Tacu

I remember looking at cruises with the former Mr Tacu, 20+ years ago.  We worked out we could possibly afford an inside cabin in the bowels of the ship.. didn't appeal so we never booked.  Then we roll round to 2017 and my 50th birthday, which I wanted to mark in a memorable way, so booked a solo balcony cabin on Britannia and headed off to the Norway fjords for a week.. I can't describe how much I loved that cruise!

My parents wanted to see me off so they came down to So'ton and we went out for dinner the night before, then they drove me to the docks to pick up the ship, and I think we were all flabbergasted about how huge it was 🙂  I checked in early and spent about an hour just running around an empty ship taking photos and trying to get my bearings, before returning to my cabin and spending the next few hours sitting on the balcony just gazing at Southampton docks and feeling "special"

The cruise was everything I wanted: amazing scenery and interesting places to visit. I have some challenges with cruise ships because I prefer my own company and can't cope with crowds so dining was a massive challenge but I managed to cope and always managed to end up on a table alone (note to self: use room service in future).  For my actual 50th I dined in Epicurean although I felt massively out my depth there, have never been to such a posh restaurant before, but it was quite an experience

Since then I've managed another cruise on Oceana and then my plans this year for a Baltic cruise with NCL have obviously had to be cancelled.  I struggle with the idea of cruises because they offend my eco-sensibilities so I don't know if I'll ever take another one, but I've loved the two I've been on and nothing can beat that feeling of sitting by the water 

I miss the peace of just sitting and watching / listening to the water.  I go to the local lakes sometimes and sit on the fishing jetties but it's not quite the same, and ofc in real life there are always time pressures intruding

I did the same - had a June cruise with final payment due at the end of March, and I cancelled it about a month ago after a lot of agonising. I was devastated, and am still pretty upset about it now in all honesty. It would have been my first cruise with NCL and I'd been really looking forward to some things.

I'd already paid all my flights and hotels for the connection and I'm holding onto those for now. Not too sure why but I suppose if they open the borders again it might be nice to have a flight out and a night in Europe.  They all either have 'cancel for any reason' or 'cancel up to 24 hrs in advance' on them so I can take a few more weeks to decide what I'm really going to do.

I feel for you, I know it's difficult but I think we've both made the right decision.  There will be other cruises in future years once the world's more stable again.

Did nobody mention the Isle of Wight yet?  I went there for a short break last year, the first time I've ever visited it, and loved it !  Yes it's small but it has a lovely 'feel' to it and there's enough to see and do.

Other things on my wishlist (which probably won't ever happen as rail travel is so expensive in this country) include re-creating a school trip I did as a teen (York, Hexham, Hadrian's Wall, Lindisfarne etc); going back to see Devon and Cornwall (and a big +1 for Eden Project, would love to revisit that), and a trip to some of the Scottish Isles, maybe Skye or the Orkney Isles

Edit to add: I was born in Hull (was brought up in the Midlands and now live in the South East) - did one trip to Hull when I was a teen so I could see where I was born [although most of the old geography had been demolished by then 😞 ].  Would love to go back one day to see it all again

Difficult to say, part of me would hope that things are getting back to normal by August and that NCL are still solvent.  A lot of me would just take the money and run though.

I reluctantly cancelled my June sailing because final payment was due and there were other factors meaning I didn't want to wait to see if NCL would cancel it of their own accord.  Still devastated about it though.  Didn't want to keep it and possibly take FCC because of the possibility that NCL will fold & also I don't know when I'd be able to fit in another cruise as I'm still in full time employment.

Think about what could happen though even if the cruise weren't cancelled. Maybe the trip would go ahead but some of the ports would still be closed, how would you feel if that happened?  Only you can make the decision but I think a lot of things will be changing in the next couple of years and maybe it's better to play safe if you have the option of recouping most of your money.

I've kept my Heathrow and Copenhagen hotels for now, plus the Copenhagen flight, on the hopes that Denmark will re-open borders before I'm due to go in June - I seem to have bought 'cancel for random reasons' insurance on 'most everything so it can't hurt and might help some businesses stay alive.  I think the cruise will most likely be cancelled but I'd still like something to do during that time off that I've booked

I bought a teddy from the on-board shop, and my steward used to leave an extra chocolate on the teddy's lap when the cabin was turned down at night - for that reason alone I left my steward a little extra at the end of the cruise 🙂

I was actually quite surprised - have been diagnosed with a couple of fairly trivial but permanent medical conditions so declared them both when booking my insurance this year, and it turned out to be £10 cheaper than last year despite the disclosure ! But yes, always declare everything else they'll find excuses not to pay out.

