Cruise ship holidays
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funbobby

Original Poster:

1,665 posts

274 months

Saturday 8th May 2010
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So anyone done it? How expensive onboard? Recommned it?

Simon Brooks

1,526 posts

267 months

Saturday 8th May 2010
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Done 4
2 with Royal Caribbean out of Florida, reasonably expensive on board for drinks but the quality of the entertainment and food more then makes up for it, where possible try to organise your shore trips with local cabbies most of whom are prepared to have a deal and will show you around the island without herding you into a coach with 50 others punters. Couple of times we joined up with another couple and grabbed a people carrier and driver which worked out much cheaper. You will find that you also get to see a bit more this way. On board you will want for nothing and the service is second to none

1 with Thompson around Med, dreadful, old ship which was very tired looking, mostly eastern European staff who were mildly interested at best, cabin was basic to say the least, never again

1 with Ocean Village around med. Great very different to Royal Caribbean lot more laid back, fab food with options to upgrade to better restaurents for not a lot of money whenever you want, however if you can't afford to or don't want to upgrade the food in the normal places is absolutley fine and far superior to any thing I have ever had in decent hotel, again much better to organise your own shore trips then pay the on board prices,

if you have kids they will love cruising as most ships provide dedicated kids areas divided up into age groups, barely saw my 2 (teens) all week, loads of new friends for them and they can eat 24/7, happy days for parents of a 6ft 3" rugby player !!!

Bottom line is cruising is not the domain of the blue rinse brigade it once was, great way to see lots of different places quickly without the agg of organising the travel/hotel/meals etc etc,

best advice is try it once, do your homework have a look around see what's on offer, there are some great deals about (never pay list price, cruises are usually heavily discounted if you can be bothered to look for them) if you decide you don't like cruising put it down to experience but at least you will be able to tick a few boxes off the places to see list

have fun, if you need anymore help/info let me know

SS2.

14,609 posts

254 months

Saturday 8th May 2010
quotequote all
funbobby said:
So anyone done it? How expensive onboard? Recommned it?
Going on my first next week - a 7 day 'taster' to see what it's all about.

Will let you know what I think..

LD1Racing

7,421 posts

234 months

Saturday 8th May 2010
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Simon Brooks said:
Bottom line is cruising is not the domain of the blue rinse brigade it once was,
I'll just qualify that with "it depends on which cruise line you choose". P&O or Cunard are still very much aimed at an older/retired generation. Ocean Village, Princess, Royal Caribbean are much more family oriented. Carnival is like 18-30 cruising, Holland America is similar to Princess/RCCL.

Thompson or any of the other, smaller cruise lines will invariable be operating much older boats, probably on their 10th owner by now, and will not have the same level of service, entertainment or (dare I say it?) safety, as the larger cruise operators.

llewop

3,809 posts

227 months

Saturday 8th May 2010
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going on our 4th this year, all with Royal Carribean.

So far we've gone into Western Med and to the Canaries from Southampton and the Baltic from Harwich. But this year we're flying to Rome to do their Eastern Med cruise - back on the first ship we tried, Navigator of the Seas (all RC ships are 'X of the Seas').

Have a good look at what you want, I get the feeling different cruise lines have quite different characters - we have friends who cruise on P&O regularly and love it, but from the sound of it different to the ships and style we've had. The RC ships have quite a variety of entertaiment on them and the bigger ships (Navigator, Independance etc) have a street down the middle so lots of open space and don't often feel like there are as many on board as you know the ship can carry.

In terms of cost, not cheap I guess, but then a floating hotel won't be. Great thing, especially with something like the Baltic one we did - visited something like 6 totally different cities in less than two weeks fairly painlessly with your luxury hotel room floating into each port to deliver you.

Going from a home port as we've done so far is fairly easy too, this will be the first time we've flown to the ship so will see how that goes.

sussexjob

2,157 posts

247 months

Sunday 9th May 2010
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Great fun...what you pay generally broken down to day rate normally sets the standard for quality of cabins/food/enterment, I did go on Ocean Village and was very cheap and looked like formal night was a new string vest ( without a shirt)

Edited by sussexjob on Sunday 9th May 00:28

sussexjob

2,157 posts

247 months

Sunday 9th May 2010
quotequote all
Great fun...what you pay generally broken down to day rate normally sets the standard for quality of cabins/food/enterment, I did go on Ocean Village and was very cheap and looked like formal night was a new string vest ( without a shirt)

Edited by sussexjob on Sunday 9th May 00:31

Four Cofffee

11,838 posts

251 months

Sunday 9th May 2010
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I am off on Thurday for 12 nights, back for 2 weeks and off for another 16 nights. I am a bit of a cruise addict and try to do 2 a year.

