manonabike

I'm interested if the Travel Insurance Co would count re-booking with FCC as making a booking within this period therefore excluded from and CV disruption or be classed as an existing booking that is transferred. I have emailed them but no response as yet (understandably) but wondering if anyone else has asked that question and had a reply.

3 hours ago, amajaa said:

We cancelled our Iona May cruise when they first said if you were ‘At Risk’ as husband Is over 70. We were told we would get a full refund. Does this still stand as this was before the new cancellation policy was published?

According to the last email P&O said it would still stand.

7 hours ago, AndyMichelle said:

When the first ship comes back to Southampton carrying even 1 passenger or crew with symptoms and is anchored off the IOW and not allowed to dock... That's when it will really hit home and something will have to be done... 

Andy 

 perhaps we designate the IoW as a quarantine centre, I can think of worse places to spend 14 days

On 2/22/2020 at 10:37 AM, jeanlyon said:

OK, we are nowhere near that.  I am beginning to think I don't drink enough!  We don't do soft drinks during the day, just water, but go to the bar at 7pm and have one large glass of wine for me and a whisky/ginger ale for other half, so that's about £11 ish.  We have a bottle of wine at dinner, and usually don't finish it, so it comes back the following day.  So if we did finish it, that's about £17 for the bottle or £18, so let's say £31 a day.  that's for 2 of us.

 

Are we unusual?

I hope that's a whisky OR ginger ale and not a mix! 
We spend much less, but our boys are happy drinking water or occasionally we take some squash to make up in their water bottles. My wife has the costa coffee twice a day and we tend to have pre-dinner drinks, wine with the meal and, if it's a hot day, a couple of beers at lunch. So far we've never got above £40 per day. We even have to raid the shop on the last day to use up the rest of our OBC the lat couple of cruises!! 

On 2/15/2020 at 10:59 PM, terrierjohn said:

She is actually only 7m longer than Britannia and 2m less beam, so in terms of distances to walk she is very similarr. The big difference of course is that Iona has 3 extra decks, so the lifts will probably be kept busy.

They seem to have lots of lift banks so hopefully not an issue. Plus the stairs do help get rid of those extra pounds. On AidaNova they seem to have glass doors.

18 hours ago, grapau27 said:

Good idea except when the lift arrives people will appear and push themselves in first.

but if the lift went straight for the 'priority' selected floor that would discourage others. I never said it was a foolproof scheme just yet, only an idea

This thread has prompted me to look at our annual cover for the family and it reminded us of a treatment we've had in the year. Declaring it has increased our costs by £3!!! but at lease we can rest easy for our cruise in May.

Odd that the couple in question declined P&O's help in returning to the UK. 

they could have a priority key card for those who actually need to use a lift and it will get them a lift faster and straight to their deck.

I would like the ability to book freedom dining times and it would be good to have 'waiting times' for restaurants displayed around the ship so you can choose your dining venue that most suits your need. 

with a 1yr old I'd go for the bigger cabin every time (not been on Britania so if there is a specific issue with that deck I cannot comment)

8 hours ago, jaydee6969 said:

Hi-res press photos courtesy of Meyer Werft

looks like the prom deck is being used for storage, hope they move the stuff before we cruise otherwise it'll block my view!!

2 hours ago, Denarius said:

So do I. I always thought that part of the exercise as far as the staff were concerned was to assess how long it took all passengers to get to their muster stations after the alarm was sounded.

The idea of waiting for the announcement before leaving the cabin is so that people know the emergency route from their cabin to the muster station, which often uses crew staircases. When you had to take your life jacket people would be coming from their cabin anyway. Now that lifejackets are not required there is less incentive to start from your cabin and it is less representative of a genuine emergency when passengers would be asked to either go to their cabins in the first instance or to go and collect warm clothing, hats, medication etc. But I can see the huge benefit in reducing the crush at the end.

On 11/8/2019 at 9:46 AM, BrianI said:

If tips are not included in the fare, then where does the money come from? The money tree?

Brian

I use the money tree to pay for my cruise!

I like to give my cabin steward a hand written card too.........

3 hours ago, Son of Anarchy said:

 

My Omega Speedmaster Professional makes me look like Neil Armstrong.

Must get a Tag Heuer Monaco - Then I will look like Steve McQueen!

