mds143

I was on the Azura in November and my birthday was during the cruise. I gave DW explicit instructions not to do anything or tell anyone.

Anyway after we boarded I received an Invitation to the events room (that place where they do the weddings) to celebrate.

It turned out that everyone who had a birthday during the cruise had been invited (with a +1) and we were all given a glass of champagne (the good stuff too). Then, they brought out a chocolate gatow and we all tucked in. It was very pleasent and I thought it was a really nice gesture on the part of P&O.

There were about 10 Birthdays on that cruise (based on the attendance).

16 hours ago, philred said:

can anybody tell me please how long will it take to travel from the airport in barbados to the cruise terminal and is the transport in minibuses or coaches 

They use minibuses and it takes about half an hour.

1 hour ago, Ranchi said:

“full English with G&T”

agree it’s probably not healthy. Makes the deck quoits go with a zing, though!

On ‎12‎/‎5‎/‎2018 at 1:47 PM, Suzieanna said:

I had a piece of golden triangle... never knew it was called that.  yummy.       I stole it off my husbands plate!  haha! 

 

I cant imagine they are very healthy... but for there to be "healthy choice" there has to be things that aren't healthy.  that's just logical.  

 

I had an omlette in the MDR.    wouldn't order one of them again mind.    tiny one egg effort.   3 mouthfuls and it was gone :(

You're right Suzieanna, they are most definately not healthy.

The whole English breakfast experience is anything but healthy.

I think I had a full English about four times on my two week cruise.

I couldn't possible have one every day. I prefer Porridge!!

But, if you are going to have an English breakfast, then you may as well do it right and the Golden Triangles are an absolute must in my opinion.

The omlettes on the Azura (in the mdr) took ages and were not worth the wait in my opinion.
Anyway, the next time your hubby has a full English with a GT take it off him, tell him how unhealthy they are, and enjoy it yourself :)

I've just returned from a cruise on the Azura and have resurrected this old thread to update it.

The dark days of are behind us, the storm clouds are no more.

Rejoice brothers and sisters for I can tell you today, from personal experience, that the golden triangles (fried bread) have returned to the full English breakfast on board the Azura.

For now at least it seems as though sanity has prevailed.

well done Pando.

Mike

My hearing isn't what it used to be and my wife's English isn't that great so we always go with freedom and request a table for 2 and are happy to wait. I would otherwise spend most of the evening asking people to repeat themselves or just nodding in agreement to whatever was said. We tend to eat between 6.30 - 7.30 on board so we hardly ever have to wait, and when we do have to wait, we take the pager to a nearbey venue and enjoy a nice pre dinner drink.

I personally hate the idea of having to be at my table at a certain time. I'm on Holiday after all.

Unlike some posters we don't go on a cruise to meet people or make new friends (although it has been known to happen).

We've only ever done Club Dining once and although the people on our table were great it's not something we really like.

I'm quite happy to be on a ship of 4000 People and yet be "alone" with my loverly wife the entire time.

We've been on Azura many times. We've been on Brittania once (last Christmas) and had a great time.

Overall we prefer Azura and have booked Azura for our next cruise.

We prefer the MDR on Brittania, which is quieter than the MDR on Azura and we definately feel that the buffet restaurant is better layed out on Brittania (although we almost always eat in the MDR).

There's more room on the balconies on Azura and we prefer the main pool area on Azura which we didn't like on Brittania (to big). Generally we find the athmosphere on Azura better (whatever that means).

Service and food are excellent on both ships.

You can't really make a mistake and book the wrong ship though, as they're both wonderful.

What tosh! We’ve flown to Dubai twice on emirates for cruises and enjoyed the free alcohol offerings on the flights as did most passengers on the flight - there isn’t an alcohol checking booth along with security and passport checks when you arrive!

 

 

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Tosh it is not!

Surely you're heard of this case from August?

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6047315/Mother-jailed-Dubai-having-glass-wine-flight-Gatwick-makes-tearful-plea.html

It was all over the news.

The thing is, if the local authorities want to they can arrest you for possession of alcohol (even if it's only in your bloodstream).

I wouldn't go near the place (with or without alcohol).

Regards

MIke

When someone has been on a 14 night cruise the £7 pppd tip of £168 x 2 or £336 is a lot to dish out.

That is a lot of cash to have left after your port tours etc and why autotips were great for the crew and passengers who were short on cash flow.

Hopefully P&O sort it out to everyone's satisfaction and everyone has contributed to crews pay through the cruise price.

