BestGuessed

4 hours ago, Minnie29 said:

Does anyone know what testing is happening once onboard the ship?

We are onboard now and half way through our cruise.  We have not been temperature tested or anything similar so far,  but as the pre-cruise PCR testing and double vaccination policy is mandatory, further tests would not seem to be required.

I have to say that we have found everything on board to be very relaxed and apart from wearing masks when walking around the ship and in the lifts we could be back in the real world of cruising as it once was.  
Once seated passengers seem happy to remove masks and chat to one another. There is dancing to live music and the theatre shows are the same apart from some seats being left vacant.
The crew all wear masks but the passengers mingle (carefully of course!) and the restaurant tables are set at a distance,  but with the reduced numbers on board distancing is easy for those who wish to be strict about it.  
Just to add that everyone is having a fabulous time, so look forward to your forthcoming cruise with great anticipation and excitement … it is so wonderful to be back on board 🍾!!🥂😁 

1 hour ago, Spearj said:

If there is anybody either on the current cruise or come back from the 3rd, that are/were in any of the aft corner cabins (S1) and you’ve got a photo, please can you post it.

I can only find pictures of the cabins before they were revolutionised.

 

Thanks in advance.

We are in an S2 suite at the aft of the ship (have had S1suites previously but before revolutionising!).    It may be a tad smaller than the S1 but it’s a lovely room and the amount of storage is immense.  The revolutionising is a great improvement and although the balcony is smaller than an S1 suite I believe the actual inside space is just as good. Added bonus … no pillar !! 
 

We are currently in a Sky suite so I can’t speak for RS/PH guests but we arrived at the car park and our bags were immediately taken by Celebrity staff to be taken onboard. We walked across the road to the terminal and by the time we had eaten lunch in Luminae our bags were outside our suite.

My husband and I boarded yesterday and I have posted our experience regarding the PCR tests and check in process on the Roll Call for 17th July sailing which 
I hope might prove helpful to people on cruises in the near future.

As someone who will be boarding Celebrity Silhouette in two days time , I have been following Celebrity threads on the forum and from what I can see it appears Celebrity have issued emails this morning cancelling their sailings to Europe on 4th and 18th September.   I am desperately hoping that P&O will not be doing the same as like many of you who are booked to sail in September we should be on Britannia for the 25th September sailing.  Ours is to Spain and Italy.  
So it’s now fingers firmly crossed that P&O will hold fire and not decide to follow suit and cancel their sailings to Europe.  We will be so disappointed if they cancel.

23 minutes ago, Esprit said:

We will be on the 31st July and my wife will definitely dress up. Not just on the chic nights either. I’ll take two DJ’s to be on her good side😂

It’s a shame that you aren’t on our cruise (9th July) as we will be dressing every night too. And as it happens we are from Kent. We always make an effort and my husband will be wearing a jacket every evening and I will be pleased to get my glam gear out of the wardrobe after the last fifteen months.

We enjoy a bit of ballroom and Latin dancing but not quite sure how we stand with that !!

7 minutes ago, southamptonsue said:

How do you know about “chic night”? I’ve heard absolutely nothing, it’s not in my documentation. I don’t remember it when we sailed on silhouette a couple of years ago. Now I’m worried that there are other things I should know about that I don’t.

Mind you, I still haven’t had the email telling me to book my PCR test!

Chic Nights are Celebrity's revised version of what used to be Formal Nights.

If you haven’t received anything regarding your PCR test by now and are sailing on Friday I would suggest that you should contact Celebrity as a matter of urgency tomorrow.  We received our instructions over three weeks ago ….🥴

Thank you Bandic for that feedback …. It is music to my ears as we are intending to take our evening wear and make the most of the opportunity to dress up !!

It is very good to know that others are of the same view and we won’t be alone.

Enjoy the soirée …I think it will be our turn next week 🤔.  
Did you receive the invitation as a result of your Captains Club status?

