terrierjohn

Unfortunately it does not seem that discretion is something that P&O understand.

I get the impression that very few staff have the authority to override the usual t&c's, and possibly get told off for even agreeing to ask their manager.

On Princess, pre pandemic, there was always a sheet in the welcome on board Princess Patter, that listed all the senior officers on board with a brief potted history alongside their photo's (or maybe that was Celebrity???). P&O also used to have a photo display of the senior staff on the wall of one of the public decks, mind you that was often out of date, I always thought this was useful.

Carnival has 2 shares listed on the US stock market, CCL which is the US shares and CUK which tracks the UK stock market price. Just why the UK stock market ticker is CCL and not CUK seems a mystery. But if you are buying in the UK it's best to stick to buying the UK listed shares, and avoid having to fill out a separate US form, and deal with currency exchange, if and when dividends resume.

The galley is the same size as it was on launch, and lots of posters have commented on the reduced choice and quality currently, when compared with 5, 10 or 15 years ago.

I have had gravalax, on P&O I think, from memory it is very similar to smoked salmon, but not quite as tasty.

No, Moley did suggest that it was treated the same as alcoholic drinks by P&O, but he did seem to think most non alcoholic beers/lagers/ciders had an alcohol content of 0.5%, rather than the normal 0.05%, so clarity is needed from P&O/Carnival.

Price and profit margin can be very different, and the higher production costs for non alcoholic versions may not be fully achievable for suppliers, where the price level of their normal alcoholic drinks will determine the premium that customers will accept. So probably less profit for both suppliers and retailers.

Maybe they dont want to cut down on people drinking alcohol, they may assume that passengers are likely to spend more when their inhibitions are reduced as the alcohol takes effect. Or it could be that the profit margins on alcoholic drinks are higher than on non alcoholic ones. Then again it could be simple P&O inertia, to think that giving passengers what they want is good for business.

Non alcoholic drinks can contain 0.05% alcohol not 0.5, and are thus excempt excise duty according to the govt., so P&O would be wrong to classify any such drink as alcohol, and they should be considered soft drinks. It is low alcohol drinks that can contain 0.5-1.25% ABV, although the majority of suppliers limit them to 0.5%.

I thought that the Beach house was less than £10pp, so seems a bit steep to charge £10pp for not going. On a pro rata basis to the Epicurean, the cancellation for beach house should only be £2.50pp.

Madeira departure is normally about 5:00pm with all onboard time 4 :30, since it's a full nights cruise to Tenerife.

I only suggested it as an option to satisfy those who desire a regular fixed dining time, but I guess the suggestion of one of the MDRs being devoted to bookings and the others reverting to the old Anytime Dining option of walk ups, is probably a better option. Of course the dining option would have to be fixed for the entire cruise, and the booking one would probably need to have a maximum limit.

Comparison with a land based restaurant with maybe 100 covers, and a very variable potential clientelle, against a cruise ship restaurant with over a 1000 covers and a guranteed clientelle that have to be fed is not truly sensible. If the cruise ship is to make optimum use of all its MDRs, it cannot afford to have empty tables waiting for customers, the old turn up and join a short queue, then fairly quickly join a sharing table or take a pager if you want a 2 top is. IMO, the only sensible way to operate a freedom dining option, and maybe keep one smaller MDR for passenger who want a fixed traditional 2 seating dining experience.

@Selbourne I note that on sea days you never mention using the promenade deck for a spot of people watching, or just relaxing. You can generally find the odd spare chair and somewhere you can sit alongside your wife in her wheelchair On our Caribbean round trips we really enjoyed using the prom deck as an alternative to our balcony, and could usually find somewhere that was out of the full sun.

I doubt that a P&O portion of truffle would be big enough for the average person to find, even with a magnifying glass.

If the wheelchair and rollator can be folded to go through a standard cabin door then that is perfectly acceptable to P&O, especially if you can manage in a standard cabin/bathroom.

You and several thousand other people!!! Probably the best bet for accurate info is to check out the port websites, I realise that will be fiddly, but although there are so websites that pull together the data for each cruise, but many just follow P&Os early morning late afternoon terminology.

But they have all paid for their cruise, so surely entitled to use all the available facilities?

Probably September when summer 2026 cruises will go on sale.

I must admit @amajaa that in those circumstances, I too would be concerned about how to deal with getting my luggage into the correct pod and who in Southampton to approach to obtain the correct information.

I have now received the revised booking confirmation from Priness, via my TA, which shows the Shareholder OBC has been added.

Perhaps you're not keeping your immune system topped up.

Thank you @Selbourne your report and photos brought back the memories of our first Panama canal partial transit on Coral Princess, although our cabin was on the starboard side I well remember being fascinated by the mules travelling up and down on the track alongside the canal, and the ship slowly being raised up in each lock. I hope your sore throat continues to improve and that the food and aircon starts to meet your expectations.

Alrhough I agree that we should all follow your personal hygiene suggestions, I suspect that If we followed the other actions every day, then the outcome could well be a very weak immune system. As my old Mum used to say a little muck never hurt anyone, and after following her advice I have managed to reach 80 without suffering seriously from any gastro illnesses or from repeated coughs and cold.