Hi,

I've found a short/cheap Mediterranean cruise that I like the look of and was after some advice. It's only 3 nights but it sails from Genoa and we'll depart at Cagliari so the plan is also to spend a day or two in both places.

It's through Thomas cook and these are these detail . (Sorry if the page doesn't load properly, it's not working for me either).

So the questions I have are:

1. £308 for the cabin seems very cheap to me (even for 3 nights). I''m not expecting much but as long as it's equivalent to a 3 star hotel that would be fine with me. Does anyone have experience with something similar?

2. I've never been on a cruise before but have heard a few stories about having to spend a lot of money once on board. Is this likely?

3. Like I said, we'd need to fly into Genoa and out of Cagliari. Does anyone know whether there's much to do or see in these places? It's it worth spending more than a day?

Is there anything else I should be aware off.

Thanks

TBH £308 for a Thomas Cook is quite expensive, I have 3 cruise's books up for 2017/2018 and I'm paying about £100 a night and thats with Royal Caribbean and 2 with P&O.

Generally you can get away with spending very little on board, if you don't want to. On a P&O beer/lager is around £3.50 a pint, cocktails around £6-£8. Excursions run to about £30-£40 a head depending on whats involved, some can be more.

Most cruise ports you can actually walk into the town Amsterdams like that. Some you'll need a bus, these are usually free.

Just remember the downside of doing a fly cruise is luggage restrictions due to flying, the upside is you can cruise further afield in a shorter time.

Thanks,

There's two of us so it effectively works out at just over £50 pppn. I didn't realize that it would include all our meals at that price either.

Yeah, I was looking at the flight situation and we can get some pretty cheap prices but then of course you have to add in the luggage fare. Though we could easily get away with one main suitcase and two cabin ones between the two of us.

Ah sorry £308 for both is a pretty good deal. We always aim for around £100 a night pp. Cruise holidays if you book at the right time can be one of the cheapest holidays like for like you can get. For 2018 we've paid just over 2.5k thats £1250 pp for 12 nights 5star, full board. And I have free parking in Southampton too.

Yeah, I would love to have the money to do it in style that way.

Remember to buy a beige cardigan and some of those shoes which fasten on the top with velcro.

You don;t have to spend money on board, if you don't want to. I have seen some people pay too much money for massages, simply becasue they are on a cruise, I found the massage prices more expensive than local parlours, so wouldn't get one anyhow. The booze can add up, if you drink, if you don't drink, you can get drinks in the buffet etc. Some of the tours can be pricey, but if it is something you wan to see, go for it. At least also get off the ships when in port & have a good walk around.
We have had all classes of cabins, from balcony to window to partial view to no window ( inside) The no window ones are the cheapest, & I am ok with that, as we only sleep in the cabin, all the day & evening we are out & walking around, either the ship or the port.
If you like to watch the shows, sometimes you can fit 2 show in, for one evening. Get the schedule & see what you want to see. Have fun.

Is the cruise line MSC or Costa by any chance?

If so then the positives are the ships are generally good.

The negatives are that the food, staff, majority of other passengers and entertainment are awful.

4 to 5 star ships with 1 to 2 star service.

If you want slightly better, again 4 to 5 star ships with 3 to 4 star service, then P & O do some short break cruises out of Southampton, prices will generally be cheaper on board as well.

What a crappy website how do they get any business

Don't forget the tipping!

And don't forget to wear inflatable arm bands 24/7!
You can never be too careful!
Enjoy!

We did the P&O mini-cruises to Santander 3 times when I was married, thoroughly enjoyed them although it's mostly a party on a ship The coach trip out of Santander was interesting though, amazingly it made me think of the Alps, all the wooden housing! We just enjoyed the atmosphere on board, being on a floating hotel.

I did the Hurtigruten Tromso-Bergen 5 days, 4 nights cruise, just loved it - amazing ships considering they are working ferries, very luxurious ship yet casual (no dressing up unless you want to in the evening). Loved it, so peaceful and great fun - you make friends easily on a cruise, which is good as I went solo.

