Selbourne

Re the communication about the naming ceremony. I found it frustrating that the letter told us nothing that we didn’t already know and didn’t address the questions that we do want to know! I think that we will most likely stay on board (standing for hours on end doesn’t sound like much fun) but to fully inform our decision I wanted to know whether or not we will physically be able to see the entertainment from the ship (rather than just on TV) and, if so, which side of the ship will it be visible from. If the answer is yes and starboard side, then we could watch it sitting on our balcony, which would be far more comfortable and, of course, we then have access to a loo as well!

Very much concur with your comments MB. Glad to see port presentations but not a great presenter both in style and pronunciation. Thought it was very odd that the first talk was on Greenock and Belfast. What happened to the 3 ports that we have before them? We also very much enjoyed both Midge Ure’s talk and Brief Encounter. Dinner was also good and, like you, I enjoyed the escargot and venison, but I had the daily flambé in BC which was gorgeous. Service in BC is excellent but a little slow, so we had to leave before coffee (tea in our case) as we had a reservation for ‘Noir’ in the Bright Lights Society. We really enjoyed that as well. Glad to hear that your dinner experience was better. How is the sound insulation in your cabin? Ours isn’t great. We can hear our neighbours one side talking (at full volume) and this started before 5.30am this morning, so woke me up. I think I’m going to have to have a word with them - if my wife will let me!

There are some huge ‘misses’ regarding accessibility on Queen Anne. We have an accessible Club balcony cabin. There is a fixed grab rail on the wall to one side of the toilet but no drop down grab rail on the other side, which there should be. The annoying thing is that there is room for one! Consequently the toilet is a real challenge for my wife. It is also quite low and we had to ask for a seat raiser, which they provided. The cabin door is not automated. This is fine for us as I have to push my wife everywhere, but those who are quite dependent in a wheelchair, or on a scooter, might struggle. The wardrobe setup is just plain daft. The one with a high rail but no room underneath it to hang anything on 50% of it is rammed with hangers that can’t be removed. Conversely, the other wardrobe, that is more accessible, does not have a single hanger in it. Not one. The balcony door is not automated, as it is on the new P&O ships. Due to the drop down plate mechanism that allows wheelchair users to get across the threshold, it is very stiff to open and close the door, so much so that my wife cannot operate it. Consequently, when I am ashore at a tender port and my wife is on the ship (she cannot use tenders), she is unable to access the balcony. The theatre seating is very poor for wheelchair users. Not only are there very few places, the signage is tiny, easily missed, and not in the correct places. Furthermore, there are no seat top covers indicating that certain seats are reserved for wheelchair user companions. As you say, those with walking sticks, who could easily manage a step or two, will just plonk themselves in them. This is all a big surprise and disappointment, not least because every single one of these issues has been addressed on the new P&O ships (same parent company) which are now a few years older than Queen Anne. Their accessible cabins have automated balcony doors, automated cabin doors, grab rails both sides of the toilet, height adjustable basins (great for full time wheelchair users), very accessible wardrobes etc etc. The theatre has better spaces for wheelchair users and seat top covers that leave people in no doubt that they are designed for wheelchair user companions. One other irritant (for me this time) is that we have no sofa in our cabin, just two very small, hard and uncomfortable chairs. The deck manager says it’s because there isn’t room for them in accessible cabins. This is nonsense. There is plenty of room, even for full time wheelchair users. He said he would try to find me a chair from a lounge somewhere, but nothing yet so I’m writing this with the hard edge of a tiny chair digging in my back! Thankfully I really like the ship. It’s far nicer than I anticipated from the videos I’d seen and it feels like a ship, unlike the new P&O ships that look and feel like conference hotels. Britannia Club dining (the main reason that we booked this cabin) looks like it will be very good. Today’s entertainment schedule (see day) looks very good also. I’m sure there’s a lot that we will like, but the very poor accessibility features and woefully undersized lifts are extremely frustrating. It’s a shame that whoever designed this ship did not seek detailed feedback from those who are disabled - or even just follow the good practice already built in to other ships in the group.

