Kosher food that will taste good?

Anyone that's been reading my blog for a while will know that Halal and Kosher food has always been a bit of a bug bear with me. It annoys me that so many cruise lines offer Kosher meals but not Halal and even when they do offer Kosher meals they're pre-packed microwave meals. Not really the standard I'd expect on a cruise ship!

Looking to improve on this situation, (somewhat, there still isn't a Halal option), Celebrity are set to launch a range of 'premium Kosher meals'.

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.

How much fuel does a cruise ship use?

A client asked me the other day how much fuel a cruise ship uses on an average voyage compared to his car. I wasn’t sure what to tell him as it wasn’t a question I’d ever been asked before but I went away and did some rough, (very rough), maths work to try and calculate it for him.

You can check out the results below, (the maths is very rough so feel free to correct me if you can).

Your regular cruise crossword - Nautical terms.

Well I promised you a regular cruise crossword so here's the second installment for you. I hope you enjoy it as much as you did the first one.
Again depending on the feedback I get I may carry these on with either a weekly or fortnightly installment.

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

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

Sea sickness cures and remedies

Sea sickness is probably the number one worry for first time cruisers so I thought it was about time I gave a bit of advice about what it is and how best to avoid/overcome it.

Sea sickness is caused by a conflict between your senses. You have a very sensitive canal in your inner ear filled with fluid that acts a lot like a spirit level. This controls your sense of balance. So whilst you’re on a cruise ship, even though you might not be able to feel it, this inner ear canal well be aware of the slight movements of the ship. However because your eyes are telling your brain at the same time that your not moving the conflict caused leads to the sense of nausea you experience. This is also what causes motion sickness on land, in a car for instance.

So now you know what it is, what can you do about it?

Dress codes on a cruise ship

I've lost track of the times someone has asked me about dress codes on cruise ships; what they were expected to wear and when. Whilst I've never minded explaining to people what the different dress codes are and when and where you have to wear them it occurred to me that there might be a lot of people out there thinking the same thing but not wanting to ask, so todays post will be about dress codes on cruise ships.

A cruise crossword for you

I'm trying something new today and I'm not sure how keen people will be so I'll apreciate as much feedback as you can give me.
Do you like the idea of a regular cruise crossword?
Would you like the clues easier?
Harder?
More cryptic?
As I said, if I do get some positive feedback regarding this I may look at expanding it and making it a regular thing for you all.
Click the read more button below for your Cruise Crossword.

Celebritys Concierge Pillow Menu

A customer called me up today looking to book a concierge class cabin aboard a Celebrity ship; he knew he got a lot of extra benefits with it, but wasn't sure exactly what the benefits were.
Quickly summarising for him I ran through the list of extras he could expect:

• Priority Check in
• Complimentary welcome sparkling wine
• Nightly deliveries of hors d'oeuvres
• A second hand held dryer, (useful if there's more than one woman in the cabin).
• Egyptian cotton bath towels
• Complimentary shoe shine service
• Express luggage delivery
• Celebrity tote bag
• Golf umbrella and high quality binoculars in your room
• An extended room service breakfast menu and my favourite
• A pillow menu.

I'd seen this benefit several times but was never sure exactly what you got with it. How many pillows can you really have on a menu? How many different kinds of pillow are there?
Well, after doing a bit of research on the internet you're about to find out........

A cruise game for you

I found this the other day whilst I was looking for a cruise to America and found it quite fun; I couldn't score more than 29 out of 50 though. I've enclosed it below for you all to have ago at as well. Feel free to post your score in the comments box underneath.
Have fun.