Band Aid’s Midge Ure to talk on Queen Mary 2

Delta-Hertz offer

The airline and the rental car company have teamed up to give you up to 40 per cent off for trips in the US, Canada, Mexico, Brazil and Puerto Rico, and up to 15 per cent elsewhere in the world. 

In addition, SkyMiles members can earn up to 2,000 bonus miles for car rentals of five days or longer. Hertz car rentals of one to two days earn 500 bonus miles while those of three and four days will get 900 bonus miles.

You need to book on the Hertz (www.hertz.com) website and use your SkyMiles number as well as having these two promo codes for Canada, US, Brazil, Mexico and Puerto Rico: CDP #165385 and PC #170166. If you are booking a car in Europe you’ll need PC#170424 and for the rest of the world you will need PC #12381. The CDP number stays the same for all three deals. 

Delta-Seattle

There are deals to be had in Delta’s newest hub. The Atlanta-based airline is going wing-to-wing with Alaska Airlines in Seattle. The good news is that you can expect lower fares and maybe some bonus mile perks. A lot of cruises leave out of Seattle and it is also a stop-over for those wanting to catch a cruise out of Anchorage.

Queen Mary 2

If you are looking for an out-of-the-ordinary cruise, you might try Cunnard’s Queen Mary 2 on a 15-night Arctic Circle discovery. It’s a round-trip from Southampton, England on August 5 and will include singer Midge Ure for the first 10 days. Ure was part of Band Aid’s iconic Do they Know It’s Christmas? in 1984, a song he co-wrote with Bob Geldorf. 

He will give two talks while on board — Building Emotions: A Life in Music and Band Aid: Making a Difference and Implementing Change.

The voyage itinerary includes calls to Hamburg, Bergen, Andalsnes, Trondheim, Tromso, Alesund, Stavanger (where Midge disembarks), then back to Hamburg and Southampton.  Fares start from $3,898 per person, based on double occupancy.

Princess Cruises European schedule

A quick synopsis of Princess’ 2015 Europe programme, which features six ships sailing on 150 departures of 45 itineraries to more than 120 destinations:

Regal Princess will take over the line’s 11-day Scandinavia and Russia cruises departing from Copenhagen, and featuring two days in St Petersburg, Russia.
 

Royal Princess returns to the place of her christening for a series of 12-day British Isles cruises from Southampton and one departure to the Baltic Sea.
 

Island Princess will sail in Europe for the first time on the line’s 12-day Grand Mediterranean itinerary between Venice and
Barcelona.
 

Emerald Princess will also sail throughout the Mediterranean on a series of voyages from Barcelona, Rome, Athens and Istanbul.
 

Caribbean Princess will be based from Southampton offering cruises to the Mediterranean, Norway and the Baltic.
 

Small ship Ocean Princess will sail on voyages in Northern Europe to a variety of off-the-beaten-path destinations.