2024 itineries from Southampton.

[Silverhairedbee]

I am perplexed as to why NCL are running so many one way itineries to and from Reykjavik and Southampton. Even joining two cruises together the outward and return ports are the same.

 

Reykjavik does look a great destination but being forced to take a flight for a cruise is so inconvenient.

 

i would be interested as to other people’s thoughts as to whether these cruises interest them given the return flight required

and what NCL’s thinking might be here.

 

Robbie

 

 

 

[Joanne G.]

Interesting.  I hadn't really noticed, but now that I check those 2024 itineraries, I see that NCL has a lot of one-way cruises, from Southampton and from other European ports.   I am actually on one in May - embark in Southampton and disembark in Copenhagen.   Since I have to fly to get to Europe, I liked the option of two different ports in which to spend a few days pre- and post-cruise.    

 

As for NCL's thinking, I assume they have reason to believe that these itineraries appeal to people, perhaps focusing on non-Brits who need to fly anyway and may like different embarkation and disembarkation ports as I do.  If they don't fill up, NCL will probably alter their 2025 options. 

 

My personal issue with the itineraries that include Reykjavik is that they typically include 2 other Iceland ports as well.   Reykjavik interests me, but there are many other European ports that I want to see before other ports in Iceland.  

 

I hope you find an enjoyable round-trip cruise out of Southampton.   Princess has some long 14- or 16-day round-trip cruises from Southampton that go to Iceland, including other ports in either Norway or the British Isles.  

 

 

 

[julig22]

"Being forced to take a flight for a cruise is so inconvenient" - really?

 

The majority of the people who cruise will have to fly somewhere anyway, having different starting and ending ports is not a much of a factor. Most people in the world do not live near a cruise port.

 

Different starting and ending ports is quite attractive to those of us who have to fly anyway.

 

  

[Silverhairedbee]

Yes, I understand many fly. Usually to and from the same port. I have done so myself.
 

Since I am lucky enough to live within 30minutes of Southampton, why fly. I can avoid airport parking, travel delays, night before hotel. Transfers to the port,

relatively that is inconvenient compared to a round trip.

 

Thank you for your perspective.

 

 

[Anoynmous Phoenix]

We live in New Zealand and there are almost NO Auckland to Auckland cruises and so when we cruise it is usually TWO LONG international flights.   AND Expensive!!   We put up with that and cruise twice a year in the Northern Hemisphere; 50+ days every time to spread the air costs.

[Catchum]

2 hours ago, julig22 said:

"Being forced to take a flight for a cruise is so inconvenient" - really?

 

The majority of the people who cruise will have to fly somewhere anyway, having different starting and ending ports is not a much of a factor. Most people in the world do not live near a cruise port.

 

Different starting and ending ports is quite attractive to those of us who have to fly anyway.

 

  

 

But you are actually flying to and from the same airport near home. If you cruise from Southampton you fly back to London which is up to two hours drive away. Sort of like flying out of Las Vegas and returning to LAX which is attractive if you want to visit both as a tourist not so much if you need to get home.

I don't have a problem flying to cruise- have done several TAs and cruises that have entailed very long haul flights 12 hrs plus. But a round trip flight is usually cheaper than two single legs. Have met many cruisers who only cruise out of LA or Miami because they can drive to the port. Similarly I quite enjoy a round trip from Southampton occasionally, but lots of other lines offer them so I guess I won't be using NCL next year for my local cruises.

[FLAHAM]

I am very much looking forward to cruising next August from New York to Reykjavik on the Star with stops at Halifax, St. John’s, St. Pierre, 3 stops in Greenland and 3 in Iceland.  Much more interesting to me than any round trip.

[KforKitty]

To give another perspective, from a Brit, is that you can reach further and visit more ports on a one way cruise.  You spend 2/3 days outward and on return at sea or in other UK ports.  IMHO if you enjoy a port intensive itinerary then you get more bang for your buck on a one way cruise and will be happy to bear the inconvenience of a single flight back home.

 

Catherine 

[julig22]

22 minutes ago, Catchum said:

 

But you are actually flying to and from the same airport near home. If you cruise from Southampton you fly back to London which is up to two hours drive away. Sort of like flying out of Las Vegas and returning to LAX which is attractive if you want to visit both as a tourist not so much if you need to get home.

I don't have a problem flying to cruise- have done several TAs and cruises that have entailed very long haul flights 12 hrs plus. But a round trip flight is usually cheaper than two single legs. Have met many cruisers who only cruise out of LA or Miami because they can drive to the port. Similarly I quite enjoy a round trip from Southampton occasionally, but lots of other lines offer them so I guess I won't be using NCL next year for my local cruises.

