Where did we visit in 2017? Where will we visit in 2018? Yes, it’s the end of the year so that means it’s time for a look back at what’s happened and a look forward to what’s coming up because when it comes to writing blog posts it’s way easier to be unoriginal than think of anything new to write.

For many years cruising with Princess Cruises has benefitted from counting cruises with P&O towards their loyalty system, the Captain’s Circle. This will soon change and there are arguments for and against this move. Generally, though, I see this as a negative move by the company that might be perceived as an indication of cost-cutting which is likely to be a precursor to a reduction in the levels of service offered in the minds of many cruisers.

This isn’t going to be unique to travel bloggers at all but these are my observations from my experience over the last few months. It’s coming up close to about two months since I started a new Twitter account to act as an additional driver to this website beyond that I share to friends from my personal Facebook account and that which trickles in organically from search. The original purpose of that additional social media account was simply to provide links to new and old posts for anyone using Twitter search as their source of content that might find what I post interesting but because I didn’t want it to just be a self-serving link farm I also started following a few travel and travel photography-related Twitter accounts so that I could share their good content too and also interact. I’m pleased to say that some followed back but I’ve had a website for more years than I care to remember and interaction and reciprocation together were the big things when I started producing content and things have clearly moved on in what I consider a colder direction.

This blog post lists some of the highlights of places to which we’ve travelled or of experiences in those places. We understand that everyone is different and that some people like beach holidays or going back to the same hotel every year but for us the joy of travelling is in seeing something that our friends and family haven’t, of building up a list of experiential achievements, giving us something to look back at in years to come and say that yes, we did that, we saw that, we were there.

Conversations with strangers on cruises have a whole set of hidden rules. Do you know what they are? Did you even know they existed? Are you worried that you won’t do well in the unofficial cruise ship conversation challenge? Well, firstly, don’t panic. Not everyone takes part in the challenge. It’s not compulsory. You might be content to just relax on your vacation. Secondly, help is at hand. With this short post I explain some of the rules and some of the challenges and where points can be won and lost. Conversations on cruise ships will never be the same again.

In this post I list the ten names I rejected for the new 5000+ passenger-carrying P&O cruise ship to be launched in 2020 along with the reasons for not picking them. I also tell you the name I did select for the competition P&O were running just so when it’s picked and I still don’t win I can bask in a small amount of smug satisfaction.

The work of a website owner is never done and it’s not all just blog posts and portfolio updates featuring images of wonderful places and fabulous memories; there’s also a bit of tinkering that goes on around the site from time to time and even though the site isn’t that old in terms of its new travel and photography direction I do tweak things every now and then to see what impact it has. This post contains a list of changes around the site in terms of layout or features as well as some changes on social media too carried out recently.