Fire and Ice in Iceland!

I have noticed recently that more and more cruises from the UK to Northern Europe are starting to add a call to Iceland to their itinerary. Its known as 'the Land of Fire and Ice'.

So why not take the MV Discovery from Voyages of Discovery, a nice ship with a friendly and personal service, and it sails from the UK. You are not going to get the razzmatazz that you will get on some of the bigger cruise ships, but there will be talks and quizzes and being a smaller ship it can get closer to those amazing destinations.

  

So here's the itinerary in June 2011,

• Day 1 Harwich, England
• Day 2 At Sea
• Day 3 Flam, Norway
• Day 4 Alesund, Norway
• Day 5 At Sea
• Day 6 Akureyri, Iceland
• Day 7 Isafjordjur, Iceland
• Day 8 Reykjavik, Iceland
• Day 9 At Sea
• Day 10 Torshavn, Faroe Islands
• Day 11At Sea
• Day 12 Harwich, England

 Now last year there was major travel problems because of the Icelandic volcano eruptions, and they think there maybe another soon but much bigger!

So is this your chance to get there to see it?

In Seine for some Jazz!

Have I gone slightly mad? No not really!

Paris is the City of Romance, so everyone tells me but I have never actually been! So I saw this which I thought was very appealling especially if you are a music lover and like a bit of Jazz. Its a river cruise on the Seine in Paris for 3 nights with a Jazz band on board the boat to keep you entertained as you cruise!

Not only have I never been to Paris, I have never been on a River cruise, so what do you get for your money.  Well return Eurostar and transfers from either St Pancras or Ebbsfleet to Paris, 3 nights river cruise with buffet breakfast in a twin cabin, 3 dinners and 1 lunch on board together with a 1 day travel pass for central Paris.

And all the while you will have the tones of the on board Jazz band serenading you as you glide down the Seine, as well as the services of a dedicate Tour Manager.


There is loads of time available to see some of the sights of Paris with this trip which departs on 7th November 2011, in addition it is a nice little taster to see whether River cruising suits you.

So go on be romantic (well you don't have to be) and take someone to Paris for this short break.

A Celebrity Solar Eclipse

I have written previously about Natural Phenomenon, the Midnight Sun, or in my case the Midnight murky cloudy! Read my report by clicking here.

So I was excited to read that Celebrity Cruises have announced that during their inaugural Asia season with Celebrity Millennium in starting in November 2012, passengers will be able to take in the Total Solar Eclipse  on November 14th between Fiji and New Zealand.

Celebrity Millennium in Barbados

The world now seems to be getting smaller, Celebrity have already announced that they will have ships in Australia in 2012, so the addition of this inaugral Asia Season will give more options for those cruisers who want to go further afield.

So this transpacific sailing will allow passengers and crew to have a part of a day sailing as the Solar Eclipse moves across the Pacific on 14th November 2012, after a stop in Fiji.

I have found a link to a NASA web site which shows the path of the eclipse, click here and have a look.

So what is the full itinerary,

• Fri 02 Nov HONOLULU, OAHU, HAWAII

• Sat 03 Nov HILO, HAWAII
• Sun 04 Nov AT SEA
• Mon 05 Nov AT SEA
• Tue 06 Nov AT SEA
• Wed 07 Nov AT SEA
• Thu 08 Nov AT SEA
• Fri 09 Nov PAGO PAGO, AMERICAN SAMOA
• Sat 10 Nov AT SEA
• Sun 11 Nov INTERNATIONAL DATELINE
• Mon 12 Nov SUVA, FIJI
• Tue 13 Nov AT SEA
• Wed 14 Nov SOLAR ECLIPSE (CRUISING) 07:00 11:00
• Thu 15 Nov AT SEA
• Fri 16 Nov TAURANGA - NEW ZEALAND
• Sat 17 Nov AUCKLAND - NEW ZEALAND
• Sun 18 Nov BAY OF ISLANDS - NEW ZEALAND
• Mon 19 Nov AT SEA
• Tue 20 Nov AT SEA
• Wed 21 Nov SYDNEY - AUSTRALIA
• Thu 22 Nov SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA

Now this is a cruise that I would love to go on, but I am not too sure that my wife would agree with me with all the flying involved. But come on Celebrity could you not have got the Eclipse as the ship doing this sailings!

