We asked three travel agents – Cruise Direct (Stanmore, Middlesex), Thomas Cook (Sudbury, Suffolk) and Paul Mundy Cruising (London) – to come up with a recommendation and sample price for three sets of clients who have special requests for a cruise holiday.
Request 1: A family with two children, aged 10 and 13, want to try out a cruise for the first time. They want a value-for-money cruise during the summer holidays that will provide the children with lots to do, both on and off the ship.
Cruise Direct
Area: Greek islands.
Product: a seven-day Grecian Treasures flycruise on Festival Cruises’ 48,000t, 1,200-passenger Mistral, which is a brand new four-star ship introduced this summer. It offers excellent value and the line is known to be especially good at keeping children entertained on board. The cruise starts in Venice and calls at Dubrovnik, Katakolon, Santorini, Mykonos, Rhodes and Piraeus (for Athens).
Each deck of the ship has been themed after a European capital so there is a London Deck, complete with a Mayfair Lounge and St James’ Club, to make the British feel at home on a ship which will also have Italian, German and French passengers.
Cost: Cruise Direct price of £2,196 for a family of four in the school holidays.
Thomas Cook
Area: Mediterranean.
Product: a seven-day Iberian Inspirations cruise on the 23,000t, 1,060-passenger Carousel. There are six ports (Palma, Malaga, Cadiz, Lisbon, Gibraltar and Cartagena) in seven days and the cruise represents excellent value for money. It is particularly suitable for first-timer cruisers, especially as there is the option of combining the cruise with a week’s holiday in Majorca.
Cost: the lead summer flycruise price is £499 a person, although during the school holiday period when the children’s activity club operates on board, the total for a family of four starts at £2,246.
Paul Mundy Cruising
Area: Mediterranean.
Product: a 13-night cruise in July on P&O’s 69,000t, 1,810-passenger Oriana. P&O has good on-board facilities for children from infants to teenagers, although note that these do not extend to special children’s shore excursions. The cruise from Southampton goes to Gibraltar, Corsica, Livorno (for Pisa and Florence), Santa Margherita (Italy), Cannes and Barcelona.
Cost: the adult fare starts at £1,795 and there are separate fares for the children of £1,077 for the 10-year-old and £1,256 for the 13-year-old, making a total of £4,128 for the family of four.
Request 2: An active couple in their late 50s who are experienced cruisers. They have sailed in the Caribbean and Mediterranean and want to try something different. They are interested in history and culture and the experience of the destination is more important than a luxury on-board stay, although they would prefer not to rough it.
Cruise Direct
Area: Athens to Mombasa (via Suez Canal).
Product: a 19-day flycruise this autumn on Orient Lines’ 20,500t, 850-passenger Marco Polo. A good destination-orientated cruise line offering four-star quality and a cultural cruise with plenty of interest. Repeat business is very high with this line. The cruise calls at Suez (for Cairo), Egypt, Aqaba (for Petra) in Jordan, Safaga (for Luxor) in Egypt and Djibouti.
Cost: Cruise Direct price of £2,009 a person.
Thomas Cook
Area: Baltic/Scandinavia.
Product: a 15-day Northern Capitals cruise on Swan Hellenic’s 12,500t, 340-passenger Minerva, departing June 30. This cruise offers plenty of history and culture on board a small and comfortable ship with guest speakers.
On this cruise, which goes from Leith in Scotland to Oslo, Copenhagen, Ronne (Denmark), Tallinn (Finland), Helsinki, St Petersburg and Stockholm, speakers include the former British ambassador to Sweden, Sir Richard Parsons.
Cost: from £3,120 a person, including the return flight from Stockholm and all shore excursions and tips.
Paul Mundy Cruising
Area: Far East.
Product: a 16-day December flycruise on Swan Hellenic’s Minerva from Muscat in Oman to Mumbai, Goa, Mangalore and Cochin in India, the Maldives, and Galle and Colombo in Sri Lanka. This is a specialist cruise operator in art, culture, architecture and history and the guest lecturers are extremely knowledgeable. One of the speakers on the cruise is former High Commissioner to India, Sir David Goodall. The ship offers the style and comfort of an English country house hotel.
Cost: flycruise price from £3,000 a person including all shore excursions and tips.
Request 3: A couple who want to celebrate their 25th anniversary in style and would prefer a small, intimate luxury vessel rather than a 2,000-passenger ship.
Cruise Direct
Area: Mediterranean.
Product: a one-week cruise from Rome to Nice on Radisson Seven Seas’ 25,000t Seven Seas Navigator. Newly built for August 1999 by the joint venture of RSS and V Ships, it is part of the new generation of small, upmarket cruise ships with only 490 passengers. Six-star luxury, great facilities and good value. The cruise calls at Sorrento, Porto Cervo (Sardinia), Livorno (for Florence), Portofino, St Tropez and Monte Carlo.
Cost: Cruise Direct price of £2,649 a person.
Thomas Cook
Area: Mediterranean.
Product: a seven-night cruise in May or August from Monte Carlo to Venice on Cunard’s 4,000t, 112-passenger Sea Goddess 1. There is excellent service on this small and romantic luxury ship. The cruise calls at Porto Cervo (Sardinia), Sorrento, Taormina (Sicily), Corfu and Dubrovnik.
Cost: from £4,440 a person. This excludes flights but all drinks and tips on board are included.
Paul Mundy Cruising
Area: South Pacific and Australia/New Zealand.
Product: a 14-day flycruise on Silversea’s 17,000t, 296-passenger Silver Cloud in February 2000, from Auckland, around New Zealand’s North and South Islands and on to Tasmania, Melbourne and Sydney. These cruise holidays are all-inclusive in all-suite accommodation. On this cruise, the ship is in Auckland during the America’s Cup yacht races.
Cost: from £6,795, including all tips and drinks on board.