I fully understand the logistics of living near a port, closed-loop cruises, RT airfare, etc. 

My point was that most people who are cruising out of Southampton don't live there and NCL isn't looking to locals for developing cruise itineraries - regardless of the port. And RT isn't necessarily cheaper, since 1 port may be significantly closer than the other.

My closest port is Seattle - still a drive but easier to drive than fly. But if I'm flying anyway, I prefer the change in ports.

[laudergayle]

I don’t mind different embark disembark cities.  I just wished the European cruises in ‘24 weren’t so long.  When you tap on a couple pre- and/or post- days, it makes the time away from work, family, pets, daily responsibilities just too long for some…like me.

 

I know many retired or work-from anywhere cruisers love the longer cruises. I really hope they rethink the itineraries, or at least have a mix, for 2025.

[Silverhairedbee]

10 hours ago, julig22 said:

I fully understand the logistics of living near a port, closed-loop cruises, RT airfare, etc. 

My point was that most people who are cruising out of Southampton don't live there and NCL isn't looking to locals for developing cruise itineraries - regardless of the port. And RT isn't necessarily cheaper, since 1 port may be significantly closer than the other.

My closest port is Seattle - still a drive but easier to drive than fly. But if I'm flying anyway, I prefer the change in ports.

 

[Silverhairedbee]

I would guess that cruises that run to and from Southampton ARE largely full of people from the UK. Probably over 50%. That is over 50% that are being disenfranchised.

 

You can’t even use “port” parking on your outward journey because of your return from an airport. Then you can’t use your own car for the return journey.

 

I suspect those flying in are still likely using their car for their outward bound journey in their home country to the airport.

 

it will be interesting to see how busy these itineries become.

 

thank you all kindly for comments so far.

robbie

 

[KeithJenner]

These itineraries aren’t particularly new. I don’t have the details with me, but I believe that most Southampton itineraries last year were one way.

 

We have sailed from Southampton on NCL a number of times, and only one has been a round trip (15 days to Reykjavik and back in about 2017). I have also done a couple of transatlantics, which obviously have to be one way and a Southampton to Stockholm trip in 2019. That last one was a particularly good itinerary which couldn’t have been done as well if it was a round trip.

 

Even the round Britain cruises aren’t necessarily Southampton round trip. We did one last year that was actually Amsterdam to Southampton.

 

The logistics to these aren’t easy. For example, on the Amsterdam one we ended up parking our car at Southampton Airport and taking the train to London City for the flight. It’s much easier to just turn up at Heathrow and leave the car there for the duration.

 

There is a fairly big market of UK cruisers who cruise in order to avoid flying. I’d say that about half the people in the UK that I know who cruise do so for this reason. By doing the one ways NCL is passing this segment by. I think that they did go after them to start with (hence the Iceland round trip that we did), but I suspect that it didn’t work.

 

This is a massive generalisation, but in my experience the group who want to do avoid flying are probably a bit more set in their ways than the average traveller. I remember that the round trip we did was mainly full of non UK people and many of the UK cruisers seemed to be struggling with the way that NCL does things. I heard a fair bit of grumbling about some things (like non set meals, changing wait staff, tipping etc). Many of the UK cruisers I know who usually sail from the UK seem to particularly like the dressing up as well.

 

My guess (and I’m very much guessing here) is that NCL tried to break into that market and has struggled. Southampton round trip cruises are fairly restricted in where they can go, so they have made the decision to try to make them appeal to overseas travellers. There is still a fairly large chunk of UK customers, like myself, who will still do the attractive one way itineraries anyway.

 

It does seem that NCL is going more for longer European itineraries, they work fairly well for is (10-11 days is probably our sweet spot for cruise length), but they are excluding some people with these and it does surprise me that they don’t throw in a few shorter ones as well to attract those who can’t take the longer holiday. A couple of Southampton round trips would probably not be a bad thing to offer as well.

Edited December 11, 2023 by KeithJenner

[Silverhairedbee]

44 minutes ago, KeithJenner said:

These itineraries aren’t particularly new. I don’t have the details with me, but I believe that most Southampton itineraries last year were one way.

 

We have sailed from Southampton on NCL a number of times, and only one has been a round trip (15 days to Reykjavik and back in about 2017). I have also done a couple of transatlantics, which obviously have to be one way and a Southampton to Stockholm trip in 2019. That last one was a particularly good itinerary which couldn’t have been done as well if it was a round trip.

 

Even the round Britain cruises aren’t necessarily Southampton round trip. We did one last year that was actually Amsterdam to Southampton.

