Selbourne

As per previous post, the 3 cruises I referred to were on Ventura and Britannia. We could have booked even cheaper cruises than those on Arvia and Iona,but have some reservations based on the reviews. Hopefully our August cruise on Iona will reassure us that we needn’t worry 🤞 You are of course correct that the adult only ships are usually significantly more expensive although, as Megabear2 points out, there have even been some very cheap cruises on those (again, after balance due date). We don’t like Arcadia (even though we love Aurora) but could have been tempted with the Iceland cruise had it not clashed with another holiday.

Sadly no special treatment, beyond the 5% discount that I now get from my TA and some shareholder OBC 😂 The cruises at those prices are two on Ventura and one on Britannia. I have seen cheaper prices again on the mega ships (Iona and Arvia) but we have some reservations about making any bookings on either of those until we have been on Iona in August (as you may have seen, whilst a few reviews are glowing, an equal number are not). We wish to try for ourselves first. We used to book at launch when prices were always at their lowest and were never bettered thereafter. Our November Ventura cruise was one of those. That’s all changed now though. The other two cruises were booked more recently. Megabear2 has given a very good summary of what has been going on with prices. We booked Britannia just after balance due date. P&O will rarely drop prices significantly before then so as to avoid people who booked with a small deposit from cancelling and re-booking. The other cruises are well before balance due dates, but prices were low, so if they do drop further it won’t be by loads. Plus, we need an accessible balcony cabin, so can’t always leave it until the last minute. We were lucky with Britannia and had a choice of two, yet when we had enquired about that cruise on two occasions in the months before they were sold out. Whatever the reasons (cost of living crisis etc) some people are obviously having second thoughts when the balance looms. When we looked at summer 2025 launch prices, most were more expensive than the same cruises have been selling for this year, so we didn’t book any. We also aren’t sure if we will do as many P&O cruises by then (having since discovered Cunard and wanting to try Saga). We have 4 P&O cruises on 3 different ships over the next 10 months and these will be our first P&O cruises since Covid. We want to see how many of the changes that have been made impact on our cruise experience before committing longer term.

I wasn’t suggesting that it was a problem, just that the ‘default’ parking is CPS and I have seen some P4C customers lugging all their luggage from the short stay car park, so I find it easier just to say that I’m dropping off so that I am directed to the taxi lane.

Having used both CPS and Parking4Cruises, the latter can often be quicker, especially with the bigger ships. As most passengers use CPS, you need to be very clear to any Marshalls that stop you on your drive into the terminal that you are just dropping off. You go to one of the drop off lanes (that taxis etc use), rather than the lanes used by CPS, and unload your luggage. Passengers can alight from the car at this point and wait for the driver to return. The driver then drives the car the very short distance to the short stay car park for that terminal. Look for the Parking4Cruises flag and there will be a staff member (or members) checking in cars. Once they have checked your car, you leave them the key (same as CPS) and walk the short distance back to meet your travel companions. When you return at the end of the cruise, you just go to the short stay car park to collect your car. This can often be a much shorter walk than where CPS may have parked your car, as the car parks they use are massive! Whilst it sounds more complicated it’s actually very simple and at busy times with the bigger ships is much quicker, as you don’t get caught in the long holding queues that CPS deploy before they commence checking in cars, when the lanes are full, or when waiting for their drivers to return from parking cars. Plus, of course, the cost saving can be considerable, especially with cruises of 14 days or above. We have taken On Board Credit in lieu of CPS parking and the cost of Parking4Cruises has been £100 less than the OBC offered!

If it’s £339 per person, that’s a total of £678, which equals £169.50 per night. That doesn’t sound at all cheap to me for an inside on a Saver basis. After deducting the OBC, we have been able to book balcony cabins on our next 3 P&O cruises for between £172 and £187 a night on a Select basis, with all the benefits that go with it - and free parking on top of that.

We embarked QM2 there recently and it was fine - no queues of any note. For some reason we disembarked at Mayflower though! On a previous cruise we embarked at Mayflower but returned to QE2. Again, no problems.

I’d be surprised if P&O (or any cruise line for that matter) are bringing on board pre-prepared meals. That must surely be massively more expensive than preparing food from scratch using raw ingredients, especially as their labour costs are so low compared to land based operations.

Thank you so much Cathy. I really appreciate you taking time to post this, as will many others. Thankfully there are 6 of us so, from what you are saying we shouldn’t have the same degree of difficulty (I hope that’s not famous last words 😂). I had already clocked your tip about getting different party members to join queues for different restaurants for the whole group and then going to whichever comes up first, then cancelling the others. Undoubtedly, this will be a contributory factor as to why the waits are so long, as I bet that many do this and don’t cancel the other bookings, or there is a time lag before the restaurant managers realising that the party isn’t coming and calling another party, but if P&O are going to persevere with this nonsense then it is no wonder that people are gaming the system. We will probably only use the MDR for the Celebration night, so with 3 couples I am hoping that between us and a combination of multiple bookings and a pager (thanks for that tip also) we stand half a chance of getting a table somewhere or other. It’s heartbreaking that P&O seem to have messed up Freedom Dining on some ships - a system that we have previously enjoyed using since it was launched. Cunard’s Britannia Club (which we have now booked two future cruises in) is looking more and more attractive. As you say, you don’t go on holiday to experience hassle and stress over something that should be enjoyed. If the ship is 100-200 crew members short then that will, of course, be yet another contributory factor. Whether that is a temporary issue that will be resolved, or a new lower staffing level (with all that it entails) only time will tell. I hope that you all managed to enjoy the cruise in spite of these challenges. I am planning our August Iona cruise like a military operation in order to try and make it as hassle free as possible once we are on board. Two of our party are first time cruisers and I want to make sure that their first impressions are as positive as possible. Thankfully we have a hassle free U.K. holiday booked 4 weeks after we disembark Iona if we feel that we need another holiday to recover from it 😂

