advice wanted on cruises/best deals

[trevlad]

can anybody give us advice on cruise with royal caribbean to eastern caribbean this february [msnsmile2] or any lines from lauderdale out to east carib?any experiences or best deals contacts etc thanks

[Robert5988]

American Airlines cruises sometimes have some excellent last minute deals.

I went on Freedom of the Seas(largest liner ever built) last Oct - Mexico - Cayman Islands - Montego Bay - Labadee.

We have been on Vision of the Seas back in 1998 when she was brand new, beautiful ship, got the trip through Cruise Club UK

http://www.cruise.co.uk/cruise-holid...ises/16/8/8191

[anorak]

I dont know if I am allowed to tell you that the site I use is from [name edited]. If you have a US address you can use them, you can book any cruise with them except air travel. They don't have to send the tickets to a US address, you can ask for pier pick up.

[MarkJan]

I don't think I can advertise the name but if you think about a website with a "cruise" theme....

[ellie]

Hi Trevlad, you are speaking to a complete cruise addict (second only to a Florida addict!). We are approaching our 20th cruise, and I am sure you will have a great time. As a Brit/Florida resident we are able to get special rates as we have a US address - Brits pay considerably more for their cruises than our American counterparts. Some agents will accept bookings from UK residents. There is no need for anything to be sent by post nowadays - etickets are the norm, or they can be picked up on the dockside when you arrive at the Terminal.

Feel free to DM me for more info - happy to help.

Like booking a villa, and doing everything yourself, we do the same with cruising. We are lucky that we normally combine it with visiting our villa, but it is easy to put together a cruise package - flight, overnight accommodation, cruise etc.

We normally hire a car from here for the transfers as that is considerably cheaper than using the cruise line's transport, and enables you to see a little of the Fort Lauderdale or Miami area on the way. If you are combining it with a trip to Orlando you can fly into Orlando and out of Miami. Fort Lauderdale is only 20 miles from Miami, and you can do a lovely drive up the coast to reach Port Everglades.

Our preference is for the Easter Caribbean as that includes our favourite port, St Thomas, but all the Caribbean islands have something different to offer, from Grand Cayman with its very British telephone boxes, to St. Lucia with its exotic scenery, Aruba with its colourful Dutch houses to Jamaica with its stunning Dunns River Falls. The choice is yours!

[msnwink]

[anorak]

If you want best price cruises dot com you can get a lot of information just remember that like most things in the US there are extra taxes and fees above the price first shown.
Avoid cruises out of the US over Spring Break, and any school holidays, ships will possibly be full of kids running riot - and fares will be more expensive as well.
We do about 6 cruises a year, both out of Fl to Caribbean and Transtlantic.

[ellie]

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by anorak
If you want best price cruises dot com you can get a lot of information just remember that like most things in the US there are extra taxes and fees above the price first shown.
Avoid cruises out of the US over Spring Break, and any school holidays, ships will possibly be full of kids running riot - and fares will be more expensive as well.
We do about 6 cruises a year, both out of Fl to Caribbean and Transtlantic.
[/quote]

We went on Explorer of the Seas in April last year. Kids were not a problem, thank goodness. There is too much for them to do, and the ships are big enough to cope with them. In fact, its probably one of the few places you can relax without kids being a pain - especially if you choose the right ship.

We like Transatlantics, too, anorak, as we like sea days.

[trevlad]

MANY THANKS FOR THE ADVICE GUYS, I BELIEVE WE ARE ON NAVIGATOR OF THE SEAS FOR AN EASTERN CARIB 7 DAY JAUNT. BROCHURE PRICES WERE 1400 ISH EACH AND WE HAVE PAID 1400 FOR THE 3 OF US,VIA A LOCAL NORTH EAST TRAVEL AGENT WHO HAPPILY DISCOUNTED WHEN WE MENTIONED RECIPRICATING IN THE FUTURE WITH A DEAL ON OUR VILLA! SO IT SEEMED A GREAT DEAL AS WE HAD HEARD A FEW GOOD COMMENTS ABOUT ROYAL CARIB[clap]

I WILL POST A REPORT LATER AND HOPEFULLY SOME PICKYS CHEERS

[anorak]

Ellie, we just did the new ncl ship Pearl Transatlantic for 10 sea days no ports at all.
what a fantastic ship, brand new, its first voyage.
We were a bit dubious about ncl, having read some not so glowing reports, but it was great food, great service, shows were ok, facilities were excellent, 4 lane 10 pin bowling alley, excellent speciality restaurants at minimal extra cost were well worth it, (Cagneys and le Bistro were our favourites)
We didn't think we would like anytime dining but it works well, to be honest the last couple of cruises we haven't had good tablemates and we were getting a bit fed up. I don't want to sound a snob but recently the sort of people you get on lower priced cruises has changed to a high proportion of first time cruisers, some of whom do not make good tablemates as they either dont turn up some nights, turn up late, sit there complaining how this is their first cruise and they dont like it for some reason, or have bad table manners.
Anyway pearl is doing 5 day and 9 day cruises out of Miami until they move to Alaska in May, I could recommend it if you want a different more modern cruise experience.

On the other hand we also like Fred Olsen transatlantics, bit older passengers but nice small traditional ships like the Braemar. Just have to get the right proce which comes up sometimes if you keep looking. Not worth paying anything like their full or even moderately discounted price. Shows are end of pier variety, food is excellent, cabins are smallish but very comfortable, crew are friendly. We just did 17 days Southampton to Montego Bay on Braemar, nice trip. We found that if you can get on the email list from gocruise dot com you get the specials early. FO own it but they are cheaper then FO direct usually.


trevlad - sounds like you got a fair deal there, did that include flights? Don't be mislead by brochure prices, theyre fairytales designed to mislead. Did you manage to type in the sites mentioned and have a look at their listings?