Otter18

Managed to make the payment in the end. Email to confirm too. So all booked eventually.

Same issue here. Got as far as the basket but can't pay. Very frustrating!

41 minutes ago, jeanlyon said:

Why on earth have they donen that I wonder?

We had this on our Arvia cruise. Refund of over £1000 about a month before sailing. Two weeks later the cruise was cancelled and we were offered a future cruise credit plus 20% of the cost of our cruise. By reducing the original fare they saved a lot of money.

We have just uploaded our photos for our January cruise. I think you can also have this done at the terminal.

1 hour ago, binman2 said:

Noticed pictures on Daily Mail site of the Coral and Pearl MDR on Arvia looks like tablecloths no more table mats serviettes laid out on melamine tables guess it saves on the linen 

 

 

I have just had a look at the photos of the tables you mention printed in the Daily Mail. Those tables without table cloths are in the 'Glass House' beside the Atrium. Not the MDR.

Edit: I have now seen the MDR photos and they do indeed show tables without the white linen table cloths. It must have been set up like that for a photo shoot, as it wasn't like that when we ate in there.

Brian 

At the Arvia 'Tour and Lunch' on Tuesday, we had table cloths and napkins in the MDR.

Hi Dillie. I was on Iona earlier this year. It was about 80% full, just for your info. Queuing for dinner was quite short whether physical or virtual. Generally my wife and I stopped for a drink in a bar close to the MDR's. We then joined the virtual queue. We usually got called to the dining room within 10 mins of joining the Queue. The table is held for 15 mins for you to be seated and then reallocated if you do not turn up on time. I don't think you will have a problem getting to the dining room in that time in a wheelchair, Unless you book from the opposite end of the ship and needed to use a lift. Even so you just re book if you miss your slot.  

We didn't have a great experience in the Epicurean. Food was mediocre and the service was very slow. I have spoken to people who are positive about the restaurant though. I've never had a bad experience in the Sindhu.

Can't help on the Spa offers I'm afraid.

Maybe someone else can help with some of your other questions.

I hope this helps.

Brian

On 11/1/2022 at 1:21 PM, Son of Bare said:

Can someone please advise what time boarding begins for upper tier and other priority passengers departing from Southampton. Particularly for Arcadia and Aurora should it be ship specific.

The Sindhu on Arcadia is currently closed according to a poster blogging on another thread. Does anyone have a firm idea of which cruise it will re-open?

 

 

I'm on Aurora in 9 days. Our boarding time is 12:15pm. I'm expecting our cruise on Arcadia to be about the same. Just confirming what SoA said really.

I'm not advocating that people should book early, but this is my own experience. I was curious about the change in price of my previously preregistered cruises, and the actual price today. R217 has virtually doubled in price. J301 is now sold out, but the price did increase before becoming unavailable. R320 is £500pp more for a lower grade cabin but there is more OBC. R401 again more expensive for a lower grade cabin but loads more OBC. All of these are select fares after shopping around. So for me, right now, I haven't lost out by booking early on any of these cruises, in fact I would say I got the best deal on these particular cruises. Having said that, if you want the cruise, and happy to pay the price, then don't be put off if the price drops. It's swings and roundabouts. Sometimes you win.

We have booked Aurora's 65 night Amazon cruise in 2025. We like a particular cabin so we chose to book early. We do tend to book the longer cruise in advance. But we like to go on some cruises at short notice. The quickest so far was 16 hours from booking to boarding.

On 10/10/2022 at 6:05 PM, True Devonian said:

We would appreciate advice from anyone who has recently done a back to back cruise as we have booked for next month and was wondering what we can expect on change over day (we have the same cabin for both cruises). Also, will the launderettes be open and will we have to have a covid test before the start of the second cruise.

Some cruises require ' an observed LFT' within 2 days of embarkation. If your second cruise requires this, you can book a test (for a fee) at the medical centre on the ship. If you fail, you will be required to leave the ship. If your second cruise does not require ' an observed LFT', only an advisory LFT before embarkation then you are free to continue on your B2B once you have exchanged your cruise card at reception.

We have just had the phone call from the TA to cancel this cruise. Sadly the new 'Maiden Cruise' is now the Christmas cruise, which is fully booked right now. We couldn't go anyway as it overruns our RWC on Arcadia.

