Selbourne

Quite possibly, although I suspect that those of us who cruise regularly are a minuscule percentage of their customer base, so whilst they might lose money out of us as a group, it’s hopefully not enough to destabilise the scheme 🤞

I was just about to cut and paste the same info from our Cruise Personaliser! Football shirts definitely not acceptable for evenings, even on casual nights. Shouldn’t really need saying, but ….. (lights touch paper 🫣😂)

You certain aren’t. I have all of ours going back to 1996 😂

This is good to hear. We are now with Nationwide and paid the small amount extra for the cruise cover. I’ve lost count of how many missed ports we’ve had with P&O over the years and we’ve never been able to claim before. Whilst I hope that we don’t miss any ports on our 65 night cruise in a few weeks time, we have 28 ports and I strongly suspect that at least 1 will end up being a casualty. If so, it will be some small consolation to know that the end result will be the equivalent of a full refund of the entire premium for the annual policy!

How do you find out about those? Are they on the wine list or a separate leaflet?

The consensus elsewhere, based on previous Grand Voyages, is that our 65 night cruise on Aurora will have around 10 formal nights. Better than the 18 that I’d feared! I still find it amazing that just 16 days out the cruise Personaliser still states that dress code details will be confirmed closer to the cruise. Given that we have Christmas and New Year between now and then, it’s not leaving much time for any last minute clothes shopping!

Sorry to disagree Jean, but there’s a reason that they ask those who self disembark to be off the ship by 7.45am. The last time to vacate your cabin (for those using normal disembarkation) is 8am. Unlike those who elect to self disembark, we aren’t in a rush on disembarkation morning, so we tend not to leave our cabin until the 8am deadline. Due to my wife’s wheelchair we have no choice but to use the lifts and disembarkation morning is always the most difficult time to get a lift. In fact it can be a complete nightmare, as almost everyone uses a lift as they are carrying hand luggage and it can take some time to get a lift. So to say that there is no one around might be true at the exit ramp, but not getting there as the rest of us are trying to get to breakfast etc. Those who have elected to self disembark and are encumbered with full cases etc should be well out of the way by 8am and not getting in the way of those who are doing the normal disembarkation procedures. You can’t have it both ways!

I can’t speak for Arvia, but the dress code was well adhered to on Britannia and Ventura and a fair proportion on Iona did as well, but admittedly not as many. Minor point, but P&O haven’t given out Champagne at the formal drinks for years.

Yes, I would prefer that they charged in £, but I recall that our final bill, once converted from dollars, was less than I expected, as our credit card company does not charge any fees and has a good conversion rate. We’ve only been on one Cunard cruise so far but have two more booked for next year so will have an even better idea by then, but the only things that we didn’t like compared to P&O were the dollar pricing, the service charges on drinks and the fact that they still add a daily tip charge (which, admittedly, you can remove, but we didn’t as service was so good it wouldn’t have felt right). Based on Queen Mary 2, I would say that the cabins are no better than P&O. We are on the brand new Queen Anne next year, so it will be interesting to see how the accessible cabins compare to the excellent one that we had on Iona. Fingers crossed that the lifts will be bigger than on Iona, but with several thousand less passengers it will hopefully be much less of a problem if they aren’t. Where we felt that Cunard scores over P&O is in the overall cruise experience, in particular food, guest lecturers, ambiance and a generally more premium level of service. We are prepared to pay more than we would for a P&O cruise on that basis, but we still enjoy P&O and, if you book at the right time, the value is excellent. Many people bemoan the fact that P&O is almost exclusively British passengers and lacks the international mix that other cruise lines have. Ironically, this is one of the reasons why we really like P&O, although in recent years we have noticed a lot more international passengers. I suspect that our next two Cunard cruises will have a more international mix than our first, so it will be interesting to see how that impacts on our experience.

They don’t. We didn’t find Cunard stuffy or too formal - and we were in Princess Grill!

Still haven’t received ours. Getting a bit late to flog it on eBay now 😂

I always enjoy chatting to people from all walks of life on cruise ships. It’s all part of the enjoyment for me and we’ve met countless interesting people that we got on really well with, some of whom we’ve kept in contact with. I can talk about anything and everything with anyone, but have never enjoyed talking about work. When I was working I was on a cruise to get away from the pressures of work, so avoided discussing it like the plague or I felt that I was back there. Even now, having been retired for some years, it’s not a topic that I would ever start a conversation about. However, we were on a cruise once where we sat on a table of four with a couple that were some years older than us and the wife was intent on constantly bragging about the very senior job that her husband had before he retired. He would barely look at us. She had a level of pomposity that implied that he was a God like creature and the rest of us lesser mortals should just be in awe of his achievements. I just smiled and looked suitably impressed to please her, but I could tell that she wanted me to tell her all about my background, but I’m a master at changing the subject. A few days later we ended up stuck with them again (one risk with Freedom dining if you dine around the same time) and she started again. I continued to smile but this time she asked me very directly what my background was and even with my ability to ‘swerve’ this time it was unavoidable. I didn’t brag but just factually gave a brief outline. Within 30 seconds it became apparent to her that I had done a more senior job and in a much larger company than her husband. Her face was a picture and her tone completely changed, as did his. For the rest of the cruise they seemed to want to seek us out and call out to us by name and wave if we ever saw them. However, the damage was done 😂

I wouldn’t worry about it. The average age on your cruise will probably be around 75, but that brings many advantages for a solo cruiser of any age IMHO. Most will be very established cruisers who are used to sharing tables and make very interesting dining companions. We have cruised on Aurora many times and have been on cruises where we were probably in the youngest 20% of passengers, yet these have been some of our most enjoyable cruises. Age is just a number, after all.

