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Martin Judd - Cruise Specialist
Choosing a cruise can be a somewhat daunting task, especially for a first cruise.
There are so many options and choices can be overwhelming....What cruise line? What type or size of ship.....large, medium, small?
Is it more family oriented or providing a more intimate atmosphere? Is it a cruise allowing lots of time for sightseeing ashore, or more of an 'at sea' experience?
What type of cabin?? What position in the ship, forward, aft or mid-ship? What is included in the cruise fare and what isn't? What will the food be like?
As a Travel Agent, my travel specialty is cruising and cruise ships (and of course getting people to and from the cruise ships) and I enjoy going over the various aspects of all of these questions to make sure the client feels happy with their choice and ultimately has a great cruise experience.
Testimonials:
Hi Martin
Just to let you know we are home and want to thank you for your help in regards to our cruise on Regatta. It is the most amazing ship and we just loved it. We met many people who cruise regularly and they told us we had picked the best line, Oceania, for our first cruise!!!! The size of the boat, number of passengers and staff, fantastic 6 star food and service, range of ports of call, all helped to make this a wonderful experience for us and we would highly recommend it to others.
We look forward to sailing with them again in the future.
Kind Regards. Anne
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Hi Martin,
Am back in NZ. Just saying thanks, had an absolutely awesome cruise, definitely will be doing more. The ship and crew unreal and all so help full. Didn't even have time to go the the casino on board. Having a cabin with a window got to see sunrises from in bed and also the passing other large boats. Unreal.
Thanks again. Jenny
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Hi Martin
We are home from our travels in Turkey and the Oceania Cruise.
Re the Cruise on Insignia:-
Check in at Istanbul took all of 5 minutes amazing.
The service , food and everything about this ship was fantastic.
Yes, it may be expensive but you cannot fault anything about the ship. The night life was OK but as you are off the ship each day your bed was the best place to be at night. We did not do any on shore tours organised by the ship as these seemed very expensive for what you got. The inside cabin did not worry us as we were able to go to the pool area and all parts of the ship . The only thing we did not like was the wine and its price . Only 1 NZ wine was Brancott estate which was fair . We would have the 2 for 1 cocktails between 5 and 6 pm instead.
There were 35 Kiwis and 37 Australians a few Pomms and Canadians balance American . The weather was fantastic and all places were great to visit.
The interesting thing was we received on our 2and day out a letter to say that gratuities were already paid in our fare so that was a nice surprise.
I would very much recommend Oceania cruise Line for people over 50 who do not want to get dressed up for dinner do not want a big night life and want a stress free holiday. Jo and I are fairly fit and did a lot of walking off the ship etc and had a ball using the local transport etc..
Many thanks Martin we will certainly do another cruise.
Cheers. Bevan
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Hi Martin
Alison and I have just returned to New Zealand after our cruise on the HAL Eurodam from NY to Quebec.
We had a wonderful cruise and I have included some comments which may be helpful to you when guiding others in their choices.
Eurodam is a beautiful ship and the staff and crew were great. Everything was run with great efficiency.
Food was good with very friendly Balinese waiters. (The Dawn Princess last year had more exquisite fine-dining type meals like a top restaurant, but the buffet on Eurodam was much more varied and effectively organised and there was none of the ‘huge fat people filling platters’ that we found rather revolting on the Princess) ‘Anytime dining’ worked well for us and we were even able to get a time, table and waiters who knew us when we booked a day in advance.
The specialty restaurants (we dined in the Asian and Italian ones) were excellent.
The stern cabin was also excellent both in fittings, size and location. We were able to have a drink on our cabin balcony and watch the sunset and scenery as we slipped out of the ports.
The passengers were perhaps a little older on average than we would have really liked but there were a number our age and that was fine.
We did very much appreciate the gift of the bottles of wine which were in our cabin when we arrived. Many thanks.
Kind regards and again thanks for organising the cruise for us. Warwick
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Hi Martin
Cruise is over, (Diamond Princess) very sad to get off, it exceeded my expectations in almost every way, lovely bunch of guys on board. Put on 3kg over the time, food was out of this world as was the 5 star service, so back to a bland diet soon. Just arrived in SYD very hot and humid, was up at 4am to see the arrival, just MAGIC.
Cheers Richard
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Hi Martin,
Just arrived back today. Thanks for all your help. Much appreciated. Fantastic service.
