A cruising quandry: who to book next?

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Dark Knight
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A cruising quandry: who to book next?

#1

Post by Dark Knight »

As Thomson are no longer doing ex UK cruises :thumbdown: , we are looking at various options for a cruise to the Baltics, for next year or 2016
We have looked at the various options and narrowed it down to:

Fred Olsen
Cruise and Maritime
HAL
PandO
So my light hearted challenge, to the good people of this ever so Pando centric forum, is to sell me a cruise on one of the above lines

let the selling commence :thumbup:
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david63
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Re: A cruising quandry: who to book next?

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Post by david63 »

Just out of curiosity why are you dismissing fly cruises as I thought in the past that they were an option?

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The Tinker
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Re: A cruising quandry: who to book next?

#3

Post by The Tinker »

If the Fred Olsen documentaries were true to life - you should definitely go with them :lol: :lol:

Seriously - go with the Itinerary that suits you - we went with P and O this year and had a fabulous time. The weather was exceptional - 30 degrees in St Petersburg and sea like a millpond all the way there and back.
And make sure you get roubles as contrary to what the tour operators tell you - they do not take any other currency in the town centres.

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Re: A cruising quandry: who to book next?

#4

Post by Dark Knight »

David
the cruise is to the Baltics
we still do fly cruises, as is our next one
but the Baltics is top of the list , so ex UK is the option, I believe??
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barney
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Re: A cruising quandry: who to book next?

#5

Post by barney »

My old Mum has used C&M quite a few times over the years.
Even going back to when it was Russian owned.

Mainly because they sail from Tilbury and she lives in Gravesend so a short hop on the ferry and she was there.
Leave home to on board ship was about 30 minutes.

She never had a bad word to say about them.
They are obviously quite old ships but you're used to that.

I also have a friend who went with them to the Northern Lights last year and he thought they we ok as well.
Generally not up to P&O standard but still quite good.

Fred seems to have a good rep but we've never tried.

HAL, well we did a lunch tour on one of their ships in Dover a few years ago.
The ship was lovely as was the meal.
It was about Oriana size and quite plush.
Empty vessels .. and all that

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Re: A cruising quandry: who to book next?

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Post by david63 »

Dark Knight wrote:
David
the cruise is to the Baltics
we still do fly cruises, as is our next one
but the Baltics is top of the list , so ex UK is the option, I believe??
Fair enough.

If you are looking at a specific cruise itinerary then I suspect that your options will revolve around actual itinerary (but I suspect that they will all be very similar as there are not too many alternatives around there), date(s), price and ship.

From the list you have given, and to give you a different experience, I would suggest HAL - although you may find it a bit too "traditional" for your taste.

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Re: A cruising quandry: who to book next?

#7

Post by Dark Knight »

if by traditional you mean having to dress up, then we will suffer this enforced indignity with good grace and eat in the buffet :sarcasm:
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Re: A cruising quandry: who to book next?

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Post by david63 »

HAL being more American the "dressing up" is not that big a thing.

One tradition that HAL used to have but I don't know if it still applies is that they had a Bell Boy sounding a gong when it was time for dinner.

I also think that HAL have a "no tips required" policy however it is interpreted by the staff to be "no tips required but tips are expected" and some of the staff could be a bit "in your face".

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Re: A cruising quandry: who to book next?

#9

Post by Dark Knight »

AOTH did his last cruise on HAL and said it was better in many areas than Pando but a bit less british?
so may make the cut
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Re: A cruising quandry: who to book next?

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Post by david63 »

Dark Knight wrote:
AOTH did his last cruise on HAL and said it was better in many areas than Pando but a bit less british?
so may make the cut
Wouldn't disagree with that.

It is the same with all cruise lines - they all have their good points and they all have their bad points

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Re: A cruising quandry: who to book next?

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Post by barney »

Couldn't argue with that David

we've never had a bad cruise, just some a bit better than others :thumbup:
Empty vessels .. and all that

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Re: A cruising quandry: who to book next?

#12

Post by wolfie »

DK

Try Celebrity.

We did the Baltic in June this year on Eclipse; just 3 formal evenings, the rest smart casual.

Some very innovative ideas on the ship such as Qsine, the ice bar, the real grass on the top deck for croquet, boules and putting.

We were concerned at the number of passengers as we prefer medium sized ships but, even with brilliant weather, there was never any searching for a sunbed or place to sit.

When you don't want to 'do' the formal evenings then the options available in the buffet are exceptional.

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Re: A cruising quandry: who to book next?

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Post by barney »

I quite fancy Celebrity but Mrs B seems against it.
That's due to her friend trying them and it coming back a bit negative about the whole experience.

Her friends on board spend was quite horrendous apparantly :crazy:

Not sure how you can blame a cruise line for that ?
Empty vessels .. and all that

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Re: A cruising quandry: who to book next?

#14

Post by Dark Knight »

Wolfie
we have found we prefer smaller ships with say 1500 people or less, so it limits us a bit
which is why the short list is , well , short :roll:
also after doing both Azura and Ventura ,we also like the smaller ship ,as we find the crew much friendlier and they have more time to chat :thumbup:
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Re: A cruising quandry: who to book next?

#15

Post by poole boy »

we have just come back from a cruise on cruise and maritme we really enjoyed it excellent food good entertainment very spacious cabin this was our 2nd cruise with them and we will definatletly book with them again.
we also wanted a Baltics cruise for 2015 so have booked Aurora R511 this seems an excellent intinerary and we have been on Aurora before and found it was the perfect size of ship for us.
graham

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Re: A cruising quandry: who to book next?

#16

Post by oldbluefox »

I have also heard good reports about Cruise & Maritime but we prefer ships which are larger such as Aurora, Oceana and Arcadia (don't like the shudder on Oriana) so their ships may be too small for us unless they are going somewhere we have never been before. Then we might be tempted.

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