thornegirl

2 hours ago, davecttr said:

On Iona a couple of weeks ago the Glass House was open but not for food until 3pm. The Peninsular club lunch was packed so I found a quiet place in the buffet

Thanks for the information, wonder if the Quays is open.  If not, buffet it is then to the Glass House for drinks.

Sorry forgot to say on Arvia

Does anyone know which restaurants are open on embarkation day? We don't do the Peninsular club lunch (the last one on Iona was awful).  We normally go in the Glass House but that wasn't open at all in August on Iona.

We have seen sunbed hoggers have 2 in the sun then 2 in the shade, depending on what their requirements were!

2 hours ago, amajaa said:

Has anyone got the web page or a copy of the list that was around before Covid that listed all ports and whether they were payable ( for Saver Fare) free because town provides a free shuttle or you are in a working port. Or whether you can just walk as docks in town.

This is the information I have re shuttles hope it works

PO_Shuttle_Information.pdf

According to the crew centre arrivals for April 10th, Arvia is there along with MSC Seashore (5877 passengers), Costa Pacifica (3617 passengers) and Arvia (6264 passengers).  That will be a very busy day in port, we might stay on the ship! have a relaxing day in the spa.

I've booked entertainment in the embarkation lounge last year when we were boarding Iona.  Already got the My Holiday app on my phone and its the last few digits on the boarding pass that you book in with. The cruise card numbers are the same as on the boarding pass, or they were last year. 

I really don't want to pay prior to boarding as we have so much OBC, if we can't get in will go to one of the other select restaurants. 

Thanks for the information,  I'll wait until we are in the embarkation lounge then.  We've got over £1K OBC, which is a lot for us to spend as we are not big drinkers.  We normally only have about 3-4 alcoholic drinks per day and not every day on a 14 day cruise.  I'll be able to get quite a few Xmas presents onboard then.

We are on Arvia on 2nd April and have a shed load of OBC, I want to book various restaurants with some of the OBC.  

Do you have to pay for the booking on your cruise personaliser once they are open for booking or not.  Ive never pre booked the restaurants before but after reading on here that they get booked up pretty quickly I just wanted to know the process.  

If you do have to pre-pay, I'll try to book the ones that I want while I'm in the embarkation lounge via the My Holiday app.  

10 minutes ago, Hightackle84 said:

Hi hive-mind!!

 

We are wanting to book Ventura on 3rd August 2024 but whenever we look at the website or speak to travel agents, it seems that all cabins are restricted to only two people per cabin, meaning we'd have to split ourselves between two cabins with one adult and one child per cabin. 

Deck ans show rooms available which can take four people but we can't book them! 

 

Anyone aware of what's going on and if this is a normal thing with p&o?

 

Thanks in advance 

It could be that there are no child places left, they have a limit on the numbers of children for each age range.

34 minutes ago, tring said:

 

Can I please ask how long before your cruise departure did you email P&O for port times?  I have an interest in them for a 30 night cruise in September, but am thinking they may be more likely to give the proposed times nearer the cruise date.

 

 

 

I emailed them on the 5/1/23 for our cruise going on 2/4/23, so just after paying the final balance.

I emailed P&O for port arrival and departure times for our upcoming cruise on Arvia 2nd April.  They emailed back with the timings a couple of days later.

48 minutes ago, itf said:

There's no chance I'm paying what they're asking for Arvia in April. Absolute joke so will have to investigate alternatives although even Penguin is asking £189 for 2 weeks. 

Ive booked parking4cruise for my Arvia 2nd April cruise.  I booked it on 5/1/23 and paid £129 for the two weeks.  I compared CPS which on the 5/1/23 was £160, its now £243.

4 hours ago, Selbourne said:

Thank you for this. Most people have been talking about their experience of CPS outside of the peak summer school holidays, which I knew would be OK having used them at those times countless times myself. My question was specifically about August, which is an entirely different beast, even from October half term, and at normal disembarkation times (early self disembarkation isn’t for us).
 

