terrierjohn

I did not see many, if any, curries in MDR and certainly no stir fries or Dahl's.

Cos my phone doesn't do QR codes.

MB I agree with you 100%, the app idea is good but its application is lacking, and unfortunately P&O don't appear to have the organisation in place to be able to fix it. What each ship is doing, is operating work arounds to try to make the app work for them, but each ship seems to be doing it's own thing. As a result no one can rely on the app to provide them with accurate feedback, especially when restaurants are providing non app users with pagers, and the theatres staff are annoying app users by letting in non app users at the last minute, to fill up the scattered vacant seats. Only in P&O land could a good idea, poorly implemented, create such animosity among their customers.

I doubt that the fortunes of P&O and Cunard alone, have a significant impact on the Carnival share price.

Who is taking over from Paul Ludlow at P&O?

Did not need any tempting to put our heating on again this morning, only 10 deg outside and no sign of any sun.

It is probably more the quantity than quality that we have noticed has declined in the MDRs, and that is both in the portion size and the choice of dishes. We have especially noticed that the soups are often cooler than we would like, and definitely not as flavourful as they were pre covid. The veggie selection has also reduced, there is generally only one type of potato, and never more than 2 other veg, and meagre portions of them as well. The meat content has also declined, the slices are smaller and you rarely get more than 2. I know Dai will say you can always ask for more, but until the bare plate arrives you have no idea that you might need more, and of what!!! As for the choice this might look generous with probably 6 or 7 main course items, but 2 of these will be the always available sirloin and chicken, a further 2 will be fish and 2 more veggie and vegan, which is very disappointing when compared with the period from 2015 through to 2019.

Whilst I agree with much of what you say ICF, it is clearly written from your perspective, which you obviously view as the mainstream choice, but that just isnt the case. Covid did reduce the demand for sharing tables, but it is making a recovery, and it definitely has a place in Freedom dining, and not just fixed dining times. The current problem with the app IMO, is that there are too many work arounds being introduced, which the computer does not know about, so any AI possibility is totally flawed. Unless and until all bookings of dining and entertainment are captured by the app, then they will continue to have misleading info given out, which combined with the usual P&O IT flaws is having exactly the opposite effect to your utopian dream.

We had amassed a whole library of cruise memorabilia/rubbish which sadly all went in the bin when we downsized. But since we no longer remember everything it turns out that we don't miss it. 🙄😉

I think the company running it went bust during covid, but the website does say it's now open, so possibly it was reincarnated!?

It doesn't work now because people are still queuing before the theatre doors are opened, if your booking allocated you a firm seat number, then there would be no need for queueing, and the limited accessible seating could then be specific for wheelchair dependant carers.

I wonder if Mother Shiptons cave is still there?

Using reception on day one, or even day 2 or 3, is definitely not an option unless you have several hours to waste.

Bcck in the day, or pre pandemic, long queues on Ventura, Britannia and Azura might have been the case for some theatre shows which were very popular, but by no means all of them, and only for the 8:30 shows. However I do agree that especially with Iona and Arvia some sort of pre booking is required, but it does need to be seat specific if it is to maximise the capacity and avoid any unnecessary queuing. Same applies to the restaurants, but again if you are choosing between sharing tables and tables for 2, then you need some sort of table identifier, and you may need to add in other requirements like near a window, or with wheelchair access. And you need non smart phone users and technophobes to also be catered for. Unfortunately the P&O app fails these requirements on far too many levels, and until it is improved and acceptable to the vast majority of passengers, then I see nothing but continued complaints about the way it operates.

That's a bit extreme ICF, and the false alarm jibe is a bit of a slur. This whole debacle has been created by P&O because they instigated the app in the first place, whether this was to facilitate an improvement for passengers, or more likely something they hoped would reduce pressure on MDR staff and enable them to reduce staffing, we shall never know. However it now exists and passengers will learn to live with it, but it does appear that this will continue to mean that some passengers will obtain bookings for all they want, whilst others will be disappointed that they are unable to book everything, or maybe even anything, they want. I doubt this is what P&O intended, but is just another example of the unintended consequences of hurried, and badly specified IT.

We believe you MB, but it's only the app that says it's full, mainly because the algorithm doesn't seem to consider there will be lots of no shows, especially for the free entertainment and the no charge restaurants like Olive grove and American Diner. We found on our Feb Iona cruise that the availability for the 8:30 shows kept popping up later in the cruise, as did those the Olive Grove.

It was expensive but it was also very extensive and very informative and finished with a Bridge tour followed by light luncheon nibbles in the Glass House. but without a fairly large OBC I doubt I would have been tempted.

I am so glad that I have no desire to book chargeable speciality restaurants on specific days at certain times. If I really want to book one I will pop into the restaurant once on board and check with a human as to what times and days are available, and then book it. Will this work, well it has done on our last 3 cruises, even though "The Computer said No".

I suspect the emphasis is on minimising staff numbers, so they were hoping the app would enable the MDRs to operate more efficiently, allowing them to reduce staffing. I guess they failed to appreciate that P&O and IT, don't have a happy relationship.

Certainly the ordering app used by the waiters did go down for a short period on 2 nights on the MDR on our Feb cruise. The waiters were resorting to pen and paper for about 20 minutes, until it came back on line. i understood from the waiter that their system is linked to the passenger one, but don't know if that is correct.

Any water going over the top of the glass falls harmlessly into the trough designed to catch it, the back of the trough is quite high and about 6 feet beyond the pool. As I said go right to the rail next to the pool and watch what happens, splashes and spillover falls harmlessly into the trough, and it is the recirculated water that causes the spray that sometimes goes over the sloping back of the trough.

When you're next on board do check the arrangement at the back where any water splashed over falls harmlessly into the trough, and to splash this onto the balconies you would need to hurl the water a good 6 foot to clear the trough.

He was on Iona in February.

Children, or anyone would need to be extremely strong and athletic to splash water out of pool onto any balcony below, the splashing comes when the water in the pool is moving backwards and forwards as the ship pitches. There is a constant outflow from the bottom of the glass/perspex screen at the infinity end of the pool, this normally flows out at a steady rate and falls harmlessly into the trough, but in rough seas the pressure builds as the stern pitches down and the outflow is forced out at higher pressure which then hits the back of the trough and in extreme cases the spray can go over the top of the trough. So IMHO any splashing is not caused by unruly children or adults, nor with the present system could it be prevented by reducing the pool level. However if there was no 'outflow" from the base of the pool screen, and circulation of the pool water was effected in the normal manner, then the trough would be perfectly adequate to catch any accidental or deliberate overflow.

Never seen a brass band send off from Southampton in the last 10 years.