Selbourne

Yes all 3 were pre pandemic. Our first P&O post Covid cruise is in a few weeks time. Not sure how much we will recognise 😂

Ok. It’s obviously changed since we last had a cruise on Britannia. The 3 cruises when we had a suite on Britannia we weren’t given the same table every day. Obviously we had several tables multiple times, but tables weren’t reserved at breakfast.

No. That’s the system used by Cunard in Grills and Britannia Club (for breakfast, lunch and dinner). With P&O you have guaranteed access to Epicurean for Breakfast, but may have a different table each day.

Thanks for the info. We intend to dine in Epicurean on the first night on Iona, so I will ask then. We also hope to dine in Epicurean the first night on Britannia, but it sounds as though breakfast for non-suite guests isn’t an option on her. We know a senior F&B manager extremely well and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that we might bump into him on one of our cruises (assuming that he still works for P&O).

Did they say what the price is and can you just turn up or do you have to pre-book?

Same here. Only booked a Saver once (on Ventura). We were asked if we had a dining preference and said yes, Freedom. Thankfully that’s what we got.

Zap makes a fair point though. Thinking about it, whenever we have used Speciality restaurants there are often Officer class crew dining in them. Does that still happen on the ships where people report speciality restaurants often being fully booked?

We thought that suites stopped being value for money on P&O even when Epicurean was an exclusive perk! If spending that sort of money we would now prefer to cruise with Cunard or Saga in a standard balcony cabin. The value with P&O is now with balcony cabins and below where, if you look, there is great value to be had, even if you use speciality restaurants often including, perhaps, Epicurean for breakfast 😉

We gave up on Epicurean for breakfast on one cruise as there was a very noisy family who spoilt the experience every day and a baby with another couple that screamed a lot. We found the MDR to be more relaxing! That was another of the reasons we gave up on suites, when we realised that you can’t guarantee a quiet start to the day in Epicurean 😂

Will it still be happening on Iona in August? Might go for it if it is. As I said earlier, I’m very glad that we no longer book suites though. We felt that they were no longer worth the price premium when the only two things that we thought were meaningful benefits were the extra space and being able to have breakfast in Epicurean. Now that the second benefit has been eroded……. 🤔

DaiB is correct. You can get either Freedom or Club (1st or 2nd sitting) with both Select and Savers. The only difference is that with Select it’s guaranteed and with Saver it’s a request only, which you may or may not be successful with (unless on Iona or Arvia which are Feeedom only).

Interesting. I’ve never looked in to early savers. I’m unclear what they offer over savers though. Don’t you still specify a cabin grade (which, by default, will often determine location to a degree) with a regular saver?

That’s right. With Select your dining preference (Freedom, Club 1st or Club 2nd) is confirmed and only table size (if on Club) is a preference. With Saver, dining preference can be stated but is also subject to confirmation along with table (if Club). Obviously this benefit of Select bookings is worth nowt on Iona and Arvia as they are 100% freedom (well, they aren’t now but we won’t go over that again 😉) but you still get your first choice cabin guaranteed which, for most of us who book Select, is essential.

Although we don’t use suites any more and are Caribbean tier, I don’t think that would be right. Other than the extra space of the cabin, it’s about the only worthwhile benefit of having a suite.

It’s in Sindhu on Arcadia and (I think) Aurora. We have only used it as suite passengers but somebody on this forum who wasn’t in a suite was able to use it on, from memory, Iona by paying a daily supplement. Never heard of that before, so it could have been a ‘back pocket’ job 😂

Well it sort of does, but with a Saver you can be moved to a higher grade without you having to agree to it (and you can’t back out of it). That might sound good, but a higher grade may mean the same type of cabin but more midships and it could be subject to noise disturbance. Probably worth the risk though in your case as most will be OK.

I can’t answer your questions about specific cabins, but the agent is incorrect in telling you that you can only book an accessible cabin on a Select basis. You can book an accessible cabin on a Saver basis BUT (and it’s an important but) this means that you cannot specify which particular cabin that you want, just a grade. You will still end up with an accessible cabin, but it may be in a poor location (above or below a source of late night noise etc). I would suggest that you don’t book through the agent that you have spoken to. Many of us use an excellent specialist cruise travel agent, but forum rules prevent us from naming them. Unfortunately some other specialist cruise travel agents aren’t very good, so if this is your first cruise you might be wise to book directly with P&O. You won’t get any discount (although travel agent discounts these days are very small), but they are very helpful and are less likely to give you duff information.

I think I’ve heard four different excuses given so far to different people. Plenty of scope for more 😂

Don’t give them ideas Andy. Early arrivers are already punished enough by having to stand in the naughty queue whilst having to write 100 times “I promise not to arrive early next time” 😂

Did you do the transit down towards Geiranger and the Seven Sisters waterfall and back after you left Hellesylt, or has that stopped already? If you didn’t do this, did the Captain or Deputy Captain offer any explanation as to why it had been stopped?

I think that most likely would be an example of the P&O advisor not understanding how it works Andy or confusing the question as being about arriving before your designated time. If you turn up and say to the parking Marshall’s that you are “dropping off” they don’t question it. They assume you are dropping off passengers and direct you into the drop off lane. As long as the driver stays with the car, the passenger(s) could easily just pop the luggage over to the drop off point and in a few minutes you are off again.

They seem to give a different reason to everyone who asks 😂. We were on QM2 recently (part of the same group) and the tables in Princess Grill were very close together, yet they managed the full table-side and flambé service without any issue. The only thing was that they had to check that they weren’t under a sprinkler as the flames went so high with all the booze that went in 🤪. I strongly suspect that it’s more likely a staffing issue - lack of, inexperience or both. Glad to hear that you still enjoyed it though. We are very much looking forward to Epicurean on Britannia, Iona and Ventura this year 👍

I would also think that’s an error. I should imagine that a very large percentage of the passengers would be Mediterranean tier, so trying to give all of them priority would be a challenge. I’d like to think that it’s true though, as that would mean that our daughters would qualify!

Thanks Graham. That makes sense. We certainly don’t intend to join any queues outside the terminal! I shall be advising our daughters to try to time their arrival to 30 minutes before their allocated times, so that by the time they have dropped off their cars they should be on time. Obviously that’s easier said than done when travelling a distance and when multiple large ships are in port 🤞

There are still times for suite and higher tiers, but yes they are earlier. We have been given 12.15pm for Britannia in a few weeks as Caribbean tier. I presume that suites and Ligurian / Baltic may be a bit earlier, but that’s a guess. On Iona in August we will have early boarding (thank goodness) and I’m hoping that our daughters (who are in adjacent cabins) will have the same time as each other and that it won’t be too late 🤞