Get a life on the ocean wave (Cruises in general)

Member Name: grumbleweed

Product:	Cruises in general
Date:	29/04/01 (288 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: All inclusive holiday; great food and entertainment you can do as much or as little as you like

Disadvantages: Tipping;

I launched out on cruising adventures for the first time in 1994, on a P & O ship called the “Sea Princess” cruising for two weeks around the Western Mediterranean.. This followed a period when both my husband and myself had suffered serious illness, and we decided to treat ourselves.
Up until then we had spent bucket & spade type family holidays in the UK, France & near Continent. We had a wonderful time, and discovered that cruising was not an outrageously expensive option that you could only do once or twice in a lifetime; but a surprisingly affordable all inclusive holiday for couples of any age, singles and older children. So in 1995 we flew to Venice to join the same ship, renamed Victoria, for a cruise visiting Sicily, Greek Islands & Turkey. Since then we have been on two Airtours holidays on the “Sunbird” – a one week cruise from Palma around the Western Mediterranean and a two week cruise in the Caribbean. And last year we flew to Palma for a First Choice cruise on the “Bolero”.

The standard of accommodation, entertainment and food has been excellent on all these cruises; higher in nearly all respects on P & O but then these cruises were more expensive. We could find very little fault at all; the only mild criticism about the Airtours/First Choice cruises is that they were very crowded during days at sea with comfortable deck space a little difficult to find and longer queues for meals. Also their embark/disembark procedures were not quite so good as P & O. And on all cruises we found the feudal system of last day “tipping” caused a deal of angst for many passengers. Also we probably would not take a Mediterranean cruise from Southampton again, as we were two full days at sea getting there, and the same back in quite choppy sea conditions, with poor visibility. We have found fly cruises a better option.

The best bit about cruising is being able to e
xplore so many different ports of call. We soon learnt not to take too many of the organised excursions, which can be expensive.
Instead we often did our own thing by local transport & taxis. For example, we took the train from Cadiz to Jerez, the home of Sandeman Port and the Spanish Riding School; and a taxi from Barbados to visit the old sugar cane plantations and Gun Hill fort, where my husband found an tunic button from the 37th Regiment of Foot, 1796. The taxi driver took us on an unofficial tour of the Test cricket ground in Barbados. While in Turkey, we went ashore by tender to the small port of Kas. A few kilometres out of town, we came across the ancient Greek/Roman theatre, overlooking the sea in remarkable state of preservation and where we were the only visitors.

After a day's touring, its great to get back to the air-conditioned comfort of the ship, to plan the next day's adventures and get ready for a first class meal, West end show, midnight buffet, and casino. And step out on deck next morning for breakfast on deck in a new port.

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