Devon born and bred

This is not P&O's fault. This happens in all environments not just cruises. It has been said before, it happens even in hospitals. Unfortunately, some people's personal hygiene and not being honest if they have symptoms are what causes the problems.

52 minutes ago, Snow Hill said:

Thinking of switching to Nationwide, but it would be just for the travel insurance, breakdown insurance not needed as my car has RAC cover included both U.K. & Europe as part of my service contract. Before I switch I would like to know what the additional medical cover costs would be, not found out how you can do that before switching.

No you don't have to open an account first. This is taken from the Nationwide website.

"If you have any pre-existing medical conditions, you'll need to get a quote from Aviva to cover them before you open a FlexPlus account.

We'll ask if you need a quote – and tell you how to get one – before you start your application."

All the details and links are on the website. 

If you are not happy with your quote you don't need to open an account.

7 hours ago, Megabear2 said:

Good morning on another glorious day here in Bornholm.  It is our wedding anniversary today and we were delighted to receive a huge tray of food and a bottle of champagne from my P&O contact.  It took two people to carry and the amount of food would feed an army.  

 

My BIL is now confined to his cabin with what is being described as full blown 'flu.  As he has a very serious history of double pneumonia and chest problems he is under regular monitoring as a precaution.

 

The other two wounded are far better today after dosing themselves with paracetamol and cold capsules from my medical chest.

 

Cabin gate has had a weird but good outcome.  After being moved yesterday a call was received for a meeting with a senior staff member down at reception.  This person was concerned at the list of problems experienced by my BIL - 4 toilet breakdowns, three water leaks, four lock failures and a flood in total.  Apparently they had only just become aware of this long list and by way of apology have sent them a huge bouquet of flowers, two good quality bottles of wine and  the best bit moved them again into a deluxe balcony cabin on B deck.

 

The original flooded cabin has been almost gutted yesterday afternoon and a broken pipe has been found.  To effect repairs the occupants of 15 other cabins have been told they cannot use their cabins for an unspecified time as their ceilings are to be removed to allow the pipe repairs.  Apparently some unhappy people as a result

 

That was a lovely gesture by your P&O contact. And whilst it is good to hear that the issue with BIL's cabin has resulted in a good outcome, it is a shame that your P&O contact couldn't have helped out at the beginning.

7 minutes ago, Snow Hill said:

But if P&O still using alcohol based gels, it might effective against a number of viruses but not against norovirus or rotavirus. Yes there are some alcohol free sanitisers said to work against them, if so why aren’t P&O switching to those if trying to reduce number of on board cases? 

That's a question for P&O and the reason we carry our travel size Serenity with us around the ship and don't touch any food until we have washed our hands and used it, even after handing a menu back to the waiter in the restaurant we will use it. We are not being over the top, just taking personal responsibility to protect ourselves as best we can. If everyone else did the same would this help reduce infection on board, I don't know, but why chance it.

2 minutes ago, ace2542 said:

Is it more expensive that the current brand?

I don't know what brand you refer to but I order direct from the Serenity Hygiene website. I did my  research to find the best product I could that suited me. Compared to the cost of cruises price didn't even come into it.

18 minutes ago, ace2542 said:

Still be tough to prove you caught it on the ship and not during an excursion. And big legal costs if they lose or is it no win no fee. Plus aren't all the claimants risking being banned for life by P&O/Carnival group. A ban from 7 cruise lines if group wide?

I would not be surprised if people caught something when they go ashore. It never ceases to amaze me the number of times we have visited a bar, seen people order food and proceed to pick it up with their hands without having left their table to wash their hands or at least use hand sanitiser.

51 minutes ago, Snow Hill said:

Alcohol based hand sanitisers are not effective against Norovirus strains.

Serenity Hygeine hand sanitiser foam, which you can get unscented and has been tested to destroy norovirus and coronavirus within 30 seconds.

37 minutes ago, PurpleMoonlight said:

Is the actual questionnaire for the ETIAS known yet?

9265359 has explained very clearly the difference between EES and ETIAS and said that with ETIAS you will have to declare your background, criminal convictions etc. People should stop worrying, we have a clear explanation from a knowledgeable person and should wait until we have a definite start date, in the meantime I have more than enough information thanks to 9265359.

9 hours ago, terrierjohn said:

Try the Nationwide flex plus account, which comes with free worldwide travel insurance, for the £13 per month account fee. Plus of course extra cost for pre-existing medical conditions, which are far less costly than the average. Plus free Europe wide breakdown cover and mobile phone insurance.

