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!