada Dover. This 4* hotel is in a quiet location near a championship golf course and less than 5 miles from the port. It has a Costa coffee bar inside and restaurant aswell as a gymnasium. Prices here start from £47pppnight.

How much do drinks cost?

As a cruise specialist, I often get asked about the price of drinks onboard the cruise ships, so I thought I would share some details with you all!

Drinks prices vary from ship to ship, as they do in most bars at home. It is also worth bearing in mind that overall the American based cruise companies work out  more expensive as they add on a 15 - 18%  service charge to drinks aswell as being more pricey in the first place. Royal Caribbean, NCL & Oceania are all known to be expensive.

Fred Olsen and P&O tend to be more competitive  as their prices are in Pounds Sterling. A spirit and mixer is approximately £2.65, a bottle of beer is approximately £2.30 and a coffee is about £1.50, although some offer free tea and coffee in the afternoons or in your cabin you may get tea and coffee facilities, it is always worth checking this information when booking.

Island and Thomson Cruises are also fairly reasonable, charging average bar prices, but they also offer an All Inclusive drinks package for the duration of your cruise, starting from as little as £49 per person. These need to be purchased before departure, and is often offered for free if booked in advance. If you decide not to take this option, prices for a spirit and mixer is just over £3.00, and a bottle of beer from £2.70.


The European cruise lines such as Costa and MSC will charge prices in Euros. Depending on the exchange rate at the time, the prices work out at 7 Euros for a spirit/mixer, a coffee is approximately 2 Euros and a beer range from 4 Euros.


Cunard, Royal Caribbean and Princess Cruises all charge in dollars and will add a 15% gratuities onto their prices automatically. Prices for a beer aboard these floating marvels start at $4, and a spirit/mixer on average is $5 plus. Cunard offer a soda package which includes unlimited soft drinks from $3.75 a day, all of these prices do not include the 15% service charge. Royal Caribbean has a child soft drink package starting from $20 for a 7 night cruise - well worth it for those of you with thirsty children!

Seabourn and Regent - the most exclusive of cruise lines offer complimentary drinks aboard their ships, however you do pay for this in your original cruise cost.
Hopefully this will give you some insight into additional costs onboard and will help you budget for your dream holiday!  Any further questions just give me a call!

Hotels in Southampton

With more and more people choosing the sail from the UK, Southampton offers a great port and many of the cruise lines are based there. However it's a long way a way from many places. I am often asked for the best place to stay before the cruise so have put toghether a collection of good hotels to cater to all passengers. Just call me for prices for your exact dates.

The Novotel is great for those travelling by coach, as it is only an 8 minute walk from the National Express Coach Station. It also has a heated indoor pool, sauna and fully equipped gym. Prices start from £42pppnight, room only.

The Holiday Inn is close to the cruise ports, M3 and M27 motorways and is one of the most popular hotels for pre-cruise stays. Unwind after your journey in the spa pool, sauna and solarium. It is also a great cost, starting at £44pppnight including a hot buffet breakfast.

To really treat yourself, start your holiday at the DeVere Grand Harbour hotel. This 4* hotel has award winning restaurants with contemporary cuisine and even offers a candlelit spa. Bewarned though, this hotel does book up so don't leave it until the last minute to book. Prices start from just £55pppn

Cabins for 4 or 5 on Century this August

Celebrity Century has some more cabins available that will sleep a family of 4, during the school holidays. And at all levels – inside, outside and concierge class.

They even have some family veranda’s for families of 5

Sailing a 12 night itinerary from Barcelona, on the 14th August, this is a fantastic find. You can book cruise only and make your own way to Barcelona, or add on flights and transfers from London Heathrow with Celebrity. This way you’ll be protected if there are more air strikes or that dreaded volcano starts erupting again.

The Celebrity price on a cruise only basis starts at £4133 for a family of 4 through Celebrity including the pre paid gratuities – but obviously if you call me you can have the cruise.co.uk discount. The flights and transfer package is £335pp

These cabins won’t be available for long though, so please don’t hesitate!

Is it safe to travel on NCL Epic?

