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Holidays

Use our Travel forum for recommendations on everything from day trips to the best family-friendly holiday destinations.

First time cruiser

31 replies

brownbeauty · 26/05/2021 18:49

Looking to book a 'no expenses spared once in a lifetime' cruise.
Husbands birthday gift February 2022
What should I look out for?
What grade room is the best?
What are gratuities?Confused
Will we get bored if nothing onboard is for us?
Outfits?
Extra charges for anything?
Do we have to leave ship at every port?
Looking towards Dubai Arabia etc etc for the heat.

I will have saved £7k to use for this by sept this year so will have time to search and book or time to save more for something better.

Please share what you have experienced and also things you wish you would have known before sailing.
Smile

OP posts:
Chewbecca · 31/05/2021 19:33

We love cruising!

For me, it’s all about the ship and the line so you need to work out which is the one that suits you. Just like all hotels are different, all cruise lines are too!

We’ve sailed with Celebrity, Royal Caribbean, Princess, Holland America, Oceania, Azamara, Seabourn. MSC Yacht Club booked this summer.

Celebrity is a favourite of ours, with the right balance of size giving enough to do, but not so big it feels crazy and crowded, but you need to work out what’s right for you. We did Singapore, India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, ending in Oman and Dubai with Celebrity - possibly my favourite of all our tripe

We like a balcony but it’s not absolutely essential for us in colder waters, we never use it as much as we expect to!

Start narrowing things down and ask again!

Letsgetreadytocrumble · 31/05/2021 19:43

I absolutely loved our cruise! The fact that we saw so many brilliant places all in one holiday without having to pack/unpack a single time was brilliant, plus I loved being on the ship as well.

I don't think I would ever cruise round the middle east, are the stops there very interesting? There are so many great places in the Med?

Most of your questions are dependent on which company you go with. Definitely get a balcony room, we did dress for dinner some nights but never had to share a table with others (thank god!), all our tips were included so we never had to worry about that either.

SwimBaby · 31/05/2021 19:45

I really fancy a Middle East cruise, it’s an area that interests me but I probably wouldn’t go on lots of separate holidays to. Oman is on my bucket list.

SavannahLands · 31/05/2021 20:05

We sailed with P&O which are owned and run by Cunard. The ship was Beautiful and only a year old at the time of our Cruise. We were however disappointed by the quality of the food, especially on the Evening Buffet, which consisted of Pizza and Pasta dishes most nights, or a selection of Salads with sliced Continental meats and cheeses.

The Main Dinning room had a Choice of Four main Courses, one of them being ‘Steak and Chips’, but it was more like sliced Roast Beef, with a half of a Grilled Tomato on the side, and a scoop of Chips, none of the usual trimmings such as Mushrooms and Onion rings, or any kind of Sauce served on the side. DH loves Fish, but the nightly fish dish was often Fish we had never tried before, such as Grouper, or Beer battered Perch, covered in a sauce to mask the strong flavour.

The best meal was the Breakfast, a wide choice of dishes to choose from including freshly made Pancakes, Fruit salads, and a Full English.
There was a fruit juice dispenser, but it was the reconstructed Powdered stuff, that tasted like the High Juice type of fruit squash we get back home.

There were restaurant upgrades of extra cost, an onboard Pan- Asian, a Celebrity Chef Restaurant, although he was never onboard, but his London high prices Certainly were, at a £35 per head Supplement!!

SwimBaby · 31/05/2021 22:38

Celebrity is good for food.

awaynboilyurheid · 02/06/2021 08:51

As Georgie says remember if you DIY on a port visit the ship will not wait for you if you are late back We have witnessed this happening to one poor couple! And the cost is all on you to either catch up or fly home minus your suitcase!

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