New or old news?

[SteveH2508]

I have some of the dinner menus as pdfs from our last 2 Ambassador cruises if anyone is interested.

[Selbourne]

37 minutes ago, Britboys said:

I've just booked a 6 night cruise on Ambassador for the end of this year (not Christmas/New year) at £858 for the top inside single grade (which is a double for sole use). That was with a 5% group discount. It includes gratuities and all-inclusive drinks plus free parking (which otherwise would have been in the region of £66) and £40 obc which can only be used towards a shore excursion. It is on the newer of their two second-hand ships which carries 1200 pax at normal operating capacity.

I'm quite happy with that fare for sailing solo on a smaller ship.

That sounds like fantastic value to me, especially with everything that’s included. 👍

[Selbourne]

46 minutes ago, LondonLad60 said:

Just looked as Fred's website and it seems that smoking is still allowed on balconies. That's what has put me off cruising with Fred.

Unbelievable that they still allow smoking on balconies in this day and age. That’s a red line for us, so continues to rule them out for us. 

[Happy afloat]

We were on Aurora last month. It looked like a lot of the carpets in the public areas were new, as was the sink in our bathroom, or at least it appeared to be. The silicone around it was, anyway!

Lots of the chairs are in need of replacement. Comfortable enough, but worn. Carpet in our cabin had a couple of large stains. TV was a flatscreen, but operated like an old analogue, no built in guide, hit and miss picture quality. Some corridor carpets worn, and some window frames needed a lick of paint.

Lots of new sun loungers.

Immaculately clean in all areas though, excellent staff, and the best mdr food we've had with P&O.

[tring]

6 hours ago, Selbourne said:

Unbelievable that they still allow smoking on balconies in this day and age. That’s a red line for us, so continues to rule them out for us. 

 

TBH I have often thought that Fred's reluctance to stop smoking on balconies is because it could be looked upon as a USP now as it is something which does not appear to be possible elsewhere. We also feel that a balcony is a non starter if smoke could become an issue, so something we have never considered, though we will accept outside and even inside cabins if the itinerary is of real interest.  We did like the terrace balconies on Boudicca and Black Watch, but smoking was not allowed on them as they were on the prom deck. The terrace cabins on the ex HAL ships are not for us as no sun on those prom decks and not a private area with chairs and a table.

 

A lot has been done with the ex HAL ships regards upgrading and service is far better than P&O IMO, and certainly better than Ambassador, but, yes prices higher, so has to be a really good itinerary to temp us to book upfront, though a longer, Arctic one has tempted us for next year.  We have been on  Ambassador and would not be considering them again.  Ambience had been improved cosmetically and tastefully, but a lot of stuff is in really bad condition e.g. lots of leaks and a non functioning A/C system, as well as tender transfers being extremely hairy to say the least.  We regard safety as a very important point.  Other things were not to our liking on Ambassador either, as service far worse than Aurora or Fred, but each to their own.

 

We have been happy with Aurora, for certain itineraries though not been on Arcadia post covid.  We did price a cruise for next Christmas on Arcadia and found Fred much the same price, with the advantage of a Liverpool departure, (which is a great advantage for us, especially at that time of year when road travel become so bad), hence we have booked that.  The regional departures are popular with a fair number of people and not any real competition with those at present. The new Ambassador ship is doing a few, (fairly mundane), cruises from regional ports this summer, but that is it so far.

 

Now the world is returning to more like what we used to call normal, non of those cruise Ines are doing the sort of fly cruises we like with unusual itineraries, so we may not be doing much on any of them as time progresses, sadly for us. Azamara, or land based holidays may become more common for us, though we will still be looking at itineraries on  P&O and Fred.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 10, 2023 by tring