caribbean Cruise

monte_2

I am thinking of taking my wife on a cruise aboard the QM2 to celebrate our 35th Wedding anniversary early next year. This will be our first cruise, do any of you have any experience of this ship? Is it suitable for first timers? What sort of gratuities can we expect to pay and overall how much should we set aside for extras? Is it best to book through someone like Vacations To Go and book flights independently or book a package including flights, any advice wiould be most welcome.

Froggitt

Do you like dressing up for dinner? Do you like sitting for dinner with a group of new people you dont know? Do you prefer more informality? Do you like rock climbing or tenpin bowling, or cookery demos, or bridge, or aerobics, or wildlife discussions? Different cruise lines suit different people.

Tips......Id expect you to tip your dinner waiter/cabin girl etc individually on the QM2.....some lines do a fixed $10 pp/pd added to your account.

Extras......wine/beer etc wont be cheap......Id guess from £25 a bottle of wine upwards. Also day trips in resort could be maybe £150pp/pd

Price....yes VTG are fine......make sure all port fees, tax and charges are added to your quote. Try cruisecompare.com as well.

monte_2

Thanks Froggitt for your helpful advice, its back to the drawing board, more net surfing required me thinks!

franklally

monte wrote: »

I am thinking of taking my wife on a cruise aboard the QM2 to celebrate our 35th Wedding anniversary early next year. This will be our first cruise, do any of you have any experience of this ship? Is it suitable for first timers? What sort of gratuities can we expect to pay and overall how much should we set aside for extras? Is it best to book through someone like Vacations To Go and book flights independently or book a package including flights, any advice wiould be most welcome.

We did the transatlantic crossing in august on the QM2 - 2 adults/2 children - a great experience - there were no extras - all port fees and taxes were included as well as taxes for the return flight home - the tips you can opt out if you want (just let the bursar know at the beginning) - we opted out of the children's tips and gave them as cash to our wonderful waiting and cabin staff - we took bottles of water and refilled them from the water fountain in the restaurant - launderette etc has no charge at all - alcoholic drinks and fizzy drinks were charged - we had the grand sum of £2.49 to pay on top of the tips when we disembarked.
The service is fantastic and it really is first class at all levels. - we got a great deal on the trip and I think it was fantastic value for money.

There seem to be some great bargains on the caribbean cruises - there was one on travelzoo the other week - we got ours on cruise classified.

I really cannot recommend this experience highly enough.:beer:

monte_2

Thanks alot- Franklally
:beer: