carolian

Thank you for all you help Tring. Will check out your TA posts.

Carole

If you are booked on one of Fred's flights, then you will be kept on the ship until it is time to go to the airport.

 

People who had booked flights independently last autumn had to disembark by a set time (I think it was 9am or possibly 10.00am, but no later). We were not allowed to stay any later due to needing immigration staff which were only present then. We stayed in Mauritius for a week, so we were happy to leave then. If independent you could book into a hotel for a while, even if not a full day.

We have heard before that Fred have very limited timings for immigration staffing. Never have come across this before on other cruise lines. We will be having a stay in Mauritius before the cruise so could return there for a day visit. Maybe a hotel near Port Louis or even a hotel near the airport.

Do Fred offer airport transfers for NON Fred flight passengers?

We are booked on the Boudicca cruise from/to Mauritius at the end of November. Our Air Mauritius flight doesn’t depart for London until quite late so hoping we will not have to disembark by 09.00!

Has anyone experience of this?

I've been following this thread since the beginning and as an exercise (I had nothing better to do!:D) I have looked up 12 cruise lines to see their tipping costs.

 

The result of this is that P&O are the second cheapest of the ones I looked up. Fred come in cheaper at £4, and, funnily enough, Cunard are only just above P&O at between £8-10. The most expensive was Oceania - between £13 and £18 pppd depending on the category of cabin. Most were around £10-£13; Costa are slightly different in that they charge in Euros and Dollars depending on where their cruises go, but their costs are around £8-£14. Some lines (Azamara, Carnival, Thomson) include it in the price of the cruise and, in the brief time I was looking, I couldn't find a breakdown of what that was.

 

These prices are based on the current exchange rate, and are all pppd.

 

There is, however, one huge difference between P&O and nearly every other cruise line I looked at.

 

They do not charge a 'service charge' of 15% on drinks, spa services, etc. This would, over a two week cruise, be extremely pricey, and makes P&O extremely good value compared to the rest of them.

 

My husband and I don't think that £6 pppd is an extortionate tip when compared to others!

I was charged 10% gratuity on my spa bill on Ventura recently.

Thinking of C752 Ventura has anyone any comments?

Have never sailed in an aft cabin so this really could be a cruise of "firsts".

Carole

Today we are deciding to book Ventura, C deck balcony after reading previous posts. Still debating port or starboard.

The overnight in Madeira coincides with the carnival so that is great.

Thanks again for all the advice.

Carole

Hi Carole

 

Like you I have always preferred ships around the 2000 capacity. I've done around 200 days across all 3 Cunard ships and also a couple of cruises on HA's Zaandam.

 

I did a 35 night on Oceana last January and was disappointed with her. It was a Caribbean cruise to and from Southampton. To me, the ship did not roll smoothly - more of a judder. On the return to Southampton, there was an ex-Cunard deputy captain in charge and his comment on taking over was that he hoped we would hit fewer potholes on the way back :)

 

In March I was on Ventura and was impressed with the ship. The speciality restaurants are very good for me and certainly highlights an area that Cunard need to improve on. No problems at any of the ports with embarking/disembarking. The downside to me was, that compared to Cunard, the speakers were not as good - maybe just unlucky on that one.

 

I'll be on QE in December to the Canaries but also will be on Ventura in January going back to the Canaries.

 

If you decide on Ventura, have a look at the superior balcony cabins as that will give you a bit more room in the cabin but balconies are overlooked as are those on C deck but you do get a bit more sun on those compared to the higher decks.

Wow, Jon what a fantastic post. So informative and so helpful.

We are looking for a little winter sun and investigated the Canaries for March 2017. However as you must be aware the ships we might prefer to cruise on are not back in the UK then.

We have spent the last couple of days looking at Princess from Fort Lauderdale. Sadly the more interesting itinerary includes 7 consecutive sea days on a 14 day trip. Now dismissing that one.

With the Ventura is there a problem when such a large vessel arrives in, say, Madeira? Especially if other ships are in port the islands must be very busy.

Thank you to all that replied, giving such good comments. Of, course choice of cruise is very personal. We always choose itinerary/destinations. We do not cruise for cruise sake. We also take land based holidays. We have never visited Madeira but the weather is not as reliable as the other islands so we thought a cruise to several islands would give us a chance to see somewhere new and get some sun hopefully.

Time to go over all the options again.

Again, very many thanks to you all.

