Tickled Pink

One of my customers was lucky enough to be on board Queen Victoria when she was recently all lit up in pink in Sydney's Circular Quay. He sent me the photo's and I thought they were worth sharing with you all.

She was illuminated to support Australia's National Breast Cancer Foundation (NBCF), which officially launched its 2010 fundraising target at an event onboard.

Fred Olsen 2011 on sale 25 Feb

Fred Olsen 2011 preview brochure is landing on your doorsteps this week and goes on sale on 25th February 2011. The brochure offers a great selection of durations and itineraries and some new destinations including Ullapool in Scotland and Sandane in Norway

Fred Olsen are offering an additional 5% discount to past passengers and by booking through ourselves you will save even more. It is always a tough choice as to whether to book early or not but with Fred Olsen's ships being small, their balconies and suites always sell out quickly, so my advice would be to book now if you want a higher grade cabin. Plus their prices are increasing on with the full brochure in May, so if you were planning on booking early anyway, book from the preview brochure and get the best deal.

These sailings may not all be on our website, so please give me a call for your best price.

A quick guide to Fred Olsen..

With a Fred Olsen sale currently I thought it would be useful to note a few tips down regarding the cruise line, from someone who has sailed on board.

Fred Olsen are a traditional cruise line and do have both formal & theme nights, however they also offer a great buffet restaurant on all of their ships offering excellent cuisine in an informal atmosphere. That way, if you don’t want to dress up for dinner you don’t have too.

They are the friendliest cruise line I have sailed on, with smaller ships and very accommodating staff. When I was too full for desert but fancied something sweet the waiter on Balmoral gave me a small selection of chocolates – fantastic.

They sail from 6 UK ports – Greenock, Rosyth, Newcastle, Liverpool, Southampton and Dover, as well as offering fly cruises. Giving everyone somewhere local to sail from.

Whilst not marketing themselves as a family cruise line they do offer kids clubs during the school holidays on board Balmoral, offering a much cheaper alternative than their competitors

The average age on board Fred Olsen is slightly older than on Royal Caribbean or Celebrity, mainly due to the no flying cruise option. However it varies by sailing and you’ll find younger clients on Caribbean sailings, mini cruises and school holidays.

If you can afford to upgrade your cabin, I suggest you do so, I sailed on Marina deck on Black Watch and found the cabin to be noisy. Whereas on board Balmoral I had a cabin on Lido deck and this was just perfect – a much better nights sleep.

If you would like a balcony cabin then I suggest you book early. There are fewer balconies on Fred Olsen ships and these always sell out early.

2011 itineraries go on sale on the 25th February, book early for the best cabins.

Oceans members receive an extra 5% discount on all sailings booked 6 months or more in advance

Epic coming to Europe...Royal Caribbean watch out!

NCL have just announced that there new flagship Epic will be based in Europe for 2011. This is fantastic news for UK cruisers, especially as she'll be based out of Barcelona.

With great innovations on board for all ages she is going to be a real hit. Featuring the Aqua Park, with the only tube slide and largest bowl slide at sea. A 33 ft high rock climbing wall and the most bowling lanes at sea, she will really give Royal Caribbean a run for their money.
She also has 14 restaurants and 18 bars and the first squash court at sea to work the excesses off.



Her new single studio rooms are hugely innovative with no single supplements and their own lounge area, making it much easier for single passengers to meet other guests, whilst enjoying big ship facilities.

Finally, NCL have made a very clever move basing her out of Barcelona. The easiest post of call for UK passengers wanting to arrange their own flights (especially if you’re travelling from Dublin or Belfast) she will sail a typical Western Med itinerary.

She goes on sale shortly and pre registrations are being taken now, so if you’re looking for a change to Royal Caribbean for next summer and suggest you look no further that Norwegian Epic.

Single cruising just got easier.

Cruising is the one of the best types of holiday for a single traveller but even this can be daunting. Those clever people at NCL however have just made it a whole lot easier with the announcement of 'Studio Staterooms' on Norwegian Epic which launches in May. The beauty of these rooms is that they share a public area purely for Studio residents - offering a bar, snacks, big screen TV and DVD players. This makes it so much easier to meet other single passengers.  The rooms are smaller than normal, but ample size and they aren't charging ridiculous single supplements

I think this is a fantastic idea and hope the other cruise lines catch on and follow suit soon. I am certainly going to offer them to all of my single passengers.

South Pacific & Andes on Royal Princess

I don't often feature deals on my blog as I think we send you all enough e-mails with them on!

However this one really deserved a mention as it's an itinerary that is very popular and not sailed by many.
Royal Princess is sailing this superb 26 day itinerary from the 6th April 2011. (flying on the 5th April)

 Papeete, Moorea , Bora Bora, Pitcairn Island (Scenic Cruising), Easter Island (Chile), San Martin (Peru), Lima, Quito (Manta) Ecuador, Panama Canal, Colon, San Blas Islands Panama, Limon, Fort Lauderdale,

Prices including flights start from just £3829pp