I’m afraid not. Caribbean and above. Unless, of course, you are in a suite in which case it doesn’t matter what tier you are.

As far as I know, Ludlow just drops his ‘g’s’ (askin’, talkin’ etc) - not his trunks 😉

Better than that. As well as allowing you to secure one of the few available tables in the MDR, you are rewarded with a tablecloth, the elusive lobster, extra veg (e.g. two carrot batons rather than 1) and you are allowed to take the menu home!

It’s a new ‘treasure trail’ game to while away an hour or two whilst waiting for a “freedom” dining table to become available 😂

As with most US based companies, I suspect that Paul Ludlow is a Vice President (or similar) rather than a proper Executive Director (as we would call them here). As such, he is more a business unit head than a statutory director. Consequently, he’s too low down the food chain for the markets to consider him as a factor, when it comes to valuing the company.

Very true. We know quite a few people who cruise with P&O. It’s interesting that most who only started cruising recently feel that the food is fine, whereas most who have cruised for decades feel that it has declined. Exceptions both ways, of course, but that’s the rule of thumb. We enjoyed our first Cunard cruise recently and due to a once in a lifetime bargain deal we managed to get into Princess Grill. We thought that the food was fabulous. There was only one meal that was a slight disappointment compared to all the others, but we felt that the only place on P&O that gets even close is Epicurean. However, reading the Cunard forums there are people saying that it’s not as good as it was!

It certainly always used to be 6.30pm and 8.30pm. No idea if it’s changed as we switched to Freedom Dining when that was launched and haven’t moved back. However, from what we’ve been reading about the issues with Freedom Dining recently (following all the changes) if our experiences this summer are poor we may well be switching back to fixed dining!

Many years ago, there was often a daily curry in the MDR at lunchtimes. They were fabulous, prepared by the Indian, Goan and Indonesian chefs and were usually names that I’d never heard of and very tasty. Probably the same as those that were made in the crew canteens. Fast forward to the rather odd MDR lunchtime menus that were introduced around 5 years ago and there is still the odd curry (and noodle dish), but they are very disappointing in comparison. Quite bland in flavour (toned down for what they perceive to be milder British palettes?) and, of course, tiny portions. I believe that better curries can sometimes be found in the buffet, but we never dine there.

So does that mean that he won’t have anything to do with Cunard? If so, that’s a relief. However, what does Carnival U.K. comprise other than P&O and Cunard?

Oh, I see. I wouldn’t be able to drink all that I’d be allowed, let alone some of my wife’s allowance as well 😂

I hope that they still serve lobster on one of the formal nights, but when we last had it (on Aurora) the amount of meat was so tiny that you could have eaten it in one mouthful. By contrast, this was the Lobster I had in Princess Grill on QM2 a few weeks ago. It was much bigger than it looks in the photo (the plate was huge) and everything under the sauce was meat. It was listed on the menu as a half lobster but was a whole one, less the claws!

Fair point. When we compared the two brands, whilst the list of what we preferred about Cunard was much longer than what we preferred about P&O, top of the latter list was the fact that tips are included on P&O. I didn’t feel comfortable removing the auto gratuities on QM2, but I also tipped our 3 waiters, 2 restaurant managers and our cabin steward personally, so ended up tipping twice. Thank goodness it was a short cruise 😂

I don’t understand your question. Both people in a cabin have to buy the package. My wife drinks very little. It wouldn’t be worth it for me and it certainly wouldn’t be worth it for my wife.

Oh dear. Having recently discovered the joys of a Cunard cruise, I hope that he doesn’t do to that brand what he has done to P&O.

That’s a relief. The one thing that I hate most about a P&O cruise is disembarkation, especially as they make such a meal of it compared to some other lines. We tend to have a relaxing breakfast in the MDR (when we can get there, lifts being an absolute nightmare on disembarkation day when you are with a wheelchair user) and then attempt to get off. I just couldn’t be doing with being held in public rooms for ages and we avoid the buffet like the plague. We just couldn’t believe how much better the Cunard disembarkation process was. Zero hassle and the whole process was completely different and so much easier. Why on earth P&O don’t adopt it is beyond me.

You couldn’t use the MDR on disembarkation day? Is that a new thing? You always could.

I am keeping everything crossed that our experience on Iona mirrors yours, and not that of some others 🤞