Wasn’t it a wonderful wedding! That dress! We couldn’t believe it. We reckon even Calvin would look good in that! And do we really have to go back to five-and-a-half day weeks? We like all these Bank Holidays! Mind you Easter was not all hot cross buns. We totally redecorated the offices, new carpets, the lot, and got everything done on time. It all looks brilliant. And now we’ve cleaned the paint off ourselves, so do we. Despite all the uproar, we still managed to publish our May Newsletter and our new spring brochure, Cruise In’s Cruise Collection 2012-2013 First Edition. They will be dropping through your door any day now. If you can’t wait you can download a copy at www.cruisein.co.uk/newsletter. There are some fabulous new offers for you. They’ve even got us day-dreaming: Iceland and the Norwegian fjords; Celebrity returning to Australia; Asian cruises to places we can’t even pronounce; and that dress, that dress…!

Vicky

You can say that again. We were rushed off our feet at the Daily Telegraph Cruise Show over the weekend of 26/27 March. Olympia was jam-packed as far as we could tell. We had a constant flow of visitors to Cruise In River Cruises stand, all busily filling in forms for our Prize Draw. The first prize was a free six-night river cruise, ‘Lyon and the magic of the Provençal Rhone and the Camargue’ on the 18 August 2011. The second prize was also brilliant, three-nights ‘Paris and the Christmas Markets 27 November 2011′. No wonder hundreds of people entered the draw. At times it seemed as if everyone in the hall was queuing to get on the Cruise In River Cruises stand. It was great fun, hard work, and very rewarding. We met loads of nice people. The draw took place at the end of the show, by which time we were almost ready to go on a cruise ourselves! As it happens the two winners had gone home by then, but no matter. Back at the office we got a real buzz calling them to give them the good news. Two brilliant Cruise In River Cruises prizes and two delighted prize winners!

Vicky

But not just now. It’s river, river all the way at Cruise In at the moment. We’re off to the Daily Telegraph Cruise Show soon, pitching our European river cruises. Because of the increasing popularity of river cruises, we’re expanding our range. We’re adding some new ones and returning to some old favourites. As usual, the big news about our river cruises is the value story. As you know probably know, some European companies charge fortunes for 7-night river cruises. Eye-watering amounts. Often you can buy 14-night sea cruises for less! Cruise In will, as usual, be concentrating on value, experience and quality. We’re going back to the River Douro in Portugal, which many of our clients have asked for. We have a sensational ultimate Christmas Markets double cruise including Paris. And there’s a magical Cologne to Basel cruise on the Rhine, plus lots, lots more. If you’re on our mailing list, keep an eye out for our new 24-page River Cruise Collection brochure. It’ll be arriving shortly.

Vicky

If you’re a regular reader of our newsletters – and even more so if you’re a regular cruiser with us – you’ll know Cruise In offer, on all the cruises we sell, not just the best value, but often the lowest prices you can find anywhere. We work our socks off to do this. In fact we often go beyond the call of duty by seeking out all sorts of add-ons and other attractions to help you get the most from your time and money. We do this with river as well as sea cruises. We don’t claim to always have the lowest prices. That’s because you can sometimes find bucket-shop prices on cruises we won’t sell, cruises that are not good enough for us, or for you, our clients. You know this, you understand this. You realise value is in our blood. You also know we speak plain and we’d love to say we sell cheap cruises. But the word cheap has become so associated with ‘cheap and nasty’ we can’t use it. Some cruise lines, understandably, expressly prohibit the use of the word in their marketing. The perfectly plain and simple, highly respectable English word, good enough for Shakespeare, has  over recent years changed its meaning. It has become cheapened. So there it is. There’ll never ever be anything cheap about Cruise In. But there’ll always be something fantastically inexpensive. That’s why we say, Cruise In prices are the best kept secret in the cruising world!

Vicky

Things always go crazy here when our mailing shots drop and the latest one is proving no exception. And they haven’t even finished going out yet. We’re still stuffing the final envelopes even as I write this. The phone’s going bananas. In a way it’s no surprise. It was one heck of a mailing. There were three items: our February newsletter; an 8-page  Christmas Markets river offer on the Rhine and the Seine; and some unmissable Azamara Club Cruises offers. It’s the Azamara Club Cruises I want to underline.These are only available if you book before 28 February 2011. Just think what’s included: House wine with lunch and dinner, bottled water, soft drinks, speciality coffees and teas, housekeeping and dining gratuities, complimentary shuttle bus in port where available, self-service laundry,

English butler service for suite guests – the list goes on.

