Ardennais

I can cope with this weather but any hotter and we would be wilting. Good job it’s our last stop!

Cadiz today. Gorgeous weather.

Not a spelling mistake as such, but a non Welsh word which didn’t make any sense!

I remember now that there used to be a sort of overview in the cabin on arrival. Nothing this time and I keep everything!

It has been full there on the sea days and most pleasant. Staffed properly too!

Exactly. Well said.

No complaints from us on Britannia. Don’t think the cabin has been vacuumed but not a problem.

I never mentioned over-crowding. We were in fact pleasantly surprised at all the space and seating available. I still think there should have been better planning beforehand and possibly staff could be better deployed. How about fewer passenger cabins and more crew berths in the first place? It seems to me that some people think that school holiday cruisers should just put up with slow service as it’s their own fault for choosing these cruises. We are currently on Britannia. It’s probably over-staffed!! The waiters are hovering in the atrium, actively looking for orders and clearing tables almost as you put your cup and fork down.

Ok. I’ll try again! I love the theatre. Beats sitting in a bar any day/night.

Didn’t know you could do that! I’ll ask someone if I remember.

Britannia. Yes. We’ve also had Indian and British.

Buffet tonight:

We do the Syndicate quiz when the children or other family members are with us. We don’t bother if it’s just the two of us.

Not my problem! Iona’s atrium half term Feb was messy. Tables weren’t cleared for hours - seriously, I sat there reading in the afternoons and people weren’t being served for ages. The staff on my current cruise have time to interact and chat. It’s sooo different! The mega ships are marketed as great for family cruises and should be staffed properly. I really hope they manage it for the long summer break at the very least.

I’m currently on a cruise. It’s term time. Very few children. Well staffed. This level of service (or close to it) should be the norm even during the school holidays.

Exactly. So our cruise was, in our opinion, short staffed.

Your full didn’t include the 800+ children!

We definitely thought that Iona was extremely short staffed during our Feb half term cruise. We enjoyed our cruise but I didn’t think the service good enough when folk pay a premium to travel during school holidays for whatever reason. It’s all well and good telling people to avoid school holidays - but it’s unavoidable for many.

Lovely weather where we are!

You’re missing the point. We had a great time on Iona, and yes, we will sail in her again. Might be school holidays, might not. However, the people who do cruise during the school holidays often can’t sail during term time. Prices are also higher! They deserve a good cruise too, with good levels of service. I have sailed on Ventura for a 5 week cruise in January where there was only a handful of infants aboard - a totally different experience to our Ventura cruise the previous August.

Still 13 weeks of the year and I know many parents take their children out of school for a few days either side of official school holidays too. Some half term weeks are different in the 4 nations too, so you’re looking at closer to 16 weeks of the year. These mega ships need to be staffed properly for these cruises too.

Possibly, but they could deploy staff in different ways. As I said, they could have opened another station in the buffet. To be honest, I thought they were very short staffed in places - not clearing tables in the atrium, etc and it wasn’t a good look. If the cabin staff aren’t servicing the cabins in the evening, then I imagine they’re doing something else, but what exactly, I don’t know. In the past, the supervisors would be walking around telling staff to clear up etc. That wasn’t the case on our cruise. So I believe other posters when they say that they encountered queues etc. It does happen, but probably not on every cruise!

To be clear, the point that I was making is that there’s a difference between sailing ‘full’ in term time and a ‘full’ ship during the school holidays.

Of course it was, but they could have alleviated some of the waiting by opening additional sections of the buffet late at night, for instance. It didn’t bother us, we only wanted a hot drink and some crackers, but the queue for the hot food was the longest I’ve ever seen on a cruise!

I wasn’t complaining, merely pointing out that the queuing situation might be different when you’re on a school holiday cruise. Having children around doesn’t bother me. It wasn’t half term in Wales anyway, just the southern half of England. Regardless, people who cruise during the school holidays also deserve a good level of service. Yes of course, things are going to be busier, and you expect that, but staffing levels should be sufficient.