Discussion
Booked ourselves on to Virgin Voyages Resilient Lady for September from Athens.
Itinerary is -
Day 1 Piraeus (Athens) - Departs
Day 2 At Sea
Day 3 Split, Croatia
Day 4 Dubrovnik
Day 5 Kotor
Day 6 Corfu
Day 7 At Sea
Day 8 Piraeus (Athens)
Had planned to go as Rock Stars again but doing the maths its hard to justify the crazy extra spend.
So we've went for an XL Sea Terrace (Balcony) Room.
Quite a few discounts applied so it came out at $3672 for the two of us and a total of $500 onboard spend added free.
Virgin dont do drinks packages but do bar tabs, so we'll add 2 @ $300 each and we'll get $125 per bar tab bonus, so our total onboard spend (drinking money!) will be $1350.
Its on their newest ship too - Resilient Lady. We've done their other two ships - Scarlet Lady and Valiant Lady in 2021 and 2022 respectively.
Really looking forward to this one!
Itinerary is -
Day 1 Piraeus (Athens) - Departs
Day 2 At Sea
Day 3 Split, Croatia
Day 4 Dubrovnik
Day 5 Kotor
Day 6 Corfu
Day 7 At Sea
Day 8 Piraeus (Athens)
Had planned to go as Rock Stars again but doing the maths its hard to justify the crazy extra spend.
So we've went for an XL Sea Terrace (Balcony) Room.
Quite a few discounts applied so it came out at $3672 for the two of us and a total of $500 onboard spend added free.
Virgin dont do drinks packages but do bar tabs, so we'll add 2 @ $300 each and we'll get $125 per bar tab bonus, so our total onboard spend (drinking money!) will be $1350.
Its on their newest ship too - Resilient Lady. We've done their other two ships - Scarlet Lady and Valiant Lady in 2021 and 2022 respectively.
Really looking forward to this one!
Doing the Greek Island Glow on Resiliant Lady in October.
Fingers crossed after having 5 yes 5 cruises cancelled in the last 3 years.
Using cruise credit from the last Virgin cruise we cancelled. Fully paid up and they seem to have cocked up the price in our favour so I’m keeping shtum.
Their account department doesn’t seem the most organised. The last cruise I had booked we had loads of emails before the final payment and every one was different in the balance due.
The misses has mentioned she would like to try a cruise so I’ve just started going down the rabbit hole of cruise research now!
Can anyone point me in the right direction for an absolute beginner?!
A few pointers
Only three of us, me the better half (both 38) and a 6 year old daughter
We both like warm / hot weather
Daughter loves family activities like swimming and play centres but also crafts and stuff, not sure if cruise ships do this. This is a big reason for looking at cruises, lots to do in one place!
Probably best to go away in the school holidays, although I’m open to the idea if it’s a lot cheaper to go at other times
Can anyone help here? I’m reading through the 2022 thread with lots of good info but I do feel a little swamped as I don’t really know what to look for?
Any ball park prices so I can brace myself for my future of poverty
Cheers guys
Can anyone point me in the right direction for an absolute beginner?!
A few pointers
Only three of us, me the better half (both 38) and a 6 year old daughter
We both like warm / hot weather
Daughter loves family activities like swimming and play centres but also crafts and stuff, not sure if cruise ships do this. This is a big reason for looking at cruises, lots to do in one place!
Probably best to go away in the school holidays, although I’m open to the idea if it’s a lot cheaper to go at other times
Can anyone help here? I’m reading through the 2022 thread with lots of good info but I do feel a little swamped as I don’t really know what to look for?
Any ball park prices so I can brace myself for my future of poverty
Cheers guys
Gooose said:
The misses has mentioned she would like to try a cruise so I’ve just started going down the rabbit hole of cruise research now!
Can anyone point me in the right direction for an absolute beginner?!
A few pointers
Only three of us, me the better half (both 38) and a 6 year old daughter
We both like warm / hot weather
Daughter loves family activities like swimming and play centres but also crafts and stuff, not sure if cruise ships do this. This is a big reason for looking at cruises, lots to do in one place!
Probably best to go away in the school holidays, although I’m open to the idea if it’s a lot cheaper to go at other times
Can anyone help here? I’m reading through the 2022 thread with lots of good info but I do feel a little swamped as I don’t really know what to look for?
