Ocean Village sets new record for Carnival UK

Casual cruise line scores top marks for passenger satisfaction for 23 consecutive weeks!

Ocean Village is celebrating after a record-breaking run of holiday feedback scores that sets a new record for brands within Carnival UK. 'The cruise for people who don't do cruises' was given a glowing report card, achieving 90%+ scores from passengers for 'overall cruise enjoyment' for 23 consecutive weeks, the longest series ever recorded above the 90% company target.

Ocean Village's informal dining continued to prove a big hit with passengers with a 90% average score whilst 'The Bistro', the on-board restaurant of TV celebrity chef James Martin, was also top of the menu over the last 23 weeks, achieving a score of 93.9%. Offering fantastic value for money, Ocean Village's free of charge daily kids entertainment club scored a whopping 92.8%, with the highest score going to the on-board team with the dedicated crew collectively scoring 96.3% for friendliness and attitude.

Click here for the full article.

BRAND NEW Ocean Village Caribbean cruise TV ad

With the summer over and all the kids back at school your last holiday is probably just a distant memory. Well never fear - Ocean Village's winter sun cruises to the Caribbean start as early as November and our Caribbean TV ads are back on screen from Monday 14th September.

Don't forget this is Ocean Village's final Caribbean season so if you haven't experienced the cruise for people who don't do cruises or are thinking about getting back on board, time to enjoy the UK's best-loved informal cruise ship in the gorgeous tropical sun is beginning to run out!

This really is the cruise for people who don’t do cruises, and what's more, our winter 2-week Caribbean cruises are now from only £649* per person per week. And don't forget, you're saving 5% on when you book online so prices start from just £617pp per week for 2 weeks in the Caribbean sun.
For more details, see our Mediterranean and Caribbean cruise holidays, or check out our Caribbean cruise deals.
*£649 price is per person per week when booking a 14 night Caribbean cruise (selected dates only, subject to availability).

Big Night Out

Every week on board Ocean Village and Ocean Village Two you can now pull on your glad rags and add a dash of glamour and fun to your holiday at our special 'Big Night Out' event.



As part of the celebrations you can be nominated to become the ship’s ‘Godmother’ for the week and join the Captain for a special 'ship naming' ceremony in the Village Square to smash the customary bottle of fizz!



Tuck into a celebration dinner menu, take part in the Oscars-themed events as well as enjoying special promotions in our shops and spa. Still want more? Join the Ocean Village staff in the Players Bar or Bayside, where the celebration party continues with a boogie and a countdown to midnight. At the 'Big Night Out' you can get involved as much or as little as you like.

Keep an eye out for further details when you’re on board.

Hit The Deck

At Ocean Village we're always looking for ways to improve and enhance things for our passengers, which is why we’ve recently introduced a few changes to how the open areas in the middle of decks 12 and 14 work.

If you like to take things easy then the front area is just the place to swim in the adults-only Crystal pool or relax on the sun loungers, with minimal noise coming from the stage area. We've also placed extra tables and chairs outside both the Sunweaver bar and the La Luna restaurant so you can sit and chat or soak up the sun over a drink. Like things a bit more lively? The rear area by the Riviera pool is where you can watch – or get involved with – our entertainment events, enjoy our live music or just hang out around the family pool.

Looking for a late cruise deal? Then check out our great selection of Mediterranean and Caribbean cruise deals.

A transatlantic crossing to remember

After another successful season in Caribbean, Ocean Village commenced its transatlantic repositioning cruise on 21/04/2009 from Barbados. the first three days saw us calling at St.Lucia, Dominica and St.Maarten where we said a wonderful farewell to the beautiful Caribbean with a sail away party on top deck.

The team prepare for the British Sail Away :: Captain Ian Hutley opens the Village Fete

The theme was ‘British Sail Away’, where most of the passengers and crew enthusiastically participated in cheering and enjoying the event. As well as the local people and ports, we said our mutual goodbyes to the passengers of a Royal Caribbean Cruise liner which was docked alongside us.

After Captain Ian Hutley completed the safety checks, we were ready to set off on the six day voyage across the Atlantic to the scenic Island of Madeira. By the time we arrived in Madeira Ocean Village had covered a distance of 2632 nautical miles!

