Mr Piano

P&O prices are about pub prices, high street prices wine from £13 upwards with quite a lot between £15 - £18.

Well I'm glad I don't drink in your pub :D. I pay £2.30 in my local for a pint of draught bitter. Aboard ship it's around £4.

Perhaps they are Southern pub prices on board. I handed over a £20 note for a round of 4 pints at a Twickernam pub recently, I had my hand out for waiting the change. I didn't get any :o

 

From next summer P&O are phasing out the 'semi formal' jacket required nights and there will only be formal and evening casual.

When does this actually Start? I am booked on Azura beginning of June. I hope it's implemented by then. Whilst my wife and I love the formal nights, I could do without the need to pack a jacket or two as well. I've done a couple of Ventura cruises, and jackets are not required, but understand Azura is different

No you will definitely not feel the odd ones out, as there are lots of boring people on board :D. Sorry couldn't resist that, I am joking of course.

Whether you drink or not it will make no difference to your enjoyment. As already stated, you will rarely see drunkeness, if you do it's likely to be me.

The mocktails remind me of funny episode on our Caribbean cruise early this year. We shared a taxi with a couple on sight seeing ride in St.Vincent. The lady asked our driver to stop off at a shop selling alcohol and bought a very large bottle of white rum. She explained on the way back, that the ship (Ventura) did very good mocktails, but she liked to put her own alcohol in them :confused:

As I mention in another thread, I would highly recommend one of the farewell to Barbados excursions. We did the farewell to Babados and Crane resort. It was like adding another day to the holiday rather than just waiting around to disembark. Lunch included and taken straight to airport for our flight. As I mentioned on other thread, if you only book one ships excursion, then let it be the farewell to Barbados. You won't regret it

Dollars for dutch side of st maarten, euros or dollars for the french bit!.

We used US dollars for French section, no problem

As much as I'd like to think P&O trial is to help us passengers save money, I think it's more likely to see is if it makes P&O more money. I have just returned from an all inclusive holiday in 5 star hotel in Tenerife. I don't think we drank more than we normally would have done, and there was no evidence of rampant binge drinking, but we did drink in the hotel rather than elsewhere. That's why hotels do it, to keep the money in the hotel

So where is the benefit for a cruise ship company, they have a captive audience anyway. Many holiday resorts have suffered, due to hotel all inclusive packages. The same could happen with cruise terminal cafes and bars, particularly the Caribbean if all inclusive drinks become the norm on cruise ships. Would you pay to drink in a bar ashore if you have already paid on the ship

If you only do one ships excursion, the one I would choose would be one of the farewell to Barbados excursions.

After a disappointing and uneventful disembarkation on the Fly Med cruise last year, we opted for farewell to Barbados with Crane resort excursion, It was like another day added to the holiday rather than just waiting for the return home. One the better excursions we did, with lunch at Crane resort, then taken straight to airport at end of tour. A great way to end a marvellous cruise

I Strongly recommend this type of disembarkation, a memorable experience rather than just the day we flew home

annieuk

 

Totally agree with you. We were allocated Freedom dining on our last cruise but managed to change it once on board for table of 8 second sitting.

 

It turned out to be one of the best cruises we have done as we didn't stop laughing every evening. We were always the last ones to leave the dining room each evening as we were having so much fun.

 

Would hate a table for 2 as we enjoy the social aspect.

You were fortunate to get a good bunch, but it could just have easily gone the other way, it's pot luck. You could have ended up on a table full of miserable moaners and been stuck with them for a fortnight. It happens with freedom dining but only for a single night. If we hit it off we can easily arrange to meet again. We met a great bunch on one cruise and all arranged to meet for pre drinks again in glass house next night and went to MDR together and asked for table of eight. They virtually had to chuck us out at the end of the evening

I agree with your view on table for two in the main, but we like one or two evenings at most, in the specialty a-la-carte restaurants

We usually dine around 7 to 8pm freedom dining and have never had to wait for a table, as we always ask for a shared table. We love to meet and dine with different people each night. On a couple of occasions we have people we really hit it off with and arrange to meet again on another night.

You will only have to wait with a pager if you request a table for two. We will not book early saver in case we don't get our choice of freedom dining. We would hate to have fixed sittings with the same people each night. Variety is the spice of life :D

We also booked a trip with Lawrence of Antigua and we're certainly not disappointed. Yes. Nelson's Dockyard well worth a visit. A few months ago there was a 3 part documentary about it on BBC. Sorry, but can't remember the title.

 

It is so easy to do excursions in the Caribbean I really don't understand why anybody would even consider a ship's excursion.

I agree entirely, already recommended Lawrence on another thread. So if you don't do cricket excursion. Lawrence of Antigua is a must nelsons dockyard is just one of his stop offs

For private tour of Antigua, I would highly recommend Lawrence of Antigua. We did a tour with him in February, which includes a few hours on a beach. Far cheaper than ships excursions. You will see everything. He is an absolute gentleman, his minibus is immaculately clean. Ice cold drinks provided Just google Lawrence of Antigua

I am sure I will be contradicted, but on my last two Ventura cruises I never noticed anyone wearing jeans, dark or otherwise in main dining room. But I suppose I wasn't inspecting other people for dress code compliance

I like the P&O dress code on the Ventura. I can't understand why people who don't like it, choose to cruise with P&O. The are plenty of others with a less formal dress code.

