Cruise Blog

Here's the inside track on this week's hand-picked Top 10 cruise deals!

First up is the iconic Cunard Queen Mary 2 — featured here sailing from New York to Southampton. Fresh out of the oven this morning comes a new price of £599pp — for a balcony stateroom! This price, as ever includes the flight to New York and transfer to the ship. Flights are available from London, Manchester, Birmingham and Edinburgh. Extra nights in NYC are available pre-cruise from £125 pppn.

Next is a great new deal, also fresh this morning. Again a great last minute offer for those looking to get some sunshine before the winter closes in. Sail to the Eastern Med from Southampton on P&O Cruises' Oceana from an amazing £799pp for 24 nights — £33 per night for all dining and entertainment in an ensuite cabin, is cheaper than any hotel you'll find!

Our exclusive MSC Lirica offer to Dubai and Abu Dhabi is next. The new exclusive offer of £679pp, which features a free upgrade to outside cabin for the first 50 bookers — plus there's no supplement for single travellers, which is rare! This offer is available on many November and December rates — and is £99pp extra if you want to go in Jan, Feb or March. Direct flights from London or Manchester are included.

Last chance to book this year's Christmas escape to the Canaries from London Tilbury — with less than 40 spaces left! £949pp for 14 nights over both Christmas and New Year — time to let someone else do the cooking?

Azamara is our next feature, with a Vietnam and Thailand offer for the New Year— free flights, hotel and transfers included in this one, plus we're upgrading all passengers to an oceanview. 16 nights from £2499pp, again with extra nights in Singapore or Hong Kong available.

We have another Far East exclusive, this time with Voyages of Discovery. Hong Kong, Japan and Manila, with a free outside upgrade — and being a discovery cruise, a series of fascinating lectures and workshops helping you get the most from this genuinely off the beaten track itinerary.

Another way to beat the January blues follows, with the Independence of the Seas. We're offering exclusively lower prices on the insides on this popular Canary Islands sailing, so can save on average an extra £100 per couple — now just £699pp for 12 nights!

Fred Olsen comes next with something new. We've added two cruises together to make an extra special and great value holiday. Here you sail south from Dover to France and Spain, then add on Belgium and Amsterdam instead of disembarking. 10 nights from an amazing £699pp.

As featured on Travelzoo, the next offer is a luxury Fjords cruise on Holland America. With this we've brought the price down, but are still piling on the benefits — seven nights from £649pp, in May next year, including a free outside upgrade, free parking and $50pp person to spend on drinks onboard! Sailing from Dover on 6 & 13 May.

Last but not least comes Grand Princess. This is another exclusive deal we're able to offer customers travelling down from outside Southampton, with a complimentary hotel night, pre-cruise and transfer to the port. The cruise is to Belgium and Scandinavia for seven nights in June and starts at £799pp.

Happy cruising.

Last night, comedian Paul Merton's new travel series kicked off in style with a Caribbean cruise onboard the Allure of the Seas.

The comedian, better known for Have I Got News For You, was on his first ever cruise holiday and on arriving onboard declared that he was expecting to be playing shuffleboard with the Captain. Little did he know what was in store for him on the world's largest cruise ship!

The Ship

Allure of the Seas is, as mentioned, the largest cruise ship in the world and is only matched by her sister ship Oasis of the Seas. The 362 metre long, 5,400 passenger, 222,000 tonne ship, is approximately five times bigger than the Titanic and carries almost 2,500 crew to keep everything running, from the engines to the coffee machines.

On arrival Merton looked shocked with the sheer size and magnitude of Allure, entering the Boardwalk he likened it to a huge shopping mall on a boat [sic], before asking the camera "we [surely] can't be in a warehouse, can we?" As Merton continued on his embarkation he seemed a little disorientated by the size of the ship while trying to find his cabin, acting surprised to find that his suitcase had made it to his stateroom before him. Though he appeared happy with his accommodation, he was less impressed with the towel animal, a usual cruise ship favourite, that greeted him on his bed — Royal Caribbean had kindly left him one in the shape of a pig.