Glad to hear that you are sorted from tomorrow @Megabear2 First night sounded very poor. Well I’m pleased to say that things got much better for us after quite a few disappointments with the cabin. We have a nice table for 2 with a sea view in Britannia Club and a great waiter. A good first dinner and the a la carte additions look pretty identical to those that we had in Princess Grill on QM2. Service was exemplary and it doesn’t feel like a step down from PG in any respect. If anything, the restaurant layout is far better as tables are more spaced than PG on QM2. My wife retired early and l have just finished a top to bottom tour of all areas of the ship. First impressions of the decor and ambiance are very favourable. Negatives are the promenade deck (waste of time - you can only see the sea from one quarter of it) and the lifts (way too small - they say they accommodate 18 but more than 8 and you are standing on each others toes. Wheelchair accommodation around the ship (theatre etc) is poor, not helped by inadequate signage.

?? About 99% go this way!

Haven’t seen a single one yet 🤞😂

Yes it was fine when we were on QM2, both embarkation and disembarkation. Thankfully we won’t be in any rush to disembark but I don’t do queues 😂

If I recall you are travelling Solo? I was just going to say you are welcome to join us for a pre dinner drink in the Commodore Club but if you are en-route to dinner enjoy!

Have to say it seems a shambles compared to P&O. Why on earth do they use the passenger lifts for luggage, which are tiny and under huge demand from passengers on embarkation day, and clutter all the lift waiting areas with cases, when a huge crew area with bigger lifts and massive area in front of them (which is opposite our cabin) has sat empty all day? Our cases took 5 hours to arrive. Our accessible Club balcony cabin isn’t a patch on the Deluxe balcony cabin we had on Iona, with some glaring omissions and design errors. Hope that yours is OK. Hoping that things improve. At least we have a table for 2 in Britannia Club restaurant!

P&O consider that to be an upgrade, even though few people would. All it usually means is that your cabin is in a slightly more midships position but is otherwise identical, although this can sometimes bring problems if you chose a cabin in a quiet location and your new cabin is above or below a potential source of noise. You used to be able to specify that you only wanted to be considered for a complimentary upgrade if it was to a different type of cabin (e.g. non-balcony to balcony) but that option may have gone now that most upgrades are achieved through the bid to upgrade (extra cost) system.

Was the minimum bid that cheap though as, from my experience, the minimum bids are rarely any cheaper than having booked the higher grade accommodation in the first place (assuming that you book at a good time and not when prices are ‘ambitious’)? That’s certainly been the case with the cruises we have booked.

It is indeed true that P&O cruises are a lot cheaper in real terms than they were, but you must keep in mind that you get a lesser product now than you used to. Some people tend to fixate on chocolates on pillows and evening turndown (neither of which we miss) as being the sole things that have changed when, in reality, they are but two of at least a couple of dozen cutbacks. Many are minor and there are workarounds for others, but some are more significant. Those who have only commenced cruising with P&O in the past 10 years or so won’t know that many of these things have gone and, for what it’s worth, with my business head on, I think that P&Os new direction of being the principal mass market / budget operator in the U.K. makes a lot of sense. My point is simply that real terms prices are just one of many aspects in the changed P&O cruise experience, and not all the changes are positive.

I’ve known this happen twice (on P&O). Most recently I was chatting to the ORCA representative on the promenade deck when a member of the entertainment team came flying through the door out of breath saying that she had been looking for her everywhere as her talk was due to begin 15 minutes earlier. The poor girl had been oblivious of the clock change. As I’d known this to happen before, it struck me that if I was a member of the entertainment team I would make contact with my guest speakers the night before to double check that they were aware of the clock change!

Forgot to say, I’m glad to hear that you got on OK with Parking4Cruises as we are using them again this week, having had a bad experience with CPS in January. CPS lack of staff, and letting those who arrived after us get checked in before us (as we were in holding lanes that were full), contributed in making it the worst embarkation experience that we have had. Sadly, our priority boarding counted for absolutely nothing and it took us 90 minutes from arrival until we were on the ship, and then it didn’t get any better as fhe priority boarders lunch was a rubbish buffet with yet more queues!

Thank you for sharing your experiences, which seem to chime with ours from the 65 nighter (other than we were lucky enough to have a port presenter as you mention). It’s a great shame that the MDR food remains as just ‘adequate’, which I guess would sum up how we felt about it. It’s a particular shame, because Iona, Britannia and Ventura were all much better in that respect, yet Aurora carries a price premium over those ships. I take what the Captains say about how long the ships have left with a massive pinch of salt. The current Captain has told P&O that he wishes to see out his career on Aurora, and he doesn’t want to work on any other ship now, so he probably won’t be told anything until a decision is made, as he would be directly affected. We know from at least the last 3 ships to leave the P&O fleet that a decision to sell can come out of the blue and result in a lot of cancelled cruises. That being said, the cruise market is in an entirely different place post Covid and I can’t see ships like Aurora being in much demand going forward, so as long as she can turn a profit for P&O I can see her soldiering on for some years to come. Much as we love Aurora and have many fond memories of numerous cruises on her, we left in March feeling that she is now well past her best and P&O will need to up their game if they wish to continue asking the very high prices that they charge to cruise on her. Either that or they will have to fill the ship by offering bargain late Savers, as we benefitted from with the 65 nighter. We had a great experience, but we wouldn’t have felt that it was value for money had we paid the Select fare.

