insidecabin

Sit at the table, some use their vouchers and some do a la carte. if not that hungry just pick the cheapest item on the menu. At food republic and sushi it is easy to forget to order those extra items if one person does all the ordering if the server notices have a cheap item in your mind(order them last). Once the food is on the table they don't care(as much) who actually eats it.

Day of the week may make a difference, We have arrived US on Sunday and they had 10 agents to work the whole ship, they like their breaks. The ship still kicked everyone off into the baggage hall which was packed.

When princess 3 dining room ships had 1 very early(5:30) fixed followed by anytime 1 2xfixed dining 1 anytime. This used to work very well, there were enough doing the very early and 2 fixed to keep the anytime demand down and the peak overflow for anytime could refill the early dining as people moved on.

My OH is not a big drinker of anything and is fine with the free tea, and I can do that for my hot drinks. This means our numbers are skewed. Plus used to be a no brainer at £30pppd Now at £50 it is a lot harder to make work if you don't use the stuffing(cake and fitness, many of our trips data roaming is good and very cheap). On a longer cruise not unknown to have a relatively dry day every now and then with very low spends. If we were doing 1 or 2 a year we would probably take package but now doing 5+ not every cruise needs to be that full on as long as the basics like included food and entertainment are upto scratch. PAYG drinks we can easily stay under the £100pppd total with the add-ons(including the CA). We do this on other lines as well. (Our last one package £410 we spent £260) Now Princess UK has deals where plus and premium get discounted often enough to grab one when the cruise fare is still ok. This year there was a 50% offer on both options for a load of cruises. Plus at £25pppd we can make work, premium at an extra £7.50pppd is marginal on longer trips but this is where the convenience value kicks in and our door prizes(if any) may help top up our 2 speciality meals. We booked a few any we add if there are late fare discount we can consider the basic cruise option The last UK offer a couple of weeks back was premier at plus price which adds quite a bit of value to plus, current offer is some OBC and flight discount which helps. On the don't have to think, You need to check your account every day(package or not) for errors, so even PAYG it's a quick have I hit the £100pd. We know some days may go over but there will be some that don't it's the total at the end.

Princess have also been doing captain's circle offers behind the scenes to keep headline prices up. I got some for Sun Princess in the Med. NCL also does this with their regulars extra discounts on the Latitude account.

System problem! they have staff in the loop that where the problem is.

We can cruise Princess without Plus ending up with a cheaper overall total when it is full price £50pppd. Just don't need booze, WiFi, paid dining every cruise. It is 50%(£25pppd) often enough to book with it and have the convenience factor even if we don't want to max out the inclusions. What is amusing are the tipping police that try to shame people for not paying full CA when the company is happy to cut it in half for you.

How come in the US the free at sea gratuities for dining and drinks are fixed but in the UK/EU they don't call them gratuities and can regularly do 50% off. Same with Princess they also have crew appreciation, when included in the fare packages they often discount heavily. This crew pay contribution varies from passenger to passenger. If a package passenger can have 50% off the contribution why can't those that just pay also choose to just pay 50%?

Easy ones are MSC the winter AI cruises out of Southampton hit £500-£550pppw. it's a very good unlimited drinks package. Our last one the 7n cruise £350pp drinks would have been £210pp we went PAYG and spent £260total.(under £70pppd.) The 7n med MSC and Costa often get down to £70pppn, cheap flights available. Do your searches on price and do them regularly to catch the low prices. Make sure you are signed up for promotions cruise lines are now doing personal discounts through loyalty schemes.

You have to catch the offers and price dips, got lucky our Princess bookings this year average £72pppn with everything included, don't need flights for these, happy out of Southampton. Parking in Southampton is around the same as airport parking. Princess prices have been creeping up as they are selling well, Jan/Feb had some decent prices even for the brand new Sun Princess. NCL often have 50% on their package which is reasonable anyway they usually throw some good late bookings if you can play the waiting game.. Both our NCL last year were under £75pppd and one included flight to Copenhagen Both Princess and NCL often have flight credits/discounts you have to call to get those we have had NCL totals go down adding flights. Celebrity had £49pp flights on cruises out of Athens for a while Feb/March 10/11n cruises, base cruise price £450 for 10n or 11n with upto $200 OBC, drinks package were £39pppd and tips £14pppd Currently Celebrity have a £1 flight promo(includes Manchester) cruises may be more but can be much better value. Look for the cheap flights first(seeing £200pp options with bags) to Cruise ports then look for cheap cruises. Not found anything for Nov/Dec yet might add a Transatlantic when there are cheap flights.

Product has been fine its the price, while we can get AI with extras at 1/2 the £145pppn on the likes of NCL and Princess Marella won't get a look in.

Check where your local airport flies(Inc uk to save the drive) and make up your own all inclusive package. We are still finding under £100pppd AI. Would be getting 2 week for that sort of money.

Marella is way overpriced these days. The cheerleaders make up reasons they like paying more. It's never been worth £200pppd we rate Marella at £70pppd a bit more with long hauls flights.

Hotels around LHR are not great for travel elsewhere by train other than central London. A lot of hotels don't do free shuttle have to use the Hoppa system. Why not look at places like Winchester Salisbury Windsor etc for a stay.

Who knows when NCL will try it on again. Eventually NCL apologized for the mess early last year and offered a gesture of some compensation.