Travel Weekly Blog

This is the YouTube channel of a user calling themselves 'MSCCruiseLines'.

Take a close look at the favourites...

Tom Cruise goes crazy? The unfunny truth about Scientology? Some crazy scientology stuff?

Needless to say, this channel isn't anything to do with MSC Cruises. The user has been reposting official MSC vids as replies to other cruise clips, such as ours - which is what brought it to my attention.

A quick call to MSC Cruises UK head of PR (and former TW editor) Sarah Longbottom reveals that there is no official MSC Cruises YouTube channel, though there are nicely curated ones here and here.

How to deal with it? Well, YouTube's T&Cs don't directly deal with impersonating a brand, and a 2007 article on Marketing Sherpa suggests that usernames are basically first-come-first-served. It's unlikely that MSC could expect direct help from YouTube or its owner Google.

The brand whose case is discussed on Marketing Sherpa got this response from YouTube:

We are not in a position to adjudicate the appropriateness of a user's name selection. We do not disable accounts in response to such allegations. We recommend instead that people pursue any claims they may have directly with the user in question.

Speak to your lawyers, in other words, and no doubt the lawyers would (eventually) be able to do something about it - there's clearly a case for saying this brings the brand into disrepute.

Ultimately it's just a minor irritant, and could probably be ignored. But it's another interesting case study on brand protection in the social media badlands...

Just read through the proofs of the forthcoming TW Cruise supplement (published with Travel Weekly on 20 February). I know I would say this, but there were some great pieces of information in there. The focus is on cruises out of the UK (called ex-uk cruises). Here are some highlights:

• British-style cruising increasingly popular - Fred Olsen Cruises and Cruise and Maritime Services doing well
• Massive ships will be with us in 2010 - Royal Caribbean's Allure of the Seas (5,400 passengers) and P&O Cruises' Azura (3,000 passengers)
• Costa Cruises' Costa Luminosa is operating out of Dubai
• You can visit Iran with Princess Cruises
• Silversea and Hurtigruten are expanding their Arctic programmes
• River cruising will be boosted by launch of Viking River Cruises' new ship Viking Legend in April  
• MSC Fantasia will suit 40-55 year old Brits
• There are lots of offers out there

They'll put all sorts of crazy stuff on cruise ships these days, but the prize for least likely suggestion goes to Youtube user jpbalkenende.

Here's his/her comment on our vid of Oasis of the Seas under construction:

What would be cool [is] if they had a blue whale sculpture in their central park like the the one in the New York Museum of Natural History. Biggest ship of the seas and biggest animal of the seas. But it would take up some room and obscure some views I guess.

Nobody loves a natural history exhibit more than your blogger, but... yes, jpbalkenende. Yes it would.

Here's a map - the pink markers are photos from flickr. (Markers not showing up in Internet Explorer? Try Firefox.)

View Larger Map

[Thomson Celebration] is now stationed at Langton Cruise Terminal, a quayside warehouse with only very basic modification. Located deep in the dockland, it is difficult for passenger access and in very unappealing surroundings.

• Thomson Cruises is not obliged to offer a refund
• All passengers will get an 80% discount voucher for future bookings

Busy day yesterday. Here's what happened...

The TTA-Worldchoice merger got shareholder support

Consumers: The merger would create a huge travel agent consortium.

In a consortium, member travel agents are technically independent but benefit from the spending and buying power of a large organisation - so theoretically you may see more products and better technology on the ground.

The other big consortiums are Advantage and Global Travel Group (with Worldchoice they form the superconsortium Triton).

Andrew Laurie announced he is to quit

Consumers: Won't affect you. Laurie is quitting Stella Travel Services UK, which owns a number of UK travel businesses.

Oasis of the Seas went on sale

Consumers: For existing cruise fans, you can now book what will be the biggest cruise ship in the world.

Non-cruise fans should look at the sheer volume now going into this market - cruiselines need to fill these ships, and that means winning over new passengers.

Heavy marketing is a certainty, and discounting a possibility - so you might yet find yourself swayed...

Other good stuff from the issue:

• Will 2009 be a lean year for late deals?
• Nominations open for our Globe Travel Awards

TW's student journalist Tiffany Evans, gives feedback on her visit to Royal Caribbean International's call centre in Addlestone, Surrey, on the day Oasis of the Seas tickets went on sale (here's our video from the day).

Tiffany writes . . .

Royal Caribbean started its general sale of Oasis of the Seas today and I went along to see if the hype around the ship, really had grabbed the public's attention.

I was not disappointed, as soon as we entered the office the phones started to ring and the bookings began.

There was a general buzz about the office, which incidentally has a cruise liner style as it was created by one of their ships designers. 

The company decorated the desk areas with balloons and organised an 'oasis' chill out area, with treats and the juice drink oasis for the staff.

Associate vice-president and general manager, Jo Rzymowska (pictured), was wearing an apron with 'Domestic Goddess' written across the front, and was wandering around the desks with a trolley offering staff snacks as they worked.

The senior management including the Vice president and managing director of Royal Caribbean International, UK and Ireland, Robin Shaw were mucking in and answering calls which they found to be trickier than they first thought.

Martin Couzins, managing editor

I was up at London Cruise Terminal in Tilbury, Essex today to visit Transocean ship Marco Polo, and ended up interested in a site whose first impressions are a little underwhelming.

• It dates back to 1930, when PM Ramsay MacDonald opened a landing stage at Tilbury Docks (archive footage)
  
• Empire Windrush docked here in 1948, bringing West Indian immigrants to the UK
• It is in the frame for redevelopment funding as the 2012 Olympics approaches

It's also convenient for Transocean's passengers, who are generally a sedate, 55-60 and above crowd. They can do without negotiating big, busy terminals with piles of luggage (and if you're not an initiate, note that negligible restrictions mean cruisers tend to pack more than air travellers).

UK cruises

It was also interesting to hear that one of Marco Polo's most popular itineraries is a Tilbury-Tilbury round UK cruise - passengers for which come almost exclusively from the terminal's south-and-east catchment area.

Jane Archer, who writes our Cruise Lines blog and accompanied me around Marco Polo (watch her video review on Travel Weekly) pointed me to a cruisecritic.com article that suggests Transocean rivals Fred Olsen and Voyages of Discovery are seeing a similar demand for UK cruising.

What do we make of it? A growing desire to see more of the UK? Disinclination to go abroad becuase of the weak pound and iffy economic lookout? Or just an appealing price point?

That's right: you, Royal Caribbean's Independence of the Seas, free Ben & Jerry's ice cream. The catch is you have to stare at their backsides.

The cabin above Independence of the Seas' Ben & Jerry's outlet has - as you can see - a restricted view of the Royal Promenade; as compensation, the occupants get free ice cream.

I would.

The photo was taken by Travel Weekly Cruise Club member Tracy McFall, a disabled travel specialist who sent us her thoughts on IoS's facilities and accessibility.

Nathan Midgley, web producer

TW's editor-in-chief Penny Wilson just visited the Royal Yacht Britannia in Edinburgh. Here's the lowdown.

Edinburgh taxi drivers are a chatty bunch.

I have just returned from a splendid dinner on board the Royal Yacht Britannia with Scotland's finest agents and operators - courtesy of Air France and KLM who wanted to say a big thankyou for the support the company had experienced from that part of the world.

Having spent the last four years travelling abroad, I had to admit to not having been to Edinburgh for some time, so I asked the cabbie whether he was Scottish or British.

"I am Scottish first and foremost, and British in times of conflict," he replied.

And as for the Royal Yacht, I've never seen anything so narrow in my life as her majesty's bed. No room for anything else but a tiny person in there.

Word of warning to travellers to Edinburgh courtesy of the Central Cab Company - Edinburgh is being torn apart by preparations to re-introduce trams.

Victorian utilities are being replaced before tram tracks can even be considered. All this is costing millions of pounds and will cause massive traffic delays for another two to three years.

Another message from Louise Scott on easyCruise...

Just been chatting to a senior member of ship personnel who let slip that a customer spent a couple of hours in his office the other day having a moan.

Being a sticky-beaked journo type I asked why and he said she was an older lady who'd been on loads of (posh) cruises before this and wasn't happy with how easyCruise Life was shaping up in comparison - one of her main gripes being the food.

Hang on a minute, I thought, isn't that a bit like comparing Pizza Express to The Ivy? Or going to Maccy D's and expecting steak?

Okay, so the grub may not be the most varied in the world, but it's pretty nice if you ask me (or any of the folk I've chatted to about it). The disgruntled lady didn't take kindly to the generally informal style of the ship either, by all accounts.

Agents, the moral of this story is this: be careful who you recommend a holiday on easyCruise Life to. Those looking for a bit of swank, smarm and Silver Service will not find it here. This is firm flip-flop brigade territory.

