Carry on Cruising – Or How to Get Lei’d In Hawaii!

Ships Shoes & Maggiemou!

I saw this book advertised on Amazon recently and have put it at the top of my Christmas List!

It’s an absolute must read for those who have ever wondered what the reality is on board a world cruise!

Forget the sanitised edited version that we’ve seen with Fred Olsen’s The Cruise, or the recent Royal Princess documentary –

this is one woman’s witty memoirs filled with glamour, high drama, even higher heels and high jinx.

Maggiemou   (Margaret Thorpe) is an avid cruiser and has written about her experiences on  two different cruise ships, 118 days on the Queen Elizabeth and 99 days on P&O’s Arcadia.

She has visited over 30 countries and called in at more than 50 ports around the globe!

She  writes diary style on her experiences, giving you an insight into what to pack, and invaluable advice and tips in her own inimitable style!

She also introduces you to some of the people who are regular world cruisers, and we all know there’s nowt as queer as folk!

Here’s a little snippet to whet your appetite.

“Although my interest in cruising stretched back 40 years,  something ‘new’ had appeared over the horizon in the past decade – cruise forums.  I enrolled on the one run by an award winning Travel Company in the UK called Victoria Travel www.cruise.co.uk.

Who would have thought a dyslexic hairdresser would sail the world let alone write about it!”

SHIPS COCKTAIL PARTIES:

These can be exciting, or dire.  On Arcadia in our opinion they were dreadful!  They were held around the Neptune Pool midships.  It just felt like you were in the municipal swimming baths.  It was a real scrum to get a drink.  In fact when we arrived (late by choice) we failed to get served before they range the bell, a bit like they used to do in pubs in England to call ‘time’.

Not that we needed the cheap booze.  There was no atmosphere, just passengers pushing and shoving to get near any booze. Some had glasses lined up on the edge of the swimming pool, I’d noticed.  We never heard the Captains speech properly, because people carried on talking.  Most disrespectful if you ask me.

We never went to another one all cruise.  BTW – we’d joined a new table for dinner – got some Australians who are all aged around 50 and are fun people”

The book is available on Amazon in Paperback or Kindle.  Do yourself a favour and put it on your Christmas list – you’re guaranteed a giggle!