Spirit of Adventure - luggage restriction

[retiredbrit]

We are on the Spririt of Adventure sailing 17 Feb cruising West African coast.

Regular Spirit cruisers is the following usual - we are flying out with BA with a luggage allowance of 2 cases each no more than 23 kilo each case. We are flying home on a Thomson charter flight (chartered by the ship) with a luggage allowance of 1 case no more than 20 kilos.

 

This seems very strange for an expensive cruise - when Thomson say it is the cruise line who set the weight limits on the return flight

 

How strict are Thomsons with the 20 kilos? they also have a 5 kilo limit on cabin luggage.

 

all comments welcome regards Alan

[GODIVA28]

We have just come back from a Spirit cruise and although our return was with a slightly more generous allowance, 23kilos, we were over at Mombasa airport and if we had been in a different line at check in would not have had a problem. Essentially, they were not bothered if people were over as it was obvious that some were quite a lot under in their allowance. The really silly part was that the luggage we had to remove from our cases came on the plane with us anyway in the overhead lockers. Don't forget there is a free laundry on board and about halfway through Spirit do a 'bag of laundry' for £15.00, which is good value.

 

There is no easy answer to this really as you could take a gamble and hope that you are not penalised at the airport or be really strict and regret either not taking more or buying more souvenirs! Whatever you decide, enjoy your cruise - we had a great time and are looking forward to our next one.:)

[retiredbrit]

Many thanks for that - I have another query which you can possibly answer - Dress code

 

I will be taking my Dinner suit for formal nights which I enjoy, can you clarify their Casual for the non-formal nights.

 

Other lines often have 3 formats of their dress code, Formal, smart casual and casual. Usually for "Smart Casual" or whatever the decription happens to be, I would wear a jacket, perhaps without a tie.

 

What is your take on your Spirit cruise - were jackets in the minority? Spirits paperwork seems to indicate jackets are not required but what would you say is the norm?

 

Joyce asks how dressy are the ladies on casual nights - from my past experience, ladies like to get dressed up whatever, which is why my clothes go in a tesco plastic bag and Joyce has the two cases:)

 

Many thanks regards Alan

[GODIVA28]

I think if there was one thing I would have loved to have known before the cruise is how much effort people put in for the first formal night which is essentially the Captains cocktail party - lots of dinner jackets and suits and the lots of long dresses for the ladies. There were always an element of those who did not like wearing dresses and wore sparkly tops and smart trousers. From a personal point of view (and yes I know what you mean about 3 different nights which I would have personally preferred). So I would say that for the three formal nights most people make an effort. For the casual nights it is a real pick and mix. I took mostly dresses and wore them whatever and yes maybe I was a bit overdressed some nights but I felt happy. A lot of ladies wore a mixture of dresses, not sparkly ones particularly and tops and skirts or trousers for the casual nights. I was quite surprised by how casual some of them were at times but the ship is a friendly one and no real sense of snobbery. I have to say too that we ate every night in the dining room and my DH only wore a jacket for the formal nights and a smart shirt (no tie) for the evenings. Up in the veranda which is casual every evening you are really free to wear whatever you are comfortable with and not feel out of place. I took a different dress for every night and in reality would not do that again on this ship. I would double up now and again and would probably have taken some nice skirts and glitzy tops - I am a sparkly girl at heart!!

 

Anything else you would like to know please feel free.