I first took my Mum on the old QE2 as a treat for her and have never looked back. My wife was sceptical until she went and now she refuses to do anything else. With an odd exception we only do the UK-Uk now, simply because the fly-cruises have all the stress and luggage restrictions of the air travel, but they do get you into hot sunny climes ASAP.

They do tend to have an older holiday maker but in more than a dozen cruises we have never seen a troublesome drunk, never been woken by party goers, never had a bad meal nor received poor service. It is, overall, a very reliable and high quality product.

With the exception of our drinks, which are similar to London pub prices, we spend very little. The excursions can be convenient but a rip off so we tend to organse our own trips in advance or do the locakl tourist hop-on bus. It does tend to be very transient (a day in each port) so don't expect to absorb yourself in the culture, it tends to be off the ship, quick museum or tour and back on to eat and party.

As we have been to most of the Med ports a few times now and had been to the major cities a few times on longer breaks, we often don't do a great deal in the ports, we see the ship as the holiday destination and enjoy the peace on the ship while everyone else is on a coach to Rome/Florence etc.

Some of the very big ships are less civilised as they cater for teenagers and kids and you do get a bit of 'holiday camp' mentality.

I would recommnd Cunard, Celebrity and RCL. This year is first time with P&O so the jury is out for me, but some of their very large new ships like Ventura have got a reputation P&O are fighting for chavtastic groups.

Most cruiselines add a service charge (with Cunard it is $11 a day each) which sounds a lot but I have never had any hesitation in paying it (it can be removed from the bill) and tipped on top because the service is exceptional. I think P&O have a lower service charge, again not excessive.

If you are the enegrtic outdoor sports kind of person you may find it slow but having 2 weeks with no email, no mobile phone and not having to decide where and what to eat every nighht is jusy heaven to me.

Cruises are what you make them: lively or quiet, packed or relaxing and they work across generations. We have seen 4 generations of a fmaily on board ship who just come together to eat and have very different holidays, and no chance of a Madeline McCann if you have young kids.


chrisgtx

1,301 posts

226 months

Sunday 9th May 2010
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My girlfriend(28) and i(35) have been on 2.
The first was a island cruise around the med,and the second was a carnival around the carribean.(carnival wasn't anywhere near an 18-30 like was mentioned above).
I loved them both,standing on deck with a frosty beer watching the world go by as you leave port,the med cruise followed the coast a lot,great service clean rooms good shows including comedians(a bit of blue for the dad's in the late bar),a different place to see most days.
the only down side is the girlfriend,unless the sea is calm she feels ill,and the carribean cruise we had one evening when it was rocking a bit,luckily the bar is open late so i didn't have to listen to the vomiting vomitdrink
(but she did like it apart from that).
i wouldn't hesitate to reccomend it to others,even if they only try it once.

LD1Racing

7,421 posts

234 months

Sunday 9th May 2010
quotequote all
chrisgtx said:
carnival wasn't anywhere near an 18-30 like was mentioned above
Granted it's not quite like that in the med - but have you seen the 3-day Mexico/Caribbean cruises at spring break? hehe

funbobby

Original Poster:

1,665 posts

274 months

Sunday 9th May 2010
quotequote all
thanks all very helpfull, will def do one soonish just a case of where, did do a long weekend on the norwegion fjords which was very nice.

tim the pool man

5,335 posts

233 months

Monday 10th May 2010
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Went on our first cruise in Jan, 2 weeks on Dawn Princess from Melbourne around NZ and return.

I had my reservations about it before going but I absolutely loved it! Without doubt the best holiday I have ever had... wouldn't hesitate to go on another.

It was a good sized ship, with plenty of options for eating (we mainly did the "proper" dining room for Dinners) the food was fantastic.
Plenty of bars too, if only the NZ "Summer" hadn't been like a Perth Winter hehe

I thought the value overall was excellent, only thing we paid for were on board drinks which were similar to Perth pub prices. We avoided the shore excursions (very expensive) and made our own way around in ports.

