A luxury long weekend break is just what you need!
Never been on a cruise?
Not sure if you’ll like it or if it’s for you?
Fantastic!
Then a mini-cruise is exactly what you need! It’s a great way to sample life onboard as well as enjoying some well earned and needed time away with friends, family, or just for some time alone for you and your significant other.
And a mini-cruise isn’t just for you first time cruisers - Instead of taking a city break, or booking a hotel or holiday home in the Countryside (which is amazing, by the way), why not enjoy the luxury of taking a cruise out of Southampton for a long weekend away?
The itineraries on a mini-cruise really vary and offer a great range of cities to explore (I’ll go through these in a minute), then after a long day, return to your ship hotel and be truly pampered, and not just in the World class spa. Take a dip in the pool, or one of the hot tubs, relax on the sundeck with a cocktail or two, meet friends for drinks before dinner in one of the many bars, savour gourmet dining in the main restaurant or treat yourself in one of the specialty dining restaurants.
If you’re still feeling tip top lively after your days adventures, head to the ships theatre and watch a West-End style show, which could be all singing & dancing, or a comedy act, or a magician, the shows are different every night. If you’re still feeling spritely after that, go onto the nightclub and dance the night away, or try your luck in the casino maybe? And, apart from the casino, this is all included in the cruise fare.
Cruise from Southampton to enjoy top cities like Hamburg, Amsterdam, Bruges, & Cherbourg, or explore the island of Guernsey.
Get yourself to Kiel and cruise one way back to Southampton visiting Gothenburg on the way home.
These itineraries are anything from 2 to 5 nights long, so enjoy a long weekend, or make a week of it.
My Cruise Holidays colleague and I on a travel agents & partners weekend cruise from Southampton to Le-Havre, where my husband and I visited the beautiful port town of Honfleur and seaside town of Deauville.
Stunning Honfleur.
Mini-cruises also set sail out of the Florida ports; Miami, Tampa, Fort Lauderdale, & Port Canaveral.
Why am I telling you this when you live in the UK?
Well, you’re planning a holiday in Florida, a week with the kids running around the various theme parks, chasing the Disney characters down in order to get a selfie & an autograph. By the end of that week, you know you’re going to be knackered, so instead of jumping straight onto a plane and enduring jet-lag for the next few days, why not tag on a cruise to that holiday and spend a few days relaxing at sea? Put the kids into the (included in the fare) kids clubs and enjoy some down time, a real holiday.
Visit the Bahamas, Jamaica, Costa Maya & Cozumel in Mexico, or head south out of San Juan and visit St Maarten, Antigua & St Lucia.
These itineraries are available anywhere between 3 and 5 nights.
Other mini-cruises available include Bermuda from New Jersey. Visit New York for a few days, and after you’ve spent all your money and are totally skint, and shattered, head across the water and enjoy a well-earned break with 5 nights in paradise.
Or head in the other direction from New Jersey and visit Atlantic Canada in the fall, my favourite time of year over there, in Halifax, Nova Scotia (my homeland for 6 years up until 2013) and New Brunswick. This itinerary is available for 4 or 5 nights.
Visiting the glorious cities in California at any time? Travel out to Vancouver on Canada’s west coast first and take in the sights of this very multi-cultural city before heading down to Los Angeles with a stop off in Astoria, Oregon.
Looking for something a little more different for a short break away? travel across to Amsterdam and board a luxury river cruise for 5 days. Let the ship meander down the river while you enjoy fine dining, with alcohol included during lunch & dinner. Afterwards, take a dip in the whirlpool, enjoy a spa treatment, meet friends or fellow passengers for drinks in the bar. The ship will take you through Cologne, Koblenz or Boppard, and Rudesheim where, in each place, you can get off the ship and join in the included excursions, or go it alone. The ship will then continue to Mainz where you will fly back to the UK.
Or perhaps the Danube will bring you joy? Join your ship in beautiful Budapest and travel along to Bratislava, Vienna, Durnstein and then depart in Melk for your return home. Stay a couple of days before or after to extend your holiday and sample the culture & nightlife of the cities.
Cruise along the rivers of Europe
A beautiful stateroom with your bed facing panoramic windows, or balcony
There are so many options available to you if you would like to taste the cruise way of life, try before you buy into a longer duration itinerary.
Or sod it, just jump in feet first like I got my husband to do when I booked his first cruise for a week out to Bermuda from New Jersey. I had already experienced my first cruise on a travel agents trip down to the Mexican Riviera out of San Diego a couple of years earlier, and I knew he would love it as much as I did, no matter how much he protested. So, off we went, my family and I, and we have done a few more since then, including a couple of river cruises, and we have many more planned ahead.
If you would like to book a mini-cruise, or any other cruise for that matter, you can contact me here.