I’m due to travel on NCL’s new flag ship in under 2 weeks time but I’m not sure if it’s worth it after a third fire on board. Several thousand people had to be evacuated during a visit for families and employees involved in the building of the ship, this weekend.

Fortunately there was no major damage caused, the fire being in an air conditioning duct and there will no delays in delivering the ship on the 17th June, so my visit on the 22nd is scheduled to go ahead.

However, reports are that the fire was caused by arson and the police are conducting interviews. Why would anyone want to start a fire on such a great ship – there shouldn’t be disgruntled employee’s as yet? NCL must be really worried about and the negative publicity it will be attracting.

I just hope that the police hurry up and catch whoever is doing this, before they cause any major damage or worse still harm to any people on board.

Royal Caribbean offer DIRECT flights from LOCAL airports for 2011

Royal Caribbean have finally done the sensible thing and teamed up with Thomas Cook airlines for 2011 to offer regional flights to Mallorca.

These flights are to go with their Vision Class ship, Grandeur of the Seas which will be sailing 2 7 night itineraries from May onwards. This will be a huge winner for Royal Caribbean and customers alike, up until now most people outside of London have been booking cruise only and arranging their own travel arrangements. However this has proved costly this year with BA strikes and ash clouds meaning many people have failed to make the cruise ship. By offering regional flights customers will now be able to have the protection of booking the complete package and the ease of flying from a local airport.

Flights are being offered from -
Gatwick
Manchester
Newcastle
Birmingham
Doncaster
East Midlands
Leeds Bradford
Belfast

My suggestion would be to book early for these flights, once they are booked up it will be back to travelling to London or maybe indirect flights.

No special requests at the Waldorf Astoria

Some customers of mine have just returned from a Cunard cruise and enjoyed a stay at the Waldorf Astoria - one of New Yorks finest hotels.


My customer is allergic to butter and ordered some dry toast and jam. When this came out already buttered, he asked the waiter to return it and provide a fresh piece. Only to be told 'I'm sorry Sir, but all our toast comes pre-buttered'

Cunard charge £225 per person for a 1 night stay at this hotel, you would have thought that for that price they would be able to accommodate such a simple request wouldn't you?

Do you have any similar experiences?

Liberty and Freedom of the Seas to get ‘Oasis Attractions’

Royal Caribbean have decided to take some of the best features of Oasis of the Seas and to add them to their Freedom Class ships, starting with Liberty and Freedom in 2011. These ships already have flo-riders, water parks, ice rinks with excellent shows, casinos, spas, miniature golf, inline skating and more but will be enhanced by the following.


In terms of entertainment large 18.5-foot outdoor video screens for movies under the skies will overlook the main family pool area.

To tempt your palate they will feature the popular Cupcake Cupboard, which has proved a real hit on Oasis and the wine bar ‘Vintages.’ The wine bar allows you to taste rare vintages by allowing you to purchase wine by the millilitre, you get to taste several wines without breaking the bank (always a bonus on a cruise ship)

The ships will also have the Digital Wayfinder video screen – like your own personal sat nav, it outlines your route on board and gives step by step instructions on how to reach your destination. It also holds info on the ships entertainments, restaurants and daily menu’s.

And finally they are extending their babysitting service to include the ‘Royal Babies and Tots Nursery’ offering care for children six to 36 months. This special program was created in cooperation with the Fisher-Price and Crayola companies.

The 2 ships will go into dry dock at the start of 2011, so if you’re looking to sail next summer, you’ll get to experience them all

Winter in the Canaries ..just £799pp - and that's for 11nts

I have worked in travel for far too long, and don't think I have every seen the Canaries this cheap at this time of year. The Canaries are the only real place locally with heat and what's more you can sail from the UK so no worries about flights being cancelled.

Independence of the Seas is sailing an 11night Canaries cruise and on the 29th November & 10 December prices start from just £799pp including the taxes. Plus you'll get a free cooch transfer to the port.

Call me for the full itinerary and to claim an additional £30pp discount.

Hurry though, this offer ends 31 May. This is a deal that you should definitley book now...don't wait for the price to go down..it won't!

Take a friend or child on Fred Olsen for £99

I've just come across this great deal for Fred Olsen's Black Watch - the 3rd and 4th passengers are just £99 each.

