Ladyshopper23

On 10/24/2022 at 11:08 AM, Snow Hill said:

With all these changes to availability of restaurants, change in menus etc, does anyone know what P&Os current offerings for coeliacs (gluten free) is? We used to get sight of next days Evening Menu the night before, so could chose options, is this still the case? What about specialty restaurants are there still g/f options? The buffet was always the worst place to eat for coeliacs as food could easily be cross contaminated by uncaring passengers, on the last pre Covid cruise you had to ask specifically for g/f options in buffet, is this still the case?  

We were on Iona last month, and are both coeliac. It was a fantastic experience. Every night we were given both the lunch and dinner menu for the next day, and could place pre-orders for both if we wanted (we only did lunch in the MDR once). I'm also a vegetarian (my husband isn't), so if there wasn't anything that was marked as both veggie and GF they would happily adapt something else, or come up with a suggestion.

The buffet on Iona was manic, and a bit of a mixed experience, but basically the people in yellow aprons are there to help, so speak to them and they can get you anything you might want fresh out of the kitchen. There was afternoon tea up there in the afternoon, an awful lot of cakes were GF as standard, which was brilliant, and actually tasted really nice too (unlike Princess where they are awful!). We would either reach through to the back where they often had an untouched platter ready to go out and take from there to avoid contamination, or again, ask for one fresh from the kitchen.

There is also a dietary counter at the buffet, at breakfast they had GF bread which you could ask to be toasted (this was done separately) and croissants (which were really nice for GF!). Also, throughout the day, they keep a selection of pre-packaged cakes gluten-free cakes, which are really nice, and great to take to your cabin and keep for snacks, or take out on port days. If they don't have them, just ask.

If you speak to your cabin host, you should be able to get GF biscuits from the cabin.

On Iona we did a few meals at speciality restaurants, including Sindhu (which we also did on Britannia last year), The Beach House and Olive Grove. At each place we booked, we went up there 24 hours beforehand to speak to them and pre-order (there is a lot of GF options at all the speciality restaurants as I made a point of looking, but by pre-ordering it just makes the kitchen aware to take extra care with cross contamination).

At the pizza place they do GF pizza, and are very careful with cross contamination, the pizza is prepared in the kitchen and they have a separate oven, change gloves etc.

Not sure which ship you're going on, but on Iona they've got The Quays, which has 3 different counters with different foods (fish and chips, asian fusion, and American diner style). They do GF fish and chips (cooked separately), and there was always an option at the asian fusion counter too. The American Diner didn't look as if it would be suitable, but to be fair we didn't ask (wasn't very veggie friendly for me!). Also at breakfast, the fish and chip counter does gluten-free pancakes, and the asian fusion counter does omelettes cooked to order.

Don't know how the above compares to your previous experience, but we felt very safe, had loads of choice compared to other cruise lines, and have just booked another cruise on Iona for next year basically based on our ability to eat lovely GF food! We were impressed last year on Britannia too, it was slightly different then as it was just after cruising re-started, so numbers onboard were limited, the buffet was served by staff so less chance of cross contamination.

4 hours ago, LifeonMars said:

 

I got refused shareholder credit back in July last year for a 6 day short cruise. are you confusing Blue light Card to that of Military Discount, which although run by the same company are slightly different with regards to P&O discounts 

 

 

quote

Thank you for your email. 
                                      
Please be advised that your shareholder benefits are no combinable with your Blue Light Card discount as cannot apply both promotions to the booking. If you would like the extra on board credit applied to the booking £30.00 then you will miss out on the discount already applied from your Blue Light Card and there will likely be a further deposit due if you wanted to change this. 

Guest Services 
Shareholder Benefits 
Carnival UK 

Ah, I think things were a bit different last year. Certainly during the summer, they were doing 'staycation' cruises with pretty much a 50% discount for blue light card holders rather than the onboard credit you normally get for being a blc holder (I went on one for my birthday, half price balcony for a 3 night cruise, was a total bargain!). I wasn't a shareholder back then, so no idea if I would have been able to get shareholder credit as well.