If there are any incredible deals on cruises, please let us know.
Regards, Trevor
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MARTIN hello - I have a message to you from us and our friends who have shared this cruise: This trip was fantastic and wonderful - this boat is magical and all our friends have appreciated as much as ourselves -- we all want to thank you a thousand times for organizing this wonderful trip: it is a pity that we were unable to meet. The next time may be because we go often in New Zealand. As we all want to leave as soon as possible, I will certainly ask you for our next cruise (not immediately but as soon as we have time to do and most money of course!) South America and SINGAPORE HONG KONG we are trying a lot. We will therefore need your advice and wise. we will make sure you send customers to usl. Thank you a thousand times again and soon.
Sincerely. Pascale and MAINGUET
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Hi Martin
Well we are back and we have had a great time the cruise really spoiled us absolutely fab- Highly recommended to anyone. The ship was amazing (understatement of the year!)
So all in all a great trip, quite a few on board the cruise had done the relocation cruise and stayed on and were talking about the new ship just about to be launched and them going on that one too. Learned a lot about cruises now so would certainly consider another one.
Europe wasn’t full of cyber cafes like here and when you did find one it was really expensive- pay by the minute so we only kept in touch with our kids
Many thanks for all your help in organising the trip
Its back to reality now ;-( Cheers Josie
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Well done Martin – many thanks for all you have done for us – will be in touch to let you know how it all goes and then we are on to next year’s flights to Venice and from New York – thinking about going across the States and leaving from Los Angeles to come home so that could be an interesting one to organise. So keep up the good work – having you to do our bookings has made it easy for us – hope we have made it easy for you as well? Regards Ann
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Hi Martin
Yes all went well - I must say we thought Malaysia Bus Class was really good and compared well with Emirates, maybe even better - the staff really tried to go the extra mile. Pan Pacific at Airport for two days on way back was as expected and a good decision to take MAS offer for the delay - would even consider paying for the stop over in future!
Avalon cruise (Amsterdam to Basel) was also excellent - no complaints whatsoever and of course the boat was only a few weeks old. The facilities on board were on a par with the best of the cruise liners (apart of course from the entertainment- we made our own).
Most on board were from OZ or NZ and none at all from UK and only a couple of Americans. The company is now owned by Globus but I think must have started as OZ or NZ - would definitely recommend. It is a bit pricey, but it does include wine with dinner - there was a healthy supply(and good quality) so no real requirement to 'top up' at own expense.
We spent a week in Como in an (internet) rented apartment downtown EUR 450. This worked out as planned - no driving, handy for Lake Como ferries and plenty to see and do. I also arranged a trip to Milan, which is only 40mins by train from Como and an hourly service - this allowed us to go to La Scala to see a show - Pink Floyd, The Ballet.
We then had a long weekend in Zurich - a most pleasant City with plenty to do, tho very expensive. We took the sleeper from Zurich to Rome for our return to KL. We had first class - a bit of a disappointment, as the Trenitalia sleeper coach was identical to a second class I often traveled on from Edinburgh to London in the early 1970's!
Cheers
Alan
ps have gone off the India by train at present.
I am keen to do a short 'Ayers Rock' /Ghan at some time.
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Hi Martin
Thanks for that. The cruise was fantastic and everything went well – we were thoroughly spoiled. Ed & the kids loved their first cruise and we are keen to do it again some time (somewhere different though).
Regards. Marcia
Hi Martin
We enjoyed the cruise very much, there was so much to see and do that we were kept very busy.The 3 and 1/2 months is something of an endurance test, stamina wise , with late nights ( too much entertainment! ) and many ports of call, however we travelled well and were very lucky with good weather and smooth seas all the way. Although some people booked another cruise while still on the ship, we feel that this journey has been more than enough for us in the foreseeable future.
Princess staff worked very hard to take care of their passengers and make the journey memorable. Some passengers had issues with minor problems and there were some who had bad experiences with the medical treatment they received . The average age of passengers must have been 65 or maybe more , so the medical team were kept very busy.
Regards
Mary
Hi Martin,
J ust thought I'd write a quick note and let you know that we had an absolute blast on our cruise. Brilliance is a beautiful ship, immaculately maintained. Derek's probably still on the fence with Celebrity but the rest of us are RCCL converts now. Loved the entertainment, the more English entertainment crew and the emphasis on fun. We were also pleased to see a much more international clientele including 97 Australians and 30 New Zealanders.
