Moved to cruise forum.

Mark

If you go into holidays at page 228 on teletext, you will see an abundance of cruise bargains into the Caribbean for late November and the first 3 weeks in December. This will give some indication of the kind of bargain deals you can get at last minute.

For Caribbean you need to try and steer clear of the area between August and October to mid-November for the hurricane season. December before Christmas and January (and sometimes first half in Feb) are traditionally the slowest dates for sales in the Caribbean, and potentially therefore the most likely months for good deals. Indian Ocean, and Maldives is an area where very few lines cruise to and bargains are non-existent.

thanks very much for the response however when i spoke of maldives and indian ocean I meant a general holiday not a cruise . I wouldn't like to price a cruise to there

Thanks again!

By moving this topic to the cruise forum and leaving a link in the General section of the forums, those visiting both of these sections are able to contribute to this discussion resulting in a wider audience

Mark

http://www.africansafariclub.com/
Allthough it looks like they may have stopped they used to have stonking deals for a cruise/safari combo.

Huricane season is officialy 1 June to 30 November, so if you are back to Uni next sept you need to start looking now
Caribbean cheap cruise season is from Nov-March, some great deals on now <£1k with OV at £750pp for two weeks

AI is generaly only available with Thomsons and Island at reasonable prices.

Costa do a Far East cruise for under £2000. One that has caught my eye in the papers a couple of times is MSC "northbound from Durban" currently around £2000, but I'm sure I've seen it in reverse offered much cheaper than that in the paper. Visits Mauritius, Seychelles, Egypt, Jordan.
kate

But beware that both Costa and MSC cruises get really bad reviews from the British.

Check the age restrictions if interested in a cruise. Most that I know of will not let you book if you are under 21.

I've seen some fantastic deals on 14 nights cruises from Mauritius, including flights. The ship is Costa Europa and the best price I've found is £999 in January and February. I considered this cruise myself but the price hadn't dropped by the time i booked my Caribbean cruise. Earlier in the year they were selling the re-positioning cruise from Italy to Mauritius throung many exciting countries and ports for a month onboard, with flights for only £1299 per person. A fantastic bargain if you can get the time away. The ship returns in March so the deal may be repeated for hte reverse sailing.

But beware that both Costa and MSC cruises get really bad reviews from the British

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I would like to take issue with Mehmet on his rather sweeping statement above.

As a matter of interest, I went to the HT review section and did a snaphot of reviews on Armonia.

Altogether there are 20 reviews there and the average star rating for this ship is 4.29* out of 5 or 85.75% good reviews!!!!!!! This looks amazingly good to me! I know that to really prove a point I would need to include reviews on ALL ships but time does not permit!

Unfortunately, some of the very poor reviews relate to either South America repositioning or cruises commencing in South America. I am not trying to excuse any bad experiences but I would say that for these cruises, the staff are employed in Brazil but like I say, this does not excuse poor service.

The poor reviews I have read elsewhere basically have complaints which are related to the fact that both Cosmos and MSC are Italian run shipping lines which cater for multinational passengers. By far the biggest moan is that announcements are in 5 languages. Would people really rather that announcements were made in Italian only? The next largest complaint is usually that the food is 'too' Italian. I personally would take issue with that statement!!! It's true that there is a pasta/risotto course at lunch and dinner. This is hardly forcing Italian food down peoples throats since no one is obliged to eat these courses and they are 1 course in a seven course dinner! Then people complain about the Italians themselves. Can the cruise line be blamed for this?

I know that MSC are not perfect but I think they offer a very fine product at a very reasonable price!

(I am not 'Mehmet' but 'mehmeh' and I am female. ) I have not been on MSC or Costa and having read numerous bad reviews on other dedicated cruise review websites, I am afraid I shall not be cruising with them. Everyone's complaints centre around the incredibly poor organisation, together with poor, cold food. You are correct that the Brazilian staff seem to get the worst feedback. The reason people complain about the not unexpectedly large number of Italians on board, is due to their habit of never queueing for anything, but just having a free for all of pushing and shoving. Different people have different priorities and are annoyed by different things. I just wanted to warn people to do their research before booking.

