Cruise 2023

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Leading on from the Cruise 2022 thread here..

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

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Whats everyone using for cruise searches these days?

I used to use Iglu, but i've found Seascanner to be really good. Also seems to produce cheaper cruises than Iglu too?

www.seascanner.co.uk

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miniman said:

We’re looking at a week on MSC from Port Canaveral down to Mexico. Annoyingly flights out there are coming in higher than the cruise itself. We like MSC, any experiences to share?

We did our first cruise on MSC in December there on Virtuosa.

Absolutely loved it!

We did time it though to be going outside of school holidays / half term times, and i think that makes a big difference. Ship was roughly half full at between 2800-3000 depending on the port.

We've MSC World Europa booked now for June 2023.

You've probably realised this already, but do book the drinks package at the time of booking - it can be as little as £160pppw to get the Premium Plus package, but it jumps dramatically in price if you add it later.

We also noticed that seascanner was around 20% cheaper than the same cruise booked with MSC themselves.

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DodgyGeezer said:

Deep Thought said:

Whats everyone using for cruise searches these days?

I used to use Iglu, but i've found Seascanner to be really good. Also seems to produce cheaper cruises than Iglu too?

www.seascanner.co.uk

we regularly use https://www.cruisecritic.co.uk/ but I've also signed up for e-mail updates with a few smaller companies (https://www.bolsovercruiseclub.com/ spring to mind)

Rather weirdly, we now get some sort of quarterly cruise deals magazine delivered to the house here. We've clearly made it on to some company's mailing list but it seems incredibly old fashioned to have a paper magazine published and sent out. I guess theres still a big element of the cruising community to respond to that sort of approach though.

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c8bof said:

We are booked onto the MerMaiden voyage of Resilient Lady with VV. First cruise with VV, having only sailed with Cunard and Celebrity before. Excited to be trying something different, especially given all the chat about VV in the 2022 thread.

We're planning on booking Resilient for September, having done Valiant in 2022, and Scarlet in 2021.

Its definitely different with VV. Apparently Resilient is going to have notable differences to Scarlet and Valiant, so it will be interesting to hear what those are!

When is the MerMaiden Voyage? Is that out of Athens?

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Trevor555 said:

chrismoose91 said:

Joining Iona on Saturday, family and parents.
Will be a bit strange as I used to work for P&O as an engineer on Britannia.

Please let us know what you think.

I'm onboard at the moment and I'm sure its badly understaffed.

5th time on here, and very poor compared to previous trips sadly.

What's the volume of people like?

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bad company said:

I originally posted this in the 2022 thread by mistake.

Sadly (at least for me) there seems to be a return to compulsory mask wearing on some lines. I don’t want to start yet another mask debate over here but please aware that this can happen. The letter below was sent by Seabourn to cruisers booked on the World Voyage. For me and Mrs BC masks would be a deal breaker but they can be imposed when it’s too late to cancel or already onboard.

Hmm...

That would not be good.

Having said that, theres fundamentals simply not being followed. On the three cruise lines we did last year, there was no insistance in hand sanitising, and quite a few of the hand sanitisers had either been removed or werent working.

People werent particularly bothering to go do it either.

Many people seem to be quite happy to cough in confined public spaces too without bothering to cover their mouth in any way.

Also, there were people we saw who clearly had "something" - whether that be it a really bad cold or Covid and hadnt bothered testing who were out and about the ship, and sitting in close proximity public areas.

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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!

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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.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.

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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.

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Essarell said:

What’s happened to “The Cruise, Welcome Aboard “ tv series? Seems to have disappeared from 5 after 2 episodes of season 2.

Yes it seems to have stalled.

It wasnt too bad. Last series was awful.

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AB said:

https://www.msccruises.com/en-gl/Plan-Book/Cruise-...

This one in April, looking forward to it. Gone for a Yacht Club cabin, quite looking forward to it!

Let us know how you get on. We'd quite like to try Yacht Club at some point - it seems v impressive.

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paulguitar said:

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egor110 said:

Talk to me about cruises to the fjords.

What are the pros/cons re a ship that holds 3000 passengers re one that holds 5000 ?

Does the smaller ship get to different places ?

Yes, thats pretty much it.

I've also heard that with some of the really big ships, the jettys they port at can only hold a certain amount of people so disembarkation can be slow. I "assume" that would only really be a problem at peak summer times.

