Food from the master!!

I was so excited when I read today that Mast Chef Nobu Matsuhisa will be on board the Crystal Serenity in May serving in person as Executive Chef in his speciality restaurants Silk Road and the Sushi Bar.

(Us Dining in Silk Road)

I sailed on the Serenity a few years back and can personally say dining in Silk Road has been the best dining experience I have had on board any ship. There was such a selection to choose and it’s a great opportunity to try out new dishes. 

So here’s what’s included for all you “foodies” out there can look forward to.

·       Nightly appearances and mingling with guests in Silk Road and the Sushi Bar.

·       Special add-on “Omakase” dinner, with sake and sake champagne pairings chosen by Sake Master Fumio Hazu, the man behind Nobu’s exclusive “living” Hokosetsu sake, plus explanations of each course by both.  

·       Intimate hands-on cooking class in Crystal’s kitchen for 10-12 guests.

·       Cooking demonstration for all guests.

·       Autograph signings of “NOBU’S Vegetarian Cookbook” and “NOBU the Cookbook”.

·       Photo opportunities.

·       Sake tasting with Japanese hors d’oeuvres, hosted by Mr Hazu.

Crystal Serenity

24th May 2012

12 Nights

Dover, Uk : Bordeaux : Bordeaux : Lisbon, Portugal : Gibraltar, Uk : Monte Carlo : Monte Carlo : Florence (From Livorno) : Portovenere : Civitavecchia, Italy

Oceanview Suite £3005 per person

Balcony Suite £3631 per person

Suite £5708 per person

I loved the Serenity as there are only 1070 guests on board  so it has a really intimate feel and you don't need to worry about hidden costs on board as they have recently gone all inclusive and gratuities, speciality dining and port transfers are inluded in the price. 

Have you got it covered?

I know I’m a bit late but firstly I would like to wish all my guest a Happy New Year and hope you all had a great Christmas.

Hopefully by now you will have overcome the usual January blues and are looking forward to some fantastic holidays in 2012,I know I am!

Yesterday I confirmed my flights for a trip to New York in April and can’t wait for to join the Independence of the Seas for a special Zumba cruise to La Harve in May.

So back to the reason I started writing. When my passengers get back from their cruise I always give them a call  just to see how the trip went and help if they have had any problems.

Recently I have had a few people who have had the same complaint.

We're going on Arcadia

Just to let you know this week the cruise.co.uk team will be heading down to Southampton to enjoy our Christmas party on board Arcadia.

We are meeting the ship on Thursday and the plan is to spend Friday in Bruges. However due to bad winds the last couple of sailing haven’t been able to dock in Bruges and the ship has had to change itinerary and go to the La Harve. I must admit if this happens I will be a bit disappointed! We did a similar trip last year to Bruges on Aurora and it was great. We spent the day exploring the Christmas market, ice skating and sampling the local drinks, mainly hot chocolate and wheat beer and the scenery was beautiful. The ground was covered in heavy snow and it certainly had a real Christmas feel.

Now there is nothing wrong with Le Harve. I am actually doing a three night sailing there in May on the independence of the Seas but our plan then is to head in to Paris. Now it takes at least two hours to get to Paris from the Le Harve which will be fine on this trip as the ship is spending the night in port. On Friday however we will only be there for a few hours and I’ve heard there is not a lot to see or do in Le Harve itself so I will probably just stay on board and explore the ship.
So fingers crossed we will reach Bruges and I can come homed stocked up on Belgian chocs!

Now if you do need to contact us between the 15^th -17^th don’t worry there will still be a skeleton staff in the office but if it’s not urgent I’ll be back around 13:00 on Saturday     

What is a guarantee cabin?

I noticed a question on the www.cruise.co.uk  website about guarantee cabins and thought it would be good to clarify.

When booking a cruise you have a selection of different cabins that you can choose from. When the cruise lines have nearly sold out of a particular grade of cabin they will put them on a guarantee basis. This is normally to give them some flexibility when it comes to giving out upgrades nearer the sailing date.

If you decide to go for a guarantee cabin then the cruise lines promise to allocate you a cabin of the grade that you have paid for (they will never allocate you a lower grade) or they will upgrade you. Lots of my clients like to go for guarantee cabins as they know this can be a good way of getting an upgrade.

But remember guarantee cabins are not for everyone. I wouldn’t recommend them to clients who always like to be in a certain position on board e.g some of my passengers always like to be forward or midship. Also If I’m booking multiple cabins for a client I don’t normally recommend Guarantee cabins as they may be allocated cabins on different decks or one could be forward and back and with the size of some the ships nowadays you could have a lot of long walks in store.

New Look Queen Mary II

Last week Cunard announced that our beloved Queen Mary II will be going in to dry dock between the 24th Nov and the 7th December to undergo a major refurb ready for her eighth birthday next year.