However, last month I absolutely did get the blue light card onboard credit (there was no discount, it was only an offer for obc) alongside my shareholder obc.

No idea about military discount, I'm not nor ever have been in the military.

On 3/6/2022 at 9:25 PM, LifeonMars said:

Share holder credit is usually allowed to both fare types, unless you have an additional discount by using  a blue light card or Military benefit here in the UK

You can definitely get both share holder credit and blue light card credit - had it myself last month.

On 10/18/2022 at 9:34 AM, wowzz said:

Tesco are selling a Banrock Station merlot in a plastic rectangular bottle for £6 which is bith light and unbreakable. 

Worth a look

Thanks for this, what a brilliant idea!

Although we normally take a box on (each!) this is also really handy to know about.

We were on Iona early in September. Told there was 5000 people on-board (no idea if this is actually correct or not).

The only place that felt really busy was the buffet. It was completely manic during breakfast, not a nice place to be at all.

Other than that though, we didn't really feel like it felt too busy round the ship.

Does the cashing out via the slot machine always work? We have $650 non-refundable credit on an upcoming cruise. Would be great to be able to cash it out into hard cash!

On 9/29/2022 at 10:28 PM, TigerB said:

We are on day 12 of 14 onboard Britannia. The main lunch and dinner menus in all restaurants we have been in have had a least one veggie selection on for starter, soup and main, and more for desserts. There is even more choice for coeliacs; my daughter has never had a problem in the main restaurants, and our waiter in the Peninsular always gives her the next day's menu so she can pre-order is she wishes. There is always plenty of veggie choice at breakfast in the main restaurants too.

 

If you are a veggie and disappointed that you cannot have marshmallows, for example, you will be pleased to know that veggie marshmallows are universally used, and many dishes that traditionally contain gelatin, such as panna cotta, are made vegetarian.

 

 

 

 

 

I was really impressed with this recently. I'm vegetarian, and also gluten-free, which can be a tricky combination! However, so many of the desserts that on other cruise lines wouldn't be veggie because of gelatine are made veggie on P&O (and even better, a lot are also GF). It's really nice to be able to have some decent desserts for a change.

9 hours ago, Travelling2Some said:

This thread surprised me since I've always been (super?) picky about choosing a cabin.  I never imagined that so many people let the cruise line or travel agent pick it.  That would just be a hard no for me, mostly because my husband is a very light sleeper.  I never bid on upgrades for the same reason.   I have always avoided connecting cabins unless we were traveling with our kids back in the day, in which case we really needed 3 cabins in a row with at least 2 connecting for our youngest kids so I can sympathize with the OP on that.  

Same for me, I'm a really light sleeper so always choose cabins very carefully! That's why I was gutted when I logged in and found NCL had totally changed our cabin to a connecting cabin that was also near the theatre.

I was lucky that I was able to upgrade for an extremely reasonable price, so lets hope this carefully chosen cabin doesn't get moved!

I would never willingly book a connecting cabin, however we found on our recent NCL cruise that our cabin had been changed by NCL (without informing us) to one.

Only noticed when logging in one day and saw a different cabin number. Called them and ended up paying an extremely reasonable amount to upgrade from an inside to a balcony cabin (and non-connecting room!).

I was told on the phoned we'd been moved for 'operational reasons'

3 hours ago, Son of Anarchy said:

It was a few years back, but there was an independant bus service from just outside the dock gates at Zeebrugge to Bruges.  From memory it was €20 return pp.  Dropped us off at the large bus station about 10 minutes walk into Bruges centre.  I think it ran once an hour.

It's still going.

We went back in March and used it. We booked via Viator, but you can also just turn up and book straight with them.

Come out the terminal, turn left, then straight left again. There is a flag waving on the other side of the street, head for that and that's where the shuttle is. Dead easy.