I was going to ask a question but instead decided to Google it, and wow, this is such a nuisance 😞

The Thomson / TUI hand luggage allowance on package holidays is one cabin bag that does not exceed 5 kg and that does not measure more than 55 x 40 x 20 cm. ... All items such as handbags, laptops and duty-free purchases must fit within this one item of hand luggage.

I suppose this means I either need to find a smaller handbag so that I can fit it into my cabin bag with all the other junk I want to carry, or need to find a bigger handbag so that I can fit all the junk into there.

First world problems, I know...

I took a solo cruise for my 50th and loved 90% of it, it was the best way to celebrate a birthday!  (90% because I'm a true hermit and sometimes the sheer number of people on the ship got to me a bit and I had to hide in my cabin until I'd recovered... but I know what I'm like and kinda expected that!)

I'm off to the Eastern Med in a few weeks and have a Baltic cruise booked for next year.

The best bit about solo cruising in my opinion, as a single woman, is that it's a very easy and safe way to see lots of destinations without having to worry about accommodation and travel.  And mostly everything is paid up-front (including the extortionate single supplements) which means that budgeting is easy 🙂 

I too had no dresses.  I managed to pick up a fairly posh frock in the sales and took that as my only dress - it was fine.  But as others have said, the evening 'themes' a re a guide rather than a rule.  It's nice if people make the effort to dress up but nobody's going to look down on you if you've dressed nicely and yet don't fit in with the night's theme 🙂

16 minutes ago, FLAHAM said:

Tacu,  not to  worry!  See my thread here....

 

 

Oh this is great, thankyou 🙂

After a lot of dithering, I've booked myself into a Studio cabin for a Baltic cruise next year.

I'm really excited already, St Petersburg has been on my bucket list for a while but the cruises were just too expensive.  Booking a studio has just about kept the price within my comfortable levels, but I'm hoping it won't be a mistake.  I'm a loner and spend a lot of time in my cabin.  My first cruise was in a single balcony on Britannia and my second is in a double balcony on Oceana next month (you can tell I'm an experienced cruiser 😛 ) and the main reason for the balconies was so that I could 'hide' and watch the sea.  Next year's cruise on Escape will be my little challenge to myself, to get out and mingle and/or find quiet spots to sit and read.. hope that's going to work! 

I've bought the drinks and meals packages so at least that ensures I'll get out the room sometimes - looking forward to it though, I think it's going to be a whole new experience 🙂

8 minutes ago, SoccerMom#3 said:

Viking is top notch and I know their crew is well trained and dedicated.  

 

 

Having watched a few of the videos from on-board and the footage from tonight, I have to say that Viking have impressed.  It can't be easy, keeping the ship steady in those seas to allow evacuation.  The crew must be as anxious as the passengers but they seem to be doing a good job of managing the situation too.

I think I read somewhere that winds are forecast to die down in the next few hours - I really hope so, so that all concerned can get off safely and quickly

Best wishes to all, hope the evac goes smoothly

I did this cruise last year and booked only P&O excursions as it was my first time cruising and I wanted to play safe / wasn't sure what I'd be getting into by booking privately 🙂

At Stavanger - Stavanger Highlights

This was a very enjoyable tour, spoilt only by the torrential rain!  (It was raining so hard it broke my camera, to put it into context - it's never been the same since that day).  I always like touring around looking at new places so enjoyed the coach tour; the Viking Voyagers exhibition at the museum was surprisingly interesting (and we had a short time to look around for ourselves too); and the walk round the town afterwards also provided some good background and history.  (And fortunately the rain had stopped by then - bonus!)

At Olden - Kjenndalen Glacier and Lovatnet Lake

This was my birthday so a special day for me in any case, but I did really enjoy... errr, leaving the cruise ship to go on a boat trip across a lake 😛 The scenery was stunning and we had a little stop between the lake and the glacier to visit a waffle restaurant too.  Coach on the way back had a couple of stops to let us view places of historic interest too.