Family can visit. Anyone can stay in your booked cabin with you. They also have ‘visitor cabins’ where family of guests can stay for a period of time. I still couldn’t do it though. I could however see it working for a solo or couple who have no children and whose parents are dead.

Here’s one of many news articles about it. Another refers to someone who had sold their house to go on it. They are saying that they have ‘postponed’ it for 12 months, but I can’t see it being viable. The tiny number of people for whom a 3 year cruise is viable will have booked the first one and are now chasing refunds, so are unlikely to throw more money at this company, especially as other companies are now looking at this concept. It’s a shame, because the itinerary (which you can read in the article) was superb. Unlike what we call a ‘World Cruise’, which is mostly sea days and very much highlights rather than a comprehensive World tour, the intention was to go pretty much everywhere that you can get to on a small cruise ships. Port stays ranged from 1 day in tiny places to 5 days in major locations, from where you could do multi-day excursions to really see a country. However, what a commitment. We are concerned enough about whether 65 days may be far too long for us to spend on a cruise ship, let alone 3 years 😂 https://www.npr.org/2023/11/29/1215569569/life-at-sea-3-year-cruise-around-the-world-called-off#:~:text=This 3-year cruise around,leaving passengers in the lurch&text=via Getty Images-,When the Life at Sea cruise line failed to purchase,in November began to unravel.&text=They were promised the world.

The one that you highlighted. The article was dated 5th March 2023 referring to the 3 year World Cruise departing Istanbul on 1st November 2023. It was cancelled for the reasons I mentioned. They are trying again for a departure next year but still don’t have the ship! https://www.lifeatseacruises.com

The 3 year ‘proper’ World cruise that got so many headlines was recently cancelled at short notice. Slight problem. They didn’t have a ship. They were buying an Aida cruise ship and refurbishing it, but some of the people backing it withdrew support and the sale fell through. Some people had sold their house with a view to putting their possessions in storage and buying again afterwards. People are now trying to get their money back. The cruise is now on sale again departing the end of next year. I can’t imagine that will go either. Who would risk throwing more money at an organisation that has a track record like that?

So would I, but some people like to ‘broadcast’. The other thing that gets my goat is when people are on a phone call with the loudspeaker on. NO. Put the ruddy thing to your ear and speak quietly 😂

On first reading I thought this sounded like a good idea, but thinking about it I now think it’s a bad idea. Having ‘no phone zones’ implies, by definition, that it is perfectly acceptable to use phones, and all the intrusive activities that come with them, everywhere else, which might encourage even more use of them than at present. Speaking as someone who would leave a bar or restaurant if I needed to make or receive a call, I find it very irritating when people feel that it is acceptable to have calls or FaceTime conversations in such places, but the only thing that I do enjoy is the scowl that I get from my wife, quickly followed by “Don’t you DARE say anything” 😂

So that’s 18 or 19 formal nights for us then 😳 Better hope that I can still get into my dinner suit by the time they are in to double figures 😂

Just 19 days until our Aurora 65 nighter and still no details on the Cruise Personaliser about which nights are formal nights (or even how many nights are formal). Apologies for not wading through 500 posts if this has already been answered, but how far in advance of the cruise is this normally posted? Also, in the past I remember that buried somewhere within the P&O website there was a list that you could look at and it told you, by cruise number, how many formal nights there were and what, if any, theme nights there were. I can’t find it. Does it still exist?

There is one major problem with all this worldwide remote working that you do though. We never get a break from you 😉 😂

Why do you ‘hope not’? Seems rather selfish. We certainly don’t book a cruise to watch TV, but I like to keep abreast of the news (and the picture quality and signal stability is dreadful), and we find that sea days can be rather tedious, especially since P&O have cut right back on guest lecturers, so having a decent, watchable TV in your cabin isn’t much to ask for.

This is excellent news and I really appreciate the updates. I tried the WiFi for the first time ever (just for 2 x 24 hour periods) when we were on Ventura recently as a trial, and assumed that it was Starlink as it seemed to work as well as it does at home (BT Superfast Broadband) for the basic package (emails, web browsing and social media). I even managed to make a video call via Snapchat, which I didn’t think that I’d be able to do on the basic package. I am now reassured that I’ve done the right thing pre-booking the essentials package for our long cruise next month, especially as I’ve got it for £6.47 a day!

Let’s hope. Current picture quality and signal stability are currently shocking!