Gon Cruisin!

I'm going to be out of the office for the next few days drifting peacefully around the Med on a fantastic ship, the NCL Epic.
I'll be letting you know all about it as soon as I'm back but if you need any travel agent help in the meantime feel free to call one of my colleagues on 0800 408 6200.

Happy cruising

My random week

May Nan used to be fond of her little sayings any time anything strange happened to her.
"There's nowt queer as folk"
or
"It takes all sorts".
After some of the people I've spoken to this week I'm starting to think she may have had a point.

Cruise consultant of the year 2011

Hi all, I'm back. did you miss me?The sharp eyed amongst you will have noticed that I haven't posted anything here since the beginning of December. You don't need to worry, I'm fine, I've just been enjoying a well deserved break.So what have I been up to you ask?

Gon' Fishin'

Well not quite. I've been fishing once in my life and found it to be the most boring thing ever invented by man so have no plans to do it again. I am however going to be away for awhile as I'm now off work until the 3rd of January 2012.

For the curious I haven't a lot planned.
There's a mini cruise to Bruges on the 15th with work for our Christmas party, (it's on the P&O Arcadia this year), and I'll be down in Southampton on Monday having lunch onboard the QM2, (I've been shortlisted for cruise consultant of the year so I'll have to let you know how that goes), but the rest of the holidays I'm planning on spending with my lovley wife and children, taking a well deserved break.

Pop back on Tuesday to find out about how I did in the cruise consultant of the year competition, (I'm down to the final three so fingers crossed for me), otherwise I'll be back in the new year stunning you all with a new set of interesting or strange, (sometimes both), set of cruise stories/facts/gossip/rumours/tips.

Until then have a Merry Christmas and happy new year.

Flotsam, Jetsam and............

Someone emailed me a few days ago saying how useful they found my blog, especially the section for first time cruisers. The one thing they didn't like about it though was the title of James' Jetsam as they weren't sure if Jetsam was my surname or not and if it wasn't what it actualy meant.
Todays post then is for anyone who's been wondering the same thing.

My babys first word!

Sorry if this post sounds a bit mushy but I'm doing the proud Dad thing today. My little daughter Summer has said her first word and it was Dada!!!!
I missed it unfortunately as I was busy at work organising lots of nice cruises for you all but she said it again when I got home, "Hiya Dada". Not bad going for a seven month old; obviously genius runs in the family, (cough, cough).

Where have you been?

I found a great little website today that I thought I'd share with you all. It allows you to create a virtual map of all the countries you have been to in your life and also calculates what percentage of the globe you've traveled to.
If you interested the link is enclosed below.

Confused by Harry Potter

Hi all. Today's post doesn't have anything to do with cruising, instead it's a question that's been bugging me for the last few days and I was hoping one of my readers might be able to help me.
Being the decent gent that I am I took my wife out to see the last Harry Potter movie recently. She's a massive fan and has been looking forward to seeing it since she saw the previous film.
I haven't really seen many of the movies, and this one was part two and I'd only seen half of the first one so perhaps my confusion is understandable.
Here's my question........

30th Birthday blues

Just a quick one today guys and gals. I'm going to be out of the office for the next week or so so you won't hear from me for a bit. I'm down to Southampton on Friday for a day visit to the Fred Olsen Balmoral, (You can read my review of her next week, so make sure you check back), then I turn 30 on the weekend.
I'm just going away for a few days with the family to celebrate the fact that I'm getting really old now.
In the meantime if you need anything you can contact my colleauges on 0800 408 6200 or you can check out this link here for your daily blog fix.

Happy cruising

There's a first time for everything

Sorry I've been away for a few days folks but I've had a bit of a busy weekend enjoying the weather, (when I say busy obviously I mean completely chilling out and relaxing!). Fingers crossed your weekend's been as good as mine. I've spent all today chilling out in the back garden with a cold drink enjoying a barbecue whilst Harry, (my little lad), splashed around in the paddling pool.
Yesterday though we went for a picnic in the woods.

What would you like from these blogs?

I was looking through some old blog posts today when I realised I'd been writing this blog for nearly a year. I hope you've all enjoyed reading it as much as I've enjoyed writing it. For todays post I'm looking for a bit of feedback to try and find out just how much you've enjoyed it.
It's fairly easy to keep a track of how many people have been reading my posts but the question I wanted to ask you all today was why.

Which of my posts have you enjoyed the most.
The descriptions of the ships?
The advice for first time cruisers?
The jokes?
The games?
Is there anything you'd like to see me add going forward? Or change? Or see more of? As I've said I'm glad you've all enjoyed things up till now but I'd love to get some feedback on what you've thought so far and what you'd like to see added. (Fingers crossed you vote for more ship reviews as it'll mean work will have to send me down to Southampton more).

