Royal Princess launch ceremony

"It's a hard job but I supose somebody has to do it".
Yep, you've guessed it I've just had my invatation to the naming ceremony of the Royal Princess on the 12th June this year, (which is nice as the 12th will be my birthday).
I've got all my fingers crossed for good weather as the pictures Princess have been releasing of the top deck look amazing!

Top ten towel animals

Cruising as a holiday is always a great experience, (I'm biased I know). Even if you book a budget three star cruise you're almost always guaranteed a good time.
However, as in life, I think with a cruise it's the little things that can make a big difference.
One of my favourite 'small things' on a cruise has to be the towel animal tradition. They always make me smile and some cabin stewards really go all out when they're making them.
I know not everyone is a fan, thinking they're a silly cruise tradition but I'd be really disappointed if I did a cruise and didn't see a towel animal waiting for me in my cabin.
Here's my top ten........................

Vantage fare stage two - Confirmed!

I wrote a post last year called Vantage fares - Stage two and three, (you can click the bolded letters to read the original post). With the launch of the 2014 cruise season just around the corner I've just had an interesting update that I thought I'd share with you all..............

The Balmoral Bark - Fact or Fiction?

Have you ever heard of the Balmoral bark? I hadn't till yesterday.
Or maybe more to the point, have you ever cruised with Fred Olsen? On the Balmoral maybe?
If you have then there's a good chance you'll have come across it before without even realising what it is.

P&O Oceana - Not for me!

This isn't going to be a great review of the P&O Oceana I'm afraid so let me start my defending P&O a little first.
I'm a huge P&O fan.
I've cruised with many different cruise lines but I've sailed on more P&O ships than I have with any other brand and there's reason for that. They're a solid British brand with Southampton departures, no need for flights, cheap drinks and reasonable gratuities just to mention a few of the positives, (for the record my favourite P&O ships are the Aurora and the Arcadia).
The Oceana just wasn't for me though. Some of the points I'm going to bring up might be excused by the fact that I was only on a mini cruise, (20th Dec to Bruges), although as so many people use mini cruises as 'taster cruises' I've always thought they should be at their best rather than worst . The other things that happened might of just been bad timing and I'm sure there are many people out there who love the Oceana, but as I say, she just wasn't for me.

Harlem shake - On a cruise ship

As any regular reader of this blog will know I'm a huge fan of any Internet fads or memes that happen to be doing the rounds at the time. What always makes me smile though is when one of these 'fads' makes it's way onto a cruise ship - as in the below example.

Viking 2014 UK brochure

I gave you a sneak peek a couple of weeks ago of the new Viking river cruise brochure for 2013/2014.
They've just released their full 2014 river cruise brochure which you can now read below.............

Happy , (river), cruising

Cruising traditions – But why do we do them?

Cruising is full of traditions the sail away party and the Captains dinner for example, but why do we still do them? Are we just mindlessly following tradition because that’s the way it’s always been done or are there real reasons behind some of these rituals of the sea?