What is wrong with Homeland security?

At the risk of never been granted a visa to enter the United States I had to ask the question after seeing this story in the news yesterday. How stupid are the American security services? For those of you who didn't see this in the news yesterday, please keep reading, you won't believe it!

Can I wear a kilt on my cruise?

You can if you want to. People do.
I've seen loads of people on a formal night wearing their full tartan regalia proudly boasting how these have been their clan colours for the last four or five hundred years -
Except, sorry, they haven't.

Azuras 2013 world cruise cancelled.

Lets face it who didn't see this coming? A world cruise on a ship this big was always going to be a mistake.
I'm going to generalise a little bit here but the average age of a world cruiser tends to be sixty five plus, (who else but someone that's retired can cruise for a hundred days or more?).
Older cruisers tend to prefer smaller ships, (see, I said I'd be generalising), and P&O have designated the Azura as their largest 'family friendly' ship.
A cancelled cruise was always on the cards.

Ultimate luxury line to host ultimate food experience

It's hard to imagine Crystal cruises getting much better. Now that they've done away with onboard credit and moved to the all inclusive option onboard it would seem to some that they're about as good as they're going to get.
Well, to start with I'm sure that's not true. I've never known a cruise line to just sit back and rest on it's laurels; they're always trying to improve things onboard.
However, any passengers booked on the Crystal Serenity this May leaving Dover are in for an extra special treat.

Are Costa Cruises offering a 30% discount to Concordia survivors?

The internet has been ablaze for the last couple of days over a report that Coast Cruise Lines has offered  cruise passengers onboard the Costa Concordia a 30% discount off their next Costa cruise as compensation for the disaster.
Whilst I don't think Coast have exactly been covering themselves in glory over this incident I'm afraid people that this report is completely false, or nearly so anyway.

Coast Guard audio with Captain Schettino

Anyone who knows me will tell you my political views lean so far to the left that I'm nearly falling over and I'm a firm believer in a free and impartial trial but I have to admit after listening to this recording even I was left thinking what a coward. If a lynch mob had of walked by my house at the time I would have helped them carry the rope!
Let's hope when it finally does go to trial the Italian court system manages to find an unbiased jury.

Tourist attractions in Ceuta

I was looking up a cruise for someone the other when I noticed a city on the itinerary that I'd never seen before. As it was a fairly standard cruise to the Canaries you can imagine this surprised me., I thought I knew all the ports of call in that area.
The more I read about it though, the more interesting it sounded so I decided to put together a little guide for you of "what is there to do in Ceuta" if you ever find yourself there.

Complete cruise brochure 2012

Well, it's finally ready! The complete cruise brochure 2012 is here and should be landing on your door mats as you read this, (or maybe a week or two later depending on Royal Mail).
If Royal Mail are particularly bad in your area though I thought it might be nice if you could have a bit of a sneak preview.
Well, not really a preview. If you take a look below I've added the entire magazine for you so you can read it online.

Enjoy

Some fun cruise facts

Just came across a website this morning with some interesting cruise facts. Not sure I can believe all of them but if they are true then WOW! See what you think...................

Friends of...........

Have you ever been walking around your cruise ship saw a private meeting advertised in one of the function rooms as The Friends of.............A lot of people have asked me what they are as they've seen them on quite a few cruises, so...........

Liverpool's still moaning......

First off, Liverpool is a great city with a lot to recommend it , (apart from it's football, but hey, who's perfect?). My brother lives in Liverpool and I've spent many enjoyable weekends there. However I'm getting a little bored about listening to Liverpool City Council moan about cruising.

Cunards Victoria vs P&Os Arcadia

Which is better? Are you a Cunard fan? A P&O fan? Have you cruised on either of these ships?
Did you think there was much difference in them?
What if I told you there was no difference at all?

My random week

May Nan used to be fond of her little sayings any time anything strange happened to her.
"There's nowt queer as folk"
or
"It takes all sorts".
After some of the people I've spoken to this week I'm starting to think she may have had a point.

I hate call centres!

Press one to book a land based holiday.
Press two to book a cruise.
Press three if you already have a land based holiday booked
Press four if you already have a cruise booked
(you have selected a cruise)

Press one to book cruise only
Press two to book a fly cruise
(you have selected cruise only)

Press one to book a cruise with P&O
Press two to book a cruise with Cunard
Press three to book a cruise with Princess
Press four to book a cruise with Fred Olsen
Press five to book a cruise with NCL
Press six to book a cruise with Royal Caribbean
Press seven to book a cruise with Regent Cruises
Press eight to book a cruise with Celebrity cruises
Press nine if you wish to book a cruise with anyone else
(you have entered an invalid option please try again being more careful this time)

Solo discrimination by the cruise lines

I'm actually a little surprised that it's taken me this long to write about how badly single cruisers are dealt with by the various cruise lines. I guess as I've never tried cruising solo it's sort of flew under my radar a little. So for all the cruisers out there that cruise on their own I apologise it's taken me this long to comment on it. As you've guessed by now from the title of this post I definitely believe anyone trying to do a solo cruise gets the short end of the stick. But how bad is it really?

Freds do it again!

Fred Olsen cruise lines have been making a lot of changes recently that I've not been happy with. First of all they introduced automatic gratuities to all their cruises, then they did away with all their casual dress codes. The latest change however just seems to be penny pinching at it's worst with no benefit or even thought given to the customer.

Maritime superstitions

I've just finished watching Sky Ones new drama series Treasure Island, (I recorded it over the Christmas break on V+). I mention it as it was quite good and I recommend you all see it, (even if the ending is completely different to the book and nowhere near as good), but it's also the inspiration for todays post.
As you can imagine there was quite a lot of ships, sailing and sailors involved in the story and one of the sailors happened to mention some maritime superstitions he held.
It gave me the idea for todays post; I thought it might be fun if I put together a top ten list of some of the stranger maritime superstitions/customs that sailors/crew/passengers have held over the years.

P&O customer service

Far too often here you read about all the examples of bad customer service that I hear about from time to time with the different cruise lines. The thing is though we all know how great the service is onboard a cruise ship, so rather than moaning again I thought I'd share an example of some of the best customer service I've ever experienced whilst on a cruise.

Why is New Zealand called 'New' Zealand?

I was booking a cruise to New Zealand for someone yesterday when he made a bit of a joke saying"when are they going to start calling it Zealand, it's not really new anymore".After dutifully chuckling for a second I did start thinking to myself, where is Zealand?
York and New York I get, I know Orleans and New Orleans even, but I'd never heard of Zealand; so where is it?
Well as it turns out there's no such place!

Cruise consultant of the year 2011

Hi all, I'm back. did you miss me?The sharp eyed amongst you will have noticed that I haven't posted anything here since the beginning of December. You don't need to worry, I'm fine, I've just been enjoying a well deserved break.So what have I been up to you ask?