Now looking for a holiday in July, and I'm staggered by the prices of resort hotels, $400/night for a room going nowhere, PLUS food etc makes the cruise ($2500 each for 14 days) outstanding value.

Roop

6,012 posts

300 months

Monday 10th May 2010
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Off on my first cruise in August around the Eatern Caribbean with Pricess. Boat is the Emerald Princess which is supposed to be a good'un. Quite looking forward to it even though I don't like boats.

fatboy b

9,650 posts

232 months

Monday 10th May 2010
quotequote all
funbobby said:
thanks all very helpfull, will def do one soonish just a case of where, did do a long weekend on the norwegion fjords which was very nice.
I think that's all I'd be able to manage. I'm not a fan of being herded places, and having to be back on board by a certain time to sail. I like the more impromtu approach to holidays.

tim the pool man

5,335 posts

233 months

Monday 10th May 2010
quotequote all
Roop said:
Off on my first cruise in August around the Eatern Caribbean with Pricess. Boat is the Emerald Princess which is supposed to be a good'un. Quite looking forward to it even though I don't like boats.
I "don't like boats" either. At least not small ones. That was my main concern, with a 3 day ocean crossing from Melb to NZ. In reality it didn't bother me at all. Felt like I was in a large resort with everything I wanted, that just happened to be moving around while we were there thumbup

thatone1967

4,193 posts

207 months

Monday 10th May 2010
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The Mrs and I did one last Spring.

Flew to Montego Bay and spent about a week or so doing the various Island, St Lucia, Catalina, etc etc, then back to Southampton via Maderia.

The most relaxing 2 weeks of my life, just deciding which one to do next.


Muzzer

3,814 posts

237 months

Monday 10th May 2010
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I did my first last Christmas with P&O on Ventura

Flew to Barbados, then cruised round the Caribbean - St Lucia, St Kitts, Antigua, Tortola, Aruba, etc.

I was a little nervous about it being full of old people. I couldn't have been more wrong - there were all sorts of ages from young couples to families and older couples.

It was obviously all inc. but Drinks were not included - they were normal UK pub prices.

The food was out of this world and so plentiful, the service was great, cabin excellent, facilities superb, weather amazing and the places we visited were stunning.

It was one of the best holidays I've had, certainly the best in terms of accomodation and facilities. The only problem we've had is the fact that we'll have to spend a lot of money now to have a holiday as nice!

okgo

40,662 posts

214 months

Monday 10th May 2010
quotequote all
did a two week one on the 'Legend of the seas' was good. However it was chocker with old people, given I was 18 it wasn't ideal, but as said the food and casino more than made up for it hehe

Norbury90

6,901 posts

222 months

Tuesday 11th May 2010
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Roop said:
Off on my first cruise in August around the Eatern Caribbean with Pricess. Boat is the Emerald Princess which is supposed to be a good'un. Quite looking forward to it even though I don't like boats.
Most of the time, you wouldn't realise that you were on a boat. The only time I ever experienced any noticeable movement was when crossing the North Sea in a storm, and even then it wasn't you average rocking, just a slow-motion lean one way and then the other. I guess getting a cabin in the centre of the ship can help sleeping when its rocky, but its not too bad, especially if you have some pills.

thatone1967

4,193 posts

207 months

Tuesday 11th May 2010
quotequote all
Norbury90 said:
Roop said:
Off on my first cruise in August around the Eatern Caribbean with Pricess. Boat is the Emerald Princess which is supposed to be a good'un. Quite looking forward to it even though I don't like boats.
Most of the time, you wouldn't realise that you were on a boat. The only time I ever experienced any noticeable movement was when crossing the North Sea in a storm, and even then it wasn't you average rocking, just a slow-motion lean one way and then the other. I guess getting a cabin in the centre of the ship can help sleeping when its rocky, but its not too bad, especially if you have some pills.
My Mrs... (despite being the one who wanted to book the cruise) gets very travel sick.. for the first couple of hours, was convinced she had made a terrible mistake.. She then got her "sea legs" and was fine for the whole trip... even on the evening when they almost had to abandon the evening cabaret performance due to rough seas. We did a transatlantic on Artemis, which is P&O's smallest liner.