doog442

We were next to the Norwegian Prima. It had a 'drop slide' on the port side...it looked like a water slide but the victims were sat on some kind of mat. Without fail they nearly all got stuck halfway down and had to be dragged out by staff at the bottom. It also had a very large go kart track dominating the top deck just to set things off as a ship to avoid at all costs. I just don't get it . If you want this go to Florida and do the parks with a nice villa for probably half the cost. Anyway back to the new carpet on Britannia.

We've booked the Fjords on QA for July 2025 and PG 1 wasn't that far off what you paid - it still isn't, same for July. As it's a Cunard taster for us I booked a BC grade balcony cabin for £2300, less $500 OBC and our shareholder credit and it was about the same as any P&O offering so a no brainer. 2024 was a different story. When I booked in Feb most QA offerings were double 2025 prices.

Dominica I believe. Regarding Tortola we did an official ships tour, the 'vehicle' if you can call it that I honestly thought was to transfer us out of the port area but no it took us around half the Island. No seat belts, bench seats, no doors, screaming brakes, horrific roads but fantastic views. That said I've done public bus rides down the Amalfi coast in Italy last year that were nearly as bad.

I've just quoted our Arvia aft cabin, same Caribbean cruise and date that we had in Jan this year (booked March 23) and the 2026 price is showing a 52.75% increase (this taking into account OBC as well) - no drinks package. These prices are exceeding decent land based all inclusive hotels on spectacular beaches territory with top shelf unlimited drinks. Their strength recently has been undercutting that particular market hence the recent very good value offerings. That said I don't blame them for making hay while the sun shines and /or perhaps the market is changing.

Having eaten in both Meridian and Zenith recently we didn't even notice what was on the table. I do recall one waiter trying to be quite artistic with his crumb cleaner on one occasion so I guess we were in Zenith that night. Third world problems I guess.

We were on Arvia in Feb in aft cabin 11746 which is one of the outers on the central four beneath the pool. On most days we'd get spots of water (not an issue as we're in the Caribbean). However on one day in heavy seas 11748 next to us got an absolute soaking, it sounded like a real 'smack' as it landed, fortunately no one was on the balcony. Having looked at the 'overspill thingy' I'm struggling to see what caused it, perhaps a combination of movement and a large guest jumping in. We'd have the same cabin again in a heartbeat but not one of the inner two beneath the pool.

We'd kind of faded away from cruising, instead choosing land based all inclusive holidays (Maldives, Mauritius, Antigua, St Lucia Mexico etc). We have an absolute minimum standard - so decent quality hotels. We did a Princess cruise after Covid in 2022 but it almost put us off for life - clearly struggling in all areas from covid plus an extremely elderly demographic. We thought we'd give it one last go and did the Arvia Caribbean in Feb. We had a fantastic time and it's converted us back, not fully (as we'll still do beach holidays - Maldives next month) but it reminded us why we started cruising back in 2007, they just nailed it. We've booked Cunard for next year ( to sample the Queen Anne) but I have quite a few P&O cruises on my radar.

Funnily enough there was a thread recently about price increases on the RC forum with some threatening to jump ship to Princess.

We also had a decent chuckle at that. As for Utopia, we found that in the Maldives but not if you read the Foreign office advice 🤣

It says the same almost word for word for Antigua, St Kitts, Barbados and others. As regular visitors to Antigua and St Lucia it really is a case of just using common sense. The majority of serious crime in St Lucia for example is locals on locals and gang related. The only area to really avoid at night in St Lucia is one small area of Castries which was pointed out to us by our driver. One of the Islands most regarded hotels (Rendezvous) is literally the other side of the small runway adjacent to the port on Vigie Beach in Castries. We've stayed there without issue, walked into Castries with no problems. Incidentally Martinique (French) Aruba and the Dutch Islands are deemed much safer by the foreign office of course still funded by France and the Netherlands respectively and you can tell infrastructure wise. You have more chance of being a victim of crime in any UK seaside resort.

My wife bought me a kit for Christmas and I've ticked all of the privacy boxes. She bought it for a laugh as hers showed she had a big chunk of Norway and Scotland in the DNA and she wants to know if she's more Scottish than me (my dad was Scottish). That's it no more, no less - simply a bit of fun. I only sent it off yesterday. Incidentally we got one for my wife a few years back when it was all the rage because she's dark skinned and it intrigued us as we can't see a family link . It transpires there was a mass movement of blue eyed dark skinned folk to parts of Norway thousands of years ago from the Med which may explain it - who knows. Anyway it's a decent joke at parties- nope she's not from somewhere exotic, she's bloody Norwegian.🤣

Heads up. OBC has now returned to previous levels as of 4/3 at least across the half dozen cruises on my radar and prices are the same. The OBC isn't a patch on what some of us were getting last year mind. Coincidentally I just received an e mail promoting 'offers incoming' which for one of my cruises is exactly the same as before they slashed OBC to the bone a few days ago. You couldn't make it up🤣...well I guess you could.

oops delete that - brain stutter

Haha. I guess I'm just thinking out loud. As you said earlier its frustrating, we had a window of opportunity I'd kind of decided on cabin etc, they they pulled the rug and the Yorkshire in me appeared. It's no so much the loss of the OBC but as you state what might around the corner. To be fair it now makes our Cunard cruise next year look excellent value - until of course they change things. Enjoy your final black tie night, it seems an eternity since I posted that pic of Aurora from the Arvia in Barbados ! I put on 9 pounds in two weeks and I don't think I was really overdoing it yet you're still at sea, marvelous. 🤣

This is what I can't really get my head around. By all means adjust OBC , prices etc for individual cruises based on demand but they literally cut OBC by more than half across most of the fleet on the same day. There wasn't a particular sales drive happening in that respect unlike the Cunard triple offer which had an end date, the same day they culled OBC on P&O. Are they trying to keep price disparity between both, I've no idea it just seems odd.