Chilled-out types of all ages who would hate the traditional idea of cruising and want to see more of the ports of call than the portholes on deck will love easyCruise Life, though. It's easy peasy.

Travel Weekly's Louise Scott is out on a fam trip aboard easyCruise Life. She emailed me her impressions of the ship...

Orange is not the only colour aboard easyCruise Life - far from it, in fact.

Eighteen hours into a seven-day fam trip aboard the ship and the only sign of the garish colour so far is in the huge numbers printed on each and every cabin door (just so passengers definitely know which one's theirs). They look pretty funky - a word which would could befit the rest of the ship.

As a cruise virgin, I didn't know what to expect on this or any other ocean liner for that matter, but If I'm honest my hopes for this one weren't high. Going on general perceptions of sister ship easyCruise One a couple of years back I had something remotely resembling a loud, gaudy, floating Pizza Hut in mind. Instead, I've found understated, modern chic.

It's got a great bar and restaurant, sun decks with sumptuous beds to lounge on (feels a bit like the Big Brother garden), all next to a small but functional little swimming pool.

It's more than enough for singles, couples or groups of friends with a bit of taste who want to see the Greek islands at a bargain price and in a relaxed atmosphere.

My only gripe so far is with the gym - did they really need to use up so much valuable sunbathing space for that?!

If I see any of my agent companions so much as look at a treadmill, I'll eat my sun hat...

• Liked this? Try Cruise Lines, TW Group's cruise blog by industry expert Jane Archer

As web producer I don't get to see print adverts until I read the issue. But I like this one from US cruiseline Carnival:

It's a cute riff on the name of its ship Carnival Splendor, which would be spelt 'splendour' in British English.

'All that's missing is u' is knowing, ever so slightly self-deprecating... to my ears, perfect for a big US ship coming to the UK.

The only problem? The hook is buried in the middle of the ad. Having done a bit of copywriting in my time, I hate to see a great idea take the back seat...

Anyway, as you can see Splendor is on the way to the UK. It will have the good fortune to have Myleene Klass as its godmother, and, as our cruise blogger Jane Archer also mentions on Cruise Lines, will be christened with English sparkling wine instead of champagne.

All this deference to homegrown spelling and produce... it's enough to win anyone over. 

Nathan Midgley, web producer

We've had some great pics in from Azamara Cruises - this is the 593-foot Azamara Journey sailing into London for the first time. It's one of the largest cruise ships that has ever docked in central London.

Nathan Midgley, web producer

Not often you get to see behind the scenes on a cruise ship but TW was shown the engine room and galleyon Royal Caribbean's Independence of the Seas. Here we have the engine room footage - six enormous diesel engines are used to power the ship (not all at the same time).

When we dropped in one engine was operating and the heat and noise was quite something.

Martin Couzins, online editor

See what agents think of Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines' Independence of the Seas. And it looks as if size really does matter :-)

Martin Couzins, online editor

Here are some more pictures from yesterday's agent day on board Royal Caribbean's Independence of the Seas.

Captain Teo Strazicic let us up on to the bridge - here he is pictured in the captain's seat. And then we have the promenade that runs down the centre of the ship and the Flowrider surf ride.

Check out Jane Archer's review of the consumer day on Independence of the Seas (and a picture of Scouting for Girls).

UPDATE: More pics on Flickr.

Martin Couzins, online editor

TW is on board Royal Caribbean's latest ship the Independence of the Seas.

This ship shares the title of the world's largest cruise ship - it is the width of a football pitch and the length of three. I was hoping to post some pictures but access to PCs is limited (I can't access the USB socket) so am scuppered.

However, we have been granted access to the bridge, the galley and the engine room so have some interesting footage to share.

First impressions are: wow, this is a big ship. It has very friendly staff and is jammed with impressive facilities. Looks like a very family friendly ship with loads to do for the kids.

And it is based in Southampton - so great news for the trade and consumers.

Only criticism . . . some access to USB sockets required.

More pictures and video footage tomorrow . . .

Martin Couzins, online editor

Because there's no point pretending it always goes to plan...

The line was "Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines UK and Ireland managing director Jo Rzymowska," of course.

Watch the full interview with Jo, who was at Travel Weekly towers guest editing the paper, over on the website.

Nathan Midgley, web producer

What's that occupying the top slot? It isn't Royal Caribbean Cruise Line's official Independence of the Seas site...

Some enterprising so-and-so called Jesmond Travel has registered independenceoftheseas.org and built a page that pushes RCCL into second place on Google - though Jesmond is nowhere to be seen when you run the same search on Yahoo.

This isn't the end of the world - second place is still very prominent - but it's unfortunate considering the sheer volume of search traffic that coverage of IotS is bound to generate (the mainstream media love the 'biggest passenger ship' angle, despite the fact Liberty and Freedom are the same size).

Google searches for 'Ventura' and 'Poesia' return P&O and MSC pages in first place, by the way.

Nathan Midgley, web producer

Travel Weekly's Chloe Berman and Michelle Perrett spent some time on the Ventura with travel agents on the VIP agent day. This is what they had to say . . . like Nigel's 'relaxed' bed pose.

Martin Couzins, online editor

Curse this year's ample snow in the Alps. Oh, it may have looked pretty. It may have crunched seductively underfoot and yielded beautifully to skiers and snowboarders. But here's what happened when it melted:

This is taken from the window of Peter Deilmann river cruise vessel Princesse de Provence, which I'd joined for a short trip down the Rhone. It was forced to stay in Vienne, a short drive south of Lyon, for two days.

Disappointment all round, obviously, but nobody could blame Deilmann - a big stick shoots by at 0:22, and the threat of such stuff damaging the propellers is just one of the reasons boats can't depart when the river misbehaves. And the Rhone was clear of traffic, so other operators will have had the same problems.

To their credit, Deilmann staff coped with a difficult situation well, and although apologetic to the press contingent were demonstrably more concerned about getting clearance to depart and keeping passengers happy than they were about what we journos were thinking. Which is as it should be.

Here's more evidence of what the meltwater did, this time taken further north at Tournus on the river Saone:

Nathan Midgley, web producer

Royal Caribbean has produced two videos on the Genesis project including one actually filmed on the ship in production. It is being built at Aker yards in Finland.

Congratulations to our Cruise Lines blogger Jane Archer for predicting the concept for the new ship. Jane is blogging her way around the many ship launches this month.

Martin Couzins, online editor

Royal Caribbean has announced the shortlist for godmother of Independence of the Seas.

Congratulations to the shortlist:

Barbara Natasegara from Cardiff
Elizabeth Hill from Chesterfield in Derbyshire
Madeleine Henry from Southampton
Sue Stones from Bakewell in Derbyshire

Great to see Royal Caribbean looking beyond celebrity circles for this role. Winners to be announced this Thursday.

Martin Couzins, online editor

Thanks to Royal Caribbean for this short film of the making of Independence of the Seas at Aker Yards in Turku, Finland. I like the scale of the coaches against the ship in dry dock.

Martin Couzins, online editor

Travel Weekly's poll on the cruise industry's green efforts was interesting.

Some 44% of respondents declared their customers had no interest in what cruiselines are doing to reduce their environmental impact. Those customers are clearly not aware of the initiatives the cruise industry is undertaking to achieve positive eco results.

Governments and industry are seeking solutions to global environmental problems, but it is easy to get confused as to who is doing what, how, measurement, is it working etc.

Let's support the Association of Cruise Experts in its efforts to remove some of the confusion which surrounds this important subject.

Brian Hordon, director of training development, Silversea Cruises (UK) Ltd

This is the Zebra Bar on new cruise ship MSC Poesia, where various Travel Weekly staff could be found in a state of great, er, relaxation in the early hours of Sunday morning.

Some of our party loved it. Others complained that it was burning their eyes (okay, that was me).

The important thing is that nobody ignored it - not every comment made it into my video edit, but almost every one of the agents we chatted to had something to say on the room.

Want more? Take a look at our MSC Poesia video line-up - there's a short ship tour, some travel agent reactions and a travel trade presentation from MSC Cruises UK managing director Claudia Baino.

MSC's determination to make an impact in the UK was evident on Saturday - our own cruise blogger Jane Archer wonders at "the massive sales job UK agents now have on their hands if they are ever to repay MSC for a great evening."

Few left in any doubt about the product (see another approving write-up in the Telegraph) but as Jane says, now it's time to start winning sales.

The cruiseline is a staunch supporter of agents, offering commission on virtually everything - it will be hoping that its investment in the trade comes good.

Nathan Midgley, web producer

Sky News has reported that the Van Gogh is now heading back to Falmouth after being held in Madeira for two days.

Martin Couzins, online editor

The BBC has reported that cruise ship Van Gogh is being held in Madeira with 460 passengers on board. The ship is on the final leg of a round-the-world cruise and was due back into Falmouth on Saturday.

