What happens when you fall sick on a cruise?

To a lot of people booking a cruise may not be an annual holiday, it may be a once in a life time experience where it's important that every single aspect is perfect. To be honest even if it's not a once in a life time experience, even if you're the kind of person that likes to cruise three of four times a year, it's still nice to know that everything will go according to plan.
But what happens when things don't? What happens when you fall ill on a cruise ship?

Do I need a visa?

I've been writing a series of blogs recently called top tips for first time cruisers, (you can see the full list on a tab at the top of this page, or just click the words highlighted in bold).
However it's been pointed out to me by a very nice lady on our cruise forum, that it's not only first time cruisers that need help, there are some things that all cruisers struggle with, no matter how many times they've cruised before.
One of those issues is applying for a visa.

When is a Union Jack not a Union Jack?

Well actually it always is.......... On the last cruise I was on there was a very snooty man on the next table to us lecturing his dinner companions who had mentioned seeing the Union Jack in some art work onboard.
"Actually, it's only called a Union Jack when it is flying from the back of the ship, you should call it the Union flag"

Hurtigruten are great for disabled passengers

Hurtigruten would of been the last company I ever looked at if someone had rang me up looking for a disabled cabin going to the Fjords. Not because there a bad company but just because of the type of ship they operate.

Southampton cruise berths

We all know that when you're off on holiday, (whether it's a cruise or a land based holiday), it's sometimes the little things that can worry you the most.
One of the questions I'm asked most frequently by people about to travel on a cruise, (or at least those that are about to cruise from Southampton), is which berth they will be leaving from at Southampton docks.
If it's an emergency I've no problems ringing the cruise line and asking them for my clients but if you're just looking for the address to load into your satnav I've found this handy little website that lists all the berths that cruise ships will be laving from for any upcoming cruises. Just click this link here - Which berth is my ship docked in at Southampton? Hope you'll find it as useful as I have.

Happy cruising.

Nasa have recommended cruising

Well ok that might be a slight exaggeration, or what some people might call a lie but they have just released some information that might be good news for anyone looking to book a cruise to the fjords this winter.

Can I cruise if I'm pregnant?

No, not really. You can get pregnant if you want but you can't cruise. Well not entirely........
You can sometimes subject to certain terms and conditions slightly different for each cruise line.

I hate Big Brother!

In fact even that statements probably a little too specific. I hate all reality TV!
Big Brother, X-factor, Britains Got Talent, I hate the lot. The problem is my wife is a massive fan so I normally end up having to suffer through some of them, (woe is me).
The reason I mention this is that a reality TV show has cropped up in the schedule that I think might actually be worth watching.

Dietary requests on a cruise ship

A lot of people worry about their dietary requirements on a cruise ship.
I don't just mean worrying about what the food will be like but about specific requests like Halal or Kosher food. You may be vegetarian or a vegan; you may have a lactose or wheat intolerance; you may even be deathly allergic to certain food groups.
Well you don't need to worry, comparing it to a land based holiday nothing could be easier to manage for you.

Child of the 80's

Looking back over my posts for the last couple of weeks and I've noticed there's a bit of a theme developing of me getting on my soap box and moaning, whether it be about Liverpool cruise terminal, Windstar cruises or Princess cruises out of the UK.
Well no more!
Tonight I'm going for something a little more light hearted.
It all came about chatting to a past passenger of mine who was reminiscing about the now gone QE2. She made the comment
"you know you were born in the sixties when you always dreamt about booking a cruise onboard the QE2".
Well I'm afraid I wasn't born in the sixties, I'm a child of the 80s so just for a bit of fun for all the rest of you out there.........

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.

Update on Star Clippers

Just a quick follow on tonight to Tuesdays post about Star Clippers. Several of you have emailed me some interesting facts and figures about Star Clippers cruises, some of which I already knew, some of them I didn't.
My favourite little known fact however is about the Royal Clipper, Star Clipper cruises largest yacht.
Whilst onboard you have to make sure you get a drink in a bar called the Captain Nemo lounge. As the title suggests it's located under the waterline and has portholes from which you can see out under the waves.
Maybe not so useful cruising the Baltics but perfect for those Caribbean itineraries for looking out at all the tropical fish.
It's also the only cruise ship that I know of to offer this amazing facility.

