Cruises vs Land Based Holidays

[snaefell]

I don't know though,on our first cruise with Princess we thought we had arrived at an airport,on arrival by coach in Southampton we had to wait at the bottom of the escalator up to the departure lounge for ages,luckily it was dry,when we got up there it was every bit as mad as an airport departure lounge,check in was chaotic,happily our later experiences there were very different.

BUT,after our return last March from Britannia's Transatlantic we had an horrendous 7 hour coach journey back to Manchester,after that cruising doesn't seem so appealing either!

[ann141]

I don't know though,on our first cruise with Princess we thought we had arrived at an airport,on arrival by coach in Southampton we had to wait at the bottom of the escalator up to the departure lounge for ages,luckily it was dry,when we got up there it was every bit as mad as an airport departure lounge,check in was chaotic,happily our later experiences there were very different.

BUT,after our return last March from Britannia's Transatlantic we had an horrendous 7 hour coach journey back to Manchester,after that cruising doesn't seem so appealing either!

We were on that horrendous coach journey back to Manchester after the Britannia translantic but the previous year we had caught the train home from Southampton which we felt was a lot better (and shorter!)January 2019 we are doing the round trip to the Caribbean from Southampton- no more long flights or coach journeys!

[Elliejay]

Thanks for all the replies, some interesting thoughts and a lot of valid points made. Regarding the posts about the 7 hour coach journey back from Southampton to Manchester, i'm hoping this was an exception to the rule, we've got a transatlantic booked for next year and i won't be looking forward to that part of the holiday if that's the average travel time. :eek:

Janine

[ann141]

Thanks for all the replies, some interesting thoughts and a lot of valid points made. Regarding the posts about the 7 hour coach journey back from Southampton to Manchester, i'm hoping this was an exception to the rule, we've got a transatlantic booked for next year and i won't be looking forward to that part of the holiday if that's the average travel time. :eek:

Janine

I don t think 7 hours is average from Southampton! The journey was particularly slow because of roadworks and traffic jams.It also took a lot of organisation getting everyone onto the coaches as a lot of people were catching coaches back to the airport they departed from.It wouldnt put me off doing it again but we would probably travel by train, partly because we then had another 1 and a half hours to travel once we arrived in Manchester.

[Selbourne]

We cruise because my wife is now in a wheelchair and she finds that cruise ships (and their staff) are very well geared up for disabled guests. We certainly don’t miss the hassle of airports, with all the queuing for check in, security, boarding etc and the hideously cramped conditions on planes (unless you travel Business or First Class, which is difficult to justify the huge additional cost, even if you can afford it). We also enjoy the feeling of ‘adventure’ that you get going to different places and the approach to most places is best from the sea. The biggest negative is that you only see glimpses of places. I would never do a World Cruise, for example, as I wouldn’t want to go all the way to somewhere like India and just have one day, 9-5, there!

 

When we do a land based holiday, we much prefer to rent a house rather than stay in a hotel. You have acres of space, no noisy fellow guests, can eat out where you like and when you like etc etc. Much prefer that to any hotel.

[snaefell]

That 7 hours was unusually long,it was Good Friday(we didn't know that when we booked the cruise),Our average coach travel time to/from Southampton usually works out around 4 hours,that seemed a long time until then!