Here's Travel Weekly's story on Van Gogh Cruise Line's plans for 2008.

More to come on Travel Weekly.

Van Gogh overview.

Martin Couzins, online editor

Here are some left-field cruise ship stats. When fully stocked, the Emerald Princess, which carries 3,110 passengers and 1,200 crew, holds:

18,000 rolls of toilet paper

23,000 bed sheets

59,300 wooden coat hangers

3,900 muffins

150 yards of link breakfast sausages

910lb of ice cream

960lb of bananas

852lb of shellfish

1,431lb of game/poultry

Travolution has a good story on how airlines fared in a recent study of brands' online reputations.

Virgin Atlantic came top, and Ryanair got a sobering score of minus 20. Here are the Kaizo Advocacy Index scores:

• Virgin Atlantic: 65
• BMI: 48
• EasyJet: 25
• British Airways: -6
• Ryanair: -20

And I see on Gadling that the New York Times ran a 'cruise issue' on Sunday. This article on interesting land extensions has a little drop-down menu that takes you to most of the content.

The cruise revolution marches on... I wonder whether the freesheet that doesn't do cruise has relented yet.

Nathan Midgley, web producer

According to the Cruise Report 2008, last year was the year cruise agents started to set up up their own cruise blogs or Clogs in which they posted cruise reviews and invited customers to respond. Good on those agents who are enaging customers through blogs. Here are a couple of examples: Gill's Cruise Centre and Save and Sail Cruise Village.

Here's the TW story on the Cruise Report 2008.

Martin Couzins, online editor

This list of the top 10 not-to-be-missed cruise ports has just come in from Cruisecritic. The list is in alphabetical order.

Amsterdam
Dubrovnik
Hong Kong
Martinique
Maui
Muscat
Naples
St. Petersburg
Sydney
Vancouver

Some pics of Cunard's QE2, Queen Mary 2 and Queen Victoria. The ships met for the first and only time in New York.

It's a big year for cruise, so I was hoping there might be a range of cruise ship simulator-type games online so I could have a go at being captain. Alas, it was not to be, apart from docking an easyCruise ship that is.
Martin Couzins, online editor

This year is going to be a big one for cruise - check out Travel Weekly's rundown of this year's new ships.

And here are some predictions for the cruise industry in 2008.
Martin Couzins, online editor

MyCruiseblog.co.uk reports that P&O Ventura will feature the first circus school at sea.

The area will be equipped with four bungee trampolines, which will enable you to soar 60 metres above sea level.

A fine addition to the huge and colourful range of activities now available at sea. Though not one you would find TW Blog getting involved in. If anything is likely to bring seasickness back to today's stabilised cruise ships, it's me on a bungee trampoline.

Nathan Midgley, web producer

MyCruiseblog.co.uk reports that Celebrity Cruises has teamed up with New York State's Corning Museum of Glass to stage a series of glassblowing shows and workshops on Celebrity Solstice.

Located on the ship's upper deck within a custom-designed, outdoor glassmaking studio, the Hot Glass Show will present the history and craft of glassblowing

Fans of glassblowing will be in heaven; other passengers may discover an interest; the rest of us can mark off 'cruise' and 'glassblowing' on our niche holiday bingo cards. It does go to show how much variety there is in today's cruise market...

Nathan Midgley, web producer

Tomorrow will see the Duchess of Cornwall officially name Cunard's Queen Victoria, as we reported back in September. Here are a couple of pictures of the beautiful ship arriving in Southampton on Friday.
Martin Couzins, online editor

Brace yourselves: I've a not-all-that-wicked whisper that will be bad news for those who want to see young consumers in the cruise sector.

During a press trip to Picardy at the weekend I met the features editor of a certain free London newspaper - one which targets the affluent, young urban types many cruiselines would love to get on board - and asked him which destinations or sectors it is unlikely to touch in its travel coverage.

First on the list? I'm afraid it was cruise.

Perhaps cruise industry PRs should make this freesheet their challenge for 2008...

Nathan Midgley, web producer

UPDATE: A British evacuee from the Explorer tells her story.

UPDATE 20.25: Pictures of the stricken ship sinking.

UPDATE Saturday 24 November 20.14: The BBC reports that a Chilean military plane is on its way to King George Island where the 154 tourists and crew spent last the night.

UPDATE 13.29pm: Here are some camcorder stills taken from Hurtigruten's MS Nordnorge, which is involved in the rescue. These are being updated.

UPDATE 12.44pm: Here is the map of the location.

View Larger Map

UPDATE 12.40pm: The Sun newspaper has published this picture of the ship.

UPDATE 12.28pm: Gap Adventures has released an emergency number for relatives - 00 1 800 465 5600 ext 101.

UPDATE 12.27pm: Lloyd’s List reports that the Explorer had five deficiencies at its last inspection, including missing search and rescue plans and lifeboat maintenance problems.

UPDATE 12.22pm: Gap Adventures have confirmed that 24 british nationals were on board.

UPDATE: 11.55am: The Maritime and Coastguard Agency has said that 152 people on board Explorer have now been rescued by Endeavour. Hurtigruten's MS Nordnorge has arrived to collect passengers. MCA said the Rescue Coordination Centre in Falmouth is helping out with the rescue's communication.

UPDATE: 11.50am; Travel Weekly has now put a link to a video of Explorer on the website.
Click here to see it.

UPDATE: 11.11am; Sky News is reporting that MS NordNorge and Endeavour have arrived at the scene.

UPDATE: 11.08am; Hurtigruten has just advised Travel Weekly that its ship MS Nordnorge has arrived in Antarctica and will reach the Explorer at around 11.30am Norwegian time.

UPDATE: 11.01am: The British Antarctic Survey press team is having a tea break - we will keep on trying them for a comment on the environmental immpact.

UPDATE: 10.58am: There are concerns about the impact on the environment of the Explorer sinking.

UPDATE 10.53am: The Explorer is not owned by Noble Caledonia, as has been reported in the press.

UPDATE 10.49am: BBC confirms Britons, Canadians and Americans were on board. There is no emergency number as yet.

UPDATE 10.47am: Gap adventures PR confirms all passsengers are safe and that there are staff on board trying to stabilise the ship.

UPDATE 10.40am: Sarah Longbottom is telling ITN that the Explorer is fitted to ice standards and that GAP Adventures is a member of the International Association of Antarctic Tour Operators. Sarah points out that the IAATO issues safety guidelines but there are no legal requirements to adhere to these. She goes on to say that this incident will knock consumer confidence in cruising.

UPDATE 10.34am: Travel Weekly reports, Hurtigruten MS Nordnorge is to be first ship to sinking Explorer.

UPDATE: 10.31am: Travel Weekly editor talking to ITN

UPDATE 10.26am: According to Lloyd's List the Explorer is registered to Gap Shipping.

UPDATE 10.09am: Royal Caribbean has been inundated with calls from people concerned its ship, Explorer of the Seas, is the one involved.

UPDATE 9.58am: GAP Adventures have confirmed that they are currently chartering the ship.

UPDATE: Travel Weekly has just spoken to Andy Harmer at ACE and told us that he belives the ship is currently chartered by GAP Adventures.

UPDATE 9.55am: We are currently trying to establish who has chartered the ship for this trip.Unconfirmed reports are that it is a UK company.

Sky News reports there is a major rescue operation underway after a cruiseliner hit an object and began sinking in the Antarctic Ocean. More than 150 people on board are being evacuated and moved to life rafts and a nearby ship off the Argentinian coast.

The ship is the MV Explorer, which is used by companies such as GAP Adventures.

Here is a picture of the ship on the GAP Adventures site.

More updates on Travel Weekly's website.

Martin Couzins, online editor

From Travel Weekly's Kelly Ranson, just back from an InterContinental Hotels Group conference in Dallas...

Arriving back from a long-haul flight to a gloomy and damp Sutton really wasn’t a great start to yesterday.

By the end of the day the jet lag had kicked in and I was in need of matchsticks to keep my eyes open.

However just before leaving the office I was brightened up hugely with a massive bunch of roses and a marriage proposal (!) from Princess Cruises.

Ok, so I won’t actually be walking down the aisle with a 3000 passenger cruise ship - it was actually a plug for the company’s Weddings and Honeymoon brochure.

Three other ladies in the office also received flowers, so TW Towers was a happy place to be yesterday.

Very nice touch.

Kelly Ranson, reporter

Thanks to Royal Caribbean International for this footage of Independence of the Seas, the last of the cruiseline's three Freedom Class ships to be built, in production at Aker Yards' Turku site in Finland.

Expect to see IotS cruising into Southampton in May 2008.

