A bit about Swan Hellenic

Swan Hellenic's Minerva offers the perfect base for exploring your destination in depth. As a discovery cruise ship you'll enjoy on board guest speakers who will really bring the destinations to life and a programme of included excursions to enrich your days.

The sailings are aimed at like minded people who want to know more about the places they visit, but if you'd rather just relax and explore on your own that's fine too. She is a smaller ship carrying just 350 passengers and and get into some of the samller historic ports of call as well as visiting cultural centres such as Pireaus for Athens and Civitivecchia for Rome.

In those ports that are more frequently visited she offers a choice of excursions, for instance from if it's your first time in Naples you can visit the ruins of Pompeii or as a returning guest you can choose to go to the lesser know Villa Oplontis built by Emperor Nero. I have been lucky enough to have a work trip on Minerva and the level of knowledge given by the excursion hosts was amazing.

Swan Hellenic's prices have no hidden extras too, all you pay for on top of your cruise fare are your drinks. Flights, transfers, excursions, guest speakers and gratuities are all included, as well as your food, evening entertainment and chosen cabin grade.

She is being refurbished in early 2012 and has some great offers for Spring 2012. Postcards from the Mediterranean, a 13 night sailing on the 29th March starts at just £1495pp. For the full details just click here.

Seabourn's connection charges

As you know whenever I call a cruiseline to find something out for a customer I like to post it on here. If one persons wants to know the info then I figure many more people may also like to know too.

My latest tit bit is the internet connection charges on Seabourn ships
They have a number of packages dependent on the usage you require.

Stay in Touch –$0.40/minute

Frequent Explorer – 1 hr for $9.99

Business User - $39.99 for 24 hrs

Always Connected - $234 for a week

Loyalty package – for all sailings of 7nts or more, $399.99

this is a one off price for the duration of the cruise.

Hopefully this will be of use to you.

Here's a cheeky chappy

I'm having a few days off now which has put me in a happy mood and for some reason made me think of this smiley chappy that I saw on board MSC Opera this summer. I thought I'd post him for you all to see and hopefully put you in a mid week good mood too.

I'll be back in the office on Monday and if you need any help whilst I'm off just call my colleagues on 0800 408 6200 and they'll be happy to help you.

I've heard of the ships cat but never....

the ship's fish. Yesterday I was amazed to hear that the ships Quarter Master on Regent Seven Seas Voyager keeps 2 giant goldfish on the bridge of Seven Seas Voyager.

I have tried to find some information out about these and have done a quick search. It appears that they are loving cared for but alas have no names, which seems a real shame so I thought I would start a campaign to name them. I thought maybe Reg for one (short for Regent) but am stuck on a 2nd.

These are the only pets that I am aware of any cruise ship, although Queen Mary will allow dogs to be carried on her transtlantic cruises. If you know of any other pets that are stowed away then please let me know, I'd like to write about them too.

For a photo of the ships fish, just click on this link

The youngest fleet at sea needs a facelift!

To celebrate her 8th Birthday Cunard are giving Queen Mary 2 a complete refit, which is fantastic when cruise lines seem to be trying to save money and cut corners at the moment.

She enters dry dock on the 24th November and the 14 day refit will see more than just a token touch up occuring. Cunard have promised the following:

All 1310 staterooms will have new carpets, bedspreads and curtains and an enhanced sense of confort is being promised.
The Canyon Ranch Spa Club will have new fitness machines and improved features in the Beauty Salon.
The Golden Lion Pub - will have a more American Country Club feel with upgraded TV screens and be more similar to the same pub on board Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth
The Commodore Club will also be re-carpeted and have additions to the white leather furnishings
The Grills Restaurants, Commodore Club, Veuve Cliquot Champagne Bar and Sir Samuels will have new carpets.
And finally the Play Zone and Kids Zone will have a complete refurbishment with new soft play areas, and upgrades in the electronic gaming technology and facilities.

Queen Mary 2 has good reviews already so I think Cunard are doing the right thing in refitting her before the reviews start to slip. If you want to see Cunard cruise reviews visit Cruise.co.uk; I look forward to seeing new reviews after the refit.