Fugly cruise ships.

[swee'pea99]

Here's what's on offer on Royal Carribean cruise ships....

Beer Onboard
Draft: You'll find Amstel Light, Miller Lite, Heineken, Budweiser and Bass Ale, depending on the ship and itinerary.

Bottled: Budweiser, Michelob Ultra, Corona, Heineken, Stella Artois and more.

Even by my pitifully low standards, it's not great, is it?

Brings to mind a bit of the book I was reading in the pub this evening, and sent to a couple of mates...

 

[jowwy]

Quite right. I have never thought of cruise as a holiday idea but, the other week, embraced a day crossing from Hook to Harwich as part of the holiday rather than an ordeal and it was great.

Once you park the car and they take your luggage your on holiday.....no flights, transfers or buses to worry about. Just find your cabin ( we always have a balcony suite) and relax as the ship cruises off from shore and its total relaxtiom from there on in. Plenty of bars, restaurants and shows to enjoy. Stunning top decks with pools, saunas and sunbeds. Food and drink a plenty. Whats not to like

 

[slowmotion]

Quite right. I have never thought of cruise as a holiday idea but, the other week, embraced a day crossing from Hook to Harwich as part of the holiday rather than an ordeal and it was great.

The Stena ferries are great. They may even have a tiny casino and Amstel on tap, but they are most certainly not cruise ships.

 

[Brandane]

Quite right. I have never thought of cruise as a holiday idea but, the other week, embraced a day crossing from Hook to Harwich as part of the holiday rather than an ordeal and it was great.

I have (mostly) enjoyed the ferry crossings when visiting the continent. Especially the Brittany Ferries services out of Portsmouth to/from Caen, Cherbourg, and St. Malo; and P&O services out of Hull (now priced out of my range).
The glaring exception to the rule was a few years ago when the Rosyth/Zeebrugge route was on its last legs* and the passenger ferry initially used had been stolen for another run somewhere, and been replaced by a very basic ferry which was obviously originally intended for freight runs. Eighteen hours of utter boredom in a "lounge" which resembled a railway station waiting room, with similar facilities.

* should read "DFDS Seaways had done what they had to do in order to fulfil their obligation in return for a large wedge of subsidy cash from the people of Scotland, and wanted out as the route was not lucrative enough".

 

[Tim Hall]

Brings to mind a bit of the book I was reading in the pub this evening, and sent to a couple of mates...

View attachment 128997

Which in turn reminds me of an exchange many years ago on umra (a newsgroup m'lud):

back in the 70s, a bloke here used to organise `cultural outings' to
breweries, for lab staff and students. we visited elgood's, in
wisbech, which is a sweet little place. the head brewer took us
round; one thing he showed us was a vat (or whatever it's called) of
his `lager'. i looked at the yeast floating on the top, and i said
"that's not a lager". he looked at me, drew (their?) breath and said
"you know it's not a lager. i know it's not a lager. but it's got
the stainless steel and polythene taste the punters like."

 

[Levo-Lon]

Elgoods...Wisbech..and sweet in the same sentence...lol

sorry @Tim Hall but No just No

 

[ufkacbln]

Im very much looking forward to jumping on the P&O Brittania in september for 14 days of cruising around the canaries, madeira and portugal. It suits me and my partner down to the ground with her illness and is by far the best way to holiday as far as im concerned.

But each to their own opinion i suppose.

We are ;looking at this for similar reasons. The biggest problem for me is that as these ships have become bigger, tenders are becoming more and more used for landing passengers.

Many of these cannot accept an electric wheelchair, so we are stuck on board for many of the stops.

 

[jowwy]

We are ;looking at this for similar reasons. The biggest problem for me is that as these ships have become bigger, tenders are becoming more and more used for landing passengers.

Many of these cannot accept an electric wheelchair, so we are stuck on board for many of the stops.

On celebrity eclipse last year we only had one tender landing and that was in monaco.....the rest were proper port dockings. That was a 16day med cruise

 

[threebikesmcginty]

I was in Venice last weekend and barring shop fronts the city is probably as it was 500 years ago, it's strange sight when you're in a historic area and suddenly the view is dominated by a monstrosity like this, a kind of floating Benidorm.

 

[Pro Tour Punditry]

Another one spotted on Loch Ewe about 10 minutes ago, the National Geographic Explorer

 

[Pro Tour Punditry]

Making its way up the hill.

I was trying to give a visual representation of it bravely struggling into a headwind...

 

[Andrew_P]

As a teenager I was "treated" to a family cruise on the Cunard Countess - changing to the Princess later on. The pair must have only been 4-6 years old, these seemed huge to me at the time.

Both were originally designed to be MGM floating playgrounds and Hugh Hefner was involved in the design but for some reason they changed their minds.

Countess

Now

The Princess is still service as the Golden Iris

 

[subaqua]

I was trying to give a visual representation of it bravely struggling into a headwind...

It's Scotland FFS we know it's going to be a headwind. And raining.

 

[jowwy]

I think some people are confusing boats, ships and ferries......and believe me cruise ships are definately not floating benidorms

 

[jowwy]

Some are - some aren't.

And how many have you been on to come to that conclusion??