Looking ahead to 2017

Happy New Year! Hope you've all had a lovely Christmas and New Year. 

I don't think I could be more glad for 2016 to be over for a lot of personal reasons, I'm hoping that 2017 is going to be a much better year. 

At the moment I have 3 trips booked and potentially planning another trip which are as followed:

Berlin: I'm going to Berlin for a few days with my friend in March.

Venice/ Greek Cruise: In May I'm spending a couple days in Venice before boarding an NCL ship to cruise around Greece visiting places such as Santorini and Mykonos.

Asian Cruise: In October for my parents 30th Wedding Anniversary we are doing an Asian Cruise from Hong Kong to Singapore visiting Bangkok and Vietnam onboard a Celebrity cruise ship. 

I'm hoping to visit my friend in Valencia at the beginning of March.   

Hopefully I will be able to go on a couple more short breaks depending on finances. 

LauraJane

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Why should or shouldn't you book a cruise?

Cruises are a type of holiday that I've done a lot of over the last few years. A lot of people ask me why do I like doing so many cruises and whether or not they should do one. They are not the type  of holiday for everyone as we all like to have different types of holidays. 

Why should you book a cruise?

The best thing about doing a cruise is waking up in a new destination every morning as well as being able to see some of the beautiful scenery as you sail in to some ports such as Lisbon, Portugal. Cruises allow you to visit places that you would not normally think about going to for a holiday or short break such as Gibraltar. They also allow you to get a taste of a place that you may then decide to go back to another time for a short break which is something I've done previously. When at ports cruise companies offer excursions which go to places that you would more than likely not go to if you went to that port of call for a short break or holiday. 

A good thing about doing a cruise is that all your food and entertainment is in one place and you don't have the trouble of having to find somewhere to go for food. The entertainment on cruise ships a lot of the time cater for a wide range of age groups and interests. When paying for your cruise it includes the cost of food, entertainment and accommodation although sometimes cruise companies will have an offer on which will includes so this means that the only extra money that you need for your holiday is what you want to spend when you are ashore. On previous cruises I have found that you are able to enjoy foods that you would not normally find in restaurants and that you are able to try a lot more new dishes. 

If you are looking for a new experience when it comes to travelling then I would recommend a cruise. A cruise can also be very relaxing as you spend a day at sea which I find to be a calming day as you get used to the ship that you are on. 

Why shouldn't you book a cruise?

If you are someone who doesn't like to be just in one place of an evening whilst on holiday then a cruise would not be for you as there will only be a couple of bars for you to be able to go. Also you are restricted as to what you are able to do of an evening as some cruise companies only have a small number of activities of an evening. 

Some people like to be able to spend a couple of days at a destination this is not the case when doing a cruise as you will only get between 6-12 hours in a port, it varies for each port as to  how long you will have at the port. When doing a cruise you need to be prepared for having a limited amount of time at your port. 

If you have any questions feel free to ask.

LauraJane

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P&O Britannia Cruise Ship

If you've seen my previous blog you will have seen that I recently went on a Norwegian Fjord cruise onboard P&O Britannia. This was my first time onboard the Britannia as well as my first time doing a P&O cruise, I've previously done Royal Caribbean and Thomson cruises. 

Eating and Drinking

Onboard the ship there are different places for you to be able to eat and drink. Some of the eating places onboard you have to pay a cover charge which varies in price depending on where you choose to go. There is a lot of inspiration from celebrity chefs such as Marco Pierre White, James Martin and Eric Lanlard in some of the eating places. At the Market Cafe you can enjoy cakes which are inspired by Eric Lanlard such as Red Velvet Cake which I did treat myself to and it was one of the best Red Velvet cakes I've had. 

