Cruise advice please

brad26

Hi i really need some advice please, I'm looking into booking a cruise round the Med with NCL and have to get an un-obstructed picture window room as my partner is extremely cluastrophobic but the prices are all coming up about £200 pound per person more than i can really afford.

What i'm wondering is if i booked an interior room and then decided to upgrade when on board would this be reletively cheap to do or would it be the total opposite? i relaise i'd be taking a risk if there were no room left to upgrade to though. Many thanks

Brad

Wirral_Girl

I've been on a fair few cruises and the likelihood that you will be able to upgrade once onboard will be very, very slim. The cruise companies sail at nearly full capacity the majority of the time.

Have you looked into booking a 'guarantee' oceanview room? you won't get to choose a particular cabin so it is usually a bit cheaper.

A good website for cruise info is cruise critic dot com.

Hope this helps

alloutofmoney2010

Have you tried asking for the cost of a partially obstructed cabin i've had one of these before , can be a lot cheaper and really not too claustrophobic!
Have also asked about upgrades or changes of cabins on board before but never been successful.....hope this helps...:)

HXDave

Personally, i wouldn't advise on hoping for an upgrade on once on board. if you don't / can't get an upgrade when on board, you partner is not going to enjoy the holiday, and it will be money wasted.

maybe try searching different dates to find one that ties in with your budget, or maybe another cruise line. alternatively keep checking on a regular basis with the cruise company, as sometimes they put special offers on (best time to look i find is beginning of the month, as most offers are usually valid for the full month). however as more & more poeple book, the cheaper cabins usually book out, and you could end up paying more!.

hope that helps.

2nd_Time_Lucky

brad26 wrote: »

Hi i really need some advice please, I'm looking into booking a cruise round the Med with NCL and have to get an un-obstructed picture window room as my partner is extremely cluastrophobic but the prices are all coming up about £200 pound per person more than i can really afford.

What i'm wondering is if i booked an interior room and then decided to upgrade when on board would this be reletively cheap to do or would it be the total opposite? i relaise i'd be taking a risk if there were no room left to upgrade to though. Many thanks

Brad

I was in exactly the same situation last year and rang many different agents without sucess until i stumbled over cruise118 website. I saw a deal and rang them. i was put through to a really friendly girl who went through my options and found me exactly what i needed at the price i wanted- she even told me where to book the flights directly to save cash :beer:

Its also worth getting on the Cruise Critic forum as they have date/ship specific threads so you can "meet" fellow cruisers and thats how we managed to book some fab excursions with a group of 6 Americans which saved £££

[Deleted User]

Phone around as many firms as you can.. you can always beat a first deal. I've found Thomas cook very good in the past

ailuro2

You can book a "guarantee'' room which will not tell you where your room is, just guarantee you get a cabin of that type.

They are cheaper than a cabin where you can book the cabin, however - I would not go on a cruise where my budget was tight, full stop.

The cost of drinks, excursions, going to the pay extra restaurants etc. soon add up - OK so you can drink tea or coffee or water from the buffet, but now and again you'll want a change, and at about $6 per bottle of beer it soon adds up. Then add on $13 per day EACH in automatic tips.

We found onboard that a lot of people would sit and relax in the communal areas, so plan ahead to not spend too much time in your cabin.

Personally if budget is an issue I would book an inside room in a midships level of the ship with cabins above and below me, that way I'd be guaranteed a good sleep (inner cabins get no light, so are great to sleep in) but I would plan to be out and about onboard for most of hte time.

We cruised Alaska last month and made the mistake of spending a bit too long in our cabin - even though we had a balcony cabin they just aren't very big at all, and with me, DH and DD we were kind of in each other's way.

I'm a member on cruisecritic, it is very helpful if you can keep away from the dress code, smoking and tipping threads - they always end up in arguments.;)

ailuro2

p.s. we found Thomas Cook to offer the best prices too, and we went round a few travel agents to get them to beat our online quote.

Caz3121

looking at your cruise details on beat my quote
Cruise only is on cruise.co.uk for £617 each (cat EE)
flights Gatwick to BCN with Easyjet £85 return...although you will need to pay for bags etc...BA are £158 from LHR
need to price up the transfer

moonrakerz

ailuro2 wrote: »

I'm a member on cruisecritic, it is very helpful if you can keep away from the dress code, smoking and tipping threads - they always end up in arguments.;)

Oh - no they don't ! :D

brad26

Thankyou all for your input i really appreciate it. Just to note i have rung up literally every single cruise agent that i can find on the web and teletext but so far the best i've managed to get is an EE grade room with the un-obstructed window for £999. I really need to get this down to £800 pp

Ailuro2 you mention that you wouldn't go on a cruise on a budget....If i can get the price i'm looking for we would have about £1000 spending money and don't intend to go on any of the excursions just making our own way to places on buses/taxi's etc and also i don't really drink that much in the way of alcohol at all and would just be on soft drinks the whole time although the other half may have a glass of wine occassionly.....does this sound feasable or still too tight?

Caz3121....How did you manage to find those prices for Gatwick? i just looked and the prices were about £66 on the way out in the morning on 05/09/10 and £111 on the way back in the evening on 12/09/10. My preferred airport is Stansted but i'd happily go to Gatwick for those prices.

Once again everyone thankyou very much for your feedback on this. I guess i won't be risking the upgrade option. Also do they get cheaper the closer you leave it like package holidays???