Cruiseday Tuesday: Bahamian Rhapsody

It’s not every day you get a call from Serena Williams.

My mid-afternoon slumber was disturbed when Serena phoned me from the Bahamas a couple of years ago.

Such is the life of an international globetrotting Travel Editor!

This Serena though was not the tennis superstar as she acknowledges in her emails after her name (no, not her) but a very impressive Serena all the same. She runs a very successful media firm in Nassau http://www.bahamas.local,com.

I was teased with a view of the Bahamas in the distance when I cruised the seas last December but have yet to set foot on land.

I mean to change that.

There are a plethora of cruises around the Bahamas and in the Caribbean. I was taken by this one particularly when they slipped in the two most important words in cruising… ‘party ship’.

Jetline Cruise Ireland is offering 15 nights’ Orlando Fun & Bahamian Sun for four people for a fortnight sharing with inclusive car hire for ten days and then four days’ cruising.

You will stay at the Rosen Inn International or the International Palms Resort on International Drive, Orlando – so make sure you link up with Mickey and Disney and Harry and Universal http://www.disneyworld.disney.go.com and http://www.universalorlando.com.

And then the four of you will share the cabin on the Carnival Cruise Line ship.

Sale date November 1, price from €1299.

Jetline Cruise has a number of other sailings. Visit http://www.jetlinecruise.ie or call (01) 2469576.

The other Tenerife

I’ve got nothing against people who go to Tenerife to sit beside the pool or on the beach and hit the nightclubs.

You can have that if you like, it leaves the rest of the island and its activities such as hiking and carnival to me.

I’ll be hiking in September and also sitting under the stars with a couple of stars of the Travel industry whom I’ll tell you about nearer the time.

And I dare say I’ll get a taste for Tenerife then and want to go back for the Carnival of Santa Cruz de Tenerife in February…. it’s the second biggest in the world as I was informed when the Canadians visited last year.

In the meantime you can, of course, get there by cruise ship with TUI’s Canarian Flavours package. TUI offers seven nights’ all-inclusive on January 3 on Marella Explorer inside cabin from €969pps.

Visit http://www.tuiholidays.ie or call 1850 45 35 45.

Channeling good vibes

I reckon I know what’s in store for Boris Johnson who is about to go around in circles between the UK and Europe… I did it in a cruise ship in the English Channel a couple of years ago.

The difference though is that I loved it.

Of course if you want to get off you can too. Royal Caribbean has a six-night cruise on Allure of the Seas on May 23 (Brexit should be over by then, maybe). It leaves Southampton and checks in to Paris/Normandy (Le Havre) , Bilbao and Spain.

From €1051 per person based on two sharing, €2102. Flight required.

Call 1800 932 662 or visit http://www.royalcaribbean.ie.