While onboard, Merton visited the ship's ice-rink, the slightly mad zip-line and the belly flop competition taking part in the Aqautheatre pool. During his wondering around the ship you really do get a feel for how large the ship is, and even though I've been onboard Independence of the Seas, I really couldn't imagine how huge Allure was until I saw the footage. Visiting the mini-golf he joked about feeling sea-sick while playing golf. While wandering around he commented that he thought "cruises used to be for the over-fed, newly-wed and nearly dead" before going on to say how wrong his pre-conception was.

During the voyage's main formal night, the Captain's Dinner, Merton sat at the Captain's table, which is usually reserved for the ship's most important customers and was surprised to find that one of the guests has been on over 70 cruises. He also interviewed a few Brits onboard, though not to stereotype, but they were in the ship's Irish pub at the time. It became clear that the people onboard loved the size of Allure of the Seas, the magnificent choice of pretty much everything and the attentive service.

Excursions

During the show, Merton undertook a variety of excursions, though tended to do his own thing as opposed to the cruise line's own trips. One of the interesting places he visited was a school in Labadee that had been set-up by Royal Caribbean, in order to help the local community. It's always interesting to see what the cruise lines put into the local communities they visit, apart from the obvious tourist income.

One of his more random trips was to visit the Jamaican dog-sled team, and while I expected something along the lines of Cool Runnings after watching the dogs pulling what looked like a glorified tricycle, I was pleasantly surprised to find out about the team's success. As this was a TV show, he also visited a once famous cafe in Mexico, where the owner is now looking after a variety of tigers, leopards and panthers that had been mistreated by previous owners or were in need of a home.

Though the excursions had little to do with the ship, they highlighted how there is more to the Caribbean than sandy, white beaches, vibrant, but friendly locals and duty-free shopping.

By the end of the program you get the feeling that the sheer size of the ship, the facilities, activities and entertainment onboard, were far beyond what the comedian had expected. Though the ship has been visited by members of the Iglu team, it had always seemed too big for me, especially as I'm used to the Sun class Princess ships, but having seen this through a first time cruiser's eyes, I am now surprisingly intrigued by it.

The great thing about Iglu is we have fans of every type of cruising, we have staff who regularly cruise with Royal Caribbean, others who prefer small ships and even some who will only cruise with Cunard given the choice. In summary, last night's episode of Paul Merton's Adventures has gotten us all talking about this amazing ship.

If you missed the program you can watch the episode online and if this has inspired you to check out the world's largest cruise ship, here is our current Allure of the Seas top offer.

Having been inspired by the fantastic art work onboard the Celebrity Silhouette after cruising on the ship last week, Walter Ferrari, one of our cruise specialists, has written a piece on his favourite pieces for us.

You cannot escape the Upper Grand Foyer's suspended live tree. The subtle blue-green iridescent finish on the gold sculptured arms created by Swiss artist duo Sabina Lang and Daniel Baumann hold the tree in a centred focal point engaging anyone entering the foyer.

The Damien Hirst I saw coming down the stairs and the Gilbert & George located at the entrance of the Oceanview Café prompted me to ask Guest Services for a book on the Silhouette's art collection which was delivered instantly to my stateroom. I was offered a self guided tour of the ship's art collection on an iPad, which helped me located artworks on the ship which, heaven forbid I may have missed!

Anish Kapoor's signature stainless steel mirror beckons you in what I can describe as a visual vortex into the speciality restaurant corridors, culinary world of Blu, Murano, Qsine and the Tuscan Grille.

The ensemble and dining corridor vestibules entire ceiling, wall and floor have been cleverly transformed into a fresco of magical realism. Birds singing and water trickling audio complement Hefferman's self portrait as Host and self portrait as Radiant Host, how appropriate for the Silhouette!

If you would like to see this stunning artwork for yourself, while enjoying a fabulous five star cruise, the Celebrity Silhouette will be sailing 12 and 13 night cruises out of Rome all summer, before ship heads to New York for the autumn on 22nd October 2011.