We can't wait to book our next cruise now but will be looking at Summer 2012 unfortunately. Wouldn't want to sail out of Barcelona again - venice would be perfect or Rome. Keep us in mind in the future.
Thanks for all your hard work,
Kindest regards,
Claire and family
Hi Martin - had a fabulous 8 days on the Rhine following our other 32 days of full on travel which of course was fantastic. However we have to say the rhine cruise was fabulous- great boat, excellent crew, great accom etc - passengers about 2/3 Yanks - 1/3 - Brits - 1 Aussie and us 4 kiwis - interesting!
The cruise was a real holiday and I could say thats exactly what it was - a holiday - I would liken it to a 4 -5 star floating hotel and would recommend it even to the most discerning. Our biggest issue was it was so hot (not anything that Viking could do about that) - around 40degrees celsius several of the days - and mid to high 30's the others - it was sweltering- fortunately the cabin air con was good.
All the cabins were the same size - so those that paid more for top or mid floors - got only an opening window for their extra $- was too hot to have them open so we were well pleased with our waterline cabins - only one set of stairs down to them. Ship hygeine was spot on - nothing to complain about - apart from one american lady whom I overheard complaining bitterly that the engines should be in the front of the boat not in the back - as she had not been able to sleep - don't quite know if they were expected to uplift engines and shift them that night or what! needless to say we had a good chuckle!
We are so pleased we bought Viking transfers to and from boat through you - it made it all seemless. We were only ever docked right next to shore - so no clambering over other boats etc - although a reasonable degree of fitness needed for shore excursions. Viking has a very good name on the Waterways and with the Americans - I feel they earn their accolades.
Anyway - all rested. de-jetlagged and ready to start planning another holiday
Kind regards from Heather, Graham louis and Lois
Hi Martin
All went as planned - no hiccups, and all my internet choice of hotels, trains etc were spot on.
I was particularly impressed with trains in Spain - Barc to Valen; Valen to Gandia; Valen to Madrid; Madrid to Paris - alll spotless, well staffed and ran to the minute!
The cruise on Seabourn Legend was probably just ahead of expectations (knowing how much it costs). We really enjoyed it and would certainly travel with them again - a certain attraction of only 210 pasengers, tho their other and new vessels are almost double that.
We had been to a few of the ports before, but, as we suspected, this proved not to detract from the cruise as we were able to spend the day onboard, with only a few passengers left.
After the Cruise we spent 4 full days in Valencia in a B&B which was top class and made a change from hotels. We then had 5 days in the coastal resort of Moraira, between Javea and Calpe, in a Villa owned by friends of ours from Edinburgh who joined us there - great realaxation after all the travelling.
Malyasian Business Class was up to scratch, and the day room at Pan Pacific Kuala Lumpur airport on the way back was (as before) just the job, and better than a 2 to 3 hour connecting flight to AKL!
Happy to provide any further info to any of your clients should this be necessary.
Cheers
Alan
Hi Martin,
The crew were amazing, and so was the entertainment. I honestly did not want to get off the ship.! (Celebrity Eclipse Western Med & Adriatic Coast)
Di.
Hi Martin
All went well without any hiccups. Flights were o.k. once we got away from Napier and we managed to get some sleep to Frankfurt. The train from Frankfurt to Hamburg was a fast one and the railway station became a focal point in getting the compass right. We did not try the underground but used local buses as we were a few kms out of the city. Then the train from Hamburg to Keil was interesting - they go every half hour and it was no where near full. Did not see a lot of Kiel but looked interesting.
MSC provided everything they had to for a cruise like this - we managed to get used to every announcement coming in many languages - there were a large number of Aussies on the ship probably the majority of the 3000 passengers. The crew were a little rusty at the beginning but picked up.
Probably one day in London was not enough but the European ports were quite delightful and everything was walkable from the ship. Only 1/2 day of rain in Le Havre. Coffees were awful but they always are overseas.
We did not go to Bermuda but ended up in Boston because of a Typhoon or something like that. Boston was an excellent introduction to New York. And New York was absolutely fascinating but after 5 days we had walked our feet off. We stayed at Novotel right in Broadway and managed a couple of shows and also had a look over Intrepid the aircraft carrier. Food was a bit expensive but that is the $ and we do not mind having McDonald's for breakfast.
