AJ22

I’m dairy and paprika intolerant. I’ve always found the MDR to be brilliant, although some ships have been better and more willing to adapt meals than others, I think it depends on the chef assigned to special diets. You still have to be on your guard though, as I found with butternut squash soup.

My bigger issues have been with the buffets. It was great when they started labelling dishes with allergens, but the labels just aren’t reliable. For example, scrambled egg often doesn’t list milk, but when I’ve asked the chef, it always has it. I’ve reported mislabelling on numerous occasions. In some cases the staff at the buffet don’t seem interested, and have even been downright rude (I complained to higher management).

And room service breakfast is useless for me. They don’t even do toast on the menu, so all I can eat is fruit,

Regardless, I still think cruising with P&O is a good option for me. I feel more comfortable eating out onboard than in restaurants at home.

We’ve had £150 for our October cruise on Aurora, select fare. I guess that final payments are due soon and they don’t want people to cancel.

Iona in 3weeks. Our cabin was allocated yesterday. Deck 14, 15.45 arrival time. A bit disappointed to be that late.

1 hour ago, Selbourne said:

From memory, when the ship is moored in Alta the ship is actually facing North, so it makes no difference whether you are port or starboard. We were starboard and found it fascinating watching the planes being de-iced minutes before they took off in a blizzard and heavy snow from Alta airport when, in the U.K., our airports are closed when we have a light dusting.

 

Because you are in the Arctic circle, you don’t necessarily need to be looking North. The lights can appear from anywhere. 
 

Thanks very much for all that. Very helpful. 😀

On 11/5/2020 at 3:43 PM, Selbourne said:

I have read many people saying that as they are going on a Northern lights cruise and it will be cold, they will book an inside. Huge mistake. We have done the cruise twice and some of the highlights are sitting in your cabin (on the sofa or bed) watching the scenery pass by. No crowds, no noise, no fighting for pole position. Just bliss. The scenery on this cruise is spectacular. Also, we were able to spot when the Northern Lights were starting by dipping out on to the balcony regularly to check, therefore only getting in to our multiple layers (time consuming) when worthwhile. 
 

I would therefore recommend a deluxe balcony on B deck. 
 

Thanks for these comments. It sounds like a good idea to keep checking for the lights from the balcony. This may be a silly question, but would you recommend port or starboard for the northern lights, or does it not make any difference? We would overnight in Alta, so it would be nice to be facing north when moored up. 
 

Like the OP, we are having exactly the same debate about standard or deluxe balconies. I don’t mind the more enclosed type balcony on a cold weather cruise, because it feels a bit more sheltered. If it was a sunny cruise I would prefer the glass ones. I also got a price for a mini suite, but don’t think we can justify the extra cost.

Thanks, both of you. I’m sure we’ll be very happy to make future bookings on board! Just need to book the first one. 

I’ll have to phone round some agents and try and find a good specialist. The only time I ever had an issue, the TA was no help. We usually book direct. In the UK it seems that it has been easier to get COVID refunds if you booked direct, and not all TAs have been very helpful.

Anyway, I hope we are able to experience SeaDream this winter. It seems that we are able to fly out to Barbados from the UK with no problem, but insurance is the main issue. The UK government is currently advising against ocean going cruises (although It’s fine to take a river cruise) so insurers won’t cover you. Maybe the fact that SeaDream are yachts will help.
 

We hope to meet some of you soon!

Hi,
 

We are looking at SeaDream for the first time, and are considering a Caribbean cruise in the new year. Does it make much difference if we book direct or through a TA? Is there any benefit either way?
 

If we get a complete package through a TA I think we would get ABTA/ATOL protection. However,  we would probably use frequent flyer miles to get from the UK to Bridgetown and might only use a TA for the cruise plus a couple of days in a hotel  before and after.

Another advantage of the frequent flyer flights is that we can easily cancel or change (for a small admin charge).  
 

Any suggestions would be appreciated. Many thanks.

So far we’ve only had suites on Oceana and Azura. We’re booked on Britannia in 2022.

The aft suites on Oceana have large balconies, which we loved. Even the aft mini suites have nice deep balconies.
 

You have to be a bit careful on Azura as some of the aft suites have stanchions, which take up space. Ventura is the same.

Personally, I would never go for a side suite on any ship, because their balconies aren’t usually any deeper than standard balconies, just wider. As you can tell, balconies are 

important to us!
 

On Oceana, suite passenger breakfasts are in a sectioned off part of the main dining room. Other ships have separate restaurants for suite passenger breakfasts.
 

Suite passengers get priority boarding, a private boarding waiting area and a welcome lunch on board, but only if you’re boarding in Southampton. You don’t get those benefits on fly cruises. 
 

