Am I a tightwad or am I careful with money?

[Julessmiles]

 

You will have a great time Julessmiles. Fred's service and entertainment similar to Thomson. Food definitely much better.

 

Thank you :). I did a 1 night mini cruise this summer on Boudiccca & was very impressed with the food, service & entertainment - and lots of different ages onboard too! Really looking forward to it!

[Redlondon]

At last! Someone on the Thomson who thinks like me! We've booked Celebrity for next year, cheaper, upgrade, free AI. Bye bye Thomson!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

 

 

Wow to that's what I call an upgrade!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[geomagot]

tbh its not all about money...its about what people like

 

fer-instance...I dont think I need chandeliers and atrium's to enjoy myself? I like the quirkyness of thomsons ships (I luv the itineraries too)

 

havnt been on fred so cant comment? (perhaps I need to rectify that)

[CRUISIN LINDA]

 

havnt been on fred so cant comment? (perhaps I need to rectify that)

 

Go on Geo, you know you want to ;)

[geomagot]

Go on Geo, you know you want to ;)

 

what to go on fred...or just have something else (other than dream) to comment on? ;):p:D

 

actually we nearly made it onto fred this year (mini cruise bristol - liverpool) but circumstances conspired against us:(

[Redlondon]

tbh its not all about money...its about what people like

 

 

 

fer-instance...I dont think I need chandeliers and atrium's to enjoy myself? I like the quirkyness of thomsons ships (I luv the itineraries too)

 

 

 

havnt been on fred so cant comment? (perhaps I need to rectify that)

 

 

I did Thomson Celebration, it was ok , service fantastic and good food but air con in cabin was broken all week so impossible to sleep as in Turkey and it's not like you could open window . Will stick to newer Celebrity ships now. ( although air con can break on any ship) also Thomson ship was the most over crowded than any ship I've been on, people were lying on towels on tennis court to get a space!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[kruzseeka]

tbh its not all about money...its about what people like

 

fer-instance...I dont think I need chandeliers and atrium's to enjoy myself? I like the quirkyness of thomsons ships (I luv the itineraries too)

 

havnt been on fred so cant comment? (perhaps I need to rectify that)

 

 

Actually that's an interesting point - what are folks' top priorities for choosing a cruise?

 

Itinerary/price/sea days/ship's ambience/entertainment/ship's facilities e.g. wow factors + attractions/ship size/crew/food/ drinks prices/local flights/regional (?) ex-UK departures/availability of AI/lack of formality/dinner sitting choices etc. plus anything else? (Oops! forgot dave add to that list - single cabins/casino? :D)

 

I could select quite a quite a few of those but in order of importance, mine would be:

1. Itinerary (ports of call but also as few sea days as possible)

2. Food

3. Price

 

Also very much taken into account - service, entertainment and ambience but the first three are my starting point.

 

However it's often a compromise. Never thought I'd be influenced by newer, larger ships but to my surprise we've found larger ships appear less crowded and we do appreciate having more areas to choose from both for eating and relaxing although flashy ships with an atrium, glass lifts, ice rinks certainly wouldn't influence our choice - but some features do make for attractive surroundings. But it's all horses for courses - I'd be inteested to know what others consider most important for them.

[checheguevara281070]

Mine would probably be:

 

1) Itinery

2) Cost/AI

3) Casualness

 

There were two things that always prevented me cruising, the first was the thought of getting a huge drinks bill at the end of the holiday, and the second was I don't want to dress up. We spend every single working day dressed up smartly. Our holiday is our down time, and as such I like to relax. Neither of us want the suit or DJ thing (that's not to demean others' choices). We haven't been to any of our captains' evenings on our 3 cruises, nor do we want to go. This is what attracted us to Thomson Cruises, a drinks package is available and there are eating choices that are smart casual rather than smart. We would probably look around once our next two hols are done (Italy cruise 2015 & Mexico 2016), and I would be interested to hear how casual other crusie lines are (by casual I do mean 'smart casual' as opposed to the buffoon dining in vest and shorts last week).

 

To return to the original subject......

 

We do buy pre-booked seats as we like not only to sit together, but also to choose where in the plane we sit. We have something to eat at the airport (it's part of the whole holiday thing) and a drink on the plane. We buy the drinks package (it works out, honestly!), and we will use official excursions.

 

In terms of saving money, we have become more independant. The only excursions we will buy now are ones that involve trips away from where the ship is, or if we are not confident about finding our way around (it builds in the safety net of the ship waiting for you). For more local trips, such as Athens, Istanbul, Mykonos, Santorini this year we went our own way. We think the one saving we may make next year is to swap a lower outside cabin for an equivalent or higher inside one. We don't spend a lot of time in our cabin, and it's not like you see a lot out of them anyway. We did toy with the idea of the balcony, but does the cost really justify it? Probably not on Thomson.

[geomagot]

personally i dont like big ships, i like to keep things simple...too much choice makes for too many dilemmas which i would rather not have when trying to relax, as long as i am comfortable i am happy....if you like to be entertained 24/7 then i guess a small ship is not for you, the lack of activities suits me fine.....i like balconies tho

 

i dont like too many sea days unless the ship is going somewhere i really want to go and thoms do go to the places i really want to go to (jamaica/cuba)

 

i wouldnt describe thoms ships as crowded...maybe on the one sea day? it was fine the rest of time, ventura seemed just as crowded on the sea days there were more sea days on ventura

 

the beloved crew....cant compare...I like they way they soon get to know you on a smaller ship and the service is definitely more personal...and they always remember you when you return, many become friends...couldnt pay for that could you?

 

ok southampton isnt too far for me to travel?...but i dont like sea days?...seamless flying from local airports is a definite thoms bonus, they look afetr you from the moment you land until the moment you take off for home...no getting dumped at the airport at 8am for a 6pm flight home

 

and yes thoms ship are old...you never know what may happen, things do break down...there are odd rattles and wobbles.... but they look after you like gold and try their utmost to put things right if something does go wrong...or at least they have in my experience....other ships? newer ships have been known to suffer breakdowns/outages etc too, its not exclusive to thoms

 

of course money comes into it? but i think cruise is such a cut-throat market that prices are pretty even across all of them...i personally think i get what i pay for on thoms...i wouldnt pay thru the nose on any of them

 

thats why i like a thoms cruise

Edited October 9, 2014 by geomagot

[happy v]

My priorities are

1. Itinerary

 

3. Convenience, local airport/port

 

2. Price.

 

I typed my choices and then realised I was telling lies :eek: as I saw a cruise the other day and the itinerary had me, even though it was very inconvenient to get to for us but, I didn't book as the price was a lot more than I wanted to pay. Hence the same choices but in a different order above.:o

[kruzseeka]

My priorities are

1. Itinerary

 

3. Convenience, local airport/port

 

2. Price.

 

I typed my choices and then realised I was telling lies :eek: as I saw a cruise the other day and the itinerary had me, even though it was very inconvenient to get to for us but, I didn't book as the price was a lot more than I wanted to pay. Hence the same choices but in a different order above.:o

 

Awww............. keep an eye on it happy v you may be lucky and it will come down. Good luck! ;)

[geomagot]

what influences a cruise decision???

 

lots of things i guess

 

i do seem to spend an unhealthy amount of time (years) online trying to figure out thomsons fluid pricing strategy???? (fail) :confused:

 

then all of a sudden (after all those hours of price tracking and in a fit of devil-may-care/boredom) i just go ahead and book the itinerary that took my fancy all along (since i saw the pics in the brochure) :rolleyes:

 

click ......cabin, click .....airport, click .....ai, unclick ....world fund, unclick

 

oooo! ai is half price, click ....wonder what else is on offer??

 

backclick

 

doh! no voucher codes (i'm sure there was one there yesterday?) .... missed it....ho humm ....click

 

click, thats it

 

no wait

 

double check .....triple check .....hmmmm?? champagne in cabin?? ....hmmmm??? nice

 

back click ....nope too expensive .....click

 

'please go back and check that you have read the t&c'...doh!

 

okay...check..... have read the t&c (not really) :p click

 

spinning hourglass.....

 

still spinning.....oh hurry up downton abbey is on!

 

click.....hurrah!...thats it ...at last ...booked it...yay! :cool::)

 

'please take a moment of your time to fill in this short survey' ....groan...:D

[happy v]

Awww............. keep an eye on it happy v you may be lucky and it will come down. Good luck! ;)

 

I will. :D:D