The medical conditions upgrade will cover you for the year, however, there are also additional upgrade costs for cruise cover and extended cover for holidays over 31 days, both of which have to be done for each cruise/holiday. There is also an extra upgrade for increased cover for cancelling or coming home early. Having said all that we have still found it to be good value.

Freshly baked scone, thick Devon clotted cream topped with jam, and a nice pot of tea perfect. 

47 minutes ago, Oldhsm said:

If you miss a scheduled port it's important to know a couple of things, firstly refuse any offer onboard of recompense   

You need to be csreful on this point and check the wording of your insurance policy. Ours specifically states it will not pay out if "you are OFFERED financial compensation, including on board credit".

We have two cruises booked and as Palaceman posted earlier we also have an indication of arrival and departure times for each port which was supplied by our travel agent along with our booking confirmation.

Whilst the subject of content on the BBC is subjective what I find really annoying is that I can't watch any live TV on any other channel or provider, for example Sky or ITV which are funded by advertisements, unless I have a TV licence where the fee goes to the BBC. I can choose to pay to have Sky, Netflix etc if I wish but I can't watch any of that live if I don't pay for a service I don't want/use.

11 minutes ago, Vampiress88 said:

Sea days today.

We were up at 7 and got to the sit down breakfast for 8.30am. We weren’t feeling it this morning so kids had cereal. Scott had the usual. I had pastries. We didn’t particularly enjoy breakfast this morning. It felt more like chore.

 

 

We weren’t sure what we were going to do all day but Scarlett wanted to go to the kids club and Georgia wanted to stay with us so we got a coffee and sat on the balcony while Georgia drew in her book. Most of the time this is what we seem to do in a morning. It’s only in the afternoon we tend to go about the ship more.

 

We collected Scarlett at 11.45 when kids club ended and got some pizza from the pool deck for lunch. Scarlett took forever to eat her dinner and there was a charity bike ride in the sky dome so we just played cards for a while. As it was sea day we did get the internet to keep up to date with everything today and get some pictures of our new nephew, Freddie.

 

After we played cards it was time for the music bingo. It was quite good today and we were 1 away from winning with two different cards. We got beat to it though. The girls and me had ice cream while we played. I always enjoy this ice cream on here. Scott’s rarely bothered for ice cream.

 

It was nearly quiz time and we do love our quizzes so we went down to bodies for the juke box quiz. Really proper bad at it but at least we knew bewitched and chumba wumba since that our era, I assume all the others only know it as it comes up at least once per cruise. We then played pool and Georgia put her songs on the music jukebox box they have and we carried on trying to teach the kids how to play pool.

 

Last quiz of the day was the individual one. We still didn’t win but hey ho we like to try. We went back to the cabin to get all dressed. Unfortunately we weren’t as fast as we were the first night. Scott had a cut from doing his hair that wouldn’t stop bleeding so we left him there while we did the photos. All the lines were busy and we spent over an hour doing them as it took us an hour just to get a table. Again we should have planned better for that, we usually know better.

 

 

The table was ready for 8.30pm which is ridiculously late for the girls but didn’t have much other options at this point.

Me and Scott had prawns on ciabatta and it was lovely.

 

Georgia wished she had ordered that too. For mains we had chicken in a curry sauce with broccoli and potato. I didn’t actually like this at all.

 

Then for pudding we had trio of chocolate and Scott had raspberry soufflé.

 

 

It wasn’t the nicest celebration night we have had apart from the prawns which were excellent. Yet when I compare them to the other prawn starter at olive grove Scott couldn’t remember those ones at all.

 

 

We finished around 9.15 and then went back to the cabin to chill before bed. We were in bed quite late for us at around 11pm. We left the curtains and door open again as it was just so warm.

 

Internet    £24.00
Punk ipa    £5.55
Coke    £3.55
Tango    £2.70
Ice cream    £2.35
Ice cream    £2.35
Ice cream    £2.35
Punk ipa    £5.55
Punk ipa    £5.55
Coke    £3.55
Tango    £2.70
Nobbys nuts    £1.45
Punk ipa    £5.55
Tea    £2.40
Punk ipa    £5.55
Punk ipa    £5.55
Pringles    £2.00
Total £80.30

Sorry you had a bad day. Looks like the girls still enjoyed themselves, much better than school. Did you manage to get good prices for your cruise as they always seem much more expensive during school holidays.

