Crystal Cruises in Venice for the Redentore Festival

I like a bit of culture, but also love Venice and I was asked recently by a client if I could find a cruise to bring in the culture of Venice and a bit of a bang.

The Redentore is a popular festival that combines the sacred and profane, as Venice celebrations often do, and is celebrated on the 3rd Saturday of July.

Redentore is the celebration most loved by Venetians, to remind them of the end of the plague in 1577, one of the most disastrous plagues in Venetian history. That plague is believed to be brought in the city by flea-infested mice carried back from the Orient by Venetian trading ships.




To coincide with this spectacle, guests on board Crystal Cruises’ award-winning Crystal Serenity will be treated to one of Italy’s most popular Venetian traditions. This 12-night Mediterranean/Adriatic voyage, departing from Athens on 7th July, culminates with two shipboard overnights in Venice just in time for the Festival.
That will be really spectacular, call me if you want to know of availability on this cruise.

Every cloud has a silver lining......... a good news story

Over the last few weeks we have had the problems with BA strikes and also the eruptions from Eyjafjallajokull.

Right now the last news is that there are more BA strikes announced and scientists are saying that the eruptions we have seen so far could be dwarfed by anticipated eruptions from Eyjafjallajokull's neighbour Katla.


So what about a good news story?

Well, I just spoke to a customer who was on an Ocean Village cruise which arrived in the Med just as the last eruptions started, so could not get home.

They were put into a nice 5* hotel in Crete and had a further 5 or 6 days to continue their holiday before flying home. No hassle, no pressure just a relaxed time.

So lets hope if the ash clouds again, lets hope that all the cruise lines follow Ocean Villages approach and other have such a relaxed time!

Epic blog 5........An Epic, 'Towering Inferno'

LATEST NEWS

NCL has been confirmed that there was a fire on board on Monday night, which started on deck 4 and was contained by firefighters before any major damage was caused to the ship.

NCL are undertaking an investigation and it has been confirmed that this will not affect the scheduled delivery date!

With the past problems with the engine and now this fire, I hope its all sorted by the time I cruise on her at the end of October!

Joanna Lumley's Nile

The big thing for me when I go away on holiday, is to see something different or unusual. The other week, my wife said to me 'I like the idea of going to the Holy Land for a holiday', and at the same time said 'You going to watch this on telly'.

I am not the sort of chap who would miss the opportunity of watching Joanna Lumley for an hour, so happily sat down to watch her start her journey down the Nile.

Having watched the first programme, I was enthralled both at her actual presentation but also at the history that you can see from the river. I had never wanted to go to the area, but now felt like I needed to follow in her footsteps! (Stop dreaming Stuart)

Well, I have found that there are a couple of options here.

If you want to float down the Nile there are a number of operators who have boats specifically doing 4 or 5 star cruises down the Nile. A typical boat is shown across.

Duration of the cruise will vary, and you may have to add a land stay to your cruise holiday to see all the sights in Cairo.

The alternative, is look at a cruise to the Holy Land on any one of a number of ships in 2011, including Pacific Princess, Queen Victoria or Adonia, there are others but space (and time) does not allow me to add them all.

This way you could get to see all religious places to see in and around Jerusalem, but also add the Pyramids a bit of leisurely sea days and some of the other classic ports in the area.

I have my idea for a 2011 cruise now, hopefully aboard the Pacific Princess, but what about you?

Give me a call and I will look at your options, including a Nile Cruise a Holy Land Cruise or any other cruise you fancy.

Which is the best for computer access, Celebrity Eclipse or P And O Azura?

Having great problems at the moment with my home computer, after 7 years of valient service it has eventual rached the point where it is going to the nearest scrapyard. Unlike the QE2, I don't think anyone will want to save her!

With these problems it made me think back to the time I was on the Ventura and what facilities were available, esepcially as I am starting to think  but that made me think about what to do when on ship.

I found an article recently about Celebrity Cruises' tie in with Apple Computers, and although I did not go on the launch it was interesting to see this tie up working with the Waiters for Qzine, using iPads for the Menu. Apple also have 26 workstations on board in the iLounge.

Compare this to P and O Azura, both ships having being launched in Southampton in the last few weeks.

Although there is a CYB@Centre on Ventura, based on customer feedback there is no facility on Azura, so if you want to stay connected then you will have take your laptop and use one of the Wi Fi hotspots on ship.

However, in both cases the costs of internet use on ship is usually high, and if you have to take your own laptop, why not wait till you get into port and find one of the many free hotspots found in most ports, thats what I'm going to do on my next cruise.