Off on my hols

Don't worry if you don't hear from me for a few days; I've not disappeared anywhere I'm just off down south for a long weekend with the family.
I'm going to be stopping on a Haven site, (I've never done that before so I'll have to let you know how it goes), so fingers crossed the weathers nice and I'll be back and posting again come Tuesday, (1st Nov).
In the meantime voting's now open so don't forget to cast your vote for me on the link below...

http://www.twcoverstars.com/jamescrossland
Thanks in advance again and see you soon.


Happy cruising. 

Can I ask a favour?

Hi guys and gals.
As you can see from the title of today's post I'm asking you all for a little favour.
I've entered an online competition for travel agents to win a trip to New York for an exclusive make over. (You only need to see a few pictures of me to see I could do with it).
If you've read this blog and enjoyed it could I please ask you to click the link below and vote for me.
Voting will run from the 27th October to the 08th November.

http://www.twcoverstars.com/jamescrossland

Thanks in advance, (I'll keep you posted if I win).

PS feel free to share the link with friends on Facebook and Twitter etc

Problem with Royal Caribbean cruises?

You may or may not remember me mentioning before that one of the things I like to do after I've booked a cruise for someone is to give them a call when they get back from said cruise just to make sure they've had a good time and that nothing went wrong.
It's also useful in finding out what the different cruise lines are up to onboard and which lines are best recommended to different people.
I was making one of these calls today when my passenger highlighted what he thought was a major flaw with Royal Caribbean.
But what do you think..........?

Cruise industry set for a massive shake up

I've said it before and I'll say it again, I'm not a big fan of sea days. Cruising for me is all about seeing the different ports of call on my itinerary, not relaxing onboard staring out at the ocean.
Don't get me wrong, the occasional day at sea in between ports is nice to break things up but four or five days in a row? No thanks!
The problem is that some new fuel regulations that will come into play in 2015 may well mean a massive increase in sea days.

Celebrity cruises - Behind the scenes

Hmmmm, it's not often you'll hear me criticising Celebrity Cruises. I think they're a great cruise line with some of the most amazing ships at sea, (click here to see my review of the Celebrity Eclipse).
The one thing that does bug me about them however is the amount of things you're charged for whilst your onboard and the cost of those things in general.
If you're not careful you can walk away from your cruise with a huge bill on your onboard account and I don't think Celebritys latest brain wave is going to help this situation much.

Does all inclusive = Chav cruisers?

I added some news recently to our forums at cruises.co.uk about how MSC have a deal on at the moment for an all inclusive drinks package.
One of the comments made about this was that MSC were obviously lowering there standards and that there would would be lots of horror stories "of people being ejected at ports and numerous cruisers lost at sea."
On first reading it I thought it was a little harsh but on further thought it did have me thinking, when you offer something like an all inclusive drinks package does it attract the 'wrong sort' to the cruise?

Disneys AquaLab, a must for children

The AquaLab on the new Disney Fantasy ship has been custom made by Donald Duck especially for his nephews Huey, Dewey and Louie with a variety of different water experiments for them to play with and enjoy.
The problem is just as you board the ship you will find that they have had to rush out on an adventure leaving a hand written note for your kids telling them they're in charge of the lab till they get back.
Your children will be in charge of the Aqua Coaster and by turning wheels and pulling levers they can change the speed and temperature of the AquaDuck.
The problem is, the AquaLab, having been built by Donald Duck, wasn't made very well. There is a leaky wall where kids will have to try and keep the water circulating by covering the holes in it with their hands and in other areas they'll have to be quick to stop the leaky pipes from filling Uncle Donald's row boat.

River cruising - The naked truth

I recently wrote a post about a swingers cruise on an Azamara ship sailing in 2013, (you can read the post by clicking here), and at the risk of giving myself a bit of a reputation I've just come across another cruise in a similar vein.

Top five tips for how to sleep on a plane

You say the word cruise and people automatically think luxury and comfort and when you're sailing out of your home port I think I'd agree with that.
But what if you have to do a long haul flight first?
Now I deliberately don't take long haul flights as with two small children in tow, (Harry's 3 and Summer is only 7 months), the thought of a long haul flight terrifies me. I'd have no idea on how to keep them entertained for that long!
But for those looking to connect with a cruise ship on the opposite side of the globe a long haul flight can sometimes be a torturous ordeal. Sleeping through it is normally the best option but I know a lot of people do struggle to sleep on planes.
That's where this guide comes in...........

How to beat a cruise ship casino

Cruise ship casinos work a bit different from their land based counterparts. To start with they're obviously a lot smaller. They're also much more focused on entertaining you rather than emptying your wallet.
That being said however they're still, at heart, a casino and all casinos the world over tend to operate on the same rule, "the house always wins".
There are however a few simple rules you can follow that, whilst they may seem obvious, should give you an edge.

Language mix ups

Most of us will have done it at some time or another, you're abroad, you're trying to make yourself understood to Johnny Foreigner and you've resorted to the Del Boy method of communicating.
You've repeated what you've just said, in English, slowly and loudly just expecting to be understood. Obviously you weren't but it's nice to know that it's not just us that have these problems. It also affects big multinational companies as well.

My babys first word!

Sorry if this post sounds a bit mushy but I'm doing the proud Dad thing today. My little daughter Summer has said her first word and it was Dada!!!!
I missed it unfortunately as I was busy at work organising lots of nice cruises for you all but she said it again when I got home, "Hiya Dada". Not bad going for a seven month old; obviously genius runs in the family, (cough, cough).

Are Fred Olsen trying too hard?

First off, I like Fred Olsen. I like their ships, (well the Balmoral); I like the atmosphere onboard; I like their staff and normally I like the way they operate, but just lately it's started to feel that Fred Olsen are trying to be something they're not.

Sex n' Drugs n' Onboard Credit

Well two out of three isn't bad. As you may have already guessed todays post is going to be about the slightly darker side of the cruise industry.

A famous luxury cruise brand has just announced that one of their ships has been chartered out for early 2013 to host a swingers themed cruise. (For the more innocent amongst you I'm not talking about dancing either).

Does a river cruise have to be expensive?

Does a river cruise always have to be expensive? I don't think so, for several reasons.
Before I answer it though a bit of background information on river cruising may help, (you can click here for a previous post I've done on the pros and cons of river cruising).
River cruises are the smaller cousins of their ocean going counterparts. For obvious reasons they are built on a much smaller scale so you get a much more intimate atmosphere onboard and they just sail up and down the different rivers of Europe, Russia or China, dropping their passengers right into the middle of a town so they don't have the long transfers from port to town like so many ocean cruise have to do, (Civitavechhia to Rome anyone?)
This means that the focus of a river cruise really is on the itinerary and not the ship itself.

Is my Canaries cruise still safe?

If you've been watching the news over the last few days and you've a Canaries cruise booked you might be feeling rather nervous.
If you've not heard then to just catch you up the Spanish government has issued a yellow alert to all travellers and residents in the Canaries area due to an increase in seismic activity in the last few days.
El Heirro has suffered what is called an earthquake swarm, over 8,000 tremors in the last two months!
Experts say that this is normally a good sign that a volcanic eruption is imminent.

There are over 10, 000 people living on El Heirro although so far only 53 of them have been evacuated but the Spanish army has been mobilised and is ready to perform a mass evacuation if one becomes necessary.

Where have you been?

I found a great little website today that I thought I'd share with you all. It allows you to create a virtual map of all the countries you have been to in your life and also calculates what percentage of the globe you've traveled to.
If you interested the link is enclosed below.