CELEBRATE CELEBRITY!

CELEBRATE CELEBRITY!

Congratulations go to Celebrity Cruise line this morning as Ive just found ut that they been named the overall winner in the Cruise Category in the recent 2011 Conde Nast Traveller World Saver Awards CLICK HERE to find out more.

I know Celebrity are winners for what they do with food - some of the most interesting dining experiences Can be had on a celebrity Solstice class ship, Qsine for intense, treat your taste buds to a trip round the world in one evening at sea. Finest desserts mastered exactly to your tastes.

Call me to find out out more and get involved, perhaps try the Eclipse in 2012, sailing from Southampton, perfect for non flyers!

I’ve found what I’m looking for!

Summer you beautiful lady where have you been?
Media confuses us with tales of snow to be seen!
For three days I anticipate the summer,
An Indian summer for us all to greet.
And when you’re gone, you be a long time missed
For those not on cruises, searching for heat!



Now, I'll admit poetry is not my strongest skill set - whipped this up in just a few minutes - What do you think?

I have to admit I am genuinely excited by the last of summer arriving at our doors this week... Dreading the snow to follow and the cold winter mornings!!

Caribbean cruising looking VERY Exciting now... Click Royal Caribbean to see whats happening as they have some great deals with $100 on board credit still available if booking before end of September! NICE

SNOW WAY IT’S NEARLY OCTOBER!

OMG I nearly had a heart attack this morning coffee in hand and toast on the go – I was feeling a bit chilly when I turned the page and there it is – Cold hard reality brutally shoved it in our faces – October is penned as being our early winter with Snow!! Snow I tell thee!! I’m not being funny but I don’t actually remember much of a summer – so for Mother Nature to completely by pass my favourite season – autumn or if you’re American – Fall… I love autumn, with rich colours, cold enough for jumpers, but not quite a coat! The fresh smell of morning with crisp blue sky and a tiny scattering of frost in the early hours… Click here to read the full article
I was wondering where the best autumn would be as the UK is bound now to have below average temperatures... Virginia, I’ve always fancied Virginia in the fall.. It’s meant to have the most definitive Seasons; spring comes when it’s meant to!! Summers are beautifully warm. The University of Virginia has a whole page dedicated to their weather -CLICK HERE




Canada is also one know for it awesome seasons. I thought about how I could squeeze both of these into a cruise and I came up with this.

Depart UK – Head out to New York for a cruise on board
Caribbean Princess - 1st Oct 2011 for 7nts
New York, New York, Usa : Newport, Rhode Island : Boston, Massachusetts, Usa : Bar Harbour, Maine, Usa : Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada : Halifax, Nova Scotia : New York, New York,

After the cruise – Take a post cruise deviation for 5 or 7nights – you can stay in New York and shop till you drop or head in land to Virginia and explore the different scenery along the way – stopping at Philadelphia & New Jersey along the way perhaps. Now that’s one way to escape the poor Autumn planned!

This is a lake in New Jersey!!


How beautiful is that!!!!

Coolest cruise ship collection.

Having a read on line I came across a feature on cruise ships, and naturally my eye lit up and I did my best meercat impression... Ooh Ooh what's going on here then???

Entitled, 'Worlds coolest cruise ships' I thought it might be about the NCL Epic Ice bar - But no! Its MSN's list of cool ships CLICK HERE to read the feature entirely.

1) Seabourn Quest that launched last June. This ships gets brownie points for the exotic destinations, on board experience and beach seafood barbecue called Caviar in the Surf!


2) Celebrity Silhouette came next - Silhouette's speciality restaurant Quisine serves up quirky dishes from animated iPad menus and a dessert list on a Rubik's cube. This features across the solstice class ships and my personal favourite is the cheese cake - Served in a two tier glass, cheesecake filling in the top with two beautifully buttery shortcakes and underneath strawberry candy floss!! GREAT STUFF..


