Who We Are?
Hello, I'm Tony Ripper - may I extend a warm welcome to our website. Along with Josie Clark, we founded The Cruise Advisory Service in 1989. Back then, cruising was in its infancy, but growing. However, there was very much a lack of impartial information and guidance about the cruise ships and how they operated. At that point, I already had nearly 20 years in the travel industry with Thomas Cook, American Express and Wakefield Fortune. With the latter I had the task of leading a 'hotel inspection team', publishing our reports on 100's of package resort hotels. This was designed to 'strip away' the gloss of holiday brochures and tell it like it is. Some 36 years ago, Josie and I brought the same way of working to cruise ships, telling our clients the good bits and the not-so-good bits. The same way of working still holds true today and some straight talking, bundles of knowledge and decent honest service still go a long way
As well as looking after our clients cruise holiday bookings, we also offer the following free and impartial information packs and publications
Our River Cruise Information Pack and River Cruise Lines Ratings Guide
The river cruise sector is the fastest growing in the travel industry. Ask for our River Cruise Information Pack. This is designed with first timers in mind in order to help guide you through the maze of choices out there. The pack features the 10 Golden Rules of River Cruising, plus our River Cruiseship Ratings Guide. We feature Avalon Waterways, Uniworld, AMA Waterways, APT Travelmarvel, Scenic, Emerald, Amadeus River Cruises and Riviera
CoastLines Email Newsletter
For our clients looking to cruise in the midrange and premium markets, we publish our CoastLines Email newsletter every two weeks throughout the year. The newsletter brings you the latest news and gossip, tells you what we have been up to and includes offers from Regent Seven Seas Cruises, Azamara Cruises, Oceania Cruises, Celebrity Cruises , Holland America Line, Silversea, Seabourn and others
CLIA
We belong to CLIA, the worldwide organisation that all major cruise lines and cruise agents belong. Formerly called PSARA, the retail arm of the Passenger Shipping Association, of which we were one of the original founding members
A statement from us regarding the General Date Protection Regulation (GDPR)
The General Date Protection Regulation is effective 25 May 2018. Under guidance from the Information Commissioners Office (ICO), we have to let you know how we comply with the regulation regarding your privacy and the information we hold. Remember, in simple terms, you have control of the information you provide to us, so the following will be of help to you
For clients that book with us
When putting your cruise booking in place we need to have your full names, address and contact details, email address, dates of birth and passport information. This is required by the cruise lines and airlines in order to process your booking. At any time you can request we delete any of this information and we will action this immediately. We do not share any of your information with any other organisations not related to your booking
For clients on our mailing lists that have yet to book with us
We hold your name, address and in some cases, if provided by you, your email address. Again, we are happy to remove your information at any time, immediately. Again, we do not share your information with any other organisations
Direct Mail and Email marketing
Regularly throughout the year we will send you our newsletters and marketing material by post or email. This is because you are on our mail list. You are on our mail list because you would have contacted us following either seeing our press adverts, seeing our websites or word of mouth. We never contact anyone blindly and we never buy mail lists or email lists. Again, please ask to be removed if you no longer wish to hear from us
The Alaska Cruise Advisory Service
October House, Hightown Hill, Ringwood, BH24 3HD
Telephone - 01425 485100
email: tony@cruiseadvisory.co.uk