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Yes, river cruises are great as well, especially as you can moor up at the end of the street in a lot of cases. Done both the Danube and the Rhine/Moselle and much prefer the scenery down the Rhine. Fairytale castles around every bend. They do tend to be expensive though.
We went on our first cruise in May , we went with P&O on their new ship Arvia .
We did La Coruna , Palma , La Spezia ( Italy ) , Marseille , Barcelona and Cadiz .
We paid £900 each for the two weeks with an inside cabin .
I thought personally it was tremendous value for money , we had a good choice of restaurants as part of our package and you just helped yourself , eat as much as you want , the choices of food was outstanding , superb I thought .
We didn't bother with the drinks package , we both like a drink but I'm not the drinker I was as a younger man , three pints in the afternoon and a couple at night and that's me sorted these days .
About £5.50 a pint which is acceptable , however I'm a Yorkshireman , when we were ashore I brought bottles back from the supermarkets put them in our fridge and took em with me on the decks outside whilst Sun bathing , you can make it what you want as far as drinks are concerned .
Entertainment at night is part of the package , shows , singers , groups galore , cinema , pub quizzes , bingo , casino , you name it and it's covered .
The biggest rip off is the trips through P&O when ashore , avoid if you possibly can .
Make your own arrangements , a trip to Pisa from La Spezia was €70 each , we caught the train from La Spezia to Pisa , it was €8 each return .
Again you make it what you want it to be but do your research before you go with regard to the trips .
Only downside is I'd like more time when the cruise ship docks at port , tendency to keep checking your watch which I hate on holiday .
Other than that to see and experience what we did and ate what we did for £900 each is incredible value for money .
The Arvia is proper luxury , incredible ship , you can't believe the size of it but the facilities and luxury of it blows your mind .
For £900 even this Yorkie thought he was robbing them blind .
Caught a few ferries and I've taken in the scenic views from Gas Street Basin in Birmingham to Smethwich a few times on the Baggies Barge if that counts.
If not then I've windsurfed and used to do quite a bit of sea, lake and river canoeing; all at a decent cruising speed obviously. Even went on a pedalo a couple of times.
Oh, and I've gambolled across a boating lake in a giant transparent rubber balloon whilst pissed out of my nut and managed to avoid throwing up. Apologies if I've lowered the tone 😀 .
Was thinking of doing the Arvia in the Caribbean next year. A few friends who have been on the ship have said that the number of passengers made it difficult to book restaurants, shows etc. What was your experience?Quote:
Originally Posted by animallittle3
We're booked on P&O for March 2024 - ship is called Ventura, I think. Its around the Med taking in Gibraltar which has been on my list for a while now. Ive been spoilt on all-inclusives with beach holidays so I usually end up paying a large premium for the drinks package. They want around £500 each for this one, which is a heck of a lot more since we last sailed in 2019Quote:
Originally Posted by TipperaryBaggie
The drinks package is well overpriced on P&O Phil. You would have to drink a huge amount to make it viable. The on board bar prices are quite reasonable for a captive environment and certainly comparable with a lot of pubs.Quote:
Originally Posted by phild
We didn't bother with the restaurants you have to pay extra for so I couldn't say .Quote:
Originally Posted by TipperaryBaggie
We didn't have any trouble booking shows , saying that we were quite flexible with the timings , it didn't bother us too much to catch the last one at 11pm for instance .
There was over 5000 passengers on our cruise but other than waiting for the lifts which were busy it was more than comfortable for us personally .
It was our first cruise so I haven't anything really to put it against , we heard quite a few saying it was too busy compared to years gone by and that the food isn't as good as it used to be .
The thing is its very affordable for such as ourselves on modest incomes when possibly it once wasn't .
😆😆Quote:
Originally Posted by Prando
Prando highly recommends cruising up the "inside passage" of, I mean "with", his missus everyone!
"The added attraction" of the inside passage is you get a good view of the massive peaks!!
Prando!!......you couldn't make it up!!
😆😆😆
I've done P&O in the past but recently stuck to Marella, which are all inclusive and excellent value for money.