Cruise Lines

....but only if you cruise from the UK!

Cruise lines that offer no-fly cruises from the UK could never have bought the kind of advertising they have had in the past eight months.

Flights grounded by the volcanic ash cloud back in May and now by snow just as everyone wanted to get away for Christmas.

I can almost see the likes of P&O Cruises, Cunard and Cruise and Maritime Voyages rubbing their hands with glee and saying (in hag-like tones because after all, it is the pantomime season) "we told you it was better to cruise from the UK".

I know you still have to battle through snow to get to your departure port, and this weekend roads have been particularly bad, and there is a chance of bad weather on the Bay of Biscay.

But the ports of Dover and Portsmouth kindly informed me this morning that the English Channel hasn't frozen so cruises are departing as planned.

And a couple of days rocking and rolling on the way to the Med, Canary Islands or even the Caribbean has surely got to beat night after cold night camped out on the floor at Heathrow Airport.

The Passenger Shipping Association estimates that 710,000 Brits will take a no-fly cruise in 2011, 55,000 more than in 2010. Given the chaos that now reigns, I suspect there could be even more.

It's a little late to think about a Christmas cruise, but if your holiday plans have just been buried under a snow drift why not cheer yourself up with a New Year no-fly cruise instead.

Iglu (020 8544 6447) tells me they have availability on Royal Caribbean International's Independence of the Seas, cruising from Southampton to the Med on January 8 or 26, and on February 13, with prices from £719 per person for 18 nights.

Iglu also has space on Fred Olsen's Boudicca, sailing from Southampton to the Caribbean, up the Amazon to Manaus and back to the UK. It departs on January 30 and prices start from £2,399 per person for 30 nights.

Cruise Thomas Cook (0800 916 6070) has a 14-night cruise from Southampton to the Canary Islands, also on Boudicca, departing on January 16. Prices from £974 per person for an outside cabin.