This Cookie Policy is for seafarercruises.co.uk, run by Best of Travel Ltd, trading as Seafarer Cruising & Sailing Holidays (‘we’, ‘us’). It explains what we keep on your device when you visit our website, why, and how you can change your mind at any time. For how we look after your personal information in general, please read our Privacy Policy.
What cookies are
Cookies are small text files that a website saves on your phone, tablet or computer. Websites can also keep small notes in your browser’s own storage. In this policy, ‘cookies’ covers both.
Your choice
The first time you visit, we ask whether we may use cookies for statistics and marketing. Until you say yes, we use only the cookies the website needs to work. Saying no does not change how the website works: you can still read every page, see our prices and send us a quote request.
You can accept all, reject all, or choose which ones. We remember your choice for 12 months and then ask again. If we start using a new kind of cookie that needs your permission, we will also ask again. You can change your choice at any time (see Changing your mind below).
Cookies we always use
These keep the website working and safe, so they do not need your permission.
- sfr_consent (Seafarer): remembers your cookie choice, so we do not ask you on every page. Kept for 12 months.
- Cloudflare, the service that protects and speeds up our website, may set a security cookie (such as __cf_bm) to tell real visitors apart from harmful robots. Usually kept for 30 minutes.
- PHPSESSID: a temporary reference that parts of our website may use while you browse. Deleted when you close your browser.
- Log-in cookies (WordPress, Wordfence, LiteSpeed): only for our own team when they log in to manage the website. Visitors never get these.
Statistics cookies (only if you say yes)
Google Analytics and Microsoft Clarity show us which pages and cruises people look at and how they use them, so we can improve the website. They do not tell us who you are.
- _ga and _ga_JR6RMVSW91 (Google Analytics): tell one visit from another and recognise a returning visitor. Kept for up to 2 years.
- _clck and _clsk (Microsoft Clarity): Clarity shows us, as heatmaps and anonymous recordings of visits, where people click and scroll and where they get stuck, so we can make our pages easier to use. Anything you type is hidden, and it cannot see inside our quote forms. Kept for 1 year and 1 day; Microsoft may also use its own cookies on Microsoft’s websites. Recordings are kept for 30 days.
If you say no, Google Analytics still receives a basic, cookie-free message when a page is viewed or a form is sent. It carries no cookie or ID for your device, and Google uses it only to estimate overall numbers (Google calls this ‘consent mode’). Microsoft Clarity does not run at all.
Marketing cookies (only if you say yes)
These let us measure our adverts on Facebook, Instagram and Google, and show our cruises to people who have visited our website.
- _fbp (Meta / Facebook): recognises your browser so Facebook can measure our adverts and show you relevant ones. Kept for 90 days.
- _fbc (Meta / Facebook): only set if you arrive by clicking one of our Facebook or Instagram adverts; it records that click. Kept for 90 days.
- pbid (PixelYourSite, the tool that connects our website to Facebook): a random reference number that helps Facebook recognise visits from the same browser. Kept for 180 days.
- pys_first_visit, pysTrafficSource, last_pysTrafficSource, pys_landing_page and last_pys_landing_page (PixelYourSite): remember how you found us (for example a Google search or a Facebook advert) and the first page you saw, so we know which adverts work. Kept for 7 days.
- pys_start_session, pys_session_limit and pys_cd (PixelYourSite): small helpers for the cookies above. They mark the start of your visit (until you close your browser, or for 1 hour) and remember our website’s address (1 year).
- Google advertising features: with your yes, Google Analytics may also help us show our adverts to past visitors on other websites and report on our audiences. Google uses its own cookies on Google’s websites for this.
With your yes to marketing, our website also tells Facebook directly, from our own server, about the same page visits and enquiries, so that the numbers are not lost. Without your yes, nothing is sent to Facebook.
Other things kept in your browser
These help parts of the website work and are never used for advertising.
- Offer alerts (OneSignal): counts the pages you view and keeps its settings in your browser’s storage, so it knows when to offer you alerts about our special offers. If you turn alerts on, it also keeps what it needs to send them. You can turn alerts off at any time in your browser settings.
- Our mailing list invitation (sfrNl, sfrNlShown, sfrNlPv): remembers whether you have signed up or closed the invitation, and how many pages you have seen during this visit, so we do not keep asking.
- Our quote and call-back forms (Formstack): our forms are run by Formstack, which may keep a note that a form was shown, to count how often our forms are viewed.
- Our online brochure: the brochure viewer remembers which page you were reading, so you can carry on where you left off.
- Reviews (Feefo): our Feefo badges show our customer ratings. Feefo may count how often its badges are seen.
- Videos (YouTube): where a page shows one of our videos, it uses YouTube’s privacy-enhanced mode, which sets no cookies until you press play. When you play a video, YouTube may use its own cookies.
What we count without cookies
We use Cloudflare Web Analytics, from the company that protects our website, to count page visits and see how fast our pages load. It sets no cookies, stores nothing on your device and does not identify you, so it counts every visitor, whatever you choose.
To know how many people contact us, our website also counts clicks on our phone numbers and email addresses, clicks on ‘Get a quote’ and ‘Request a call back’, and quote forms, call-back forms and mailing list sign-ups sent. We keep only the totals for each day and page. We store nothing on your device, keep no IP address and cannot tell who you are, so we count these for every visitor, whatever you choose.
Changing your mind
You can change your choice at any time with the Cookie settings link at the bottom of every page, or with the button below. If you take back a yes, we delete the cookies we set for that purpose.
We keep a record of each choice (a random reference number, the choice and the date, with no name or IP address) so that we can show we asked.
Cookies in your browser settings
You can also block or delete cookies in your browser settings. The About Cookies website explains how for every common browser. If you block all cookies, our website cannot remember your choice, so you may see our cookie question each time you visit.
To learn more about how Google and Meta use information from websites like ours, see how Google uses information from sites that use its services and the Meta Privacy Policy.
Contact us
If you have any questions about cookies on our website, please email our Data Protection Officer at manolis@seafarerholidays.com or call us on 020 8324 3117. For everything else about your personal information, see our Privacy Policy.
