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tring

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About Me

  • Location
    Wirral, England
  • Interests
    Gardening, Travel to unusual places
  • Favorite Cruise Line(s)
    Cruise lines with smaller ships preferably sailing to less visited ports.
  • Favorite Cruise Destination Or Port of Call
    Unusual places to cruise, + pre and post cruise land holidays.

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  1. Just what I had been thinking. If we stayed in a Holiday Inn more than twenty years ago, we got silver service for dinner and a far better menu than we would expect now. Prices were far higher for their meals though, so no different to P&O and is now what a lot of people are happy with if the prices are right. There are plenty of other cruise lines and hotels which provide better service, but at very different prices. Same with everything in life, you get what you pay for.
  2. To get off the ship that early, you would need to self disembark, which means you would have to leave all your luggage in the cabin, (even the cases) and then take them all off yourself the next morning. Works fine for some people, but be aware lifts can be difficult to get into on disembarkation day as everyone is up wanting to get to/from the restaurants at that time. Although highly likely that the ship would arrivein Southampton early as scheduled, there are very occasionally problems because of very bad weather, or perhaps mechanical problems with the ship which would delay arrival. If it is just a ticket to London though, I presume that would not be a high cost to loose in that very unlikely case it could happen.
  3. Regards face cloths, I remember Molecrochip saying that we will be able to ask for them while stocks last, but they will not be replacing those stocks. Hence makes sense to me that they may now only be providing them on request for passengers in suites. They are something we do appreciate, not just for personal use, but mainly to be able to wipe around sink area and keep it clean/tidy during the day. We will be taking some Jay cloths for our next cruise, though will still ask for them. Taking a couple of face cloths is not a problem, but they are much better laundered regularly. Regards food, we we cruise for the ports and destinations, (sometimes along with some warm weather) and we have always found something to eat that we are quite happy with. I do wonder how people eat at home sometimes, but different people have their own preferences and priorities, so I do appreciate that is a very personal choice. The lack of an evening cabin service is something I have found an advantage as we no longer feel we have to make the cabin tidy and everything off the beds before we go to dinner. It can be a lot easier to keep things we will need later that night out and available. The larger ships have no appeal to us though, so have mainly sailed on Aurora/Arcadia, with an Azura or Ventura added for a specific itineraries.
  4. Thanks a lot. That has just made me start a folder on Favorites to save down links, so added these. I have already looked at your links on the net and Google Earth - they are very useful, It is always particularly good to have something to do if the day is a washout 🙂 Halifax is our most southerly point this summer, so hoping for some good weather. Other stops are three in Newfoundland, Red Bay in Labrador and then north for scenic cruising near the entrance to Hudson Bay, followed by three ports in Greenland and one in Iceland after that. So very weather dependant altogether.
  5. We have done a number of fly cruises in the Canaries which went into December and the ports were lovely in the evenings with the Christmas lights on. We especially like Tenerife, which we have been in over night a few times and have also been in the city when the lights were turned on (I think at the start of December). We also love La Laguna at Christmas time - you can take a tram up to La Laguna (about half an hour and a regular service), but will be a fair bit colder up there, so take coats if you go - nice to stay as the lights go on there, very atmospheric. If you go up to Madeira, that is also very atmospheric at Christmas time, especially after dark if you do not have an early dart. Weather generally still fairly good, but not necessarily "lying in the sun" weather. We got drenched in the old town in Gran Canaria once, though not really had a lot of rain at that time. We have only been once with P&O (Azura) towards the end of a trans-location cruise from the Med, so October then, though we like the Canary ports as they are easy to DIY, either in the port itself, or by hopping on a bus - but we know them very well.
  6. We were there last September and got a taxi up to the citadel to start with. Spent a while there as we found the costumed guides very good. Then walked downhill in a slightly roundabout route, stopping for a drink and snack, and ended the day in the immigration museum followed by a good bar by the cruise terminal. Worked very well and the only hill walking we did was down. Cannot remember the cost, if the taxi, but not much for the short run one way and no problems finding it as we left the terminal. We are due back there in late July this year and think I had heard there was a gardens and Cathedral worth seeing, so we are thinking of just heading to those then spending more time on the board walk area. Would be interested if there are any other must do's in the City as we are unlikely to return after that as both cruises were/are long round trips from the UK if about one month in length, going in different directions. We very much appreciated help we got from this board.
  7. I think that only applies if you have booked your current cruise through the agent you want to transfer the booking to though. That includes any cruise you had previously booked onboard and been able to transfer back to your agent, but not any cruise that has been made direct and remained as a direct booking with P&O.
