claudiniusmaximus

Good heavens. 
 

I hardly ever use these forums any more because all too often keyboard warriors seem poised to leap on and attack people wanting information or offering a

perspective. 
 

Seems like this one has fallen prey to it as well. 
 

I’m outta here. 

Hopefully, Lazybeachbum. It does seem to have been the worse thing to do. 
 

But they’ve quarantined everyone in that hotel in Tenerife last week. Whether they have the virus or not they are quarantined for two weeks within the hotel and then only allowed to leave if they test negative at the end of that two weeks. 

I do wish a quarantine protocol for people on holiday whether in a hotel or cruise ship would be decided upon and formally announced so at least people can make an informed decision about whether to travel. 

A vote for Arcadia over Aurora for me. Have sailed on both and wouldn’t do aurora again. 

In terms of the cinema, yes the Aurora cinema is much better - but on our 17 night cruise on her they only showed films on port days, so it wasn’t open on sea days (which seemed odd). 
 

I didn’t like Anderson’s because it’s a closed off room, so no people watching, and the piano bar was just a dozen chairs in a small space which was just basically the entrance to Anderson’s. The pub and the casino rolled into one and the pub was full of kids (this was the year before it went adults only). 
 

I also found the crows nest oppressive and dark with a dark heavily patterned carpet and all that dark brass everywhere. Reminded me of the 1970s (although some might like that). Less of an issue in the evening. 
 

Love the Crows Nest on Arcadia, so light, and large. Thought the entertainment on Arcadia was much better (but guess that varies depending on which group of performers are on board). Love the fact the bars and lounges on Arcadia are set back from the walkways but have a pavement cafe feel, you can people watch as people go about the ship. Also like the decor, think she’s elegant, understated, all those light blues and light woods. 
 

I think Sindhu is a lot better on Arcadia (maybe we just had a poor night in Aurora). I think the buffet food on both ships is dire, but prefer restaurant on Arcadia. 
 

Lots of windows in the lounges on Aurora were blown so permanently clouded between the panes. Annoyingly so, even in the crows nest. 
 

Would be nice if Arcadia had a beach house or glass house. We’ve been on Arcadia four times and Aurora once. Be nice if Arcadia didn’t leak! 

From what I’ve read on TripAdvisor wasps are out in force in Greece in September. We’ve done Greece in May and it was lush. The forests smelled of honey. 

Not disputing that p&o isn’t a mid market cruise line...

But I do find it odd that the black tie nights are one of the things that are considered keeping up standards or upmarket as all the really upmarket cruise lines (and restaurants and hotels etc) have “country club” or “evening chic” dress codes. 

Same for the fixed dining times...really upmarket cruises are moving/already have club dining where you can dine any time don’t they? 

Dont get me wrong, I totally understand that some people love the black tie nights, but I’ve long thought it a bit strange that some of the mid markets lines insist on it when really posh places don’t. 

Thanks for the updates folks.

Personally, whether it’s a hotel or a cruise ship, I do feel buckets catching leaks all over the place lessens the experience somewhat however I booked knowing her history of leaks so I’m going into it eyes open as it were.

I was hopeful when no one mentioned it in the recent online reviews that the issue had been resolved but I suspect that (like the HAL ships of the same design) plumbing is going to remain a challenge but do appreciate the updates very much. 

1 hour ago, Purdey16 said:

Hi claudiniusmaximus

We were on Arcadia from middle of October till middle of November 2018  and she did have a few leaks , one was in the theater for a couple of days and one up in the spar area the carpets were quite wet for a few days but nothing to cause a nuisance .

Thanks Purdey16. I was told by someone on the forum that that particular ship design/class has this Issue and that HAL ships of the same design have the leaks too. It’s a shame as it does take the shine off a bit (and being on a leaking ship can be a tad disconcerting lol) but I booked knowing it was possibly still the case so mustn’t grumble. 

24 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

Unfortunately those lists do not give the total number of cabins available, they normally only list about 10, and as I commented in the early post quite often if you try to use the cabin availability feature it does not work.

I find it far better to use an online TA, their systems do give them access to all available cabins and have a far faster response time, plus you can generally receive an additional discount,especially if you are a regular customer.

I just edited my post above to show some screenshots (and remove my comments about a map which apparently isn’t there, don’t know where I got that from).  

They show 50 deluxe balcony cabins in total at the moment to choose from. There may well be more available in reality but for me that’s plenty to choose from.

I can totally understand your preference for a TA esp if you want to check a particular cabin number. 

In this case as I was completely flexible on cabin grade I was able to see around 200 cabins. Back in the days before the internet I remember going to a TA who was able to check cabin by cabin or

suggest eg “C243 is available”. That didn’t work out any more helpful as I still neeeded to look at deck plans etc. I’m sure these days they are able to be more comprehensive. 

44 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

Can you please post a guide to how you do this, I have never been able to see a list of all available cabins by deck, and quite often if you try checking by cabin they all state not available, sometimes even the ones that they list as available.

I just went through as if making a booking - when I got as far as choosing my cabin I chose which grade I wanted (and in this particular case because the price for inside and balcony was so close I tried various cabin grades). The next screen that opened was “choose your cabin” or something like that and it showed a list of available cabins on eg A deck in that grade with a sort of cabin 

On the left of the screen was the option to click on different decks and see the cabins on those decks in the same grade. 

I kept a deck plan open open on another page so that as well as using the cabin map to see what cabins for each grade were available I could also see what was above and below. 

FWIW I also did a dummy booking on an online cruise agent website and the same options came up there too. 

Ive just done a dummy booking now

and took some screenshots. 

Lol thanks Blodwyn!

