Is the calibre of cruising dropping???

With bigger ship joining fleets and fleets in general expanding you will most probably have noticed the abundance of jaw dropping deals hitting the WEB sites and shop windows. Cruising is by far no longer the luxurious holiday that only the middle class society and above can afford. 7 night fly cruise £449pp, 8 night Fjords £399pp, 13 nights repositioning Caribbean £699pp……..

Recently I seem to be getting more feedback from cruisers with colourful episodes on board of passenger being off-loaded for brawling, stealing or just inappropriate behaviour. This is sad to hear but logically not surprising.

I took a short break to a Haven park last month for 5 days; we do them on a cheap deal through the Newspaper so we can do a few in the year and take our dog with us. If we had paid full price for the park plus adding on our food and drinks, it would have been cheaper for us to do a 7 night Med fly cruise on P&O Oceana. Obviously without the dog.

With families and friends choosing to book large group holidays, adding a few days at sea into the mix, alcohol on tap and the temptation off all inclusive drinks packages what can we expect??

I often get asked the question do P&O do an All-inclusive drinks package, I reply no they do not really need to as their drinks are very reasonably priced. What is also in the back of my mind whilst responding is ‘Could you imagine, I think that would be enough to see the P&O fleet finished off….’

More and more regular cruisers are choosing to move away from the 4* lines they have been so loyal to for many years and venture into the 5* fleets to get back to the ambiance and standards they have been accustomed to.

It’s been really interesting watching the cruise industry develop over the last 10 years, I wonder what the next 10 have in store for us…………………