Escape the early freeze - Cruise the Caribbean instead!

This morning, as I got up and saw glorious blue skies, I was lured into a false sense of security that today was going to be a lovely day – Now the day has matured into a reasonably looking day – I was rather put out to find my car covered in ice and frost, a good ten minutes later before the car was drivable, but it occurred to me that before now I have been known to wear t-shirts and light trousers in October – I recall as a child still wearing my summer dresses. However it has been reported in the media that this October has been the coldest for 17 years.

October 2010 hitting record books, in some regions-Sennybridge for instance in South Wales it hit -6.4degrees beating the former -6.2degress set in 1997. This is no wonder I keep looking at Christmas trees and decorations thinking, wow, it will all be over soon!! Reports from the MET Office instigate that this should change later in the week with a band of rain moving in– Currently with wide spread frosts it was below freezing last night for most of UK and my car thermometer said Zero degrees whilst desperately trying to de-ice the car this morning, so its no wonder that I’ve come into the cruise.co.uk offices this morning to find many calls and message looking for great cruise deals for the Caribbean. P&O Have some fantastic prices including flights this side of Christmas, So check out our website for escape routes.

Strictly come dance with cruise.co.uk exclusive

Following the previous successes with the Dance Cruise, Cruise.co.uk are happy to announce the new programmes for 2011 in association with Warren Bullock and Jane Phillips of the ZigZag Dance workshops.

‘Combine the excitement of the seas with the love of dance, on a magical holiday never to be forgotten.’

Enjoy dance workshops, Ballroom Dance lessons, Latin American Dance lessons, Technique tips and valuable advice, learn new routines and showcase them ant the exclusive VIP Dance cruise cocktail parties, theses workshops suit all levels of dancers, new, beginners and experienced. There is something for everyone, and I know that you all get some really special attention from the professionals on board!


The first Dance cruise of 2011 is a fabulous Dubai & India tour – 8th April onboard the Royal Caribbean Brilliance of the seas for 13nights. Fares from £1899pp. See some really special and colourful places such as Goa and Mumbai! 


Second in the year we have an awesome Scandinavian Adventure on board Cunards' Queen Mary2 on 3rd August 2011 for 12 nights taking in the gorgeous sights to be held in Flaam Oslo Copenhagen and Denmark. Prices for this on start at an amazing £1499per person.


Last but my no means least the third Dance cruise of the year is the Mediterranean & Canaries cruise with P&O Azura for 12nights from 21st August 2011 from Southampton round trip going to the inviting canaries, including Madeira, Tenerife and Lisbon for just £1299 and NO FLYING – Added bonus for those avoiding air travels!!


On your cruising days you can make the most of having a unique Dance Cruise with lessons and activities all included in the prices and no longer be sat in libraries whiling the day away – Get active and take the other have for a spin!!!

Rudder Damage forces termination of cruise.

Last week we received notification that the Celebrity Century cruise that departed Barcelona on 13th October was having to be terminated early in Villefanche as the ship had suffered some serious Rudder damage. The damage was discovered during a dive inspection while the ship was docked in Nice, France, on October 14. Because the rudders are used to steer the ship, the line deemed that the repairs require a dry dock. The vessel is to be dry-docked in Villefranche where it will be repaired in time for the cruise departing on the 25th October – Now I know one or two of you are on the cruise, so I wanted to reassure you that the cruise is still due to depart as planned. Luckily those passengers involved in the terminated cruise will receive a full refund of the cruise portion of their total fare for this sailing. We will also give all guests a 25 percent future cruise credit for another Celebrity cruise

Some of you may know that my long suffering other half Curtis, is a boat engineer and last week he was called out to a narrow boat that also had problems with the Rudder where it had hit a sill in a lock causing the boat to be stranded and Curtis spending the best part of two days repairing it where it was, which meant having to do it in the water – I didn’t even know it could be done this way, but what he was saying was that it was a massive job, so the thought of Rudders being damaged on a cruise ship seems virtual nightmare – I cant even guess at what would have caused the damage! I was thinking perhaps cruise.co.uk should start a little wager until we know exactly what happened – any ideas how this kind of damage could be done?

Queen Elizabeth - Royal Court Theatre..

As I mentioned in my blog the other day – when we were on the Queen Elizabeth we were treated to a presentation on the ship and the sea trials etc – this was breathtaking and made itch to book myself onboard, but what happened next really put the icing on the cake that this Ocean liner really doesn’t just have the edge!!