* The Golden Lion pub is set to have a complete refurbishment and redesign. Now I’m a little concerned about this as Cunard plan to create a more American style country club feel with plush seating and warm colours. Of course I don’t mind this but the main appeal for me and I’m sure others agree is the Traditional British feel and classic pub lunches.

* All 1310 staterooms on board will have a fresh new look with new carpets, curtains and bedding. The bedding element has caused a lot of discussion on the http://www.cruises.co.uk/ forum this week, with some people thinking the bedding on board had not been changed for eight years!!! I can assure you this is not the case and Cunard do change bedding on a regular basis. What Cunard mean is they are going o be changing the design of the bedding.

Fabby Abu Dhabi & Dubai Delights

As some of you know a few weeks back I was really lucky and Cruise.co.uk sent me on a trip to visit Abu Dhabi and Dubai.

Before the trip I have to say Dubai was never one of my top ten destinations to visit but I have definitely been converted.

We flew out from Birmingham and as the trip was being hosted by Emirates they flew us out Business class. I have never flown business before but I can see now why people splash out and upgrade.

The lounge in Birmingham was brilliant and we soon settled down to a glass of champagne and a lovely prawn cocktail.



After a very relaxing night’s sleep in a reclining chair we arrived in Dubai. We headed straight to Abu Dhabi which was a lot closer than I had thought. It took less than an hour from Dubai Airport.

Now the main reason of the trip was to visit a whole range of hotels in Abu Dhabi and Dubai but I’m not going to go into details about all of these just yet. I’ll write in more details about each in future blogs but to give you a taster we did visit the Emirates Palace, Burj Al Arab and my personal favourite Atlantis.

(Emirates Palace)

(Burj Al Arab)

Our hotel in Abu Dhabi was right next to the Yas Marina Grand Prix circuit. Yas Island is a strange place as the whole area is manmade and designed solely around the circuit. They haven’t even “built” the beach there yet so it would be great to go back in a few years and see how things have changed.

Before we headed of back to Dubai we popped in to Ferrari world. It’s the world largest under cover theme park and hosts the world’s fastest roller coaster. Unfortunately the park was actually closed when we visited but our fabulous tour guides Gulf Ventures managed to persuade them to sneak us in for peak but of course we couldn’t get on the rides.

Afterwards we stopped off to see the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque. This is an incredible building and I thought I was dressed quite respectfully for the visit but apparently my calf length dress was too short so I had to wear a burqa.

(Before)

(After)

We really made the most of our time in Dubai visiting the Palm, Marina, Downtown for some shopping, Water taxis across the bay, SUV Dune Safari, Camel ride, Bedouin BBQ.

All of this was great but the highlights for me have to be taking the leap of fate at the Atlantis water park and watching the fountain show outside of the world largest building the Burj Khalifa and I'm already planning my next trip.

The leap of faith

 (Not for the faint hearted)

(Atlantis Hotel)

Burj Khalifa foutain show

View From the cocktail lounge at the Address Hotel

Words can't describe how amazing the fountain shows are so click below to see for yourself! 

Fountain Show

Let's go all inclusive!

I am asked on a regular basis by guests if they can upgrade their cruise to all inclusive so I thought it only right to share some current promotions with you.
Now as a rule the 6* star cruise lines like Regent, Silverseas and Seabourn are all inclusive but of course in a realistic world these are not always within everyone’s budget.

So if you want to bag an all inclusive deal for 2012 then here goes.

Thomson Cruises

Thomson Dream May – Oct 2012

Thomson Spirit 26th Sept – 27th Oct 2012

FREE ALL INCLUSIVE

MSC Cruises
Fantasia, Splendida, Magnifica, Musica, Orchestra, Sinfonia, Armonia & Divina April 2012 – November 2012
UPGRADE TO ALL INCLUSIVE FOR JUST £1 PER PERSON
MSC Opera July 2nd, 10th, 18th, 26th, Aug 3rd, 11th, 19th, and 27th
UPGRADE TO ALL INCLUSIVE FOR JUST £1 PER PERSON


Royal Caribbean Cruises
Royal Caribbean only began to offer all inclusive packages this year so are currently trailing it on the Grandeur of the Seas, Legend of the Seas and Independence of the Seas

Beer Package $39 per person per day

House wine by the glass
All Beers (draft, bottle & can)

Classic Package $49 per person per day
All Beers (draft, bottle & can)
House wine by the glass
House brand spirits
Cocktails house brand spirits

Premium Package £59 per person per day
All Beers (draft, bottle & can)
House wine by the glass
House & Premium brand spirits
Cocktails house & premium brand spirits
Wine by the glass up to $10