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.