Selbourne

correct. We’ve just passed Calshot and are doing the S bend before Cowes!

Boarded just before midday. Cards wouldn’t let us in to cabin so steward did. Unpacked first case then a lovely lunch in the Princess Grill. Food and service excellent. Wines ordered for tonight along with the a’la carte lamb! Checked in to muster station. Long queue at Pursers Desk (most to remove gratuities it seemed) but we got our cards sorted. Final case unpacked. Just read all bumph. My Cunard app hopeless. Won’t remember my login details (even though I’ve ticked for it to do so) and doesn’t want to open. Glad we won’t have to use it for dining and hopefully it’s not needed for shows? Sitting on balcony in warm sunshine. Cabin fine although the term ‘suite’ is a stretch. More like large balcony. Nice quality though. So far so good. Off for a drink soon.

Brilliant. Thanks Dai. That’s the exact cabin we’ve booked for August and I’ve booked the next 2 adjacent deluxe balcony cabins for our daughters and partners. We didn’t like the location of the sole accessible suite. If the ship is rammed we shall enjoy the space and the balcony and just emerge for food and drink 😂

Yes it is. QM2 has moved to Queen Elizabeth II terminal this evening, which I assume means that she is ready for the off tomorrow, having been repaired. If she breaks down once we’ve left we shall just take up residence in the Grills Lounge and Princess Grill restaurant whilst bobbing around waiting to be towed 😂

Yes, I noticed they are either forward (with steel fronted balconies) or aft (set back and above the Sunset Bar), neither of which appeal. Have you used the deck 10 EA grade accessible deluxe balcony cabins on Iona? From the deck plans they seemed to be in the best position.

Thanks. That’s useful to know as we are keen to try Saga but the earliest is likely to be 2025 as the 2024 offerings were way too expensive or were too close to our already booked P&O and Cunard cruises. We are looking forward to trying Cunard. It’s only a short cruise but we have a fortnight with them next year. We are in Princess Grill and got it for less than £100 pppn, which is an unbelievable bargain at around 25% of the usual fare. We certainly won’t be able to try Saga for that price, sadly 😂

Firstly, I assume that you are talking about a full suite? I would avoid family suites and Conservatory Mini Suites as they are either on the promenade deck or marginally above it, so privacy is heavily compromised, as is outlook. Apart from the extra space, the main benefits include priority embarkation (useful on the very big ships) and the ability to have breakfast in Epicurean (posh / smaller restaurant) each day. Beyond that, Suite perks are minor bordering on insignificant. As for location, I usually like aft suites, but on Iona they are set back from the edge of the ship some way and there is an outside bar (noise) and big canopy over it which can affect outlook from the lower decks. Others can advise how problematic that is, as we haven’t stayed in one on Iona or Arvia. It’s probably OK on the higher decks. We decided that an EA grade Deluxe Balcony Cabin would suit us far better than a suite, as they are in a better location IMHO with less potential for noise disturbances and a better outlook. However, if it’s a special holiday, suites on Iona are a lot cheaper than on the smaller ships.

Thanks. Much appreciated. We still have 4 P&O cruises to take over the next 11 months, so I won’t be defecting just yet 😂

Thank you. That’s very kind. It will be our first non-P&O cruise, so a brave new world!

No idea how RCCL works, but we are embarking Cunard tomorrow and have been unable to check-in online due to an IT glitch that is refusing to accept my Credit Card or photographs, so will have to check-in at the port. However, we have still been given a check-in time (12pm), which I have taken a screen shot of, in the hope that the ‘queue Marshall Mafia’ will allow us to bypass any queues outside the terminal!

I’m a bit confused there Dai. You say that the portion sizes suit you fine, yet you ask for a larger portion to start with? 😂 I think this issue is easily resolved in Club / Fixed dining, as the waiters are very good at getting to know if people like more of one thing or another and then tend to do it automatically. One of my daughters asked for some Stilton once and every night thereafter she was presented with an enormous piece of it. She wished that she hadn’t asked 😂 Freedom dining is more of a challenge though as you have different waiters. You may not have heard anyone mention small portion sizes, but I have lost count of how many people have raised it on this forum as a notable issue post Covid. I’ll judge for myself in July.

