Helen’s Home-port

Today the 14th July is my work anniversary and marks 3 years that I have worked for cruise.co.uk.
I can honestly say that the last 3 years have been the best 3 years of my career and I absolutely love my job.
As my customers will tell you , I am passionate about my job and love assisting my clients to book the cruise of there dreams .
I am lucky that I am on many of the specialist lines due to hard work and my performances . These include Luxury cruise such as Regent , Silversea and Oceania , I have myself sailed with Silversea and more recently Regent , I’m filling my piggy bank to get towards sailing onboard Oceania. I also assist with River Cruises but most of my business is our Tailormade and Bucketlist department where we include land tours , hotels stays , flights , transfers and cruises and organise the whole package for you , these are my favourite and I love putting together itineraries that allow you to be able to cruise and see the areas that you are sailing to before and after your cruise .
My favourite itineraries include Australia & New Zealand , The Far East and USA/ Canada.
I have had land holidays in the Far East and Australia , New Zealand is also on my wishlist.
Yesterday I was asked to escort some of our clients who are staying in New York and then travelling to Niagara by Amtrak on one of our Tailormade trip and in September I will be flying to New York and meeting all our gusts as they disembark the Crown Princess from Southampton.
We will all be seeing some sights of New York staying at The Stewart Hotel and then exploring Niagara Falls as we stay at The Four Points Sheraton by the Falls and I will then leave them to enjoy the rest of there trip and I will fly home from Toronto….I can’t wait!
I look forward to the next 3 years and hopefully many more working at cruise.co.uk helping you all set sail to the different areas of the world .
In the last 3 years I have got married , waved the bambinos off to Uni , bought a caravan to explore more of our own country in between my cruises and gained another fur baby…. lets see what happens in the next 3.
Thanks to all my clients who keep coming back to me it really does mean a lot to me.

I’m back to work tomorrow after a lovely week off relaxing at home .
We’ve had a couple of trips to Manchester Airport but sadly neither for us , Heather has gone to Portugal for 6 weeks surfing and Ellie has gone to Majorca or a girly week with her friend .
On Friday we went to Cartmel Races in The Lakes and enjoyed at day at the races and even managed to win a few bets . Sunshine , Pimms and Processco made a great day and the finale was the one and only Tom Jones live for the evening entertainment . I couldn’t think of a more beautiful place to see him in as he belted out his favorites , you’d never think he was 77 as he crooned to the ladies in the audience , we even had a streaker there trying to get his attention .
On Sunday we had a drive out to Leeds to meet the new addition to your family , Gus an eighteen month old cockapoo for a little brother and playmate for Jacko our 6 year old.
After his first night he seems to be settling in well and were hoping that they will soon be best of buds and enjoy lots of fun together and keep each other company .

Where has 2017 gone so far?
I can’t believe its the middle of June already and we are finally having some nice UK weather.
Universities are now over for the year and the kids are home with all there worldly goods ….peace is shattered even the dog is looking shocked!
After the last few weeks of awful things happening here its nice to be able to look forward and we have some nice plans for the summer .

MSC Meraviglia has had her flagship ceremony on 31st May and she now joins the fleet and sails the Mediterranean this summer  from  Genoa Naples and Marseille as embarkation ports .

Have you seen our Top 100 brochure?

We’ve compiled a brochure of what we deem as the Top 100 recommended cruises  to help you choose your next sailing .

Are you struggling to decide what to do for your next cruise and need ideas , well look no further , here at cruise co we have compiled a magazine that features the Top 100 recommended cruises.
In the May 2017 edition there are sailings to suit everyone.
We cover the Far East , Mediterranean, Alaska & Canada, USA/Caribbean , Exotics and Australia/New Zealand.
All budgets are catered for and we have luxury sailings where budget is not the main focus but  if like many of us budget is a strong decider on where and when we sail there will be a great trip that fits  .

NCL have finally done it….Once you book with them you are now guaranteed to have everything included.
It’s an all in price, drinks and gratuities are all included for ALL passengers who sail.
These are the extras which really add up once you are on board and will make the cruise more affordable as no hidden surprises on your on board account when you have too many cocktails.
The extras used to put a lot of people off as sometimes could add up to more than the cruise cost when you factor in drinks at $10 per glass and on disembarkation all those lovely pina coladas suddenly didn’t seem as nice when you had to settle the on board account.
Gratuities are always sticky subject , love them or hate them they can always cause a heated discussion on whether you think they should be paid or not , well now you don’t need to worry as no extra charges , no decisions whether to pay or not to pay as these are also included in the new costs.

Great news if you like to sail from the UK and don’t like or can’t manage a fly cruise.

MSC have announced there itineraries for sailing out of Southampton in 2018 on board MSC Magnifica.

It’s that time of year again when the cruise lines are launching for 2018/2019 sailings.
Are you an early booker or just a looker?
I have clients that like to book as soon as they go on sale and others who wait till the last minute to try and bag a bargain.
Is a deal to you based on how many freebies the cruise lines throw in ?
Do you always wait till free drinks packages are released to enhance your holiday?
Depending on what your looking for depends on the best time to book.
If you need an adapted cabin then I recommend to book as early as you can as they are very limited and once there gone there gone.
If your looking at a specialised sailing such as our Tailormade and Bucketlist tours I would definitely recommend that you book these as soon as you can , the costs will only go up not come down as they are already based on the lowest fares possible.
Tour spaces can also be limited and when we have a sailing to places like Australia, South America, China and Japan we only have limited cabins .
Once we send a new itinerary out the phones ring immediately for them so don’t hang around thinking you’ll wait till closer to the sail date as chances are its full or the prices have dramatically increased due to the cost of airfares being more expensive closer to travel.
I booked for my September 2017 cruise with Royal Caribbean last August, I booked with free Manchester flights and even when they have offered free drinks packages my cost is still cheaper even after I’ve factored the costs of the drinks package in , whys this ? this is because i booked early and took advantage of the early booking discounts. Don’t presume that free rinks package is making our cruise cheaper and hang on till they are offering them. If the cruise is the one you want …. book it now rather than be disappointed in 6 months.
We regularly send texts and emails on late offers , if you receive and like it pick up that phone straight away to book it as there will be hundreds of other people who will and will get the deal , these are always on a first come first served basis.

Royal Caribbean have announced that they have banned passengers with certain nationalites of passports from boarding there ships.
Is this trumpness going too far or are they protected there other passengers?
Passport holders from North Korea, Sudan , Iran and Syria have all been banned from embarking.
The threat of terrorism is all around us , I am glad as a passenger that they take this seriously but is this too much?
We have not been given any further information other than the outright ban for any passengers travelling on these passports….will Celebrity and Azamara follow suit as they are all part of the ame group? We have not been advised of this yet but watching to see if any more nnoucements are made.