3) Oceania Marina - For her astonishingly fantastic quisine and swish Canyon Ranch SpaClub that offers thalassotherapy and a heavenly pool area with soft-towelling-encased day beds. Foodies will be in their element at La Reserve by Wine Spectator, which offers wine and food pairings


4) Seven Seas Voyager - A personal favourite of a few of my regular passengers and its easy to see why with all inclusive shore excursions and drinks, but this on made their list for the great choice of cabins.

5) SeaDream - These one makes the list attributed to their superb itineraries and hotter climes are the perfect place to try the Balinese double dream beds, which can be made up at night with luxurious duvets and soft pillows for guests to sleep under the stars. Elsewhere, pre-loaded iPods, Bvlgari products in marble-lined bathrooms and a comprehensive on board water sports marina up the ante.


6) Norwegian Epic - Hardly surprising given the levels of innovative stuff on board - Its the night time entertainment that gets this ship listed, hardly surprising with the like of the Blue Man group and Dinner acrobatic combo.

7) Orion - Expedition cruises, take a trip with this expedition cruise operator for an experience of a lifetime: Take a trip to Borneo accompanied by botanists, marine biologists and cultural experts. Get hands on with Orangutans and other wildlife. If you are of active body & active mind, passengers will enjoy a whole host of destinations that larger ships cannot access, nor bring their guests ashore.


8) Grand Princess - Featured for her multi million Pound make over earlier this year and the new One5 nightclub, with a popular outdoor chill-out area that overlooks the ship's wake as she sails off into the sunset from Southampton.

9) Crystal Serenity - She also had a recent make over - Back in May £15million spent to update and revive her! Super staterooms and sophisticated decor on board win her a place on the list.

10) Star Clippers - For people with a passion for the open waters - the three 'Tall ships' are working sail powered vessel, great for those who like a hands on approach - You can really get involved, but MSN award this place for the 'something different' aspect..Guests can join in with the hoisting or sail one of the small dinghies when anchored in port.




Whats your 'COOLEST' Ship?


Mine would have to be the MSC Splendida - Eight Swaosovski Crystal staircases costing 1.5million Euros each! THATS COOL!

Oceania Insignia Reviews of food lover!

Luxury Lovers and a Foodies heaven - Oceania's moto is to Deliver over and above the expected!

Monday 5th September there was two things for me to celebrate – Firstly my Dads birthday – So happy Birthday Popsicle, hope you liked your card? And Secondly I got a absolute treat and went to see the Oceania Insignia.

Insignia according to the dictionary means: a badge or distinguishing mark of office or honour: a military insignia. Alternatively its a distinguishing mark or sign of anything: an insignia of mourning

I think in the Case of Oceania – Insignia means a sign of excellence, a food lover’s haven, a luxury cruise liners epitome of taste sensations! Ill come back to that later!

The Oceania Insignia stands as a mid sized ship at 30,277 tons and has passenger capacity of 824 and a crew to passenger ratio of a staggering 1.7!! According to the Berlitz guide, the vessel is most suited to couples who enjoy good food and style, but want informality with no formal nights on board, interesting itineraries, all at a very reasonable price, well below what the luxury ships normally charge - Compfortably 4Stars plus. This is the kind of ship and company that genuinely appeals to aspirational travellers - 50 something to 75 with active mind and active bodies is the sort of people onboard.

The ship itself is quite understated with a 1920/1930 aura about the ship - There is a weird and wonderful art deco'esque type ceiling where its been made to appear like a conservatory roof that looks out to tropical gardens - Very interesting with a slight calming effect.

 Cabins for me let it down a little, I was hoping for more of a wow factor - none of the cabins have a bath with the exception of the Penthouse and owners suites, however 30% of the passengers who are regular luxury liner guests travel in Penthouse or above as they do prove great value for money compared to other companies. 96% of cabins have balconies on Marina and the new ship Rivieria (To be launched next year) On Insignia and Regatta it is 75% of cabins that have balconies. They have a rolling 12-18month refit programme, which keeps this looking fresh, however perhaps the balcony furniture is the concierge cabin I saw could do with being updated now as it was looking a little weathered!!