They showed the semi final on Oceana last week in the pub and the nightclub, and it was on tv in cabins. They also brought round free bacon rolls, but not enough to go round. The bar was open for drinks. 

The deal they're offering on Aurora is fine if you'll drink £20 worth of sparkling wine at that time in the morning, but a bottle of Prosecco is only about £20 on board, and there's so much food on offer anyway there doesn't seem much point in a buffet!

When I was trying to book a cruise about a month ago, I mentioned that I thought the new booking website was useless. He said that it was provided by Adobe, who told them they either had to take it as it was, or leave it.  Management felt they had no alternative but to take it even though they knew it wasn't perfect. It will be improved over time. 

That's  not much consolation to those of us trying to use it. I've resorted to TA systems, which are much easier to use. Just as well I really like the actual cruises from P&O or I'd go elsewhere.

I wonder if this new Personaliser replacement system is developed by P&O, or bought in, like the booking system.

Thank you. That is extremely helpful! It actually suits us, as we'd prefer not to be overlooked, and it could be helpful to have more shade in the Caribbean. 

I've heard mention elsewhere that they have put canopies over some of the aft cabins/suites but can't find any confirmation of that. It has been suggested it might be either to help with a soot problem or to stop the cabins being overlooked from above. Does anyone know about this?

Oops! I read it several times before posting and could have sworn it said Caribbean to Southampton!. A senior moment!

Wouldn't it Be starboard getting more sun coming back from the Caribbean to Southampton?

That's very helpful, Ann and Eddie. With Gibraltar being an hour ahead of the UK, I guess booking will open at 9am on board. If you can book slots with the future cruise team, maybe I'll do that as soon as we board. 

3 minutes ago, eddie11 said:

I’ve booked on board on first day of bookings being open.

Talked with the Future Cruises desk before ‘opening date’.

Gave them half a dozen cabins I’d be happy with

Went ashore

Returned to a confirmed booking slip in my cabin

Got the extra OBC with the on-board booking and the £50 deposit.

It was all pretty simple

Thanks. I was hoping someone on the forum had past experience!

1 minute ago, Britboys said:

The big agents like the one you mention get priority access to the systems before they open to the public and I think they get just about every member of staff onto it (and they have quite a few!). They have direct access to the reservation system, so don't have to contact P&O.  I have never pre-registered as I am reluctant to book anything almost 2 years ahead but from what I understand, if you pre-register you are guaranteed the advertised price - just not a specific cabin.  You can give the agent your cabin choices, either by say a certain block or certain numbers.

Thanks. That seems reasonable to go with a TA then, but I will still make a few phone calls once the itineraries are released. Cheers!

What's the process if you are onboard on 23rd October, the day they go on general sale? Is there a huge queue at the onboard booking desk? Are there other benefits, such as extra OBC?

I had been thinking of going with a TA this time, as my experience of preregistration for Iona wasn't good, and just phoning up on the day for the rearranged Oceana cruises was worse. Should I still go with a TA or book on board?

To complicate things, we'll be in Gibraltar that day, and have booked a 9am excursion!

Any tips very welcome!

Thanks @Aulanis. I'll do some googling. I hope Cvil comes back!

It will be interesting to see what people booked before next May will do. I suspect that even more people will remove auto tips in the coming months. We're booked for April!

It only cost us £5 pp per seat with easyJet last week. The easyJet booking reference appeared on the cruise personaliser 14 days before the flight.

We've just come back from a week on Oceana. At 6pm when the restaurant opens, there are couples queuing for tables, and by about 6.15 you are too late and would be faced with at least an hour wait. Once, we got there about 7pm and would have been 8th in the queue for people with pagers, so we opted for a shared table instead. I suspect it gets easier as the evening progresses, but if you want to see both the shows in an evening you need to eat early. We did meet some very nice people on shared tables, so it's worth giving it a try.

BTW, we had a fantastic week!

Thanks for the photos Joan! We have this suite booked in a few months and are very excited! We're particularly looking forward to having such a large balcony, and having breakfast out there.

We had perfectly good cabins when we booked early savers. They were aft, but we quite liked that the corridors were dead ends, and therefore quiet.

I've only done one cruise with each of Celebrity and P&O, and had a better overall experience with P&O. Maybe I was expecting too much of Celebrity. To be honest, I preferred our mini cruise with Fred Olsen as well.

I felt Celebrity were always trying to get money off us, especially pestering us to upgrade from our basic drinks package. As we were Aqua class we ate in Blu most of the week and the food quality slowly deteriorated. We only ate in the MDR once at the end, and it was very good so wished we'd done that more. And don't get me started on their useless ballroom dancing!

I wouldn't want to put anyone off any cruise line. What suits us may not suit others. You have to try it for yourself. We've chosen P&O for our next cruise, and really want to do a Cunard transatlantic.