This page collects the questions the desk answers most weeks, in roughly the order they arrive. Short answers sit here, and the pages that go deeper are linked from each section so a reader can stop where the question stops.
How quotes are built
A quote is one sheet with four lines: cabin, gratuities, drinks and dining for the actual nights, plus transfers. The total is what matters and it is written down before anything is held, and nothing gets added later without a message first. There is no charge for the question asked in the first ten minutes, and a first message commits you to nothing.
Full detail sits on the About page, where the four lines and the three checks behind every plan are set out.
Booking, deposits and holds
Holding a cabin is a separate step agreed after the quote, usually against a deposit that has a date attached to it. The date matters more than the amount: a group or a family that misses a deposit window loses the cabin category before it loses the sailing. For a block of cabins the sequence runs from contract to sail date, and the steps are set out on the group cruise page.
Payment runs in two parts on most sailings: a deposit that holds the cabin and a balance due around ninety days before departure, with the exact dates written on the quote rather than looked up later. Cards, bank transfer and a payment plan all clear against the same deadline, and a missed one is the fastest way to lose a cabin category that was chosen months earlier.
Cabins and family arrangements
- Connecting cabins are requested by cabin number first and category second.
- On school holiday sailings, connecting pairs are usually gone before fares move.
- An inside cabin and a balcony on the same deck can sit either side of one corridor.
The family version of the same decisions, including where children sleep and which port days hold attention, is on the family planning page.
Changes and cancellations
Changes are handled by email to hello@pickleberryflowers.com with the booking reference in the first line. Say what needs to move and by when, and the reply comes back as one of two things: the change made, or a note showing what it costs and which deadline applies. Corrections to anything published here are answered ahead of everything else, and naming the page and the line is enough.
What to read first
New readers start with Start Here, which maps the site in about five minutes. The two pages that answer most of the rest are what an all-inclusive fare covers and the notes first-time sailors get wrong.
After those, three pieces handle the decisions that come next: when to sail and how fare windows move, how a cabin gets chosen and how a port day is built around all-aboard. Each one assumes the fare question has already been settled.
Questions that are not on this list go to the inbox described on the contact page, with dates, cabin count and the one thing the trip must deliver in the first message.