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Cruising

Can you find romance on holiday?

In the last of our Travel and Love series for the month we ask the question: Can you find romance on holiday? The simple answer if yes. If you are open, relaxed and doing a little flirting than the best romances can happen while you are travelling. When you are removed from real world problems and your daily routine, romance is ripe for picking. Many people plan to travel to let their hair down and

Five questions you should ask yourself before you travel in 2020

Technology may well indeed be shrinking the world around us and connecting us in myriad ways through innovations such as Skype, WhatsApp and Instagram but it’s also surprisingly large when you start to consider where you want to travel to next and there are many things to consider; not least of which is cost. Leaving cost aside though for one moment, let’s consider all the other factors that determine where we travel to? (more…)

Mass Tourism — is it a good or a bad thing?

I had the opportunity to visit the beautiful town of Kotor in Montenegro a few weeks ago. I had first visited the stunning medieval town nine years ago and was captivated by its stunning location at the end of a deep inlet and the well-preserved condition of much of its buildings. Indeed, it was so perfect that it almost looked fake — like a recently constructed film set. On both occasions, I visited the town

Celebrity Edge — does it live up to the hype?

We live in a world that is increasingly dominated by ‘Fake News’ and where so much hyperbole is propagated about any new product, service or destination that it can sometimes be difficult to separate fact from fiction. The function of any marketing or PR department is to talk up a new product entering the market and when that ‘product’ is a new cruise ship that represents an investment of close to $1Billion, then it is

Going to Florida this year? You’ve got to do the Bahamas too.

I’ve been to the Caribbean quite a few times over the years, visiting dream destinations like Puerto Rico, The Bahamas, St Thomas, Sint Maartin, Jamaica and even Bermuda although strictly speaking Bermuda isn’t the Caribbean and I’ve loved it every single time. There’s a laid-back atmosphere on every island, the natives are friendly, and they all speak English. Add to that those amazing tropical beaches, swaying palms, calypso music, daiquiris and Pina Coladas so what’s

Out of this world!

Isn’t language an amazing thing? Whether we realize it or not, it is a living thing that adapts to its surroundings to reflect the era it occupies, within which, words are used to convey certain concepts and ideas and like all other living things it is wonderfully flawed. Words that originally meant one thing, end up, over time, meaning exactly the opposite for reasons that still perplex linguists. A perfect example (among many) is the

There’s nothing like a good Seaview

One of the great perks of doing the job that I do is that, periodically, I get the opportunity to test-drive some amazing new hardware. Last weekend was just such an occasion when I had the pleasure to experience MSC’s latest super ship — Seaview — in Genoa. It’s not the largest cruise ship in the world (it’s 14th actually), but it is very cleverly designed and exhibits the usual Italian flair for style, elegance

The best cruise ship in the world

It’s very easy to become blasé in our industry as we have the privilege of getting invited aboard loads of new ship builds so we always see them in their newest and shiniest state when they have the cruise equivalent of that ‘new car’ smell and everything is just perfect. I recently had the immense pleasure of spending a couple of nights aboard Symphony of the Seas in Barcelona when Royal Caribbean’s latest mega ship

HOW TO BOOK YOUR FIRST CRUISE!

In case you haven’t heard, cruising is, and has been, the fastest growing trend in travel in recent years and yet despite all the hype and the promotion, less than 2% of Irish travellers have experienced one to date, according to CLIA, the professional trade body that represents all the main cruise lines. There are many reasons for this which broadly fall into the following three categories, so this week’s blog hopes to bring some

These numbers may surprise you!

When people find out that I work in the travel industry one of the questions that I invariably get asked is ‘What’s popular this year?’ When I always reply ‘Spain’, they seem visibly disappointed as if they had expected me to cite someplace far more exotic like Mexico or Mozambique! The reality is that most people don’t like to move too far outside their comfort zone and so the hardy annuals such as Spain, Portugal,

There is no sincerer love than the love of food!

At least that’s what George Bernard Shaw claimed and I’m inclined to agree with him. It would also appear that I’m not alone as the people at Oceania Cruises also take their food very seriously indeed. They reputedly spend more on food than any other cruise line and having recently spent a couple of indulgent days aboard Oceania Insignia as it made its way up from Bordeaux to Dublin, I can attest to that claim!

The Success story that is MSC Cruises!

When Captain Gianluigi Aponte purchased his first, small ship in Belgium in 1970, just as globalisation was taking off which would soon be fed by the containerisation revolution, little could he have imagined that the small company that he had just founded in Brussels would one day come to employ more than 60,000 people located in over 150 countries around the world. That company was MSC Group, parent of MSC Cruises! (more…)

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