Selbourne

Thats 4 cabins back from the aft though, so some way back from any speakers (which can make a big difference), but is encouraging for SarahHben as it is also on the starboard side (we were port), which may add weight to my theory that only one side may get the worst noise?

Just to provide some balance to my comments about noise issues, one thing that has always hugely impressed me about P&O is their maintenance teams and their willingness to resolve issues quickly. I know that others have had different experiences, but I must speak as I find, and any issues we have reported have usually been dealt with promptly and efficiently. The best, and most impressive, example I can give was when we had a forward suite on Britannia. No noise whatsoever from neighbours, but when in bed you could hear a constant noise that I would liken to the noise you hear in harbours when the sail cables (wrong term, I know) are banging against the mast in wind. We’d had a blocked sink which the maintenance team fixed within an hour of reporting it and when the deck manager came to check if it was OK I mentioned the noise to him. When we went out on to our balcony we realised what the cause was, and it was a cable for a light that was suspended underneath the overhang of the bridge. I said to my wife that we’d be stuck with the noise for the fortnight as there was no way they could fix that during a cruise. First stop was Gibraltar, and when we returned to the ship I looked up and to my amazement saw a technician hanging from a harness under the bridge. When we returned to the cabin I had a look and he had covered the cable in a cowling that stopped it banging. No more noise for the next 10 days of the cruise. Now that’s impressive! Again, to show balance, on Cunard the other week we had a problem with the door lock and it was sometimes taking 20 or 30 ‘swipes’ to gain access to the cabin (not ideal when you need the loo). Reported it twice and nothing was done about it.

We thought the same! We were in suite F730 and our daughters in adjacent balcony cabin F728. With live music it was very loud. You could clearly tell what every song was. Recorded music not so bad - just the bass and a distant noise. We had other issues with that suite as well - soot on the balcony, vibration (intermittent) and plumbing noises (the plumbing plant room for several cabins was unbelievably located in the entrance lobby of the suite). There seemed to be some sort of void between the walls of our suite and our daughters cabin and I think the music noise was possibly coming up through that. This might sound daft, but I think I’ve read that on several ships (including Britannia) there can be noise disturbance on one aft corner above the Live Lounge, but not the other, due to the positioning of speakers. I notice that your cabin is the opposite side to us and might therefore be unaffected by the noise. I might be wrong but I think @Presto2 may have used that cabin and had no issues with it.

Not had rattling balcony doors, but have had a few on Aurora where a very loud wind whistle comes through the edges - all resolved with some folded up toilet paper. Necessity is the mother of invention 😂

We haven’t done standard Britannia on Cunard. Our recent QM2 cruise was Princess Grill which we absolutely loved and couldn’t fault, but was at an absolute bargain price that will never be repeated of just under £100 pppn! We wouldn’t pay the usual Grill prices though. Much as we loved it, we don’t like cruising that much! On both future Cunard cruises we have booked Britannia Club. Expensive, but we love the fact that you have your own table for breakfast, lunch and dinner, with the ability to use it whenever you like and no need to queue (virtual or physical) - just turn up when you fancy (like grills). As you say, true freedom dining. Some a’la carte enhancements as well, but obviously not full grills. Nothing comparable on P&O. There were quite a few other things that we preferred about Cunard, but I’m not sure that we’d pay too much of a premium over P&O for the standard Britannia experience. Never say never though. Over the next 18 months we have 4 P&O cruises and 2 more Cunard cruises, so we will have a really good idea as to where our preferences and priorities lie. I see no reason why we won’t use both - and we’ve yet to try Saga!

Hargreaves Lansdown in my case, but I apply for the OBC directly to Carnival rather than via HL (they offer to do it). Always had auto replies before, but not last week.

Either you are very lucky or we are very unlucky! In all fairness, we haven’t had noise issues from neighbours when we’ve had forward suites on Britannia and aft suites on Arcadia and Ventura. However, we have had noise disturbance from neighbours on a good proportion of our Aurora cruises (balcony cabins), whenever we’ve had Superior Deluxe balcony cabins on Ventura or Azura and with an aft suite on Britannia (not neighbours in that instance, but the Live Lounge 2 decks below). I will admit that I am a light sleeper and I can be disturbed by noises that others can sleep through. My wife, like many people, is able to zone out noise and has a great ability not to hear things - including me moaning about inconsiderate neighbours 🤣

That’s very true but, of course, all budget brands could be accused of that. Whilst P&Os IT department takes incompetence to a whole new level, they clearly have a very skilled marketing team 😂

Thanks. So that’s consistent with what I thought, given that there’s no Limelight Club on Azura. As for (free) entertainment, I’ve given up trying to work out what the policy is 😂

Thanks. I don’t remember that one.

