jocap

4 hours ago, cruisemom42 said:

 

Yes, I've met plenty of folks from the UK and other European countries who love Caribbean cruises -- definitely NOT an inexpensive vacation for them with airfare + often higher cruise prices than available in the US. Often they will stay and spend additional time in Florida at Disney or in Miami...

 

People from Northern Europe look for an escape from bitter weather, and cruise lines have made this so easy these days by putting together a full package with their own flights, transport and ships, at reasonable prices. I believe this happened when Princess belonged to P&O... we went with such a package for our first cruise, soon after the two lines were bought by Carnival, and I don't remember other European packages then.

Now there are several European managed ships which stay in the Caribbean over winter, and we've met many for whom this has been their first cruise. 

Princess took care of us on arrival at the airport, and we checked in at a "Princess" desk; on our return we were coached into Fort Lauderdale for lunch before being taken to the airport- all included in the original price. Nowadays you stay on the ship until your flight has landed, in the late afternoon, then coached to the airport.

On 3/30/2021 at 8:12 PM, iancal said:

We have a pouch that we keep.  Currently is has Euros, GBP, USD, Mex Pesos, Cuban Conv. pesos,  and Thai bhats.  We just hold on to them.

Be careful with the UK's ££ notes- £5, £10 and £20 have been replaced with polymer ones, and the latest, the £50, will appear this June. There's usually a period when paper notes will still be accepted, but the first two have been around for a while now. 

See Cruise Critic's News page.

RCI is, I think, the 11th cruise line to start sailing this summer out of the UK, going around the British Isles. 

Anthem OTS is starting summer cruises out of the UK to fully vaccinated passengers, or negative tested for younger people.

They are also offering 999 free places to front line workers, chosen by ballot.

See Cruise Critic's News page.

Oh, yes- sorry! I thought there was one missing. ☹️

When P&O opened their bookings for June/July cruises, a week ago, there were so many applicants that the site crashed. 

There are now 9 cruise lines offering summer sailings around the British Isles this year; some insisting on full vaccinations, others not. Celebrity, Disney and Marella are the latest lines offering cruises. 

Disney interests us because they are sailing out of a port only 2 hours drive away, so no worrying about hotels, motorway services and public transport.

So now the list seems to be: Viking, Fred, P&O, Saga, Princess, Celebrity, Marella, Disney, MSC, all around the British Isles.

Hurtigruten are also hoping to start.

And now Disney- including departures from Newcastle, which could interest us, as we wouldn't need a hotel.

23 hours ago, Shmoo here said:

Why "no motor homes"?  They're certainly self-contained.

It depends on the toilet arrangements, as the disposal could be a problem on a site. If you can take your waste away with you, then that would be allowed, but some of the smaller ones need a daily facility.

12 hours ago, davecttr said:

A self contained holiday or self catering is where you don't share common areas of the building with anyone else and do your own cooking etc, typically a holiday cottage or cabin or caravan but not a hotel

Thanks... yes, self catering is really what I meant. Our nearby farm has all kinds of camping arrangements, but cannot open sites unless  there's self contained showers, loos, etc, but they do have a number of static caravans with all facilities, so can open those. No to tents, shepherd's huts, glamping of any kind, or motor homes.

The sad thing is that last time we came out of lock down, the Lake District was overwhelmed with wild campers, including camper vans all along roads and laybys, and there were no toilet facilities around... that was an awful few weeks.

2 minutes ago, clo said:

Ha ha, I bet. Here our hair salons and barber shops have strict rules about sanitizing so it was pretty easy for them to qualify.

Yes, our hairdresser's was at least as clean as a surgery when they reopened briefly last summer... but these are the government's "Road Map" rules... the first was schools opening, in March, then hairdressers, drinking outside pubs, self-contained holidays, on April 12th. 

I forget the next rules, because there are so many...  😲

19 hours ago, clo said:

Here in Reno my hair salon reopened in May. Not so everywhere?

