easySailing on easyCruise

Docked in obscurity

I finally visited one end of Antwerp I had never been to before, the docks, in fact this part of the docks is the tail end that is closer to the centre of town and has berths for yachts and other small boats.

As walked down the pier, I could not help but notice that distinctive "easy" Orange sign on a boat that looked like a water-wheel contraption out of Tom Sawyer or the set of a typical Agatha Christie murder mystery on the Nile - only without the water-wheel.

Now, the easy business model has been built of cutting out the frills, the thrills, the bells and the whistles to make things affordable to the common man.

This race to the lowest common denominator has arrested the quality of other competitors' services, like, I could remember just under 10 years ago, I got a full silver service on the 45 minute flight between London and Amsterdam, now I get a dry sandwich passed to me with a slice of cheese, the thing is so dry it is like a desiccant as it touches your tongue and the diuretic properties are such that you do not have to pass anything to feel completely dehydrated - and this is KLM/Air France.

Since my laptop suffered a fate worse than death in 2000 by the hands of the almost too careful baggage handlers, I have given easyJet the widest berth I could get.

Now, there has been every kind of easy brand created, however, this no frills cruise thing which is hardly a liner, one might be tempted to dare call it a ship, but it does really make one wonder if cheap is really fun.

For anyone who cares, you can book a cruise on easyCruiseTwo, by my reckoning, cheap flights are fine, and this, I say without prejudice is utterly dire.