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?

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.

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!

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.

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.

Cunard Christmas Cracker?

Cunard's Queen Victoria is sailing a 16 nights canaries cruise departing on the 19th December. Taking in Christmas and New Year and cruising to one of the warmer destinations, she should be the ideal choice. Yet this Christmas cruise still has availability when nearly all other cruises sold out months ago.

Maybe it's the recession - although P&O, Ocean Village and NCL all appear unaffected. Maybe she's too expensive, but with free upgrades, on board credit and keen discounting I think she offers an attractive proposition. I'm stumped, I can see no reason why she hasn't sold - can you?