Triggertravel

Some great and useful guides and information on this Thankyou for posting , but why do you think p&o don’t include Guadeloupe  in their carribean itinerary instead of the normal same old same old itinerary . I know there has been numerous posts on p&o  itinerary selection  

Guadeloupe is a  place that I’ve never been too, but would love to visit  , and also like to tick off, but for some reason  P&O avoid it like the plague. Unless you’re   on a  Southampton to Southampton Caribbean cruise Is there a reason why They don’t go there I love the French Caribbean islands   

Yes I will aswell .iam not booked to go on this         Cruise but my mother in law is, and she is not happy.she s like  most     of    you ,  that    have had this cruise  booked for a long time ,very very annoyed . iam also fed up of hearing about ports of calls being cancelled because of operational reasons its about time they started explaining the reasons behind there changes in more depth instead of just sending a generic email out .    This never ever happened or very rarely happened      Sadly it seams to be the norm now                                        

Having come of arvia in the last week or so,we found that the ship felt more like being in a boutique hotel,than being on a cruise ship ,no real nautical fixture and fittings if any and it is certainly gearing up for the next cruise generations.it is a beautiful ship and we will certainly go on her again , but as we all know the future of cruising is changing, and sadly the traditions that go with it

For the last few times we have visited Tortola we have avoided cane garden beach because of how busy it gets .we now go to long bay beach,beef  island absolutely beautiful , with lots of space and room  about 30 mins from the port ………we love Tortola 

We have just got back of arvia , and although the ship is wonderful, and it really is . the lack of deck space for sunbeds is what lets it down in my opinion.if you wanting to get a prime location on deck you will be looking at 6am, yes that’s rite 6am it’s ridiculous and I know it’s that time because I was one of those up there at that time. It was ridiculous to see people setting their locations and beds up in pitch black darkness and iam embarrassed to say that I was one of them . There was even sun beds across the running track ??? In which also  bizarrely goes past the smoking area ??? In short ship is fantastic we really enjoyed it the deck plan needs to be te thought about IMO

 Does anybody know why they have earmarked 4 to 5 cruises for testing ? Seams very bizarre to me . We fly to Barbados next Friday to join arvia , we have contacted our TA just for clarity on the situation but all that they could tell us  is that our cruise is not affected 

25 minutes ago, TigerB said:

We disembarked from the inaugural TA cruise yesterday and thought the overall entertainment package was underwhelming. There were no acts that I would class as 'headliners'. Do you see what I did there?😉  If you wanted to see a mediocre singer of other artiste's ballads, who was a runner up BGT in 2011 or the second cousin of that lass who was on The Voice that time, then you would be very happy.

 

The guest artiste's in the main theatre were:

Dean Stansby (crooner pianist)

CJ Illusions (magic)

Remixed (male vocal trio)

Shellyann (female vocalist)

Jon Udry (comedy juggler) ...yes, you read that right!

Monroe (female vocal trio)

If I've missed any, I'm sure someone will fill in the blanks.

The resident theatre company's performances were (trying to be constructive here) mixed, and occasionally cringeworthy; good visual and lighting effects, though.

 

Elsewhere on the ship were the usual pianists, crooners, and upbeat bands, including 'Caribbean Band' Phoenix and the resident 'Party Band' Pulse; the former playing mainly in the Sky Dome and the latter in the Club House.

We didn't care much for the Sky Dome - too full-on beach party, loud and with poor acoustics. But, don't let our opinion put you off. We preferred the Club House and Pulse, who performed a wide range of music. The latter were a fairly young band but gelled well together; the two singers were better than the the Britannia incarnation last September. That said, Mark, the musical director for the Britannia Pulse, had very similar musical tastes to mine, and their interpretations of 70s rock classics were better, including an enjoyable Pink Floyd set.

The Club House is better laid out than the Live Lounge on Britannia, has better acoustics, and there are plenty of screens dotted around it.

 

If it's comedians you want, there were a grand total of two, not including the fella juggling his balls. Before Tenerife, it was Jason Patterson who was okay, but the daytime guest speaker, retired DCI Terry Brown, had funnier anecdotes and kept a full Club House hanging on his every word. There was another comedian that was listed on the My Holiday booking doodah (I can't remember his name) but had to fly home without giving a performance. He was, I think, replaced by Jack Ryan, a Scouser who often failed to reach his target audience, with some stony faced septuagenarians at the earlier sets; why sit right at the front when a comic is performing and be surprised or offended if he targets you? He appeared to hit the mark though with his late night adults only show.

 

If you are interested in the 710 club, book early; it is only small and was booked solid from the beginning to the end of our cruise, apart from several of the quarter past midnight shows.

 

As for dining, there is plenty of choice. If it is your plan to eat in one of the MDRs most, if not all evenings, then book on the planner before you board to get your preferred time. If you wait until you get onboard and use the My Holiday booking system, you may not get your preferred time or have to join the virtual queue each day.  Certainly, if you want to dine in an MDR on a formal night, book well in advance.