We did a cruise around the Baltic Sea 7 or 8 years ago, waking up every day or 2nd day in a new City was great & exciting.
The feeling we got though, was that the passengers were basically paying the wages of the mainly Philippine staff through the 'tipping system'. They'd fall over themselves at mealtime to attend you, so much so that we ended up just using the buffet style restaurant for breakfast & dinner. It became uncomfortable, the dining room.
Tbh we've not bothered with a cruise again.

If it is MSC, tipping is around 7.50 Euros per person per night and is automatically added to your bill.

Excursions are expensive and are often cheaper to arrange once in Port, typically look at around £30-£50 for half a day and £50-£70 for a full day, based on a typical standard excursion.

Food isn't great anymore, at best average...this due to the rise in the number of specialty restaurants onboard which are available at a cover charge, why give you something really good for the included fare for when they can charge you extra.

If you are prone to sea sickness then go for an inside cabin, lowest deck as close to the middle as possible, your cabin is mainly used for sleeping, washing & changing...generally you are not in it long, so don't waste money by going for a balcony cabin.

£50 pppn, to include all meals?
Are you sure that you haven't inadvertently signed up as galley slaves, and will be sleeping on the floor in the hold, with 300 other people?

£50 p.p.p.n., to include all meals?
Are you sure that you haven't inadvertently signed up as galley slaves, and will be sleeping in the rat infested hold, along with 300 other wretches?

I'm sorry, I tried to delete my original post, when I had a message saying that it hadn't gone through, as my server had stopped responding, but no matter what I did, it stubbornly remained.

That's why I won't go on a cruise
If the rich fat cats won't pay their staff a decent wage, why should I supplement it?

RE: the negatives. All too true! It was so awful that we had a great time laughing, especially at scheduled feeding times that were like a bad wedding let loose.

Upside is covering multiple destinations without the nuisance of dragging luggage along.

Since you'll be in Genoa fora few days, I would recommend renting a Vespa to explore Portofino, Santa Margherita, and Rapallo.

Hope you'll have a wonderful time!

I'm just resurrecting this thread as it died with the forum down time.

Yes, the cruiseline is MSC. Exactly how bad is the food and guests? I mean, I have pretty low expectations - i've been to Butlins, i've done all inclusive in Tunisia. It can't be worse than that.

They've sent me the link for the additional options on the cruise and people were right about how expensive the excursions are - £45 a head for a few hours tour. I think we'll just play it by ear and walk around the areas by ourselves. Debating whether to take out the £40 a head unlimited drinking package - as long as the bar prices are sensible I highly doubt we would spend that much though.

^^ What you will find is that either you can walk straight out of the port into the city, Amsterdams like that. Or there will be a complementary shuttle bus to the nearest town, Zeebruge is like that. Or local minbus's will collect say half a dozen of you and run you to the nearest town for a couple of quid, Freeport in the Bahamas is like that. So don't feel that if you don't take the excursions you'll be stuck on the ship.

£40 for 3 nights sounds good to me its only 2-3 drinks a night plus water fruit juice etc
Drinks were £4 for a beer when i went on a cruise and that was a while ago

What you must take in to account on the drinks package is that both of you must take it, thats £80 a day. This is to stop one person getting the drinks for all the cabin etc. It's probably not worth it, if you don't have any days at sea.

I was just reading a bit more and noticed that it's only drinks during meal times that are included. In which case it's really not worth it.

The food isn't good...edible at best...though they did do nice pizza. When we did ours with MSC, we didn't bother with excursions, most places you could walk in (if not using the tender), if it wasn't possible to walk in they offered shuttles at a cost of approx 12-13 euros per person for all day use (they went back & forth all day).

Bar prices are higher than what you pay in the UK, and don't forget it includes all drinks not just alcoholic ones...you can get free water & coffee (coffee is awful) from the buffet throughout the day, and free juice at breakfast.

As the entertainment is poor (think primary school children production's...though that isn't really fair on the children), there isn't much you can do at night other than drink, gamble or sleep....so the drinks package maybe worth it.

Service onboard is poor & slow, majority of staff are miserable, and the majority of other guests are just plain rude.