Planning budget....Azura

[lindabodrum]

Putting money aside for our forthcoming cruise. One for speciality dining, one for excursions,one for drinks and another for casino. Can anyone enlighten me on the costs of The restaurants on Azura, when I do a mock reservation, the site dies the respond so I don't know the prices. What would you allow for excursions, five Caribbean ports of call and Azores.

[BrianI]

Restaurant prices can be found here

https://ask.pocruises.com/help/PO/life-on-board/cover_charges

 

Cost of excursion varies. It depends whether you take the ships excursion or a local taxi on shore, which would be cheaper.

 

Ships excursions are around £40 for a half day tour.

 

Brian

[jeanlyon]

Why not tell us where you are going. Lots of people recommend different tour companies which are much less than P&O. For examply, Cosol Tours. Glory tours in Barbados. Much smaller vehicles and much less money.

[lindabodrum]

Going to St Lucia Dominica Antigua St Maartin Barbados and Azores

[Patsy Flower]

Definitely use Cosol in St Lucia.

 

They are on the web and the tour is far superior than anything from the ship.

 

In St Maarten I would suggest going down to the airport as it is a site not to be missed. We did that locally with Bernards Tours but there are many others.

[the english lady]

Definitely use Cosol in St Lucia.

 

They are on the web and the tour is far superior than anything from the ship.

 

In St Maarten I would suggest going down to the airport as it is a site not to be missed. We did that locally with Bernards Tours but there are many others.

We used these and went to the beach. Have to say I preferred the other places they took us to besides this beach. It was hot, small, crowded and very very noisy ,without the planes..but that was just me.

[jospeh]

Cost of sindhu and epicurean can differ cruise by cruse but they were £20 & £28 per head respectively on the 1st March sailing.

[tartanexile81]

I would strongly advise that you don't have to do any of these things if budget is an issue.

1. The food in the main dining room is very acceptable and if you fancy a change the Glass House is lovely and the cover charge only around £5. We also love The Beach House, again £5 supplement so a lot cheaper than Epicurean or Sindhu

 

2. You don't really go to the Caribbean for the historic sites - you're there for the beaches and weather whatever tours P&O tries to convince you to buy. You are best just to enjoy the ports and local beaches. Taxis are very reasonable and they always try to fill the van before they set off so you only have to pay around $4 per person. Even a beach break on P&O costs about £25 and you have to go to the beach they choose for a shorter time than you'd have if you do it on your own. When you are on the ship you will hear presentations about each port and if there is something you'd like to see, you can always get a taxi there for a fraction of the cost of the tour - and you MUST barter the price!

 

3. Drinks on P&O are very reasonable but you can buy duty free in the ports and have a drink in your cabin e.g. before dinner if you want to save money.

 

4. Can't help with the casino

 

I remember my first ever cruise- you get all the info before hand and you think you have to do the tours, speciality dining etc but when you get onboard you discover that only a minority of people do them :)

[GLYNAGP]

In Barbados if you want a beach. Go to The Boatyard. It's aboutUS$5 pp in a taxi/shuttle from the port and takes about 10 mins. The entrance fee is US$15 pp and for that you get a sunbed and a free drink and a free shuttle back to the ship. There's changing rooms, showers etc there and a bar and restaurant if you want lunch. we go every time we call at Barbados on a cruise

[B19]

We returned from the trans atlantic on azura just a couple of weeks ago.

It all depends what you want to do, but we did Cosol tours on St Lucia which cost 70 dollars for the day including food and drinks (loads of drinks if you like)

I would strongly recomend this tour. We did Bernards tour on St Maarten at 40 dollars and again very good value. We took a local tour on Tortola at 20 dollars and was OK, and did the sub on Barbados and visited Mount gay rum.

We took 1500 dollars to spend as a couple and returned with nearly 1000. Having bought alchohol and cigarettes for home.

On Ponta del garda we walked and found gardens and spent next to nothing.

We are not big drinkers but did have a few bottles of wine on board, we also ate in sindhu twice £15 a time, epicurian £28 and beach house about £5 and all much enjoyed. All these and drinks came out of our onboard credit,£480 and we ended the cruise with about £150 left to spend in the shops.

We found it all to be very good value, both on and off ship.

[lindabodrum]

Thanks for all the info folks. We can't afford 100£ per port per couple so will take taxis to beaches as advised and what we save use for glass house and beach house and nice cocktails at night.

[bee-ess]

Thanks for all the info folks. We can't afford 100£ per port per couple so will take taxis to beaches as advised and what we save use for glass house and beach house and nice cocktails at night.

 

If you can stretch to one tour, do the Cosol Tour, it is excellent. If not there are taxis to beaches and buses too (if you research it)

 

In Barbados there is a good bus system to the West Coast where the best beaches are, probably only cost about $1-$2 each, Paynes Bay or Mullins are good stops. Read this, the yellow ones are fun but a bit loud !!

https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowTopic-g147262-i230-k3690457-What_s_the_deal_with_Reggae_buses-Barbados.html

 

In Antigua there are plenty of taxis to beaches, just outside the terminal.

 

In St Maarten there is a water taxi to town, good shops and beach which is about $8 for a day ticket so you can come back and forth if you want lunch on the ship. You can walk if you want (about 20 mins) but the water taxi is easier.

Edited April 18, 2016 by bee-ess

[PedroLeBlanc]

Thanks for all the info folks. We can't afford 100£ per port per couple so will take taxis to beaches as advised and what we save use for glass house and beach house and nice cocktails at night.

 

tartanexile81 posted such a great reply.

[lindabodrum]

Will get in touch with Cosol