Diser needs cruise advice on non DCL cruise...HELP

[MaMudduck]

My TA called me and she said that she can get me a great deal on a cruise for next week- April 7
we've never been on cruise before, and the TA hasn't personally ever booked or gone on : Festival Cruises- ship Mistral to The Antilles (Carribbean)
The price is a knock out $966.00CDN (flight & all taxes included)= $600US approx.
I checked cruisecritic.com but there wasn't any info- or it was very old & for the Europe cruise.
Can anyone help??? I need to book ASAP

P.s.- I would of preferred a Disney Cruise but as you can see this is all spur of the moment & totally un- budgeted(?) for.

 

[kajohn]

Hi,

I don't personally know anything about that ship or line, but I went to this site http://www.cruisestateroom.com/847932/indexships-frame.htm and called up the ship, it looks nice, and a newer ship at that, built in 1999.

Then I checked out their website http://www.festivalcruises.com . It seems to be a european company, and looks very nice. It doesn't look like one of those fly by night cruise companies that buy other lines old ships.

I would go for it if I were you, but I like to try new things, and am somewhat adventuresome. (I don't like to repeat vacations if I can help it, with the exception of WDW!).

Good luck, and let us know how you like it if you go!

 

[tecdavidt]

On the March 15th cruise there was a Festival ship in port, or trying to be in the port, on our Grand Cayman Day. Remember on our cruise Grand Cayman closed the port due to large sea swells. I did a double take because I never heard of this line before. The ship looked the size of a Carnival Fantasy class ship. Kathy

 

[kajohn]

I was intrigued by a cruise line I had never heard of and read more on the cruise line website.

It looks to be a premiere european cruise line. I found this info on their website.

THE FLEET

The fleet consists of 6 cruise ships and the latest vessel, the European Stars, has been launched in april 2002.
The Festival fleet offers a total of more than 6600 beds per day.

Here's a quick glance at some of the fleet's figures:

Azur: 15 thousand tons, 800 passengers, 360 cabins
Bolero: 16 thousand tons, 850 passengers, 401 cabins
Flamenco: 17 thousand tons, 802 passengers, 401 cabins
Mistral: 47,900 tons, 598 cabins, 1200 passengers
European Vision: 58,600 tons, 783 cabins, 1566 passengers
European Stars: 58,600 tons, 783 cabins, 1566 passengers
Note : the last two are sister ships. The European Vision is the world's most famous and photographed cruise ship: that's because just after being launched, it hosted, along with the Mistral, the international delegations attending the G8 summit meeting in Genoa.

CUSTOMER BREAKDOWN

In 2001, customers came from the following countries:


25 % France
19,5 % Italy
18,3% Germany
7,3 % Spain
Smaller percentages from Belgium, Switzerland and Austria.
Compared to 2000, the number of Italian passengers grew from 17.3% to 19.5%.

According to forecasts, this trend should continue over the next few years. With the growth in total customers, the number of Italians also continues to grow: 23.9% in 2002, 24% in 2003, and 26% in 2006, which is getting very close to the French share of around 27.4%.

I would assume that english is not the primary language spoken on this ship. If the only language you speak is english, then it may be a difficult week. However, if you speak either French or Italian, then I would think it would be a very wonderful week!