Publius Ovidius
Well-known member
Not done it before, but thinking about doing one next year. Any recommendations for first-timers, probably for a week (with some shore time before and after) ? Would want decent weather throughout (happy to fly to a start-point say Miami for example), decent (outside & large-ish) cabin, not overly formal ship, 2-3 interesting shore visits.
Well, to start with I would ask yourself who do you think to cruise with. If it is purely Brits, then PandO is the one for you and on some princess ships. If you want more cosmopolitan cruisers, try celebrity, Royal carribean or holland america. If you want a cheap as chips type experience, but still good, NCL is a very good choice.
To give you some idea, we are flying from Heathrow to Madrid then Miami on Friday before Easter ...our own booked flights, cruise companies flights are ridiculously expensive...arrive at Miami and transfer to hotel for one night in Fort Lauderdale ...transfer to ship...7 nights Caribbean, HAL Neiu Amesterdam...balcony, drinks package, couple of meals in speciality restaurant, transfer off ship back to FL...two nights in decent hotel...transfers back to Miami hotel...direct flight to Heathrow. All in all 11 nights...around £3k all in. ...this is in school holidays..cheaper outside those dates.
Celebrity is a tad more expensive, but if you want to push the boat out so to speak, fly to San Juan and do14 night back to back around the western carribean on the summit or one of them...only a couple of days at sea as you are right there when you land...it may cost you around £4 to £5k. But you see 12 islands and is quite brilliant.
I'll have a look and see what is around ...let me know what time you want to go and what you are looking for.
Cheers
Dave