In August this year, there were still some restrictions on passenger numbers (quarantine cabins etc) and a degree of subdued demand (as far as I know, few ships have been sailing full this year), so next year, when we are booked, it is likely to be busier again. I don’t believe that Iona has sailed yet with over 5,000 passengers. Please correct me if I am wrong. Next August, with no restrictions and greater demand, plus most upper berths full, this number could well exceed 6,000 passengers. If August this year was problematic, next year could well be worse.
 

The big advantage of CPS was always being able to drop off right in front of the terminal. The negative was the holding queue before you could do this. On our last few cruises we tried Parking4Cruises due to many people on this site recommending them. As their drop off and collection is in the short stay car park, this meant that I had to drop my wife off first (as she is a wheelchair user) with the luggage and then drop the car off in the short stay car park and walk back. Not as convenient as CPS, but much quicker as there was no waiting. Pick up following disembarkation was no different to CPS, as the short stay car park is no further (and often nearer) than the CPS car park (especially as the CPS car park is huge) and with far fewer passengers using it, we were in the car and out on the road network in minutes. 
 

I think I am leaning towards using Parking4Cruises next year, but can I just ask if the ability to check your car in right in front of the terminal building (as you could always do with CPS) is no longer possible, as that was their sole unique selling point and particularly useful for us as I cannot push my wife in her wheelchair and deal with luggage at the same time?

We have used parking4cruises on a number of cruises as well as CPS.  When using parking4cruises my husband drops me and the luggage off at the terminal where I took the baggage to the drop off then I waited for husband inside the terminal.  You could do similar with your wife waiting for you inside the terminal.

We used CPS in August this year going on Iona.  We arrived about 12.15 to join a horrendous queue.  There was 4 lines of traffic on the right hand side next to the car park, It took us around an hour to check the car in.  We spoke to one of the girls from CPS and she said it had been like that since 11am.  We then had to get a trolly to take the bags across the road to the bag drop off area.  Our son and his family who had booked parking4cruises went straight to the drop off point then took his car to the car park and then had to wait for us before we could all check in together.  This has happened 3 times to us with CPS in school holidays, I won't be using CPS again.  

39 minutes ago, david63 said:

Depending on what is on offer with OBC I would argue that it is not necessarily a "no brainer". Using P4C I have been off the ship and on the road in under half an hour and paid a lot less to do it.

We were with CPS for our August cruise on Iona, held in a queue for 45 mins before we could unload our baggage.  We spoke to one of the CPS staff who said that lots of people turned up at 11.30, even though their embarkation time was much later.  Our embarkation time was 12, didn't get into the terminal until 1pm. 

Our son who was with P4C drove straight in unloaded his bags and waited for us. Ive changed the free parking to OBC and will in future be going with P4C.    

I also reiterate that, we were on Iona 6th-13th August with our daughter and her 2 children, son and his 2 children.  We (husband and I) went on a coach trip in Haugeusund and on the Tuesday after we came home we both went down with covid.  We didn't stop at any services on the journey home, never went to any shops (had delivery booked for the Saturday) , no contact with anyone so we couldn't have picked it up anywhere else.  All the other members of our family have been fine, so the coach trip is where I believe we caught it. We have both been quite ill but are on the mend now.  In hindsight I would wear a mask on the coach or not even go on any excursions for the time being.

We came off Iona last Saturday, Epicurean was closed as was the Glasshouse for food. If you wanted any speciality restaurants book when you board.  Nothing left after day 2. 
 

We ate in the Olive Grove on the first night and wasn’t impressed so much so we cancelled our booking for Thursday night. We were on Iona for the maiden cruise and ate in the Olive Grove 4 times, I took photos of the food on the maiden and comparing them from last week there’s no comparison. 
 

We thought the food in Pearl where we ate was very good if you chose well.  The only one we didn’t enjoy was the ribeye steak too tough .  We also ate in the Keel and Cow , don’t know why people rave over it thought it was expensive for what you got.  I had the pork belly which came with 2 small roast potatoes and a wedge of griddled iceberg lettuce! 
 

