Lets talk cruises
- Thread starter area51_for_psx
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Soldato
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- 18 Oct 2002
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- Nr Colchester, Essex
We are doing fjords again this year. Different ports though this time and MSC Virtuosa which might be a shock as I hear MSC is loud. By chance all the ones we have done upto now have been P&O.
Stops in:
Lerwick (Shetland isles)
Maloy
Flam
Kristiansand
So less fjordy than the last one but Flam should be good and looking forward to Lerwick.
Stops in:
Lerwick (Shetland isles)
Maloy
Flam
Kristiansand
So less fjordy than the last one but Flam should be good and looking forward to Lerwick.
People on our ship said it always rains in Bergen.
Never thought about actually doing a cruise, But we do a Euro road trip every year and visiting different places is the main draw.
So Mrs Matt found this: Upgraded cabin etc
www.celebritycruises.com
With a few added days to visit Lake Garda afterwards.
So Mrs Matt found this: Upgraded cabin etc
11 Night Best of Italy & Croatia Cruise from Rome (Civitavecchia) | Celebrity Cruises United Kingdom
Set sail on Celebrity Constellation for 11 Nights and experience the best of Europe on a Best of Italy & Croatia Cruise. Book your Celebrity Cruise today!
www.celebritycruises.com
With a few added days to visit Lake Garda afterwards.
Apparently the wettest city in Europe.
Recently got back from 10 days on P&O Ventura, first cruise, first abroad holiday with my 7 and 4 year old boys and the wife. Probably the easiest holiday I could ever have wished for. On the coach at Keele services, didn't see the bags til we were aboard... incredible
Must have got pretty lucky when we went a few years ago then. Grey first thing but mostly blue by the afternoon. Stavanger on the other hand was a wet one. I'll have to go back for some of that 30s weather!
We took a boat trip to Pulpit Rock, was glorious
Very jealous! We just wondered around looking at the street art and the little houses on the hill, which to be fair was still a nice day considering.
Caporegime
- Joined
- 11 Mar 2005
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- Leafy Cheshire
You have to think about how much you're going to drink and how much a drinks package would cost, lots of the time unless you intend to be Paralytic all holiday they don't make sense.
On Virgin, who don't do drinks packages, every other day i was getting a bottle of Moet, then in-between single glasses of Dom Perignon or Moet + the odd cocktail and a bottle of Prosecco.
Bottle of Moet is $105, a glass is $25, a glass of Dom was ~$50, cocktail was something like ~$14 and Prosecco was $50.
From memory total spend for 7 nights for myself was something like $650 (OH doesn't drink).
Most / all drinks packages require everyone in the same cabin to buy it + the quality would be far worse than what i was drinking, Celebrity for example is $110 a day and only includes drinks upto $17 each, so not full bottles.
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Thanks for the alcohol safety advice lol the tips part was genuinely more important to me as i physically despise the fakery of it all.
So I'm guessing Marella and MSC still ? Non American companies.
Sorry I have a huge problem with the American style cruises its a me issue and it's blinds me with rage almost. Lol
So I'm guessing Marella and MSC still ? Non American companies.
Sorry I have a huge problem with the American style cruises its a me issue and it's blinds me with rage almost. Lol
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Caporegime
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- Azamara
- Celestyal
- Crystal Cruises
- Marella
- MSC
- P&O
- Regent Seven Seas
- Saga
- Silversea
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Soldato
- Joined
- 20 Oct 2002
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- 12,262
- Location
- Derby
I cam back at the weekend from my cruise. On the whole it was very good.
We almost didnt do Rome as we were going to do on our own but heard a load of people had a nightmare with the train. Ended up doing a P&O Excursion by coach which included the hop on hop off bus for £104 as we didnt want the stress of being so far away from the port and possibility of missing the ship. There are some parts of the city that were spectacular and some areas that were dumps (Around the train station). We ended up spending a little time in the old part of the city on the other side of the river from the Vatican. Had a nice little wander round, saw the 3 fountains and some other bits, had a nice pizza. Then got back on the bus to go round the rest, got off at the big church, had a coffee and some amazing gelato then went back to the meeting point (Where they did the chariot racing) as there was roadworks outside the colosseum so would have been a bit tough on my mum to walk there from one of the other stops.
Only downside really to the cruise was that the shore days were bunched up and there was a few days at sea to get to Cadiz then 3 days from Alicante to Southampton both of which were a bit rocky but managable. If i could have got a flight from Alicante home and saved the 3 days i would have but i guess that is the thing with a cruise to the med.
