About to book. Need advice

[emsachs]

Hi. We are about to book the British Isles/w Europe cruise on Aug 20.

We are ttravelling with my 83 yr old father (in a single), and my 83 yr old inlaws.

We are booked in Cat AB. (My wife and I took a minisuite guarantee AE because of price.)

My wife won't cruise in a room that doesn't have a shower over tub, and that leaves the minisuite. (She was miserable in a Dawn balcony).

Our parents want us all to be close to each other, and mid ship so a guarantee for them isn't really an option

Also, because of our parents' age, we need to do everything as seemless as possible. In other words, we can't be getting in/out of cabs/trains for transfers with luggage, so we are doing the Princess air/transfer.

 

Our price seems extremely high although I have tried several web sites to get the price lower.

Does $8550 per couple sound high? (including air). The single is a whopping $6300. (I actually booked this single for me as a past passenger and my father is technically rooming with my wife, otherwise the single would be $8000.)

Including excursions and incidentals, I'm figuring this trip will run about $10,000 a couple.

 

We are past Princess passengers, but they won't extend the past passenger price to our parents.

 

Any suggestions or reassurance here would be really helpful.

 

Thanks.

[spongerob]

I think the costs are probably not that far out of line. We went on a similar cruise last summer and we spent somewhat more than you've estimated for yourselves. We spent a couple days in London beforehand and used a private transportation service to get to Southampton and that added some additional expense.

 

You might want to bump up your estimates a little. I was very surprised at how expensive things were in the places we visited. Meals off the ship will cost about double what you might be used to paying in the US, for example.

[emsachs]

OK Thanks. If we're not that far out of line then I'm OK with it.

We are going to try to do 2 days precruise in London too.

It's going to be really great taking our parents to places that they've heard about their whole life.

[spongerob]

If you are planning to spend a couple days in London, you might want to read the review of the cruise we went on last year and consider increasing your budget. London is very pricey. We used the Tube to get around and saved a lot of money that way, but with your in-laws you won't have that option. Hotels are very expensive, so is eating out, etc. We economized as much as possible in some areas - then splurged on hiring a driver and car for an entire day to see the countryside between London and Southamptom. All told, I think we spent about $13K on that trip. That's why our return trip for another cruise might be a while!

 

I'm not trying to scare you off, and there are some things in my review that don't put Princess in that good a light. Hopefully your mileage will vary and the problems we encountered won't be present when you cruise.