Cruise booked, now what???

You have taken the plunge and booked your cruise, exciting times! But what do you do after the excitment has worn down and the reality of your sailing date is upon you?

As a Specialist Cruise Consultant, it is my job to advise you on as much information as I can at the time of you making your booking, but lets face it, who is really listening and taking it all in? Especially if you are booking  months odd in advance. I know I wouldn't....

So, here I have tried to put together a list of things that you need to do to make sure you have everything you need and are all set to go.

1. Have you done your online check in? You need to log onto your cruise personaliser - click here to read about what this is - and fill in things like your passport details, insurance details and next of kin details. Nearly every cruise line out there requires this before you sail, and generally wont issue your tickets without it. If you are unsure whether the particular cruise line you are travelling with requires this then ask your agent.

2. Travel Insurance - you absolutely must have this in order to be able to cruise, this is a must with every cruise line. cruise.co.uk can offer a very high standard of insurance so always ask us for a quote. When choosing travel insurance you must make sure the cancellation cover is enough for what you have paid for your holiday as the cheaper options may not have enough cover! Cheaper is not always better when it comes to travel insurance.

3. Luggage Labels - most cruise lines now are reverting to just paper labels unfortunately. Some do still send them out about 6 weekes before but not many. If travelling with Royal Caribbean or Celebrity you must request them online (using your cruise personaliser) if you dont then they will not be sent. But dont panic, with every cruise line you can always get them at the port you are departing from, just ask the porters before you hand over your luggage.

4. Shore Excursions - These are all handled directly through the cruise line so your agent wont have much, if any, information on these really. Again, most cruise lines allow you to pre book them on your cruise personaliser if this is something you like to have organised before you go. Alternatively cruise.co.uk offers cheaper alternatives to the cruise lines click here to search them.

5. Parking/hotel- if you need to organise port/hotel parking then contact your agent as we generally get the best rates on these and can save you a bob or two!

Once you have made a booking with us we always send you a booking confirmation along with an email called "what happens next" this reiterates what I have said in this blog so if you are ever unsure just revert back to this as it can generally answer your questions, before you call your agent.

Once all this is sorted and you have printed off your boarding passes, E-tickets, luggage labels, hotel/parking/transfer vouchers if booked, then you are good to go :) Happy Cruising!

Shining the Torch on the Town

It all reached fever pitch on Sunday here in the Cruise.co.uk home town of Redditch as we saw the arrival of the Olympic Torch....



This once in a lifetime event was ceratinly not to be missed and so I was up bright and early to make sure I got a sight of the torch as it passed through the Town Centre. I have to say I am not really one for sports if i'm honest but I do very much like the idea of the Olympic Games, especially as it is such an old tradition. Luckily I had work that morning anyway and our offices are located just  minutes from where the action took place, very handy!

I did only manage to get a short glimpse of the torch but it was well worth it, history in the making for our little Town of Redditch. Here are the pictures I managed to snap....





Have you had the torch pass through your town yet? If not, do go and see it when it does, it really is worth the time :)

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!