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How To Fast Track Your Way To The Galapagos

Who doesn’t love the idea of sailing to the far flung islands of the Galapagos and seeing the incredible animals and wildlife? Well if so then you’re in luck! It has been announced that Celebrity’s two new ships (the Celebrity Xploration and Xperience) will be sailing to the Galapagos in 2017. As well as this, Silversea cruises have also announced additional sailings to the area. The two Celebrity ships are new to the line and have both had a multimillion dollar refit. The Celebrity Xpedition holds just 8 luxury rooms whilst the Xperience is slightly larger with 24 staterooms....

Mixed Reviews As Cunard Announce They Are Relaxing Dress Codes

Cunard fans have been left shocked after the cruise line announced that they are relaxing their dress codes. The typically formal cruise line has long had a reputation for impeccably dressed guests and have a fairly strict dress code on-board. However, Cunard have now revealed that sailings on the Queen Victoria in the Mediterranean this summer will have a relaxed dress code on embarkation night. Cunard have said that this is because they want to accommodate guests embarking and disembarking in destinations such as Rome, Venice, Barcelona and Athens. They said: “Guests will be flying to meet the ship...

The Very Best (And Worst) Cruise Line Drink Packages of 2016

It seems like all the cruise lines are offering drinks packages this year and as you’d expect they’ve all come with a slew of exclusions, inclusions, exceptions, exemptions, limits and T&C’s. Trying to decide which is the best package (or even best for you) can be a nightmare as there’s no one, ‘standard’ to compare them against… but that obviously hasn’t stopped us from trying! We’ve taken a look at which cruise lines offer what, how much each package is ‘worth’ and also what it doesn’t include to come up with the following guide. Please note this is only our opinion and individual packages may suit different people better but hopefully you’ll find this useful in making an informed choice as to which suits you best.. MSC We’ve chosen MSC as the cruise line offering the very best drinks package at sea this year, which is perhaps unsurprising as the recent winner of the One To Watch 2016 trophy in the www.CRUISE.co.uk Cruise Community Awards. Their package, known as the Allegrissimo Drinks Package, is included free with all bookings but is worth around £154pp (based on a seven night sailing) and comes with literally everything… Soft drinks, bottled and draught beers, cocktails, wine’s (including Prosecco!), mixers and coffees! Well done MSC, well done! (You can learn more about the details of what’s included here). Norwegian Cruise...

Cruise Line Reverses Position On Compulsory Tipping

Are the cruise lines listening to their customers about tipping? That’s what we were left wondering this weekend after it was announced that Celebrity Cruises will no longer require guests to pre-pay gratuities when booking for Select Dining on-board their ships. Celebrity Select Dining is what’s known as Freedom Dining by other cruise lines. Whilst you still dine in the main dining room you can vary the time you dine at and your table size each night depending on what you fancy. In the past, customers have had to pre-pay all of their gratuities in advance if they want to select what time they eat (and these are between $11-$15 per person per day depending on their chosen room). Many of our customers had complained in the past that they do not wish to pre-pay gratuities as they liked to pay them on-board if they deem the service good enough. If select dining was the only option available to them at the time of booking they’d have no choice but to pre-pay gratuities with no say in the matter. However, Celebrity Cruises have now said: “Gratuities will no longer automatically be added to bookings with Celebrity Select Dining. Similar to bookings with Traditional Dining, pre-paid gratuities can still be added to bookings if the guest desires, but they will no longer be required as they have been in the...

Another Cruise Line Abandons Turkey Over Growing Security Concerns

It was announced over the weekend that yet another cruise line has revealed its decision to scrap Turkey as a port of call for all their ships in 2016. Crystal Cruises let their passengers know over the weekend that they will be cancelling two scheduled stops at Istanbul and Kusadasi which would have otherwise been visited by the Crystal Symphony this year. The six star luxury cruise line has said that it would re-route the ship “in response to ongoing security concerns.” They are of course referring to the recent suicide bombings in Istanbul which targeted tourists (more details here). Any Turkish stops planned for the Crystal Esprit in November will also be changed in light of this. The Crystal Esprit is the latest innovation from Crystal Cruises and will be a state of the art, luxury cruise ship. Announced last July (full article here), the ship will only hold a maximum of 1,000 guests at a time and will have its own helipad and submarine We previously reported that Celebrity cruises were dropping all ports in Turkey from their 2016 schedule (which you can read about here). However, Celebrity’s Press Release said this was due to problems with limited port access rather than in reaction to terrorist threats and unease in the country. Since then, other cruise lines such as Royal Caribbean have announced that they are “closely...