We stayed at Accor hotels all the way which do give good value for money except New York but that was an exception.
Thanks for doing the bookings for us again Martin - they always seem to go through so smoothly.
Now I guess it is next year to think about - do not think this will be another cruise but may do something quiet like go to Norfolk Island (where we have not been) or do top half of Aussie - am always open to some suggestions for two oldees!
So can recommend Quantas and MSC (but need to put up with the language thing). And the 18 dayer Kiel to New York went well - the Azores Islands were fascinating - the trip across the Atlantic a little boring and probably a time when the ship could have put on some movies or something like that - and also they do not have too many English speaking TV programmes!
Thanks again - your help really appreciated.
Ann
Hi Martin
I've been reminding myself to tell you how it went so good reminder - thanks for all your efforts. Not long back, - I had another couple of weeks in Italy after the cruise - but once back into the rush of work feels like an aeon ago!
Cruise went well - usual very good service & all care taken. Lovely cabin staff - just the right note of friendliness and service. I enjoyed the 'anytime' dining option - you just rock up to the dining room & ask to be seated at a table with others, so a good selection of dining companions & someone different every night. The size of the Noordam is amazing - you realize how large as you walk from your cabin forward to the pool aft, or from dining room aft to theatre forward. Must have walked kms which is no bad thing! - but not so convenient if wet from a swim & trying not to be seen ... Prinsendam was much more compact.
Food & service were excellent and cabin comfortable. Stopovers (main reason I chose this) were amazing. Loved Barcelona & had plenty of time to see a lot of the city with the 2-days there. All other stops were worthwhile - only Sicily on a Sunday rather dull , but very pretty to walk round (not even churches open). Tunisia worked out fine - the ship's expedition pretty good - couldn't spend as long at interesting bits as I would normally ,but I was prepared for that - & an interesting & knowledgable guide.
I'd say more fun doing a cruise with someone - solo quite difficult as everyone else in pairs or groups. The share with stranger option paid off for me last time as I got on great with Adeline so we could be a 'pair' - had lots of random conversations with friendly strangers but nothing ongoing this time. On the converse I caught the ship's cold/flu & had to take a few early nights so best I had room to myself!
Non stop entertainment day & night if you wanted it (I was there for the travelling) & the shows I did see were very professional. Felt safe the whole time. Much younger skew it seemed this time - still majority American but a lot of others as well incl Aust & NZ. In all good value and fun & plenty to do - or just relax. Oh - except internet connection - dire & expensive!
I would look for a smaller / fewer passengers ship if I were to do it again. Certainly a great way to see a lot more of Europe without all that bus travel & constant packing!
Regards Jacqueline
Hi MARTIN
We made wonderful one and fantastic journey - thank you very much to have helped us to realize it.
The next time it will be the Central America and I shall still need your services.
Thank you still for your professionalism.
Best regards
Pascale
Hi John,
We went through Martin, and he was amazing, the Cruise Line that we went with was Celebrity Cruises.
Martin Judd
Fine Cruising
Level 5, 43 High Street
Auckland City, New Zealand
Email: Martin@finetravel.co.nz
Ph: 09 833 7903
Free Phone: 0800 00 3463
Cheers
Judy
Hello Martin
You have made a bit of a name for yourself according to my informants, so I would like you to give me some advice please.
I am interested in a cruise (date undecided) of the Mediterranean and ask for your guidance.
Have a great day
Kind regards
John
Good afternoon Martin,
Just back from the Tahitian Treasures cruise.
It was wonderful and the weather was perfect except our arrival at Norfolk when we could not get ashore due to sea conditions. Although there was a little amount of 'laundry rage" during the cruise, Mary and I would like to thank you very much for state room 10155.
It was, in our opinion the best and would recommend it to any of your future clients. Thanks for all your assistance in helping to make our holiday such an unforgettable success and could you send me a list of the cruises departing Auckland in 2012.
Regards Tom
Hello Martin.
Just to let you know that cruise went brilliantly. Happy to recommend Fred Olsen to anyone. Now enjoying a few days in the UK.
Regards Gordon
Martin - just finished the Azamara cruise - brilliant -loved it!! we'll be looking forward to another next year. Thanks for your help.
Aline
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