An interesting discussion point from the message board of Travel Weekly's Facebook group (Facebook member? Come join us). Select World Travel's Lee Harrison writes:

Recently we were quoted a price of £1945.00 for a Queen Mary Cruise. The price included a 45% discount. Then we're told by the client she's been quoted a price of £1395.00 by XYZ Cruise Club. Why discount a premium product that's already been given a good discount by the cruise pperator? We all know what happened to Cruise Control!

Are we changing the cruise product too much? Will more capacity on superliners be encouraging a " Benidorm" at Sea, especially with cruise clubs discounting to such ridiculous levels?

Nathan Midgley, web producer

Ready for some name-dropping?

Watch your toes.

Yes, it's Travel Weekly editor Sarah Longbottom getting pally with Ruby Wax at the launch of Norwegian Gem last week.

There are more photos in our flickr galleries, and a video tour of the ship - which seems to have made a good impression on the thousand-or-so agents who visited - elsewhere on the site.

Nathan Midgley, web producer

If you get a bit ooooo! aaaaah! about cruise ships, check out this time-lapse film showing NCL vessels Norwegian Jewel, Pride of Hawaii, Norwegian Pearl and Norwegian Gem in production...

The finished Norwegian Gem - she of the 'It Girl' PR campaign - was officially launched in Dover last Friday. Watch out for a video tour of it later today. (UPDATE: Here's the vid.)

Nathan Midgley, web producer

Regular contributor Brian Hordon reflects on Travel Weekly's Mystery Shopper feature as Cruise Month draws to a close...

It had to happen during cruise month: Mystery Shopper went looking for a cruise holiday. The result? An excellent outright winner and a variety of scores for the other agents.

As for the agents who scored lower, it is difficult to apportion blame - I certainly have sympathy for the sales consultants who were the focus of Mystery Shopper's attention.

Lack of knowledge, lack of awareness of cruising, lack of confidence, lack of training? It is easy to "point the finger", but I see the Mystery Shopper exercise as an opportunity.

How many travel agents actually incorporate the weekly Mystery Shopper feature into their in-house training? The script is in place, the subject is clearly defined; the discussion can be based upon:

• How would our front line sales consultants handle this question?
• What products would we have proposed?
• How would we have closed the sales discussion?

Mystery Shopper can appear a little harsh when reviewed after the event; but used positively, it can be yet another superb resource - especially for cruising.

And of course the feature included five selling tips by Andy Harmer from the Association of Cruise Experts - another invaluable resource for all levels of sales consultants.

Final point; I have every Mystery Shopper featuring cruise requests from the very beginning (yes, I know, how sad!), and with literally a couple of exceptions the score card remains very similar to the latest mystery shopper.

Don't despair, Luton, just adopt a positive attitude and learn from the experience.

Brian Hordon, Director of Training Development, Silversea Cruises (UK) Ltd

There was more good news for UK cruising last week as Liverpool opened its new Mersey terminal.

It's been extended to cope with larger vessels, and expects to welcome 23 ships in the next 18 months.

Locals have been out with their video cameras, capturing the QE2, the arrival of which marked the terminal's official opening...

...and Seven Seas Voyager, which was the first ship to berth at the new terminal in early September.

Here are a couple more shots from my ship visit.

Here's Andy Winstanley, director, Americas4u, on deck during our tour of the ship.

And this is the floor mat in the lift. They are changes each day so passengers don't lose track of time.

And how about this for a piece of watermelon carving? Found in the Lido deck restaurant.

Travel Weekly Cruise Month has featured some statistics which are worth looking at. We are all aware of the year on year growth of the UK cruising stats produced by the Passenger Shipping Association, and of course the frequent exposure for the need for younger first time cruisers to develop the market; but is everyone aware that the percentage of these first time cruisers is actually slightly declining?

How many travel agents are aware that there are more than 40 new cruise ships on order right now?. Also, is everyone in your office aware that more than 50% of these new ships are projected to offer ex UK cruises?

Agents and cruise lines agree that a selection of mini cruises on all types of cruise ship are a recognised feature of creating visibility and ultimately business for a full cruise holiday, but I wonder how many travel agents uplift this different product and ensure that their customers are aware of this opportunity.

The short break holiday market is a boom market, so why not the short break cruise market?

But it is essential that agents do not lose sight of the cruise needs of the most important market - the mature market. Agents must remember the age and wealth demograhic profile of the UK population. It is this market that has time and money and that will continue to provide the volume for travel agents.

In her opinion column in 14 September Travel Weekly, Fay Thompson of Instant Cruise Holidays, summed up by saying, "So for all you budding cruise specialists, take heed; brush up on your product knowledge - there are big ships to fill".

My summary - there are lots of big ships to fill.

Brian Hordon, Director of Training Development, Silversea Cruises (UK) Ltd

Independence of the Seas, the last of Royal Caribbean's three Freedom Class ships to be built, was 'floated out' over the weekend.

Translation: Its dry dock was flooded, and it was moved into a wet dock for the last phase of production.

Okay, it's not an official launch, but it's still a big moment for Independence, which knows a thing or two about being big - along with its sisters Liberty and Freedom it is the largest passenger cruise ship afloat.

I can't find any pics of the ceremony, but here's one of the Finnish shipyard where Independence is being... finished. There's also a fine image gallery on the Telegraph's website.

Independence will be heading down to Southampton when production finishes in May 2008 - another red letter day for cruising in the UK.

If anyone's curious about floating out there's a video of it happening to Liberty on the website of shipbuilder Aker Yards. Watch out for the balloons. And the cannon...

A new post from regular guest blogger Brian Hordon (Silversea UK)

Travel Weekly Cruise Month is now in full flow with news features, product information, comment, and above all another platform which focuses upon the exciting world of holidays at sea.

My post of June 14 was titled "the new cruise era" and focused on how developments in the cruise industry would benefit the travel agent. Cruising really is now a mainstream holiday and offers volume business opportunity and profit.

Cruising now caters to clients of all ages and wealth profiles. There are ships which offer the perfect holiday for younger, active people; ships which deliver an all-round holiday for families; ships that recognise the special needs and desires of the mature traveller.

There is now no excuse - there is a cruise holiday for every market segment, nationally.

But the Travel Weekly Cruise Month must not be seen in isolation. The features, the thoughts and ideas, the ship visits and training opportunities should all become integral to your next business plan, which should feature your projected cruise targets and promotional programme.

The opportunities here must not be overlooked: they will contribute to the profitability of your agency.

Brian Hordon, Director of Training Development, Silversea Cruises (UK) Ltd.

I thought this was quite funny . . . which says a lot about my sense of humour.

A musician who joined an orchestra on a cruise ship was having difficulty keeping time with the rest of the band. Finally, the captain said, "Either you learn to keep time or I'll throw you overboard. . . . It's up to you, sync or swim."

From TW supplements editor Emily Bamber...

I’m slightly embarrassed to say that I’ve been through the entire British education system and until this weekend didn’t fully appreciate the enormous importance of the D Day landings.

Crucially, I also had no idea that the Allies constructed two false harbours (the 'Mulberry Harbours') by towing ten-storey high blocks of concrete across the channel to build platforms for the tanks – all under fire and completed within 48 hours of the first landings.

The Americans suffered horrific fatalities at Omaha Beach, and walking among the 9,400 graves at the American Cemetery is an experience I will never forget.

Oh – by the way, I was on a cruise. Silversea’s Silver Shadow from Falmouth to Greenwich – Normandy Landing Sites excursion.

Emily Bamber, supplements editor

On Monday I posted a 'wicked whisper' about a cruise community site that was inadvertantly publishing adult spam in its RSS feed.

That site, we can now reveal, goes by the name of Carnival Cruise Blog.

But hold your horses: it's actually nothing to do with Carnival Cruise Lines.

Kevin at Travolution investigated, and quickly found that Carnival Cruise Blog is run by an agent who sells the brand's product.

So Carnival hasn't been publishing anything untoward, advertantly or otherwise.

What is has done is fail to prevent an unaccountable third party from using its brand. A third party who clearly has little awareness of the pitfalls of user-generated content.

Take a look at the Carnival Cruise Blog and you'll see it could very easily pass for an official site - at time of writing there is still nothing on the hompage to indicate its independence from the cruiseline (and the mucky stuff's still there UPDATE: it has now been removed).

While Carnival is quite emphatically in the clear here, it will be wishing it had been more vigilant.

This raises lots of issues that are really Travolution's remit, so keep an eye on its blog for more. TW will be watching with interest.

Nathan Midgley, web producer

Several cruiselines - including Royal Caribbean International and Regent Seven Seas - have recently tightened their smoking policies or are about to do so, and USA Today has been running a poll on readers' attitudes to puffing at sea.