Any ball park prices so I can brace myself for my future of poverty
Cheers guys
Have a look at Planet cruise website (part of Iglu cruises) . Can anyone point me in the right direction for an absolute beginner?!
A few pointers
Only three of us, me the better half (both 38) and a 6 year old daughter
We both like warm / hot weather
Daughter loves family activities like swimming and play centres but also crafts and stuff, not sure if cruise ships do this. This is a big reason for looking at cruises, lots to do in one place!
Probably best to go away in the school holidays, although I’m open to the idea if it’s a lot cheaper to go at other times
Can anyone help here? I’m reading through the 2022 thread with lots of good info but I do feel a little swamped as I don’t really know what to look for?
Any ball park prices so I can brace myself for my future of poverty
Cheers guys
https://www.planetcruise.com/en
Its very easy to use. A 14 day cruise around the Med in the summer school holidays in a balcony cabin (recommend this ) might be £4k plus on P&0 or Royal Caribbean (both decent for kids) .
There are some decent cruise forums, this probably the best where you will get loads of answers
https://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/forum/858-catego...
DT1975 said:
Gooose said:
The misses has mentioned she would like to try a cruise so I’ve just started going down the rabbit hole of cruise research now!
Can anyone point me in the right direction for an absolute beginner?!
A few pointers
Only three of us, me the better half (both 38) and a 6 year old daughter
We both like warm / hot weather
Daughter loves family activities like swimming and play centres but also crafts and stuff, not sure if cruise ships do this. This is a big reason for looking at cruises, lots to do in one place!
Probably best to go away in the school holidays, although I’m open to the idea if it’s a lot cheaper to go at other times
Can anyone help here? I’m reading through the 2022 thread with lots of good info but I do feel a little swamped as I don’t really know what to look for?
Any ball park prices so I can brace myself for my future of poverty
Cheers guys
Have a look at Planet cruise website (part of Iglu cruises) . Can anyone point me in the right direction for an absolute beginner?!
A few pointers
Only three of us, me the better half (both 38) and a 6 year old daughter
We both like warm / hot weather
Daughter loves family activities like swimming and play centres but also crafts and stuff, not sure if cruise ships do this. This is a big reason for looking at cruises, lots to do in one place!
Probably best to go away in the school holidays, although I’m open to the idea if it’s a lot cheaper to go at other times
Can anyone help here? I’m reading through the 2022 thread with lots of good info but I do feel a little swamped as I don’t really know what to look for?
Any ball park prices so I can brace myself for my future of poverty
Cheers guys
https://www.planetcruise.com/en
Its very easy to use. A 14 day cruise around the Med in the summer school holidays in a balcony cabin (recommend this ) might be £4k plus on P&0 or Royal Caribbean (both decent for kids) .
There are some decent cruise forums, this probably the best where you will get loads of answers
https://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/forum/858-catego...
how does all the extras work, what is the gratuity payment about? What’s the deal with drinks packages? Any other hidden payments?
Also how does the room work, I can see a big bed in the pictures but it’s doesn’t say anything about a sofa bed for the nipper or anything?
The total could really add up lol
Gooose said:
The misses has mentioned she would like to try a cruise so I’ve just started going down the rabbit hole of cruise research now!
Can anyone point me in the right direction for an absolute beginner?!
A few pointers
Only three of us, me the better half (both 38) and a 6 year old daughter
We both like warm / hot weather
Daughter loves family activities like swimming and play centres but also crafts and stuff, not sure if cruise ships do this. This is a big reason for looking at cruises, lots to do in one place!
Probably best to go away in the school holidays, although I’m open to the idea if it’s a lot cheaper to go at other times
Can anyone help here? I’m reading through the 2022 thread with lots of good info but I do feel a little swamped as I don’t really know what to look for?
Any ball park prices so I can brace myself for my future of poverty
Cheers guys
The site we use for cruise search and the best prices - IMHO - is www.seascanner.co.ukCan anyone point me in the right direction for an absolute beginner?!
A few pointers
Only three of us, me the better half (both 38) and a 6 year old daughter
We both like warm / hot weather
Daughter loves family activities like swimming and play centres but also crafts and stuff, not sure if cruise ships do this. This is a big reason for looking at cruises, lots to do in one place!
