New for 2011

Back to work tomorrow after my little holiday and I'm looking forward to getting back into the thick of things. Quite a lot's been going on at Cruise.co.uk whilst I've been away.  I'll talk more at some other point about some of what we've got planned for 2011 but my favourite change from December had to be the life on board section of our website.

Only 18 days now!

Merry Christmas all. The countdown continues today with something a bit more practical than my last few blogs. Click the read more button below for todays advent treat.

Am I the only one that's bothered by this?

I wrote a blog awhile back, (click here to read it), explaining how P&O were offering Kosher meals onboard their cruise ships but not Halal. For those who aren’t sure of the difference kosher food is a staple of the Jewish diet whereas Halal is the staple of a Muslim diet. Call me naïve if you want but I was quite offended by the idea that a cruise line would specifically cater for one religious group but not another. Several months down the line it turns out that the situation wasn’t quite as simple as I first thought.

The greatest meal never eaten

I was watching a re-run of Heston Blumenthal Feasts on TV last night when I caught an Edwardian episode about the Titanic that I had missed the first time around. I wont go too much into details on the show, I’m sure you’ve seen it before and this is meant to be a blog about cruising rather than TV, but it got me thinking about how much dining had changed onboard over the last hundred years or so.

And before I get lynched by a lot of angry cruisers, I’m in no way saying the quality of the food has changed, just the style. But how much of a difference does the style/presentation of the cooking really make? Is a steak just a steak?

Chocoholics Ahoy

Until a couple of days ago if you had asked me what RCI stood for I would of said Royal Caribbean International, but you could now be forgiven for thinking it stands for Royal Chocolate International.
A few months ago RCI started trialling a ‘chocolate breakfast’, including hot chocolate, chocolate milkshakes, chocolate pancakes with whipped cream and chocolate waffles with caramel-banana topping, although I couldn’t find any sign of Coco Pops on the menu. The kids menu maybe?

A great recipe for cruising

 I was looking at some of the menus for the different cruise lines today, just before my lunch, thinking how delicious they all looked. It got me thinking about how many people rave about the food when they got back and I thought it might be nice to post a couple of recipes for you to enjoy and reminisce over. Or if you’ve got a cruise booked to whet your appetites. Most of these recipes are available on line but being a bit of an amateur chef I’ve put my own twist on them, you’ll have to let me know if it makes them total inedible.