It seems to have struck a chord. The poll has 4,190 votes, and the associated news piece 210 comments. Here's the breakdown of what respondents want to see:

• Blanket ban: 49%
• No ban at all: 28%
• Smoking on cabin balconies only: 23%

Cruiselines have so far been singularly reluctant to kick smokers out. Only Oceania Cruises has a fleet-wide ban, with Disney's cabin balcony-only policy its only real competition.

Thing is, you can't just hop off a cruise ship for a fag. So a ban wouldn't just annoy smokers, it would remove them from a cruiseline's potential customer base altogether.

Not very appealing, particularly for cruiselines who want to capture a broad slice of the market and win round cruise virgins (awful phrase).

How about a number of no-smoking ships in each fleet, then?

Sounds good at first, but non-smokers are likely to avoid smoking ships if there are smoke-free ones available - and that limits the number of itineraries they will consider. They could end up feeling that they have less choice, not more.

The general tightening of restrictions is expected and probably to be welcomed - the majority of holidaymakers are after all non-smokers. But TW Blog would be surprised to see a blanket ban anytime soon.

How would readers have answered the USA Today poll? Total ban, cabin balconies only or no ban at all?

Nathan Midgley, web producer

It's Cruise Month in Travel Weekly (did we mention it?) so how fitting that one of the requests in our funny client requests competition is cruise related.

This is from Jodie Elliott at Co-op Travel. There's still time to get your own entries in - the winner gets £50 to spend in Marks and Spencers.

The strangest request I have ever received has to be from two elderly passengers who had booked an Royal Caribbean cruise. For dietary requirements I expected the norm such as gluten free, vegetarian, wheat free, but oh no, imagine my surprise when she requested it to be noted on the booking that her husband only ate peas!

As you can imagine when calling RCI to put the request on I did have to point out that in fact this was not a wind up and that the gentleman on the booking did in fact only eat peas! I can only imagine the fun they had on the cruise!

Martin Couzins, online editor

More from Cruise Month - here's homeworker Andrew Fox, a member of the Travel Weekly Cruise Club, on a visit to Oceania Cruises' Regatta. Our Kelly Ranson was there with the camera.

Andrew makes the well-rehearsed, but no less true, point that ship visits are indispensable to successful cruise sales - and you can read more about how he developed his own travel business in Skills Zone.

More video, sales tips, ship reports and other useful stuff on the Cruise Month page.

Nathan Midgley, web producer

TW Blog was subscribing to a few cruise feeds yesterday when something appeared that made me choke on my tea.

Here comes a wicked whisper...

• Which cruiseline's community portal community site dedicated to a particular cruiseline is inadvertantly publishing adult spam in its RSS feed?

We will be contacting the company to notify them - there should be some follow-up in Travolution.

UPDATE: Kevin at Travo has contacted the cruiseline, who are naturally horrified but inform us that the site is run by an independent agent - I've altered this post and its headline accordingly. More soon.

Nathan Midgley, web producer

. . . the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall on 10 December at a ceremony in Southampton.

Sorry, my mistake - his royal highnesses will be attending the event. We will find out at 2pm today who will be naming the ship. Watch this space to find out who.

And the answer is the Duchess of Cornwall - here's the full story.

Thanks to John Heald's blog for the press release. He's Carnival Freedom's Cruise Director.

Running through the cruise blogs I posted about yesterday, I found this story about Hapag-Lloyd Cruises's Hanseatic crossing the Northwest Passage.

That's the semi-mythical channel between Canada and the Arctic - once a holy grail for explorers, who knew it would allow shipping to travel from Europe to Asia without the treacherous slog round Africa.

It is navigable by icebreakers, and The Hanseatic is apparently one of few passengers ships able to make the journey (this is its seventh trip).

But all that could change. The ice that normally covers the Northwest Passage receded to an unprecedented extent this year:

Image: NASA Earth Observatory

(When will I get tired of free satellite images? Try never.)

This will be exciting news for armchair explorers, but rather less thrilling to the environmental lobby.

Nathan Midgley, web producer

Take a look at the Association of Cruise Experts' diary and you'll see there are plenty of ship visits coming up this month.

This week travel agents got to take a look at MSC Opera which called at Dover on Wednesday. As a part of the MSC Cruises Sailshows went on a tour of the ship as well as a presentation from Claudia Baino, MD of MSC Cruises UK and Ireland, on the new 2008 brochure.

And here is a pic of the ship.

Cruise Month is up and running online - there are links to news, features, images and other resources on our Cruise Month page.

There's also an embed of our latest video, in which Fred.Olsen shop manager Sarah Beckinsale tells us how her agency is making a success of selling cruise.

Martin asks below whether there are any more cruise bloggers out there, and I've tracked down a few - so link love to...

• myCruiseblog.co.uk
• Cruise Info for Beginners
• O2 Cruise Blog
• Carnival Cruise Blog

Feedback is welcome - let us know how your cruise sales are going and what you think of our coverage in the comments.

Nathan Midgley, web producer

Regular contributor Brian Hordon (Silversea UK) kicks off Travel Weekly Cruise Month...

The timing of the Travel Weekly Cruise Month could not be more appropriate.

Passenger Shipping Association stats continue to show excellent passenger percentage growth year on year, the new Association of Cruise Experts (ACE) goes from strength to strength, and cruise lines are putting plenty of energy into maintaining this success. They are all doing an outstanding job.

However, I still detect concern from many agents about whether the cruise market is factored into their company business plan.

Is this down to lack of confidence or product knowledge on the part of frontline staff? Or is agency management failing to create a plan for increasing local cruise business? (As we say in the Silversea Cruises Luxury Cruising Academy, "Your target is to own the cruise market within your area.")

Some of this may seem controversial, and I am happy to apologise if I have touched a nerve. But I am also happy to say that the solution is now available, this month, and in many forms.

Travel Weekly's focus on cruising throughout September, alongside its cruise roadshows throughout the UK, are resources that must not be underestimated. Reading up on the market is always important, but hearing it from an enthusiastic and professional cruiseline salesperson cannot be emphasised enough.

These people are good, so make sure that you leave each cruiseline discussion with all the features and benefits of their company - who buys, how to sell, going to market, training, agency support, ship visits.

All this first hand knowledge will strengthen your plan to "own the cruise market within your area." It will also provide the confidence that is too often lacking.

And that's not all: the new ACE programme and conventions; the online cruising training programmes; the cruise company roadshows throughout the country - it's all there. The amazing thing is that it is just for the travel agent.

Have a great and successful cruise month, and use all this new knowledge to make sure that the rest of 2007 and 2008 onwards delivers your best cruise profits.

Brian Hordon, Director of Training Development, Silversea Cruises (UK)Ltd.

More Cruise Month action. The Travel Weekly team had a good meeting with Royal Caribbean Cruise Line recently. I learned a lot, including the fact that training manager Michelle Russell runs a blog called the Cruising for Excellence Blog.

And I thought there was a lack of blogging on cruise. Thanks for letting us know, Michelle, and keep us posted on what you are up to. We'll keep an eye on developments.

Any other cruise blogs out there worth a mention?

Martin Couzins, online editor

September is Cruise Month at Travel Weekly, so over the next few weeks we will be bringing together news, views, pictures and selling advice on this incredibly successful area of the travel industry.

We are currently building a homepage on the site which will be up and running in the next two days.

Good news that Brian Hordon, director of training development, Silversea Cruises has agreed to post regularly throughout the month and we'll be inviting other cruise industry figures to post.

Martin Couzins, online editor

Aloha. What’s going on here then? Lunch courtesy of Princess Cruises who dropped by Travel Weekly’s offices with a plate of sushi to promote their Exotic Cruises Worldwide 2008/9 brochure.

PR Hannah Burden and Len Delfino, a Hawaiian dancer from London-based Lei Aloha Dancers, had just come from Going Places in Epsom.

Not sure my Hawaiian dancing was up to much, but the sushi was good, so thanks for the visit.

Martin Couzins, online editor

Here's one for cruise fans - some pics of Celebrity Galaxy, which a ferry taking me across the Bosphorus had to skirt round.

One of the best ways to get a sense of how big these ships really are is to pass them in a much smaller craft...

Nathan Midgley, web producer

Americas4u director Andrew Winstanley, a member of the Travel Weekly Cruise Club, sends this account of a visit to the Holland America Line vessel...

Cruise ship visits are great, but nobody who runs a travel business has time to spare. So is it worth taking a whole day out to tour a liner?

After visiting Holland America Lines MS Veendam in Dover I can say categorically that the answer is yes. There really is no substitute for seeing the product first hand.

I and around 130 other agents were met at Dover by the Holland America team, who split us into groups for an escorted tour of the ship.

Whilst MS Veendam is now 11 years old it is still a five star experience. There are exquisite works of art on most decks and it was interesting to compare this smaller 1200-berth ship with some of the superliners I have visited.

Despite its age, the ship isn’t stuck in the past. The new Explorations Café – powered by the New York Times – is an elegant coffee shop with Internet access.