There is a Olly Smith inspired wine bar that also serves food called  The Glasshouse. There is a large choice of wine to choose from for those who do enjoy a glass of wine, I like Moscato which is very rarely seen and it was available at The Glasshouse which made me very happy. On one visit to The Glasshouse we ordered some food which I would say is more of a place to go for lunch. The food was lovely, I got a taster dish of chicken liver parfait, chicken tenders with a parmesan crumb and mushrooms in a breaded crumb. 

You can also enjoy food at The Beach House which has got an American style menu. On our visit I got sizzling chicken fajitas which were the best fajitas I've ever had. Whilst at The Beach House you can order a steak which you are able to cook yourself on a lava rock. 

There is a place onboard called The Limelight Club where you are able to enjoy entertainment as well as food for a charge of £22. Entertainment you can enjoy include Darren Day and Jaki Graham. We went to see Darren Day who was really good as he did different impressions and sang some swing songs. The Limelight Club is definitely somewhere I would recommend people to go whilst onboard and I found that this was where we enjoyed the best meal onboard. 

Other places to go for a drink onboard include the pub where you can also join in with quizzes as well as karaoke and Java which serves Costa coffee.

Entertainment

There is places onboard the ship where you can enjoy entertainment such as the Live Lounge and the main theatre. Entertainment onboard included:

• P&O showcase performing musicals
• Ventriloquist Jimmy Tamley
• Badness (Madness Tribute Act)
• Annie Lennox Tribute Act
• Comedian (can't remember his name)
• Swing Singer (can't remember his name)

Miscellaneous

Onboard there is a cookery club where you are able to enjoy cookery classes from an onboard chef with dishes including Thai Street Food. There are select cruises which offer the chance of a masterclass from either Marco Pierre White or James Martin. 

There are some shops onboard which sell different products including make-up, perfume, sunglasses, jewellery and clothing. Brands available to buy include Benefit, Pandora, Radley and Ray Ban. 

Britannia is the newest ship in the P&O fleet and they have relaxed the dress code. For our 7 night cruise we had 2 formal nights, I like formal nights when on cruises as I think it's nice to get dressed up and to see everyone else onboard also dressing up. 

Any questions feel free to leave a comment. 

LauraJane

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Norwegian Fjords Cruise

I've just got back from a cruise of the Norwegian Fjords onboard P&O Britannia. I'm going to split the blog in two parts, this blog is going to be about the ports and then next Sunday I will post a blog about the ship. 

Stavenger

Stavenger looked to be a lovely place but it was not somewhere that we got to really see due to the weather and not being able to get a bus as it was not working properly. The weather was torrential rain and we thought it wasn't worth risking the chance of becoming ill so we had a little look round by the ship area and then got back on to the ship. 

Olden

At Olden we started to see an improvement in the weather. The sail in to the port was lovely and definitely worth getting up early for. Olden is a place which is more scenic, whilst here we went on a glacier tour. 

Andalsnes

Andalsnes was not originally part of the itinerary when we booked the cruise as we were originally meant to go to Flaam so we had no plans on what to do when at the port. We got off the ship and had a little walk round the town. This area is well known for being like the French Alps.  Whilst here we went a little cafe and had the local speciality Vafler which is very similar to a waffle.

Bergen

My favourite port of the cruise as there was so much more to do. Once off the ship we had to get a shuttle bus due to the port being a commercial port. We did a tour of the town and went up the funicular where you get a view of the whole town and this something everyone must do when visiting Bergen because it was beautiful. We also went to the local fish market which is also something that must be visited even if your like me and not a seafood fan. There was only one problem with Bergen and that was we didn't get long enough so we didn't get to have a proper walk around the town. 

As we were visiting the different ports it was obvious that Norway is very common for Trolls. When going in different gift shops they would have a large selection of Troll ornaments which I found to be very cute and I ended buying a few for in my room with other souvenirs that I have from different places that I've been to in the past. 

One thing I found very strange when visiting Norway was the fact that it doesn't go dark of a night. For anyone who is planning to visit Norway in the future be aware that it is an expensive place, we paid the equivalent of £6.00 for a coffee. 

LauraJane

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