Planning a cruise

[Cloverlady]

Originally Posted by Omega1

Thanks
I can only pass on what I have learned over the years and in retirement we have to make our pension pounds go as far as they can!
As I said, we aim for £65pppn or less in an inside cabin, out of school holidays, no extras (beverage package etc), flights not included. That said, some itineraries have limited availability so prices tend not to drop much, if at all.
We prefer to book direct with the cruise line as we stay in control of the booking - our experience of UK TAs is not good, it seems that once they have our money they aren’t interested in resolving issues. On the very few occasions we have used a US agent it has been a very different experience- they seem to be genuinely working on your behalf.
Of course, there are exceptions to all this where heavily discounted cabins are released to select TAs and are not available on the cruise line website. These are then packaged with flights, hotels etc to give some great deals. As an example there is a wonderful itinerary on MSC (Genoa to Durban) next October, the cheapest fare on the cruise line website is £2400 (cruise only), some TAs have a package of cruise, flights and 3 nights in a Durban hotel for £1900. So sometimes it’s hard to compare apples with apples.
Generally, any deposits paid in the UK are non-refundable. US deposits are generally refundable.
Hope this helps.

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It does indeed help!
Thank you again!

[JudyC]

Originally Posted by catherinesian

What cabin is it? If inside, yes, if balcony, then it's reasonable. You can get it cheaper but not often.

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That's a balcony cabin. I guess it's like flights, book at a price you are happy with then don't look again 😀