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reece.twiggwhite

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  1. Sadly it is one or the other with this. You either pay extra to guarantee, or turn up and hope for the best. From the last few times we have flown PE, there are always a number of pairs of seats that they hold back, when i have queried these I was told that they are reserved for people with mobility issues, so I think you will probably be ok to turn up, but depends how much you want to risk it......
  2. Thanks Megabear! Very much looking forward to it, just this second booked epicurean for two nights as well. 4 years since our last caribbean one!
  3. Hi, we fly out two weeks tomorrow to the Caribbean, we are in PE and decided to leave it until the Saturday morning at 7:00am to book....Yeah we definitely shouldn't have, couldn't get any window seats nor our original back up plan of where in the middle row. Oh well, at least we are together and at least we are flying to the sun πŸ˜‰
  4. We have sailed on Azura four times over the last 10 years. First 3 cruises we didn't notice any smell whatsoever and thought people were making it up. On the 4th (in 2019) the sunbathing areas near The Retreat, wow, yep smell was definitely there, and was there every time we either sunbathed there or passed through. It does come in waves though, you get an almighty stink which then disappears for 30 minutes or so and then you get the next one.
  5. Hi, I complained after our cruise on Iona last year, I had the acknowledgment e-mail 28 days later. I didn't get a full response for a further four months and it took 4 e-mails and 5 messages on Twitter to finally get a full reply
  6. Morning All, Hope you are well, ? I was looking at a cruise yesterday on Azura in the Med next June. Located an aft cabin I liked but the other half said to wait until last night to book when we could do it together. Went to book and ALL aft cabins and suites are showing as sold out. I have rang P&O and have been told they cannot book any cabins in the Aft on this cruise as they have been removed from sale and all they can do is add me to a wait list. But they don’t know if/when they will be released for sale and if they are what the prices will be. Does anyone have any experience of cabins being taken off of sale and a wait list implemented and if so how long before the cruise were they released etc? Many thanks in advance!
  7. Apologies all, as I had already edited once, I can't amend it appears. I can confirm the ship we were on was Ventura.
  8. Yep definitely Ventura πŸ™‚ will get this changed!
  9. Morning All, We got back on Saturday from a week long trip on Azura so thought I would post a bit of a review / breakdown for anyone who may be slightly interested. Our arrival time was given as 13:00, normally we are down a couple of hours earlier than this but as this was our first cruise whilst having a dog and needing to drop her off for her holiday week, meant we arrived at Southampton at 12:20. We couldn't book CPS this time due to the fact we booked the cruise late and they were full, so we used "Penguin Parking" and I have to admit the service both dropping us off and picking us up was excellent. Arrived at the terminal at 12:35 and we were sat in the Glass House having a drink at 13:00 Sat and had another glass of wine until they announced cabins were ready and headed up to ours. We had booked the lowest rate saver fare possible with a sea view for this trip as it was a last minute decision but we were upgraded..... Ok, our cabin was more midship and central than originally planned which was fab, but our sea view became "obstructed" sea view with a lifeboat outside. In all honesty it would have been just as good as a fully inside cabin, we literally could see about an inch of sea if you stood on tiptoes and pressed your face flat against the window. It also blocked out 95% of all natural light, but oh well! Cabin was perfectly clean and in good condition! Our cabin steward didn't come and introduce himself which is our first cruise that this has ever happened on. We did bump into him in the corridor half way through the cruise and he asked if everything was ok. But that was the only time we ever saw him. What we did in Ports: First port was Vigo - we had booked to do a catamaran tour and local lunch. However on the first night we go back to the room and had two envelopes, one with the tickets in for it and another saying due to lack of demand they were cancelling it. On the sunday we went to shore experiences who confirmed it was indeed cancelled and we ended up booking the garden tours with wine tasting and it was absolutely fab. Lisbon - We did the duck tour which was so much fun and got to see a lot of the city, finished around 12:00 so this gave us plenty of time to still go off and do our own thing - mainly eating lots of custard tarts and i mean lots Porto - did the douane river tour with port wine tasting - was pretty good, got to see a fair bit of the area but everything felt very rushed, we were being hurried from one place to another. Cherbourg - we didn't get off the ship - had a lazy day whilst the ship was quiet Good Points: I was a bit worried by some things I had seen on youtube and FB about the state of the ship. But she is honestly in a very good condition. We couldn't see anything blazingly wrong with her. Obviously if you want to go and find issues, then you will find them! Service for the most part was EXCELLENT (some will be touched on in bad points) with everyone appearing happy to help Sindhu - first time for a few years we have ate here as the last couple of occasions we were left disappointed. But the meal we had here was fantastic! Epicurean - The meal we had in the Epicurean last year on Iona was appalling, it wasn't special and lacked any ambiance, This was well made up for on Ventura, ambience was back and it felt special from start to end. We loved the fact that they are back to preparing dishes at the table again. We had no instances of anything being out of stock at all, whatever was on the menus was available I complained last year