I was also surprised at how good the children’s facilities are in Club Hal and the Loft, and teenagers will be delighted with their own adult-free Oasis on the sports deck.

There are all the other luxuries you would expect, such as the Greenhouse Spa and signature restaurants, but one attraction I had not seen before was the Culinary Arts Centre, where guests can watch world-class chefs in action.

With travellers seeking more and more from their holidays this extra twist could prove a big draw.

So my advice is get out and see what you are selling – it will help you match your clients to the right cruise.

Andrew Winstanley, director, Americas4u

Ed: for more on this theme see 'Training is vital for cruise agents' from last week's Travel Weekly

Vids of Royal Caribbean's new superliner are starting to pop up on Youtube - here's a glance around the interior by danaiks17 and footage of LoS cruising into Southampton by hoppy82.

...and if all that elegance is too much, here's a conga line at the launch party, courtesy of The Cruise Store.

It's always fascinating meeting the people on the cruise ships who make it all happen from behind the scenes. On Royal Caribbean's Liberty of the Seas I was lucky enough to meet two pretty impressive men.

Captain Hernan Zini, 40, oversees operations from the bridge, from where he can turn the ship 180 degrees on the spot, slam on the brakes to stop it from full throttle in just six minutes, and where he admits he sometimes goes in his pyjamas if called in the middle of the night.

He says Liberty of the Seas can ride two large waves at once and is 'more than capable' of managing hurricane season in the Caribbean.

Executive head chef Johan Petutschning - he's only 34, but was chef to the king of Norway for six years - runs the 14 galleys (kitchens to the rest of us) where chefs work 24/7 to provide the 80,000 plates of food served a day on Liberty of the Seas. He launched Freedom of the Seas and looks set to launch Independence next year.

For more interviews with characters from the cruise ships, don't miss the next issue of TWcruise, out with Travel Weekly on May 18. You can still download the launch issue, which includes an interview with Freedom of the Seas captain William Wright.

For a peek inside Liberty, visit our cruise image collection on Flickr.

Emily Bamber, supplements editor

Andrew is director of Travel Weekly Cruise Club member Americas4u

I was met by Polly Lyons and Ruth Biggs of Complete Cruise Solution, who accompanied me on a private tour of the ship. First impressions were excellent and the ship was much better than I had imagined it would be, particularly having just come off RCI's Liberty of the Seas.

We started up on deck 14 and worked our way around all the facilities. I was very impressed with the Karma Spa and the treatment rooms, all of which seem reasonably priced. I could have spent longer in the meditation room, which looked something like the big brother diary room, and had I had the time could have had my teeth whitened!

All the different cabin types were available for viewing, and I was surprised how roomy they were. Children are well catered for at Base Camp for the younger ones and The Attic for the teens. Children of all ages would enjoy the new games available in the SEGA Village.

We finished the tour with lunch in the Waterfront restaurant, which was self service. I went for a Chinese selection, which was very enjoyable. This visit to me reconfirmed the importance of getting out there and seeing the product first hand - I have loaded pictures from my tour on to our office intranet and will be briefing our staff further next week.

Andrew Winstanley, director, Americas4u

Silversea's Brian Hordon hails a new era for the cruise market below - and, right on time, Southampton has announced the busiest ten days in its cruise passenger history.

As we report on the website, Queen Mary 2 and Oriana will join Liberty of the Seas and Ocean Village Two (whose naming ceremony took place this morning) in the port today, taking the gross tonnage moored there to 445,863...

I was delighted to see the creation of the Travel Weekly Cruise Club. Great timing for a special initiative which sits alongside the increasing profile of PSARA. This development offers more agents the opportunity to make an impact within the rapidly expanding cruise market.

Thanks to a number of factors - increasing numbers of ships across all market levels, global destination opportunities, pricing which offers real value for regular cruise travellers as well as the all-important new-to-cruising customers, online support at all levels - there has probably never been a better time for agents to make a firm committment to this exciting and profitable product.

For many years during presentations at Seatrade global events, I used to say that "cruising offers a true cradle to grave holiday opportunity." Now there really is a new cruising experience for all travellers, and with the remarkable growth of the older customer, the safety and security alongside the total travel experience delivered by a cruise really does contribute towards outstanding sales opportunities for the creative travel agent.

After so many years of growth it probably sounds silly ask whether this is a new beginning for the world of cruising. But with the Travel Weekly Cruise Club (a first as far as I can remember), a revitalised PSARA, superb online support and increased field sales activity by many lines, I personally believe the "new" cruise era has just begun. Be there!

Brian Hordon, Director of Training Development, Silversea Cruises (UK)Ltd.

Greetings from sunny Venice where the cruise giant Carnival has unveiled its newest superliner, Carnival Freedom.

The Italian city is a remarkable location for these monsters of the sea to be based. Freedom was built in the same shipyard where Cunard's Queen Victoria is taking shape close to where it is moored today offering amazing views of Venice.

I thought I'd share a few pics of the view from the Lido deck of the 3,400-passenger vessel which was home for less than 24 hours to a selection of 160 UK agents including four of the five members of the Travel Weekly Cruise Club who we are keeping a close eye on this year as they strive to grow their cruise business. More in our Carnival Freedom photoset at Flickr.com.

The agents flew out on a special charter flight from Stansted on Sunday morning, meanwhile a Travel Weekly and Carnival group flew EasyJet from Gatwick on a even earlier flight - another 5am start!

All went remarkable smoothly except for two stray boxes our very own Richard Johnson was transporting from the UK packed full of copies of last week's Travel Weekly.

I hope the good people of EasyJet are enjoying our coverage of Dynamic Packaging Month - it was obviously such a good read they couldn't resist keeping a few hundred copies for themselves.

As with all inaugurals, Carnival put on a good show for its invited guests, the only hitch coming ahead of the ceremonial champagne smashing moment when the PA system in the ship's theatre refused to play ball.

Sadly the gremlins were still up to their tricks by the time the show, a Beatles tribute, started, which featured, in a way only cruise ship shows can, a mock red London bus and telephone box and a hitherto unknown athletic dance routine by the Fab Four.

Lee Hayhurst, deputy news editor

Brian Horden, one of our industry bloggers, wades in to a long-running debate...

That question has appeared yet again..."why are women not at the top with more travel companies?"

My views on this subject go back in history, and then jump right into the year 2006.

My first three bosses in the travel industry were all female, and I can only repeat what I have said on many other occasions: my gratitude to these people for the knowledge, wisdom and experience which they shared has been reflected in the many successes that I have enjoyed in my travel career.

I also wonder how many women actually want some of the top jobs in our colourful industry?

So often, behind the scenes of some of the more successful companies is the strategic thinking of the female mind....the "engineer" behind the success of new thoughts, new ideas, and new systems.

And, on a slightly different "tack", customers enjoy talking to women, especially professional, knowledgeable and enthusiastic women, and moving these people "upstairs" within the company so often removes the best people for face-to-face contact (how often do you see "super salespeople" retail managers working on the Foreign Exchange desk!).

Some contentious views, I am sure; and just to support some of my many thoughts on this subject, just look at the cruise business with Carol Marlow as president of Cunard, Trudy Redfern as vice president of Silversea, Lynn Narraway, director of Carnival Cruise. Or look at the women in First Choice…air and retail, and all successful

Do women want the top job, and all the "baggage" that goes with it, or would they rather be in the position of quietly driving the company forward from behind the scenes? I am sure there will be lots of thoughts on this.

Brian Hordon, director of training development, Silversea Cruises

You know I don't mind paying full price for a holiday and I never EXPECT to get a concession especially in peak season (although Cosmos give agents 20% even in August!).

But I do hate to think that a member of the public has got a holiday cheaper than me.

Perhaps I'm expecting too much but as an agent you'll come back and, all being well of course, promote that particular travel company for free!

A small concession or reduction goes a long way. I remember booking my honeymoon nearly 20 years ago with Paris Travel Service on the Orient Express - they gave me 25% and I never forgot it. They were always my first choice for Paris.

So all you tour operators out there: a little goes a long way and lasts a long time!!!!

I recently took my kids to Lapland. The tour operator who we will call AcrossSnow didn't give us a concession. Okay, I thought, its peak season, not much availability (and no I couldn't go with Cosmos as they didn't have the dates I wanted But they WOULD have given a concession!).

But it really bugged me to hear that of most of the group, we appeared to have paid the most.

Meanwhile, back in September I was the lucky winner of two tickets to Australia with a well known consolidator and a well known middle eastern airline.

I held off telling the kids – as I thought I'd wait to hear what the restrictions were. I knew I wouldn't be able to travel peak season, Dec, Easter etc but it was via Dubai and going to Oz, so surely August would be fine?