The owners suite was AMAZING!!! L Shaped sofa and lounge area  nearly 1000 square feet and taking up cloase to half the bredth of the ship. Have your own Jacuzzi, refridgerated mini bar - all soft drinks a free on board Oceania! 42inch plasma TV and complimentry laptop to use.


 Ill review the food later as quite frankly it does deserve a section all to itslef..... Mouthwatering thinking of the lunch!
 We currently have a whole heap of sailings that have upto $1000 on board credit!! Check out our website for itieraries - http://www.cruise.co.uk/

 For some Reason Blogger wont allow me to load the pictures, so if you look for me on facebook, Ive added them all there.  nadinel@cruise.co.uk

PARIS!! It’s electrifying.

I was looking at the Daily Mail and thought Id bring you the news that the Eiffel Tower was hit by lightening! The photograph that they have here shows quite vividly the electrifying scene! Brings a whole new meaning to the term City of Light! Read more: CLICK HERE

Royal Caribbean Independence of the Seas is doing some mini cruise over to Le Harve for Paris – One of which we are hosting a Zumba Dance cruise with the Famous zigzag dance factory with Warren Bullock on the 2nd May 2012 – This is a cruise.co.uk exclusive and Zumba is the amazing new dance craze and best way to keep fit doing the Zumba workout you can burn between 500-900 calories, just by dancing for one hour!! That will help work off some of the cruise food that is so fabulous.

Why not stroll along the Champs- Elysees, view the wonderful and exquisite works in the Louvre as you will have an over night in Paris, while away some time on the banks of the Seine or perhaps a romantic meal or dance the night away at one of their glorious hot spots, so vibrant and alive, Paris has something for everyone.

Don’t forget to try the Royal Caribbean special dish – Escargot – They do something wonderful with them and whilst in France it would be rude not too!

Call me for availability on this Zumba cruise – Or with out it – We can do both! Its selling fast!

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.

The results are in!

As promised – The answers to our little taster quiz on Monday


BAN BUZZER                                                 BARBIE – (Bar Bee)
CHANCE TAKEN                                          RISK
ROUGH SKETCHES                                      DRAFTS
SMALL £25 THAT I OWN                            MY LITTLE PONY
HINT NICKNAME FOR MONEY                CLUEDO (CLUE DOUGH!)


So now I’ve finished twisting your brain with the cruise.co.uk quiz questions, let me know your answers!

Did anyone guess correctly?

Honey – I'm home.

So I’m now back in the office after my few days off and my time off and trip to Cardiff was a success, saw the family, paid my dues on the granddad front, he’s doing ok, very pleased about the wedding and getting quite excited! On my birthday it was the cruise.co.uk annual quiz night! Turns out that my specialist subject is 80s Cartoons, who would have guessed it – I know thunder cats, fraggle rock and all sorts.


Thought I’d give you a taster of the cryptic toys and games round:  Try to get your head around some of these:

BAN BUZZER
CHANCE TAKEN
ROUGH SKETCHES
SMALL £25 THAT I OWN
HINT NICKNAME FOR MONEY

Let me know how you get on. I'll post the answers later in the week.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME.

As it’s my 31st birthday tomorrow – Wednesday 20th July, I thought Id take advantage of the fact that it’s my rota day off work from cruise.co.uk and tack a few days annual leave onto the end, so I’m now out of the office until Monday 25th July at 11.30am.


No actual holiday planned, but will be taking a trip to my cousins in Cardiff, may go to Cardiff bay and enjoy some lunch at the noodle bar, Might do something interesting and do the half a mile walk over from Penarth on the new bay foot bridge…


Fingers crosses its not too windy and I dont get blown off it!
If you need help – My colleagues cabin help on 0800 408 6200 – Or hang fire and Ill help on Monday!

I've been on Azura!

I've been on Azura and she blew me away!



