dalecousins

Which cruise are you going on in November?

we are on Ventura for 23rd Nov for Bruge and then saying on for 26th to Canaries giving us a total of 16 nights.

I think that because cruising is now drawing the attention of a much wider and broader walk of life you are going to get the different extremes of opinion on this matter, to some it truly makes sense that when you have a couple that maybe have gone with friends that would meet up for a coffee or two in costa then a coke or glass of wine with lunch then in the afternoon sit on deck with a cocktail or two and in the evening two bottles of wine shared between 4 and then some drinks at the show or in the bar, this doesn't sound excessive at all but that would soon mount up too or even over the £80 day rate for a couple.

but you also are going to get a couple that only one drinks because the other might be on medication or just doesn't drink much which it then sounds ridiculous to spend £80.

also some might be on a very tight budget and feel that the included drinks on offer is enough for there needs.

We personally are a bit of a mixture of the last two, my wife is disabled and her medication limits how much alcohol she can drink and coffee gives her headaches so she normally just drinks tea and water and i'm always the driver so really don't drink much at all.

As i had said in my previous post it's our first time in November and due to my wife not being able to fly any more we have had to look at other means of going to the sun and cruising seems a good option as we can go and return from Southampton but being disabled means we have to pay select price and availability was limited to a balcony at the time we booked which was 13 months in advance so when it comes to thinking about the possibility of a drinks package then in our case that becomes a luxury i'd rather put it towards the £600 travel insurance bill.

At the end of the day we are all different and as such it's relative to the individual and this couple intend to have a great time on our cruise :-)

Surly it's going to raise the number of excessive drinkers onboard trying to get their money's worth which in turn changes the atmosphere?

It will be like the loud all inclusive benidorm style holidays any sensible person goes out of their way to avoid!!!

Not that i know anything as i'm still waiting to go on our first cruise in November so have others that have been on the other cruise lines that offer a package seen this to be the case?

Not wanting to stereotype but that looks like an inside room which on a 2 or 3 day taster cruise which can draw hen and stag parties to the cheaper rooms so i would think that paying for a higher grade room might get you a cleaner mattress. Does that make sense?

No extra discount as such as we are on select but i do get a nice amount of OBC and we do get a full extra day as we don't have to leave our room as we booked the same room for both, where it did come in handy is i have booked next year 2019 and i should be able to get the discount from day one of that.

I don't know if you have ever heard of the term mileage run in air miles / airport lounge context where a person may book flights to somewhere and return the same day or next day just to build up miles to keep a status? well i kind of viewed our 3 day tester in the same way it enabled us to go over the 15 nights required to join the club without having to travel from Norfolk were we live a second time to get status before next years main cruise.

it saves on fuel in the car and only one night hotel and as it starts on Friday instead of Monday Thursday night hotel was cheaper that Sunday night was. also 1 less work holiday days used as if i had done the tester first before the main i would have had to take the monday off work.

I'm hoping to get some discounts onboard on the change over day maybe in the spa or one of the specialty restaurants.

Were doing a B2B as our first ever cruise which is a Bruge 3 nighter and then on to Canaries, i had originally booked just the Canaries but when i saw that the route directly before was just 3 nights it was perfect to give us more than 15 nights to join the club i was fully aware that this may attract a different group of people but also thought it would give us a few days to get used to the ship before our actual cruise started on the Monday and now i can look forward to spending more that 2 weeks on a cruise ship.

We are doing our first ever cruise in Nov 2018 and my wife is disabled and uses an electric wheelchair, we used a TA that specialises in Disabled passengers and i was so glad i could talk to them about what was best for us. they advised about what route would be best and that if tenders would be used or not. In our case i couldn't book online as the disabled rooms don't show and ringing direct i'm not sure if they would have thought about how a disabled passenger would cope with different routes. i have read that the cruise industry is the only travel industry where the companies (cruise Lines) prefer you to go through a TA as that makes it more cost effective on call centre staff numbers so they give TA's more discount options to pass on to customers that you get ringing direct. or so i have read.

We will always use a TA as it currently stands.

What you do have to take into consideration is that other cruise lines are using the drinks package as a incentive to bring in new customers by offering a drinks included price for the whole cruise at the same price as other lines that do the same route and if you add that to the fact that extra tips money is also going you could be offered a great all in one price for everything over the next few years that will make P&O very competitively priced.

Dale.