My next cruise is on the Azura and must admit, I would rather not have the jacket evenings, the Ventura don't have them. Purely from a luggage point of view I prefer smart casual. But we love the formal nights, great atmosphere

I've had balcony cabin on both Riveria and Lido decks. No noise issue at night, unless I was making it, just crew putting sun loungers out early morning for a few minutes above Lido and people walking above Riveria going to waterside buffet on lido deck above our Riveria cabin.

None of this was enough to bother us significantly, we were on holiday, if we wanted total silence we would have got a tent in the middle of field somewhere

I suppose it's the same as the Ventura. I was pleased to find when I booked my first Ventura cruise last year, they had Boddingtons bitter on draught, a beer I quite like, then on the second week after reaching Venice they announced they were changing to John Smiths, which is in my opinion (unlike Carlsberg) probably the worst beer in the world.

My next cruise is the Azura, so it's horrible John Smith again then :( I am not lager fan either

We did the escape to JVD in February from Ventura. We were disappointed. The best part was the ferry out to the Island, the captain was quite entertaining. They then bused us to some tacky beach for a few hours and served us an equally tacky lunch of an inedible choice of burger or hotdog, then back to the ferry

I recall a comment on this site, someone complaining about vibration in their aft cabin. However on our first Ventura cruise we had dinner in the White room one evening, which is high at the back of ship. We could definitely feel a vibration and we commented to each other we wouldn't fancy a cabin at the back, if that was the case.

Because of that we now tick the box for no upgrade, as we wouldn't want to be upgraded to an aft cabin. So are our fears unfounded?

We did first P&O cruise for 14 days, one short of peninsula club points. We then did another 14 day cruise with P&O. It was only after completion of second cruise, that peninsula club points were attached to our records. So it will be our third cruise when we actually benefit from the points.

You will only get your points after your next cruise is completed. You will get the full amount of points for both of your cruises, showing on your records. You don't get peninsula club membership part way through a cruise on reaching 15 nights

One the of highlights for us is the freedom dining in the MDR and meeting new people each evening. We always share a table and would never want a table for2

However, breakfast I must admit is a different matter. We like our own space in the morning, after a night on beer and wine. So on the Ventura we always headed for Beachhouse for breakfast and took our chance of finding a table for 2, as they have quite a few. We have usually managed to get one. One of sits at the table, whilst the other goes for breakfast

No problem with sharing at afternoon tea on sea days, but rather not at breakfast when the bags under my eyes are half way down my cheeks :D

People like me.......

 

Liverpool for me is my last link to my Grandfather who was one of many Italian internees killed aboard the Arandora Star which was sunk by a single torpedo on 2 July 1940.

 

To this day the British government has never acknowledged let alone apologised for not marking the ship clearly as a POW ship. It even had guns visibly mounted making it a legitimate target for U boats.

 

So I say again lighten up. I've heard all the Italian stereotype jokes too and I find then funny.

Hi Esprit,

Putting aside your comments which I think a little I'll judged rather than any intent to offend. I was very interested in your comments about the Arandora Star. So I looked it up, very interesting. Not only was it not marked, but re-painted battleship grey, unforgivable. I found an interesting video on YouTube, from a man paying tribute the grandfather he lost on the ship. I was wondering if it was you.

Please quit with the Liverpool jokes,agree they are getting quite tired now.Britannia had a wonderful welcome in Liverpool,live band,town cryer and lots of staff from cruise liverpool on hand to help guests with tourist information.Great firework display as well,give us a break,there are a lot of people out there working hard to give tourists a friendly welcome.....

I wouldn't expect anything else from scousers. Great city and wonderful people. I wouldn't get too upset about the outdated stereotypical insults, they are not jokes, jokes are funny.

The Liverpool authorities are bending over backwards to attract cruise ships. The welcome the 3 Queens and now the Britannia were given strengthens their arm. I hope Cunard, P&O and the rest, now sit up and look to starting cruising from Liverpool.

My advice remains the same, get a real life walking talking licenced guide, the audios don't answer questions. They have them at Pompeii, I'd be surprised if they are not at Herculaneum

The guides are very good, ours was as well as informative very entertaining and humorous

Hello, first P&O cruise next Sunday and I was wondering where to get a bit of lunch. I assume the Waterside buffet is the main eatery that will be serving but can anyone tell me if the burger/pizza bars are likely to be open ?

 

Is there anywhere else to consider as I guess the buffet is likely to be a bit of a bun fight. Also are there any soft drinks in the buffet available free as on Royal Caribbean ?

 

Many thanks

 

Dave

Never used them, but yes there is a burger and also pizza bar on same deck as Waterside around pool area

Thanks for all the information from so many people. It's so helpful to hear first hand experiences. In answer to the last post regarding using a guide rather than exploring on our own, can we book a tour guide in advance from the UK, though expect suppose this is difficult to tie in with arrival time at Pompeii as don't know when we will be allowed to disembark. Can you pay on arrival to join a guided tour?

Yes I am quite sure you can pay for a guide when you arrive. I believe there are licensed guides who gather groups near the ticket booth at Pompeii, don't know the cost but bound to be cheaper than ships excursion

Better make sure its hubcaps are well secured ....

The old stereotype jokes are the best, not! :rolleyes:

Thanks for the advice, we have not allowed grass to grow under our feet. Been to co-op travel this morning and booked Baltic, 5th June 2016 on Azura.

We were very surprised on limited options for cabin, this cruise seems to be booking up already.

One bit of advice the travel agent gave was, if we book excursions with anyone other than P&O for St.Petersburg we would need a visa, is this true?