Cruise and stay hols from uk? (Nervous flyer!)

[Tethersend01]

Dear all
I’m not fussed on holidays but my kids would like to go for a week somewhere hot.
I don’t want to fly (various reasons) but am with travelling by sea.
I have never dine a cruise and am a bit bewildered by all the choices that come up on googling !
Ideally we would be looking to spend a few days at beginning and end of holiday on the cruise ship (starting uk) with a week somewhere hot and family friendly in the middle.
Can anyone recommend a company??
Tia

My parents are taking a two week cruise from Southampton, you can get off and stay for 2 weeks and wait for the next round trip in theory as they segments can be split.

If that's outside your budget time and cost wise, consider putting your car on the ferry to Santander, northern Spain is lovely

This kind of cruise doesn’t exist I don’t think if you mean getting off and then staying in a hotel for a week before getting the cruise ship back?

I think you need to look for 2 week cruises in places a few days sail away to get the kind of trip you want; generally places like the Med/Canaries you can cruise from Southampton, it will take you 3/4 “sea days” (days where the ship doesn’t dock, just travels) to get there and then you will have 5/6 port days where you can get off at different locations for a few hours each day before journeying home.

We have always had good experiences cruising from Southampton with P&O so maybe take a look at their site- I’d search for 10-14 days cruises in either the Med or Canaries- you won’t get any further without spending a week at sea!

As PP said, I don't think there are any cruises starting in/returning to UK and leaving you a week holiday abroad. The nearest would be to book a ferry holiday. You get a ferry from UK to France or Spain and a holiday there before returning. If you get a ferry to Bilbao or Santander in Spain that is a long (36 hour )trip with 2 overnights. I wouldn't do it with children unless they're of an age to be happy having marathon board game sessions with you. There's not much else to do as the ferries are not cruise ships. Realistically, a ferry UK to France would be better. Ferry companies do holidays that include hotels or apartments. Some are based on self drive and some suit foot passengers. Look at Brittany Ferries . There are other ferry companies that do this. I think I'd avoid P and O at present.

To clarify, I’m talking about P&O cruises, not the ferry company of the same name!

You could take a ferry type cruise, with cabin, from Plymouth to Santander for a holiday and then come back again a week later? Not a luxury cruise but it fits your itinerary.

To do this you’d have to take two separate cruises.

As I said, in theory you could book a Cunard one way cruise to Italy then a second one from Italy back but it will be 2 weeks before it returns

You could do a TransAtlantic cruise and stay in New York for a week or so and then get the return back. Sadly only Cunard regularly do the TA cruise.

I would do a ship like one of the new royal carribean ships with all the bells and whistles and go to the med for 14 days for what you are looking for.

I love a cruise and have done numerous on numerous different lines.

Have you considered the train?

Take a look at seat61.com. He explains how to get the train from UK to Spain, Italy, etc.

I think p and o do cruise and stay

You can do cruse and stay with any cruise line but then how do you get back to Southampton?
I think the closest you could get would be to look at cruises from South of France and get the train there and back.
Personally I’d do a cruise from Southampton that includes some ports with beaches. I did a Spanish and Lisbon one with RC.

What’s your budget? Since covid lots more cruise companies are operating from UK ports. But as others have said, you’d need to book two separate cruises if you’d like to stay a week somewhere in the middle. However, more cruise lines are including overnights at some ports in their itineraries, so although you sleep on the ship you’re not rushing back for an afternoon or evening departure.

NCL is good for kids and their new ships have lots on board for at-sea days (arcades, kids’ clubs, I think one even has a go kart track!).

Cruises ships are floating resorts - you may find that if you took a cruise from Southampton round the med for the whole 14 days you might not feel the need to stay somewhere - all the ships have swimming pools for you to laze around and you don't have to get off at ports if you don't want to. I've just come back from the canaries on one - it's my 5th and I find them to be really good holidays with 5* service, endless really good and varied 24 hour food and a mind blowing list of activities, one we did had an Ice skating rink and a surf simulator!