On 7/15/2024 at 9:23 PM, Vampiress88 said:

they said thank you. They do love to dress up on the cruises. 
 

They have grown up in these past five years since we started all our abroad holidays. I wish we had been able to do more but unfortunately Covid spoilt a lot of our plans so we are making up for that now 

Your girls are very lucky making so many memories over lots of holidays. How do you find reasonable prices during school holidays which always seem more expensive than during term time?

2 hours ago, Harryjacobs said:

No it wasnt the 2 new ships.  Im sure it was either Aurora or Arcadia.

We were on Aurora last month and shows in the theatre were at 8.30pm and 10.30pm. There was the occasional show at 9.30pm in Carmens show lounge which was in addition to the theatre shows.

1 hour ago, Well boy 91 said:

Buy a bottle of your favourite tipple,but a non alcoholic version. Dump the contents,and refill bottle with the proper stuff. Sorted. I don’t imagine P and O will have a chemist analysing the alcoholic content of any drinks brought on board 

That is quite a selfish attitude. The reason P&O introduced the new policy was because people were abusing the old policy. If people continue to abuse the new one P&O could end up banning any drinks, including soft drinks and bottles of water being brought on board, thereby ruining this for those who comply. The drink prices on board are very reasonable and if you can't manage without your favourite tipple for a while then don't cruise with P&O and don't risk spoiling it for others.

12 minutes ago, Snow Hill said:

I haven’t, not a vaccine routine given by the NHS, if you need it for travel, then you have to pay. My son had to have it when he travelled to India for work, cost was £60, work reimbursed him. 

The Hepatitis A Vaccination is free on the NHS booked through your GP. If you choose to use a travel clinic you will pay as that is a private service.

3 minutes ago, marielco said:

I am booked on my first P&O cruise  - Arcadia - Spain and France - in 2025.   It will be departing from Southampton. As I haven’t cruised on P&O before I’m wondering what currency is used on board Sterling or Dollars?

Everything is in sterling.

12 minutes ago, zap99 said:

It's their lack of education. They just won't do as they are told. A few chips we will be OK, won't it.🤣

Some things are no joking matter. I have seen first hand injuries being caused, small children being petrified by seagulls stealing their food and damage caused all because visitors don't understand they are vermin and dangerous, spreading diseases like e-coli and salmonella.

1 hour ago, zap99 said:

We are down to St Ives in a couple of weeks. Next week we will buy a few extra bits for the seagulls.  The locals like you to feed them.🤣

I hope you are joking zap99, but some people might not see it that way. As someone who has lived in Devon all my life I have experienced the nasty side of seagulls. They should never be fed as it encourages them pinch food straight out of your hand, cause injury and spread disease. They have also been known to steal small pets.

11 minutes ago, tring said:

We have a B2B cruise booked to include parking with CPS.  Wondering how it will work when we come to book it, as it is two different booking references.  Do you just book both separately and hope they get it right, reminding them that you will not be returning at the end of the first cruise on arrival at the port, or is there another way of doing it?

 

Has anyone had problems with a B2B cruise previously over this?

 

We did a B2B cruise with CPS parking included. All we did was phone them up to book the parking and let them know we were on a B2B and give them both P&O booking references. It was really simple. We also mentioned it on arrival for the first cruise.

11 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

Just taking you up on the estimated waiting time MB, the app does give an idea by quoting the number of passengers currently in the virtual queue, which would be a far better indicator, if in fact everyone used the app.

However because there are so many passengers unwilling to use the app, and probably many more who prefer to just walk up and chance it, no computer system could be designed to cater for those variables.

As for first night queues, other than the fact that it is the first night, and even experienced cruisers don't know what to expect, I really don't know. However I do think that even the first night would run much smoother if everyone used the virtual queue.

There may well be people unwilling to use the app but there are also a lot of people who do not have smart phones, so therefore unable to join a virtual queue. I have had enough of computers and apps, I want to relax on holiday and chose how I want to do things. We are all different and have to accept that what suits one is not going to suit another.

CDC have reported that so far in 2024 there have been outbreaks on Princess, Royal Caribbean, Silversea Cruises, Holland America Line, Cunard, Celebrity.

The UK Health Agency has also reported that recorded cases for this time of year are at the highest level in five years, particularly in health and social care settings.

It doesn't matter where we go or what we do, there is always a risk. As long as we take every precaution we can there is not much else we can do.

I follow these threads with interest and was wondering, with all the problems/issues and negativity, why cruise with P&O.