The two MDRs are the same, albeit the Meridian does not have tablecloths except for the formal night. Apart from when we ate in speciality restaurants, we had the same table in Zenith for breakfast and dinner.

Of the extra charge restaurants, we had excellent meals in Epicurean, Green & Co, and Sindhu. If you book before you board you will benefit by getting cheaper prices. For example, Epicurean cost us £24 (less Peninsula discount) each before we boarded but was £30 if booked on board; Green & Co and Sindhu cost us a £10 cover charge (less the dizzy) before we boarded, and then we got 20% off all food items, which is deducted before they deduct the cover charge.

 

Overall...

Entertainment: hit & miss

Dining: generally good

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thankyou tigerB for your feedback , this is very helpful. We was on Arcadia last July,iceland and terry brown was on then.and with the weather being cold and mostly wet on sea days we ended up going to all of his talks very good, and also very very funny . I bumped into him in the bar a couple of times and had a chat mostly about football , but a genuinely nice guy . I hope he a still on when we go just for the football chat in the bar. But Thankyou again 

Hi everybody 

iam just fishing for any information from anybody that has already been on,Or is currently on board arvia. The wife and I will be boarding her on feb 3rd in Barbados so we are very excited . We have viewed the entertainment that is listed on the my po personnel planner , and must admit that we’ve  not really been blown away with what is on offer ,for saying it’s a brand new ship ,we thought that the entertainment would be amazing , but we have been left disappointed  .we have also noticed that No comedians are listed at all at this stage which has disappointed  us . So just wondering for those already on board or have already been was there any comedians on your particular cruise , or were there any listed on you po personnel planner before you went ? Also the restaurants sound amazing we have booked a couple  , but which would you recommend ? All help and advice would be greatly appreciated 

Hi

my wife and I are contemplating booking our first Cunard cruise. We have been loyal p&o customers for over 30 cruises and after seeing standards start slipping over the last few years,and partly due to the pandemic we have decided that maybe our loyalty doesn’t really count for much,which is a shame as we have had some superb cruises , so as we will be potentially newbees to Cunard could you tell me what notable differences we would find good or bad between the two brands,any feedback would be greatly appreciated 

4 to 500 people in isolation on Arcadia s recent cruise????? Really  I’ve just come of that cruise . Could I please ask Where are people getting there information from  cos there was certainly no suggestion of that amount of cases as bars and both restaurants were pretty full . All entertainment venues and bars pretty full. I’ve certainly learnt that there is a hell of a lot mis leading information and scare mongering from people with zero facts . That I have read whilst being on this cruise. I have spoken to certain crew members about certain situations and believe me you couldn’t be further away from the truth with your facts and figures ?? I think they used to call it lazy journalism 

After reading the numerous negative posts on here I’d like to give you my current experience whilst on board Arcadia. First of all I was very disappointed to of of lost all Norway ports of call,do you adverse weather conditions , in all fairness the weather hasn’t been great on the way up, so we ended up in Kirkwall Orkney islands I’ve never been so that part of the world is ticked of . We then set sail for Iceland again weather was very poor and at one point must admit I thought are we going to make Iceland , but thankfully we did . And what a place wow , fantastic we are on our 2 nd day in Reykjavik. In regards of the dining  experience were on first sitting it was evident that there was new staff so Day 1 wasn’t great , but every day after that has been fantastic food great service great  in and out with 1 15 mins . Entertainment not great IMO but was glad to see angie brown resident singer is on board And is fantastic. There is a lot of people on board moaning at the smallest things, especially their dining experience , iam sorry but with limited dining options on board and we know the reasons ( no staff)people new this after  a couple of days but continue to moan and turn up late for there meals no sympathy what’s so ever.plan your day and evening better very simple. Sorry to rant but they are lucky that we have actually sailed 

I hope so as we should  be boarding her tomorrow.there is nothing to suggest that she won’t be sailing  at this stage , as we’ve received all relevant correspondence,but then again this is p&o,and nothing would surprise me 

Hi does anybody know how close the titanic museum is to the cruise ship berth,is it within walking distance ? Are there any shuttle buses put on ? Are there taxis ? Any feedback would be very much appreciated ,also other much see sites in Belfast , has anybody done the hop on hop of bus ? 

