Sad New year for All Leisure Holidays

I was really sad to hear this week that ‘All Leisure Holiday’ group has ceased trading, which unfortunately means the two Cruise lines ‘Swan Hellenic’ and ‘Voyages of Discovery’ have had to cancel passengers cruises at very short notice.

Not a nice way to start the new year for passengers after having a hectic December and looking forward to a well deserved January break. However all is not lost as when cruise lines are in crisis it’s good to see that the lines pull together, so ‘Fred Olsen’ and ‘Cruise and Maritime’ have stepped in to help try to get passengers re-booked on their sailings. I’d like to think they are doing it out of the kindness of their hearts but where there’s passengers in need there’s money to be made, I’m sure Freds & C&M will be more than happy to fill some of their left over cabins.

I actually sailed on a Rhine River cruise with Swan Hellenic a few years back, they had chartered the Hellvita II. As a Company I thought they were great. The tour guides were really helpful & friendly, but most of all I really enjoyed meeting the passengers on board.

I remember having a guest list in our cabin of all the passengers on board, it was difficult to spot the names of two Travel Agents between the extensive list of Professors, Doctors, Lords & Ladies. I thought the knowledge and expertise between the 200 passengers on board must be immense, I could certainly learn a thing or two. The lectures on board were way over my head but you could see that Swan had got it spot on. The passengers thoroughly enjoyed them and appreciated the time & work it had taken to find guest speakers to enhance their cruise experience.

With such challenges in the world of travel at the moment, it’s easy to see where certain Travel Companies are struggling, however for us, cruising has never been in such high demand, the phones have not stopped ringing since Boxing Day.