The first three sea-days brought the good weather averaging about 24C with a fresh breeze from the North East. During the day passengers were involved with the many activities provided by the Entertainment crew such as Salsa, Juggling and Trapeze work shops. We even managed to catch some live action from the English premier league football in the Oval Bar, which was not expected while crossing the Atlantic! And the fun didn't stop there. The Evenings were packed with some great tribute shows including George Michael and Elton John, hilarious antics of comedienne Mia Carla, and a chat with Will Martin ‘the youngest UK top ten classical singer’ in our ‘Up Close and Personal’ talk show. The host Paul Maffey got the nitty gritty from Will, asking all those burning questions that were on everyone’s mind and later Will Martin performed to a full house in the Marquee show lounge.

On 28th April, the fourth day at sea, Ocean Village celebrated its sixth birthday. To make this day even more memorable, the ships company held a ‘Village Fete’ with a mix of fun and games for the passengers. The event was inaugurated by the Captain cutting the ribbon to signify the start of a fun-filled day between crew and passengers with every department of the ship's company putting on a different challenge for the passengers to test their skills. In total we hosted 18 stalls for them to score as many points as possible towards the ultimate first prize of a VIP seat with the Captain to one of our 'Big Birthday Bash'. The games ranged from the Bar team’s ‘Show your Flair’ challenge to ‘Hoops in the Pool’ by Events, ‘Snake in a Bottle’ from Accommodation, and many more from other departments. We didn't realise how much passengers wanted to get their own back on the ship officers until we saw how busy the 'Throw a wet sponge at an Officer’ stall was! Officers of the ship were summoned to the stocks like villians taking their puishment, yet the true villians were soon to be known when buckets of ice water found their way over the unsuspecting heads of those in the stocks. I would say this game was a definite highlight of the crossing for many!

Captain Hutley soaks the Hotel Director!

The Hotel Director seeks his revenge...

And even more revenge...!

The whole day saw a real Carnival type atmosphere was an incredible testament to the spirit and liveliness that is Ocean Village, and for which we have become so renowned for. Ocean Village’s birthday was concluded with the 'Big Birthday Bash' party in the Marquee show lounge with all the performers putting on a show of such variety that it had the Marquee filled to the max all night. Even 1 Bar Team member made an appearance onstage to dazzle the passengers with his hidden vocal talents.

So another successful voyage blessed with good weather so far. We have yet another 1000 miles or so to sail before we reach our final port of call in Palma, Majorca and many spectacular places and entertainment still to experience on this trip. One thing we can be sure of if anything is that we will have many more good times to report!

Thanks for reading our post. What kind of events would you like to see on board?

Ghandi Raj & Kalpesh Nikam

Ocean Village Olympics

Hi, Caroline here. I work on Ocean Village Two as the Personnel and Development Manager supporting the Officers and Crew onboard.

Over the last few weeks we’ve been busy enjoying the last leg of our Caribbean itinerary before setting sail to the Mediterranean for the summer. For some of the team, it's the first time that they have been to the Caribbean so we thought it would be a great excuse to celebrate a great maiden season!

To end on a high, the accommodation team organised an Ocean Village-style Olympics competition. They organised themselves into four groups, each with their own team Captain, and the games commenced! The teams set about competing in a series of events in either the crew gym or ashore in St Vincent on 12th March, with challenges ranging from a tug of war, to relay races on the treadmills, to time trials on the stationary spinning bikes. And never to let a social event pass without a party, two of the accommodation team donned their DJ caps and put on a real show in a local nightclub at the port.

Our Olympic athletes in St Vincent

And, it didn’t end there... A few days later, the entire hotel team (who report to the Hotel Director) had a beach party in Isla Margarita, making the most of the stunning surroundings.

Thanks to Vincy Gomes and Marivic Quilicol who stepped up and devised a whole series of team games and challenges. As you can see, we all had a blast!

Caroline.

Ocean Village on Twitter

Hi there.

If you are interested in keeping up to date with Ocean Village, why not check out our Twitter page?

Click here to see Ocean Village on Twitter >

What is Twitter?
- Twitter is a social networking and 'micro-blogging' tool that helps you keep up with the your friends' status updates (or 'Tweets') within your network. You can simply choose who to 'follow', who you would like to follow you, and apply privacy settings accordingly.

Why would you want to use Twitter?
- It's an easy and quick way of finding out the lates 'news' your contacts want you to know.

Why should you follow Ocean Village?
- We're using Twitter as a fast way of letting our contacts know about the very latest deals, availability, news and info at Ocean Village.

So don't miss out...!

Click here to see Ocean Village on Twitter > or look for Ocean_Village and follow us!

Ocean Village Take Two!

Hi, I'm Wilson and this is my blog about a recent rare double sighting we had in the Caribbean recently...

