We Want The Extras Back!

Are the cruise lines cutting back more and more? What ever happened to the good old days, when your tickets arrived in a nice leather-bound book and luggage labels we sent out pre-printed. There was none this, taping or stapling flimsy, sorry strips of paper to your case. Where have the bells and whistles gone?


I remember a few years ago, when this all started, I was chasing a shore excursion booklet for a client. I called the cruise line to see why it had not arrived, I was told " Sorry sir, this has not been sent out, as your client has opted to go green". A little confused I explained that I booked it and that we hadn’t requested this at all. I was then told that on this late deal code we had no choice, but to go green. By go green I suspect they mean, either go on line and do it yourself or use your own paper, as my client still wanted 100 odd pages printed off and posted. So some small tree out there still had to suffer.


Also are there more charges being invented? I am not sure 100% on this, but my Mother –In –Law is currently on a cruise at the moment. It is a lesser known cruise line but, still at the time of booking she was told she had to pay £30 if she wanted a port side cabin (It was not www.cruise.co.uk she booked this with however). There are a lot of others out there who also charge you to pick where you want to be, some even charge just to have a number. Then there is the brilliant Idea of the 15% bar bill on the American brands.

Have I put you off yet? Well I shouldn’t have as if I’m honest, we can’t complain too much as cruising itself has never been so cheap. There are more late rates at the moment than you can shake a stick at. So cruisers are actually still massively better off. This however does not stop us wanting all the old bells and whistles plus the cheaper rates, but we can’t have everything!