Luci, must admit to spending very little time on HT these days and hadn't noticed. It is different inasmuch as it is 15 days, with an overnight in Barbados on board at end of cruise, and also 4 non-london airports without any surcharge! From Glasgow, for fellow Scots out there, it is a big plus.

A couple of good offers

Ruby Princess - 30th Apr 2011 - Transatlantic Mediterranean - 16nts

Fly Manchester to Fort Lauderdale & transfer to overnight hotel, Madeira, Seville, Alghero, Rome (Civitavecchia), Florence/Pisa (Livorno), Monte Carlo, Barcelona, fly to Manchester

Inside from £699pp. Outside from £799pp
Balcony from £999pp
Single Occupancy from only £978
+
$200pp Onboard Credit

Star Princess - 2nd May 2011 - Transatlantic Mediterranean - 16nts

Fly Manchester to Fort Lauderdale & transfer to overnight hotel, Tenerife, Gibraltar, Alicante, Marseilles, Florence/Pisa (Livorno), Rome (Civitavecchia), fly to Manchester

Inside from £699pp. Outside from £829pp
Balcony from £999pp
Mini Suite from £1199pp
Single Occupancy from only £859

Hi

Can anyone give me advice on where to get the best deals. Looking for a 1 week cruise mid July to the med preferably including Greece/Turkey.

Thanks

My advice would be to register your email with some of the cruise agents ie Gills, Iglu, Cruise kings etc. I get offers most days of the week and there are some real bargains to be had. Just booked Ventura for 30th July Balcony cabin £1300 per person can't be bad. We had been looking at the Ruby as we went on it last summer but 12 night £2200 compared to the 14 nights on Ventura so we thought we would give it a try. The Eclipse is coming out at £1500 for 14 nights so there are some real bargains out there if you look hard enough.

Many thanks for the advice. I have registered so will sit and wait!

Re- Rhine River Cruise on mps Amsterdam July 2011 I know what a sardine must feel like, the cabins were so small we had to take turns getting dressed. the washroom was even worse, you could sit on the loo (feet would be in the shower tray) brush your teeth and have a shower all at the same time!
The itinerary was good but the food could only be described as adequate, space in the dining room was at a premium, one could only move to get out if another two persons also moved.
Would we do it again? No.

Wow!
Just saw this from http://www.cruise.co.uk
31 Mar ’13 - 16nts - Holland America - MS Ryndam
Tampa, Ponta Delgada (Azores), Cadiz (Seville), Motril, Palma de Mallorca, Barcelona
NOW £349pp Was £2049pp
** LESS THAN £22 PER PERSON PER NIGHT!! **

Received email from cruisekings.
Adventure of the Seas sailing 31 May 2013 - 12 nights to Iceland and Norway
£499 with NO single supplement

Also;
Independence of the Seas sailing 1 June for 14 nights
£599 and again NO single supplements

I was on the CelebrityInfinity in Sept on one of their wine & food cruises. Paid around £665 (gratuities not included) for 12 days though someone said the Canadians were paying C$800 for the same cruise - inside cabin of course. Someone claimed that Cunard is refusing to lower their prices. Instead, they prefer to sail with empty cabins.

Well, boys & girls, it looks like they have changed that policy. I received an email from Cruisekings (BTW, I don't recommend that agent at all!!!!) which had a 21 Nov 2013 sailing at £499, reduced from £1,549. That's for 12 nights, sailing from Rome. The price includes flights from and to the UK

If you enjoy cruising, this is the most fantastic time to be doing it. The prices are wonderful. I would also add that before I went on that Sept cruise, I was a bit worried that the food standard would have dropped (as I had found with NCL where the quality of the food kept dropping over time till I stop using that cruise line)

I thought Celebrity tried their best to maintain their food standards when I was on the Infinity (comparing it with the Eclipse on which I sailed twice in 2012 and once in 2010). I also thought they did not stint on the entertainment budget (but I must add the caveat that I have never sailed on a Millennium class Celebrity ship until then). The entertainers were many, many notches above those I saw on the P&O Azura in 2011!!!. There was one very big flaw with the Infinity which may be why the cruise price was so relatively low. The ship stinks - the smell of blocked drains was prevailing in certain areas; most notably on entry into the indoor pool, outside the theatre, the spa area, and along the corridor on the port side in the forward section on deck 3. It wasn't as bad along the deck 3 corridor compared with the indoor pool area just as you enter that from the outside pool, but it was still noticeable. Someone told me that they had a cabin on deck 2 and the smell was really awful there.

Another observation with the Infinity. Please bear in mind that I have only ever sailed on the Eclipse before. There is virtually no self service in the buffet restaurant. You have to wait for someone to put the food on your plate. This has its plus point in that you don't have those bloody passengers who finger the food but do not put that on their plates (I've seen an old man do that on the NCL Jade) but it does mean that you have to wait to be served. Also, I noticed that on the Cruisecritic forums that people were complaining that the food was lukewarm. This I can confirm to be true. For instance, with the hot pudding on the Eclipse self-service restaurant, the lid is kept down until someone helps himself. This keeps the pudding warm. On the Infinity, the serving dish has its lid kept open all the time. Of course the pudding loses its heat. What else can you expect? Overall, the food is lukewarm in the buffet restaurant. It doesn't bother me at all but it was just as well that I took my daughter with me on that cruise, rather than my husband, as I know he would not be happy with that.

I had a free upgrade from a superior outside cabin to a junior suite with Fred Olsen as I booked in January for November and the price for our original cabin had gone down by £400 each. They offered me another upgrade to a superior suite but it was £200 each so I said no it was too expensive. I noticed today that some balcony suites were still available so rang to ask how much an upgrade would be I couldn't believe it when they said £385 each and considering last year we got a free upgrade from a superior outside cabin to a balcony suite I said I wouldn't pay that amount. I thought maybe it would be £100 each so we'll stay with the junior suite, we're still losing out though as they're priced less than we paid in January. It makes you wonder whether to wait and book later