No, unfortunately... in England (not sure of the other UK countries), it will be April 12th. It was harder booking a slot than booking a P&O cruise (whose web had a meltdown when they opened yesterday morning).🤣

P&O opened bookings for this June today (sailing round the UK); Cunard, Fred Olsen, Viking, MSC are also starting in the early summer- and although it's tempting, I'm more worried about getting to/from the port, using hotels and railway stations than actually being on board.

We've been lockdown for so long now, that I feel a bit like a wild animal being released into the wild...

Ah- I see that there's an article about this on Cruise Critic's news site.

I also heard that the site was so busy this morning that it crashed... P&O apologised, and it was up and running soon after.

The UK lockdown has been so strict this winter, that anywhere with a decent pub/restaurant will be worth travelling to, when we're allowed...

But four cruise lines are setting sail this June and July- going nowhere, or as P&O says, following the sun! So that won't be travelling so much as eating out at sea...  😄

Although we favour longer cruises, we have been happy with a couple of 7 night ones, because of the new ports we were seeing (Greek Isles; Red Sea), and at the back of our minds we were always aware of the day, which port and when the dreaded packing up would happen.

It's the same with a longer cruise- you know which days are sea ones, and also can relax in the thought that you don't have to cram in everything because there's a longer time in which to do it.

As a Head Chef once told us- on short cruises people try to do and eat everything; on longer ones after the first two days of novelty, minds begin to realise that there's no hurry, and you see people beginning to relax more- and eat less!😄

You've probably heard the news already... summer sailings for these four lines, and I picked up the rumour that Cunard will have a ship ready.

Viking and Fred aren't asking for vaccinations, but other procedures will be in place.

Very exciting!

5 hours ago, Sox113 said:

We are going in June 2022 on the Queen Mary and I was hoping that Eavesway would take us from Newcastle to Southampton.  We went by train last time and it was ok, apart from the London change over, however it would be lovely to get to Southampton and just get on a smashing Eavesway coach to go home.  Someone told me that Eavesway don't operate for Cunard any more.  I really do think there is a gap in the market here, all these people in the north trying to get to Southampton!

As far as I know, Eavesway still run coaches to Southampton... we used one after Inter cruises took over the contract from Cunard/P&O etc, although that was down the west coast. If you google them, they have booking forms on line- I  don't know if Newcastle is mentioned, but they're offering cruise coaches TO Newcastle for Fred O and Marella, so are probably doing the Edinburgh/N/C route to Southampton. 

Just received my Fred Olsen brochure- there isn't a Caribbean season during the coming winter,  but winter 22/3 has the ship Braemar home porting in Havana for two nights (and also Barbados) so people can fly in or out of these ports.

I've just seen that Fred O is starting some cruises from Belfast and Tilbury (which was used by the CMV ships).

Could be useful for some, especially in NI.... we've met people from there who travelled by ferry and train to depart from Newcastle.

19 hours ago, codeyell0 said:

do you remember the cruise line?  I know carnival does it in the Havana rooms but they are not balconies, now if carnival would make them balconies i would be all over them but instead you have people walking by your outdoor area 

It was an Aida cruise line ship.

As mentioned, Lisbon is easy on your own, but there's also a HoHo bus which will give a good oversight.

Cartagena- one passenger called at the tourist booth at the dock, who suggested a local taxi firm which play an English commentary as you tour the sites, including the Roman remains. The passenger was very pleased with this. 

1 hour ago, lenquixote66 said:

A woman who I went to school with who was born in and currently lives in Aruba believes that a flower that grows there can cure every disease from Cancer to Covid.She said you boil the flower and then drink the liquid.

I went on a walking tour in Tortola, and we saw a tree which supposedly did the same thing.... Presumably there's no illness in either of these islands.

We had an aft cabin on sister ship NCL Jade, immediately beneath the buffet. There was a large balcony, with a gutter which always had cigarette ends and those pink sugar substitute packets in it... I kept having to assure the steward that we hadn't left these, but he was obviously used them blowing over the side of the buffet. 🙄

Yes, we could hear chattering if we were in dock, but only out on the balcony, and not when we were at sea. I don't remember it being a problem inside the cabin.