I wouldnt be adverse to going on a large ship, but my wife does make the point that it would likely be better on a smaller ship.

As always, if you can avoid peak school holiday times, that would also help.

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mikal83 said:

Whats your thoughts on this one...

https://www.princess.com/cruise-search/details/?vo...

Thats actually not bad. They're including their Princess Plus drinks package on the balcony room deal i looked at, so came to £2099 each for balcony and drinks package.

That Princess Plus package gets you Premium Drinks, Wifi and Crew Appreciation / Tips included.

Wouldnt be one of their newest ships, but still a good ship.

Princess offer the more traditional cruise theme, so expect lots of beige and gold. BUT - when we did Regal Princess, i quite liked that.

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DodgyGeezer said:

mikal83 said:

Whats your thoughts on this one...

https://www.princess.com/cruise-search/details/?vo...

you probably already know but don't forget to add tips to the cost of a cruise with the majority of companies

That offer price includes Princess Plus which gives you the Premium Drinks package, Wifi and crew appreciation / tips.

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mikal83 said:

it does? Bloody heck, so it does. is it worth that extra? We wont drink much as my cardiologist says NO to booze. Wifi, meh, we are away and its only 2 weeks...and the tips thing. Guess thats pretty much must do!

Edited by mikal83 on Sunday 12th March 14:43

The drinks package will cover soft drinks and mocktails too, as well as wine, spirits, beers, cocktails, so i think you'd still be wise to take it.

Wifi is handy for keeping in touch via whatsapp and obvs posting on here about how great a time you're having

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mikal83 said:

Deep Thought said:

mikal83 said:

it does? Bloody heck, so it does. is it worth that extra? We wont drink much as my cardiologist says NO to booze. Wifi, meh, we are away and its only 2 weeks...and the tips thing. Guess thats pretty much must do!

Edited by mikal83 on Sunday 12th March 14:43

The drinks package will cover soft drinks and mocktails too, as well as wine, spirits, beers, cocktails, so i think you'd still be wise to take it.

Wifi is handy for keeping in touch via whatsapp and obvs posting on here about how great a time you're having

Not too sure I can drink enough coke to justify that price. wifi, sure I can catch on on essentials when shoreside. We managed for 3 months when we backpacked SEA.

Yeah, although the quoted price includes the drinks package, you can select no drinks package and that brings it down to £1399. That would make a lot more sense in your circumstances.

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jaf65 said:

I have spent a lot of time reading through this, and previous years posts. Some great info in here

We are close to pulling the trigger on MSC Virtuosa North Europe 14 day in July. Just after the GCSEs but before the main summer holidays. It seems to be better than the resort type hotel offers having a 15 year old with us. Although I think I might get more use out of the F1 simulator than him!

Happy with drinks packages, the shows and such like.

I was wondering about formal dress events? I suspect "we" will want to attend one of these and just how formal is it. Will a jacket and jeans suffice or is it more of a tuxedo event?

Any other good to know points greatly appreciated.

Firstly, i think you'll love it. We did Virtuosa in Dec and loved it.

Secondly, get the Games Pass (or more than one!) if you think you're going to use the arcade for stuff like F1 and 10 pin bowling. Its £70 IIRC and you get £140 of credit.

"Dress to Impress" night - you'd get away with anything really. Most people will dress up a bit at least. You'd definitely be fine with a jeans and jacket. To be honest, we did the full gear last time - tux, dinner dress respectively. We wont next time. I'll do dark / black jeans, smart shoes, shirt. Which is my usual evening attire on other nights. You can dress up more if you like, but its not mandatory.

Its worth doing the main dining room that night, as its an elevated menu over normal. I'd also recommend the speciality restaurant package. All four are absolutely superb and its a bargain at just over £100 each for all four. I'd to the MDR the remaining evenings, and in fact MDR for breakfast and lunch whenever possible. Its busy but the buffet can be carnage at peak times.

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I see Virgin Voyages cleaned up at this years Cruise Critic Awards taking home all of the awards in the large ship category from Best Overall to Best Dining, Best Service and Best Value for Money. Its debut ship, the adults-only Scarlet Lady, won Cruise Critic's Best New Ship of the Year award for 2021 as part of Cruise Critic's Editor's Choice Awards.

https://www.cruisecritic.com/news/7328/

https://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/cruiser...