Abta bonded(K0476) and agent for atol but ultimately part of the co-op travel.

Ideal Cruising is a trading name of The Freedom Travel Group Limited. Registered in England 3816981 VAT No. 150575573. Registered Office: Hamil Road, Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, ST6 1AJ. The Freedom Travel Group Limited is a subsidiary of United Co-operatives Limited.

Not used myself but they do come up on TXT

Try one of the price matchers to see if they can beet your price, also worht saying what the deal is cruise, days, dates, price so others can coment on or consider the deal.

My first check is usualy http://www.abta.com/ folowed by a check of who they really are, most companies use trading names.

Further checks also show that "ideal cruising" is also used as a trading name by Barrhead Travel(abta 13759/W4746) allthough I think they may no longer us it prefering cruisedirect

I know of Barrhead travel and they have always had a good reputation. They will also try to be price computitive

Sue

Hi

I have used Ideal cruising no problems. However one thing to bear in mind is their cancellation policy. If you cancel your booking as well as losing your deposit, you also have to pay them 10% of the total cost of your holiday

I booked a 14 night cruise over 12 months in advance (Thomsons) After the booking we went on a cruise on Thomsons Spirit, (not booked with Ideal Cruising) and didn't enjoy it so wanted to cancel the one we had booked for over 12 months away. It would have been extremely expensive to cancel especially so far in advance. We were able to transfer the deposit over to a land based holiday with Thomsons although we were charged £35 pp by Thomsons and £25 pp by Ideal Cruising.

It does detail this 10% charge on their website though so you don't have a leg to stand on!!

Good point about the 10%, I seem to remember it coming up before(now you mention it).

I wonder if it would come under the unfair contract stuff.

I usually use Cruise Finders but I think I might try these chaps - unless anyone know why I shouldn't?

D.

I think there is already a thread somewhere on this. The only thing to watch with them is their own terms and conditions which are detailled on their website. The main drawback is that if you decide to cancel not only do you lose your deposit, you also have to pay ideal Cruising 10% of your total holiday price.

I had a cruise on Thomson Destiny booked with them 14 months in advance. After coming back off Thomson Spirit which we didn't particularly enjoy, we were prepared to cancel and forgo the deposit. However we were not prepared to pay them 10% of our total holiday price as well so we transferred to a Thomsons land based holiday and had to pay Thomsons £35pp and Ideal Cruising £25pp

Merged with existing topic.

luci

Oops, now I have repeated myself!!

Thanks guys! I'll continue shopping around for a bit. Looking at J817 Baltic cruise on the Arcadia 26 Aug 2008. Have found £2002 online or £2029 direct from P&O (extra discount for Portunus and online booking).

D.

I've now used Ideal Cruising 3 times, for cruises in 2005 (MSC), 2007 (next month) and just booked for 2008. They produced a saving of just about 10% over the P&O price for the recently-booked Ventura cruise in September 2008.

That said, they're not the cheapest (1st4Cruising & CruiseKings might be a little bit cheaper) but they seem to be very efficient - documentation has always been accurate, they can handle changes, and whenever I've rung them they've been able to get my details & previous/current bookings out of their system quickly & easily. So I'm going to carry on using them.

Specialist cruise agency sold

Specialist cruise agency Ideal Cruising has been soldto lowcostbeds.com for an undisclosed sum.

The deal for the agency, founded four years ago by managing director Tony Youster, is expected to be completed before Christmas and is subject to shareholder approval, final legal negotiations and due diligence.

Camberley-based Ideal Cruising will be a wholly owned subsidiary and will be run on an arms length basis, with its current management team remaining in place to further grow its revenues and profits.

Ideal's total transaction value is expected to exceed £28 million and the company is profitable.

Lowcostbeds.com CEO Paul Evans said: "We are delighted to have reached agreement with the management team at Ideal to bring them in to the lowcost group.

"Ideal is a very successful business, consistently growing revenues and profits since entering the cruise industry four years ago.

"We plan to invest in the management team, technology, staff and marketing to further grow Ideal's cruise business.

"The Ideal trading cycle complements the seasonality of lowcostbeds.com's core beach and city holidays and together we will create a stronger group."

Youster added: "Ideal has grown rapidly over the last four years and we see huge opportunities in the growing cruise sector to further add value to the cruise operators' distribution models."

With permission from TravelMole

Hi,

Just thought it would be worth letting you all know that Ideal Cruising and LowCost Group deal fell through. Ideal Cruising have announced a continuation of their deal with the Freedom Travel Group - so clients remain 100% protected through their ABTA and ATOL licences.

I've booked with them many times, already booked fro May 2010 on a short cruise for my 40th birthday (Independence of the Seas-excellent ship by the way.)

I work in an independent travel agent, but even with staff discount cannot get close to the deals they can offer - give them a try!