Hollers

Had no problems on Arvia last month. Booked the 2 Black Tie nights online before we sailed. That was for a table for 6, both at 6.15. Once on board we dined in either of the two MDRs each night. Here we used the My Holiday app and it was excellent. Usually joined the virtual queue about 6.40. and only once did we have a wait longer than 30 minutes. We factored in the wait time so that we could finish getting dressed for dinner/enjoying a drink on our balcony. On most nights we were booking for a table for two...no sharing. Pretty much seamless...but get used to the numbers in the virtual queue going slowly down from, say, 30, then going from e.g. 20 in the queue to a 'ping' and a Your table is ready' message! So virtually every night we walked into the MDR between 6.50 and 7.15. Suited us really well.

On 5/27/2024 at 8:22 PM, posford said:

Not wanting to emulate Selbourne or Tiger or all the other excellent reporters, I will give my honest review of my latest cruise.

 

Overall, really enjoyed the cruise.

 

Embarkation/Disembarkation,leaving the ship in port/returning to the ship in port. Absolutely fantastic and seamless.

Embarked 11.45, disembarked 7.45, absolutely no problems.

 

Food.

MDR dinner mainly very good. celebration nights fantastic.

MDR breakfasts, often dried up, not as good as Iona.

Olive Grove, absolutely fantastic.

Beach House, dire. Had our prepaid cost reimbursed. Head waiter, who recognised us from numerous cruises apologised for the food as said it was “not very good”.

Absolutely awful.

Loyalty embarkation lunch, absolutely excellent.

Loyalty portunius lunch dire. All three mains choices absolutely drenched in garlic. No cheese and biscuits as a desert. Had to insist on this and they were supplied. Loyalty manager was not interested in any feedback saying “it was a shoreside decision”

 

Entetainment, average. The Priverteers, who I was looking forward to did not turn up so the entertainment was down to the shows that we have already seen.  The pianist, Henderson Treble, was a good pianist but a poor singer.

 

Seadays were enhanced by having a couple of talks/interviews with Ollie Smith and Tom Parker-Bowles, very entertaining.

Lovely weather mostly to sit on the balcony, always a joy.

 

New alcohol policy, no comment.

 

Summary.

As an oldie, in my 70s, I really enjoy the big ships. Cabins large and new and furniture in all the venues new.

Andersons, lovely for late morning coffee, never packed.

 

Staff.

Had same table every night at 8.00, easy if you ask nicely.

Waiter and assistant waiter, fantastic. Two of the very best ever.

Cabin steward, absolutely useless. Always forgetting something.

Some days biscuits, some days not, some days towels some days not. One day Six facecloth,

other days towels hung on shower to dry. Made us laugh as he did try but was not very good.

Always a trial to get toilet rolls.

Captain Camby, very good, loads of info given every day.

 

These 2 new ships are very stable. Even in extremely bad weather they ride the seas very well.

 

 Looking forward to my 2 cruises on Iona in the Autumn.

 

Shame about the very poor itineraries going forward.

 

 

I was on that cruise and agree with many of your sentiments (I'm in the high 60s so no spring chicken myself!). It was very enjoyable. I don't know why Arvia gets so many bad reviews. Food, cleanliness, passage cabin, staff, Holiday App and a fair amount of the entertainment we're all good. Sorry your cabin attendant was not up to it. Very happy on Arvia again before long.

Where did you find the replacement cruises? We were on the June Baltic cruise that was cancelled, but have not received an email about the replacement cruises. Certainly won't be going on a round Britain cruise. 

On 12/3/2022 at 8:04 PM, Fozzie100 said:

Hello,

 

We are within 14 days of joining Azura and looked to pre-book restaurants (the beach house, Sindu).  Logged my booking and usually you can book before you board, however the option is not there.  We were able to book on Britannia in August.  Has this changed with Azura?.

 

thank you

We were on Britannia in August and there was no pre booking for the Beach House. Under the 'new', most restaurants can be booked once on board.  

Just noticed it now. A shame, but I guess it is security related. Also more people will be choosing not to book the Baltics with the current situation as it is. 

Not a surprising development. I will be interested to see what the alternatives are when they are released.

Thanks for the advice. Always rely on the good old desktop!

 Thanks Windsurfboy. I now think I can see the difference. If you view all P and O cruises through this message board, then they do appear to be in order.

However if you  use a search engine to search, for example, 'Britannia Cruise Critic reviews' (probably how most people read reviews), then the reviews appear in a random order.  At the end of the day though, all reviews are very subjective, if interesting to read.

Very strange. Just been in now and not in date order. I know some people review a while after they have cruised but there is no logic in the ordering.

Pleasantly surprised to see most most people, from youngsters to the elderly, made an effort to dress up on our recent Britannia cruise. 

It's not compulsory, but as it's a feature of P and O cruises most people who book with them seem to like the idea.  

Could someone please explain how cruise reviews are ordered on Cruise Critic? I find the random order infuriating as what you read can easily be outdated and thus unhelpful.

I recently returned from a brilliant Med cruise on board Britannia.

However,  on opening the Cruise Critic's reviews of Britannia, outdated comments from a year or more ago stare at you. So for example, COVID protocols and the use of the My Holiday app highlight issues which are not current and therefore are misleading.

Why are reviews not sequenced in date order? This has to be the most helpful approach for readers. Can Cruise Critic amend this idiosyncracy?

25 minutes ago, Riddoch said:

There is one of the YouTubers that have been on Iona recently had an entire suitcase of cans to facilitate their diet coke addiction.

Mixers in their boxes were fine in the suitcases (we have never had a problem there), just the 2 litres of alcohol in the hand luggage (2 small rucsacs very useful). 

Get yourself 1 or 2 mixer packs from your local supermarket and put them in your fridge once onboard. They did very well for us to go with the bottles of Gin and Malibu we took on with us at Southampton.

I think the excursions may not be shown there. Looks as if they will only be available after boarding Iona.

Just now, Hollers said:

Just received a message from P and O to say Iona is no longer calling at Geiranger for operational reason. No great problem as nearby Hellesylt will be given a full day with excursions from there.

Wondered if anyone knew what the 'operational reasons' are. Ship too big to berth?

I should add this is for the cruise departing Southampton 21 May.

Just received a message from P and O to say Iona is no longer calling at Geiranger for operational reason. No great problem as nearby Hellesylt will be given a full day with excursions from there.

Wondered if anyone knew what the 'operational reasons' are. Ship too big to berth?

10 hours ago, david63 said:

You need to do a hard refresh of your browser

Thanks David, that worked a treat with my Chrome browser.

A problem for me too. I can access My Cruises on my desk top but on my mobile the screen says the website is undergoing maintenance.

I also have had the login screen appear intermittently. Clearly the maintenance is not yet fully sorted.

Hope this does not affect the My Holiday app when I cruise very shortly.

Will contact P and O if the problem is still there after the weekend.