Wise to book cruises for 2022?

Oh Marydoll, I wish it could! The Baltic cruise I talked about earlier picked us up at Newcastle, then went on to Dundee. We enjoyed spotting the landmarks there when we watched Traces this week.

About ten years ago I was studying in Lyons. I used to pass all all the Viking river cruise boats tied up on the quayside. Ever since, I have had a hankering for a river cruise in either France or Germany.

I'm so envious ?of all of who you have experienced cruising. Thank you for sharing. It won't happen for me now.

Just checked its 'Lord of the Glens' not the Isles.

We did a Viking Douro river cruise. Not our favourite due to the geography of the river. Very high sides and resultant bus trips on landing each day.
One of the nicest but short cruises we ever did was on the 'Lord of the Isles' from Oban to Inverness via the Crinan canal and Loch Ness. A beautiful, teeny, ship. Small but companionable number of passengers and fabulous views everywhere. In October too so lovely foliage. We were lucky with the weather.

yes, we were planning to do the Duro and a tour of Portugal before or after, with sil and bil- but then... Covid. Also fancied a British one, with small boat and Isles of Scilly to Scotland.
Again, Covid and computer said 'NO'.

I'm not old enough to go on a Saga Cruise

I agree with you chewbacca.

Saga are offering cruises to people as long as they have received both Covid vaccinations I believe. However, with all the new variants emerging I am not sure about booking anything just yet.

*a few not few.

kalu, we have done few river cruises and really love them. We go early in the season May/early June ish as we don't like the heat. The Rhine was fabulous. Dh won't contemplate an ocean cruise!

kittylester you ràised an interesting point about self catering holidays. Like millions of others, we did it when DC were small and it was all we could afford but now, the whole reason for me going on holiday is to have someone else cook my meals, wash up and make my bed - the whole idea is to have a break from the norm ! I'd rather go away for a shorter period of time and be catered for, than go for longer and do it myself!

Anyone who uses social media/forums knows what signifies. Huge difference between and .

A small, very select affair,(cruise), sounds appealing kitty. My hippy days are well and truly over, sadly. ?

I’m feeling quite wistful now. It’s been a long time since we were anywhere else but here! At least I know for sure that I’ll appreciate future trips all the more.

River cruises are indeed lovely relaxing holidays. Something to think about.
I was very struck by MawBe's comment re her kind Dad. I was very happy when we were a struggling young family living under the shadow of redundancy, when my Dad gave us some money for what he called a 'whoopee fund' to be spent on treats and outings only. We really appreciated it.
We've had a nice time over the past few weeks reminiscing about our various holidays and trips. They are high points in otherwise hard working lives. Worth saving for and always something to look forward to.

Am I the only person who thinks is not at all unpleasant.

I am dying to go on a cruise again and to stay in our favourite hotels! The cruises we go on are small, very select affairs.

One thing I am not looking forward to, and don't intend to do ever again, is go on any sort of self catering holiday.

As Callistemon said, they were fine when we had more children than money and certainly would not have contemplated a package type holiday.

When I go away I want to be waited on and not have to think about anything domestic even having to organise a take away.

But I doubt it is wise to book a cruise this year.

Jane10 has said she will book another cruise when it is safe to do so. I’m assuming she doesn’t have a crystal ball so is unable to give an exact date as to when that will be. This year, next year? This question is one none of us have the answer to.

I would be thrilled just to have the opportunity to drive to our other home further north, in Scotland. As I don’t have any desire to leave the country, foreign trips will take a back seat until I too feel it’s safe to travel once more

A cruise on any type of huge ship doesn’t appeal but the smaller Scandinavian types could be something I would enjoy, again, whenever it is safe to do so.

Our neighbours went on one and we were going to have an evening together to chat about it. Then came Covid.

I've always fancied one of the river cruises but when I looked at the price . They look as though they're a serene and calm way to travel. One day perhaps.....

I've been on a couple of cruises, been camping (not in a yurt), caravannning, stayed in self-catering, with friends and in 5* hotels.
Self-catering isn't really a holiday even if you order in posh takeaways but it suited us when we had young children.

The only time I caught a stomach bug was on a trip arranged by our 5* hotel in Madeira.

I did enjoy the cruises (and 5* hotels) most and there are more I'd like to go on.
Yes, Jane10, they're not all like holiday camps, are they! Some cater for children, some are exclusively for adults, some more smaller and more upmarket than others.

I hope the cruise companies have taken this opportunity to thoroughly deep clean their ships and that they'll continue to do so; I wonder if sometimes the turnaround time was so quick there wasn't time for a really thorough cleaning in between cruises.

However, I'm not sure that I would book anything at the moment but I'm not keen on booking too far in advance anyway. It depends entirely on you and whether or not you can get insurance, Willow73 but I hope we will have some kind of normality in 2022.

I think many of us will have put ideas of a 2021 holiday in the “Pending” pile (and if I may, I do not just mean cruises- although I can see the appeal) -but to dream of 2022 at least at the moment seems far enough away not to tempt fate or court disappointment.
My father once gave me a cheque at a point when we were very hard up, with instructions to spend it on a holiday . Mum had died a year earlier and his words were “Your mother and I had some of our happiest times planning our holidays, enjoying them and remembering them. You can’t take those memories away”.
Dad was living on his OAP and was virtually housebound by then, but I remember being very touched by his words and however tempting it was to pay the gas bill or whatever, we had a wonderful 10 days in Prague, Budapest ending up in Vienna.
Thanks Dad.

It was a very good topic to chat about Willow73 and it's a shame that your OP has been somewhat derailed by what appears to be a private vendetta that's spilled out here.

I had a booking for a short break for February but my travelling companion has just phoned me to confirm that she's received notification this morning that it's cancelled and a full refund is on its way.

But would you go on a cruise this year, is the question

I thought it was Wise to book cruises for 2022?.

Some people here seem to be getting quite het up about this thread. If you can't be nice then don't put anything down and move on. Wonder if half these comments would be made face to face? I go for walks with my friends (not at the moment) and this thread was just the sort of question we would ask each other - whether they would consider booking a cruise for 2022, if the reply is I don't enjoy cruising but would book a different type of holiday then that is a civil answer and leads to a different question.

Zzzzzzzzzz

Yes, clear and unpleasant enough. This thread was never ever about likes or dislikes, pros and cons, of cruises - but about timing.

If anyone chose to change tack and turn the thread into something is was never meant to be, it is fair enough to repeat the question. If you'd rather not address the question of the OP, that is fine. Just ignore it instead of throwing sarcasm and unpleasantness at it, or mock with Yurt, camping and some else's kitchen, etc. It was never ever about whether someone enjoys cruising or not, and it was very clear.

We love cruising and have done so now for more than 16years. Started off with the big ships but have been using the smaller, quieter ships which we just love. The food is superb, you can seek company if you wish/not and takes you to beautiful places otherwise you probably would not venture to. You just get treated as if you're very special and I don't know of anyone who wouldn't like that even for a very short time. It is so relaxing and peaceful. We do go for the more exclusive ships and that's the way we like to spend our hard-grafted money.