Balaena

Looking on the P&O website and checking availability of cabins on the 2020 Ventura cruises and I'am getting this flag! The 2017/18 ones are available to peruse.

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Either BOF or EOF is True, or the current record has been deleted. Requested operation requires a current record.

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Is it just me or is anyone else getting the same flag. Just like to know what the availability is left in the grade we secured after booking our 2020 January and March cruises.

Bal

Got them going back to '82. The cost of a cabin in those days, no balconies, was so much more than they cost today. Our first 2 week cruise with a porthole was £1600 each!! No wonder only 80,000 Brits went cruising then .. smiles.

Sorry, gone off the subject .. glad you have got your plan of what was a lovely ship.

Bal

So how do you answer - true of false

 

DAVID

Never took or take any alcohol on, these are just my observations on a recent cruise

Bal

From recent experience there seems to me to be a bit of a loophole in the implementation of the new alcohol policy. It is only the ships security staff that check you bags for alcohol when it passes through the on board scanner. The loophole for those wishing to bring the odd bottle or two onto the ship is that your baggage which passes through the 'off ship' security scanners i.e at Southampton embarkation, is not checked for the implementation of the new alcohol policy. This applies to both main luggage and roll on bags. Of course you may be asked if you have any alcohol as you pass through security on entering the ship but, they will not ask you to open your roll on bags unless they are clanking with the sound of bottles. However you may asked to show the contents of any carrier or hand bags. Your main luggage will of course eventually arrive at your cabin door.

How long this loophole will continue of course is anyones guess.

Bal

If passengers in Club dining remove the optional service charge and tip in cash then there is less money for P&O to distribute through their Service Reward Scheme.

 

The waiters in Club are thrilled if the passengers they serve give them cash tips instead of paying the optional service charge as although they receive less from the Service Reward Scheme, they have the cash on top.

 

On the other hand those waiters in Freedom suffer the reduction in the distribution from the Service Reward Scheme due to the passengers in Club not paying the optional service charge, but don't receive the cash tips the Club passengers handed out.

The thing is, although those waiters in freedom don't get the same number of cash tips as their club counterparts, the system of rotating the waiters from club to freedom and visa versa occurs on a number of occasions during their contracts, so all in all they all get the same opportunity for cash in hand.

Bal

In the old days .. well, until the early '90s, a steward would walk around the open decks with a tray of ice-cream tubs, free to anyone who wanted one. Interestingly there were no greedy folk grabbing several .. all nice and polite. Wonder what it would be like now .. ummmm.

Bal

136 P&O cruises .. 13 in the pipeline

The screen in the Metropolis on board Ventura has been 'dead' since April 17 which has been a disappointment for those who enjoy that bar. Could anyone now on board confirm if it has been fixed during the refit.

Bal

Ventura, currently on her Caribbean/USA sojourn, appears to be arriving back a smidge early according to Sothampton VTS. She was due on 12th March but now showing as alongside by 2345hrs on 11th March. Is this simply to give crew more time in preparation for her departure 12th March to refit, or does anyone know for sure why this is ?

No worries for me as will be asleep ready for the disembark in the morning. Fab cruise by the way.

bal

Heard it will be around the 15th March

Bal

Parents currently on Ventura. They contacted me last night to let me know they arrived in Antigua a day early and expect to be there for 3 nights. Apparently some mechanical issues with ship and they are trying to fix.

 

No news yet on how the remainder of the itinerary will be amended.

It's actually 2 full days and 2 overnights. It's beautiful and sunny here .. smiles. Some of the ports of call have been changed around and we lose the day at sea in the Caribbean to compensate for the extra day in Antigua, which is not a bad option. Yes, there are some mechanical problem that needs a fix but can't be the engines as we came across the pond at 19 knots.

Bal

I'm not sure where you get the information from "some will be boarding late evening" from. Ventura is due in just after 11am. P&O originally indicated 12noon arrival with embarkation from 4.30pm so with an earlier arrival loading should start earlier.

Yes she arrived at 11am but it takes the best part of 2 hours for clearance and offloading baggage. I understand priority disembarkation starts around 1.15 so full disembarkation will take up to 2 hours. Then they will have to do the final deep clean, so 4.30 sounds about right to me. Dai is the Master here, so be interested in his take on it.

Bal

Frankly those seeking a sun bed and find one unoccupied yet piled with books and personal bits should have the courage to remove the items from the sun bed(s) and place same on the deck. Expect a barrage from the previous occupier when they return, but ignore them and they will go away after a few minutes and look elsewhere to do the same as yourself.

Personally I don't sunbath but have witnessed selfishness of reserving sun beds on so many occasions and see no reason why folk are so able to flout the sun deck rules.

Stand up and be counted .. ummmm lay down and be counted.

My husband and I both leave our phones on silent when we go to eat as we both like to chat while we are eating, that said, neither of us play games, use Faceache or any other social media on our phones. I do think that it is sad that more and more couples and families no longer use the dinner table to interact.

We are exactly the same, nice table for two in select dining, lots of interaction between the two of us and indeed the waiters. Always enjoy dressing for dinner and long may it last. It is such bad manners of folk to spend dinner grunting at each other, ignoring the rest of their table and indeed their waiters while playing games on their 'phone. Ah well

Bal

Which means it was introduced by someone who joined the ship at the start of the 9th.

 

That’s were the problem lies.

 

 

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Yes it could be Dai, but how Deep was the Clean bearing in mind it was on the previous cruise as well.

