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It was my birthday while on Azamara ,I never let anyone know when it is as i don't want the fuss, came back to the cabin around lunchtime and the whole cabin was decorated with banners ,balloons, a card from the captain and senior officers, happy birthday signs and a lovely cake (just what you need on a cruise!!!). My good lady had her birthday while on Aurora and got, A card ( preprinted with the captains signature) , we don't expect anything but I would have preferred things the other way around as my birthday to me is just another day and I like to make it special for Mrs gsmt. It also highlights the difference between different cruise lines

My good lady will nearly always ask for a bowl of extra veg when she gives the waiter her order , and she would still do it if we were on a shared table ( a rarity) ,we also noticed some other diners asking for two sweets or having soup and a starter, perhaps you shouldn't have to ask but nobody has ever questioned asking for extra, also we met a lovely couple whos first sailing was the world cruise which had to be abandoned due to covid ,as they were also on our 65 nighter I would say they enjoyed the experience

We have completed a number of these longer cruises, some on Ventura , and of course some things will not be perfect and in the case of 65 night cruises yes the food does become a little repetitive , however unless its something serious we will not complain ,we may bring faults with plumbing etc to the attention of reception ,anything else can usually be dealt with by a quiet word to the correct personel. It is always nice to hear a review of ships as long as it is balanced and as such can be very useful

Same for us though on Aurora, however it appears that this morning the early bookings for upper tiers was not initiated and every cruise was available to anybody ,this caused serious issues as our TA had scheduled staffing to cope with the general sale tomorrow and was swamped with people booking once they realized they could , after speaking to P and O they admitted that they had made the error

Other lines we have been on have had staff at the entrance to eating areas (buffet,mdr etc) with hand gel and we have no problem with that as we don't want our holiday spoilt by people who either cant be bothered or think it doesn't apply to them, it wont stop all infections but it certainly makes a big difference

Hope they've been cleaned by the time you cruise again Jean, four years dust might be too much to deal with !!!!!🤣😂

Definitely with you on the subject of drowning out the singers , we have witnessed some impressive singers on cruises who have had a real fight to get their voice above the music, canned or otherwise

A quick word with housekeeping would perhaps have dealt with your issue's as nobody should have to put up with uncleaned showers, hoovering stateroom carpets from our observations does not get dealt with as often as we would like

Yes you can ,and we did a lot of times from the glass house as they stocked a few wines we liked, they will also keep your unused bottles in the mdr for another evening 😊

Our observations are that some people are rude to staff no matter which ship you are on, can never understand it personally

Thank you for a very rounded review ,we go on Azura in June for a fortnight and its been quite some time since our last cruise on her so will be interesting to compare how things have changed, previously we have enjoyed all our cruises on her

We were on her for 30 nights in September and overall we were happy with the condition of the ship , one or two niggles but would agree that some of the toilets were out of action at various times , Sindhu was open but used very little and the ocean grill was closed for the majority of the cruise and only opened in the last few days of our trip, the main criticism was the temperature of the ship which I have mentioned on previous posts and also to senior P and O management , it was just too cold to enjoy many of the venues, I don't know if we would go on her again if it wasn't for the fact our world cruise is on her, if the temperature is the same again we will not be looking to cruise on her again

From what I understand the problems with the mdr appear to be mostly on Arvia and Iona, We have been on all the current P and O ships in the fleet (except Arvia ) and have never had a problem gaining access at our preferred time ( always freedom) although on an odd occasion we have had to take a pager, with a saver you will not be given a dining time option but have to accept what you are allocated

Might also add that I agree with Selbourne that things are not the same as they were ten years ago, but suspect this to be the case with most other lines, personal opinion of course

Welcome to a fellow Yorkshire coaster!! All the above points are correct ,however on our last cruise wine could be saved by the waiters in the mdr and used for another evening(on Aurora)

That, spelling error🤔

It is my understanding thet you have to have an account, nationwide flex plus and a monthly fee of £13 which also gives you vehicle breakdown and mobile phone cover, we have changed our packaged account to this one

Would just like to also confirm that I commented on my op regarding long travel insurance and to thank people for their generous assistance, now got the same insurance albeit as we are considerably younger than the ages Jean has mentioned, nice to know that should we reach the ages quoted and we still are able to cruise we will not have to worry about insurance👍

Yes Aurora would have been our preferred ship for the worldie.

Thank you to all the lovely people who responded to my original question, I have spoken to a few companies and have opened an account with Nationwide ( been meaning to do it for a long time) and they have confirmed that their insurance can be extended to cover the world cruise, they were also the most helpful and informative when speaking to them. As others have suggested to this post speaking to companies gets more response and information than online searching, hopefully that's another item dealt with so once again many thanks and shows the value of using these boards to utilize other peoples knowledge 😊👍

Certainly has been for me!

Thanks , I have tried to find info on this account on line ,but the insurance information states that no more than 90 nights can be covered , I believe this to be incorrect and have managed to obtain a contact telephone number which I will try in the morning 👍

Thanks , no I have not called any of the companies, but may have to as some of the websites are very contradictory 😔

I have been looking into cruise insurance for the 2024 world cruise and am having difficulty receiving quotes for any more than ninety day's which is also the limit my current insurer covers with a paid extension. I have tried some comparison sites but they too appear to have time restrictions which will not be sufficient to cover the cruise. I am sure many previous world cruisers have overcome this issue and would be pleased if they would point me in the right direction. Thanks in advance🙂

We saw the real Frankie Valli perform last year , I believe he's touching ninety and he couldn't move very well but boy oh boy he hit every note, Though I doubt we will see him on a cruise ship😄