12 hours ago, dns65 said:

I have found out what was causing my error.  They insist in expanding out where i put "Blvd NW" into full text of Boulevard Northwest which seems to be too long of an address field.  I put in my brothers shorter address and the error goes away.  Perhaps your error was being caused by your address?

Thank you. I never did get to the bottom of it.

Ended up sending an email to the president and execs (found the email addresses on another post on here), never got a reply. My personal cruise consultant never called me back.

I did get a call about my future cruise deposits (no idea if that was as a result of my email to the president or email to guest relations), which they have honoured the onboard credit for.

I ended up booking through a travel agent, for a better rate than I would get through Princess.

Overall am happy, but still no idea whether I can actually book a cruise online or not!

12 hours ago, Buckeye10640 said:

Anybody here gluten-free AND vegetarian?  If so how did that work out? Planning to take my vegetarian and gluten free daughter next year.  I have traveled with someone who is gluten  free before so aware of the whole  'order the night before' routine but combining  both restrictions further limits option. Thanks

I am!

We spent 2 weeks on Sky Princess last year, and I wrote a blog post about it. On the whole they're very helpful, and if nothing suitable on the menu they will basically cook you whatever you want as long as your order the night before. I even managed to order GF mozzarella sticks, which were very nice!

Watch out for parmesan - I'm not sure where you are travelling to/from, but in Europe, parmesan is not vegetarian (in order to be called parmesan, it has to be made the traditional way, which is using animal rennet). A lot of the vegetarian dishes on the menu have parmesan, but seeing as I was getting a lot made from scratch I just asked for no parmesan to be used.

Anyway, if you want to have a read of my experience, then it's here. Hopefully you find it helpful. I've put up pics of menus etc too.

https://glutenfreetravelwithme.com/category/princess-cruises

15 hours ago, Cruise Feen said:

Ladyshopper23, Thank you so much giving me link to your glutenfreetravelwithme blog!  I'm anxious to see if they followed through with suggestions on my cruise in Dec.  

No problem, glad you found it helpful.

I started the blog last year purely because I found it difficult to get much information about gluten free eating on various cruise lines, so just wanted to help others.

We are both gluten-free, and did afternoon tea on Sky Princess. We ordered it the day before.

I'll be honest, it was awful. The sandwiches were on cold soggy bread, the scone was inedible, and the cake wasn't great (although none of the cakes/baked GF goods are great on Princess unfortunately)>

If you want to have a read in more detail about our experience, I wrote it up for my GF blog here:

https://glutenfreetravelwithme.com/sky-princess-two-week-cruise-october-2021

I'm so sorry, as I have no advice to give on the situation.

I just wondered from reading through this if you have the specific number for Guest Relations?

I've got a Future Cruise Deposit (not a Future Cruise Credit) that hasn't been refunded, and am getting nowhere by email (last one took them a week to get back to me, and then they referred to FCC and not FCD, which obviously made be very cross they'd not read the email properly.

It would be great to actually speak to someone, as I was only given an email address.

Thank you, and I really hope you get this sorted for your Aunt.

19 hours ago, niccynoo66 said:

hi,

we were on Iona last week and these were our port times 

Stavanger 09.30 - 4.30 

Olden 09.30 - 5.30

Hellesylt 06.30 - 4.00

Haugesund 10.00 - 5.30

 

Hope this helps a bit,

Nicky 😊

Thanks for this, helpful to me too, as we go a week on Saturday.

Did you book shore excursions, or just do your own thing?

Any top tips of things not to miss?

On 8/17/2022 at 3:45 PM, Riddoch said:

There is one of the YouTubers that have been on Iona recently had an entire suitcase of cans to facilitate their diet coke addiction.

Ha ha, I'm likely to take a crate of 24 pepsi max cans on! Other than alcohol, that's all I drink, as I don't like hot drinks.

