UKexplorer

Does anyone have experience of taking small children in Taxis in Spain? We’re planning to wander into the town or beach at the ports on foot but will need a taxi at some point.
 

I’ve suddenly realised that we won’t have a car seat with us and wondered what other travellers did or can recommend. We’re stopping at Vigo and La Coruna.

5 minutes ago, little britain said:

You’ll fly to Southampton but not to Barcelona? 

No. The drive to our nearest airport is an hour and a bit. The drive to Southampton is 2 and a half hours. So it’s much easier for us to cruise from Southampton than drive and fly to cruise.

To answer some questions:

• We’re looking at 2024 not this summer.
• August specifically as it’s for a special birthday.
• We don’t particularly want to fly if we can avoid it.
• The nearest airport is an hour and a bit away, Southampton is 2 and a half hours so it’s pretty straightforward to get to.

I haven’t managed to find another cruise itinerary I like as much with other cruise lines so I’m tempted to gamble and just keep checking the pricing for a better deal. If we miss out then at least I’ve saved £8k!

16 minutes ago, mjkacmom said:

One regret I have as a parent of 5 was not taking them out of school for yearly vacations before the oldest got to HS. We did it a handful of times, always backing up to a holiday weekend. 

We did it this year as our son is still 4, but from next year we can get a fine if we take him out of school. Not sure how much it is in our area but we’d have to take it into consideration. AlsoI want to go in August to be away for my 40th birthday.

33 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

You cannot compare a room with 2 adults in it to a room with 2 adults and a child.  They are completely different categories even though they are the same basic room.

 

yes the rooms for 3 or more guests usually have a higher price for the first 2 guests as there are a lot less rooms that hold 3 on most ships (Icon is the exception) and therefore they are more in demand and command a higher price.

 

Take a look at booking one adult in the balcony and the other adult solo in the cheapest inside that there is and then all sleep in the balcony room.

Every cabin we were in on RCI cruises as 2 people had a pull out bed in the sofa which we definitely didn’t pay extra for. So not sure why the price needs to double for each adult to add a child to the booking 🤷🏻‍♀️.

I checked the price for a balcony cabin for 1 adult and a child with an additional interior cabin for the other adult and it is £10k. 
 

The telephone RCI quote for 1 balcony cabin was £8961, the online RCI quote was £8537 and a third party site quoted £8007. 
 

P&O has a sailing on their new ship (Arvia?) for just under £5k for the 3 of us in a balcony but the reviews are a bit hit and miss. I’m not sure I can nudge the Mr away from RCI either!
 

Thanks for the advice.
 

Thanks both.

Yes @FamilyCruiserUK we seem to be hitting a wall with the “cheaper fare!

@FionaMG it’s my 40th in August and I wanted to do something special, also we’re tied to the school holidays now unfortunately.

We’ve only sailed with RCI but I think I’ll take a look at some other cruise lines to compare.
 

Thanks @firefly333 I gave it a try and it charged the child a near adult price (£5k) and the total came out as just over £11k. 
 

I’m finding their pricing structure very frustrating!

I could use some advice on the pricing. The last cruise we went on was before we had a baby. Now we have a 4 year old and want to try again next summer but the pricing when adding a child is baffling.

I priced up a sailing in a balcony cabin from Southampton in Aug 2024. It was coming out as £4k per adult rather than the £2.5k showing on the search page. We have Emerald level C&AS and the discount wasn’t showing either. 
 

I called RCI and was quoted £4338 per adult and £285 for the child which totalled £8961 with our C&AS discount. However, when I price checked just 2 adults, the same cabin was £2884 pp (total £5592). So it seems we’re essentially being charged £3k extra for the child place?!

Does anyone have any advice on getting a reasonable quote that includes a child? Or are we destined to be cruise-less until our son is too cool to holiday with us? TIA.

Thanks all. I spoke to Royal Caribbean to cancel and the guy was very understanding. He put me on hold and gave me an email address to send a letter from my GP confirming pregnancy. He said that they can hopefully return the deposit due to the circumstances.

Even if they can’t, they’ve gone above and beyond by trying.

I’ll let you know what they respond with.

Thanks both. The insurance policy doesn’t have any criteria that mentions this type of situation. I’ll give them a call and see where I stand.

Hi, We booked a cruise in Oct leaving the UK at the end of May. We’ve only paid the non-refundable deposit. I found out I’m 4weeks pregnant yesterday which will make me 26wks at the time of the cruise. Royal Caribbean won’t accept travellers over 24wks. I have travel insurance but only took it out just before Xmas.

Is this something that would be covered by insurance or should I just accept the deposit is lost?

Any advice from people who have had similar experiences would be great!