I recall a number of years ago joining Oceana in Miami and all back to backers and those of us flying in, were put up in a hotel overnight while the ship was totally Deep Cleaned before we were allowed to join the ship the following day.

The US Port Authorities, unlike the UK Port Authorities check and recheck that the virus has been eradicated before passengers are allowed to embark.

Unfortunately we have to rely on that short period between disembarkation and embarkation, say 5 hours, for all the normal turnaround duties to be completed Plus THE Deep Clean. Like you I love the staff but they can only do so much in such a short timescale.

Bal

It occurred to me while basking in the evening sun on the good ship Ventura, that some folk on this site might be interested in knowing of the passing of Captain Chris Sample. Chris sadly left us on the 15th November and would be well known by passengers cruising on the Sea Princess and Victoria. Chris retired in 2001 and was also well known as being Captain Green Flash .. he would often call passengers up onto the deck in the evening to witness the sun setting and to watch for the 'Green Flash' as the sun just dipped below the horizon. Super guy and great Captain. RIP old lad.

Bal

I have been to officers parties at lunch time on QE2 so it's nothing new. It will in part depend on the number of formal nights available for all of the parties that need to be fitted in.

We have cruise P&O for a number of years now and are thinking about trying our posher cousins. What I find interesting about this thread is the word Parties. In days gone by P&O would have a Captains a Pursers and an Engineers party and you might get invited to one or two of these. These days we (on P&O) just get a welcome aboard party, generally on the second night and, an Loyalty party where officers attend. So my question is, what parties do Cunard hold on an average 14 night cruise these days.

Bal

Our Cunard PCS works wonders, plus lots of little extras and French pink bubbles for any special occasion. If, and one does mean if, they are any problems, a short call or e-mail to her and forget about it - always resolved promptly.

...... (name) has become a friend and PCS to all our family.

Sadly, don't think one is allowed to name the actual person on CC.

Just as it was with P&O until June this year then all amalgamated into the call centre. What intrigues me is that the call centre handles both P&O and Cunard transactions but clearly they have kept some PCS separate to handle Cunard Customers and not P&O's. Is this your take on it.

Bal

A question for those of you who cruise Cunard regularly. Do you have a Personal Cruise Advisor in the Southampton call centre? We are P&O passengers err guests and until Mid year had the services of a PCA which was great as he knew all about our booking requirements without asking. This facility was then removed for all P&O regulars so now we have to take pot luck with who is available in the call centre. Does the same apply to our posher cousins who regularly travel Cunard .. smiles.

Bal

Britannia is no different from any ship in that respect. They all feel packed on rough sea days. Yes there are twice as many passengers, but the ship is twice as big! I'd be interested to see some stats on 'public area space per passenger', as I can't help but feel that it would debunk some myths about the bigger ships.

I guess a reasonable, not perfect calculation would to divide the tonnes of a ship by the number of passengers. Tonnes being the enclosed space occupied by revenue earning areas. So cabins would be included as they are on all passenger ships .. Oh! or do we call them guest ships! And, all the other internal lounges, eateries, theatres, corridors, shops and so on would be included.

I'll let someone else do the calculations. Ha!

Bal

Here is another article which you might find interesting.

http://www.express.co.uk/travel/cruise/725816/PO-Cruises-new-ship-launches-2020-inside-out

Bal

The new P&O ship will be a sister of one currently being built for Costa. I've added an attachment so that you can get a better appreciation on the 'look'. Clearly the Costa ship will be different internally and looks like she will be carrying more passengers that the P&O creation. Balconies are going to be much the same size as Britannia, so small and I believe the itinerary will only feature 7 night cruises. P&O's new ship will feature a huge glass dome permanently midships, this will cover the pool which in itself will have a retractable stage for shows and events when not being used for swimming. I think the sunbathing area will be severely limited but on the plus side she will have a promenade deck circling the ship.

https://www.cruisecritic.co.uk/reviews/review.cfm?ShipID=1283

Bal

Ummm like Dai we always book our suite when the brochure is launched. Frankly after over 100 P&O cruises we find this is the best policy by and large .. well, it is for us. We get the suite of our choice and more often as not, the final 'what's left over suite' offerings are considerably more expensive. A good example is the 35 nighter on the Ventura in February. We booked and got the suite of our choice, a B4 grade suite for £12260, compared to the current £21202 for a 'guarantee' suite. Yes, the price might come down closer to the time but would you want the worse possible positioned suite on the ship in order to possibly save tuppence.

Bal

15 more in the pipeline

I don't think you need to justify a slight error. Let's face it we all make mistakes although I do believe that some posters think they are perfect. I have only recently joined this site and thought I would get some constructive and useful information from people such as yourself but it seems that any mistake or difference of opinion is greeted with some form of sarcasm. I appreciated your post as I am going on Arcadia in January so any information about the ship, good or bad is very useful. Thank you

Cheers

Bal

So, no 'awful' problems on a cruise that wasn't to the 'Caribbean '. The problems on the Canadian cruise are well documented, but the op post is just so far from actuality as to be cringe worthy.

 

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What a nice person you are .. ummmmmm. For the record and as I noted in my original post, I passed on a comment from a friend who had receive £2000 back for their awful cruise, their words not mine as I wasn't on the cruise. Yes, I got the destination wrong but as you will see in this thread, I corrected it on the 4th post. What a shame that you that you were so embarrassed with my slight error. I do hope you get over it and not cringing anymore.

Bal

can you give us any more info? They've only just set off for Caribbean, seams very soon to be offered compensation.

Sorry, it was the USA and Canada cruise which has just returned.