Royal Princess sneak preview

Are there any Princess cruises fans out there? Princess have just sent me a sneak peek of their new Royal Princess which goes on sale 15th March.
Check out the video below to be one of the first to see inside this amazing new cruise ship.

Cruising all year round

You all know the feeling. You've just got home from your cruise, the post is waiting to be be opened, (and you know there are bills waiting for you), you need to unpack and wash all your clothes and you want nothing more than to capture that feeling of being back onboard.
Well know, thanks to Princess cruises you can, at least in part.

What's the point of Princess cruises

P&O vs Princess cruises.........
It's an incendiary question and I'm sure there will be hordes of Princess cruise fans baying for my my blood out there by the time they finish reading this.
Stick with me for a minute though and let me know what you think before lynching me; I think I've got a fair point here, (he says).
First though a bit of background on Princess cruises might help anyone that hasn't cruised with them before.

More fuel surcharge increases

Just found out today that P&O, Cunard and Princess cruise lines will be putting their fuel charges up to £6 per day, up to a maximum of £200 per voyage. Unlike other cruise lines, who shall remain nameless however, (cough Fred Olsens cough), they wont be applying this charge to cruises already booked, just any new bookings made after the 28th Feb 2011.
The good news is that the increase will only apply to certain voyages, normally the longer ones, but todays top tip definitely has to be:
If you're looking to book a P&O, Cunard or Princess cruise this year do it before the 28th of Feb.

Strangely I'm on the side of the cruise lines with this one, if the price of fuel does go up clearly they need to put their prices up, it only annoys me when they apply it to bookings that have already been made.
But what do you think?

Happy Cruising

The Grand, Old? Princess………………..

Have any of you sailed on the Grand Princess lately? I’ve been speaking to a lot of passengers recently just coming off her who have said she’s looking a bit tired and dated.

She is due for a refurb. next year, but I have a lot of passengers booked onto her between now and then and am a bit worried about them finding her a bit old.
It’s convenient for us Brits to book on her as she sails from Southampton all year round but if she really is starting to look as bad as some people are saying should I be recommending other ex U.K sailings to people? Her ratings on our review sites have been below standard latley.
To confuse me even further though a senior member of management has just come back from her and says she had an absolutely great time and she knows cruise ships inside and out.
So whats the answer?
Have you been on her recently?

What did you think of her?

Does she need that refurb urgently?
And most importantly would you recommend her to a friend?
As always let me know your thoughts here………

Happy Cruising

I might not know art but I know what I like

For those of you who follow my cruise blogs regularly you will know Crystal cruises have just started a series of debates on the ships between different groups of professionals and experts for the entertainment of its passengers. For those who didn’t read the blog I’m assured it won’t be anything like a Jerry Springer show. At the time I wondered if this sort of entertainment was appropriate for a cruise ship and if the passengers would enjoy it. I also wondered how long it would be before other cruise lines started to move away from the traditional type of cruise ship entertainment and start offering something new. Well it looks like Princess are first of the mark with their new modern artist shows coming up over the next few months.