 

The logistics to these aren’t easy. For example, on the Amsterdam one we ended up parking our car at Southampton Airport and taking the train to London City for the flight. It’s much easier to just turn up at Heathrow and leave the car there for the duration.

 

There is a fairly big market of UK cruisers who cruise in order to avoid flying. I’d say that about half the people in the UK that I know who cruise do so for this reason. By doing the one ways NCL is passing this segment by. I think that they did go after them to start with (hence the Iceland round trip that we did), but I suspect that it didn’t work.

 

This is a massive generalisation, but in my experience the group who want to do avoid flying are probably a bit more set in their ways than the average traveller. I remember that the round trip we did was mainly full of non UK people and many of the UK cruisers seemed to be struggling with the way that NCL does things. I heard a fair bit of grumbling about some things (like non set meals, changing wait staff, tipping etc). Many of the UK cruisers I know who usually sail from the UK seem to particularly like the dressing up as well.

 

My guess (and I’m very much guessing here) is that NCL tried to break into that market and has struggled. Southampton round trip cruises are fairly restricted in where they can go, so they have made the decision to try to make them appeal to overseas travellers. There is still a fairly large chunk of UK customers, like myself, who will still do the attractive one way itineraries anyway.

 

It does seem that NCL is going more for longer European itineraries, they work fairly well for is (10-11 days is probably our sweet spot for cruise length), but they are excluding some people with these and it does surprise me that they don’t throw in a few shorter ones as well to attract those who can’t take the longer holiday. A couple of Southampton round trips would probably not be a bad thing to offer as well.

 

[Silverhairedbee]

I do appreciate there are a lot of merits to the itineries NCL are offering.

 

However there was a LOT of round cruises from Southampton this year, probably about 5 around Ireland alone and several around the British Isles. I guess there were a few others too.

 

Very few for next year, although interestingly one from Portsmouth.

 

Robbie

[KeithJenner]

Yeah, as I said, I haven’t got the details of the 2023 itineraries available, and there may have been some that were round trips.

 

But my point is that this isn’t a massive change. They have been offering one way trips for a long time, and I think that in most years lately those have been the majority. Making a cruise a Southampton round trip seems to have been low priority for a while (ie all those Amsterdam to Southampton round Britain cruises).

 

Certainly the Southampton to Reykjavik (and separate return) trips are not new, neither are the one way Baltics trips, both of which I have either done or been booked on in previous years.

[insidecabin]

6 hours ago, Silverhairedbee said:

I would guess that cruises that run to and from Southampton ARE largely full of people from the UK. Probably over 50%. That is over 50% that are being disenfranchised.

 

You can’t even use “port” parking on your outward journey because of your return from an airport. Then you can’t use your own car for the return journey.

 

I suspect those flying in are still likely using their car for their outward bound journey in their home country to the airport.

 

it will be interesting to see how busy these itineries become.

 

thank you all kindly for comments so far.

robbie

 

Parking in Southampton is cheap so no need for on port parking  or you use airport parking and get the train coach one way.

 

Did this last year really easy Dawn UK from Copenhagen to Southampton.

 

Depending where you live will determine best option to where you leave the car.

 

Eg. we parked LHR  flew to Copenhagen(cheap) and got coach back from Southampton to LHR T5 then picked up car.

 

They did these Iceland runs 2023.

 

The issue was by the time the cruises got really cheap Iceland flights got expensive.

[insidecabin]

6 hours ago, KeithJenner said:

These itineraries aren’t particularly new. I don’t have the details with me, but I believe that most Southampton itineraries last year were one way.

 

We have sailed from Southampton on NCL a number of times, and only one has been a round trip (15 days to Reykjavik and back in about 2017). I have also done a couple of transatlantics, which obviously have to be one way and a Southampton to Stockholm trip in 2019. That last one was a particularly good itinerary which couldn’t have been done as well if it was a round trip.

 

Even the round Britain cruises aren’t necessarily Southampton round trip. We did one last year that was actually Amsterdam to Southampton.

 

The logistics to these aren’t easy. For example, on the Amsterdam one we ended up parking our car at Southampton Airport and taking the train to London City for the flight. It’s much easier to just turn up at Heathrow and leave the car there for the duration.

 

There is a fairly big market of UK cruisers who cruise in order to avoid flying. I’d say that about half the people in the UK that I know who cruise do so for this reason. By doing the one ways NCL is passing this segment by. I think that they did go after them to start with (hence the Iceland round trip that we did), but I suspect that it didn’t work.

