Mar23

Voyages To Antiquity 2013 Preview

by Liz on March 23rd, 2012 at 7:04 pm
Posted In: Voyages to Antiquity

In May 2011 I cruised on the Agean Odyssey (belonging to Voyages to Antiquity) for five days from Athens to Sicily and it was a fantastic experience. The ship is forty years old but appeared brand new; I could believe how immaculate she was. Click here to read my blog all about it . The unique thing about Voyages to Antiquity is that the itineraries offer unusual, interesting ports of call. She is a small ship so she can visit the more intimate cities for guests to learn about their classical civilizations. The voyages are all about the destinations and their historical significance; the cruises offer an amazing learning experience with daily lectures and fully guides shore excursions with local guides all included in the price.

The 2013 itineraries haven’t officially been launched yet, however I have received a preview of some of the cruises on offer and they look fabulous. I was astounded at how much I learnt whilst on board in just five days. One of the most interesting itineraries planned for 2013 I thought is Cairo to Istanbul (18 days) 31st March, taking in Petra, the Pyramids, Jerusalem and Bethlehem all in one voyage. The Agean Odyssey also stays overnight in many ports of call to get the most out of the experience; at least one fully guided shore excursion is included every day and there are additional optional excursions available.

The new cruise schedule should be available to book from May 2012; here is a list of the brand new itineraries newly introduced:

  •  Istanbul to Athens (13 days) April 13th and September 10th
  • Athens to Venice (13 days) April 25th and September 22nd
  • Venice to Rome (15 days) May 7th and October 4th
  • Rome to Cannes (13 days) May 17th
  • Istanbul to Cairo(19 days) October 26th
  • Rome to Istanbul (17 days) October 14th

For further information about Voyages to Antiquity or if you wish to book call me on 0800 408 6114.

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Mar16

A Royal Day At The Races

by Liz on March 16th, 2012 at 11:23 pm
Posted In: Cheltenham Races

On Wednesday 15th March I was lucky enough to be invited to the Cheltenham races with our marketing manager, cruise line representatives from MSC Cruises and NCL, our company chairman and his daughter. The weather was fantastic; we had ‘members passes’ which meant we had access to the members area and enjoyed a lovely three course lunch before the racing began! I was shocked to see how many people were there, over 50,000 and mostly from Ireland it seemed!

It was my first time at the races so I really didn’t know what to expect; as soon as we had finished lunch I was on the look out for celebrities as I had heard that Dermot O’Leary and Ant & Dec had been spotted the day before! The first one we spotted was laurence llewelyn bowen and his wife (pictured below). There were also a couple of footballer’s our marketing manager spotted straight away, I hadn’t got a clue who they were!

I have never seen so much tweed in my life; literally every other person seemed to be dressed in it from head to toe! We stayed for five races and one of my horses came second so I won £12.00. I lost £13 though so it wasn’t the most successful betting experience. It is unbelievable to realise how much some people bet; The Sun newspaper reported yesterday that one man bet £200,000 on one horse and it won. He collected £380,000. I was only betting £2.50 each way! The races were exciting to watch; I was amazed at how fast they were and how far the horses had to run. There was an unfortunate incident when one of the horses jumped the fence and fell in to the crowd that were stood watching; everyone gasped when the jockey was thrown off and he didn’t get up. The horse was fine but the jockey needed medical attention. It was lucky that nobody stood there was killed, I thought it was far too dangerous to have the public stood watching so close.

After we watched each race we went to the winners enclosure to see the horses parading around and the jockey’s and trainers were awarded a trophy. We then realised that Camilla Parker Bowles was presenting the trophies; pictured above in the green coat looking at a piece of paper. She had a body guard stood right behind her everywhere she went. We then saw Zara Phillips and Princess Ann (pictured below). It was so strange to see royalty so nearby just mingling with ordinary people (although they were probably not that ordinary and very wealthy I imagine).

Princess Ann is in the orange coat and Zara is stood opposite with the brown hat. A little later Princess Ann went to speak to the race horse owners and their trainers and I managed to get another shot but as far as I could tell she didn’t smile once!

I really enjoyed my day and I would definitely go again next year given the opportunity. It’s such a good day out and so much fun when your horse does well and you spot a few Royals at the same time!

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Mar09

Britain Reclaims its Independence

by Liz on March 9th, 2012 at 6:04 pm
Posted In: Royal Caribbean

I have been informing clients for the past few months that Royal Caribbean’s Independence of the Seas  is leaving the UK for good and moving over to the Caribbean in November this year. I was right about one thing, she is moving to the Caribbean in November but it has recently been announced by Royal Caribbean that she is coming back to the Southampton in 2013!