Am I missing something?

14 x £7 = £98

£98 x 2 = £196.

Although: 24 x 7 = 168! (did you hit a 2 instead of a 1 on your calculator?)

It seems like a lot of people are addicted to social media.

I feel sorry for the people who have to access it for work even when they're on Holiday.

I'd hate to be on a ship where there was unlimited Internet and I certainly wouldn't want to help pay for it.

There's so much to do, get out and experience reality :)

- My Kindle (loaded with tons of stuff)

- Nail clippers. I hate it when my nails get above a certain length (being a bloke).

- Quality sliced cheese - since they took it off the room service breakfast menu.

I was also going to make a joke about taking a spare pair of underpants on cruises in excess of 7 days, in case something happend to my main pair. But I thought it might seem a tad tasteless and decided against it. This is P & O after all :D

Can't comment on Marella but as a working person I'd go for 2 x 14 nights with at least a month in between. In fact I did that last year and it was great (I went with P&O though as I like the experience).

If I were retired I'd go for the 35 nights because I don't like the jet lag.

Also you tend to get a larger diversity of pasengers (agewise) on the 14 day fly Cruises, which you may or may not like. I'd guess a 35 day cruise from and to Southampton would be almost exclusively 65+ (someone please correct me if I'm wrong on this).

Personally I prefer a mixture of age groups on the ship (teenagers not so much).

I think it's also worth mentioning, that the cruise line is just as important as the itinery.

That's the main reason I stay (relatively) loyal to P&O.

I think if you look carefully you will see that the Theatre is spread over decks 6,7 and 8 in the centre of the ship, just like most of the other AIDA ships. This seems to be one of their signature features, along with lots of others including multiple dining rooms, totally unlike anything P&O have.

I would imagine that the P&O ships will follow their more traditional approach and the theatre will be housed in the forward sections of decks 4,5 and 6, but of course that's only my opinion.

The lack of pools is also a standard AIDA Thing.

I doubt Pando will be copying that "feature" either.

Regards

Mike

It beggars believe that someone who has paid out to go on a cruise would then stoop so low as to return to their cabin ,during a meal to get a top up of their wine .

It is these sort of characters that have led to the tightening up, and as you say it will be these sort of characters who will eventually lead pando to stop anyone bringing drinks on board.

I would like someone to explain to me why they think it is right to do this sort of thing ( go against the alcohol rules). If you cannot afford to go on the cruise and take drinks, so you do not have to purchase drink on board then surely that type of holiday is outside your price bracket. Not you lie and cheat so it is.

I'm not sure it has all that much to do with how well off people are. Probably just a "tight-fistedness" issue.

Some of the most tight fisted people I know are quite well off.

I have just booked my seats on flight,fly cruise on britannia in February.I could not book premium as all seats were blocked,not booked just blocked ? this my first time with P&O and I cannot understand why you have to pay for two seats together in economy class.I have flown with Emirates,Thomas Cooke,Cathay Pacific, BA for cruises and never had to pay to sit together,unless I wanted an upgrade.Hypothetical question is,what would happen on a fly cruise flight if everybody turned up at the airport and no one had paid to pre book a seat,once all economy seats were allocated only premium would be left,surely they could not ask you to pay,you have booked a flight so they must provide a seat.Have a nice day.:cool:

The answer to your hypothetical imho is that they would do exactly as you have suggested.

I'm not sure what the policy is re premium seats, maybe someone can comment on this (I'm pretty sure it'll have something to do with suits).

meanwhile back to the real world...

If you show up having not booked seats and there are 2 unbooked seats next to each other on the plane, I'm pretty sure they will do their utmost to seat you and your partner together.

I remember one flight where a gentleman got quite irrate with the stewardess because he wasn't able to sit next to his partner.

Hi folk can anyone who has done this cruise previously give me an idea of when the formal nights are likely to be. Do you find out when the formal nights are as soon as you board.

Would like to book some select dining but don't want to do it on the formal nights.

Any help appreciated.

They seemed to come fast and furious on Azura last year. I think we had 3 that happened every other day which was a bit much for me. :)

They were all done before we got to saint maarten (St. Lucia this year) which is on 30th Oct.´

So If your're on the Azura I'd go for:

- 22nd.

- 25th.

- 27th.

- 29th.

