cyprus1959

Can anyone please confirm whether your luggage to Jamaica is bonded? Never been to Jamaica before but been to Barbados a few times where your luggage is bonded. Tried asking TUI but their answers are so ambiguous it is beyond belief TIA..

sorry but their is more to my cruises than alcohol and dont pick my cruise line just because they have cheap drink prices. For how much i drink the price is negligible and think the whole cruise package on cunard is far superior than on p&o and worth every penny extra. The same drinks we have on cunard might cost over the whole cruise £50 more than what i would pay on p&o so is not worth spending thousands on an inferior cruise just to save £50.

:):rolleyes::D

When there in November we used our UK allowance for WiFi, we could even receive a signal when sailing up the coast of Norway, only purchased 1 24 hour slot when we were to far from land to get a signal.

23KGS, is easily doable, we live in Cyprus and were staying in the UK after our Caribbean cruise last December, therefore we had to pack for both climates and we did it quite easily.

P&O are right and so am I

 

 

There is no service charge added to the price of drinks you purchase in the bars. It is there though although P&O might call it something else like 'bar staff incentivisation scheme". How do I know it is there? because the staff have told me on several different P&O ships.

 

 

This is how I was told it works. The bar sales for each bar are totalled up and the 'incentive total' calculated for that bar, this total is shared out amongst the staff working in that bar. The waiters are rotated around the various bars on the ship so everyone gets a fair share of the busy and quiet bars.

 

 

I was also told 'I don't like working in that bar because it is quiet and I don't get paid as much',

 

 

Ever wondered why the waiters in the coffee bar seem deeply disinterested? They get hardly any 'tips'.

 

 

Finally how would the customer care person know. They are reading their reply from a script.

 

 

ps - the bar keepers have different arrangements and the bottom line is we pay the waiters wages anyway, all of them.

Wow, firstly you say in clarifaction that P&O do add a service charge to their drinks, now you are saying they do not??? How do you know that the P&O CS person was "reading" their reply from a script?

P&O add a non itemised service charge to their drink prices. This is because bar waiters are not part of the £5.50 per day discretionary service charge scheme. I have heard that this charge is 12% and you can not remove it.

 

To clarify perhaps I should have written P&O drink prices include a non itemised service charge

According to P&O you are totally wrong, here is the email I received from them,

PO Reservations <customerservices@pocruises.com>

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​1:22 PM (2 hours ago)

to me

Dear Mr Davies,

Thank you for your email.

100% of the service reward is shared between accomodation and restaurant service staff.

There is no service charge on drink purchases from the bars onboard.

I hope this information has helped to answer your enquiry and we look forward to welcoming you on board soon.

Kind regards

Zoe

Customer Services

P&O Cruises

P&O add a non itemised service charge to their drink prices. This is because bar waiters are not part of the £5.50 per day discretionary service charge scheme. I have heard that this charge is 12% and you can not remove it.

 

To clarify perhaps I should have written P&O drink prices include a non itemised service charge

If that is the case then the drinks on board were still cheaper than what we were paying in the Premier Inn at Gatwick airport. I was pleasantly surprised with the prices of the drinks and thought they would have been more costly.

P&O add a non itemised service charge to their drink prices. This is because bar waiters are not part of the £5.50 per day discretionary service charge scheme. I have heard that this charge is 12% and you can not remove it.

This did not happen on Britannia on our Carribean cruise in December, the only prices we were charged for were the drinks.

Yes, I believe it closes 7 days before the cruise.

 

 

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Ah, that explains it then, thanks for the reply.

I have just been on to my cruise personaliser to try and change my seats I have booked for my flight on the 3rd of December. However it now says this action is unavailable, is this normal or is there a problem?

Thanks everyone - I'll give P&O a call in the next week or so. The Thomas Cook website wants me to enter a Thomas Cook booking reference so I guess I'll have to go direct to P&O (I booked direct with P&O)

Hi, did you manage to sort your meals out for your flight?

Really looking forward to trying the vegan fayre offered onboard.

Food - what was it like?

 

Restaurant:

I chose what I wanted for dinner for the following evening. The vegetarian and vegan menu although not exhaustive was very appetising. You could chose a vegetarian meal and have it altered for vegan.

My favourite dessert was Baklava as this matched my sweet pallet! There was a cauliflower based meal (sorry can't think what it was called) which was a favourite. Didn't like the risotto, but that was more from a personal taste rather than how it was cooked etc.

Horizon court:

Slightly more freedom of choice and the food was fresh-particularly the salads. You could also have additional vegetables like roast spuds. Rice was out and about too. There was a side counter catering for vegan (also vegetarian, gluten free, lactose free, diabetic) but this was small, so choice was minimal. You really had to scout about and check out the "normal" foods to see what you could have. There were vegan cakes but generally only had one choice and they were very small compared to "normal" cakes! So you have to have two!!! They were quite nice but could be very dry-could be improved on. Some nights when I was peckish I ended up just having a bowl of chips-lovely! All in all the food was ok. The staff were very accommodating.

That is really helpful, thank you so much :)

Hi I have just returned from Britannia first time cruising as a Vegan.

Inform P and O before you travel and an invite will be in your cabin to see restaurant manager on sail away day to discuss your diet needs.

Each evening in the Main restaurant a dedicated waiter gives you a separate menu where you can select your meal for the next evening. A few Vegan choices are available.

Horizon court, Various options available daily, Pick and mix from various food stations. Some Lunches-evenings a stir fry station where you can select what is cooked, There is a special diet station with Vegan pastries. They keep extra cakes in a chill cabinet and replace regally. Fresh cooked chips available late at night if you ask to add to what is available. Ask for Soya milk and waiters will get it all over the ship. Java does a nice Latte with Soya.

Have a nice cruise Maggie.

Thank you, much appreciated :)

Thanks for your reply but I have already informed P&O of my dietary requirements. What I am looking for is someone`s personal experience of the quality and diversity of meals that are offered as part of the vegan menu.

Has anyone had Vegan meals on the Britannia lately? I have done a search but all related posts are quite old, any info/advice appreciated.

Thanks for the replies, much appreciated. As I live in Cyprus I don`t want to be carting a suit around that I don`t need, as we are travelling around the UK pre and post cruise :)

Is it compulsory to wear something black or white on these nights? The suit I have is dark blue and I do not own a black one.

Scheduled as 788 Dreamliner

It is actually a 787-8 Dreamliner but for some reason it gets labelled 788, when in fact there is no such plane from boeing, it is part of the 787 family :)

We fly back from Barbados to Gatwick on the 17th, if you are flying with Thomson it is on the 787 Dreamliner :)