11 hours ago, PurpleTraveller said:

 

There are so many different issues people are having with the website and it really is not good enough. I am not willing to open a new email account or change my password, which meets all their criteria, just because Princess has an IT problem. I still can't access my account though I can access my booking by using my name, birthdate and booking number. I also only booked with Princess because I had expiring credits to use but I am now rethinking. Good luck with making your booking.

 

I called up, and the personal cruise specialist I talked to was clueless. He did say he'd send an email to a different team for me though!

He also didn't have a clue about a future cruise deposit which I'd used on a previous cruise, then cancelled the cruise under the book with confidence scheme. The future cruise deposit is showing as still being attached to that booking. First he tried telling me it wasn't refundable, which is absolutely not what the website says. Then said he thought I had to "apply" for the refund - surely that should have been done when everything else was cancelled and I had my money refunded plus what would have been cancellation fees returned as future cruise credits (which is why I've got FCC in the first place). He then decided he didn't actually have a clue, and told me to email guest relations.

11 hours ago, PurpleTraveller said:

I was able to login to my account with no problem on the weekend. On Monday I installed the Medallion app on my phone and since then I have been unable to login to my account on my phone or laptop. I get a message asking me to complete missing information which Princess already has. When I enter the information I get a message saying that the information is incorrect. When I spoke to Princess they told me to wait a few days and then try again. Annoying to say the least and this was after I was trying to do a courtesy hold on a cruise until I could speak to my PVP and an error message came up apologising for the inconvenience but my request could not be completed. Ten minutes later I received an email with a Booking Confirmation for the cruise. When I spoke to Princess they confirmed that the cruise had been booked and two FCD used as the deposit despite me not making the booking. Good thing I do want to go on the cruise. Princess seems to be having a number of IT issues at the moment!

 

I've tried upwards of 10 times in the last 48 hours to book a cruise online. I want to do it online, as am going through a cashback site, and it would be £120 for my cruise, so not a small amount.

Every single time I've tried, I end up with the 'something went wrong' screen. I've tried different browsers on my computer, my phone, my husband's computer, and it happens on all of them. Can log in fine, but can't book a cruise it seems. I haven't had the same thing as you, where you've received a booking confirmation even after that screen - i wish I had!

If I didn't have FCC to use up this would completely put me off booking Princess to be honest.

9 hours ago, Carla3 said:

Had this issue a few months back. I was using the “auto-fill” feature my tablet has to quickly populate the CC information. Once I deleted and manually typed in the information my payment was accepted.

 

Also make sure you don’t add any blank spaces after CC number

 

I'm definitely not doing either of these 2 things, I've even tried using 2 different payment cards! Thank you for the tips though, much appreciated.

46 minutes ago, dns65 said:

 

I have had this issue for 4-6 months.  Talking on the phone to a rep was of little use as they are non-technical.  I asked if I could get their IT support as this obviously was something related to my profile and their system as the error only occurs if I am logged but was told there was no option for this and was told to email customer relations who did not reply to my email. 
 

 

That is really annoying for you.

I have FCC in my account that I want to use, so need to book with Princess (otherwise this would really put me off).

I don't want to lose the change to go through a cashback site, £120 is a fair amount to lose just because their online booking system doesn't seem to want to play ball. I guess I'll have to call up tomorrow and see what's going on.

Getting a bit annoying now. Didn't work on husband's computer, or going through my phone. Grrrrr.

15 hours ago, Thrak said:

Try a different browser?  Stupid but sometimes it fixes weird Princess issues.

Just tried a different browser, had exactly the same problem.

Will try husband's computer or phone and see if I can get either of those to work!

9 minutes ago, Thrak said:

Try a different browser?  Stupid but sometimes it fixes weird Princess issues.

I'll give it a go tomorrow, thank you.

Have tried 6 times today to book a cruise online, and each time it has come up after looking as if the payment card was going to go through as "something went wrong."

I've tried different payment cards, cleared my cookies, all the usual.

I want to book online, as going through topcashback to get some extra cashback (£120). Never been a problem before.

Anyone else had issues today?

I'm in the UK (just in case that matters).