Problems of cut-price fares

I have recently returned from Iceland and Norway on the Arcadia. Whilst the destinations were superb and the staff on the ship were as attentive as ever, I have to make a negative comment about my fellow passengers.

This cruise did not sell out and many cabins were filled on a cut-price basis. Some of the passengers I spoke to paid one-quarter of the price I paid when I booked the cruise more than 12 months before we sailed. I don’t have a problem with that – it makes sense for the cruise lines to fill their cabins at whatever price they can get – but the the problem is the type of passenger such deals attract (often people who know the price of everything and the value of nothing). I met a good many people who simply went on the cruise to get the maximum value they could out of the amount they had paid. For example they ate as much as they could – which is a lot on a cruise ship! – and did not venture on any of the excursions. If you visit Iceland, you just have to take the excursions. There is very little to do in the ports that we visited, lovely as some of them were, and the excursions were simply superb. It is the only way you can watch geysers erupt, bathe in lagoons, visit the site where tectonic plates are coming apart, walk through lava labyrinths and see magnificent waterfalls. Public transport is not easily accessible and taxis are both few and expensive.

The lesson I have learned here is only to book cruises in future which have a good chance of selling out before the cut-price deals kick in. Mind you, I also learned that Iceland is one of the most magnificent countries in the world!