cruise

I did my first cruise a few years ago, and done a second since.

Some advice:

Consider if you want to leave from a UK port (Southampton for example) or fly and pick up a boat overseas. Going from a UK port means you can drive or train there and take more luggage. Flying means slightly more hassle and less luggage.

A UK cruise company like Cunard or P&O means you have UK mains sockets, and most of the passengers are British. Money is all in UK pounds.

Consider how long you want to go away for (8 days, 10 days, 12 days etc)

Look at the activities on the ship for your son. Some have plenty to do for kids, some have almost nothing.

MOST IMPORTANT. When looking at an itinerary see how many SEA DAYS there are. Most cruises stay at a new place each day, but sometimes the next port cant be reached in a day so you get a sea day. The more sea days the less places you see (and I find sea days boring).

We did a Norwegian cruise but it took almost 2 days to get up to Norway from Southampton (partly due to bad weather at sea) and about as long to get back. We only stopped at 5 places on an 8 day cruise.

Cunard and P&O are the same company, We did one cruise with each. Cunard are a bit more "up market" than P&O but we enjoyed both cruises.

While a cabin with a balcony is more expensive that an "indoor" cabin it is so much nicer to have a balcony.

Note that many cruises are "Adults only" so check carefully when doing your research.

Beware of Covid. Someone we know has just done a cruise and someone on the boat got Covid. They had to stay in their cabin. If it spreads round the ship ALL passengers would have to stay in their cabins. Cant see your Autistic son being happy stuck in a small cabin for a few days (I also have an Autistic son).

Consider a cruise from Southampton that goes down the West coast of France and Spain and Portugal (stopping off at various places on the way), You get nice weather the further South you get. We were in Seville in November and it was 30 degrees.

Ships normally leave the "home" port (Southampton?) at about 5pm and travel over night. If the first port of call is close you will wake up in a new place. You then normally have all day in that port with the ship leaving at 5pm to go to the next port. So the cruise goes on though sometimes it takes longer to reach a port so you get a sea day. So you mainly get from say 9am to 5pm in each port of call. Some cruises (though rarely) do spend 2 days in a port like say San Francisco or wherever).

Note that when the boat stops SOMETIMES you are in or near a town so can walk in to the nearby town (like we did in Lisbon) but other times you are in the middle of nowhere so need to book a trip out (which costs money and they are not cheap). The cost of these trip does mount up. Also don't book a trip every days as often they start very early and you don't want to keep getting up at 5am on a holiday. We booked for one trip but decided not to do it, but did not get our money back.

If you do walk in to the local town DONT be late back to the ship or it will go without you.

Looks at the Cruise Critic web site, loads of information on there about cruise companies, the ships, the places the boats stop etc. I did loads of research on there after we had booked out cruise.

cruisecritic.co.uk/

If you want more help just ask. (edited)