We almost didnt do Rome as we were going to do on our own but heard a load of people had a nightmare with the train. Ended up doing a P&O Excursion by coach which included the hop on hop off bus for £104 as we didnt want the stress of being so far away from the port and possibility of missing the ship. There are some parts of the city that were spectacular and some areas that were dumps (Around the train station). We ended up spending a little time in the old part of the city on the other side of the river from the Vatican. Had a nice little wander round, saw the 3 fountains and some other bits, had a nice pizza. Then got back on the bus to go round the rest, got off at the big church, had a coffee and some amazing gelato then went back to the meeting point (Where they did the chariot racing) as there was roadworks outside the colosseum so would have been a bit tough on my mum to walk there from one of the other stops.
Only downside really to the cruise was that the shore days were bunched up and there was a few days at sea to get to Cadiz then 3 days from Alicante to Southampton both of which were a bit rocky but managable. If i could have got a flight from Alicante home and saved the 3 days i would have but i guess that is the thing with a cruise to the med.
Hey all, Just dis-embarked today after Five Days on the MSC Virtuosa sailing from Southampton to Rotterdam, Cherbourg and Zeebrugge. This was our second cruise with MSC and second in total.
Ship:MSC Virtuosa
Dates and Embarkation: Monday 4th May --> Saturday 9th May. We stopped down in Southampton from the Saturday and make it a long weekend. Arriving the day before would have been ample. Even though the Southampton marathon was on the same weekend, there was plenty of reasonably priced hotel's. On the Monday, we had the cruise fever and arrived a little earlier than we should have done. The que to get into the cruise terminal looked pretty big. That said, it was very well organised. Dropped off at 11.00 through security, checked in and on board for lunch for 12.10. All in all a very good experience. The first thing that strikes you when you are getting on board Virtuosa was the sheer size of her. Apparently we was at 90% capacity when leaving port.
Also this time around, the safety video could be viewed in the MSC app and then you click to confirm we had both watched it. Last year we had to goto a muster station, then back to our room to watch a video and dial a number. This was much slicker.
Cabin Type: We were located on deck 10 in a fantastica cabin that had a balcony. Safe to say this cabin was a lot more modern compared to last years journey on Splendida. In total we had 4 plug sockets, and 4x USB ports. All ample for charging many devices. Lot's of storage space, given the time of year, we packed for pretty much every weather type. Balcony was spacious with two chairs and foot stool. Our Cabin Manager was attentive and always on hand and ensured our room was cleaned at least once per day.
What's on Board / Entertainment / Meal's
First things first, the Buffett restaurant located on deck 15. Huge Kitchen, Huge choice, lot's of seating even at a busy breakfast time. Virtuosa had many entertainment venue's on board from Champagne Bar's to a Traditional English Pub and everything in between. The promenade inside was really something special and given the weather, was quite busy but not over busy after dinner.
Last year we tried Butcher's cut and being a bit of BBQ guy all year round, we found that it was nothing special. We tried Hola Tacos! which I think was around £25.00 per head. When we arrived at the restaurant they told us it was all you can eat for 2 hours. The waiter talked us through the menu, asking for our preferred level of spice. Have to say this was a much better experience. Good value for money and could not finish the final round
Restaurant wise we were assigned late dining in the Minuet restaurant. The staff service and friendliness was 10/10. Food wise I would prob give this a 7/10. Still the same well cooked and presented dishes but each night 50% of the dishes were the same e.g. Pan Fried Salmon, Chicken breast with potatoes, Minute steak. If I remember back to last year, there was more choice. I know you can have as much or as little off the menu as you want. More on that later.... We were also offered to upgrade one of our meals to a T Bone or Lobster dinner for £22.00. I went for the T-Bone, very well cooked
Show's there was the usual 'West End Style' shows. A Michael Jackson tribute, which was quite good. Dirty Dancing (90 Minute presentation) completely booked up. There was also a paid for theatre show including cocktails for £18.00 a head. Again not bad, glad we tried it.
The pool area is much bigger and an increased number of jacuzzi's. Even the out door pools were heated!
Trips / Excursions
Me and the wife this time around decided that we wanted to do our own thing given that Virtuosa docked so close to each city. Can only offer experience based off not taking and MSC Excursion
- Rotterdam. Five minute walk from the terminal and we spent all day in the city. Lot's to do for everyone if you like going off just to explore a new place at your own pace.