Although the Ocean Village ships are always in largely the same part of the world (either Med or Caribbean depending on the season), their paths don’t tend to cross. In other words, whilst I am on Ocean Village in Central Caribbean, my equivalent aboard Ocean Village Two, Aby, will be in the Southern Caribbean. So it was unusual for both of us to be on the same pier of the same island at the same time recently, and it did allow for an outbreak of healthy rivalry between the two crews!

Ocean Village and Ocean Village Two side by side in Grenada

The two ships sailed into Grenada on Monday 12th January, giving both sets of passengers a rare sight and a double dose of Ocean Village in one hit. I’m sure this was pretty cool for them as many will have been on their first cruise and probably wondering what the other ship looked like. So although they couldn’t go onboard the other ship, they got to see them together on the dockside and could get a peek at the other from the top decks (and hopefully thought they might like to try the other one next time!?)

An officer reunion!

L to R Michel Benner, Food & Beverage Director, Tracey Clegg Entertainment & Retail Director, and Sharma Daljit Hotel Director from Ocean Village Two, alongside Michael Lobban, Hotel Director, Mark Hudson Entertainment & Retail Director, and John Brodie Food & Beverage Director from Ocean Village.

Meanwhile, once our work was done some of the crew faced each other in a ‘friendly’ 20/20 cricket match on dry land. With a lot of pride at stake, competition was fierce in a tense but highly enjoyable game for the players and supporters from both ships. And the result...
Ocean Village Two’s ‘Accom Knights XI’ beat a mixed OV team (OV2 won, appropriately enough, by just two wickets)!

Ocean Village Two's Knights XI in grey and Ocean Village's mixed team in red coutesy of the photo studio

And then all that was left to do was a ‘honking’ competition in a big Sailaway ceremony as both ships prepared to head out to their next port of call. And I am delighted to say that this time it was Ocean Village's turn to take the winner’s title with a deafening salute as we were leaving the pier! Not that we're at all competitive of course...

The next and final time the ships will meet will be in Grenada again on the 9 March. Are you going to be there to join us and cheer on your ship’s team?

A Merry Onboard Christmas!

Christmas away from family and friends can be tough, and we often miss out on parties and get-togethers back home, but luckily we’re all a pretty sociable bunch onboard too! It’s one of those times that we’re all in the same boat (no pun intended) so we all pull together and help keep each other’s spirits up.

Now we’re fully underway into the Caribbean season, we decided it was time to organise our Christmas party for the Accommodation team, and as we now have an overnight stop in St Vincent, we thought we’d celebrate on dry land for a change. The staff all clubbed together to raise money for a ‘do’ (partly helped along with a welcome donation from the Accom management team), and the Accom Committee decided to hold it at the terminal building at the port.

And after we'd tucked into a festive buffet and drinks, we shared Secret Santa presents, played a few silly party games and sang Christmas carols, we finished it all off in a real party-mood with some music and dancing.

Our carol concert!

All in all, 102 accommodation and laundry staff came, as well as some extra special invites for those members of the crew who work ‘behind the scenes’ e.g. plumbers and carpenters. It was such a fun night and we all had a brilliant time. It really was a great way to end the year, and made sure we were well and truly in the festive mood!

Festive fun with the Accomodation Team

Hope you had a great Christmas and hope to see you on board in 2009!

Mari

A playground at sea!

Today is sea day and all the youth team are ready for a busy fun filled day ahead...

Sea day is the 2nd day of the cruise after leaving the home port the night before, so there’s always lots of fresh-faced kiddiewinks, along with those just getting stuck into week 2 of their holiday. We opened base camp at 9am and waited for all the new children to arrive, and before we knew it we had a full house ready for the fun to begin.

The morning began with crafts with children making Captain’s hats and stripes, joining in colouring competitions and much more to keep us busy up to lunch. Then once they’d had time to refill their little tummies and recharge the batteries, we all marched down to deck 7 singing all the way to meet an extra special guest we had on board - Basil Brush! Sadly he was only with
us for the day as a trial to see is the children took to him or not, but he went down a storm so hopefully he'll be back with us really soon.

After the show the little ones were full of energy so we walked around the outside decks of deck 7 (still singing the songs!) in time for our ‘Captains Coketail’ party in Connexions bar. And as if Basil Brush wasn’t enough, the special guest was Paddington Bear for photos and cuddles, some old favourite party games and even a bit of a boogie!

Paddington dishing out one of his famous cuddles!

But the fun didn’t stop there and it was time for cheesy grins in the Photo Studio before making our way back up to deck 14 where the kids played freely with the games, toys, PS2’s and in the ball pool until it was time to be collected, by which point they were all well and truly worn out!