I have to say that, having read extensively about all cruiselines/ships over the past couple of years, mehmehs' comments are in accord with all that I have read for those lines. We have used 8 different cruiselines, but neither Costa or MSC, and would be unlikely to book with them for the very reasons stated by mehmeh.

Hi Mehmeh and Hamrag

Firstly Mehmeh, my apologies for misreading your name!!! A senior moment for which I am sorry.

Now, about MSC. Mehmeh, I do believe your comment was rather strong from someone who has never experienced the product - a bit forceful in my opinion! Have you read the MSC reviews on HT?

But beware that both Costa and MSC cruises get really bad reviews from the British.

Have you never seen any good reviews about these lines? By and large, the most common complaints are about the announcements in 5 languages, the food being too Italian and the Italians themselves.

(1) Because they have multinational passengers, the announcements in 5 languages are inevitable! Yes, they irritate me but are exactly what I would expect.

(2) Food being too Italian: This one I would definitely take issue with. Yes there is a fresh pasta/rice dish at the buffet restaurant every lunchtime.The remainder of the buffet is definitely international and covers burgers and pizza and all the usual suspects for a buffet. At dinner, there is a pasta/rice course. This is an intermediate small course among seven courses and you DO NOT have to take it. The main courses are generally international with a strong mediterranean slant, strong on seafood (which I personally don't like!) HOWEVER, at every dinner you always have the choice of a Salmon steak, a steak or chicken, and spaghtetti with a plain tomato sauce (presumably an alternative for vegetarians) if the main menu doesn't appeal to you. Once again I take the view that this is an Italian shipping line therefore I would actually have expected a much larger Italian influence on the food they serve!

(3) The passenger mix. Naturallly, this being an Italian line mainly sailing out of Italian ports, why would anyone expect the Italians not to make up the majority of passengers? Yes, the Italians love to queue so I just leave them to it! Yes they are boisterous - would you expect anything else? In my experience though, another nationality takes the prize for being rude and arrogant on MSC cruises!

On every cruise I go on, there are always some people who I would rather not have on board and frequently children from hell! Unfortunately on a ship one is somewhat captive so I have just learned how to avoid these people! I have had the same experience on land based holidays too so this simply cannot be helped.

I have sailed with 6 other cruise lines and definitely must say that MSC are up there on my order of merit. My advice to anyone sailing on MSC or Costa is to understand that these are not British/American products (Costa is owned by Carnival but it's cruises sail from Italy). The majority of passengers WILL be Italian (generally around 60% sailing from European ports) the remainder being majority German, French and Spanish and British.

In conclusion, I would like to point out another thing in the favour of MSC - Children cruise FREE (cruise only, airfares payable). Actually this works against me because rowdy children are not my bag on any ship, but it is a considerable selling point for families with children. Personally I wouldn't dream of cruising with an MSC European cruise during school holidays!!!

I think a fairer description is that MSC and Costa get MIXED reviews. much likea lot of lines

The trick is to read what people say and decide which things good or bad are important to you.

You can't argue that the deals are there and prices are very competative

It is down to value, for some it will be great for others not so good.

A special warning too for all non-smokers out there. MSC/Costa are the recognised smoking cruiselines!

Just returned from Costa Far East cruise,while the itinery was excellent the ship the Allegra was
disapointing ,food never hot ,drinks really expensive,not sure if its just the Allegra as speaking to
other passengers some had been on 4 Costa ships and thought they were good,said don,t judge
Costa just on the Allegra,as it was our first Costa Cruise it has put us off booking with them again
this ship is very old and small ,we had 2 bad sea days had to stay in bed,as everyone was just falling
all over the place.Smoking was only allowed in one of the bars,not sure about the casino!!!
ann