Cruises

lapley

We would like to go on a seven night Cruise. Could you recommend who to go with any feed back would be good.
Thank You

boliston

done a couple of cruises with fred olsen which seemed very good - they have smaller ships that are more like ships and less like huge floating hotels. They do not really cater for kids which for us is a real plus point as we have only ever seen one child so far. Smaller boast also mean no tendering at ports - we did not have to tender once on either cruise.

PeacefulWaters

P&O Southampton to Norweigan Fjords.

divadee

Depends on your ages. I'm late 30's and have done p&o, Cunard and Royal carribean.

For the more relaxed fun factor I loved Royal carribean. Cunard was lovely but very formal and p&o is a bit of an Inbetween.

daveyjp

It really is an open question. My advice is to grab some brochures or visit a few cruise company websites to see what sort of ships and ports you fancy.

Celebrity are by far the best line we have been with, but a cruise I really want to do is 7 nights around west Scotland and the Islands.

Upsidedown_Bear

Have a look at Cruise Critic

Caz3121

Cruisecritic is a good resource for specific cruise questions
Different lines have different market markets
If you have an idea of what you are wanting to get out of it and an idea of budget may be useful...there are ships with climbing walls and 3,000 passengers with facilities for children like Royal Caribbean or there are ships aimed at the more mature adults like Fred Olsen...ballroom dancing etc and nothing for kids. There are also ships where english speakers are in the minority like the Costa Ships

gettingtheresometime

We had excellent customer care from P&O last year; basically the ship couldn't dock to get the passengers off so we could board. Eventually boarded 24 hrs late.

They gave us £30 each as they initially thought boarding would be delayed by only a couple of hours , paid our over night hotel bill (we found our own hotel but they were finding people beds if you turned up at the dock) and refunded 50% of the cost of the trip.

They do adult only or family orientated ships so it really does depend on what you want

SeaVixen

I've been with both P&O and CelebrityX and couldn't fault either. Both had the right mix of formal nights and informal nights. Even the formal nights were optional to an extent, though proper shoes and shirt/female equivalent were required in the public areas after 6pm .

My first ship was P&O's Oceana, which I thought was just the right size. Large enough to have decent entertainment (some of the smaller ships can be a bit lacking in this) but the right size that you get to know fellow passengers.

By way of entertainment, there were two venues on the ship - one a complete theatre, the other more of a lounge environment. There was something in both venues every night, from full scale musical theatre productions, musicians, speakers, comedians, etc. There were usually two 'showings' of each thing every evening to accommodate the two dinner sittings.

I wouldn't recommend the Mediterranean for a 7 night cruise, especially not your first, as you'll have to pass through the Bay of Biscay which can sometimes knock even the most seasoned of cruisers a bit wobbly! You wouldn't want to have a one day out of seven potentially permanently sat down (I'm being extreme, but it's better you know the worst). However the Med does have a lovely selection of ports if you ever want to plump for a 14 nighter!

Something that we always consider is the Freedom Dining option. There are two ways to dine in an evening on cruises (IME).

One - you have an allocated table and dining time. This is good if you want to get to know people as you'll be sat with the same group of people each evening. You can of course ask to be moved if you really don't get on with them.

Two - freedom dining. You can wander into the restaurant when you are ready, however may have to wait for a table. You can choose just to sit with your party, or be seated on a bigger table with strangers if you want some conversation. Places for this fill up fast, so make sure you book it when you book the cruise!

Werther or not we can get freedom dining has changed our holiday dates/price before now, so it's worth considering if you have strong opinions on this matter.

davelewis

Queen Mary 2 - Southampton to New York - 7 sea days - there is nothing like the feeling of arriving in NYC on an Ocean Liner

Neil49

A bit more information from yourself would help, including your age group, do you want to sail from the UK or go on a fly cruise and get straight out to the sun. When do you want to go? Do you want plenty of entertainment and a family type of ship or something quieter?

I have found https://www.cruise.co.uk to be a very useful UK based website with a good user forum where you can get plenty of information.

Hope this helps.