Choosing A Ship: Once you know where you want to cruise, the next major question is which ship to take. Part of the decision will be the price. Unfortunately some cruise lines no longer allow travel agents to discount fares as they did in the past. As a result, we switched to Princess.
Our only previous Princess cruise was on their small and elegant Tahitian Princess. We were a bit worried about the large size of the Star Princess, but when we looked at the space ratio (which is a rough estimate of space per passenger based on the ship’s tonnage and passenger capacity), we relaxed. There were a few times when embarkation or disembarkation at ports of call was slow because of the ship’s large size, but we never felt crowded onboard.
Space Ratio is an indication not only of the adequacy of public areas but also the roominess of the average cabin. In general, luxury ships have space ratios above 50. Premium ships are usually in the mid to upper 40’s. Most standard ships are usually above 40. Mass-market ships are often in the 30’s.
To determine the space ratio of a ship, use the brochure or the internet to find the ship’s tonnage and divide this by the average passenger capacity (two per cabin, not the maximum capacity). For example, the Star Princess is 109,000 tons, divided by 2,600 passengers gives 42 tons of space per passenger (tonnage is a measure of enclosed space rather than weight).
Space ratios can be a surprise. The new Caribbean Princess class of ships has essentially the same hull and public areas as the Star Princess class of ships, but the Caribbean class adds an entire extra deck of passenger cabins, so their space ratio (36.5) is significantly less than that of the Star class, even though the ships look alike. Space ratio is not always reliable, but often we use it to provide an estimate of cruise ship comfort.
Cruise review Web sites and their cruise forums can provide an excellent guide, but since you are reading this you probably already use them. In addition to About Cruises, Cruise Addicts.com, Cruisemates.com, and CruiseReviews.com all provide good information for planning a cruise. Also, CruiseClues.com offers great links to everything one would want to know about cruise ships, including photos and deck plans.
They all offer a wealth of information in addition to their reviews and forums, and some have e-mail alerts regarding cruise bargains and cruise industry news. Planning a cruise is sometimes half the fun, and these web sites are a good way to do this.
Finding The Best Cruise Price And Agent: The Internet has revolutionized cruising. There are several web sites with excellent information about cruise opportunities, with information about ships, itineraries, and current prices. I often refer to www.icruise.com, www.cruise.com, www.cruisestar.com and www.cheapertravel.com. The latter is the site of Pavlus Travel, which provides excellent discounts on name brand land and cruise operators. We used Pavlus to book this cruise, and relied on their web booking engine, which offers an additional discount to the price. We have always been happy with Pavlus’s service and prices.
Unfortunately, some major cruise lines are trying to block agents from offering discounts, and more and more often prices are not available on the net – one must call the agent to price the cruise. In the end, this means we will either be cruising less often or will switch cruise lines (as we did for this cruise) to those cruise lines whose prices are more transparent (and a better value).
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