Easter Break from Cruise.co.uk

I just wanted to let you all know that i am away from the office on annual leave until Tuesday 26th April 2011 but I wanted to leave you with a few thoughts.

1 PLAN AHEAD When planning what to do over the Easter holidays - Dont call the day before Good Friday and expect to get on the ridiculously cheap cruise that has been advertised with Ventura (Leaves tomorrow) THERE ARE NO SPACES LEFT!!! Sorry - But if

2 Wear Sunscreen - This easter is set to be a scorcher so take care out there - we may bi in April in the UK, But you can still burn and nothing ruins the weekend like sunburn!

3 The Rules of Chocolate are as follows:

*If you get melted chocolate all over your hands, you're eating it too slowly!!!

 *Chocolate covered raisins, cherries, orange slices and strawberries all count as fruit, so eat as many as you 
want. And for those of you on Weight Watchers, just like me and many in cruise.co.uk office - FRUIT IS FREE!
*The problem: How to get two pounds of chocolate home from the shop in a hot car? 
*The solution: Eat it in the parking lot.
*Diet tip: Eat a chocolate bar before each meal.  It'll take the edge off your appetite and you'll eat less.

*A nice box of chocolates can provide your total daily intake of calories in one place. Isn't that handy?

*If you can't eat all your chocolate, it will keep in the freezer. But if you can't eat all your chocolate, what's wrong with you?
*If calories are an issue, store your chocolate on top of the fridge. Calories are afraid of heights, and they will jump out of the chocolate to protect themselves!!!
*Chocolate has many preservatives. Preservatives make you look younger.
*Why is there no such organization as Chocoholics Anonymous? Simply because no one wants to quit.
*Put "eat chocolate" at the top of your list of things to do today. That way, at least you'll get one thing done.
*Chocolate is a health food. Chocolate is derived from cacao beans. Bean = vegetable. Sugar is derived either from sugar beets or cane, both vegetables. And, of course, the milk/cream is dairy. So eat more chocolate to meet the dietary requirements for daily vegetable and dairy intake.

SO EAT CHOCOLATE, BE MERRY AND THINK ABOUT WHAT CRUISE TO DO FOR EASTER 2012!!

New BBC Gardeners World Cruise

BBC Gardeners World Magazine is promoting the following cruise in their May 2011 - This will sell VERY well off the back of this so get in fast! This will may well be one of the last chances to cruise the Caribbean with Fred Olsen as they are due to stop these itineraries from 2012.

Fred Olsens Braemar sailing on 24th Nov 2011 - 14 night fly/cruise Caribbean Cruise.

This cruise will include all of the normal Fred Olsen facilities plus the Cruise.co.uk exclusives such as talks presented by professional Garden hosts Matthew Biggs & Will Giles

FREE Parking at airport
£75 per cabin on board spend

1 x FREE Garden Tour – from Barbados  

Gardeners' on board talks

Exclusive cruise.co.uk Gardeners Cruise Drinks Party

Has anyone been on one of these? We MAY have a special garden cruise with one of the smaller luxury liners for 2012 that will hopefully incorporate a flower show in Amsterdam and possibly the Chelsea flower show.  will bring this info to you as soon as anything is confirmed, But I'm REALLY looking forward to that news hitting the press!!

Cruise Collaborations

From Ronnie Wood and and his crazy romance with the pretty blond Russian Ekaterina Ivanova, Jam and peanut butter sandwiches, Banana milkshake and fries, we as a nation are getting used to the most unusual sights, couplings and diversity of the modern world. But I had a lovely Feel good moment when I was scrolling through the papers on a coffee break at cruise.co.uk. I was paused with a moment of- ahh bless!!!

Bristol Zoos' Gorilla enclosure has become home to new breed - OF DUCK!! There sat in the enclosure, hugging the new born is a 4 Year old male gorilla called Komale, showing the great tenderness that every newborn deserves, cradling the duckling in his arms - ever so gently, but by all accounts the poor duck was still scared and kept trying to escape his cuddles and get back to its family (Which it did safely by the way)

Follow this link to see what I'm on about - CLICK HERE

So this got me to thinking about cruise collaborations and the strange and wonderful world we live in.

New Kids on the Block do a cruise every year with carnival which sells out every year - CLICK HERE to read my previous blog on this.

There are crossword cruises, dance cruise, garden cruises and all sorts of themed cruises like Nickelodeon with NCL.

What would you like to see as a strange but wonderful cruise collaboration?

I'm thinking - Rock Bands at sea... My sisters boyfriend is in a band which is very aptly named - Them at Sea and I think for the rock fan this would be great!

ICELANDIC CRUISE

At cruise.co.uk there is lot of chatter at the moment about river cruise, luxury liners and niche markets, but something that has caught my eye is that fact that since the volcanic ash debacle, not only are more and more passengers looking to sail out of Southampton, but I’ve been asked more frequently about cruise that actually go to Iceland!!

There was an article in the Daily mail which I thought might be of interest to those considering something a little more unique in its destinations, I mean there are only so many time you can got o Rome, and as this a favourite port for many of the liners doing the med I thought this might be interesting –

CLICK HERE to read the Daily mail article.Cruise lines that do the Iceland tour are, Cruise & Maritime, Fred Olsen and P&O – CLICK HERE  to see where they go.

Ive always fancied the breathtaking sights of Iceland and Greenland, perhaps you can report back if anyone has already done this. I know the Cruise & Maritime Iceland tour sold VERY quickly for 2011 and imagine the demand is the same for 2012.

WIN A FREE CUNARD CRUISE!

Ive received my cruise.co.uk EBlast yesterday as many of you have, but I was astounded to see that cruise.co.uk are actually giving away a free Cunard cruise - To enter the competition
CLICK HERE

The cruise that is up for grabs is:
Queen Victoria - 29th May 2011 Sailing from Southampton and visiting Stavanger, Alesund, Geiranger and Bergen before returning to Southampton.

This is a perfect time of year for visiting these destinations and May is when lots of cruise lines do their Fjords tours. Spring time in the Fjords offers some fantastic scenery and in May you will find that most of the mountains still snow covered whilst in the Fjords the meadows are plush and green.

Has anyone done this itinerary already? Id love to get some feedback.

Any recommended shore excursions?

GOOD LUCK.

Princess Cruise- the proof is in the pudding.

As you may have noticed on e of my passengers – Mrs Wilding brought me a selection of exciting souvenirs back from her travels on the Grand Princess, so I thought Id break a few bits down for you to ‘digest’


Princess cruises, along with many others are conscious of providing healthier options. The Lotus spa dishes are lower in fat, cholesterol and sodium – for the health conscious; I do recall a gym instructor on a ship one telling me that in an average 7night sailing passengers gain up to half a stone per week!!! Definitely worth considering the healthier options occasionally!

Thank you Mrs Wilding

This week I received a large packet in the post – Thank you Mrs Wilding.


Mrs Wilding has sent me so much information about her recent cruise. She did two weeks on the Crown Princess and LOVED IT!

Some of the bits and pieces I received were all of the menus – Which I will follow up with later with some more blogs later in the week. The daily schedules the Princess Patter! – Escape completely which tells me all the different activities that were available on board – shore excursions and lots of other tit bits of information.

It helps that I’m a real people person and love to see what other people are up to and this way I get to pretend it was me on board!