DS_Dean

I'm sure there used to be a page on P&O website that listed the current films shown on board but it seems to have been removed. 🙁

Hooray! Now this is a wise move on Carnivals part. Next up. Just re work all the rest of the IT Infrastructure 😄

We have a future cruise booked on Arvia (14 nights) and we were thinking of booking The Retreat. The price on the Cruise Personaliser is showing £429 for the whole cruise, per person! So over £800 for two. Havnt booked the Retreat before but we had thought about it in the past and I am sure that when on board on Azura it was cheaper. Is this something that it is better to wait until getting on board to get a better price? I assume availability dependent, there might also be single day passes? Has P&O increased this price or was it always this expensive for the 14 nights? I feel like it has increased based on other ships but can't put my finger on what it used to be before. I might be crazy but I thought it was more like £250 per person for 2 weeks. But maybe I am very crazy. 😄

Dont get me wrong I am all for technology and think that the My Holiday app both pre cruise one and the on board one are great ideas. They just need to ensure it works. I was on Azura in the Summer and the app seemed to work ok then, but the November cruise on Iona it was terrible. I do think there are specific things about the way its been done that will make it hard work. For instance when you connect on Android you'll get a "This network cannot provide internet". Unless you explicitly choose the option to stay connected Android seems to prefer to disconnect it after a while. I think the app would work better if they gave everyone free internet access albeit at a low speed, then devices would connect easier and would avoid devices having the "This network cannot provide internet" issue. Then P&O should offer an actual WiFi ultimate package that genuinely increases the speed for those who want more premium WiFi. I only have one cruise example where I tried the ultimate WiFi upgrade and it did nothing, has anyone else tried it, did it actually increase the speed?

Seems no surprise the issues are partly (mostly?) down to IT. Carnival UK seem to always be in perpetual IT disaster. The old P&O Cruises "My Booking" web app was always a mess, slow and broken. Then they released a new "My Holiday" web app that looks shinier but again seems to be broken most of the the time. Giving you a countdown when entertainment/dining can be booked only for the day to come and when you try it just spits back error messages. On board the My Holiday app is equally as bad. On Iona recently it was terrible, so slow, and it went down more than once for more than an hour, causing on board chaos as people queuing outside venues and staff not knowing what to do. The ship has WiFi access points everywhere but if you have the app open and move around the ship it cant keep you logged in. So you can be thinking you are in a queue but if you refresh you are just sent back to login page.... despite the web page telling you to 'stay on the page'. If you do though you'll have no idea if you are logged in or if it has logged you out and stopped refreshing. On Azura earlier in the year the on board My Holiday app seemed to work better, so quite surprised to see it being some how worse on Iona a few weeks ago as a newer ship. Then theres the WiFi. They offer two packages one for slower speeds and then another "ultimate" package which promises faster speeds and streaming. However.. if you start on the basic and upgrade mid cruise to ultimate... the WiFi speed is exactly the same (ie. very slow). P&O then says "ah it is subject to satellite signal". However it never improved over any of the remaining five days I used it. Anecdotally I have heard from people who work at Carnival House in Southampton that internally the IT is a disaster also. They should just get some expert, outside help, or something to help overhaul everything they are doing IT wise and bring it up to an acceptable working standard.

I was on this cruise and while I didnt have any issues for reception whenever I walked past reception it seemed to always be rammed with people. In the Club House on the last night when they asked if people had a good cruise the audience seemed split between Yes and No, so do agree that some people had issues. Highlights for me were the "Noise Next Door" act in Headliners Theatre, Zoe Hearn and the Limelight Club and the food in the Keel and Cow. All of these were excellent. Some negatives - Food in the Beach House was quite basic. The My Holiday app was hit and miss, often not loading. On one night it was down for about 1.5hrs and staff did not know how to manage queues. The app advertised food in Glass House but actually the menu was not available, so it was pointless joining that queue. Also the acts in the Sky Dome... the sound quality was terrible. Think they could do with a Sound Engineer in that venue!

It is a bit strange, they make it out that you can prebook things like Beach House, Sindhu and what not but when you add it to basket it doesnt work. It didnt work on our Azura summer cruise and doesnt work on our Iona winter break cruise now. I assumed it was just the IT not working, being P&O and all. But maybe it is unavailable on purpose.

Maybe it's all down to you! Have a great cruise!

For info:

It seems like the rules are changing on Azura today to match P&O policy. Masks recommended only but not mandatory. Just as we are leaving. So gutted we had to endure masks and now as we leave it goes back to mask free. Good news for you @MX-Drew!

Ah. We flew from London Gatwick, our plane was entirely P&O from what cabin crew said so maybe a bit different.