Have you ever cruised ?

[Paddy]

For a bit of class try a Danube Cruise

Danube river cruises between Vienna, Prague, Budapest and Black Sea

Europe River Cruise | Special Offers


or a Nile Cruise.

Nile Cruises, Nile Cruise - Egypt Holidays, Nile Cruise and Red Sea Holidays

[d000hg]

I reckon a cruise mostly aimed at old people would be nice and relaxing. No kids allowed.

[RichardCranium]

Princess Cruises, 2 weeks, Caribbean, mini-suite, summer, best holiday in my life ever by far. Utterly, utterly fabulous. I cannot go on enough about how good it was. Mostly families; half Brit, half American. I would have babies, raise them, and sell them into slavery to fund going on that cruise again.

P&O, Baltic Sea, 2 weeks, Southampton to Southampton, Autumn, really, really good. Like most P&O cruises it was mostly British crumblies on board but the average age would have been about 60. Let down by poor catering for a cruise: it was only very good. I.e., bloody good restaurant standard.

P&O, Ventura, Western med, Spring, Southampton to Southampton, 2 weeks. Fantastic.

Fred Olsen, Canaries, 2 weeks, Xmas & New Year, Liverpool to Liverpool Southampton. Had some grizzles such as a sour Norwegian ****** as captain and a change of destination at the end resulting in a coach trip home. It was about to go into refit once we got off and both the ship and crew were tired. If I had never been on a cruise before, it might have put me off doing another. This cruise was poor according to Fred Olsen regulars.

I have never heard anyone complain about a fjord cruise.

I hear Nile river cruises are good; shame about the 50/50 survival chances.

I hear German river cruises are, err, alright.

AVOID: Disney. Do NOT go even if it is free. (Meant for Merkin kids).
AVOID: Easy Cruise. Do NOT go unless you want to spend 2 weeks in a white plastic coffin with nothing to do, eat or drink. (Meant for 18 year olds.)
AVOID: Carnival. Do NOT go even if they pay you and give you your own lifeboat. (Meant for young families with loads of kids; SuitYou01 would love Carnival.)

The big ships are so big you will not be able to do all the activities you might want to do. Small ships are supposed to be fabulous for the high staff-to-customer ratio means great service ... but not a lot to do. However, EO, you two strike me as a couple that are very good at amusing yourselves, being amusing, socialising and good living. You would probably enjoy one of the smaller ships immensely.

Alcohol is indeed expensive and, on American ships, weak.

Food is plentiful, varied and never ends. The average cruise passengers puts on one pound PER DAY. Bear in mind some passengers lose weight because of the gym and sport opportunities. Mrs RC managed to stick to her Slimming World plan 100% on one cruise and lost weight.

Do not laugh when people say "What time is the midnight buffet?". It is often not at midnight.

If you can go on a UK-cruise-UK trip there is effectively no limit to the baggage you can take. This matters when you are taking suits and ball gowns.

I would not book an inside cabin. The cheap deals you see on cruises are last-minute inside cabins. I would rather pay the MUCH more and have a window, but that's 'cos I'm an antisocial sod who doesn't mind sitting in the cabin. People with inside cabins normally spend all day on deck / trips / in activities and only use the cabin for sleeping and think doing anything else is a waste of money.

As far as I can make out, the cruise lines where tips are included cost the same as cruise lines where you pay the tips when you add the recommended tip to the ticket price.

That's only stuff off the top of my head. I could go on...

HTH

[Alf W]

Never fancied it to be honest. I get the impression it would be like going caravanning with a bunch of pensioners with the added bonus of feeling seasick.

Our big adventure to Russia was canned this year, because the missus couldnt get a month off.
So we hummed and ha'd and decided to go on a cruise
Two weeks in the western med with P&O in October,

Has anyone ever cruised, whats it like ?

[DaveB]

Never fancied it to be honest. I get the impression it would be like going caravanning with a bunch of pensioners with the added bonus of feeling seasick.

Think of it this way then.

A mobile 5 star hotel where you wake up in a diffferent city every morning. You get to go and explore and vist the sites knowing that you have accomodation and meals already taken care off, that the food will be excellent and plentiful , entertainment will be provided and you can be as sociable or not as you please.

[DaveB]

Princess Cruises, 2 weeks, Caribbean, mini-suite, summer, best holiday in my life ever by far. Utterly, utterly fabulous. I cannot go on enough about how good it was. Mostly families; half Brit, half American. I would have babies, raise them, and sell them into slavery to fund going on that cruise again.

P&O, Baltic Sea, 2 weeks, Southampton to Southampton, Autumn, really, really good. Like most P&O cruises it was mostly British crumblies on board but the average age would have been about 60. Let down by poor catering for a cruise: it was only very good. I.e., bloody good restaurant standard.