Probably best to go away in the school holidays, although I’m open to the idea if it’s a lot cheaper to go at other times
Can anyone help here? I’m reading through the 2022 thread with lots of good info but I do feel a little swamped as I don’t really know what to look for?
Any ball park prices so I can brace myself for my future of poverty
Cheers guys
MSC is our goto sensibly priced cruise line at the minute.
We've done MSC Virtuosa for a European Christmas Markets cruise from Southampton in December. That cost us £299 each, plus another £199 for the premium drinks package. That was for 7 nights. They're doing similar this winter from Southampton on MSC Euribea and thats at similar prices.
MSC do sail all year round from Southampton, so if you dont want to fly that might be an option - they're doing European cruises, Norway, and down past France / Spain over the summer.
If you want to do an around the med cruise, MSC are sailing from Barcelona, so pretty easy to get to.
We're on MSC World Europa in June. Thats their newest, biggest (and i think third biggest in the world) cruise ship. We've in a balcony cabin and premium drinks package on it for around £1150.
MSC's ships are big but the facilities on board are fabulous. There's water parks, bowling alleys (Virtuosa), racing simulators, shows, kids club, pools, night club (kids allowed), etc etc.
Inside, most of the MSC ships have a central internal galleria, with restaurants, shops and facilities all on that, then the outside spaces and main dining room restaurants, so its easy to find your way around.
If you do go with MSC (and this is probably the same for most cruise lines), get the drinks package offer as you are booking. It usually costs a lot more to add even the day after.
If you want an end to end cruise package on smaller ships, theres Marella. The ships are older, smaller, but drinks are included as standard and the staff are very friendly. I'd recommend their recent addition to the fleet Voyager which is fully fitted out to their latest styling, or Discovery or Discovery 2, both of which have a nice amount of wow factor.
Marella arent as cheap as they used to be, so if you're prepared to organise your own flights etc you'll get on to a brand new ship by MSC like Virtuosa or World Europa for likely similar money to Marella. The advantage of Marella being they are owned by TUI, so its just turn up at the airport and everything is taken care of for you including transfers etc.
Both those cruise lines are very familiy oriented so ideal if travelling with a child.
Theres a myriad of other cruise lines too - we did Princess (a little old fashioned in the ship styling), and the other one we do regularly is Virgin Voyages, but thats adult only.
Deep Thought said:
The site we use for cruise search and the best prices - IMHO - is www.seascanner.co.uk
MSC is our goto sensibly priced cruise line at the minute.
We've done MSC Virtuosa for a European Christmas Markets cruise from Southampton in December. That cost us £299 each, plus another £199 for the premium drinks package. That was for 7 nights. They're doing similar this winter from Southampton on MSC Euribea and thats at similar prices.
MSC do sail all year round from Southampton, so if you dont want to fly that might be an option - they're doing European cruises, Norway, and down past France / Spain over the summer.
If you want to do an around the med cruise, MSC are sailing from Barcelona, so pretty easy to get to.
We're on MSC World Europa in June. Thats their newest, biggest (and i think third biggest in the world) cruise ship. We've in a balcony cabin and premium drinks package on it for around £1150.
MSC's ships are big but the facilities on board are fabulous. There's water parks, bowling alleys (Virtuosa), racing simulators, shows, kids club, pools, night club (kids allowed), etc etc.
Inside, most of the MSC ships have a central internal galleria, with restaurants, shops and facilities all on that, then the outside spaces and main dining room restaurants, so its easy to find your way around.
If you do go with MSC (and this is probably the same for most cruise lines), get the drinks package offer as you are booking. It usually costs a lot more to add even the day after.
If you want an end to end cruise package on smaller ships, theres Marella. The ships are older, smaller, but drinks are included as standard and the staff are very friendly. I'd recommend their recent addition to the fleet Voyager which is fully fitted out to their latest styling, or Discovery or Discovery 2, both of which have a nice amount of wow factor.
Marella arent as cheap as they used to be, so if you're prepared to organise your own flights etc you'll get on to a brand new ship by MSC like Virtuosa or World Europa for likely similar money to Marella. The advantage of Marella being they are owned by TUI, so its just turn up at the airport and everything is taken care of for you including transfers etc.
Both those cruise lines are very familiy oriented so ideal if travelling with a child.
