ME VERSUS CRUISE

This year I decided not to cruise for my summer holiday and booked a week in Ibiza

I booked  week at ME Hotel in Santa Eularia, Ibiza for my family, this is the 1st year that I have booked summer holiday prices and I shouldn’t have been shocked at the cost for a week’s holiday but it was so expensive!

The hotel was amazing but definitely not for families or children, it had a nice pool and a limited Kids Club, there was only a handful of children and most didn’t speak English and most of the areas were for adults only

The hotel was on a small beach with a handful or restaurants nearby where we spent our evenings and an average meal for 3 of us cost 80 euros

The food and drinks were so expensive at the hotel (7 euros for an apple juice, 5 euros for a coffee and 8 euros for a KitKat from the mini bar) I took regular trips to the supermarket for snacks and soft drinks

We took a few tours of the island to other beaches, the ferry was 65 euros each way and a taxi to the legendary Hippy Market set us back about 40 euros

We had 1 English channel on the hotel TV which was the news so the evenings were pretty quiet once we headed back to our room

We had a lovely holiday but all in all with flights and transfers and spending money we didn’t have much change from £5000

HOWEVER…. when I think about how much more we could have had if I had booked a cruise!!

We could have had a 4* Premium cruise with P&O Oceana with 24 hour full board dining, snacks and room service and buffet drinks included

My daughter could have had fun all day every day in the kids club with English speaking children of her own age all for free

We could have been entertained day and night with daytime competitions, port information, quizzes, headline shows, dancing and movies on demand in our cabin

I could have enjoyed unlimited use of the sauna and treated myself to some pampering in the spa and still enjoyed a choice of pools on board

I probably could have saved a fortune as the shuttle buses would have been included to the towns for each port of call and I could have budgeted and planned and pre booked our daily trips and excursions and found the best beaches for a day of sunbathing and swimming

So for 2020 Summer I will be planning my next holiday on a cruise as all in all it will be a week of much more fun and will probably cost a whole let less as it is not always what you pay to book your holiday  – it’s what it costs you at the end of the holiday that counts !!