So this is now our 4th maiden cruise that has been cancelled. Not sure we will be booking any more 'Maidens'. 

On 3/10/2022 at 5:56 PM, BouncingWheel said:

What if you have multiple cruises in a year? Can you request shareholder benefit for each cruise? Seems a decent deal if you can.

A couple of weeks ago I phoned H&L and gave them the details of my next 3 cruises. They said it shouldn't be a problem, but I would be notified nearer the time of the cruise. The first has just been confirmed.

18 hours ago, yorkshirephil said:

Only if you are looking in the right direction

This Hide and Seek image made me smile..........

My wife and I tried the Epicurean on Iona earlier this year. The food was mediocre. Over an hour seated at the table before the first course arrived. That was after asking three times for some service. The people sat on the tables either side of us said they had the same problem. Poor service throughout the meal, and no excuses or apologies. This was my only bad experience at any of the specialty restaurants, on all of the P&O ships I have sailed on. Hopefully it will have improved over the summer. 

You can't buy mixers from the shops on board, but you can buy them from room service, delivered to your cabin but they are at bar prices. I would suggest taking a couple of small cans with you when you board. And then restock at your first port of call.

20 hours ago, jeanlyon said:

I didn't think Aurora was back until June?  But I may have got that wrong.

I saw Aurora a couple of weeks ago in Tortola BVI

We disembarked QM2 yesterday. The staff had been on board for the last month preparing for their first cruise. The ship was just over half full when we set sail. I did check availability the day before we sailed and all stateroom classes were shown as 'sold out'. This was a shake down cruise before they start increasing the numbers. We were told by the staff, passenger numbers will increase to 80% capacity for the transatlantic to NY.

Lovely to be back on board with all the Christmas decorations. I think the atmosphere was a little subdued, with the reduced numbers, wearing masks and it was such a short cruise. Also we had very little interaction with other passengers, other than those we were travelling with. Overall, it was nice to get away, but not really what we were used to pre-pandemic. An interesting last day trying to fill in our PLF's and arranging PCR test. 

As I write this, our PCR result has just arrived. We are negative, free, and all ready for our next cruise.

Brian

I hope it isn't cancelled. We are on our way to join the ship right now. First time on a ship in two years. And our first time on QM2. We are quite looking forward to it albeit it is also the shortest cruise we have ever taken. 

20 hours ago, kersh said:

We have also re regs with a TA for this cruise. We can book tomorrow. We have been on Aurora a number of times but did prefer Oriana.  
 

Hope everyone gets what they want cabin wise. 
 

Sue

Hi Sue,

We have met a few times on past cruises, and we have just had our cabin confirmed this morning for this cruise on Aurora.

We also booked Arcadia RWC 2023 and had our cabin confirmed (E98). When I tried to search for a photo of the window (obstructed view), your name came up on a post on CC. Do you have a photo by any chance, of the window and obstructed view.

Hopefully we will see you again on Aurora next year.

Brian

Our last cruise was Jan to April this year on Arcadia. On the plus side, we were one of the last passengers off a P&O ship before they stopped all cruising. On the down side, the last leg of the world cruise was 33 days at sea, with social distancing. Hopefully we will cruise again next year. Stay safe everyone.

Brian

59 minutes ago, Manx buoy said:

We didn’t need to pay till November but had no intentions of doing so anyway hope you’re not waiting too long for the refund

Thanks! Paid via the TA, refund today apparently. Plus FCC to be moved to another cruise, if they don't keep cancelling them.

Brian

52 minutes ago, Manx buoy said:

Is the Ventura 35 nighter in Feb one of the casualties🤞

Yes it is. We paid our final balance yesterday. Cancelled today.

Brian

We booked the 2022 world cruise on Aurora sometime ago. We have manages a couple of world cruises so far, including the 2016 Aurora, and this years Arcadia, although this one (2020) was not really a world cruise (33 days at sea from Australia to Southampton).

As someone previously mentioned, the world cruise seems much more relaxed, more of a life style than a holiday. We have mixed both DIY and P&O tours. It really depends what you want to do, and how adventurous you are. There are a few places to see the Koalas in Australia, and the Opera House is walking distance from the ship.

Brian & Carol

Just looked at Ventura on 'Cruise Tracker' and the ship looks like it is heading south, toward Bay of Biscay.

Brian