Collette's Carry On Cruise Blog

Celebrity Cruises have won countless awards for their high-end cruise product. Their fleet is varied with ships  from the tiny Celebrity Xpedition, a ship dedicated to exploring the Galapagos Islands with an occupancy of just 92 to the Reflection with a capacity of almost 3000. The food offered on board…

Excitement is beginning to build as the Regent Seven Seas Explorer is due to set sail in July 2016. With construction of what is billed as the most luxurious cruise ship ever built starting, a special keel laying ceremony was recently  held at the Fincantieri shipyard in Genoa. At the…

I find it very bemusing as to why cruise lines  use the term 'Guaranteed Cabins'. What exactly is guaranteed? Is the deck number guaranteed? No! Is the cabin grade guaranteed? No! Is the location of the cabin guaranteed? No! So why book a guaranteed cabin? Quite often the reason would…

There are so many of the cruise companies offering amazing amounts of free on board credit to spend during their big January & February promotions it begs the question just what can you spend it on? For almost all cruise lines the money can be used simply to pay for…

Having had the pleasure of sampling some of the fantastic restaurants on the brand new Quantum of the Seas I can confirm that if you are booked to go on either the Quantum or the Anthem you are in for a culinary treat! But this is my word of warning.…

A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to enjoy 3 festive nights on the beautiful Cunard ship Queen Mary 2 & here are my thoughts on her: We received a lovely welcome on board by the crew who informed us that children from a local school would be…

Last week I had the privilege of joining an exclusive bridge tour on board the QM2. I didn't really know what to expect & to be honest, not being a techy person I thought I would be bamboozled with all the screens, buttons & nautical terms, but I have to…

 I have  now blogged about each port of call on my October sailing on Splendour of the Seas & I have to say the itinerary was perfect (click here to read more) , but what was it like actually  on the ship? We had 2 sea days, so definitely had…

When I meet people who haven't cruised before, more often than not one of the reasons given for never having tried a cruising holiday is because they believe you have to get dressed up in formal attire every night. When cruise holidays began over 100 years ago there was no…

I have had the pleasure of visiting Manchester Christmas Markets twice in the last 2 weeks. Manchester is my favourite UK based location and with over 300 stalls it is spread over 9 different areas of the city. It's the biggest in the UK.  My last visit was on a…