Cruise Liners

[Dipper]

Re: Union Castle Line?

When I was a child living in Northern Rhodesia we used to travel back to the UK on leave on the Union Castle ships. I can remember sailing on both the Braemar Castle and Rhodesia Castle. From my fading memory, you are right about the crew. These were one class ships with freight as well as passengers and the crew were wonderful. They acted more as friends than as staff. Such a sad day when the ships were all scrapped although the Union Castle Line did charter one recently for a cruise. It wouldn't have been the same though and I don't think they painted the ship in lilac like the originals.

 

[coliholic]

Well I know loads of people who hate cruises. All that regimentation, having to eat at set meal times and bingo and stuff. Of course none of them have ever actually been on a cruise, but they know all about it from the horror stories on telly. And of course the bloke in the pub, who's mate's mum's friend once went on one and it was a disaster.

Then there's all those posters here, and I'm one too, who've been on a "proper cruise" and loved it. We did a 4 day taster cruise on Oriana to see if we liked the idea and with the minor problem Princess Diana dying whilst we were on the cruise, loved every miunte. The 4 day cruise gave us some pointers for our planned next cruise which was with Princess Cruises around the caribbean and through the Panama Canal to Acapulco for our Silver Wedding.

1. As someone else has said, try to get an outside cabin with a balcony. well worth the extra cost. Waking up each morning in a different port, throwing open the balcony doors and soaking in the new destination - breathtaking.

2. Do the shore trips, they're expensive but really show you a quick snapshot of the best points of each destination and of course you can't get in to too much trouble in a group,

3. For the formal dining room, either go for a table on your own if you're not too sociable, or a table for ten. If you're only say with one or two other couples, chances are you might not hit it off. On a bigger table, more chance that there'll be someone there that you get on with( yes, even you Pauline).

4. Choose the later sitting for the dining room. Gives you more time to recover after the day's exertions.

Of course you don't HAVE to eat at set times, there's plenty of pizzeria's, buffet restaurants and snack bars around the ship, open 24 hours a day, or there's room service, but half the fun is the dressing up for formal nights.

The shows are magnificent, there's cinemas, art auctions, dancing lessons, lectures on dozens of topics from embroidery to photography, golf lessons, fitness studios, aerobics, quiz nights, beauty treatments, internet cafe, casino's oh and I think there was bingo too. Or you can just sit around in the bars in the evenings getting quietly pissed.

So really what do you want from a holiday?

Each day you wake up somewhere new and exciting, and as you step onto your private balcony, it's all there for you to explore or ignore. What more could you want?

 

[terryw]

Re: late booking

Peter,
I did not take this package myself for various reasons, but did not pay book price. There are many ways to get these deals including Travel Agents who deal with Cunard, or check the holiday/travel supplements in the weekend newspapers. A colleague from work recently did part of the worls tour departing just before xmas 2001 to meet ship in Florida. 18 days around Caribean and back to New York for flight home. Book price £5600, he paid £1500 from a newspaper advert.

Terry

 

[ccscott49]

Yes, that just about covers it!