Click here to see all our Azamara offers. Or to download our 8 page Azamara February  brochure Click here

Remember, 28 Feb is not far off.

Vicky

Not the cheeriest of subjects for our first blog of 2011, but there it is, that’s life. With immediate effect, we’re changing our policy on credit card charges. Truthfully, this goes against the grain with us. But we’ve had our arm twisted by the recent introduction of some new types of credit cards. These cards offer you, the user, additional benefits. But, although they don’t say so, the cards also increase the amount of commission taken from the merchants, in this case us! So, to spell it out, from now on, Cruise In will accept all Visa personal credit cards and all debit cards, at no charge. We don’t accept, and never have accepted, American Express or Diners Club cards. We accept all MasterCard credit cards and all business credit cards at a 1% charge. This includes all store cards using the word MasterCard. It’s worth pointing out this 1% charge is significantly less than the minimum 2% credit card charges made by some other travel and cruise agents. Several of them are now increasing their charges to 2.5% or 3% to combat the same problem. It’s  worth reminding you, and all our clients, friends and anyone else who may be reading our blog for the first time, that Cruise In, unlike many cruise agents – especially the national advertisers – charge no booking fees! Please bear that in mind when you’re next comparing cruise prices. Happy new year!

Vicky

An extra special thank-you to everyone who made our recent Christmas Markets cruise on the Rhine such a pleasure and such a success. It was the best ever Christmas Markets cruise and I’m looking forward to telling everyone all about it in detail – with loads of full colour photographs – in our January 2011 Newsletter. That’s the Newsletter everyone here is frantically working on to produce at this very moment. By the way, thanks also for all the cards and thank-you letters that are arriving in every post. Got to go! Talk soon!

Cliff Redgrave

Thank you to everybody who came to our recent 10th anniversary celebrations in Torquay. It was a sensational event which we all enjoyed. And the success was all down to you. We’ll have a full report in our next newsletter with loads of pictures – thanks for sending all your shots in. Got to rush now. We’re up to our eyes, swamped at the moment. More news as soon as I get a moment.
Vicky

The Newbury show was great, a really big success. Thank you to the weather-persons, they did all we asked for. Saturday was brilliant, a lovely day. The crowds came and it was smashing to see so many familiar faces as well as so many new ones among our visitors.  We were run off our feet, just the way we like it. Sunday was a little quieter and we didn’t mind the respite. We had loads of enquiries as well as bookings and everybody is heads down this morning implementing everything as well as taking calls from people we met. Thank you to everyone who showed up. Here’s to Newbury next year!

Vick

OK, Hawk Eyes, we admit it. You’ve caught us out. On Page 10 of our current ‘Cruise Collection 2011-2012 Second Edition’ brochure, we have the wrong date on the ‘Springtime on the Moselle’ river cruise. The brochure says 28 May 2011. It should say 28 April 2011. The full dates are 28 April 2011 to 5 May 2011. Sorry about that. The guilty party has been banished to spend the winter in Siberia. Fortunately the correct dates were printed on the 8-page dedicated ‘Springtime on the Moselle’ brochure we sent with our August/September 2010 Newsletter. This is available for download here. So much for the bad news. The good news is the cruise is virtually sold out!

Vick

Can it be a month since we last blogged? Yep, it has been that busy. Our long awaited charter of MPS Statendam sailing the Rhine and Moselle in the spring of 2011 is out there.  We knew the price was astonishingly good value. The hard copy of the brochure has only just landed on the doormats and the phones haven’t stopped. If you’d like to join Cliff and Rose on a fairy tale trip through some of the loveliest scenery in the whole of Europe, don’t leave it too long. Right now we’re all heads down on producing our next brochure. This will be the 2011-2012 second edition, and should be with everyone on our mailing list by 1 September. Dates are crucial here because the prices on many of the cruises in the brochure will go up on 1 October 2010 when the early booking discounts and the on board credits are withdrawn. If you’re not on our mail list, we strongly advise you to join today to get all the latest and greatest news and offers as they happen. Got to go! Busy, busy, busy!

Vick

After a brilliant East of England Show where we met lots of friends old and new,  we’ve moved straight on to the Cheshire County Show to meet some of our friends in the north. Come and see us and enjoy the superb weather we are having. The Cheshire County Show is ideally & centrally located in Tabley near Knutsford. Last years’ show brought in spectacular crowds of 80,000 visitors to see the agricultural shows and the amazing live shows by rural craftsman. Click on this link to learn more about this amazing show.