Anyway, they were very excited when I told them. I had to go back to the shop and open up so they could get some brochures and begin planning their dream trip.

All running smoothly until the consolidator told us the airline don't allow any school holiday travel. The kids’ dreams were shattered, so I if I could pay a supplement.

Three months later (and I now only have nine months to use them) and the consolidator is STILL waiting for a reply from the airline!!!!

In the meantime two staff here booked their holidays and I no longer have more than two weeks to go anywhere!!

So now I've asked if I can give them to someone else. I wonder how long this response will take…

So, anyone out there fancy a trip to Oz? Don't hold your breath, though, as if it takes them another three months to let me know there'll be barely anytime to use them as it'll be Easter, then Half Term, then the private school hols, and then its Scotland school hols, then its August and UK hols – and then they expire!!

It's great being a travel agent!!!

Diane Coleman, Tickets Travel

If you’re feeling depressed today, worry not, you’re in good company.

January 22 is the most depressing day of the year, according to one headline-grabbing psychologist who, among other things cites fading memories of holidays as one reason for this being a particularly gloomy start to the working week.

If you’re a travel agent or tour operator, however, there should be a little spring in your step and a glint in your eye that says, today’s the day to sell holidays, to give people something to look forward to.

And with a cold snap with us and no World Cup this year to ride a coach and horses through all your plans to generate forward bookings, operators are heralding the return of the busy early year booking period.

I’m not usually one to take much notice of the kind of psycho babble that prompted this blog but maybe there is something in it. A relative of mine was saying just last night how all she could think about at the moment was where she was going to go on holiday this year.

So while everyone else is moping around, suffering from the effects of SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder), it is the travel trade’s job to find the motivation, the positive outlook on life to sell them their dream holiday.

Good luck, and hopefully by the time the year’s happiest day come along (June 23) you’ll have sold enough holidays to enjoy yourselves.

Lee Hayhurst, acting news editor [note new title for Lee - Ed]

Last night, my colleague Jo Gardner and I were given the task of playing Trinny and Susannah.

We were on a mission to find the best dressed people at the Globes - quite a hard task with almost 1,500 people walking through the doors of the Grosvenor House desperate to grab a glass of champagne.

Deciding on the critique was pretty tough – did we go for some smart and elegant or some really eye caching numbers?

Well, from men in kilts through to ladies in their designer glad rags we did pick out a few and both the magazine and the web will name those that stood out for us. You can see them in our best dressed gallery at flickr.com.

Who stood out for you?

Kelly Ranson, reporter

It’s always a sign of a good night when you see respectable members of the travel trade sprawled on the floor at the end of the night.

One young man was seen tripping and ultimately falling as he attempted one of the Grosvenor House Hotel’s many staircases, a young lady lay flat out on the stairs to the exit, while one City analyst could not help but fall flat on his face in the ballroom – naming no names Andrew…

Of course it was another story for a certain member of the Travel Weekly team, but I couldn’t possibly comment in public.

Of course if Ed Robertson wants to give a full account of his journey home, that’s up to him.

Juliet Dennis, news editor

Over on table 54 former-ABTA head of corporate affairs Keith Betton was actually seen to put his hand in his pocket and buy a packet of cigarettes instead of doing his usual trick of blagging off anyone he can find with a pack.

The Siren PR table was handily situated close to its client’s two Royal Caribbean International tables, the scene of some of the night’s most vocal celebrations when it scooped the best four-star cruiseline award ahead of rival and perennial winner P&O Cruises.

Following much hearty backslapping, hugging and punching of the air with Royal Caribbean’s Robin Shaw, Michael English and Jo Rzymowska, who could barely contain her delight as she collected the award, at the centre of the celebrations.

Can this be the same Rzymowska who told a Travel Weekly journalist last year after P&O Cruises won their category that she didn’t care much for winning a Globe and much preferred to win consumer awards? Anyway, there’s nothing like winning!

Lee Hayhurst, deputy news editor

Staging the awards in-the-round was a master stroke – a throwback to the Globe of Shakespeare’s day perhaps. Whatever, it worked marvellously.

So many awards ceremonies are diminished for all those sat on the margins or far from the stage and reduced to watching on a TV screen. Aside from anything else, being more inclusive cut down the background chatter.

The standing ovation for TW boss Trevor Harding was genuinely warm and made a fitting end. So it was shame to bring on the showgirls – too much of a throwback to a former age in an industry in which more than half the workforce are women.

Surely it’s time more of them made it to the stage as award winners?

Ian Taylor, reporter

There’s black tie and there’s black tie. This year’s Travel Weekly Globes provided some twists on the familiar awards attire.

Leading the way was Travel Weekly’s very own Trevor Harding, who managed to pimp up his dinner suit with a three-quarter length ivory silk jacket. And then there was David Speakman’s pin stripe dinner suit. Are the boys the new girls, suits the new dresses?

It was pointed out to me last night that Onholidaygroup’s Steve Endacott seems only ever to be referred to as Endacott. Or is there some other commonly used moniker for the dynamic packaging dynamo?

Martin Couzins, acting editor [and huge fan of ivory silk jackets, we presume – Ed]

Julia Feuell from New Frontiers writes:

Today I was interviewed, along with ex-Travel 2 operations director, Kelly Golds, by the BBC regarding the industry job losses expected to be announced soon.

The interview will be televised on BBC One, including Breakfast TV, as well as News 24 and World.

Nigel Cassidy asked me questions about why I thought Thomson may be making the cuts and whether travel industry jobs may be in decline. I felt the weight of the travel industry in answering these questions, but tried to answer as honestly as possible.

The honest answer is I don’t know why Thomson is making the redundancies.

Brian Hordon, from Silversea Cruises and one of our regular industry bloggers, writes:

WTM is a remarkable GLOBAL event, and although I know that there are often negative comments within the UK with regard to the cost (travel, hotel, etc), this expense does not seem to deter many agents who travel from all corners of the world on a "one stop" shopping and learning exersise.

I remember a well know travel personality who left the tour operating world and moved into retail; he would attend the last day at WTM with his 4 x 4 and trailer, "helping" our global tourism partners by taking unused quantities of destination material for use in his high street agency.

Actual specifc destination material is often in short supply within the retail arena, and access to these country, resort, hotel brochures can be of real benefit, and can be distributed by agents AFTER the customer has paid the deposit and the booking is confirmed! No free distribution outlet here!

This entire scenario ia actually a communication feature which can be "loaded" into your newsletter, e-mail blast or blog, targeted at YOUR special customer data base.

I would love to hear what other creative activities have been developed by other agents within the trade show arena.

More World Travel Market. Wherever you looked, whatever you read, from the various platforms hosted by the travel and technology experts within our business, the words appeared with remarkable frequency: dynamic packaging, cruising, specialist holidays, long-haul holidays.

This MUST be sweet music to the creative travel agent who has taken a lot of "hit's" during recent years. Is the tide turning I ask?

Brian Hordon, director of training development, Silversea Cruises

UPDATE: An email arrives from Tom at TheBigCruise:

Just wanted to thank you for your write-up about us in the blog - it's a really nice piece and such a relief that you've "got it"; you can't begin to imagine the problems we've had with journalists who don't.

As you know we're keen to break down the preconceptions and it's pieces like that that really help us; if there's anything we can do to help just let me know?

Political Correctness, that scourge of modern life, is not only hated by the Daily Mail and its hordes of readers but by the very people it is supposed to ‘protect’ if the marketing material for the UK’s first gay cruise is anything to go by.

Last week I received an email from theBIGcruise entitled: “Seamen Wanted!”. Having made further inquiries (in my capacity as cruise reporter I hasten to add), I was sent an email that started with the greeting “Hello Sailor” and a newsletter extolling the virtues of the three-day jaunt from Dover next May on the Norwegian Cruise Line ship.

On the face of it this cheeky piece of marketing is enough to get the PC Thought Police frothing at the mouth and, if it was the work of a non-gay organisation, there would be calls for a public flogging.

But thankfully the great British sense of fun and determination not to take oneself too seriously is actually helping to break down prejudices far more effectively than any worthy nonsense the PC brigade dream up.

Tom, from theBIGcruise, told me: “We’re very proud of the fact that theBIGcruise smashes stereotypes and preconceptions; both of the ‘gay market’ and the traditional cruise travel guest.

“Right now our typical guest is 33 (20 years younger than the British cruising average) and works in the ‘professions’ (lawyer, accountant, senior management) as opposed to the preconception of hairdressers or OAP’s.”

Watch the ad here

Lee Hayhurst, deputy news editor

The design of the front cover of the new Virgin Holidays cruise brochure prompted a debate at a recent function about what images people choose to promote holidays on ships.

Although Virgin and the main cruiseline featured, Carnival, are very happy with a brochure that is a major step forward for a sector striving for mainstream status, the choice of a porthole on the front cover is interesting to say the least.

