bee-ess

Hi, we are going on our second Caribbean cruise in Feb and wondered where the best beaches to visit in Barbados and St Lucia. We just asked the taxi drivers to drive us to a beach last time and was left disappointed. Thankyou

Try this for Barbados -videos of every beach - Bottom Bay is our fav.

http://www.beachesofbarbados.com/

For St Lucia we like Anse Chastanet for excellent snorkelling or nearby Jalousie.

I think that the pppn price is irrelevant really. If they have a ship with lots of empty cabins they are taking money they would not have taken with just the cost of extra food really, all the staff costs and entertainment costs are already accounted for. By having a more full ship opens up all the other revenue streams - tours, drinks, shops, spa etc.

Our recent Oriana cruise is a good example - almost everyone I spoke to was on a Getaway, certainly the pax on our dinner table all were. P&O would have made more profit on this cruise by selling Getaway fares than not as the ship was Full with a notice at reception to say no cabin changes as it was full..

tom-uk

 

Unless you're doing one of the new mediterranean fly cruises on Ventura, you can book Southampton/Southampton until 31.7 for next year with obc and classic drinks package included in the price. We have done just that, but on Infinity Oct 14 out of Harwich.

 

The price we have paid we could never have got anywhere near, never mind beaten, if we'd booked last minute.

 

Worth looking at ?

 

Lou

Snap, we have done the same on Eclipse next year, 2 week Med. Mid-Ships High Deck Balcony with $200 per cabin OBC, £125 per cabin Loyalty discount, Tips Paid and Drinks Package for c£1800 which we think is an excellent deal.

Another Celebrity Fan here as well - booked again for next year, with free Drinks Package, if you like a drink, it is the only way to go !!

We will still use P&O if the price and destination is right but Celebrity is better, although the on-board spend and tips are higher.

I think they need to create some more interesting itineraries as well - out side of the World or it's sectors it is 'same old, same old', you could pick up a brochure from any of the last 5 years and the program would be the same. Even the Caribbean could do with a bit more variety - used to go to lots more ports than now, same 2 itineraries all through the season for the 2 main ships - gets a bit boring.

Also I agree with the other posters about the entertainment/cruise directors - we had v. poor entertainment both. daytime and evening on the last Ventura cruise. We said then that the entertainment was very staid and dated and looking around the daytime leisure facilities are also not what other Cruise lines are offering on Family ships.

Also this new habit of leaving ports early is frustrating - why did they stop

publishing leaving times - it is less frustrating if you know when you book what times you will leave. For us leaving port at 5PM every day in the Caribbean in March was annoying enough - used to always be 6PM most days..

I must admit that there are some plusses and one of the reasons we book with P&O are cheaper tips, cheaper drinks and the Peninsular discount all of which makes the onboard spend considerably less. Also offering flights included to Caribbean coupled with the above makes it a bit of a no brainer to choose P&O for the Caribbean - but not unless they change a few things!!

We had Hughie on Ventura in March and we were very disappointed with him. There were lots of problems with the Entertainment, mainly due to insufficient seats in the Theatre for 10:30 shows and also having Theatre Company shows repeated on the same cruise. There was an incident on one of the last nights when several passengers demanded to see him to sort out the seating problem and he refused to come and see them but agreed to meet them the next day and sent a junior member of his staff in his place - very poor. He is certainly not hands-on, you are very lucky if you see him - never seen at sailaways, totally different approach to every other CD we have had !!

Wow i didn't see lot of french here... and yours is perfect.....

 

and for the beach, i'll check

 

Thank you (merci) very much

We have been on a ships tour called Rhum Runner which is an afternoon tour and is great fun and coincidently visits Morne Rouge for a short swim stop as part of the tour. If you like a short boat tour with a few free drinks and a party atmosphere you will enjoy it. If it is not offered on your ship I think you can book independently - just google Rhum Runner.

If it is Carlisle Bay then that is only 20-30 mins walk from the ship - we have walked it before. So I would save the money and walk or spend the money in a taxi to a different beach.

I see the car rental company (I'm assuming I'm looking at the correct one) just lists prices starting with 2 day rentals. Is that their minimum charge or is there a lower price for just one day?

The one at the port is called Stoutes (at least it was 2 years ago !!)

http://www.stoutescar.com/contact-us

I love the east coast of Barbados especially the area around Bathsheba. A very unique coastline with the giant boulders strewn about. Great photo ops all along this side of the island. You could see that and still have time for the beach!

Another vote from me - love the Barbados East Coast - best done with Car Rental.

We have been to Caribbean 8 times on cruises and this is the best land tour we have done out there. Enough said.

Cannot have been at Manchester Airport. Check-in "lady" had us taking 0.8 Kg out of a case for a cruise flight at the counter to get down to 23 Kgs. Sad thing was that it was the second case onto the belt and the first case had disappeared so couldn't adjust weight between the cases.

 

Ultimately what came out of the case went on the hand luggage!... Enough said!

No it was Thomas Cook, Gatwick

Have done this a few times and it is quite do-able with careful planning.

The issue is caused by P&O chartering the flights but that keeps the cost down. For example I saw a Celebrity Caribbean cruise I liked for next year last week and got a quote including flight and the flights added £700 each to the cost which made it dearer than P&O.

The other point we have found is that they don't check the weight very strictly at the airport and one check in told us they allow a couple of kilos over anyway for the cruise charters and they don't seem to check hand luggage too carefully. Think it is best to use smallish hand luggage bags not to attract attention but then put heavy things in them (like shoes). We have been a bit over at times but haven't been pulled up for it.

What else to see or do in our 1 day in Dubrovnik? My husband probably won't climb to the top of the wall (his knees are much older than the rest of him); we'll LOVE the squid.... but what else?

How about a a day trip to the 3 Elaphite islands or take a ferry to Lopud , depending on how much time you have.