I know how you feel, my Apple Watch makes me look impatient!

1 hour ago, wowzz said:

In situations like that, I let my chauffeur decide !

You have just the one chauffeur? What if the wife wants to get her hair done whilst you are out? I could never compromise like that, it's a step too far.

3 hours ago, MickD said:

Be sure you know about what your buying when looking at pre owned Rolexes.

Royal Caribbean sell pre owned Rolexes and most of them are 20 odd year old Datejusts, that they have put cheap aftermarket diamond bezels on.

They were priced up at about $14000, but reduced to about $11000 to make you think you were getting a good deal, but in reality you could buy the same watch in the uk for about £3500.

You won’t see any sports Rolexes ie submariners GMT’s etc just old overpriced run of the mill ones.

Not saying p&o will be the same, because I’ve never seen them sell preowned before, will def be checking them out on Azura later this month.

$11000 for datejust! I'd want huge diamonds on that! The age of the watches are not an issue, in fact I like the comfort of the old 5 digit models.
Can't imagine boot-sale bargains but if reasonably priced it could be a good use of leftover OBC. Will have to wait for Iona in May 

Pre-owned Rolex? now that's interesting. Can anyone give any more details. The last couple of cruises have been on Aurora so not seen them on sale before. Could be a good use of OBC

I've heard on social media (from someone on board Arcadia) that they are planning on having discounted or even free select dining when Iona launches to try and stimulate some interest. Can anyone support this? Did this happen when Britania was launched? It sounds interesting however one of the nice things about the special dining venues was that is was much quieter.

I'm only just out of my 30's and have been cruising for many years. We enjoy the P&O food and things are even better now the vegetarian menus have been revamped and change daily. We don't eat meat but will have fish and we always find things we enjoy. I think it's difficult if you have not been exposed to a wide variety of foods and are not comfortable trying new things, posh menus can be difficult to understand and it can be embarrassing asking for things to be explained. But the joy of being on a cruise is that the waiters are all so accommodating and will not make you feel silly asking to have things explained. You can try new things and, if you don't like it you can always nip up to the buffet for something different.
 

Not had a Forward Suite yet, we have one booked for next year, but we were lucky enough to have an Aft suite on Azura for our honeymoon and it was lovely. Huge balcony and very quiet. watching the wake as we sailed away was great, especially Venice. Totally unobstructed views.

When we went last November we just booked Husky Sledding privately and it was the most wonderful trip. All other ports we just researched ourselves and they were easy to navigate. Our trip to the Norwegian Museum was about a 30 min walk from the ship and just cost us the entry fee. We arrived before the tour coach and it was much cheaper.

On 8/10/2019 at 7:13 PM, terrierjohn said:

I have had this reason given on another forum, but am still sceptical, if it were true every single port in the world would be similarly effected but to a massively greater degree.

Imagine  a lovely stone bridge in a typical cotswold village. A 25 ton lorry going over it will cause more damage than 25 one ton cars. 

What are you sceptical about? 

Most port approaches are dredged to ease the approach and the ports are made of steel and concrete. In Venice the scenic approach is through a centuries old canal that was never intended for these huge commercial vessels that resemble floating apartment blocks. The foundations of the city are thousands of wooden piles driven into the lagoon rather than modern materials.

The cruise terminal is purpose built and they may decide that it can accommodate ships up to a certain size but the approach will need to avoid the city.

I've seen drink fuelled misbehaviour and rowdiness and on one occasion some pushing and shoving but I do fear that with 'all you can drink' packages and the cheap deals verses foreign holidays given the current exchange rate that the demographic who are likely to 'kick-off' will increase.
it does seem to be hyped up by the tabloids compared to the reports coming from passengers actually on board but still not good reading.

Looks lovely though the corridor carpet is not to my liking at all. Such a shame that, as a family, we'll not be able to enjoy it. I know why P&O have done it but I do feel that not all families want to be on the big ships and that some of the itineraries, such as the northern lights, will now be unavailable for families to enjoy. 

P&O have confirmed that they have increased the number of child places on the cruises but the Kids club limits are the same so there will be times when children will be turned away 😞 
With kids in 2 of the age ranges I can foresee some stressful family queueing if this is the case, we're hoping to get some adult time whilst they are in the club.