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.