MSC Yacht Club - The Ultimate in Luxury Cruising

We all like that bit of luxury when cruising, well I do anyway. So to find the kind of privacy, comfort and exclusive service you would normally get on a luxury yacht while at the same time enjoying the pleasures and facilities of a modern cruise liner would be a bonus.

How do you get that then, you ask. Try MSC Yacht Club!

These sumptuous suites can be found on on both Splendida and Fantasia, and can be described as a "ship within a ship", and has a full range of private areas for the exclusive enjoyment of MSC Yacht Club guests.

Top Sail Lounge

So what do you get:

• The Concierge reception
• 24 hour Butler service
• Top Sail Lounge
• The One Pool area - includes an open air swimming pool, SPA Baths, Solarium and Bar
• Complimentary dining at the a la carte restaurant, L'Etoile - Fantasia and L'Olivo - Splendida (with a prior reservation)
• Reserved panoramic area in the restauarnt, II Cerchio d'Oro - Fantasia and Villa Verde - Splendida
• Private lift access to the MSC Aurea SPA wellness centre, complimentary
• Thermal Suite for 2 MSC Yacht Club guests
• Libray
• All Inclusive, drinks from any bar, but not the premium brands.

So what can you compare this too, Grills on Cunard or Garden Villas on NCL? I think on a price comparison this is better, and I'm told that the suites are better than the NCL Cruises, so why not give it a go, I might!

Portunus Club rebrand - are P&O saving money?

We are all aware of the Portunus Club, P&O Cruises past passenger scheme, but recently P&O announced it is to rebrand it to the 'Peninsular Club' next year, 2012.


How the Peninsular club will work:-

As before you will be awarded 10 loyalty points for each night on a P&O cruise ship and these are applied at the end of your cruise and once you have reached 150 points you will automatically join the Peninsular club, This is a major change, with the Portunus club you get benefits straight away.
The tiers are named after oceans and seas of the world, each of them cruised by ships from the P&O Cruises fleet. They are arranged in order of size (in accordance with The Times World Atlas) with the smallest sea in the scheme, the 'Ligurian Sea', being the name for the most exclusive tier.

The tiers are based on the number of nights spent on board which are then converted into points. The points required per tier are set as follows:

Pacific

150 - 500 points

Atlantic

501 - 1000 points

Mediterranean

1001 - 2000 points

Caribbean

2001 + points

The Baltic and Ligurian Tiers

In addition to the first four tiers there are two further levels exclusively for passengers who have accumulated 2501 points or more and have cruised frequently in the 3 years preceding the start of their next cruise.

Baltic

2501 points plus 80-200 nights spent on board in the 3 years preceding the start of your next cruise

Ligurian

2501 points plus 201 or more nights spent on board in the 3 years preceding the start of your next cruise

The benefits you get depend on the tier you area in, nothing new here then although if you manage to get into the top 2 tiers there are some new additional benefits.

For me it is the change to the minium points to reach the club which is a major change, you don't much benefits in the lower tiers but the 5% discount off your onbaord account is always worth having, a number of people are going to loose that! Is this another cost savings exercise from the cruise lines?

Memories....well not mine this time - The Topaz

It's that time of year, it is Mothers Day tomorrow, as well as my Granddaughters christening. So its a time for memories and I have spent most of today talking holidays and cruising with my parents.

They have cruised many times before and are looking at a cruise later this year and maybe next year, and love Thomson Cruises. Their favourite ship was The Topaz, she operated for Thomson until about 2002 and was ultimately scrapped in 2008.

Now due to many reasons they really don't want to fly anymore, so for them it is great news that Thomson Cruises have announced their 2012 itineraries, which are on sale from 7th April, and Thomson Cruises will be reintroducing cruises from the UK on Thomson Spirit. Based in Newcastle from May to July 2012 and Harwich in August and September.

There are a variety of itineraries and although they won't be able to go on The Topaz I am sure that Thomson Spirit will be a worthy successor!