Iskra
Established Member
I mainly wanted to create a thread for the following bit of news, but I thought that as cruising is a bit of an under-discussed area, I'd make a more general thread.
travelweekly.co.uk
Quite a number of cruise lines seem to be cancelling or heavily amending anything that involves going through Suez, or near Israel in the Med at this point. Personally, this has led to the cancellation of a Marella cruise that I'd booked from Singapore-Malaysia-Indonesia-Sri Lanka-India-Oman, which would barely be affected but the next leg of the ships journey heads through Suez. I was very excited for this one as I haven't been to the Far East, Middle East (this is now my second cancelled holiday to the Middle East!) or been on a Dreamliner which I would have done on that trip, plus the railway interest in Sri Lanka and elsewhere, but oh well.
Instead, I've now booked back-to-back cruises with Princess cruises on Sun Princess (new line for me and first time on such a new ship and my first 'mega ship') which goes from Florida to Bahamas (to their private Island, which I'm a bit unsure about conceptually), Turks & Caicos, Dominican Republic, back to Florida then to Mexico, Belize and Honduras before returning to Florida. Flights with Virgin to Miami so still a possibility of a Dreamliner there and I'm mainly interested in the Central American ports. We're meeting some American friends we made on a previous cruise on the second week of that cruise, and I may tie-in with another US friend somewhere.
Previous cruises I've been on:
Carnival: Florida, Bahamas, Florida- just to see if cruising was for me.
Celebrity: Florida, Southern Caribbean islands including Barbados, Antigua, St Kitts & Nevis, St Lucia, St Maarten. The best cruise line I've been with so far, I was also able to go up on the ships bridge which was a great experience.
Marella: Eastern Mediterranean (Greece, various Greek Islands and a bit of Turkey). I really enjoyed this one and Marella are probably the best operator in terms of value for money that I've travelled with and it does feel a lot easier when one company provides the flights, cruise etc.
My ultimate dream cruise would probably be South America to Antarctica via the Falkland Islands, but that is a bit aspirational at this point
Does anyone have any cruises booked, or been on any particularly memorable ones in the past? Has anyone got any thoughts on traditional size ships vs 'mega ships' or on any particular cruise lines?
Marella Cruises cancels 2024-25 Asia and Middle East programme | Travel Weekly
‘Difficult decision’ made due to ongoing conflict in Red Sea
travelweekly.co.uk
Quite a number of cruise lines seem to be cancelling or heavily amending anything that involves going through Suez, or near Israel in the Med at this point. Personally, this has led to the cancellation of a Marella cruise that I'd booked from Singapore-Malaysia-Indonesia-Sri Lanka-India-Oman, which would barely be affected but the next leg of the ships journey heads through Suez. I was very excited for this one as I haven't been to the Far East, Middle East (this is now my second cancelled holiday to the Middle East!) or been on a Dreamliner which I would have done on that trip, plus the railway interest in Sri Lanka and elsewhere, but oh well.
Instead, I've now booked back-to-back cruises with Princess cruises on Sun Princess (new line for me and first time on such a new ship and my first 'mega ship') which goes from Florida to Bahamas (to their private Island, which I'm a bit unsure about conceptually), Turks & Caicos, Dominican Republic, back to Florida then to Mexico, Belize and Honduras before returning to Florida. Flights with Virgin to Miami so still a possibility of a Dreamliner there and I'm mainly interested in the Central American ports. We're meeting some American friends we made on a previous cruise on the second week of that cruise, and I may tie-in with another US friend somewhere.
Previous cruises I've been on:
Carnival: Florida, Bahamas, Florida- just to see if cruising was for me.
Celebrity: Florida, Southern Caribbean islands including Barbados, Antigua, St Kitts & Nevis, St Lucia, St Maarten. The best cruise line I've been with so far, I was also able to go up on the ships bridge which was a great experience.
Marella: Eastern Mediterranean (Greece, various Greek Islands and a bit of Turkey). I really enjoyed this one and Marella are probably the best operator in terms of value for money that I've travelled with and it does feel a lot easier when one company provides the flights, cruise etc.
My ultimate dream cruise would probably be South America to Antarctica via the Falkland Islands, but that is a bit aspirational at this point
Does anyone have any cruises booked, or been on any particularly memorable ones in the past? Has anyone got any thoughts on traditional size ships vs 'mega ships' or on any particular cruise lines?