- Cherbourg: A much smaller place than Rotterdam. Full City walk taking in all the tourist places and lunch, we had licked in about six hour's. Plenty of time to get back on the boat and enjoy some sun, R & R
- Zeebrugge: Prob the worst of the bunch. Again a short walk from the boat to the cruise terminal. That said, Zeebrugge is an industrial port town. Not a lot to do. What made that worst was the picturesque beach about two miles away. Nothing was open, wasted journey. My advice, book an excursion or stay on the ship and enjoy the facilities.
Staff: All staff we encountered were courteous, professional and friendly.
Guests: Compared to last year, it was clear that this cruise catered for a British crowd. There was no announcement done every hour in English, Spanish, German, Italian etc. Age profile went from first time cruisers in there 20's, young families, hen parties, middle aged couples, pensioners. Despite the ship being at near capacity, never really had to wait for service.
SOME Guest's was also a massive downside for me. Quite a bunch of entitled over bearing self opinionated gammons really do know how to put a damper on things.
- One person complained on the Virtuosa Facebook group that it was a disgrace that their Buttler in Yacht Club forgot to take their breakfast order and would never book with MSC again as a result
- Lady complained at breakfast that she had to wait for a Fresh Omelette. (Surely the clue is, it's cooked fresh i.e. not already cooked !!!!)
- An American couple sat next to us on the first evening. Both decided to order every single dish off the menu twice (One Each) on the basis that the little princess had quite the day and was super hungry. Promptly took a few bites of each and let it all goto waste. Just because you CAN order all of it you want, WHY if you are going to waste it. Boils my ***s that kind thing.
- A British couple ordered the seafood platter at the champagne restaurant on the last night. £80 dish full of Oysters, Crab, Lobster etc. On arrival, refused to eat and pay because they said it was too big.
- An American guy at breakfast waiting for coffee with earphones on.. The server asking how his day had started, what his plans were for today. being quite talkative (as no doubt he has been trained to) and the guest said, 'dude not hear to talk, hurry up with my coffee'
- Lady in the jacuzzi moaned to anyone who would listen that this is her 5th cruise after sailing Royal Caribbean but MSC were not a patch on Royal Caribbean.
Conclusion's
All in all no complaint's. Yes definitely a few pet peeve's like the restaurant menu. Could not connect to the bluetooth speaker in our room with any device. Another pet peeve would be the TV in our room would not allow you to stream from another device or input via HDMI. On the plus side, service great, value for money great, entertainment great, staff all 8/10. Our fault that our last day onboard was a bit of a let down, but that's on us for not doing our research.
Ship:MSC Virtuosa
Dates and Embarkation: Monday 4th May --> Saturday 9th May. We stopped down in Southampton from the Saturday and make it a long weekend. Arriving the day before would have been ample. Even though the Southampton marathon was on the same weekend, there was plenty of reasonably priced hotel's. On the Monday, we had the cruise fever and arrived a little earlier than we should have done. The que to get into the cruise terminal looked pretty big. That said, it was very well organised. Dropped off at 11.00 through security, checked in and on board for lunch for 12.10. All in all a very good experience. The first thing that strikes you when you are getting on board Virtuosa was the sheer size of her. Apparently we was at 90% capacity when leaving port.
Also this time around, the safety video could be viewed in the MSC app and then you click to confirm we had both watched it. Last year we had to goto a muster station, then back to our room to watch a video and dial a number. This was much slicker.
Cabin Type: We were located on deck 10 in a fantastica cabin that had a balcony. Safe to say this cabin was a lot more modern compared to last years journey on Splendida. In total we had 4 plug sockets, and 4x USB ports. All ample for charging many devices. Lot's of storage space, given the time of year, we packed for pretty much every weather type. Balcony was spacious with two chairs and foot stool. Our Cabin Manager was attentive and always on hand and ensured our room was cleaned at least once per day.
What's on Board / Entertainment / Meal's
First things first, the Buffett restaurant located on deck 15. Huge Kitchen, Huge choice, lot's of seating even at a busy breakfast time. Virtuosa had many entertainment venue's on board from Champagne Bar's to a Traditional English Pub and everything in between. The promenade inside was really something special and given the weather, was quite busy but not over busy after dinner.
