Goodbye 2012 Hello 2013

Firstly, I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and Santa was good to you with lots of nice gifts? Perhaps a loved one surprised you with a cruise?? That would be nice wouldn't it!

My Christmas break has been absolutely fantastic, I have had the best time spending it with my family and friends. I had some lovely gifts, have ate far too much and had a little bit of bubbly to celebrate the day (the diet starts in the New Year!)

So today is New Year’s Eve, the last day of 2012.... How was 2012 for you? Looking back on my year it has been rather action packed with some fantastic memorable trips.....

In April I got to try my very first ever River Cruise on the 5* Avalon Waterways with my colleague Gemma. I really did enjoy this trip as we travelled to Paris and meandered up the River Seine to some beautiful places. I came back from this as a real River Cruise ambassador and would highly recommend it if you are looking to do something with a bit more culture and a bit more intimate.
Click here to read my full review of this.

In May I went on-board the Royal Caribbean Independence of the Seas for a 3nt mini cruise. This was with 2 of my colleagues from Cruise.co.uk as a little hen trip for one of them. This ship is amazing, there is so much to see and do on-board. Royal Caribbean really know how to cruise and they did not disappoint!

August I made the trip down to Souothampto the visit the Holland America lines MS Maasdam.
Click here to read my full review of this

September, I visited the Regent Seven SeasVoyager - 6* Luxury at its best.
Click here to read my full review of this

In October I ran the Birmingham Half Marathon, along with many of my cruise.co.uk Colleagues, in hoour of our dear colleague and Friend Drew, who very sadly lost his battle to cancer. This was an amazing acheivement for each and every one of us, who could barely run for the bus before we started our training!

More recently, in November, I was chosen to go on a trip of a lifetime to Orlando in Florida! This was for 6 nights in total and was my very first ever trip to the United States of America. This was an amazing opportunity for me to visit the area of Florida and look at many of the hotels, Villas and Parks that it has to offer!
Click here to read my full review of this.

And finally, the Cruise.co.uk annual Christmas Conference on the 20th December, which took place on-board the P&O Oceana. This was a 2nt sailing over to Bruges. We take the opportunity to tie in our Christmas celebrations with a roundup of the year and where we are hoping to go for the new year ahead. A fabulous time was had by all. The Oceana is a lovely little ship, the food was amazing and the cabins were really spacious with lots of storage space (perfect with 2 women sharing!!) here is our cruise.co.uk group photo - see if you can spot me!

Pheeeeeew, well what a year hey! So what does 2013 have in store for the world of cruising?? All of the cruise lines have been busy setting up their new campaigns with lots of fantastic deals and extras to be had. It is all about booking early for 2013 so you need to be ahead of the game. To get a round up of all the offers for 2013 in 1 place click here and enjoy browsing for your next cruise holiday.

So that just leaves me to wish you all a wonderful New Year and I shall very much look forward to speaking with you all at some point to discuss your cruising needs :)

My trip to Orlando.....

I am back from a wonderful week (well almost a week) in sunny Florida where I visited probably its most popular area, Orlando.

The reason for my visit wasn't all fun, it was actually for a work purpose believe it or not... The idea of the trip was to be shown around different hotels and get to know the area and the resorts so that we are able to pass this knowledge on to our clients. In particular for us, the clients that might be looking to take a Disney or even Carnival cruise from Port Canaveral but want to package it up with a Disney/Orlando stay.

In my last post I mentioned about flying indirect and wondered what this would be like...

I have to say the outbound was absolutely fine. We landed into Detroit after an 8/hour day flight from Heathrow and I was feeling ok. Quick turnaround in Detroit where we breezed through security with our bags (took about 25minutes) you then just hand your bag back over and away it goes up a shoot ready for the next flight. On from Detroit about an hour and a bit later for the 1 and half hr flight to Orlando where we landed finally about 5pm local time. Long day but very manageable. We flew with Delta and they were brilliant, complimentary drinks the whole flight and 2 meals.

The return flight home though I have to say was a bit of a killer for me. We had been up since 7am as we had appointments to visit villas in the morning. Our flight from Orlando to Atlanta was at 8pm - this was just a short 1hr flight. Then we connected for our Heathrow flight leaving at 10.30pm. The great thing about coming back from the US and having a connecting flight is that because your bags have been checked in by US security they go straight through, so you don't have to collect them and re-check them in. This all would have been fine had I been able to get some sleep on the overnight flight  home but due to the aircraft being terribly cold and me having flu like symptoms, chances of sleep were slim.

My 5 days were action packed to say the least! Every morning we had a site visit for various hotels and Villas in the Orlando area and International Drive. We started the day with a typical America breakfast each morning (my waist band felt the pressure!)

We got to visit the 5* Loews Portofino Bay Hotel - which is based on an exact replica of Portofino Bay in Italy - it really is beautiful with a lake in the middle. My picture below does not really do it justice as the hotel rooms curve all around the lake and overlook it:

Next door to the Portofino is the Hard Rock Hotel, this is a really fab hotel and is a good one for families looking for something a bit more fun. The hotle has some cool Rock memorabelia dotted about (my dad would be in heaven!) it is also within a 5 minute walking distance from Universal Studios - very handy indeed:

View of Universal Studios from a room at the Hard Rock Hotel



 Me and Elvis

Jimmy Hendrix Guitar and Outfit

We were lucky enough to spend some of the days doing various parks such as Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure - Sea World and Busch Gardens. I would like to say that I was brave enough to try all of the rollercoasters and rides at each of these parks but I am a total whimp and didn't go on many! I held all the bags and phones :)
I did brave the Harry Potter ride though in the Harry Potter World, which was a lot scarier than I thought it would be!! Here are a few pictures of my day at Universal Studios:

 The Gang

The Girls

I didn't dare do this!!

I got very wet on this!

Krusty Land

Harry Potter World

Harry Potter World

Hogwarts - Harry Potter World

 Here are some pictures of my day at Sea World, where we got to see an amazing Whale show and some Dolphins. They really were incredible:

Finally, here are some pictures of my day at Busch Gardens when I saw a huge variety of animals, some of them a lot bigger than others!

Overall my trip to Orlando was absolutely amazing and I would recommend a visit here to anybody who has not yet been. It would be an ideal place to spend a week or more tagged on to a 7nt Caribbean cruise from Port Canaveral or even Fort Lauderdale or Miami, which are within manageable access. I shall certainly be returning, perhaps when I have some kids to take along!