All Inclusive for Fred Olsen!

Yes, you heard it right, Fred Olsen are going All Inclusive!



On selected sailings for 2013 you can now purchase an All Inclusive drinks package. So if you are anythng like me and like a few glasses of wine with your evening meal or some pre/post dinner drinks then this could be just the thing for you.

What's Included?

All inclusive in the Restaurant and at the Buffet

·        Soft drinks

·        Mineral water (by the glass)

·        Draft/ bottled beers

·        Coffee/tea

All inclusive in the Bars

·        Soft drinks and water

·        Selection of wines by the glass

·        Draft/ bottled beers

·        Selected branded/ Non Branded Spirits

·        Coffee/tea

Includes a selection of wines/ beers/ branded spirits, soft drinks and tea and coffee, with the exception of certain premium brands/ wines, liquors, cocktails, and Mini Bar products.

Adults (18 years and over) excluding service charges.What isn't included?

The all inclusive drinks package excludes all flights and transfers and all shore excursions unless indicated otherwise at the time of sale.

The all inclusive drinks package excludes all other onboard purchases including but not limited to;

·        Casino

·        Gift shop purchases

·        Spa treatments

·        Shore excursions

·        Some Premium wines/ bottle of wine/ liquors/ cocktails

It is available on the following Breamar sailings:

Departing 17th February 2013, 7 nights M1305FC

Departing 24th February 2013, 11 nights M1306FC
Departing 7th March 2013, 10 nights M1309FC
Departing 17th March, 8 nights M1310FC

To take advantage of this All Inclusive package you MUST BOOK THE CRUISE BY THE 31ST JULY 2012

Not everybody likes the idea of All Inclusive on cruise ships as they feel it can attract the wrong sort of customer....what are your thoughts on Fred Olsen offering this? Considering the general clientele that tends to travel on Fred Olsen I think it will be absolutely fine and could save people a bit of money, which is helpful in this day and age!

Does FREE really mean free??

You might think it is a silly question as of course free means free, that is the meaning of it after all, something for nothing basically. But is this the case with cruises?




By FREE I mean when the cruise lines try to entice a customer by offering added extras to the cruise such as car parking or on board spending money. When they say book your cruise and receive FREE this that and the other, is it really a good deal? Well, you know how the saying goes "there's no such thing as a free dinner" and that pretty much is the case I’m afraid.

At the moment Cunard and P&O have a June Jubilee offer on whereby on selected sailings they are "giving away" car parking and onboard spends, sounds good doesn’t it? Who wouldn’t want free parking and onboard spends with their booking? Not me! Because on many of these cruises there is also another promotion running along side it, which in technical terms, is called the Getaway Promotion. On this promotion you don’t get any of these lovely extra's but what you do get in return is a slashed in half price! For me this just proves that the cruise lines at the moment are in fact charging for the parking and onboard credit they are claiming to give away as if you book on this deal you are paying on average about £500-1000pp more for the same cruise!!! Madness!

Being a specialist cruise consultant I see the many different deals that the cruise lines add on a daily basis. My job is to make sure I advise you on all the deals on offer and, of course, try and get you the cheapest. So it is very much the case at the moment where you might see your cruise of choice advertised with free parking and onboard credit but we will always tell you if there is a better deal on if it is going to save you a lot of money.

So the moral of my blog post is, when you call up and ask us if a cruise has any free parking or onboard credit just remember if it has it is likely you are just paying for it anyway so don’t be put off if it hasn’t….if it looks like a good price and a good deal IT IS so don't waste time in booking!

Phew - what a week!

I am now back in the office, cruise.co.uk, after having had a lovely week off last week, and what a busy week it was for me! So what does a Specialist Cruise Consultant get up to in her spare time...??

The bank holiday Sunday I was in Hertfordshire at a Jubilee/60th Birthday party with some friends and family. It was a lovely day which was hosted at the local pub They had kitted out the whole pub with Jubilee bunting, decorated the tables and really went to town to make it feel very patriotic with a mad hatters twist!