We have only recently become Caribbean, but have been attending the drinks parties for years as Mediterranean passengers. The lunches will be new for us though 👍

Yes, you can ask for more, but the point is you shouldn’t have to. Many would feel awkward asking for more and by the time it comes you might have almost finished the undersized portion that you were first given, which makes for a disjointed meal. Some of the photos of portion sizes I have seen are bordering on the comical!

Just had a quick look but didn’t see the reviews of the 35 nighters. I stopped reading them as the negatives are mostly the same issues that I’ve read fairly consistently on this forum, so didn’t really come as a surprise. I had to smile at the person who was complaining bitterly about paying a fortune for the drinks package and then having most of their drinks requests refused because they didn’t come within the rules of the package (no doubles, no branded mixers etc). Clearly they didn’t read all the exclusions before buying the package!

The cocktail parties start at Mediterranean tier, not Caribbean, but priority boarding only kicks in at Caribbean.

Even though we have priority boarding so don’t have these issues, I completely agree with you on all points. It’s not unreasonable to expect to have (an albeit late) lunch on the ship after travelling, rather than having to make a stop somewhere else (at extra cost and inconvenience) just because P&O can’t seem to manage their embarkation in the same efficient way that some other cruise operators do.

From memory (and again, it might have changed) I believe that Baltic and Suites have the same boarding time i.e. both jointly get the earliest boarding. They used to have a little lounge area with complimentary drinks and snacks before boarding, and I’m sure that Baltic and Suite passengers were both in that together and boarded together.

Oh dear. They had better get their act together before we are on her in July. 🤞

It seems to vary but, pre Covid, I think it used to be officially 12.30pm for Suites and Baltic / Ligurian, 1pm for Caribbean and then general boarding from 1.30pm although those times were quite often 30 minutes earlier in reality. I think that the earliest that we were actually on the ship as suite passengers was 11.45am.

Long shot, but there is (yet another) IT glitch when it comes to passport details on Cruise Personalisers. The system has a habit of reverting to old (expired) passport numbers, even when people have entered their new one. Worth double checking that every single detail is still correct (especially the passport number). Of course, as it’s your first cruise this probably isn’t the issue that you have, but worth checking that the system hasn’t changed any information that you previously inputted.

As I understand it, when it says “Enquire on Board” there will be no opportunity to pre-book that restaurant before the cruise and all reservations have to be made when on board. However, when it says “Coming Soon” that should mean that bookings can be made from 14 days in advance. Of course, with anything P&O IT related, the word ‘should’ becomes the issue!

I was quite excited when I read that as I’ve never been that fast on a cruise ship (or liner, to give QM2 her correct description). The fastest I can recall was something like 28 knots on P&O’s Oriana on her first cruise after a new propellor was fitted to eliminate vibration at speed. We were in the MDR at the time when the captain announced that we were going to do a maximum speed test and all of a sudden everything started rattling. Unfortunately the new propellor hadn’t solved the problem! Of course, nowadays we are more used to plodding along at 15-20 knots in order to conserve fuel!

Sorry to hear that. It adds an unnecessary level of stress or anxiety that people don’t need when it comes to a holiday. Thanks for your comment elsewhere about the Cunard IT glitch and the fact that boarding times for Tuesday had changed. I checked as a result of your post and our 2.30pm boarding time has now changed to 12pm, so we shall be on board for lunch!

Interesting stats - thanks. The time allowed is actually over 30 hours (it’s 11.30pm arrival in Liverpool) so I suspect that we shall be cruising at well below max speed and may still arrive early. I hope so. 11.30pm is past my bed time 😂

Spot on. Incorrect boarding times for those with priority has been an issue for at least 10 years that I can recall, along with a message along the lines of “We are aware of an issue where incorrect boarding times are shown for those entitled to priority boarding. We are working on a fix to resolve this”. Well someone must have made an entire career out of trying to resolve that issue! Carnival U.K. IT department should just throw in the towel and employ a teenager to resolve all their issues. They’d have it all sorted within an hour 😂