Selbourne

Yes we last had it on Aurora. Do you know if they do it on Iona?

Pre Covid, Sindhu on the other ships would occasionally open on sea days (only) for what they describe as ‘Tiffin Lunch’. It’s a different menu to the evening and is very nice. May have succumbed to the post Covid cutbacks and may not have made it to Iona? Hopefully others can confirm.

Yes I’m doing that. They have acknowledged receipt of the old one, so fingers crossed.

No need to worry GOQ. They don’t reply or acknowledge, which is irritating as you are always left wondering if they have received and processed the request. When you arrive just go to the assisted boarding area, which is usually just inside the entrance. They should have your name on the list.

Oh dear. Just applied for one! Can’t be 5 solid weeks surely? They couldn’t afford to lose that much income!

We are all different. We never sunbathe but we would honestly rather stay at home than cruise in an inside cabin. We just love the outlook and the constantly changing scenery. We like watching the comings and goings in ports. We watch port departures from the privacy of our own balcony or, if the weather is poor, the sofa. We often sleep with the curtains open and wake to see the approaches to ports from bed. If the ship is busy on sea days we spend quite a bit of time in our cabin and have a constant view. We don’t need to use the balcony to get the views BTW - you get them from inside the cabin as well! There are often things to see, even on sea days. We have often caught sight of dolphins, whales, flying fish and I even like seeing oil rigs, wind farms, other ships etc. One time we had an aft suite and as we were passing the Isle of Wight we heard a noise outside and went out to see multiple high powered ribs all full of Special Boat Service (special forces) doing a drill trying to board a ‘hijacked’ ship. Fascinating. Hardly anybody else on the ship was even aware of it. I could list countless other magical moments that we would have completely missed without a balcony. Good luck to those who enjoy inside cabins and, of course, it’s a very cheap way to cruise, but there are very sound reasons why many of us happily pay a substantial premium to have a balcony and, in our case, it has nothing at all to do with sunbathing!

A prison is even cheaper - and you get a window 😂 Seriously though, pre Covid we have come across a few elderly people who do actually live on cruise ships. It’s cheaper than a nursing home! Not quite sure what they do when their ship of choice goes in for a refit though - probably move to another ship!

Also, as terrierjohn points out, even if you book Select, it can often be better to decline the CPS parking in return for additional OBC and booking with Parking4Cruises. Both companies are good, but I do feel that CPS faff about a lot and as you say Parking4Cruises is much quicker.

Yes I know that you and many others like long runs of sea days, but for others they are not what we enjoy about cruising. We are all different.

Welcome to Cruise Critic! On embarkation day, the main dining room isn’t open for lunch. The buffet is open for that purpose.

That’s a good point Dai. Certainly in our case we don’t fly. My wife is terrified that her wheelchair would get damaged by heavy handed baggage handlers but, more importantly, she couldn’t use the toilets on an aircraft. It’s a great shame, as it would open up a lot more opportunities with fly cruises but, having done a transatlantic, we also know that 3 sea days in a row is our maximum.

The selective quote (from 2 months ago) was in direct response to a question about escalating a legitimate complaint when P&O aren’t being at all helpful. To be clear, I’m not talking about the staff who deal with bookings and general enquiries, all of whom I have always found to be knowledgable and extremely helpful. I’m talking about those who deal with complaints (different department). I don’t know if you’ve ever had cause to raise a complaint formally, but unfortunately we have had to regarding just 2 of our 20 or so P&O cruises. On both occasions we were met with intransigence and sheer unhelpfulness. Issues that a sensible company would empower a middle manager to deal with are only resolved with P&O when you contact the CEO, threaten legal action, reject the first few paltry offers and then have to sign a non-disclosure agreement to get proper redress. It’s a nonsense way to run a customer service department. Hence my comment, which I stand by.

11 sea days? Yikes. I’m ready to throw myself overboard after just 3 sea days in a row!

wowzz. The quote you are questioning was from terrierjohn, not me.

Greetings to you both. We are on a waitlist for your cruise but, as you know, we need an accessible cabin, so we aren’t holding out any hope. It’s a great itinerary and I hope that you have a fantastic time.

I get what you are saying, but in organisations with ‘ranks’ and ‘chains of command’, hierarchy can sometimes cause senior people to become aloof and ‘too important’ to deal with the people who pay their large salaries. When I was working I was in a role that was more senior than a P&O’s ships captain, let alone a General Manager. On occasion, customers would get frustrated that an issue hadn’t been resolved adequately and would find out my name and write to me at head office. Unlike Paul Ludlow, I actually read these complaints and whilst I would obviously delegate the complaint, I always asked for a brief summary of the resolution so that I knew that it had been dealt with. Occasionally, if we had really messed up, I would contact the customer personally which often shocked people but was always appreciated.

You have indeed been lucky. We seem to have the ‘open and shut every drawer at every opportunity’ type next door to us every ruddy cruise!

Yes, that is the inevitable outcome.