I’m sure that January is the busiest booking month for most types of holiday, for the same reasons. I know that our thoughts usually turn to holidays in the dark and cold months! P&O are frequently quoting stats to agents about record this and record that. Given the vast increase in capacity that they have post Covid (with the arrival of both Iona and Arvia) they are bound to be breaking passenger and booking records. If they weren’t, there would be a major crisis! What would be really interesting to know is the average revenue per passenger day. I’d bet a few quid that’s down.

I’ve got a bit confused as well but, if I understand some of the recent posts correctly, it appears that you can only book most speciality restaurants 14 days out on Iona and Arvia. On all the other ships you can only book the Limelight Club in the 14 day window, with all other restaurants having to be booked once on board. Happy to be corrected if that’s incorrect.

I’m 100% with you on that too 😂 Let’s hope we meet on another cruise. We can have a Grumpy Old Men session (in a nice bar) 😉

Aurora (much as we love her) has been problematic for us, noise wise. One neighbour woke us every morning at 6.30am with a prolonged sneezing fit. Another (above us) woke us every night with a start getting out of bed (sounded like falling out of bed - an almighty crash), presumably for a visit to the loo. Yet another must have been hard of hearing as the TV was so loud. On yet another cruise we could actually hear the argument between the husband and wife (although that was quite amusing “the trouble with you is that you are just damned useless” etc. Arcadia (on our one cruise on her) was silent, but that may have been the fact that we had a corner suite. Ventura and Azura we’ve had noisy neighbours too. Maybe we are just unlucky!

Fantastic deal and a great itinerary. Whilst we don’t like Arcadia we would have seriously looked at this cruise had it not clashed with another already booked. You can’t go wrong at those prices. Enjoy.

You’d get exhausted. It’s all the rage 😂

Interesting what you say about construction. With a few exceptions, when we cruise with P&O we hear noise from cabins both above and beside us (drawers opening and closing, TV if loud and sometimes even conversations). Sometimes enough to wake us. We were really struck on QM2 the other week that we didn’t hear a sound from outside the cabin. Not a dicky bird. I couldn’t help but wonder if the construction quality and, in particular, sound insulation, was better?

So sorry to hear this and I sincerely hope that a solution (beyond tonight) is found for you. Hopefully your mysterious ‘P’ against your name on the P&O records (which I’m hoping means Priority) will bear fruit and of all the 100 or so people affected you will be the first to be moved to somewhere quiet. Even when the ship is supposedly full there are always some cabins available. They found us a balcony cabin to use in addition to our suite on a full cruise. When I queried this I was told that some are always kept free for emergencies and also entertainment staff get on and off at various ports mid cruise. Hopefully a few rowdy folk may get offloaded at some point as well 😂 All joking apart, fingers crossed for you.

That’s exactly our view, even though we are long standing P&O customers. Given all the changes, we are no longer prepared to pay what we once did for a P&O cruise, but we don’t mind a more budget experience as long as the prices reflect it. We are fortunate that we are able to do a number of cruises a year. If we want a special cruise we will now use Cunard or Saga, but for ‘filler’ holidays we will continue to use P&O - unless any of the cruises that we do this year (our first since Covid, and on 3 different ships) convince us that our P&O days are numbered. Hopefully that won’t be the case 🤞

Good old P&O. Never miss an opportunity to rip people off with overpriced excursions 😂

Cunard disembarkation was even better than that. You have the full use of your cabin until your disembarkation time. No hauling hand luggage to breakfast and no herding in lounges etc. When your time comes, just stroll off - no queues. No hassle. Embarkation was equally hassle free. It’s amazing to think that P&O and Cunard are in the same group of companies.

I agree with you but then we are of a ‘certain age’ and not ‘down with the kids’ 😂

Dai - I have always taken exactly the same approach as you and booked on day 1, for identical reasons (always the lowest price & need for an accessible cabin), but post Covid that now seems to be changing. We had our eyes on the July cruise on Britannia for some times and I called our TA a few times and there was no availability of accessible cabins (no surprise there). Anyhow, fast forward a few months and I called after balance due date and not only could we get a very good price but we had a choice of two accessible balcony cabins. When looking at the latest release (Summer 2025), all the launch prices were quite a bit more than we have paid for near identical cruises for 2023 and 2024, booked well after launch. As none of them are ‘must do’ cruises and with all the repetitive itineraries now on offer, we have decided to leave it until much nearer the time. I have retained the launch prices for all of the cruises we were considering and I will monitor prices between now and then. It will be interesting to see, but I am sure that some, if not all, will end up cheaper than launch prices at some stage.

I must have missed that promotion? What does it entail?

Ah, that might be it. Definitely used the correct email address and got no auto reply, but the other 5 cruises I applied for were all pre July 24. Can’t complain, as they are only meant to add the OBC after the balance has been paid, but they have credited all of our future cruises (bar the last one) already, hence why I’m already in profit on the share purchase. 👍