Last year we tried Butcher's cut and being a bit of BBQ guy all year round, we found that it was nothing special. We tried Hola Tacos! which I think was around £25.00 per head. When we arrived at the restaurant they told us it was all you can eat for 2 hours. The waiter talked us through the menu, asking for our preferred level of spice. Have to say this was a much better experience. Good value for money and could not finish the final round
Restaurant wise we were assigned late dining in the Minuet restaurant. The staff service and friendliness was 10/10. Food wise I would prob give this a 7/10. Still the same well cooked and presented dishes but each night 50% of the dishes were the same e.g. Pan Fried Salmon, Chicken breast with potatoes, Minute steak. If I remember back to last year, there was more choice. I know you can have as much or as little off the menu as you want. More on that later.... We were also offered to upgrade one of our meals to a T Bone or Lobster dinner for £22.00. I went for the T-Bone, very well cooked
Show's there was the usual 'West End Style' shows. A Michael Jackson tribute, which was quite good. Dirty Dancing (90 Minute presentation) completely booked up. There was also a paid for theatre show including cocktails for £18.00 a head. Again not bad, glad we tried it.
The pool area is much bigger and an increased number of jacuzzi's. Even the out door pools were heated!
Trips / Excursions
Me and the wife this time around decided that we wanted to do our own thing given that Virtuosa docked so close to each city. Can only offer experience based off not taking and MSC Excursion
- Rotterdam. Five minute walk from the terminal and we spent all day in the city. Lot's to do for everyone if you like going off just to explore a new place at your own pace.
- Cherbourg: A much smaller place than Rotterdam. Full City walk taking in all the tourist places and lunch, we had licked in about six hour's. Plenty of time to get back on the boat and enjoy some sun, R & R
- Zeebrugge: Prob the worst of the bunch. Again a short walk from the boat to the cruise terminal. That said, Zeebrugge is an industrial port town. Not a lot to do. What made that worst was the picturesque beach about two miles away. Nothing was open, wasted journey. My advice, book an excursion or stay on the ship and enjoy the facilities.
Staff: All staff we encountered were courteous, professional and friendly.
Guests: Compared to last year, it was clear that this cruise catered for a British crowd. There was no announcement done every hour in English, Spanish, German, Italian etc. Age profile went from first time cruisers in there 20's, young families, hen parties, middle aged couples, pensioners. Despite the ship being at near capacity, never really had to wait for service.
SOME Guest's was also a massive downside for me. Quite a bunch of entitled over bearing self opinionated gammons really do know how to put a damper on things.
- One person complained on the Virtuosa Facebook group that it was a disgrace that their Buttler in Yacht Club forgot to take their breakfast order and would never book with MSC again as a result
- Lady complained at breakfast that she had to wait for a Fresh Omelette. (Surely the clue is, it's cooked fresh i.e. not already cooked !!!!)
- An American couple sat next to us on the first evening. Both decided to order every single dish off the menu twice (One Each) on the basis that the little princess had quite the day and was super hungry. Promptly took a few bites of each and let it all goto waste. Just because you CAN order all of it you want, WHY if you are going to waste it. Boils my ***s that kind thing.
- A British couple ordered the seafood platter at the champagne restaurant on the last night. £80 dish full of Oysters, Crab, Lobster etc. On arrival, refused to eat and pay because they said it was too big.
- An American guy at breakfast waiting for coffee with earphones on.. The server asking how his day had started, what his plans were for today. being quite talkative (as no doubt he has been trained to) and the guest said, 'dude not hear to talk, hurry up with my coffee'
- Lady in the jacuzzi moaned to anyone who would listen that this is her 5th cruise after sailing Royal Caribbean but MSC were not a patch on Royal Caribbean.
Conclusion's
All in all no complaint's. Yes definitely a few pet peeve's like the restaurant menu. Could not connect to the bluetooth speaker in our room with any device. Another pet peeve would be the TV in our room would not allow you to stream from another device or input via HDMI. On the plus side, service great, value for money great, entertainment great, staff all 8/10. Our fault that our last day onboard was a bit of a let down, but that's on us for not doing our research.
I came back from a 14 night Transatlantic cruise (Miami, Azores, Cadiz, Motril, Tarragona, Ibiza, Marseille & Barcelona) on the Norwegian Viva last week. Only my second cruise so was unnsure what to expect, and wasn't too sure about the ship from watching some videos on it, but once on board it was brilliant. It was almost like 2 holidays in one - the first 6 (well, turned out to be 9 days due to a storm at the Azores so we missed it) were at sea then the 'cruise' holiday for the last 5 days. Didn't do any excursions and just got off and walked about with people I'd met on board, but it was quite possibly the best holiday I've been on (not a lot to choose from, granted, but still!)