Winter renovation for the 2017 cruising season
Winter season on board Shannon Princess is often as busy and productive as a hotel barge cruising season. As I write, we are very busy putting the finishing touches to renovations under taken over the past few months to our cabins and bathrooms. With newly appointed ceilings, bathrooms, curtains, carpets, colours and furnishings, we aim to provide crisp and contemporary luxury.
Our luxury cabins have a contemporary look
As with anything to do with boats and barges, clever use of space is of upmost importance with hopefully not a centimetre wasted. Our final finishing date for interior works is fast approaching and we are very happy with the results. Exterior painting and general maintenance is also ongoing. This work started when the boat entered ‘dry dock’ at her winter moorings in November with a tight work schedule.
Shannon Princess on television
We finished our busy 2016 season in October and straight away, filming started on board Shannon Princess for an RTE (Ireland’s national TV station) cookery show starring acclaimed Irish celebrity chef Neven Maguire.
Shannon Princess is Neven’s floating kitchen and home for the series. The series called “Neven’s Irish Food Trails’ visits local producers, acclaimed chefs and artisan producers in the local area, returning on board the barge to cook with the ingredients gathered.
It was a wonderful experience for us to see all the work that goes into filming a TV show. It was a delight to have all of the production team, and star himself, staying on board. The show is now showing on Irish television. (Click on the video above (or this link) to see episode 1 of the TV series).
New recipes, menu planning & shore excursions for 2017
Over the past few months we have also being busy ‘up skilling’. Cookery wise, Olivia has attended boutique cookery school courses and chef master classes. A busy few months have been spent recipe testing and menu planning for the forthcoming season. (Click here to go to our recipe page).
Our guests to enjoying their vacation on Shannon Princess
Ruairi has been completing off shore boat handling and yacht masters. We’ve also been exploring new shore excursions. We are very excited about our Birds of Prey visit at Adare County Pursuits, Adare Manor which will be available onClassic Cruises.
Birds of prey at Adare Manor
Getting close to the birds of prey at Adare Manor
Shannon Princess awards nomination
We are absolutely delighted that Shannon Princess was nominated in the ‘Irish Tourism Industry Awards’ as a finalist in ‘The Most Innovated Places To Stay’ category. Also nominated in the same category were: Belmont Grand Hibernian, Clare Island Lighthouse, Forest Dome Experience, Irish Landmark Trust Experience and River Valley Holiday Park.
The awards ceremony take place in Dublin on February 3rd 2017. We would like to express a huge Thank You and heart felt gratitude to Maria McEnery and Michelle Maguire from Ireland’s Blue Book for all their hard work and talents on this.
The newly renovated lounge on Shannon Princess