P&O, Ventura, Western med, Spring, Southampton to Southampton, 2 weeks. Fantastic.

Fred Olsen, Canaries, 2 weeks, Xmas & New Year, Liverpool to Liverpool Southampton. Had some grizzles such as a sour Norwegian ****** as captain and a change of destination at the end resulting in a coach trip home. It was about to go into refit once we got off and both the ship and crew were tired. If I had never been on a cruise before, it might have put me off doing another. This cruise was poor according to Fred Olsen regulars.

I have never heard anyone complain about a fjord cruise.

I hear Nile river cruises are good; shame about the 50/50 survival chances.

I hear German river cruises are, err, alright.

AVOID: Disney. Do NOT go even if it is free. (Meant for Merkin kids).
AVOID: Easy Cruise. Do NOT go unless you want to spend 2 weeks in a white plastic coffin with nothing to do, eat or drink. (Meant for 18 year olds.)
AVOID: Carnival. Do NOT go even if they pay you and give you your own lifeboat. (Meant for young families with loads of kids; SuitYou01 would love Carnival.)

The big ships are so big you will not be able to do all the activities you might want to do. Small ships are supposed to be fabulous for the high staff-to-customer ratio means great service ... but not a lot to do. However, EO, you two strike me as a couple that are very good at amusing yourselves, being amusing, socialising and good living. You would probably enjoy one of the smaller ships immensely.

Alcohol is indeed expensive and, on American ships, weak.

Food is plentiful, varied and never ends. The average cruise passengers puts on one pound PER DAY. Bear in mind some passengers lose weight because of the gym and sport opportunities. Mrs RC managed to stick to her Slimming World plan 100% on one cruise and lost weight.

Do not laugh when people say "What time is the midnight buffet?". It is often not at midnight.

If you can go on a UK-cruise-UK trip there is effectively no limit to the baggage you can take. This matters when you are taking suits and ball gowns.

I would not book an inside cabin. The cheap deals you see on cruises are last-minute inside cabins. I would rather pay the MUCH more and have a window, but that's 'cos I'm an antisocial sod who doesn't mind sitting in the cabin. People with inside cabins normally spend all day on deck / trips / in activities and only use the cabin for sleeping and think doing anything else is a waste of money.

As far as I can make out, the cruise lines where tips are included cost the same as cruise lines where you pay the tips when you add the recommended tip to the ticket price.

That's only stuff off the top of my head. I could go on...

HTH

WRCS+1

With the exception of the alchohol comment. We were paying the equivalent of pub prices at the onboard bar, around £2.50-£300 for a pint. Cocktails were a bit more expensive but thats expected. It wasn't the price of the drinks that ran up the bill, it was the fact that we drank lots

RC is right about the smaller ships. We were on a relativly small one and the service was superb. Not so much available to do, but were were generally knackered from the days sightseeing and happy to sit in one of the bars, have a few drinks and people watch or listen to the live music.

[Halo Jones]

I have only every done a 5day cruise on an old paddle boat up the Mississippi:

Plus side: Boat was pleasant & had character
Stops every day for tourist stuff
No kids

Down side: Was aimed for the older punter: BIG mistake set meal times / crap activities

To be honest I would probably never do another as I felt restricted & I prefer more freedom / choice when on holiday

[ChrisPackit]

I think the days in port are great, it's the days at sea that are soooo boring.

On my last cruise, an average day at sea consisted of:

1. Get up, go for breakfast at a reasonable time to find most of the stuff you want to eat has gone or is cold...
2. Go on deck to do some sunbathing, only to discover that all the decent sunbeds have been taken by people up at 6:30 and only the ones in the shade are left.
3. Get bored after 30 minutes sunbathing...
4. Start to read a book. Get bored after another 30 minutes...
5. Wander around the deck looking for stuff to do that isn't packed with other passengers, can't find anything...
6. Try hitting golf balls into a net as I'm bored...
7. Wander down and get some lunch
8. Goto the gym as I've not been in 3 years but am so bored I might as well to pass the time...
9. Have a go at the most pointless game in the word.... deck quoits
10. Wander round the deck a bit more, look in the gift shop with no intention of buying anything...
11. Go to play Bingo in 'Gods waiting room'...
12. Wish away the day, and look forward to the next day in port...

Hope this helps...

[EternalOptimist]

I think the days in port are great, it's the days at sea that are soooo boring.


Hope this helps...

It does. Thanks all
forewarned is forearmed, maybe it wont be so bad afterall

[Incognito]

You like the open road. How will you cope being stuck on a ship for the whole time

It's a big deck, his mind is going, call it goldfish syndrome.