Killer Cucumbers - Whatever Next

Reports have been coming out on the news of killer cucumbers from Spain. To be honest when I first read this headline I thought it was a joke, but no it is a serious issue.

Apparently cucumbers have allegedly killed up to 9 people in Germany due to E coli.

Now we are all told how to eat more salads and foods that are good for us, and then these things break the news and my goodness is there anything safe to eat.

I have always considered that a poor little cucumber with a bit of lettuce and tomato was good for you, but now apparently they carry some very nasty diseases, allegedly from Spain.

I have never really thought about this but for cruise liners visiting ports all around Europe who are picking up supplies for their onward journey what a nightmare this must be when these things happen do they buy their Spanish salad material or do they opt for another product and if so are there foreign brands they can buy.

For people in the UK it is a simple choice we just dont buy the Spanish brands until we know 100% they are safe.

Lets hope the killer cucumber incident disappears soon.

Man Overboard on the Celebrity Eclipse !

Sadly reports have just been coming into the news that a man has plummeted into the English Channel last night off the Celebrity Eclipse. The circumstances behind this are not being reported.

Apparently it happened at at 10.15pm  eight miles north of Cherbourg.

At the moment they are not reporting whether this man was a guest or a member of the crew.

Searchers have not been able to locate the gentleman and the man is now presumed dead, so our hearts go out to the family and friends of this man in these distressing times.

Of course we all pray for a happy ending and hope that the gentleman in question can be found.

Getting to UK ports how easy is it to get the information you need

Are you fed up with spending hours on the phone or trawling the world wide web when you are looking for directions or coach times or flights to get you to UK ports.

Well I know I get fed up when I want to try and find out about trains,coaches, flights or even just directions by car.

You end up sat on the internet with what seems like hundreds of browsers open flicking between them all to get the relevant information.

I have recently found a website that seems to take most of this stress away and you can look at train times, coach times, driving times and lots of other bits of information that you may or may not find useful.

I looked at an example of travelling from Birmingham to Southampton to the Mayflower cruise terminal departing at 07.00am in the morning.
It gave me the train as an option that would take 2 hours 49 minutes and that it would take me 11 minutes from the station to the terminal, a coach journey that was well lets say a very long journey and the time by car of 2 hours 53 minutes.

I could even check the costs and my emmissions if I really wanted to.

I found this site really useful so I thought that I would share it with you and hope that it will prove a useful tool when arranging your next trip.

www.tranportdirect.info

Would you share a cabin with a stranger?

I have recently had one of my passengers who has booked with us for many years return from a world cruise on Fred Olsen's Balmoral.

Like so many single passengers when she made her inital enquiries, the price for a single cabin was quite expensive for her so she decided to consider sharing with another solo traveller.

She had never tried this before and was a little apprehensive for all the reasons that you can imagine....
Will I get on with the person, will they snore and what type of person will this be.

Fred Olsen are the only cruise line who will offer a share basis and they do have limited places for this, but they do try and match people up to the best of their ability.
Subject to availability Fred Olsen will offer the share facility on any of their fantastic range of cruises.


Now as you can imagine 108 nights away on a cruise is a long time, but I am happy to report that my lady was absoloutely over the moon with her travelling companion.

They got on well, knew when to give each other the space they needed and in fact got on so well they are keeping in touch and may travel on a cruise again together.

This is wonderful news and a story with a happy ending that I thought I must share with you all. Of course for anyone looking to travel on their own who doesnt mind sharing this can be a great way of saving some money.

Portsmouth's New Terminal - gets the thumbs up from me

Over the Easter weekend I was lucky enough to travel to France for the weekend from Portsmouth.

Normally, I have to say the facilities at the Port are not good at all, very dated buildings toilets not very pleasant and all in all a bit of a shabby affair.

However this time what a delight to see all the old  1970's buildings blocked off, unfortunately they still have the nasty toilets in operation but great to see right at the port this new terminal building.

From now on both cruise and ferry passengers will be able to enjoy fantastic facilities in modern surroundings, now they will have somewhere nice to sit, be able to get food and drink, instead of the old tatty buildings that were used before.

The new terminal opened at the begining of April and they are expecting 36 cruise departures for this year including Fred Olsens Boudicca.

Well done to Portsmouth for updating their facilities with more cruise lines deciding to sail from Portsmouth now our passengers will be able to enjoy the comforts that they have been used to at other ports.