Cruise Lines

easyCruise has bowed to popular demand and for 2009 will be including half-board accommodation and daily housekeeping in the price.

It's a far cry from the budget line Stelios set up, where everything was an extra once you had paid for your bed, but then he has had to backtrack on quite a lot - reopening inside cabins so passsengers have a window, cutting back on the orange, providing proper food on board, now including it in the price and cleaning cabins to boot. How very mainstream it has become.

Personally I find it reassuring that the bright young things he wants to attract want their rooms cleaned. Seven nights is a long time to wallow in your own muck, especially in Greece in high summer.

History doesn't relate whether sheets and towels will be changed over that time. I hope so. At least once - even if we are supposed to be environmentally friendly.

I remember a seven-night cruise in the Maldives many moons ago when neither was changed. They were so filthy could have walked off with us at the end of the week. I noticed the tour operator I booked with never offered the cruise again.