Clearly P&O are still struggling to make the intended arrangement of 100% Freedom dining work on Arvia. I guess it’s good for those who like fixed dining, but I can’t help but feel that it comes at the cost of slowing down the Freedom dining provision. As we like proper Freedom dining, where we will dine at different times depending on port departure times etc, this hybrid setup, which seems to be driven by a lack of MDR capacity, puts me off booking Arvia.

Good point. I think that whilst people are generally allocated one of the two freedom dining MDRs you can technically use either. Worth pointing out for the OPs benefit that the menus are identical in all 3 MDRs.

Britannia is a lovely ship. Big enough to have all the facilities that appeal to all age groups, whilst not being too big to feel overwhelming.The only negative is the lack of a promenade deck. You will be allocated one of the three main dining rooms and, when it comes to dinner, you can only use the one that you have been allocated. Breakfast and lunch is different. You can use whichever main dining room is open. Depending on the length of your cruise, there will be one or more formal evenings. The menu in the main dining room is better on these nights, usually created by Marco Pierre White. Outside of the formal nights, main dining room dinners are adequate but nothing special, akin to a mid range hotel. Main dining room lunches are quite poor these days, but breakfasts are very good. There is a cafeteria style buffet at the top of the ship, but we avoid that like the plague! It is popular though. As for special things, the Epicurean restaurant on Britannia is our favourite restaurant at sea. Proper fine dining with food and service that is several steps up from the main dining rooms. Sindhu (Asian fusion) used to be very good (my daughters loved it when they were the age of yours) and is definitely worth a try, but recent reports indicate that the pricing changes have not gone down well. The Beach House is also popular with younger adults as it’s more casual and the food is more like the things they would find in restaurants that they dine at ashore. The steaks are very good here. The Limelight Club provides a good (and different) meal and is accompanied by a cabaret style show. It can be a good experience if you choose an evening with a good act (some are better than others). The Glasshouse provides a decent lunch but is a bit overcrowded on Britannia due to its location (by the atrium) and I personally wouldn’t enjoy dinner there. My advice would be to try everything, but if you are on a short cruise my priority list, in order of preference, would be 1) Epicurean, 2) Main Dining Room when there is a Marco Pierre White menu (free), 3) Sindhu, 4) Limelight Club (only if an act really appeals), 5) Beach House, 6) Glasshouse (for lunch - best on port day when ship is quieter).

I can see this from both sides though. When we were last on Britannia we wanted to have lunch in the Glass House a couple of times and had real difficulty getting a table. There were loads of people nursing one drink for a very long time whilst reading a book or just sitting down chatting without even having a drink. There are other places on the ship where they can do this.

When we started cruising there was only fixed dining and we always shared on a table of 8. When you think about it, it’s a very odd thing to do. My wife and I eat out two or three times a week. If any pub or restaurant showed us to a table where we would be expected to share with strangers, we would leave immediately! On a cruise it can work and like others we have made friends from it. However, we had a run of 3 cruises where we just didn’t enjoy our table companions. One time we had 6 friends (3 couples) who had travelled together and had obviously asked (unsuccessfully) for a table for 6. They seemed to want to talk to each other, rather than us, and it was awkward for us, as it was possibly for them. Another time we had a family where conversation was strained and I dreaded going to dinner as I felt like I was having to work hard to maintain conversation and not relaxing. Finally we had a lady with two very young children who announced on the first night that her two previous husbands had died and she had received insurance payouts from both. She befriended a single chap who was on the cruise. I felt like I needed to warn him! As soon as Freedom dining started we jumped at it! For breakfast we always ask for a table for two. I can’t be bothered to hold polite conversation when I’ve not long woken up! If we lunch in the MDR we sometimes share if we have time to kill. At dinner we tend to revert to a table for 2, unless it’s a long cruise. Then we do a mix. On a number of cruises we have got on so well with table companions that we have formed a group and met for drinks before dinner and dined with them regularly. Some we are still in contact with. Other times we have had bad experiences, but we tend to hold back outside the MDR if they have just gone in so as not to repeat the experience! Equally, my wife and I are happy in our own company and a table for 2 is often the default now. I was surprised to read that several posters find tables for 2 dull or even tedious. All I can say is that they must have the wrong partners! Finally, like others, there are two types of diners who can manage to irritate me from a considerable distance. The loud ‘know it all’ types (usually men) who drone on in a loud voice that I find it difficult to zone out. Secondly the ‘look at me’ types (usually women) who have to laugh so loudly that half the dining room can hear them. As these people can spoil a meal for me from 5 tables away, I can’t imagine what it must be like being landed with them on a table 😂

They don’t need to ask for feedback any more. It is a known fact that 99.5% of all customers have their best cruise ever - every time. The President of P&O said so, so it must be true 🤔😂

It seems as though different members in groups are each making a reservation in different MDRs and going to whichever comes good first. As Molecrochip has confirmed, this causes issues.