Presuming that you will have already had a “Chic Night”  and as someone who is about to start packing, could some of you onboard at present give some feedback on how enthusiastically the dress code has been embraced please?

Are many people taking the opportunity to don their glad rags and glam up or have most people taken the more casual approach? 
We would very much appreciate any info you can give. Thank you !!

Thank you to everyone who is currently on board and posting here.  There are many of us who are booked on the following cruises who are avidly following your updates and we really appreciate you taking the time to post.

My husband and I will be onboard next week and having an insight into how things are working is very useful.  Nothing will dampen our spirits and we appreciate all feed back from you whether it be good or not so good !!

The Celebrity crew are obviously doing the very best they can under difficult and very different circumstances.  We can’t wait to be on board again.

Thank you guys … enjoy your cruise. 

We have absolutely LOVED Luminae.  
Without doubt the best dining experience in our opinion and we wouldn’t waste a single evening going anywhere else on board as we relished every meal we had there.  The staff are just amazing too. 
Luminae is our main reason for booking a suite !!

We are still waiting for the refund of our deposit relating to the cruise on Iona that would have departed yesterday and we should be on now !!  

Hi Dermotsgirl .... We are feeling very deflated today.

We have been thinking of all the familiar things we love about the first few hours on board when the whole cruise is ahead of us .....

The routine of boarding, finding our cabin, checking to locate table in dining room, meeting our steward, having a wander round the ship, attending muster (not our favourite bit but nevertheless!!) sail away along The Solent leaving the lights of Southampton behind as we head out into the Channel.  
Unpacking !!

Dressing for dinner ..... Ooh I think I might cry 😢😢!!!
 

5 hours ago, Dermotsgirl said:

We were quite lucky, as we had decided that we weren’t going to do much in the way of cruising in 2020, so were less affected by cancellations than we might otherwise have been.

 

However, we have still lost three cruises or 35 nights.

 

March 2020 Fred Olsen Boudicca 18 nights

March 2021 Iona 14 nights. (In a different world, we’d have been on the road right now to Southampton)

May 2021 CMV Amy Johnson 3 nights (went bust)

 

our remaining 2 cruises have already been rescheduled to 2022

Hi Dermotsgirl ..... in a different world we would have been aboard Iona with you. We would have travelled round the M25 from our home at the top of the North Downs yesterday, and stayed just off the motorway in a Premier Inn then resumed the journey to Southampton this morning.  
Should be doing muster round about now ?? 

When we got back to our room our luggage would have arrived and we would be anticipating sail away and the first evening on board with a glass of wine while deciding what to wear ...🥂!!

Never mind ... WE WILL be doing all of this again and hopefully it won’t be too long  now 🤞.

It’s definitely from P&O.    
All the details are accurate and on checking we could see that the original “payment” had been deducted but then somehow reappeared back on the card.

If P&O had put it through properly at the time of booking, ie a month ago, we wouldn’t have a problem as that would just be bad luck on our part,  but to take payment yesterday for something that has been cancelled this morning is a different matter.

My husband and I have just seen the start of this topic and reading Adam Coulter’s article is making us fume !!

At the beginning of February, when the vaccine rollout was beginning to gather momentum we decided to take the plunge and book cruise B122 aboard Brittania leaving Southampton on 25th of September 2021.
We chose our cabin, paid via credit card and received a booking reference.  Yesterday afternoon my husband opened an email from P&O that had been sent at 4.30pm on Monday afternoon saying that they needed to take his credit card details again as they hadn’t processed the payment properly.

Credit card details were again given for £399 and then today we learn that the cruise will be cancelled.  
I can’t say we are feeling very impressed that P&O took our money yesterday afternoon and we now learn less than 24hours later that the cruise won’t be happening.  
We think this is very shabby treatment and this sort of behaviour doesn’t inspire our confidence in P&O.

