…hing from Princess, Celebrity, Royal Caribbean, Holland America, Norwegian Cruise Line, Costa, MSC, P&O Cruises, Cunard, Carnival, River Cruises and more. You’re not necessarily going to score big discounts in fares, but onboard credit helps enormously to make your cruise budget go further. Teachers If you’re a teacher or work in a university, you can also get various discounts and extra onboard credit. Again, a bit like with the healthcare servic…
…nctuary Collection is Princess Cruises attempt to compete with the premium ship-within-ship offer on lines like Celebrity’s Retreat, Norwegian’s Haven, Cunard’s Grills, and MSC’s Yacht Club. If you book one of the Sanctuary Collection Suites, Mini-suites, or Premium Balcony Cabins, you get access to the exclusive Sanctuary restaurant, the Sanctuary Club Pool Deck (only for 16+), Premier Package, and if in a suite, access to the 2-level Signature S…
…n the Cunard Fleet have a more understated style of decor than many of the cruise ships in service today. Most cruise ships are more inspired by the brightness and brashness of Las Vegas. Cunard is more inspired by the 1930s Art Deco. It is much less glitzy and bright, using more browns, beige and gold touches. This fits its positioning more. I love the feeling of this heritage and feeling of being linked back to the romantic days of sailing when…
…d from the sea, and can be 1300 metres deep. They are wide enough for huge cruise ships to sail right into them for many miles. Today there still are glaciers inland, which are popular things to visit both by cruise passengers and land based tourists. Norway’s economy, livelihood and culture is most strongly linked to the sea. Right back to the Vikings that sailed out to explore, plunder and gather spoils across Europe, through to the huge Sardine…
…best thing to do is ask your travel agent, or even better, ask fans of the ship. Cruise Critic notice boards are a great way of finding little quirky cabins that people have sussed out. You’ll also find hidden bonus cabins in the same category normally cost the same price but give you so much more. They’re scarce, they’re hard to find, and you need to move quickly. #6: Spa Cabins The next area of cabins that are worth looking at and again are hard…
…courts if the ship has them. How much do I want to spend in addition to my cruise fare? Most cruise lines do not include excursions in the price of the fare. Doing excursions in every port can add quite a bit of cost to your vacation. The price of excursions can easily average $100 per person per port. So of you have 5 ports of call in 7 days that can be as much as $1,000 or more per couple. Some will provide free transfers into the town if the do…
…in Europe, there is no shore side power to plug into. In Europe, the river cruise ships mostly switch their engines off and use electricity when docked. In Egypt the noisy and fume generating petrol engines run 24 hours a day, seven days a week whether they are sailing or not. And because they dock in rows close in front, I discovered that a cabin like mine close to the front is unbelievably noisy from those engines. That’s why the first and last…
…e sea days than you would like, you could choose to do segments of a world cruise. Cruise lines usually sell individual and combinations of segments, which is what I have done to date. Explore cruise line brochures and websites for their ideas on the top destinations for a world cruise World Cruise Tips – Budgeting Take time to understand what the cruise fare for the world cruise will cover, and what will be extra charges that you need to budget f…
…resume in June. Their competition, Seabourn has announced it will restart ship-by-ship between April and June. While Windstar Cruises says that while most ships will resume in March and April, Star Pride will not return until its July voyage to Northern Europe. Why is this happening and what does it mean for us as cruisers? First of all, these lines sail multi-country and exotic cruises, which will be more challenging to resume with the complexit…
…. It first struck me on my second Mediterranean cruise. It was a different cruise line and ship, and we were excited, but we went to Livorno and visited Florence and Pisa, again, back to Monte Carlo, Barcelona, St Tropez, and Civitavecchia, for Rome. As great as they all are, there are so many other places I could and should have been seeing in the Mediterranean. So now, I try to find itineraries with as many different ports – that’s when switchin…
…West are saying no to most cruises ships and what countries are opening to cruise ships right now. 2020 Cancelled. Lots of 2021 Too? First of all, the fall out of the US CDC letting the no-sail order lapse on 31 October and replacing it with their “Framework For Conditional Sailing” has become ever more clear. Cruise lines have now cancelled all their USA cruises until at least the end of the year, as they digest and work through the fairly demand…