So let me know what you think and I'll see what I can do.

And as always, happy cruising

Newest addition to the Cruise Dot family

Well, newest addition assuming no one else has had any babies since I've been away on paternity leave anyway.
My apologies for my long absence but as you've probably realised I've been off on paternity leave for the last week and half and, being heartily sick of nappies, baby vomit and sleepless nights I'm looking forward to getting back to work tomorrow.

We named our daughter Summer Paige Crossland, born on the 16th February 2011, weighing 6lbs 7.5oz with Mom and baby home the next day.
She was a little underweight at birth, especially as she was a week late, (typical female), but is doing absolutely fine now as can be attested by the fact she keeps waking me up at 3:00am for food.
 As I've said I'm back at work tomorrow and looking forward to catching up withe everyone. If you click below you'll be able to see some pictures of little baby Summer and if you start checking back again regularly normal service will be resumed.

Happy cruising.

40 weeks today

Well, which ever of you had the 10th of Feb in the sweepstakes have lost I'm afraid. Yep, me and my good wife reached the forty week mark today and still no baby!
I don't think I can ever be remember being this impatient in my life. Not even the run up to Christmas as a kid was as bad as this.
Fingers crossed it'll be any day now though so if you find a sudden silence on my blog page you'll know it's because I'm busy with sleepless nights and dirty nappies again.
We've still not managed to come up with any names either. we know it's a girl but eight months and several arguments later the shortlist is still about fifteen names long so please, please.....

If any of my readers can think of any girls names for me, I'm asking for your help. All suggestions gratefully received!
And if I don't speak to you again before the happy event.

Happy Cruising

Do you see the world in terms of your job?

As I get older, (I turn 30 this year), I notice more and more that I'm view the world in terms of my job.
It's worrying because I know both my Dad and Grandad used to do this. They were builders/roofers and I could guarantee that if we were watching a movie then within 30 seconds of an explosion I'd here a comment along the lines of:
"That's gonna cost a fortune to rebuild" or "they won't be able to fix that, they're gonna have to knock it down and start again."
It always used to annoy me as a child so I always promised myself I wouldn't do this but last night I found myself doing the exact same thing.

The Commodore and I

As you all know, all our clients here at Cruise.co.uk are intelligent, sophisticated and polite people who appreciate all the hardwork we put in behind the scenes, but as in all industries, we very occasionally get some one ring us up who isn't quite so polite. This happened to me several days ago and I thought I'd share it all with you.

A lady rang me up looking for a balcony cabin onboard the QM2. We had several cabins available but she wouldn't book one unless I could guarantee that she wouldn't have fraternise, (her word), with anyone in an inside cabin!
I actually thought she was joking to start with but when it turned out she was serious I obviously said there was nothing I could do to help. To which I got this comment......

What will the weather for your cruise be like?

As you all know I was off on my hols in December, having fun making snowmen with my son Harry, so I missed all the disruption that the snow caused. A lot of our passengers were stranded at Heathrow or worse, (or better depending on how you look at it I supose), were stuck abroad as their flights couldn't get into the UK.
Everyone here at Cruise.co.uk worked really hard to arrange alternate flights for people or keep them up to date with weather reports and the status of their flights.

Only 8 days now....

I'm going to deviate from the normal advent treat a little today and instead let you all know what I've been up to this morning.

To start with, I'm really tired as it involved a 6:30 start and then I spent the rest of the morning trying to keep up with an over excited two year old, no easy task as I'm sure any parent can tell you. So where have I been? You'll have to read on for that info.

Don’t call, I’m busy cruising

Just a really quick one this morning to let everyone know I'm off down to Southampton today to board the P&O ship Aurora for the Cruise.co.uk Christmas party, (it’s a two nighter over to Bruges and back). All going well I should be back in the office Monday afternoon, so if you need me you wont be able to reach me till then. For all you hardened P&O fans I'll try to get a review written early in the week so check back to see all my pictures and see what I thought of her; I've never been on a P&O ship before so it will be interesting to compare it to the Cunard ships I’ve seen.

Happy Cruising  

Just a little favour

Just a really quick one today cruise fans. We currentley have a competion running for the most popular cruise consultant and the most popular cruise blog of the year. If you have enjoyed reading my blog over the last year or have booked a cruise through me and enjoyed the service, could I ask you to click the link below and vote for me please.

Thanks in advance - James

Click here to vote

The QM2 - I can't wait!

Just a quick one today to let everyone know I'm off down to Southampton at the weekend to board the QM2. It's just a short cruise over to Cherbourg so I'll be back by next Wednesday if you need me.
For all you hardened Cunard fans I'll try to get a review written by about Thursday, Friday time next week so check back to see all my pictures and see what I thought of her, (never been on the QM2 before, so I'm quite excited).

Happy Cruising