about the soundproofing between the cabins on Iona and the fact you could hear EVERYTHING next door. I wondered if i was looking at previous cruises with rose tinted glasses. But I was happy to confirm that I was right in my own head. We didn't hear a single thing from the cabin next door, no toilet flushing, no noise at all and they even had a baby.... Bad Points: My Holiday App - we have never had any issues with this on previous cruises and worked like a charm. However something just didn't seem right on this one. Whenever you joined the virtual queue for a table (albeit we always did request tables for 2 only) the waiting time was on average an hour to an hour and fifteen (Around 40 minutes for breakfast) We both commented that historically in the days before the app, when you were given a buzzer, it would be a max of 20 -30 minutes at most. It seemed (and I may be completely wrong here) that it was as though they had two different sections working. One line was for people who had joined the virtual waiting list. And then another line of people just in a physical line and when you got to the front you were seated. Portion size at breakfast in MDR - You no longer get a big bowl of bircher muesli, it is now small bowls (around 3 spoons) - I asked for baked beans one morning and I swear this is true - I had 8 baked beans...... We had the worst service in the MDR on the first formal night we have ever had. We were seated on the row of tables for 2. We were the first on the row seated, shortly after another 2 tables were seated. Our orders were taken after these and then shortly a 3rd table next to us were also seated. So 4 tables of 2 in the end with us being the first seated. It started off badly when we asked someone if we could order wine and he said he would get someone, no one ever came back with a wine list. With the meal, In short, two of the tables were on to dessert by the time we received our mains, whilst we ate this the other 2 tables left and then we were sat with empty plates whilst the 3 table next to us were served their mains. Our plates remained on the table untouched the whole time the table next to us ate. Their empty plates were removed and eventually ours were shortly after. The 3rd table were then served their dessert to which the gentleman said "i didn't order that, i had the cheese" so it was taken away and cheese was brought for him. It was at this point we clocked that we think they were given our desserts. Eventually someone came over and asked if we wanted tea or coffee and we advised we haven't had dessert yet, 15 minutes later and still nothing so we ended up walking out. This may all sound negligible but this meal took an hour and a half and we only had a starter and a main... We complained to the maitre d' on the way out and he listened intently, took our cabin number etc and promised he would put this right......We never heard another thing........ Niggles Last year on Iona, it didn't sit comfortably with me that their "Musicals" show, showcased Black musicals (Tina, Bodyguard) whilst only employing a completely white cast. There was no representation on the stage yet people were doing impressions of Tina Turner etc... I raised this concern to p&o at the time and was advised my comments would be passed on. Well if they were, clearly people there don't see the issue with this as now on a different ship, the exact same show with a different 100% white cast doing Tina Turner impressions etc. "Battle of The Exchange" in The Exchange bar - not a good idea really for one of the entertainment team to say "This did used to be called Battle of The Sexes until the world got all snowflakey" - Not good to be spouting comments like that when you are in a forward facing customer service role...... All in all we had an absolutely fantastic holiday and now counting the days until Britannia in December!
  10. I was just coming on to post the same πŸ™‚ That's Epicurean and Sindhu booked, which means everything I wanted to sort is now done. So just a case of getting there, getting on board and relaxing!
  11. We have ate four times over the years in Beach House, out of those times we have one really good meal, One Average, one awful and one atrocious. We have said that we won't be giving it another chance now. I even said to my husband, if i get a few gins inside me on the ship and suggest us going there, lock me in the cabin!
  12. And you! I cannot wait to be on board and sat with a gin and tonic!
  13. Morning All, Just a little rant..... Booked on Ventura leaving a week on Saturday. Been checking daily over the last couple of weeks as we want to book Epicurean and Sindhu so it is one less thing to worry about once on the ship. Last week a notification came up on the dining page to say dining bookings would be going live for our cruise on 15th. Checked numerous times since then and whilst the page has been updated, you can't physically book for anything. Still states as "Coming Soon" So I sent a message to the p&o team on twitter to ask if they could find out what was happening and/or when it would actually be going live. Their response summed up was "Sorry you can't seem to book online, you will be able to book once on board the ship" Really........
  14. We were on her for a cruise in November and thoroughly enjoyed her. Yes somethings need updating, refreshing etc but all in all it was good and would 100% cruise on her again. Staff were friendly, no issues with toilets, everything we wanted to drink was in stock. Plenty of room in communal areas. Only downsides were: MDR was so busy, they had withdrawn set dining and given everyone on board freedom dining and it just didn't work. But we were quite happy to have a pager and go for a couple more drinks. Sindhu was closed - again not a problem for us as we are not totally keen Ocean Grill - Was one of the worst meals I have had at sea. Service wasn't great and the food was well below par. The worst piece of lobster I have ever had.
  15. Thank you for this Tring! I have just managed to get the Ventura cruise nearly Β£200 cheaper in total!
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