  8. We were on a round trip Caribbean before Christmas and during the disembarkation procedure, most of on hour's delay had built up before we disembarked (because of luggage levels) and and we were in a deck 3 cabin for that cruise. So could stil be extra delays eve after approximate times are given on the ship. May be worth jumping through any hoops you need to for a self disembarkation if you want an early start. As you say though, probably best to leave it until on the ship now. Hope the cruise goes well and you see the eclipse. Sounds like a bit of a gaffe by Fred's planners there. They have form from a couple of cruises we have been on. Fred normally has you off you early though.
  9. I may have found the reason. Only two ships in Southampton when you return, but the other is Borealis, which is returning from the world cruise that day. Fred uses a different agent than the Carnival cruise lines do, so perhaps they will not have enough port staff to deal with the unloading, considering Borealis will have a lot of luggage on board. I see you are in adjacent terminals, 101 and 102. I wonder if he is giving priority to Borealis which will presumably have a lot of luggage on board. In which case, I wonder if they will allow self disembarkations later than usual for Bolette. May still be worth ringing head office to clarify the reason though. Fred's staff are usually very helpful, as are reception staff once you are on the ship.
  10. Ahh, well 10am does sound very strange indeed, especially as you had an embarkation time of 14.00! Normally embarkation times can be as late as 3.30pm and I would expect people embarking after you to disembark after you. I am wondering which cruise you are on, is there anything that may affect that? I cannot think what would possibly make it that late though, but sometimes Fred disembarks very early as he then takes the ship on to another port to embark for the next cruise. Unless it is something to do with the port you are disembarking at starting late, or if there are loads of ships in port that day disembarking - that is purely speculation on my part though. May be worth ringing head office to ask about that and check if t is correct.
  11. Fred is being strict about not using plastics on the ship himself and a number of stock items have been changed accordingly. Having said that we had no problems taking big plastic bottles of water on to the ship last November, but you cannot buy any plastic bottles on the ship now. I think you can buy 6 cans of water at a reduced price for cabin use, but not that cheap. Another thing you could do is take a couple of refillable bottles and you will be allowed to fill them from the water dispensers on the buffet, as long as you use a glass to dispense them and do not fill the bottles direct. Obviously we do not do that during the standard meal times as the machines will be in use by diners then.
  12. For cabin use, yes. We always take some water and soft drinks onto the ship at embarkation and then often top the supply up as we go along, bit by bit. They will not let you take alcoholic drinks on board though. Drink prices are not bad on Fred though. If we are not on the drinks pack, we usually buy a litre bottle of spirits for cabin use, to drink with the soft drinks. No more than about £25 generally, DH thinks it was less than that for vodka (about £22). All drink prices seem to be going up a bit on all cruise lines, so not sure exactly.
  13. Fred disembarks very early and normally has everyone off by 9.00am, or very soon after. I am pretty sure general disembarkation starts about 7.30am, (I just looked up a random top deck cabin for a cruise we have booked for this summer and the disembarkation time for that is 7.35am). I suspect if they know you still have your luggage, they will want to chase you up if late, but if not you would presumably find yourself trying to disembark with a lot of other people who do not have cases, so perhaps have problems getting a lift etc. If you do not want to leave early, why not just pop your cases out the night before and go with the flow? You do not have a particularly late embarkation time, so probably will not be off that late either. it will give an approximate disembarkation time on the link which you use to look up your embarkation time. You could always speak with the reception staff once on the ship about how disembarkation normally works, (and approximate timings), if you are still uncertain what to do. Both embarkation and disembarkation is done according to deck, with the upper decks first.
  14. Worth searching various big cruise agents online as you may find one which deals with a lot of P&O bookings, we cannot mention specific agents on here.
  15. If you are hoping to get something that has a very limited availability, I suggest you pre register with a big cruise agent once pre registrations are available, as they can get bookings very soon after the cruises are released, some have computer systems in place to assist with that. P&O tend to announce the dates when cruses will be released at least a few days before pre registrations can be taken. You could contact an agent now and ask to be on their mailing list, as well as keeping an eye out for anything mentioned on these boards or by P&O. As I said previously, if similar to last year, they will go on sale sometime in April as that is when our booking was confirmed for summer 2025 (and same mentioned by Becksi) No one will know the exact dates for this year until they are officially announced There will be a lead in to when the cruises are published and pre registration is possible, so nothing will become available to book all of a sudden. The release of bookings are usually split into different date ranges, with the earlier ones on sale a day or so earlier than the others. The high level Peninsula club members (Caribbean and above) are given an earlier date again. when only they can book. Hence a number of bookings will have taken taken place before the cruises go on general sale to other people. An agent will be poised to reserve your booking early morning of the date your chosen cruise is available for you to book, though they do not contact people they have booked for until later in the day, when they confirm payment and cabin number allocated (they will have asked you to give them a range of cabin numbers which you would be happy with when you pre register).
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