Carole

We have cruised a fair amount, mainly Holland America, Princess, Cunard etc. But we are now considering a cruise from Southampton to the Canaries for some winter sun.

We are looking at Ventura and Oceana. Any advice regarding these ships will be very much appreciated.

One obvious difference is the passenger numbers and ideally we prefer ships of not more than 2000 pax. This does tend to limit choice.

Our preference is for March so this is another restriction.

We like to book a balcony and from research it appears that the balconies are the same size, whatever grade.

Finally, any view on port or starboard in March would be the icing on the cake.

Carole

Thank you to everyone for your really constructive comments.

We have now switched our reservation to the Zuiderdam sailing from Quebec on October 7.

Our daughter and son in law live in Montreal so we will fly there before making our way to the ship.

Having spent days buried in deck plans we finally decided to book 4064 cabin. The extra cost for a balcony seemed unjustified as we only have three non port days. We may live to regret this.

We are going to Canada in June and we are spending three nights in Quebec before flying home. We will check out the train on this trip.

HAL do offer a transfer from Montreal Airport to the ship also, so we may consider that alternative.

Very many thanks again for such prompt and helpful advice.

Carole

Can anyone suggest which ship may be better than the other. We are currently booked on the Veendam from Montreal to Fort Lauderdale in D grade on lower promenade deck.

However now thinking of switching to Zuiderdam from Quebec to Fort Lauderdale in H grade obstructed view on upper promenade deck.

We have sailed Statendam, Ryndam, Volendam and Amsterdam previously.

Any comments/advice will be much appreciated.

Carole

The cruise ship schedule for Valletta is showing ETA 9:00, ETS 18:00.

 

That sounds about right for "Morning" and "Early Evening"

Thank you Host Hattie for your reply. I also checked a US .com website and they said 10.00 - 18.00 so that is fine.

Thanks again

Carole

Hi everyone lucky enough to be onboard already.

Can anyone please tell us what time we are due to dock in Valletta and also what time is all aboard for departure?

The Cunard VP just shows arrive morning and depart early evening!!!

We are hoping to meet friends but need to advise approximate times.

Any help will be very much appreciated.

Carole and Ian

Hi Carolian

 

What do you need to know about Aquaba? What is it that you think others may have heard?

 

andhow

Sorry andhow I was referring to a comment by maggiemou in post #795 where she says it is sad about Petra being off the list!

I have looked on our VP and Petra is still being shown on the Shore Excursions page.

If anyone know anything I will be truly grateful.

Carole

What have you heard regarding the call at Aquaba please? Also, where did you hear it?

Thank you in advance if you can put our minds at rest as this port is the main, probably only, reason we booked this segment.

carolian

Hi Embarking

We are booked on the ship tour to Petra and it is still showing on our VP.

We are going to be very disappointed if this port is missed. It truly is 99% why we booked the segment from Dubai to Southampton.

We can hear everyone yelling that no ports are a certainty and never book a cruise for one particular destination, but we did just that.

We feel it is too early for Cunard to be decisive about this but we wish you luck with your enquiries and will be watching out for any news you may receive.

Thank you Ray66 and Barbara.

Just wanted to check if prices had increased across the board and it seems they have.

I really prefer the way Princess book their tours. It is possible to book online to be sure of getting the trip you want BUT you do not pay until you are onboard. This leaves much more room for flexibility.

Barbara - thank you so much for your blog,it is sad that you will leave the ship before we board.

Carole

Hi, as this is our first Cunard cruise we are not au fait with Cunard policies.

We have noticed that the price for Shore Excursions has increased since we first started looking. Ok, the increase on the cheaper trips may only be $3 or so but we have not encountered this before. Fortunately we had booked with Cunard for the Petra trip before the prices increased.We wondered how this can be explained. As the prices are quoted in USD it would appear to simply be a price increase.

We are also wondering if the prices have increased to you lucky people already on your voyage?

Whatever happens, we will be joining the ship in Dubai and look forward to meeting those of you travelling on to Southampton.

Carole and Ian

Thank you for your kind replies. However, still undecided. By the time we make a decision I am sure there will be no availability!

Carole

Cannot decide if B751 cabin is good or not. I realise it has an obstruction but it also has a very large balcony.

I really prefer Caribe mid ship because of the large balcony but they are not available on our potential cruise.

Have never sailed in a stern/aft cabin, usually choose midship. Wonder if the noise/vibration etc is a problem.

Any comments will be much appreciated.

Carole