As my last post mentioned, I’m proud to announce, my visit to Azura went well, amazingly well, great trip down there and straight forward check in. The ship looked breathtaking as we approached, I wasn’t sure what to expect, but she is a big beauty (Much like myself)


Highlight for me was the Glass house, Ollie Smiths inspirational wine bar, superb ambience, great lighting and actually really well priced wine. Ollie does a special supper club, by secret invitation, if you’re a wanna be wine connoisseur , hang around here long enough and I’m sure you will get an invite!

Azura be good!!

Friday 15th July and I’m off down to Southampton again to be nosy! I enjoy a good poke around as much as the next person, but tomorrow will be special, I’m heading off to have a tour of P&O Azura and I’ve had some strange requests this week when I’ve mentioned it to passengers:


1) How big are the port holes in the Ocean view staterooms?
2) Take a picture of the wedding ceremony room. This I will happily do as they are looking to get married on board next May.
3) How big is the teenager’s area?
4) What Internet packages are available in board?
5) Find out if I will be claustrophobic with a pull down bed above my head.


So I’m going to endeavour to get the responses and post them here when I return and let you all know..

Has anyone got any other questions?

DUBAI – Or not Dubai

As many of my avid bloggers will know – I’m from a large family – Six sisters & three brothers, so someone is always doing something, as I’m the oldest, most of these things include recent achievements, include, a new kitten called Beatrix. new flat, passing of their drivers test, new car, another new car, promotion & pay rise for the next in line, then there is a Levels, GCSE’s and of course PROM! You may ask what this has to do with Dubai and yes, I can rant, however there is a point I promise.

One of my sisters who have just finished her exams is lucky enough to be invited to stay with her best friends parents at their home in Dubai!!!! No wet weekend in Wales for her… Flying with Emirates she will be welcomed by her friends mother in Dubai where they will be enjoying lots of treats, such as safaris, scuba diving, skiing and an apparently amazing buffet somewhere which costs $400 per person. Now Ive always fancied travelling to Dubai myself and its becoming more popular with the likes of Royal Caribbean having the Brilliance of the Seas out of Dubai this year with many more to follow such as MSC Lirica who have some awesome pricing structures to boot sailing out of Abu Dhaby

CLICK HERE TO SEE SOME ROYAL CARIBBEAN SAILINGS IN FEBRUARY 2012


So do you fancy Dubai? Have you been? whats your best bits?

Summer sailings

School summer holidays are very soon upon us once again, and for those of you who are now sat at home thinking – Huh, What should we do?? I know that departures from Southampton are preferable with the kids, saves on flying, but this close to departures; we are really struggling for quad or three berth rooms. Also some of the sailing even in twin rooms have run out of space is certain age groups, an example of this is when I was looking for sailing with P&O for a lady last week who called I to me at Cruise.co.uk as she is a big P&O Fan - I discovered the following
VENTURA
30/07/2011 - 14Nights - No kids 0-16
20/08/2011 - 14Nights - No kids 3-7
23/07/2011 - 7 Nights - No kids 3-7
13/08/2011 - 7 Nights - No kids 3-8
AZURA
05/08/2011 - 16 Nights – VERY limited spaces available for three berth JA Grade balcony cabins
INDEPENDENCE OF THE SEAS
23/07/2011 – 14 Nights – No multiple berth rooms left.
06/08/2011 – 14 Nights – H Grade ocean views & Grand Suites still available for multiples
20/08/2011 – 14 Nights – K Grade inside cabins – FP – Family promenade cabins
                                   H Ocean view & D1 Balconies – still has availability at the moment.

Don’t forget – Plenty of twin berth cabins available on most sailings. And we have some great rates on EX UK Flights & departures – Check out Royal Caribbean med sailing with extra on board spends.

MSC Opera – Is she really something to sing about?

MSC Opera – Is she really something to sing about? - Quite frankly – YES!!

On Tuesday a couple of my cruise.co.uk colleagues and I took a road trip down to Southampton. The weather when we arrived was warm and sunny and it made it even more pleasant being on the ship, walking across the pool area, seeing people in the ample pools and Jacuzzi areas Good news - They don’t mind you having a cocktail in the Jacuzzi – I asked, best place to enjoy a strawberry Daiquiri if you ask me!!