I think it’s me being more negative towards p&o more than anything a lot of port cancellations seam to be happening for what ever reason,and we’ve been affected by this, and reading on this forum so have slot of other people ,it just wouldn’t surprise me if they cancelled a few days before we are do to board . For the first Time in 20 years we have started looking at other cruise lines . But iam hoping it goes ahead and p&o try and win me over again 

We are booked on this cruise and we have been informed of a port change we will not be visiting skyolden and instead visiting stavanger and when we sail across to Iceland it has been swapped round so instead of finishing in Reykjavik it starts in Reykjavik . But in all honesty Iam still not so sure this cruise will happen . I hope Iam wrong ,

Does anybody know why p&o are changing/cancelling so many ports ? We are due to sail on Arcadia July 5th ( not over confident that will happen) and we’ve had skyolden changed for Stavanger very annoying , my mother-in-law has received 2 emails in the last 2 days for 2 different cruises she’s booked on informing her of 2 port changes with no explanation.she sails on britannia this Sunday and has just had Marseille changed for Toulon. This is becoming far too regular now.and surely us as paying customers should receive some sort of compensation or on board credit. I just feel that when we book our cruises a massive part of us is the itinerary and destinations but at the min you just don’t know where you’re going to. End up. I’ve been a loyal p&o customer for over 20 years,and must admit we have started looking at other cruise company’s now , it’s a shame really but the company has changed …………and not for the better

We’re booked on Arcadia 5 th July Norway/Iceland ( well hopefully)and we received an email telling us that because of port issues in Iceland they have removed skyolden and replaced it with stavanger,and all the ports that we are visiting in Iceland haves all changed dates meaning that we’re almost doing  it back to front,as first booked .an absolute knightmare  if people have booked trips independently . Not sure what is happening as this does seam to be happening on a common accurance 

Hi we’re  due to board Aurora on Thursday 5th may,we will be taking our pre cruise covid check shortly before we board , but my question is once aboard and settled in  does anybody know if we will be required to take another  test part way through the  cruise or before we enter any country . We visit Spain,Italy,Malta. We have been on 2 cruises since last October transatlantic , and Caribbean in feb. The transatlantic required a test before boarding then another test 3 days in before we got to Madeira the Caribbean required test before we got to the airport ,then a  Latrow flo  test before we flew on the day .I would appreciate any feedback on this subject 

This is concerning as we are booked on the July 5 th sailing to Norway and Iceland . I think I’ll  contact p&o direct to ask what is going off and if the our cruise is at riskjust in case I need to put a contingency plan in .what I don’t understand from previous posts is how can they have staff shortages ?and somebody posted that Aurora was also cancelling cruises ? Worrying and concerning for p&o or have they sold these ships ? And putting a smoke screen up 

Hi britboys,thank you for your reply .we visit alkueryi,Reykjavik overnight  and isafjordur all seem very interesting places . We are also calling at Belfast on our way home which Iam looking forward to visiting the titanic museum . We have booked a couple of trips in which you have named blue lagoon, and the golden circle this type of cruise is very of piste for us, as we normally do med/canaries in summer 

We are booked on Arcadia 5 th July Norway/Iceland .we have been to Norway a few times but have never been to Iceland . We are Really looking forward to it so. I just wanted to tap into any information or experiences that people have had whilst visiting Iceland . What Weather  We can expect , best clothing to take ,recommended trips,best place to see whale watching what’s Reykjavik like overbite ? I do know that Iceland is very expensive , but this won’t put me off doing things ,what’s the point of visiting countries if you don’t go out and about exploring . Your help, knowledge any past experiences  in this subject would be very helpful 

This was a fantastic trip.my wife and I did this whilst onboard azura 6 yrars ago. The weather was superb unbroken sunshine and 25 degrees.the views are incredible.sunbathing in the morning and snowball fight in the afternoon. Fantastic experience.my only advise on this trip would be to pick an afternoon tour if possible,gerainger is at the bottom of a fjord and because if it’s location it is surrounded by high/steep  mountains so when the sun does start to dip it’s soon behind a mountain leaving gerainger  in a cold dark shadow.

Hi everybody , we will be joining azura next Friday 18/2/2022 in Barbados ( assuming we are clear from our covid tests results ) and was just fishing for any information that was available from anybody that is currently , or have been on azura in the last few weeks. I was wondering if there been any covid outbreaks on board , if so was this relayed to all passengers onboard  , once in the carribean do you have to take any more covid tests , have any passengers been ejected from the ship because of covid  , what if any restrictions are there on board , is the theatre running at full capacity , can you take drinks into the theatre , have any of the islands refused azura entry , is the close contact policy being used by p&o , what has the entertainment been like ? Sorry for all the questions , but just trying to get a feel for what we are in for once on board. Any information would be greatly appreciated 

Hi everybody , we will be joining azura next Friday 18/2/2022 in Barbados ( assuming we are clear from our covid tests results ) and was just fishing for any information that was available from anybody that is currently , or have been on azura in the last few weeks. I was wondering if there been any covid outbreaks on board , if so was this relayed to all passengers onboard  , once in the carribean do you have to take any more covid tests , have any passengers been ejected from the ship because of covid  , what if any restrictions are there on board , is the theatre running at full capacity , can you take drinks into the theatre , have any of the islands refused azura entry , is the close contact policy being used by p&o , what has the entertainment been like ? Sorry for all the questions , but just trying to get a feel for what we are in for once on board. Any information would be greatly appreciated