quote:

Originally posted by Roxy:
Tangata, do you have a idea on what would be considered "short notice"...30 days? or does it have to be like 5 days?

On my tour last week to Scandanavia, I overnight ferried from Denmark to Norway and the cabin was "cozy", had a sofa (really a bunk), separated by a night table and then my twin lower bunk bed, plus 2 overhead pull down bunks (they were left closed - technically it could sleep 4). As a solo, my tour included the single accommodation, but had the same cabin others had. The window was sizeable maybe 3ft x 2-1/2 feet. These over night ferries are quite nice and huge. I liked it.

I suppose on a river cruise, the cabin would be a little larger - certainly there was no room for luggage; it would have to be emptied and stowed away.

Hi Roxy
I have spoken to NYJudy in the past re her river cruises in Europe & I beleive Judy waits for the discounts before booking. I am not to sure if airfares are part of the deal though. Judy did mention that the cruises caterfor those from the US.

Roxy why don't you PM Judy I am sure she has all the info you would need. I am not to sure if Judy is at home or on holidays, I do recall her saying they were going away. I will email her & let her know you asking question re the cruises.
Cheers
Spooky

Tangata, thanks for your time on the reply. I suspect a 30 day window makes sense.

Have a fabulous time on your cruise, enjoy everything and let us know your findings! Perhaps river crusing could be my next venture just to finally compare and providing I can get a "deal".

Thanks Spooky, I have the websites as well for the cruise discounts. I would have to be prepared to either strike out, or be successful on landing a deal on a 30-day notice. If it's a strike out, I'd have to hope my plan B for something else (not a cruise) has availability at such a late date. There's a downside to working on last minute deals.

Going back to the original question on this thread (are we allowed to do that? ) I was thinking after I posted my last reply that one big difference between a coach tour and a Uniworld style river cruise is that there is not the comradeship that you get on a coach tour. There are too many people to know everyone and although you may share a table (typically four places) with the same people occasionally many people prefer to sit with different people at each meal. When you do go off on a coach there is always a number of them and you are never with the same group of people.

I suspect that this might make such tours less attractive for a single traveller.

Of course, this is not the case with the smaller Asian cruises where the comradeship is probably more than on a coach tour as there is little opportunity to do your own thing in the evening, so you end up being together.

Thanks Roxy we are going to have a bomb, not only the cruise but the Insight BB Tour that follows it. Now that is one tour where the comradeship is already in place!

Wow a BB tour also - that will be the bomb!

I'll just have to dine with the captain or crew then!

P.S. I met a lady at Oslo Airport last week who just finished an Insight tour. She complained that the "Farewell Dinner" was an optional and cost 90 euro. It was held in a 4 star restaurant with a view, but the meal was inadequate and they had "mystery meat". Since it was Oslo, it was probably Moose . Just a small comment for those interested in farewell dinners and optionals these days.

Bon Voyage!

Hi Roxy,
The company with which I have cruised typically begins to discount the tours about sixty days out from the sailing date. These are "Last Mionute Deals". Then as the sailing date gets closer and closer, the discounts get larger. I got really annoyed with the company and learned a valuable lesson...that is, book close to the sailing date. We booked a cruise in January for a November departure. People who were on the same ship paid about $1,000 less for the same cruise. I don't have to be hit over the head to learn something. I can only speak for the company with which we have done all our river boat cruises. I am not sure if all companies do this but I would imagine that it is business savvy to have the cabins filled rather than empty.

Thanks Judy, it sounds right to me as well. The problem is if you plan on doing a 30 day prior booking and it falls through, any land tour that could be considered plan B, may not have availability 30 days out. . .we'll see.

Roxy...I am a little (alot?) confused. I thought we were talking about a river boat tour and not a land tour. The one big "problem" is that if you have your heart set on a particular cruise at a particular time, it may be filled up. Since my husband and I are retired we can be very flexible as to departure dates. We have been on river boat cruises with as few as 70 people...capacity is around 140.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: NYJudy,

Hi Judy, yes a river cruise. My thought is that if the cruise that I was specifically interested in bombed out, I would have an escorted land tour as a back up plan B to go on. I just wouldn't settle for any river cruise just to get a deal.

NYJudy - Do they also provide an air package to get you to the cruise start point? It would seem like very short notice would be a problem with the air portion.

Does this company's name start with a "V"?

Hi lovetotravel,
Yes, the pricing does include the airfare from major cities. We did a last minute trip last year and there wasn't any problem with the air. The company's initials are GC.

There is a company that starts with a V and ends with a K. They run 2 for 1 deals sometimes with over 2 months notice for river cruises.

The one I was thinking of starts with a V and ends with G. I get advertising from the all the time and they also offer the 2 for 1 and other specials getting close to the departure time.

I have also gotten offers of some pretty good deals from Uniworld which is owned by the same company as Trafalgar and runs the Trafalgar River cruises. Their brochure and Trafalgar's are almost identical.

Vikxng and Graxd Cirxle comes to mind.

I meant G not K. That was not a typo, just stupidity.