Anyone who knows modern cruise ships know the chances of being allocated a room with a porthole these days is about as unlikely as the chances that you will be spending your time playing Quoits or ballroom dancing, but for some reason this remains an enduring image for cruising.

And it’s not just portholes; guard rails and, even worse, life buoys are also all-too-prevalent meaning cruise must be about the only travel product that habitually promotes its potential, if unlikely, dangerous side and/or an outdated depiction of its hardware.

You don’t see airlines using life jackets or those exciting looking inflatable chutes that we’re promised will automatically appear in the event of an emergency landing but might be puncutured if you keep your high heels on.

Cars these days do promote their safety features like air bags and side impact protection systems but you’ll never see a picture of an inflated air bag or pranged Three Series on any BMW brochures.

I can’t see Virgin Trains ever advertising the virtues of travel by rail by highlighting the improved quality of the engineering work in recent years on the tracks its Pendolino tilting trains thunder along at well over 150mph on the West Coast Line.

So, this got us wondering, what is an appropriate icon cruising can adopt to demonstrate it has entered the 21st century and you are highly unlikely to end up in the drink?

Increasingly cruiselines like Royal Caribbean and others tend to go for all the non-obviously cruise activities you can do like rock climbing, diving, horse riding and ice skating.

But what about features of the ships themselves, any thoughts?

Lee Hayhurst, deputy news editor

Introducing the first of our winners to become a regular blogger for Travel Weekly, Brian Horden of Silversea Cruises.

The perennial job argument has never changed - "they always want people with experience, but if I cannot get a job in the travel industry how will I get the experience?"

A feature in the 27 October edition of Travel Weekly made reference to the need for a minimum standard of training, and this is without doubt some to be applauded; but let's hope that the standard includes a level of selling skills alongside the academic skills which are invariably well integrated into the curriculum.

The travel and tourism industry is an exciting, vibrant, satisfying business to be employed in, just look at many of the industry leaders who came literally right through the ranks to attain “high office", and with many years of outstanding service; this is a true testimonial to the industry.

And the diversity of job opportunities within travel and tourism is also often overlooked; holiday travel, corporate travel, inbound tourism, domestic tourism, hotels, cruising, car hire and more...just look at the recruitment pages in TW for a real introduction to the industry.

Meanwhile a comment piece in Travel Weekly recently by the Travolution editor makes reference to the "easiest way to wind up a travel agent is to predict the passing of human interaction as consumers emigrate to the Internet".

Believe me, a knowledgeable, well trained, enthusiastic and sales-driven travel person can easily become the "living internet" with the customer, who will soon recognise the many benefits of booking through a true travel professional

Yes, the price will continue to be a problem for some time, but with value products, real professional travel agents will continue to make an impact, and this represents the aspirational target for the student population.

Also, congratulations to the University of Wolverhampton who see "the vast majority of their students going into the travel industry this year" - surely a success story to share with others.

And as I complete this current missive, out of the national newspapers jumps the new Fashion Retail Academy, with heavy funding from the fiercely competitive high street retailers within the industry, and targeted at moulding a new generation of retail superstars.

Can this happen in the travel and tourism industry? Over to you…

Brian Horden, director of training development, Silversea Cruises

Phew! It’s all over...hurrah! World Travel Market is over for another year.

It’s time to dance round your chair. Throw your pens in the air. Act like you really don’t care...

WTM is, of course, a hugely important week in our calender at Travel Weekly, just as it for tourist boards and travel companies worldwide.

But it is also manic, fraught, and stressful. And just in case you hadn’t guessed, that also goes for the journalists who put together Travel Weekly’s WTM daily magazine.

So there were weeks of preparation and, as all travel PRs will know, conversations about what we could and couldn’t cover as stories in the publication.

Yes, there were those who tried to sneak stories in about a new hotel opening and make out it was the biggest thing that had ever happened anywhere in the world.

There were those who tried the usual bribery of beer, chocolates and doughnuts brought to our WTM newsroom - you know who you are!

And then there were those who simply failed to show up at the interview (usually Government ministers) or acted as if they didn’t even know we were due to interview them and got in a flap when asked a simple question by one of our team.

But as usual the best stories were the ones which were unscheduled.

Like when the United Nations announced plans for a website to help the industry cope with global crises in front of a handful of listeners, which one of our reporters happened to hear while passing the world stage. Or when Derek Moore from Explore happened to mention he was mooring his boat up by ExCel to avoid the commute.

And even better, when unlucky Kimberley Ross from the Sonaisali Island Resort told one of our reporters how she was carted off to hospital with a swollen leg from WTM after being bitten by a spider. “It’s not really what you’d expect to happen in London,” she said.

But the incident which sticks in mind is the lovely lady from Ghana, who dropped by our newsroom desperately wanting a picture taken at her country’s stand. After much pleading and begging we gave way -- okay we would consider publishing the photo of Ghana getting ready to celebrate 50 years of independence next year.

She jumped (literally) for joy in the newsroom -- it’s easy to forget how much these little things mean to people when you are busy putting stories on pages of the next issue.

And so it was that the lady from Ghana returned to the newsroom the following day, laden with goodies.

First was the lemon-tasting chocolate (I’m not joking), then there were the 2007 Ghana desk calenders (all 15 of them), and then, the piece de resistance - liquors in tomato ketchup-sized sachets (how do you drink those without having a major spillage on your chin?).

They’ve been added to my WTM home collection of Madeira wine and Cobra beer. If I freeze them perhaps we could drink them next year when the going gets tough on deadline...

Juliet Dennis, news editor

There’s a finite resource of adjectives in the English language, so they must be handled with care - over-use can render them meaningless.

Luxury, for instance, is a possibly the most misused, abused and confused word in travel, admittedly in part because travel firms’ marketing departments tend to have aspirations for their products way beyond their station.

But nowhere is the term more corrupted than in relation to cruise, a problem the industry itself recognises as it struggles to convince a cynical public that a holiday on a ship can be within the reach of just about anybody, regardless of how deep their pockets are.

Find a report in the national press involving a cruise ship, however, and inevitably, it seems, you’ll find the word luxury.

No doubt this is because your average newspaper reader, for whom a cruise ship is seen as a rich man’s ghetto, has, despite what some people would have you believe, an insatiable appetite for stories about miserable people, and newspaper editors know if they’re also ‘rich’ they’ve hit the jackpot.

The Thomson cruise ship Destiny was the latest to fall foul of this journalistic shorthand when a hack who happened to be onboard sold a story to the Daily Mirror about a problem with its plumbing that caused some of its loos to stop working.

“Nearly 1,500 passengers on board a luxury cruise ship have been stranded for three days without toilets,” began the report in what the Thomson press office insisted was a gross over-statement.

Exaggeration about the incident aside, if this 3 star-plus ship - as rated by the esteemed Douglas Ward, author of the Berlitz Complete Guide to Cruising and Cruise Ships - is luxury what does that make ships operated by the likes of Crystal Cruises, Silversea and Regent Seven Seas?

No wonder cruise lines like this, with their fully all-inclusive packages, cordon bleu cooking and almost one to one passenger to crew ratio, have taken to describing themselves as deluxe or ultra luxury and in the mythical and not officially recognised by anyone six star bracket.

A seemingly indelible fascination with all things nautical stemming from the UK’s seafaring heritage and cruising’s status as still being something out of the ordinary are always going to make tales of over flowing toilets, mass vomiting brought on by a norovirus outbreak and the odd man overboard great headline grabbers.

Cruiselines do get frustrated about sensationalisation but the press knows the one thing they’re unlikely to complain about is being lauded, however inappropriately, as luxury.

Just like the ‘victim’ of a kiss-and-tell is unlikely to complain about his sexual prowess being akin to a cross between a pneumatic drill and a stud farm stallion when his, or her, personal life is plastered all over the papers.

Maybe salvation from this nonsense can only come in the form of EasyCruise, run by the prince of all that is orange-coloured and budget, Stelios Haji-Ioannou, which some might suggest would stretch journalistic licence to breaking point if it was ever to be described as luxury.

Lee Hayhurst, deputy news editor

Busy couple of days here.

Last night we hosted a party in Central London to unveil the re-launched Travel Weekly magazine. Reaction has been overwhelmingly positive so far! [Lawrence Assock of Destination Care pictured]

Earlier today, Travel Weekly managing director Trevor Harding handed out copies of the new magazine here at Reed Business Information in Sutton.

All the frenetic activity of the past few months will continue next week at World Travel Market, where we will be out in force with a special stand at ExCel with our new TW Group colleagues, Travolution and Gazetteers Plus.

We will also have our famous WTM dailies, which will be circulated every single day of WTM.

Make sure you drop by to say hello during the course of the event, stand # 1700 in the South Hall.