I support the B.A. crew. Do you?

At the risk of angering all our customers and most of my colleges I felt I had to stand up for the brave crews of B.A. who have been taking a bashing not only in the national media but on our blogs and forums as well. By now we all know the B.A. crew are striking and how much it has disrupted all our travel plans, but how many of you can put your hands on your hearts and say why?

Second star on the right, then straight on till morning

Disney aren’t getting much blog space at the moment from me or many of my colleagues, but I think for 2011 and definitely 2012 they will be one of the top requested family cruises.

They currently have two ships, the Disney Magic and the Disney Wonder with the Disney Dream scheduled to launch in 2011 and the Disney Fantasy in 2012. They also own Castaway Cay, a private island in the Bahamas.

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?

James Lookalike Blog

Got a little bored of blogging about cruises this week so just for a bit of fun I thought I would compile a list of all the people friends, family and customers tell me I look like. I'm sure there are a lot more of me lookalikes out there though, so I'm looking forward to seeing your ideas and suggestions. To the right is a picture of me on my wedding day for those of you who haven't met me in person.

Why can’t I call my Cruiseship a boat?

A lot of people in the maritime world will react quite strange, even angrily if you refer to a ship as a boat. This actually happened to me the first time I was on a cruise ship and talking to one of the officers, woops, he wasn’t happy with me!

The situation isn’t helped by the fact that there is no set definition of the difference. So how can you tell the one from the other?

Well, the general rule of thumb is that a boat can fit into a ship, but a ship can’t fit into a boat. So in theory a ship is a large ocean going vessel whilst a boat will be much smaller.

Jamaican Gambling.

  Jamaica has just formed a commission that has taken the decision to legalise gambling on the island.
   Speaking at the Jamaica Product Exchange conference in Montego Bay, Edmund Bartlett told delegates that within six months the new commission will invite hotels on the island to apply for gaming licenses.
  Mr Bartlett commented that casinos were a natural development in Jamaica’s continuing tourism renaissance.
  Plans include developing casinos alongside the existing Palmyra resort at Rose Hall and with sites along the southern and eastern coasts also being considered.
  Mr. Bartlett however did comment that casinos ‘would not be allowed to exceed 20% of any planned development’, so anyone hoping for a tropical Las Vegas will have to wait a little longer I’m afraid.
  So what are your thoughts? Will this add an exciting new dimension to Jamaican holidays and cruises or spoil one of your favourite tropical destinations? Make sure you let me know.

Happy Cruising.

Now the ash has settled....................

We have all seen the news about the erupting volcano and how it has disrupted flights all over northern Europe. What you might not have heard is some of the conspiracy theories behind it.
Just for a bit of light hearted fun I have listed some of my favourite theories, but I would love to hear back about yours.

Will Muslims say no to P&O?

I was booking a P&O cruise for a client late last Friday when he asked me if P&O would be ok to serve him and his wife Halal, (food suitably prepared for Muslims), food on the cruise. Assuming this wouldn’t be a problem as I had done the same with other cruise lines I went ahead and booked the cruise for him.
Calling P&O first thing Monday morning to add the request I was shocked to discover this wasn’t a dietary request they offered on any of their ships.

A Brief History of Cunard

  We all now Cunard is one of the most historic and iconic brands available in cruising. Its name synonymous with style, luxury and grandeur, but it wasn’t till speaking to a Cunard rep. recently that I realised how much history this brand had behind them. What follows is just a quick summary of this iconic brands history through numerous depressions, wars, disasters and upheavals to give us today the brand we all know and hopefully love.

  1839- Samuel Cunard, the founding father of the line is awarded the contract for carrying the Royal Mail to Canada and the U.S. of A, forming the North American Royal Mail Steam Packet Company, also called the Cunard Line.

Cruising for Dummies

I was reading an article over the weekend about first time cruising, (yes that’s how exciting my weekends really are), and I was surprised by the figure of how many people on an average sailing had never cruised before.
35%!
Well over a quarter of the people on a cruise will have never been before, and the thought occurred to me that many may not have a clue as to what they are doing, what’s going on or what other passengers/crew are talking about.

I sat down and thought back to my first cruise and highlighted some of the points that I know now that I wish I knew then. Hope this helps......

Thatcher vs. Scargill round 2?

  So B.A. staff are planning to strike again. More disruption for long suffering flight passengers, and the timing unfortunately seems to coincide with the end of all the volcano disruptions as well.

  Planned this time are four separate five day strikes for May and June. The first strike is planned for the 18th May, with the other three strikes planned for the 24th May, the 30th May and the 5th of June.
  A lot of travellers, with good reason, have been up in arms about this, on the blogs and the forums saying how dare B.A. staff strike, in the current climate they should just be thankful to have jobs.
  But, is this attitude just the result of the public nature of their jobs? Would we be more sympathetic if they were striking over unfair working conditions in a sector that didn’t affect ourselves so much? Do employees, no matter what the job or industry they work in have a right to protest changes forced on them by a management just trying to cut costs and turn a bigger profit?

What do you think?

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.

The NCL kids clubs

  After posting about the giant Wii screens available on NCL ships recently a lot of people asked what else was available for the kids to do as a lot of parents didn’t want their children spending all holiday playing computer, no matter how big the screen.

Wii want to cruise with NCL

So, you’ve just got past Christmas, you're planning the family holiday for the summer. All you want to do is relax for two weeks in the sun. A cruise round the med seems perfect. Buuuuuuuuut Mom, buuuuuuuut Dad cruises sound boring!