The Independence of the Seas and The Adventure of the Seas will be sailing out of the UK from May 2013 with some brand new exciting itineraries scheduled. The Adventure of the Seas has never sailed out of the UK before an will offer a different cruise experience to the Independence; she is Voyager class which means she is smaller with total passenger capacity at 3114. The Adventure has a lot of the same amenities as The Independence such as the signature Royal Promenade, ice skating rink and three tier show lounge. She hasn’t got the H20 zone that is very popular with young families however; nor has she got the variety of speciality dining venues or the world famous flow rider!

The two ships have a variation of itineraries on offer; the Independence will be predominantly doing Western Mediterranean, Canaries and Norwegian Fjords whereas the Adventure will be doing Baltic, Iceland & Norway and France & Spain. The itineraries will be on sale from 19th March 2012 for Crown & Anchor members only and 20th March for everybody else! You can pre-register with www.cruise.co.uk  at any time to secure the cabin of your choice on the cruise you want – just call us for details.

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Mar02

I Booked Myself on a Celebrity Eclipse Cruise – Twice!

by Liz on March 2nd, 2012 at 1:05 pm
Posted In: Celebrity

I was so excited when I finally booked myself on the Celebrity Eclipse canaries cruise last week departing 13th October; I have been watching the cruise for months and finally the guaranteed balcony cabins dropped in price so I paid my deposit without delay! Everything was booked and confirmed, I was very pleased with myself, until one of my team managers advised me a week later that it appeared I had booked myself twice on the same cruise.

I was horrified as I was subject to cancellation fees – £300! I couldn’t understand how this had happened. As far as I was aware I had only booked one guaranteed balcony cabin and I only had one reference number. I called Celebrity Cruises straight away and they informed that they were unable to cancel the duplicate booking free of charge as it was my error. I was very annoyed at myself as afterall, I book cruises for a living and never have I booked a client on the same cruise twice. It was just typical! I called Celebrity back and insisted that their IT systems team look in to it for me as it was such a mystery. In the mean time, the reservations team at Celebrity did say that I could do a name change free of charge but this would mean that I would have to find someone else to book exactly the same cruise and cabin type!

A few days later I was thinking back to when I was booking the cruise, and I suddenly realised that when I put in all my details first time round (name, address, date of birth etc) and clicked ‘confirm’ the system through me out and I had to start all over again. What I didn’t realise was that it had actually booked the cruise. I went on to input all of my details again and confirmed another cabin. So , it was my fault in a way but then again the system told me there was an error therefore it shouldn’t have booked the cabin!

I was so relieved to eventually receive an email yesterday from Celebrity Cruises advising that they have cancelled the second booking free of charge . Now I can really look forward to my cruise! I have read so many reviews on our website and it sounds as though we are in for a treat; the Eclipse has such a good reputation and the reason I chose this ship in the frst place was because I had received so much positive feedback from my clients.

If this has taught me anything it is to double check the bookings that I make and then check again – you can never be too careful!

 

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Feb25

What has Happened to the Food on Arcadia?

by Liz on February 25th, 2012 at 8:03 pm
Posted In: P&O Arcadia

From talking to various customers recently I have been made aware that the food on P&O Arcadia has really deteriorated. Initially, I thought that perhaps the view one of my past guests (after arriving home from their recent cruise on Arcadia) was a one off and was maybe due to personal taste.  How wrong I was –  I have spoken to many other past guests since then through doing my ‘welcome home’ calls and it seems that the standard of food on Arcadia has a lot to answer for. It has been said that the food is not being served hot, that the meat is chewy, that the salad isn’t fresh and the vegetables crunchy. This is the food in the main dining room, not to mention the lido buffet restaurant.

This really got me thinking as I would have ordinarily assumed that the food on board Arcadia would mirror that of the rest of the fleet. It seems it does not, as I haven’t heard one single complaint about the other P&O ships, never mind several consecutively. Once this was brought to my attention last week I started reading some reviews on our website and realised that this is actually a big issue on Arcadia. So many people can’t be wrong can they? I had some clients that were looking to book a world cruise sector on board the Arcadia recently but after reading the Arcadia cruise review in their Berlitz cruise guide they changed their minds. The food was given just 3 out of 10 apparently – just not good enough. When I realised that their Berlitz guide was a little out of date they went away and read lots of reviews on many different websites, unfortunately the outcome was the same. They love the Aurora though and had absolutely no problems at all when they took a long cruise last year. They are now looking to cruise on Aurora instead, even though the itinerary is not exactly what they wanted – like it was on Arcadia.

I was on the P&O Arcadia in December for 6 nights and I can honestly say I was satisfied with the food on board. It wasn’t amazing, but then I wasn’t expecting it to be. However in hindsight I’m not sure whether I was maybe too accepting; I was on the Aurora the year before on our work’s Christmas party and I thought the standard of food was very similar. Is it a case of personal opinion? Or has the food really slipped? If anybody reading this has had a recent or past experience of the food on board Arcadia I would love you to leave a comment and tell me your thoughts on this matter.

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