Did you know?

Do you want to hear something really strange?

I was shopping for a birthday present for my son Harry the other day, (he turned 3 today), when I noticed a book called 'The Wreck of the Titan' by a man called Morgan Robertson.

Nothing strange about that you may say. No? Well read on.

Owling - What is it?

I've said it before and I'll say it again, the internet is a strange place!
You may remember a post I did a few months ago about a craze sweeping the internet called planking, (you can read the post by clicking here).
In essence you had to lie down as stiff as a plank and then up load a picture of your self doing it to a site such as Facebook to share with all your friends. The weirder the place you did it in the better. Well this craze has now led on to a new internet fad called owling.

Crazy American laws

It's Friday, I've got the weekend off and I'm feeling pretty good about it. In honour of that I've decided todays post is going to be fun and light hearted; especially after what one of my past passengers told me yesterday.
He'd just come back from a holiday in Las Vegas where he had been charged a $20 a day resort fee to help pay for the complimentary teas and coffees in the morning.
What???!!!!!
If any of my lovely readers have a spare dictionary knocking around could they please highlight the word complimentary and send it over to America please. Clearly they're not sure what the word means.
In honour of this amazing piece of abuse of the English language I'm going to share these with you.
This isn't a joke.
All these laws are real in America, still on the books and you can be arrested and prosecuted for breaking them. If you're planning a trip to America any time soon be careful.
You have been warned!

What's a Thomson cruise like?

Todays post will be another entry into my current series of blogs, introducing the different cruise lines for first time cruisers. That's not to say more experienced cruisers might not also find this of some use, especially if you've never cruised with Thomson, but it's primarily designed for people looking to take their first cruise.

Can you scatter someones ashes from a cruise ship?

I know most of you who read my blog will be, by now, used to my tongue in cheek style, however this could be quite an emotive subject for some people so I'm going to try and keep it brief but respectful.
"Do cruise lines allow you to scatter someones ashes from a ship?"

When's the best time to to do a Fjord cruise?

This may well sound like a bit of a strange question as 90% of cruise lines only offer Fjord cruises during the summer months but the answer isn't what you might expect. The best time to cruise the Fjords is anytime.
The unique geography of the Fjords offers something a little different depending on which season you travel in, offering something a little different each time.
Find out what below.

Free cruise game

It's been awhile since I brought you any cruise themed games so I thought for todays post I'd provide a little sailing challenge. I've been thinking about Star Clippers a bit over the last week as an old passenger of mine was enquiring about their Southampton departures next year. In honour of that I thought today I'd give you a free game you can play online all about tall ships.

Happy cruising

Do you like your toast done on one side?

This may sound like a really random question but it was bugging me last night. I was listening to some old Sting songs when An Englishman in New York came on.
For anyone that doesn't know it, it's about a quintessential Englishman complaining about how things are different in New York.

"I don't drink coffee I take tea my dear

I like my toast done on one side"

It caught my attention because I remember on my first ever Cunard cruise ,(click here for a review), this was how they served my toast at breakfast, only toasted on the one side. I remember thinking at the time it was really strange but what with it being my first ever cruise, (as well as my first Cunard cruise), I just assumed this was how all toast was served on a cruise ship.

It wasn't until I heard those lyrics last night that I thought there might be something more behind it.

Who are Fred Olsen?

I'll be continuing my series of posts today looking at the different cruise lines first time cruisers might be interested in and just providing a bit of background to them with some pros and cons.
Todays post will be all about Fred Olsen.

Nautical terms on a cruise ship - explained

Continuing my series of posts about top tips for first time cruisers I thought it might be useful if I put together a short guide about some of the terms that commonly get used by travel agents or cruise lines whilst talking about cruises and ships in general. A lot of them you could probably figure out but some of them can be a bit confusing, hopefully this guide will help.

The Queen Victoria - Three of a kind now!

Sorry it's a bit late but I've only just got around to taking the pictures off my camera. You may remember me mentioning back in July that I was off down to Southampton to visit the Queen Victoria.

I was especially excited as this would complete my Cunard set; trip Queens. I've now seen all three of Cunards current ships, although I'm still gutted that I only started cruising after the QE2 had already retired. Hey ho, such is life. 

So what did I think of her? Very nice. Still not a touch on the QM2 mind, (you can read my review of her here), but still nice. I think I preferred her to he sister ship the Queen Elisabeth, (you can read my review of her here), but it was a close run thing. The art deco theme done out in beiges and browns on the QE was nice but I think the QV was just that bit more traditional and more in line with what I expect from a Cunard ship.

But you don't need to take my word for it, check out the pictures I took onboard below.

What are P&O like?

A while back I wrote a post titled What are MSC Like? You can read it by clicking the words in bold. It was an introduction for first time cruisers as to what they could expect from an MSC cruise. One of my regular readers, whom I was talking to the other day, suggested it might be handy if I started a series of posts just introducing the other cruise lines to help first time cruisers make up their mind about the suitability of different cruises and what they offer. I've decided to kick the series of with the cruise line P&O.

Oceania Insignia - The best food I've ever eaten, oh and some cabins and stuff

I spent most of the past weekend in the car. On Saturday I spent four hours driving to and from Legoland Windsor with the kids and then on Sunday spent another four hours driving down to Dover to see the Oceania Insignia with another four hours coming back the next day.
Now that may well sound like a lot of driving to you but I'm here to tell you I'd go twice as far again for another lunch onboard an Oceania cruise ship. Not only do they offer the best food I've ever eaten at sea, I'd go so far as to say it's some of the best food I've eaten ever!
I was onboard the Insignias sister ship the Regatta last year and you can see a full pictorial tour of her by clicking here, (they're both very similar). Today's post will just be a highlight tour of what I think makes Oceania special.

Automatic grats - What they aren't telling you

I've gone back and forth on this subject more times than I can count now and I'm still not sure where I fall on the subject. On the one hand I tend to think how dare someone tell me I have to tip; on the other hand I also know how hard the crew work and how much they rely on those tips to make up their wages.
However I found out something today that several large cruise lines all do that really shocked me.

Driving to Southampton

I've had to drive down south on the M40 twice now in the last couple of days. The first time was on Saturday to visit Legoland Windsor with the family; the second time was on Sunday, driving down to Dover to see the cruise ship Oceania Insignia, (I'll add a review of her soon).
The reason I mention this is that in the last couple of years I must of driven up and down the M40 over a dozen times on my way to Southampton to catch a cruise and every time I do do I pass a strange shaped building and every time I wonder to myself, "what is that"?
This time I remembered to take a picture of it and I'm wondering if any of you have ever seen it on your way to catch a cruise as well and wondered what it is, (or fingers crossed can actually tell me).

My Top Ten List of things you didn't know you could do on a cruise.

We all know cruising is becoming a more and more attractive option, especially cruises from the UK without the worry of flights. Many more people are looking at cruising as a viable option for their family holiday but there are still loads of activities and entertainment that a cruise ship offers that most people don't even know about.
Here's my top ten list of things you didn't know a cruise ship offered.