 

This is a massive generalisation, but in my experience the group who want to do avoid flying are probably a bit more set in their ways than the average traveller. I remember that the round trip we did was mainly full of non UK people and many of the UK cruisers seemed to be struggling with the way that NCL does things. I heard a fair bit of grumbling about some things (like non set meals, changing wait staff, tipping etc). Many of the UK cruisers I know who usually sail from the UK seem to particularly like the dressing up as well.

 

My guess (and I’m very much guessing here) is that NCL tried to break into that market and has struggled. Southampton round trip cruises are fairly restricted in where they can go, so they have made the decision to try to make them appeal to overseas travellers. There is still a fairly large chunk of UK customers, like myself, who will still do the attractive one way itineraries anyway.

 

It does seem that NCL is going more for longer European itineraries, they work fairly well for is (10-11 days is probably our sweet spot for cruise length), but they are excluding some people with these and it does surprise me that they don’t throw in a few shorter ones as well to attract those who can’t take the longer holiday. A couple of Southampton round trips would probably not be a bad thing to offer as well.

NCL if trying to break back into UK market have failed unlike MSC that nailed it.

 

Service included in the fares.

Kettles in room(when you ask you get a coffee machine)

 

The core Brits market is P&O and Marella both include service with the latter also being AI flight included.

 

The NCL round trip  itinerary are northern, no fly Brits look for cruises going south Canaries and Med.

 

[insidecabin]

The round Ireland were a great cruises but the later ones got hit by weather issues.

 

NCL also messed up communication on tender ports which upset a lot of people.

(Not looked to see if they fixed it for this year.)

 

Our Copenhagen/Southampton missed 3 tender ports and they gave 25%FCC that got us a discount on another cruise.

 

The Iceland trips also got messed up as it was on Prima which can't tender and a berth was not ready at an important port.

(Also not the best cold cruise ship)

 

Then there was drinkgate a PR disaster.

 

2023 season out of the UK was a very mixed bag of good and not so good.

 

We will probably end up on something year as they are not that bad logistics when the flights are available to join the dots.

 

 

 

[Joanne G.]

16 hours ago, laudergayle said:

I don’t mind different embark disembark cities.  I just wished the European cruises in ‘24 weren’t so long.  When you tap on a couple pre- and/or post- days, it makes the time away from work, family, pets, daily responsibilities just too long for some…like me.

 

I know many retired or work-from anywhere cruisers love the longer cruises. I really hope they rethink the itineraries, or at least have a mix, for 2025.

Have you looked at Royal Caribbean?  They have quite a few 2024 7-day itineraries in Europe.   (But read the fine print about deposits.  Deposits on Royal are not automatically fully refundable prior to final payment as on NCL.)

[smillerholmes]

23 hours ago, julig22 said:

"Being forced to take a flight for a cruise is so inconvenient" - really?

 

The majority of the people who cruise will have to fly somewhere anyway, having different starting and ending ports is not a much of a factor. Most people in the world do not live near a cruise port.

 

Different starting and ending ports is quite attractive to those of us who have to fly anyway.

 

  

I definitely agree.  As a landlocked cruiser - flights are the most expensive part of cruising for me, so I suck it up, but if I can do pre and post cruise days in two different port cities that is more valuable to me.  I envy those that live near ports, but I am pretty sure that will never be me so I suck it up buttercup and use my airline miles to defray some of the costs.  

[Catchum]

4 hours ago, insidecabin said:

The round Ireland were a great cruises but the later ones got hit by weather issues.

 

NCL also messed up communication on tender ports which upset a lot of people.

(Not looked to see if they fixed it for this year.)

 

Our Copenhagen/Southampton missed 3 tender ports and they gave 25%FCC that got us a discount on another cruise.

 

The Iceland trips also got messed up as it was on Prima which can't tender and a berth was not ready at an important port.

(Also not the best cold cruise ship)

 

Then there was drinkgate a PR disaster.

 

2023 season out of the UK was a very mixed bag of good and not so good.

 

We will probably end up on something year as they are not that bad logistics when the flights are available to join the dots.

 

 

 

I had forgotten drinkgate! I knew there was a reason we tend to do Princess for no fly cruises or Mediterranean cruises. 

[Joanne G.]

What was drinkgate?  

[insidecabin]

27 minutes ago, Joanne G. said:

What was drinkgate?  

Some UK cruises/ports NCL would not serve alcohol.

 

Then refused to clarify with any credible reason.

[KeithJenner]

29 minutes ago, Joanne G. said:

What was drinkgate?  

Various issues that NCL have had in Europe regarding drink sales (and usage of the beverage package).

 

On some Med cruises people have been charged tax on the drinks they consume, sometimes for the entire cruise, but the issue being referred to here is probably where, in some places like the UK, Greece and Gibraltar they haven’t been serving drinks at all whilst in port.