Spent ages organising a group cruise, now it's been cancelled

[Julysky]

I spent what seemed like forever organising a group of friends to go away on a 3 day cruise for a friend's big birthday in Sept 2025, gathered all the deposits, made the down payment and 2 weeks later the travel agent let me know that the cruise has been cancelled. It was a very good deal with MSC and included the drinks package. I can't find any other cruises for a similar price in the month we want to go - the other companies' drinks packages are prohibitively expensive. Any ideas for an inexpensive, fun and easy to organise trip for a group of 8 mums in September 2025? The cruise would have cost £510 pp for 3 nights - Southampton departure. Would love to keep within that budget for travel, accommodation and food and drinks if possible, ideally going abroad.

I wouldn’t necessarily let the drinks packages put you off - depending on the price of the cruise - on P&O for example the drinks package is very expensive but actually the drink prices on board are reasonable and not prohibitive. But the number of very short cruises is small, and September is still Med season.

You could look at doing a short package - EasyJet Holidays has some really good deals on city breaks such as Prague for £230pp for flight, luggage and hotel for 3 nights room only or Krakow for £260pp for flight, luggage, hotel for 3 nights B&B. You can get all inclusive in Mallorca from £400pp, 4 star from £500pp.

I agree about looking at city breaks. Look to see what decently priced flights are available from your nearest airports you'll have loads of choice for that budget for 3 nights. Or you could go to Paris or Brussels on Eurostar?

I'm surprised the travel agent didn't come up with some ideas so they didn't lose their commission !

Have you looked at cruisecritic ?

Try seascanner