Fred Olsen, Fantastic Fun and Frolics

Hello – It’s me Nadine, The cupcake Genius!! I’ve had loads of great comments on those and plenty of people wanting to try and make them for themselves!


 Last weekend seemed to be filled with festivals, I went to my local annual Redditch festival and a great time was had by all despite the rain, and then the was V Festival & of course, The Edinburgh Fringe Festival, where according to The Daily Telegraph a guy called Nick Helm told the funniest joke:


‘''I needed a password eight characters long so I picked Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.''


This put in mind of the Fred Olsen Music and laughter program that they ran last year when I was on Black Watch – Click here to read that review, they had some great performances from the Rat Pack returns and Taffy the comedian – AWESOME!! This season – Winter 2011-2012 they are carrying it through with the well known Operababes, Bee Gees magic, The Phoenix Jazz band AND IT TAKES TWO – a Tina Turner & Rod Stewart tribute act, to name just a few, fantastic itineraries from Christmas Markets to Sunny Canaries and India and the Red Sea, there is so much on offer with Fred Olsen, get ion touch if you fancy a copy of the Music & Laughter program.




Fred Olsen, Fantastic Fun and Frolics for all!!!!

I'm a cupcake genius!

Yesterday was my day off and I really wanted to try out a new idea I’ve had for a cupcake! I love cupcakes and my sister Hayley holds the family badge as she enjoys making them too and has a naturally more artistic hand, so hers tend to be a lot prettier than mine! But I just love making them. I wanted to make a cupcake cone! Cupcake in an ice cream cone – It worked a absolute treat! Ive brought a few samples in to the cruise.co.uk office this morning and by ten am they were all gone with the official seal of approving from my close colleagues.


This is my cupcake cone!



Here is one of Hayley’s more prettier cakes.!





This just got me thinking about the Royal Caribbean – I’m taking a lot of enquiries about their cruise for September and October – You know once the kids are back at school!!! They actually feature a venue on Oasis, Allure, Independence and Liberty of the seas – The Cupcake Cupboard!



The cupcake cupboard hosts decorating classes, which I could probably do with! It’s a 30minute class conducted by the ships very own pastry chef – Based in The Royal Promenade the cupcake cupboard is always casual and there is something for all cake lovers, You do need to make reservations for the classes and there is a nominal fee of $22.00 per adult and $15.00 for kids.

I think I should treat myself when on board next!

Great Gates – Its Gareth.

Life on the open Seas is amazing, and any singer would be honoured to get that gig, but I must admit I was a little shocked at the newest crooner in town!

Its been advertised in the Daily Mail that the prestigious company P&O have invited Gareth Gates to sing on board the Oceana on 03rd September 2011 – Southampton to Bruges and back. Normally I would be encouraging all fans to ‘get on board’ however, bar three JB Grade balcony cabins at £460.00 per person – the sailing is full!! So he will be selling to a sold out venue!! That’s an accolade and a half!



So I’m asking if anyone is on board that sailing to do a review for me and maybe a photo or two

Drinking under 21?

As we all know Royal Caribbean are an American Cruise line there is a strict over 21 alcohol policy. I have a lady who is travelling with her grown up children aged 21, and 18. As they are travelling over Christmas, she really wanted her 18 year old to be able to enjoy the festive spirit with the rest of the family! I enquired about this with Royal Caribbean and ruling is as below:

Providing the 18 year old is travelling in Europe with their legal guardian or Parent and that parent or guardian is happy to do it, they can sign an authorisation form allowing the 18 year old to drink, under the responsibility of the said parent or guardian. This can be signed on the first day or board and DOES NOT stretch to friends of the family, unless their parents are also on board and can sign the declaration as well.



So this is good news for my client and thought it might be interesting to other family groups!

Signs of things to come

Following my blog, ive had a few sent to me at cruise.co.uk by email and thought Id share these too:

This one is from one of my family members in Cardiff, this is totally genuine!


This one is from a cruiser who alerted me to one they had seen: 7 Deadly donts!


I found this one on google images. Apparently means, no cutting in line!


Send yours to me - nadinel@cruise.co.uk

Signage disasters

One of my cousins who works as a trouble shooter for a major IT Company gets to travel the world and is currently in Dubai, he has a hobby of taking photographs of badly worded signs in hotel, airports and service stations across the globe I find the majority of these hilarious, so I thought Id share some with the cruise.co.uk blog fans:

Feel free to submit your own after wards.








This one is bit of tongue in cheek innuendo!


Heres one I found on google which tickled me:

MINI CRUISE - Big demand

Lots of cruise lines offer mini cruises, but at cruise.co.uk we do find it quite amusing that people phone up and seem to think that happen every weekend; unfortunately this is not the case and when people like P&O and Royal Caribbean do have the ‘mini cruises’ they tend to sell out fast and furiously.
 The mini cruises left for 2011 are as follows:
P&O Oceana 03 September 2011 - 2 Nights to Belgium
P&O Aurora 12th November 2011 - 2 nights over to Bruges and back.
P&O Oriana 30th November 2011 - 3nights Bruges and Le Havre for Paris.

These are selling FAST – And they are offering mini cruises in 2012 – One of which was the P&O 75year celebrations, the 3 day cruise sold out of interior cabins in just 20mins!!!


I’ve successfully managed to book myself a mini cruise this morning – But it’s a secret as we will have lots of passengers on that one, so perhaps I'll share where once its sold out – although availability was quite slim on this one too.