1 hour ago, lindylooellalouise said:

Hi our ta which are a nightmare are pestering us to make the final payment and we’re trying to stall, same cruise Iona 6 th March we feel it’s going to be cancelled 

It seems like that cancellation is becoming very likely. Let’s hope we hear today.

2 minutes ago, Dermotsgirl said:

My husband has just checked the P&O website, and he says that the 6th March Iona cruise has disappeared. The earliest Iona cruise showing  is now 20th March to the Canary Islands.

 

So maybe there’ll be an announcement today ? 
 

 

 

 

Yes that is now looking likely isn’t it ??!!
That will be good news for us and for you too but I know there will be others who feel differently and will be disappointed.

Fingers crossed then that we hear one way or the other today 🤞

6 minutes ago, Dermotsgirl said:

Your TA is very good, as they have allowed an extension until after the P&O final balance date.

 

it was generally thought to be almost impossible for the date to be extended beyond the P&O date! 
 

Both HA and Seabourn are indeed part of Carnival, as well as Princess, who have also cancelled until the end of March.

 

 

Yes we have a very good relationship with our TA. We now have until 13th December to pay the final balance, which incidentally we have no intention of doing.

My husband and I both agree that in view of HA, Seabourn) and now you have added Princess) cancelling until the end of March, Iona is very unlikely to sail on the 6th March so we will be asking to have our deposit refunded. 
As mentioned in my previous postings, we have no desire to go on a cruise where we have no idea what we will be getting for our money 🥴.

Hope you are able to wangle an extension with your TA too 🤞

Travel agent has informed us yesterday that we have been allowed a weeks extension before our balance is due which gives us until 13th December to pay the balance on the Iona cruise for 6th March.  
We have also been informed that  cruises have been paused on Seabourn and Holland America lines until the end of March.  
Are these lines both part of Carnival group as we believe they are? If so it would not be unreasonable to expect that the first Iona cruise in March will be cancelled.  

Has anyone else heard anything about this either from their TA or from P&O? 
 

Thank you to everyone who replied to my post as above ... we have made the decision not to pay the balance and to try to get a FCC if possible but if we are not able to get a credit against a 2023 cruise we will just lose the deposit.  
So the decision is made ... thank you everyone for all your help.

23 hours ago, BestGuessed said:

My husband and I have been following this thread as we too along with both Dermotsgirl and lindylooellalouise are worried about what to do as far as paying the balance on this cruise goes.  

What exactly will we be paying for as none of us can possibly know whether ....
 

A) The cruise will go ahead

B) The ship will be docking at any of the ports we are expecting to visit

C) And what will the onboard experience consist of?

As the onboard experience is a very big part of our holiday  (we love the theatre shows, the live music and particularly enjoy dancing) this is leaving us in a huge quandary.  
We will take a pretty dim view if P&O expect us to pay the balance in three weeks time and we don’t have a clue what we will be getting for our money. 
We can’t transfer the deposit to  later next year or 2022 as we already have cruises booked for then.  
Does anyone think an extension into January, or possibly to six weeks before expected sailing date is possible and should we all start requesting such an extension?  
P&O can’t possibly know what they will be able to provide come March and as such should not be able to insist we pay the balance for what is essentially a hypothetical holiday.

More comments and advice will be very welcome please !!

Thank you AnnieC.

I honestly don’t think P&O are doing themselves any favours in taking this stance.

A lot of people are going to feel very disillusioned with their current attitude and won’t forget in a hurry !!

Thank you Ann.
We are getting the impression from our TA that P&O won’t budge on this occasion either. 
I think it’s very wrong taking into account the present circumstances.  

The lack of goodwill definitely doesn’t make us keen to do further P&O cruises in the future. We will be exploring other cruiseline options from now on !!

Thank you majortom 10.  
You are right that the loss of circa £250 in the general scheme of things isn’t that much ....   I think we are beginning to lean that way and won’t pay the balance if they insist it be paid on 6th December.