On Board With Alison

I love Christmas Eve! I make it a point to enjoy Christmas Eve every year. The presents are bought and wrapped, cards delivered, the house looks beautiful and enough food and drink for the next few months is bursting out of every spare space. Later today we will get together…

Some houses seem to be built for Christmas decorations, often with mature trees surrounding them just crying out to be adorned with lights. I have just had the pleasure of sailing on the iconic Queen Mary 2. QM2 was built to showcase Christmas. Traditional and beautiful and tastefully draped in…

Tomorrow morning, I am travelling to Southampton with my colleagues to board the Queen Mary 2 for our 3 night Christmas conference cruise. I know, it's a tough job, but someone has to do it!! This will be my 3rd cruise in 10 weeks but as usual when about to…

One popular gripe from cruisers is the time of final disembarkation as this is generally about 9am on the last day of your holiday. I have just taken 2 days off work to prepare my house for Christmas. For me, someone who is borderline OCD, this involves cleaning everything. Windows,…

Allegrissimo is the name of MSC Cruises fabulous all inclusive package which can be added for just £22 per person per night. Allegrissimo is the superlative form of the word allegro which in Italian means cheerful or happy so allegrissimo therefore means very happy and you certainly will be if…

When you plan your weekly grocery shop, have you ever thought about what it would be like to plan the meals for 5,700 people? No, me neither, until I was shown around the galleys and storerooms on board MSC Preziosa earlier this month. Put it this way, I wouldn't want…

I have just spent 4 nights on board the very beautiful MSC Preziosa with a group of my colleagues at cruise.co.uk.   A couple of the most frequently heard negative comments about MSC is that they will be full of Italians and that English is a secondary language. It is…

I am currently on board MSC Preziosa somewhere between Malta and Barcelona.   This will be the third time I have cruised with MSC and I have been pleasantly surprised each time. The ships are beautiful and the food is good. Sometimes the staff may find communication a bit of…

  OK, I confess. I collect fridge magnets! Not just any old fridge magnets but I have to have one from anywhere I've visited and, as I am pretty well travelled, I have quite a collection. I'm not really sure how it all started but it has become a bit…

On holiday last week, I took a lot of photos. I like photography and a large number of my pictures are of trees and flowers and water and sunsets and unusual rooftops and other artistic shots. Consequently, as I had the camera the whole time, I do not have any…