Try to evaluate what it is that you are looking for from a cruise
@Pablo1 with regard to ambience and entertainment.
And also the the sights you will visit.Is this itinary suitable for the places you would like to see.
I cruised a lot in the Navy but that was more your working holiday putting my life on the line for my fellow man but I dont like to talk about it so I wont.
Not tonight anyway.
Some examples on offer are Cunard line affording elagance and sophistication but somwhat on the formal side.
Still offering oppertunity though to let down your hair.
And the Royal carribean lines which are very much entertainment oriantated.
A good UK site to frequent that will give you all the information you could ever need can be found at
cruise.co.uk
Forums and ship reveiews are there by the maritime bucketful and you can also book direct through them.
Some good value to be had from the Italian lines like MSC and whilst their ships are glamourous they do nor nessasaraliy cater for the brit market.
P and O lines price in pounds shilling and pence and are very much Brit oriantated.
There are some tremendously good prices out there at the moment and I would advocate buying in with around two to three months to go for the best deals available.A good fare for example if you enjoy quality and romance is on the 14 day return Queen Mary liner to New york and back in November.
Fourteen days of utter sophistication and class with the most ecqsuitite of food and ambience for £850.
I expect this to go down to £750 shortly and then bottom out.
So fourteen days of the finer things in life with inceredulous food and entertainment second to none for absolute pennies.
They have an English style pub on board called the Golden Lion which we were regulars of that did brilliant fish and chips and mushy peas to order.
I found Cunard lines to be pricey on board but we did not take a drinks package which are becoming more prevalant now.
Bottle of house wine with our evening meal was around 25 dollars a bottle and very pallatible
Measures of shorts are in the American optics of 40ml so nearly a double and with mixers were around the 5.50 dollar mark
Queen Victoria and Elizabeth make up the other offings from Cunard which incidently are now American owned and registered in the Bahamas for money saving purposes.
On Victoria our favourite haunt was the Lion pub and Hemispheres for the night time disco.
And they had a resident band that played all the seventies hits and donna summer and the commodores.
Speaking of the commodores before dinner you can have canopays and hours des overies and martini coctails.
Here you can can chat shit with other like minded passengers before wobbling off to enjoy your splendid evening meal.
I remember one night we were ready to go down and the orchestra sat next to us was playing the theme from shindlers list.
As I stood there with my Martina to hand shaken not stirred I did my best to imbibe of this orchestrial delight ocationaly nodding my head in appreciation and pretending to be deep in thought on the all that this sentient life gives us.
We met two german pals on das boot called dagmar und Martin
Martin liked table tennis and constantly he would as he liked to say
challenge me to a game of ping pong.
Dagmar like to spleep a lot especially after she had eaten which was on the hour every hour.
Back to the prices although they are somewhat on the expensive side they do now operate a drink package and for some this may be worth the effort.
Cunard are one of the few lines that actually allow you to take alcholol on board.
Most do not and moniter this with a very very firm hand.
Cunards policy at every port of call was to allow a litre a piece on board for imbibement in your stateroom.
Borne of the shires of Rozzendorf and merely of working class stock I soon worked out ways to enjoy the atmospherics for less.
Victoria has two pools near to each other and both were incredulous.
As we like a slurp by the pool in the sun we would buy two and pour one which evened out the financial equilibriam.
Buy a few drinks drink and enjoy and then go to the other pool stopping off at your cabin on route to top up with healthy lashings of bombay and tonic.
On subsequent ships we utilized the drinks packages which were tremedous value
Cunard has afternoon tea dances but we didnt bother dancing and just had the butties tea and cakes.
So classy and sohisticated borne of an era long gone sunken to the annals of time immorial.
Royal carribean line was more entertainment and caberet infused but still pretty classy and fun.
I think the Royal Carribean lines are classed as four star but remain a sterling choice.
If any one is thinking of cruising then give it a go as it represents very good value for money and the service is way and above what you will experiance from any hotel chains.
All cruising incurs tipping and tipping is a very contentious issue deserved of thousands of pages all in of own right.
This is covered immensly on the cruise.co.uk forums and lots of the yuippies end up squabbling over it even their mods.
Certain global countries abhor the practise to tip with Nimrods Australia being one.
We all have different etiquette and America for example would think you rude if you did not tip because it's so entrenched into their day to day existence.
Tips are priced by person daily and added to your stateroom account but can be removed.
I understood that to tip is to reward someone for stellar work and care that went far and above that what was originaly anticipated or expected for normal day to day service .How then can you tip in advance of something that you have not yet received.
Plus I never did feel comfortable being told what to tip.
We withdrew on one ship from inclusive tipping and asked for envoplopes to tip at our own discretion near the end of the cruise.
We advised Roger the cabin boy and our wait staff of our intention and they were all happy to accomadate.
Needless to say we tipped at the end of the cruise and all was well once more.
On another ship we paid for our tips with our cruise booking in advance.
And then get this the scurlious sea dogs posted a tip envelope under our door thanking us for our custom.
This envelope was a tip for a tip if our service was better than what we had already tipped for three months earlier when we originally booked.
The tip on this occation they they received was not to eat yellow snow !
Anchors away and splice that mainbrace ship mates !
Queen Vic
Indie flow rider Royal carribean
Took me 10 days to completely master this mo-foe !
And the wet suit nipped me a lot.
After didnner we talked the talk about surfing and catching a big one :
Edited a few times for grandma and composition.