Hi Folks

Just booked an 11 nighter on Arcadia in December. Price was amazing and in the last few cruises we’ve done we really missed a crow’s nest and Arcadia has a lovely crow’s nest. 

We’ve been on Arcadia twice before in 2009 and 2017 and there were ceiling leaks both times (lots in 2017!! All over the place). 

Ive had a look at the last dozen or so reviews of the ship and no one has mentioned the leaks so just wondering...have they sorted that issue out now? 

On 2/2/2019 at 1:27 PM, jeanlyon said:

You definitely do not see all available cabins when booking online.  For instance on Oriana whenever I did it, it only showed A Deck cabins for inside, you then had to type in an example cabin - say D141, or D142.  My travel agent has access to all cabins.

That’s odd - I always book online and it allows me to go deck by deck listing all the available cabins in different categories on each deck, and I can always see what’s above and below the cabin etc etc. You have to click on each deck but they have always always been there. 

Yeah it is a little odd. In a roundabout way some (maybe all) of the American cruise lines have a similar (albeit not quite the same) sort of thing with the currency issue. 

Eg I was looking at a New England cruise on the Princess website at $900 when just generally hunting around but couldn’t actually book through the American website and got redirected to the U.K. website where the same cruise and cabin was £900 (it should have been about £650 with the currency exchange) so we were being way overcharged in the U.K.  

Similarly with Celebrity - on the celebrity US website they have all sorts of offers and inclusions that when you go to book on the UK website aren’t available (and you can’t even access the US website anymore it just autoredirects to UK version). 

Also both princess and celebrity allow you to cancel without penalty on the US website which we can’t book through. 

The difference of course is that those companies do have country specific websites for many different countries so we can  book with them albeit it as less favourable rates and terms, whereas p&o don’t have websites in other countries. 

Also re:using a VPN to access different country websites, I’m sure I recall reading on one of the American cruise line forums on here that if you do use the american

sites to book from another country then turn up at the dock they may refuse entry on some technicality that is fraud-related but of course don’t know whether p&o would do that. 

Yeah I read “trip” as “holiday/cruise” (plural just meaning “in general”) but realised later you meant excursion 👍

Oh unless you mean an excursion? I assumed you meant the cruise itself. If you mean the excursion then yes you can cancel I believe. 

You’ll lose your deposit though and at only four weeks maybe more. 

You might find this post from yesterday useful 

https://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/topic/2621153-advice-for-new-to-po-cruiser/

I suspect one of the main differences is the “Britishness” of the experience. Not just in the food served but in the overall experience.

Eg

-They fly union jacks and hand out Union Jack flags for passengers to wave at sailaways

-When leaving the final port they have the “Great British Sailaway” and  blare out Rule Brittania and Land of Hope and Glory etc in the final port sailaway. They love it if there’s a German ship in port so they can play it extra loud, for instance. 

-They tend to have a “British” themed show at some point in the theatre eg World War 2/Vera Lynn stuff or even just when having night dedicated to “Queen” songs they came on waving Union Jacks and the dancers were wearing Union Jack dresses etc. 

So youll probably notice that a fair bit. Some love it. Some not so much. 

And so on....

So that will prob be different to MSC/Costa (I don’t know if Thomson follow a similar format in terms of drumming home the Britishness). 

We also just returned from the Oceana cruise to Hamburg for NYE. 

NYE itself was fab. The house band “The Waves” warmed us up beforehand then up to top deck for the most awesome fireworks display which went on for an hour. The firework surrounded the ship. Amazing. The captain said in his announcement next day that he had done NYE in multiple places around the world and the fireworks in hamburg were the best he’d seen. 

Re your other half and stormy seas - we had a day and night of storms. 7 metre swells and 65 knot winds which equate to force 9 gale. The waves were hitting the ship from the side so quite a bit of lilting and the occasional loud bang when a wave hit us. 

Hamburg itself is a bit “meh” but the actual NYE celebrations were great. 

In bruges we did the Flanders field excursion. Expensive for what it was but Tyne Cot cemetery was very moving. 

The ship looked great. It misses having a lounge/bar on the higher decks but shes a lovely ship. Even the buffet was passable. Dining room food good. Tried cafe jardin - good food but didn’t like the vibe. 

13 minutes ago, JF - retired RRT said:

You're correct, Princess is more flexible in the US. However, the few times I've seen anyone on CC have success with this is for a death in the immediate family.

And as noted above, before final payment is a "maybe" for UK.

Oh dear that doesn’t sound hopeful 😟

12 minutes ago, justafem said:

If you are before the final payment date, it's as simple as cancelling the cruise.  You should receive a full refund, unless you were booked under an non refundable deposit promotion. 

Unfortunately that’s not the case in the U.K.  All deposits are non refundable sadly over here (that’s why was asking about changing the cruise rather than just cancelling) 

Sadly it looks at though we will need to change our cruise planned for June due to some unexpected financial costs. I’m in the U.K. and we don’t have “cancel for any reason” insurance as it’s just not available here. 

So wondering if Princess will let us transfer our deposit booking to a different date, ship, intinerary later in the year. Our current cruise was booked direct with Princess and includes (flexible) flights and hotels etc. 

I’m actually on a cruise right now but not Princess or i’d ask them at future cruise sales. 

Does anyone know if Princess allow it for U.K. cruisers? I know in the states it’s much more flexible than here. 

I will of course ring princess in due course but just find it useful to find out via these boards first. 

We are on a 5 nighter on Oceana. No evening turn down the first night “because the clocks go forward” (pretty sure that hasn’t happened to us before) but it was just the first night and we had the turn down service last night. 

Although just to contradict myself; if prices don’t rise to cover the free gratuities then they will be cheaper than most other cruise lines.