Happy cruising

Star Clipppers VS Windstar

I was talking to a client today who was bored of the usual big ocean going cruise vessels and wanted to try something new. She still wanted to cruise, she just wasn't sure what she was looking for.

After chatting to her for a bit I recommended to her that we have a look at some Star Clipper cruises and some Windstar cruises. Like a lot of other people out there, including a lot of experienced cruisers, she had never heard of either of them.

What's the point of Liverpool?

You may, (or may not), have been reading recently about the growing dispute between Southampton cruise terminal and it's Liverpool rival. If you haven't it's quite simple.
 In a nut shell Liverpool docks want a much larger share of the ex-UK cruising market and to that effect have invested nearly £20,000,000 in improving the Liverpool cruise terminal. The problem is they have largely done this out of public funds. Southampton obviously don't want to give up their share of the cruising market and whats more the Southampton cruise terminals have been mostly if not solely built from money raised by private investors.

Top nude cruise destinations

Ok so todays post is a bit tongue in cheek, but considering the response I got to my post about topless sunbathing on Royal Caribbean cruise ships there's clearly an interest out there for nude cruising. It's not going to be about naturist cruises per se, more about some naked beaches you could visit on some of the more popular cruise itineraries as a shore excursion. Feel free to recommend some more if you know of them, (and you're brave enough to admit to it!).

Wheelchairs on a cruise ship

Someone called me up looking to book a first time cruise for their 50th birthday and wanted to know if I could offer them some advice. They had never cruised before and were a little worried as they were in a wheelchair and were wondering if a cruise would be a suitable holiday.
I gave him all the advice and help he wanted and he ended up booking a cruise but it occurred to me that if he had questions about taking a wheelchair on a cruise ship then other people might have the same questions.
It's with that in mind that I've written todays post.

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........

Are cruise ships a good thing for a city?

Cruise ships bring a lot of money to a city in the form of tourism and port taxes etc but is a large number of cruise ships always a good thing?
I'm thinking about this after having just read a report about Barcelona which so far this year has been visited by 355 cruise ships, bringing in a total number of cruise passenger tourists of over 1,000,000!
Now Barcelona is a big city and can cope with that number of tourists, (the pickpockets and thieves preying on the tourists of Barcelona being a separate issue), but I'm thinking of the small Caribbean islands, or the small Fjord village ports that play host to the likes of Allure of the Seas or P&Os Ventura and Azura.
When these ships come into port the population of these places can sometimes double and that's assuming only one ship is docked; most experienced cruisers will be able to tell you nightmare stories about two or three big ships being docked at a small port at once. Whilst there's no doubt that these ports benefit from the revenue that level of tourism brings I can't help thinking what happens the day after when there aren't any ships in and the residents need to clean up after 2,000 to 3,000 cruise passengers, or what happens when in the off season if the ports don't get any cruise ships visiting them at all. What happens to all the jobs created by the ships visiting and the people that depend on them?
What do you think?

Happy cruising?

Would you book this airport?

I was speaking to a client the other day who was looking for a Christmas cruise. He wanted to cruise the Caribbean and he wanted to cruise for at least a month. Beyond this all he was really looking for was a cheap deal as he was going to be cruising as a single passenger so he wanted to avoid any massive single person supplements.
We finally settled on a P&O back to back cruise of 28 days. The only problem was although P&O still had plenty of flights to get him out there, because it was a Christmas cruise they didn't have any flights coming back. It was then that P&O offered us a really strange solution........

Who are the Blue Man Group

I was talking to a customer today about a cruise he wanted to book on the NCL Epic when I happened to mention offhand that one of the shows onboard was the Blue Man Group.
"Ooh, that sounds interesting", he said. "What do they do?"

I cannot tell you how much this question irritated me. Not because he'd asked it and not because I didn't know. I just couldn't find a way to put it into words. And I've seen them live!

Well, they're a sort of comedy act; with paint and music and stuff, and they're sort of alternate and different and........

I must of sounded like a blathering idiot to this poor passenger!
My best advice to him was to look up some videos on YouTube of them as they're one of those things that need to be seen to be understood.
If anyone's ever seen the Blue Man Group and can come up with a better explanation for them than I could please let me know. In the meantime for anyone who's looking to book a cruise on the NCL Epic or for anyone who's just interested in seeing them I've put a couple of videos below for you to have a look at.

Happy cruising