On the Bank Holiday Tuesday my other half (not the better half may I add!) treated me for my Birthday (which is on the 21st June) to a lovely Spa break. We headed to Fawsley Hall in Northampton where we spent the day relaxing in the spa, swimming in the pool and enjoying the rain whilst sat in the outdoor jacuzzi pool...absolute heaven! Then we had a lovely meal in the Michelin rated restaurant.

The Hall itself dates back as early as the 7th Century!! I love history and this place was brimming with it. Queen Elizabeth I stayed there in 1575 and they now have a suite called the Queens Chamber, which is said to be the room she resided in....
Check out the "Great Room" it really did have a very old and Regal feel to it...

Our room was absolutely beautiful and felt like we had been transported back in time...

On Friday I attended the wedding of a very good friend, it was a fantastic day and the bride looked absolutely stunning. My poor boyfriend must have been asked a thousand times when we would be next, not holding my breath there though! Watch this space...

What did you get up to for the Jubilee Bank holiday? Did any of you have any street parties? All in all I had a lovely Bank Holiday week off but am back in the swing of things now and ready to get you all booked up on your cruise holidays :)

Cruise Personaliser....what on earth is it?

If you have booked a cruise recently with your Specialist Cruise Consultant at cruise.co.uk be it one of many you have done or even your first, you may have been told about something called your cruise personaliser at the end of the booking...have you ever wondered what exactly this is?

I just want to explain it a little further as a lot of passengers, particularly first time cruisers who are new to the whole process, can be completely unaware of it and what you can do on it. Your cruise personaliser really is a great tool for you to be using once you have completed your booking.

What do you use it for?
After you have been given your cruise line booking reference from your agent you can log onto your cruise personaliser within about 48 hours. You can then access it by taking the following steps:
1. go to http://www.cruise.co.uk/
2. click on the "make a payment" box at the top
3. go to "online check in" and click on the cruise line that you are traveling on (they are in individual boxes)
4. this then directs you to the log in page of your cruise personaliser you must use your CRUISE LINE ref on here and NOT your cruise.co.uk reference

Once you are in you can use it to check flight details if you have booked a fly cruise (but not normally until about 6 months before departure) you can pre book shore excursions, drinks packages, order luggage labels, and most importantly fill in all your personal immigration information i.e passport details, emergency contact and insurance. Most cruise lines now require you to complete this information before you travel so that they can issue your e-tickets. Cruise lines such as Royal Caribbean and Celebrity Cruises actually allow you to "check in" online to speed things up at the port! Fantastic!

So to try and avoid calling into your agent for any questions you may have....just stop and think....is it something I can find on my cruise personaliser? You may well be surprised!

My River Cruise on the Seine

The past couple of weeks I have been a very busy bee with River Cruises and Ocean Cruises (a mini cruise on the Independence of the Seas) so I have not been able to spend the time to write a review of my Amazing River Cruise Experience withAvalon Waterways - see my previous blog Mosey on up the Seine

In a nut shell my River Cruise was one of the loveliest experiences I have ever had...and that is hand on heart I am not just saying this!

It started off with a journey on down to St Pancras station to join the Eurostar (this was a first for me) it all went very smoothly and we were met by a Avalon representative who lead the way. The Eurostar took about 2 and half hours which seems crazy to me that in the time it would take me to get to Newcastle from where I live I could get to Paris from London!

Once we arrived at the Gare du Nord station in Paris we were instantly met by another Avalon rep who guided us to the private transfer we had. This took us to a 4* hotel in Paris where we had a room with refreshments whilst we waited for the transfer but to take us to the Ship. All flawless so far...

Upon arrival at the ship we were greeted by the Cruise Director who welcomed us onboard. Check in on a River cruise is a lot simpler and quicker than an Ocean cruise. You literally just walk the plank to the ship and go through the doors and to the reception desk and they give you your room key!