Queen Elizabeth has its own on board 21 strong theatre company who were only to happy to show off what they have evidently been practising for a very long time, A full band and dance troupe to a fantastic Bond themed medley, from Diamonds are forever to die another day and Gold finger, I would be more than happy to see any of these dancers on a Saturday night any week of the year. Effortlessly twisting a turning non stop for five minutes without breaking a swat these dancers really were exquisite. The band building the songs beautifully to their natural peak and bringing all the atmosphere of any west end show you may pay hundreds of pounds to see.

If you really are the type of person who enjoys these shows, there are many of us at cruise.co.uk who love these kind of shows and there would be no better way to see it than by Royal Theatre boxes, where for a small charge you can have the exclusive box and best views in the house, your bell boy escorts you from Dinner – with a half bottle of champagne, canapés and the most wonderful seat you will have a night to remember full of Modern music and classical theatre nestled neatly amongst the most beautiful memories of your cruise.

British Pensioner missing from Balmoral.

A colleague of mine on Tuesday alerted me to the fact that there was an unknown person missing from the Fred Olsen Balmoral. I was reading the newspapers and discovered the missing person was indeed a British Pensioner, a 79 year old man who has not yet been officially named is believed to have fallen from a cruise ship in the English Channel.  As part of his 21 day Adriatic cruise, the ship as in French waters – approximately 45miles south of the Lizard in Cornwall when he was reported missing – a full search of the ship by crew and the passenger could not be located at all. To read the full article - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/expat/expatnews/8061207/British-pensioner-missing-in-English-Channel.html

Brixham and French coast guards searched the waters until it was physically to dark to search by torch light! Returning to Dover this morning Balmoral will be a solemn ship to come home. Kent police have issued a statement to say that officers have boarded the ship this morning – presumably to take statements and perhaps perform their own search of the vessel. Has anyone travelled on this ship – Would you consider it easy to have ‘accidently’ fallen from the ship – all of the ships I’ve been on seem to be fairly safe and that you would have had to purposely climbed over barriers and balconies, am I missing something?

Everyone here at cruise.co.uk has fingers crossed for the safe arrival home of this gentleman and send our sympathies to his wife and family.

Royal Connections for QE Art work

In the Grand Lobby there is a piece of stunning wooden artwork, inspired by the Art deco period and designed and created by Lord Lindley who is now the Queens Nephew, the son of the late Princess Margaret and the Earl of Snowdon, Anthony Armstrong- Jones.


Lord Lindley is considered to be one of the masters in his field of modern day art and as the Ship is considered to be the Buckingham Palace at sea and would be only fitting that he would be responsible for this amazing piece of art work. The piece is over 18ft high and spread over more than two decks, and the largest piece of work he has done.

The high imagery of the first Queen Elizabeth’s Bow which sailed from 1938 to 1968 is made from multiple woods depict the evocative image of the former liner is madrona, Indian ebony, American walnut, grey ripple sycamore, burr ash, bird’s eye maple, satin walnut, ash, burr walnut, and Macassar ebony.

We at cruise.co.uk are all young at heart and we decided that such a famous piece needed to captured for prosperity and this photo is our tribute to the art!!!

Simply the Beth - Queen Elizabeth.

Sunday morning I disembarked the grand and simply wonderful Cunard ship, the brand new Queen Elizabeth. A beautiful ship that gloriously pays tribute to her predecessors, the Queen Elizabeth and QE2.

She has very usual grey looking Hull at the moment – perhaps this is still waiting for the famous black banding and a odd boxy looking stern, but although personally I found this a bit strange to look at from a distance, as we got closer, it was evident that this allows for extra balcony staterooms, a lounge deck and a games deck as well. There are so many little nooks to find, that I didn’t even find the Garden lounge until we were at breakfast in the lido restaurant, however Saturday was a little rushed when we got on board due to traffic in the town holding us up.

We were treated to a breathtaking video of the build and her sea trials and boy she looked good! I was sat on the ship and wanted to be on the ship if that makes any sense!!

I will endeavour to get the photos on here soon; I have some fabulous ones of the Queens staterooms. I personally stayed in a Princess grill stateroom – one of the bonuses of sharing with cruise.co.uk management perhaps!! But I was actually really impressed with the size of the room, in particular, the bathroom, which had a full size bath, over bath shower, exquisite black granite vanity unit and sink, there was a lot of storage space – little shelves for your essentials, usually overlooked in replace of ascetics. The walk in wardrobe which housed an exclusive Cunard dressing gowns and slippers was very big – with storage space for cases and such like. Also a neat little slot under the beds was perfect for hiding your case away and keeping the space neat.


All in all I will say the following words in summary – Stunning, breathtaking, exquisite, luxury beyond compare; fixtures and fitting are luxurious and completely perfect for the environment. The décor and art fit and compliment each other magnificently.