On Britannia that might be:

- 29th

- 1st

- 3rd

- 5th

But I may be wrong! :D

I don't remember the Select Dining venues being all that full on Azura last year, so you should be okay waiting until you get on the ship and booking then.

Don't know about Britannia though.

Have a great time.

We're shortly going on a Caribbean cruise to the Lesser Antilles ending in Barbados with P&O on Britannia. Does anyone know if the ship stocks East Caribbean and Barbados Dollars or are US Dollars the recommended currency for all the islands?

US$ are used everywhere.

I recommend you get your dollars from your bank, it should be a bit cheaper than from the ship.

If you have any left over when you get back, you'll have an excuse to go back soon. :)

In some places I've noticed that the prices were in (eastern) Caribbean dollars. The rate being around 2 to 1, so you might want to check your change.

Different generation, different responses. My mum was in London when the V1 and V2 flying bombs were around. She, like everyone else just got on with it. She did consider asking Hitler for compensation for the emotional distress, but decided that it wasn't worth the aggravation.

 

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What a strange Response. Wowzz.

I bet your mum would have happily sued Hitler if it had been possible, mine would've, we could have used the Money. :rolleyes:

But do you really think the 2 situations are similar or are you just taking a dig at the original poster?

What does seem to be a generational thing is old People droning on about WWII.

This is the 21st century.

This is a Forum about cruising.

Please try to keep up.

Mmmmm......not sure....so many people have strong views on all of the 4 options that whatever the consensus turned out to be it wouldn't be workable.

 

It may be a better to have a poll on whether people would prefer to have the tips incorporated in the fare or not

great minds think alike :D

Can I risk being controversial?

There is clearly a lot of disagreement and confusion over auto gratuities all of which has been well discussed.

There appears to be several different actions.

Auto Gratuities are left on.

Auto Gratuities are left on and extra tips are given to staff directly.

Auto Gratuities are removed and tips are given to staff directly.

Auto Gratuities are removed and no tips are given.

 

Does anyone think there is any merit in carrying out a poll to see what CC members do?

I don't know what we could do with the results but I think it may make interesting reading if we could encourage people to vote, anonymously of course.

Great idea, dgs1956, I'd be very interested to the see the results of that poll.

It might be an idea to have 2 polls.

- Poll 1. your poll

- Poll 2. "should gratuities be incorporated into the cruise price from the offset."

Although I think the results of poll 2 will be somewhere in the regions of 95% toward yes).

And I’ve just noticed that E731 is directly above Manhattan, the show Lounge, which means that you will be disturbed by loud music every night, until the early hours of the morning. Are these the only options you have? Neither are good choices. I have a simple rule. Never book a cabin that is directly above or below public rooms or areas. You are asking for trouble. Always book a cabin that has other cabins above and below it.

I was in E731 for 2 weeks a couple of years ago and was warned about the noise, but it was fine.

The Manhattan stage (and the main speakers) are on the port side and positioned directly under E730. Now E730 is the cabin I would avoid.

Do you mean 20th Oct - we are ot same cruise and we only know the changes by looking at the CP - nothing from P&O or our agent. Phoned our agent who said that they are working through the bundle of changes from P&O and will send us details ASAP.

I'd have thought that P&O would have emailed all the passenger directly under the circumstances instead of flooding the agent with 100's of changes. Without the CP we would not have known.

We're on this cruise.

We received an E-Mail from P&O on 29th September with the itinery change.

We booked directly with P&O. Maybe that makes a difference.

After all of the debates on here re cabin stewards I asked specific questions at the Reception desk about the cabin steward being able to keep the tip and if it was an autotip did they get it. They assured me that they did.

 

We also gave some additional tips because he was brilliant. We also left some extra in the envelope (in another envelope) for his 'helper' - the poor bloke who was carrying and fetching everything for him. Not sure the cabin steward liked it as he told me that he was 'Just his helper who fetched and carried things for him'. (His face said it all) In my eyes this lovely man (we saw often) was also helping us so we gave him a small tip.

 

I really don't think that you need to worry about how much --- it is up to you

Your cabin steward was probably miffed because (I've heard) it's not uncommon for them to "employ" crew members to help them out. The payment, I would assume, comes partially out of their tips.

Actually Tui is German - Ja? 😁😁

Ja das ist korrekt. TUI's Headquarters are in both Berlin and Hannover.

TUI stands for "Touristik Union International".

As P&O are owned by Americans, Land Rover by Indians and our chip shop by a bloke from Cyprus I suppose it doesn't really matter much these days. ;p