I won’t bore you too much with all the finer details but I would like to say that the ship was very modern, the cabins were very spacious, and overall a very high standard. My colleague and I were very lucky and had a cabin with a Juliette style balcony and from our balcony where we were docked on the Seine we had a lovely view of the Eifel tower!!

My favourite part of the River Cruise though I have to say were the shore excursions that you get included, they really do keep you busy! On our first day we got to spend the day in Paris so the morning was an organised coach tour (very glad I did this as Paris is huge and you get to see so much on this tour) then the afternoon was our own so we decided to go off and explore! We braved the Metro and headed to the Arch De Triumph and walked down the Champs Elysees all the way down to the Louvre....a LOT of walking! But it was a lovely day so well worth it.

The second excursion was to visit Vincent Van Gough's house and grave we he is laid to rest next to his brother Theo. We got to see the Church of ascension that he painted and go into the bedroom where he dies after committing suicide, bit spooky!

The 3rd and my favourite was a visit to Claude Monet's house in Giverney to see his famous water garden where he painted his hundreds of water lily paintings and of course the most infamous painting with the Japanese Bridge...unfortunately it wasn't the season for the water lily's but nevertheless it was still amazing to see it.

The food was some of the best I have ever had on any ship I have been on and I think this is because they are only catering for about 120 people on a River Cruise ship so you get a very intimate service and of a much higher standard. With Avalon, you always have a panoramic view in the restaurant and the scenery whilst you are eating dinner is stunning. We saw lots of beautiful houses as we were sailing one evening...

To summarise, if anybody has been or is toying with the idea of a River Cruise then all I can say is do it and do it as soon as you can. You really won’t be disappointed. If you like the glitz and glam and entertainment of the big ships then a River Cruise is probably not for you, but if you are a bit of a culture vulture and like the laid back way of life onboard then you will absolutely love it!

Avalon are classed as 5* and they do not fail to deliver on this....

Like the idea of river cruises? Call me and lets see what i can do!

It's almost Independence Day....

No, not American Independence day but the day I go down to Southampton for a 3nt mini cruise on board the Royal Caribbean Independence of the Seas!



Myself and a few colleagues will be embarking on a bit of a hen cruise for our friend who is getting married in June, well you can't be a Specialist Cruise Consultant and not have a cruise for your hen do can you??! We booked this last August so it has been a long time coming and we are all most excited to say the least!

The cruise itself is actually a Zumba themed cruise, although I have heard the Zumba classes will be taking place pretty early in the am so I am not sure we will all be up to make it! :)

I have been on a ship visit on the Indy (as we like to call her in the office for short) but never sailed. I have been on one of her sister ships though, the Navigator, so I pretty much know what to expect from her. I am looking forward to seeing one of their amazing Ice Shows and pigging out in Johnny Rockets the famous 1950's style American Diner...



I might even give the Flo Rider a try if the weather is nice enough....



Whatever we decide to do, you really can't go wrong with the Independence of the Seas, she is a fun ship with oodles to do on board so i'm sure a fab time will be had by all....watch this space!

Looking for a great cruise deal? Call me today to see what i can do for you!

It's all go go go for 2013!

I am well and truly settled back into office life now after a lovely week off on my River Cruise with Avalon Waterways (details of this to follow)

It's all busy busy with the launch of the 2013/2014 cruises for P&O and Cunard so all this week I am in the office from 7.45am ready for when the cruises go on sale at 8am - dedication I know! I have been at Cruise.co.uk for 4 launches now and every single one has been more sucessful than the other, with us securing the best cabins at the cheapest launch prices and so far this year has been no exception. We still have the rest of the week to go so you still have time to get in touch if you are thinking of booking for next year!

Once the dust has settled this week with the launch I will be writing a full blog on my wonderful (and it really was a wonderful experience) River Cruise from Paris....watch this space for lots of fab pictures of some famous sights.....