Theres a myriad of other cruise lines too - we did Princess (a little old fashioned in the ship styling), and the other one we do regularly is Virgin Voyages, but thats adult only.
Great reply, lots to learn for a cruise newbie!MSC is our goto sensibly priced cruise line at the minute.
We've done MSC Virtuosa for a European Christmas Markets cruise from Southampton in December. That cost us £299 each, plus another £199 for the premium drinks package. That was for 7 nights. They're doing similar this winter from Southampton on MSC Euribea and thats at similar prices.
MSC do sail all year round from Southampton, so if you dont want to fly that might be an option - they're doing European cruises, Norway, and down past France / Spain over the summer.
If you want to do an around the med cruise, MSC are sailing from Barcelona, so pretty easy to get to.
We're on MSC World Europa in June. Thats their newest, biggest (and i think third biggest in the world) cruise ship. We've in a balcony cabin and premium drinks package on it for around £1150.
MSC's ships are big but the facilities on board are fabulous. There's water parks, bowling alleys (Virtuosa), racing simulators, shows, kids club, pools, night club (kids allowed), etc etc.
Inside, most of the MSC ships have a central internal galleria, with restaurants, shops and facilities all on that, then the outside spaces and main dining room restaurants, so its easy to find your way around.
If you do go with MSC (and this is probably the same for most cruise lines), get the drinks package offer as you are booking. It usually costs a lot more to add even the day after.
If you want an end to end cruise package on smaller ships, theres Marella. The ships are older, smaller, but drinks are included as standard and the staff are very friendly. I'd recommend their recent addition to the fleet Voyager which is fully fitted out to their latest styling, or Discovery or Discovery 2, both of which have a nice amount of wow factor.
Marella arent as cheap as they used to be, so if you're prepared to organise your own flights etc you'll get on to a brand new ship by MSC like Virtuosa or World Europa for likely similar money to Marella. The advantage of Marella being they are owned by TUI, so its just turn up at the airport and everything is taken care of for you including transfers etc.
Both those cruise lines are very familiy oriented so ideal if travelling with a child.
Theres a myriad of other cruise lines too - we did Princess (a little old fashioned in the ship styling), and the other one we do regularly is Virgin Voyages, but thats adult only.
Gooose said:
Great reply, lots to learn for a cruise newbie!
Thanks.Loads of v knowledgable people on here, so ask any questions
Also, theres facebook groups for pretty much every cruise line and every cruise group - well worth joining them too
Oh, and lots of vloggers with stuff on youtube. Emma Cruises and Paul & Carole Love to Travel are very good, as is Gary Bembridge.
saw a fantastic looking cruise for Sept. 31 nights Southampton - Canada - US - Southampton for £2,300. Wouldn't want inside for that length of time but still seems staggeringly good value
https://www.pocruises.com/find-a-cruise/R318/R318
sadly Mil would not cope with us being away for that length of time
https://www.pocruises.com/find-a-cruise/R318/R318
sadly Mil would not cope with us being away for that length of time
DodgyGeezer said:
saw a fantastic looking cruise for Sept. 31 nights Southampton - Canada - US - Southampton for £2,300. Wouldn't want inside for that length of time but still seems staggeringly good value
https://www.pocruises.com/find-a-cruise/R318/R318
sadly Mil would not cope with us being away for that length of time
Presume that's price per person?https://www.pocruises.com/find-a-cruise/R318/R318
sadly Mil would not cope with us being away for that length of time
Sad to say that Aurora is one of the boats I didn't like.
It has no central atrium type area. Just feels like corridors connecting the different rooms/restaurants.
I think 31 days on that boat will be a struggle.
Trevor555 said:
DodgyGeezer said:
saw a fantastic looking cruise for Sept. 31 nights Southampton - Canada - US - Southampton for £2,300. Wouldn't want inside for that length of time but still seems staggeringly good value
https://www.pocruises.com/find-a-cruise/R318/R318
sadly Mil would not cope with us being away for that length of time
Presume that's price per person?https://www.pocruises.com/find-a-cruise/R318/R318
sadly Mil would not cope with us being away for that length of time
Sad to say that Aurora is one of the boats I didn't like.
It has no central atrium type area. Just feels like corridors connecting the different rooms/restaurants.
I think 31 days on that boat will be a struggle.
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