insidecabin

My OH is not a big drinker of anything and is fine with the free tea, and I can do that for my hot drinks. This means our numbers are skewed. Plus used to be a no brainer at £30pppd Now at £50 it is a lot harder to make work if you don't use the stuffing(cake and fitness, many of our trips data roaming is good and very cheap). On a longer cruise not unknown to have a relatively dry day every now and then with very low spends. If we were doing 1 or 2 a year we would probably take package but now doing 5+ not every cruise needs to be that full on as long as the basics like included food and entertainment are upto scratch. PAYG drinks we can easily stay under the £100pppd total with the add-ons(including the CA). We do this on other lines as well. (Our last one package £410 we spent £260) Now Princess UK has deals where plus and premium get discounted often enough to grab one when the cruise fare is still ok. This year there was a 50% offer on both options for a load of cruises. Plus at £25pppd we can make work, premium at an extra £7.50pppd is marginal on longer trips but this is where the convenience value kicks in and our door prizes(if any) may help top up our 2 speciality meals. We booked a few any we add if there are late fare discount we can consider the basic cruise option The last UK offer a couple of weeks back was premier at plus price which adds quite a bit of value to plus, current offer is some OBC and flight discount which helps. On the don't have to think, You need to check your account every day(package or not) for errors, so even PAYG it's a quick have I hit the £100pd. We know some days may go over but there will be some that don't it's the total at the end.

Princess have also been doing captain's circle offers behind the scenes to keep headline prices up. I got some for Sun Princess in the Med. NCL also does this with their regulars extra discounts on the Latitude account.

System problem! they have staff in the loop that where the problem is.

We can cruise Princess without Plus ending up with a cheaper overall total when it is full price £50pppd. Just don't need booze, WiFi, paid dining every cruise. It is 50%(£25pppd) often enough to book with it and have the convenience factor even if we don't want to max out the inclusions. What is amusing are the tipping police that try to shame people for not paying full CA when the company is happy to cut it in half for you.

How come in the US the free at sea gratuities for dining and drinks are fixed but in the UK/EU they don't call them gratuities and can regularly do 50% off. Same with Princess they also have crew appreciation, when included in the fare packages they often discount heavily. This crew pay contribution varies from passenger to passenger. If a package passenger can have 50% off the contribution why can't those that just pay also choose to just pay 50%?

Easy ones are MSC the winter AI cruises out of Southampton hit £500-£550pppw. it's a very good unlimited drinks package. Our last one the 7n cruise £350pp drinks would have been £210pp we went PAYG and spent £260total.(under £70pppd.) The 7n med MSC and Costa often get down to £70pppn, cheap flights available. Do your searches on price and do them regularly to catch the low prices. Make sure you are signed up for promotions cruise lines are now doing personal discounts through loyalty schemes.

You have to catch the offers and price dips, got lucky our Princess bookings this year average £72pppn with everything included, don't need flights for these, happy out of Southampton. Parking in Southampton is around the same as airport parking. Princess prices have been creeping up as they are selling well, Jan/Feb had some decent prices even for the brand new Sun Princess. NCL often have 50% on their package which is reasonable anyway they usually throw some good late bookings if you can play the waiting game.. Both our NCL last year were under £75pppd and one included flight to Copenhagen Both Princess and NCL often have flight credits/discounts you have to call to get those we have had NCL totals go down adding flights. Celebrity had £49pp flights on cruises out of Athens for a while Feb/March 10/11n cruises, base cruise price £450 for 10n or 11n with upto $200 OBC, drinks package were £39pppd and tips £14pppd Currently Celebrity have a £1 flight promo(includes Manchester) cruises may be more but can be much better value. Look for the cheap flights first(seeing £200pp options with bags) to Cruise ports then look for cheap cruises. Not found anything for Nov/Dec yet might add a Transatlantic when there are cheap flights.

Product has been fine its the price, while we can get AI with extras at 1/2 the £145pppn on the likes of NCL and Princess Marella won't get a look in.

Check where your local airport flies(Inc uk to save the drive) and make up your own all inclusive package. We are still finding under £100pppd AI. Would be getting 2 week for that sort of money.

Marella is way overpriced these days. The cheerleaders make up reasons they like paying more. It's never been worth £200pppd we rate Marella at £70pppd a bit more with long hauls flights.

Hotels around LHR are not great for travel elsewhere by train other than central London. A lot of hotels don't do free shuttle have to use the Hoppa system. Why not look at places like Winchester Salisbury Windsor etc for a stay.

Who knows when NCL will try it on again. Eventually NCL apologized for the mess early last year and offered a gesture of some compensation.

FAS 50% UK sale still running 4 days to go. Base prices have not dropped as much so far this year.

US or other will accept any tip money whatever the currency. They will just think what a Richard if not local.

Get one of the multi currency cards then use local ATM for no charge. (Just watch there are loads in Europe that charge, proper bank ones are usually ok) Loads of choice, we use Revolut(need the physical card for ATM).

We did 15th march. Southampton bag drop was operating at 9:55.(don't know how early they started). While I went to park(cheap off site) OH said security opened around 10am. By the time(10:12) I got back no line, anyone that had been waiting had been processed and on ship. 8mins to do security, check-in and walk into ship. We were in the buffet for breakfast 10:23 A few on the other place group reported being on 10-15 mins before. NOTE: MSC summer cruises do get a lot busier as they can be full ship embarkation.

As some keep saying book early nothing to lose, this makes people booking less price sensitive as they just cancel if the price does not drop enough. UK non refundable so we just wait. The first line to drop prices to sensible levels get our bookings. Last year NCL did ok late booking so got some money off us. Prices for the Southampton ones we have looked at double where they need to be even with FAS 50% off. This year Princess made us an offer that will undercut anything NCL will come up with.

When P&O went to included service charges there was no difference to the lowest base fares they stayed around the same level. They have gone down on some trips since then. Often lower than NCL base fares.

On the Star when they had drinkgate 2022 and could/would do nothing on the ship to resolve guest services were recommending adjust DSC.

That does not work 100% of the time as people report they don't always get all items returned. Add the extra layer to help the lost and found bundle get back to their rightful owner.

There are lots of things that should be done on ship but are not. They were not checking individuals you just had to possess a Medallion of the right colour.

You are still paying, the package is not free. It was just another nickle and dime fee added to try to get people getting the package

Look after the pennies and the next cruise pays for itself. Not every is paying thousands for their cruises our next 4 average 13n under £1k each(with package) There is a reason cruise lines nickle and dime because many have the it's only a few $ attitude and are happy to keep paying5. Take a popular drink above the package limit, it's only a $+tip. Charge to use OceanNow it's only $14.99 Charge elite for laundry tokens(when full service is free) it's only a few $. ...

Maybe it should be compulsory to have a name tag on all clothes heading to the laundry. Like school PE/sports

Out last Princess(UK) you just flashed your Medallion and joined the line. Sometimes they had a couple of tenders worth of people lined up, not always possible to get on the current loading tender. They only ever glanced at one even though there were 2 of us. (🤔)