The sailing is 31 August for 5 nights, from Southampton and calling at Rouen in France for 2 days and an overnight. St Peter Port Guernsey, St Malo in France and back to Southampton.

The first two passengers start at just £649 for an inside cabin and 679 for an outside.

Give me a call now

Would you go on strike now, given all the problems with air travel?

BA cabin crew have just announced a series of 5 day strikes throughout May and June. The first one starts on the 18th May and the following ones are scheduled for 24 May, 30 May and 5 June. I can't imagine it will get that far, surely these will be stopped first, but I can't believe that the BA cabin crew have the audacity to announce these strikes. They will lose all credibility and could bring down the collapse of the company they work for. As well as bringing untold misery to thousands of passengers.


I for one don't support them at all and say well done to all the captains who worked extra last time keeping flights in the air. What do you think?

Further comments on fuel costs

Thanks for your comments and questions on my recent blog - it's good to know people are reading this.
As a general comment, last time the cruise lines introduced fuel surcharges it was for new bookings only on all lines except for Swan Hellenic, who applied them retrospectively. Swan's customers ended up having to pay an extra £200 or so on their cruises.

So far Fred.Olsen and P&O have added fuel surcharges for next year and so we are expecting the others to follow suit soon. I'll keep you informed.

Predicting the cost of fuel.....P&O make me angry again!

P&O make me really angry, they have just launched their 2011 programme and advised customers that the early booking offers are in place until 30 June 2010.

Now they go and announce a fuel supplement for all sailings from 01 November 2010. At £2.50/day this puts the price up by £35pp on a typical 14 night cruise. How the cruise lines get away with charging a fuel supplement I don't know - this is a charge to allow for the increase in the global price of fuel.

Predicting the price of fuel is clearly not rocket science.  It has consistently increased in price over the last few years and will continue to go up over the next year. Surely P&O realised that they need fuel to run their ships and could have calculated this cost into the brochure price.

But hey, I'm not the one doing the pricing, just the person on the end of the phone trying to explain it to the customer.

This new charge applies to all bookings made from 10th May onwards, so if you want to avoid the charge book now.

What happens if my airport is closed due to the volcano

Well it looks like the airports may be closing again due to the ash cloud. Fortunately this time we are more prepared and can offer our customers help and advice in advance.

If your flight is cancelled and you booked the flights as part of a package with the cruise line, they will refund you or try and rearrange the flights and cruise for you. If they can get you out to another a port of call to join the cruise they will.

If you booked your flights and cruise separately, the cruise line will NOT refund you, if you fail to make the cruise. You will then need to try and claim on your travel insurance. It appears that about 50% of insurance companies covered customers last time.

Cruise lines cannot say in advance if your flights are likely to be cancelled and you will need to keep an eye on airline websites.

Hopefully you find this information helpful, and if you are travelling this week I will be keeping my fingers crossed for you.

Sunbed etiquette - what do you think?

I have just had a good customer return from a cruise aboard Celebrity Infinity, he had a terrible time with  a lack of sunbeds and fellow customers leaving their belongings on the sunbeds whilst they went off for hours at a time.

Apparently Celebrity have a 'half hour rule' whereby you shouldn't leave your sunbed unattended for more than this time, however this was not enforced. P&O also state in their daily newspaper that they 'do not condone reserving sunbeds' however, again it is not enforced.

Is this something that you have come across? Which cruise lines are the best/worst for sunbed hogging? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Ocean Village departures - Thursday 22nd April

The message from Ocean Village for those sailing tomorrow (Thursday) is to check in as normal…all flights are scheduled to go but are subject to delays. Enjoy your cruises and let me know how you get on.

Celebrity Eclipse helps stranded passengers

Celebrity Eclipse has abandoned plans to sail a host of travel agents from Hamburg to Dover and instead is heading to Spain to rescue stranded passengers. This is great news for all concerned, people get a luxurious journey home and Celebrity get one of the best marketing campaigns ever. The only people to miss out will be those poor travel agents who had bougt new dresses for the event. They'll have to keep them for Celebrity Silhouette next year instead