Given the price that we are paying, we are going with high expectations, so hopefully we won’t be disappointed! However, we are probably the target audience for Queen Anne. Most of our previous cruises have been with P&O and we are looking to ‘trade up’ given that it’s no longer quite the experience that it was - albeit we will still cruise with them, as their prices have fallen to represent the lower quality experience so it still represents good value for money.

I strongly suspect that the reports of booze being confiscated refer to hand luggage, as that’s fairly easy to police. With the long term drive on reducing costs and driving up on board spend, I wouldn’t be surprised if this continues long term. As for checked in suitcases, we have yet to hear any first hand reports of people who have ‘smuggled’ a bottle on board being caught. This is far more problematic and costly to police, especially as a scan cannot differentiate between bottles that are permitted and bottles that aren’t. Passengers will understandably be very irritated being called to reception to open a suitcase that contains a bottle of something that is actually permitted. So, even if a few examples do emerge, I tend to agree that this will not last. On a cost versus return basis, along with the irritation caused to passengers who have not done anything wrong, it just wouldn’t make sense.

Thanks. I thought it looked identical to P&O, and was in the same place, which it is, the sole difference being that they use the term ‘Your Itinerary’ whereas Cunard say ‘Your Calendar’.

I must confess that I was looking at the Cunard Cruise Personaliser John, as both our future cruises are with them but, from memory, I think it’s the same as they look identical. Basically, login to the Cruise Personaliser. Go to the daily schedule (which, on Cunard, is called ‘Your calendar’ and right at the very top above the main options, but may actually be ‘Daily Schedule’ or similar on P&O). Select the day of embarkation and scroll down and it states ‘Evacuation Chair Required’. I can’t confirm if the P&O Cruise Personaliser is different as we don’t currently have any future cruises booked with them (waiting for some late bargains). Glad to hear that you are having a better time on your Princess Cruise than ICF.

Is anyone on the current cruise in Britannia Club? If so, I was wondering how you are finding the dining experience (food quality, a’la carte additions, service etc)? Also, at dinner I normally wear an open neck shirt with no jacket on P&O, other than formal nights, when l wear a dinner suit. I was thinking of taking a jacket or two on Queen Anne. Would this be overkill or do most people just wear open neck shirts on the smart casual nights? Thanks.

Thank you. That’s very reassuring. The problem that we had on P&Os Iona was a combination of the lifts being too small and almost always arriving 50% or more full (which didn’t leave enough room for a wheelchair user and companion) plus the clientele on that ship did not display any lift etiquette (other than the teenagers and children, who put their elders to shame). I was hoping that lift etiquette would be better on Cunard as, to be fair, it has been on all the other P&O ships we’ve been on.

That’s exactly my point Andy. The threat alone is enough to stop the vast majority of people from taking their own bottle of spirits and clearly bottles found in hand luggage as people board will be confiscated. Thats probably all that P&O need to do to sort out over 90% of the issue. I will, however, be fascinated to know whether anyone feeds back that they have personally been called to reception when on the ship regarding a bottle in their suitcase, especially as some bottles are permitted. I’d be surprised if the cost and effort of doing this, plus the irritation caused to those whose bottle is actually allowed, is worth it, hence my scepticism!

You are not required to take the completed questionnaire with you, but I always print off a copy and take it with me. We’ve never had a problem, so have never needed to show it, but there are so many issues being reported at present I’m not taking any chances.

This made me smile, because I do exactly the same on every ship that I go on in order to check which accessible balcony cabins are best and get some funny looks from stewards! It’s worthwhile though, as you can discover all sorts of issues that are not apparent from deck plans.

Yes, if you go onto your Cruise Personaliser and select the ‘Your Calendar’ option right at the top, and you see that it says ‘Evacuation Chair Required’ under the first day of your cruise, then you are sorted and can relax in the knowledge that you won’t have any issues at check-in. That being said, I have taken a screenshot just in case!