We were a family party of 8 and never had to wait for a table, the waiters as always were fantastic.  One waiter was a magician doing magic once a night we tried to get a table most nights there. 
 

We all agreed what a wonderful time we had onboard and will be booking Arvia when she joins the P&O fleet. 

2 hours ago, Orianababes said:

Morning

I have three cabins booked for upcoming cruise. Last week checked in and downloaded boarding pass, luggage labels and e ticket for one cabin.

Today I try to check in other two cabins. All data goes in but will not recognise this by enabling luggage labels and e ticket. Just to check back to the one I did last week and it indicates that cannot yet get e ticket or print luggage labels

 

Anyone else having similar problems?

 

I had that problem on my MacBook Air.   Our family have 3 cabins booked so my son came round with his HP laptop and was able to print off the luggage labels and e-tickets for all 3 cabins with no problem. 

I have always been able to print all my tickets etc off using the MacBook but not this time.  If it happens next time I'll try and get Customer Services to help if I can get through on the phone.

Does anyone know what drinks are covered in the Childrens soft drinks package.  We have 2 children who don't drink fizzy drinks and would like to know if its worth buying.  It says in the blurb on the P&O website that lemonade and cola, selected juices (what are these), and primo hot chocolate are included.  Could anyone who has travelled with children please advise. 

My daughter is thinking of getting the Ultimate drinks package whereby the children are included but if she has to buy other soft drinks for the children it wouldn't be worth it.

Thanks in anticipation

40 minutes ago, Dinglebert said:

I suspect I know the answer but given Royal are doing it I want to check about PandO.

 

In short my cruise next April if I was to buy it today offers an extra £210 in cabin credit than when I booked.  The price of the cabin is only £40 more so basically £170 cheaper.

 

If I cancelled and rebooked it wouldn't be worth it as would lose the current deposit, also my current airport Glasgow is not showing as an option which I hope means it has sold out rather than no flight.

 

I booked via a travel agent whose phones are not working so I can't ask them other than to email.

 

Before anyone asks no I wouldn't be offering to pay extra if the price went up.  However under current rules from other cruise lines I would be able to get the extra credit.

I've just moved a cruise that was booked via a TA from a cruise on Ventura in October this year to a cruise on Arvia in March '24.  They moved the deposit from the October cruise to the March '24 cruise, I had to pay a little more deposit because of the increase in the cost of the March cruise.  No problems at all.

10 hours ago, molecrochip said:

Yes, you can buy the children's drink package without buying an adults drink package.

 

If you do buy the Ultimate package for your adults, you get the children's package for free for any kids in your cabin.

 

You can also buy the children's drink package for adults and the Non-Alcoholic package for children (if they like Mocktails/Costa Coffe/TeaPigs Tea's or bottled water.

What if its a single parent in the cabin with 2 children, do both the children get the children package if the 1 adult buys the ultimate drinks package?

52 minutes ago, gsmt47471015 said:

Just received another dreaded e mail from P and O informing that our upcoming Norway cruise MAY I repeat MAY have issues with supply chains which COULD affect some of the onboard experiences. I suppose at least we now have some warning about what's happening ,  or not happening on board , we will find out over the next few weeks

Can I ask what date you are going on Iona.  We are going on the 6th August but never receive any letters/emails (only marketing ones come through). we didn't receive the email regarding the Geiranger port being dropped.

16 minutes ago, bbtablet said:

Just booked a tour for my forthcoming cruise, and this is the confirmation received for myself and my wife. She is not best pleased!   Guests: MISTER BERNARD BUTLER MISTRESS JANE BUTLER

Price:

I know had the same here.  Grandson wanted to know why I was a Mistress!!

1 hour ago, Tikka234 said:

doesDoes anyone know what time we have to be back onboard Hellesylt ? 

hoping to get time to look around after excursion should be back around 3pm thanks

 

According to the Geiranger port website, Iona is leaving at 5pm, so would imagine 4.30 all onboard.