Cruise - All Inclusive Holidays

MrsJ2008

Can anyone recommend a travel agent, company or ship for an all-inclusive cruise holiday.

Informal type hol for couple.

Thanks

Mark7799

Quite a few Thomson Cruises offer all inclusive options. Basically this just means drinks - excursions are still charged for.

Dizzydee

We booked through Travel Councellors and found them very helpful. I don't know how their prices compare to others but they managed to save me a few % more than booking direct with the cruise company on line.

MrsJ2008

Thanks for tips

ckerrd

If you are thinking of a Caribbean cruise then it is cheaper (usually) to deal with US companies direct. Such as buycruises.com

lisyloo

All cruises are inclusive of all food and entertainment.

The only things you pay for are - drinks, personal services (like massage or exercise classes), shop purchases, excursions.
You can get drinks packages on some ships. Thompson do this. I had some friends buy it but they couldn't keep up with the drinking to get good value even with having cocktails so it's worth weighing up what you are likely to drink.
Bear in mind that the more expensive the cruise the more expensive the wine and drinks. We have just been with Fred Olsen and they were very reasonable at 60p for a tea and £1 for a small bottle of water. There were some decent bottle sof wine on the menu for £12 which is less than we'd usually have to pay in a UK restaurant for the same quality.

I would also agree that it's very worthwhile seeing if you can book a cruise in dollars (or other currency).
I did this a few years ago when the £ was high against the $ and saved hundreds.
I'm not sure of the ATOL/ABTA protection side of things so probably worth using a credit card (so the credit company are jointly liable) but currently the £ is storming away against the $ so there are savings to be made.

I used a company call
https://www.vacationstogo.com and their call number to America was free and because of the time difference I had no problem getting them on the phone.
There was a £15 charge for sending the tickets (if you aren't prepared to pick them up on departure) but that's not a huge deal compared with saving hundreds of pounds.

getmore4less

MrsJ2008 wrote: »

Can anyone recommend a travel agent, company or ship for an all-inclusive cruise holiday.

Informal type hol for couple.

Thanks

For AI, you are pretty much stuck with Thomson or Island crusies in the Med. Occationaly RCI do have AI deals but only once or twice a year.

UP MARKET (£200pppd+) there are some AI cruise lines.

All ships(excep easycruise) are "mostly inclusive" with all food, entertainments etc included, drinks,tips, excurtions,spa,casino, etc extra, Tea coffe and on some juice are also included 24hr.

Cheapest deal to the Med including flights is £299.

For more info you really need to go to one of the cruise forums.

Some of the best deals are on the big US ships, for casual NCL have some deals in the med from Barcelona for under £500 7n and there is a good trip in Oct, Dover to barcelona that we are probably going to book, around £500pp for 11nights + spends.

Ignore brochure prices and have a look on Teletext227/228 one of the best places to get some idea of what is out there.

You will need to narrow down, where you want to go, when you want to go and some idea of budget(either door to door or base price with spends on top).

Cheapest booze is on Fredolsen and P&O, US ships are not too bad at the moment(exchange rate) but wine is expensive. bigger US ships have more things to do and tend to be international mix, Thomsons, Island will be mostly brits.

Any specific questions just ask.