At Alesund - Alesund Heritage Walk

Again, gave good background to the town's history and let us see some of the stunning architecture there.

On 9/9/2018 at 8:08 PM, Traveling Library said:

The Art Nouveau/Jugendstilsenteret located in an old pharmacy is well worth a visit. Lots of art nouveau buildings make walking the area a joy.

After the walk I did my own thing and stumbled across the Jugendstilsenteret (Art Nouveau building) museum mentioned above.  This is truly amazing and I would recommend it if you like the Art Nouveau style.

At Bergen I didn't follow any official tour and did my own thing since everything I'd read said this was eminently possible.  I would strongly recommend Det Hanseatiske Museum og Schoetstuene though, this was great and the tour is available in English.  

Glad it's all turned out OK, must have been rather scary at the time!

I live in jeans and T-shirts / sweaters. Essentially I had to buy an entire new wardrobe for my cruise because I didn't even own any non-trainer footwear. Got lucky and picked up a Jacques Vert dress in the sales for £50 (normally £200 so a bargain!) and wore that for the gala dinner but by the time the second formal night came around I'd had enough and the food offerings didn't seem good enough to merit dressing up so I spent the second formal night in the buffet :(

Despite living in casual clothes though, I do support the whole idea of formal evenings. I felt a complete fool but it was lovely to see everyone else glammed up and enjoying themselves!

Coming in September it's far too early for me to think about 2019.

Sadly it's ideal for me :( It's hard to get more than a week off work without ring-fencing the dates ages in advance, and I've already committed my 2018 leave to a holiday with my parents so looks like 2019 will be my next cruise. Plenty of planning time, at least!

I've just returned from a cruise on Britannia in one of her single balcony cabins. It was my first cruise so nothing to compare against but in general I couldn't fault the cabin - small but perfectly formed and an ideal size for me. If I were a 6ft tall man then I might have found it a little snug but for a short middle-aged woman it was spot on :)

I was in L253 - Deck 16, very close to the lifts, stairwell etc and very handy for the buffet and Crow's Nest - and the only note of caution I would sound would be to consider taking a cabin further down the row. They cleaned the stairwell around 05:20 each morning - it meant I got to see a lot of dawns! (I get up 05:15 for work every day so am used to it but hey, it would have been nice to be able to sleep through occasionally.)

Tacu ... Seems you're under enough stress already so book your excursions with your cruise line.

Just to add - I'd already booked my excursions with pando for precisely this reason and saw the wisdom of it in our last stop. The All Onboard time in Bergen was 14:30. Two tour buses didn't arrive back until 14:25, which was cutting it horribly fine in my book :eek:

Just back from my first cruise ever, so here's a detailed description of how example excursion worked:

 

The first evening we received actual tickets for each excursion giving the name, date, and time. The daily newsletter, delivered by our steward, gave the time our group should meet in the ship lounge.

 

At the appointed time, a cruise line member would announce "Whale watchers - go to disembarkation." Staff scan your key card, sort of like an airline boarding pass, you go down the steps to the dock, where you are shown your exact coach, with the tour guide collecting your ticket. My mom forgot hers one day, but as she was on the ship's "paid" list, they didn't really care.

 

You'll be just fine!

I just returned from my cruise today too. Thanks to everyone for your helpful answers and (in case anyone stumbles across this thread when they have the same concerns) Geezer describes it perfectly. I found there were usually excursion staff onshore by the port gates too so in the couple of occasions where I still wasn't sure, they were very helpful and always pointed me in the right direction. Wandering around looking lost also seemed to prompt people to help :)

I've just come back from a week in the fjords on Britannia. I spent several hours a day on my balcony (I'm a loner and can't cope too well with crowds) and didn't spot any unusual wildlife - that's not to say that you wouldn't see any, just that I'd think you'd be very lucky to :)

For what it's worth, I did see some gulls that were new to me although admittedly I'm not very good at gull recognition as I live inland. I don't think they were anything too exciting but hopefully tomorrow I can pull the pictures off the camera and then work out what they were.

Enjoy your cruise!

Super - thanks all for the information and confirmations :)

I had a lot of credit card debt in my youth. I still have a credit card but it's mainly used for online purchases these days because of previous transgressions and I have no idea what the PIN is ... should be interesting when I come to settle my bill :)