Contemplating first cruise

[danisleigh]

Originally Posted by Snowball24

Thank you, we want one ideally from Southampton and some you have to fly to an airport first, do you fly and cruise or just cruise?

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Both. With Southampton you are limited to where you can sail to but for a 3 night taster it is where a lot of them sail from. If you wanted a week and nice weather it would be best to fly to Barcelona or rome first and then you can spend a night or 2 there first if you haven’t been before.

[Col&Ali]

2 tips -

1. have a look at some You Tubes. Eg, The Lodge Guys are currently on a cruise out of Southampton. La Rochelle looks lovely 😍

2. Read ScottishNellie’s cruise trippie which she has just been on … AMAZING 🤩

We have recently booked our first cruise for next year (Caribbean) … if we hadn’t have booked before reading Helen’s TR we would have booked her exact cruise!

[SquishTheWhale]

I think.if you went Cunard it would reinforce what your other half thinks about it being stuffy and for old people!

I would highly recommend NCL or Royal for a youthful vibe that will blow his socks off.

Princess and Celebrity are somewhere in the middle- fairly adult and refined but not stuffy.

[sully301]

We've done disney, princess and cunard, i want to try celebrity as the service is supposed to be very good. I liked all of the ones I have tried so far but for different reasons. We don't want to sit with others and haven't ever had to.
Cunard is a lot more dressy and in the evening it's either cocktail or evening dress. You can't go anywhere really without dressing up. One night we couldn't be bothered and used the buffet and sat on the deck. I did feel quite uncomfortable walking around the ship. Food really good and Queen Victoria has an amazing bar at the front that does proper cocktails. Sailing around the fjords sat having a cocktail before dinner was a lovely moment. Cunard has probably got the oldest clientele but there is a place for that. Princess is more relaxed and service is really good, i felt that the quality of food was lower than it had been before covid when we did our staycation last year. But, being able to get your drinks delivered to wherever you are on the ship was great.

[Love*my*hols]

Originally Posted by SquishTheWhale

I think.if you went Cunard it would reinforce what your other half thinks about it being stuffy and for old people!

I would highly recommend NCL or Royal for a youthful vibe that will blow his socks off.

Princess and Celebrity are somewhere in the middle- fairly adult and refined but not stuffy.

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You've said what I wanted to say ,but couldn't think how to phrase it !

[Snowball24]

Thanks, is Royal, Royal Caribbean?

[SquishTheWhale]

Originally Posted by Snowball24

Thanks, is Royal, Royal Caribbean?

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Yes sorry!

Royal/RCI= Royal Caribbean
NCL= Norweigan Cruise Line (American line, nothing to do with Norway!)

[mickeyspal]

If you do decide to fly out to pick the ship up then it's always a good idea to go the day before incase of any delays . We do our own flights as they are a lot cheaper ,but if you do a marella/tui and I think P&O ( but not done them) the flights are included

[Smilesonfaces]

Originally Posted by Snowball24

Thank you, we want one ideally from Southampton and some you have to fly to an airport first, do you fly and cruise or just cruise?

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We have done both. I do prefer Southampton, it is a fair drive but the start of the holiday is more relaxed than flying. Itineraries are more limited though. Last year we did a 7 day staycation. I thought 7 days on a ship would drive me mad but I loved it. We were really lucky with the weather though. We are doing more or less the same route this year, Guernsey, France and Spain but will be able to get off at ports this year.


I would be a little wary of 3 day taster cruises. I do have the impression they can be a bit of a booze cruise. If you want the formal night with the evening dress and tuxedo I’m not sure if you would get this on a mini cruise ( other than Cunard) Myself I would just go for it and go for a weeks cruise, you will get a much better impression of whether you like it.

I would set your budget first then decide on type of ship and itinerary. Is there any where you particularly want to go ? I am not too bothered at the itineraries. It is the ship that matters more to me.

I have worked on a budget of £100 pppd for just the cruise. Drinks packages, flights and spends would be extra. We don’t do ship excursions, they are extortionate. We use local buses and trains.

Why don’t you have a look at a few vlogs on You tube. I particularly like Ben and David and a couple called Andy and Kirsty.

[vampiress88]

I’ve only ever been on p&o so can’t give you a rounded answer. But I thought the same and that it’s full of old people and to be fair it is full of more of the older generations than me(34) probably 50+ for at least 70% on p&o I would guess.
But anyway it’s always been good for us and for the kids. We like dressing up so that doesn’t bother us and cos we have the kids we always get table for 4. If you book a package that can have select dining or the new ships have freedom dining then you can get a table for 2.

We are going to try Msc. See if that’s any better but for me it’s all about budget. My msc and p&o ones range from £178-£292 per night for all of us.
If I go on NCL, celebrity, Disney or RCL then I’m looking at £571-£727 per night.