London cruise show Olympia

[Gill H]

Just off there, any Dibbers going?

[toffeecush1on]

What was it like?

[Gill H]

Ehhh ...

Very small - didn't even use the whole of the ground floor. I'm used to craft shows there with loads of stalls!

There were stalls for Viking, Fred Olson, Oceania and some others including Tui - but it was mostly 'related' stalls for various countries, organisations like Greenpeace, a will writing service, retirement homes etc (yep, they really were playing to the 'traditional' cruise demographic).

There were talks by people from Cruise Critic, Vision Cruise and so on, and some flamenco and belly dance demos. We saw the flamenco one - she was a flamenco dance teacher on Strictly and she was very good.

Considering how many older people were there, I was suprised there were only two small cafes with hardly any seating.

And I've never seen so many grumpy men or so many people who push past you with no regard for your personal space!

The man in front of me at the cafe was loudly demanding a cup of tea - but he wanted hot water in the cup and a teabag separately so he could make it how he wanted. The poor young lad serving said he wasn't allowed because of insurance, and the guy was really nasty to him. OK, yes, it's ridiculous, but it wasn't the lad's fault.

If I hadn't had an absolutely wonderful time on the Magic, I don't think this would have sold me on cruising!

Good job we had a promo code so tickets were only £2.50 each.

[Omega1]

Several years ago, we trekked down to the cruise show at NEC. Total waste of time and petrol.