Honeymoon Cruise Insight

[Kezzer]

Warro,

Annoyingly, due to medical reasons I am unable to fly, so myself and the other half are looking to go on a cruise for our honeymoon. We actually live in Guernsey which means we need to get to England first before we can travel. I don't suppose many people know much about cruises and who's good to go for?

P&O seem quite decent and we need one which leaves on the 18th of August. We don't want to go on one which goes to Ireland for reasons I'm sure you can understand I think there were some Mediteranean ones available around that time too. We're looking for roughly two weeks away.

Ta

[Saracen]

One thing you need to be thoroughly aware of is that the atmosphere varies between cruise lines. P&O are certainly more traditional than some cruise lines (though it's diminishing after the takeover). But P&O still operate on a rather more formal basis, especially in relation to dress standards for dinner, than some other lines. Some people like the idea of suit and tie, or even formal attire, and the typical ballgown-type evening, and enjoy them. For others, they'll run a mile at the idea. I'm not saying that you would be refused entry to a black tie night if you had a suit rather than a DJ, but I suspect that you'd feel uncomfortably out of place .... though as I said, it's decreasing.

But if you want to stroll into dinner in shorts and a t-shirt, well, you might want to ask P&O a few searching questions before booking.

[Kezzer]

Aye, I watched a video and it seemed that way, not that we're bothered as we wouldn't mind taking a suit and ballgown with us.

Any decent destinations leaving from the UK though?

[Saracen]

Well, I don't have P&O's current schedule, and I'm not a cruiser anyway. My in-laws are, though. They go (always with P&O) four or five times a year, and have done for about 15 years.

Decent destinations? Yup. The World Cruise is pretty good, and covers a lot of places. But I suspect it's either left or doing so in the next couple of days. And it'll cost you, oh, say £10k-£12k per person (and upwards, to £35-40K IIRC for better cabins, staterooms, etc). And it takes three months.

Seriously, though, there's a fairly wide range, depending on what rings your bell .... or should I have said 'floats your boat'.

There's, obviously, the standard Med cruises, and the exact itinerary varies. There's also a selection of Caribbean cruises. There's trips North, such a the Fjords.

And it's also possible, at least for the major cruises like the World Cruise, to pick up the ship for part of the cruise. So instead of the full three months, you might decide to fly to California, join the ship, stay with it round South America and the Falklands, and back up the East Coast of South America and then fly home after three or four weeks. Or you might want a cruise that does Suez or the Panama canal.

The exact itinerary varies from one liner to another, and one year to another. Exactly what's going on this year, and when, I couldn't tell you .... though my in-laws probably could.

[Kezzer]

Well the one we may be going with is a P&O cruise, 2 weeks around the Med.

4-5 times a year? They must be minted

[Saracen]

Comfortable, retired, and very, very keen.

[tiggerai]

If you can find an Ocean Village cruise that you can get to, then I would thoroughly recommend it, it's basically a very nice floating hotel, and you wake up every morning in a new destination.

As Saracen said, the atmosphere on some lines is very formal, but some others are working hard to lose the image...

Some of the other cruise lines are starting to go this way too, so cruising is not as stuffy as it used to be.

I'm in Glasgow at the moment, so I'll do a bit of research for you tomorrow and see what I can come up with.

[Workaholic]

If you can find an Ocean Village cruise that you can get to, then I would thoroughly recommend it, it's basically a very nice floating hotel, and you wake up every morning in a new destination.

As Saracen said, the atmosphere on some lines is very formal, but some others are working hard to lose the image...

Some of the other cruise lines are starting to go this way too, so cruising is not as stuffy as it used to be.

I'm in Glasgow at the moment, so I'll do a bit of research for you tomorrow and see what I can come up with.

When I went with Princess Cruises 3 years back, (sister of of P+O Cruises) you had an option of formal proper dinner on 3 of the 14 days there, otherwise you could easily bugger off to the pizzeria or fast food *joint?*/bar...