reece.twiggwhite

Sadly it is one or the other with this. You either pay extra to guarantee, or turn up and hope for the best. From the last few times we have flown PE, there are always a number of pairs of seats that they hold back, when i have queried these I was told that they are reserved for people with mobility issues, so I think you will probably be ok to turn up, but depends how much you want to risk it......

Thanks Megabear! Very much looking forward to it, just this second booked epicurean for two nights as well. 4 years since our last caribbean one!

Hi, we fly out two weeks tomorrow to the Caribbean, we are in PE and decided to leave it until the Saturday morning at 7:00am to book....Yeah we definitely shouldn't have, couldn't get any window seats nor our original back up plan of where in the middle row. Oh well, at least we are together and at least we are flying to the sun 😉

We have sailed on Azura four times over the last 10 years. First 3 cruises we didn't notice any smell whatsoever and thought people were making it up. On the 4th (in 2019) the sunbathing areas near The Retreat, wow, yep smell was definitely there, and was there every time we either sunbathed there or passed through. It does come in waves though, you get an almighty stink which then disappears for 30 minutes or so and then you get the next one.

Hi, I complained after our cruise on Iona last year, I had the acknowledgment e-mail 28 days later. I didn't get a full response for a further four months and it took 4 e-mails and 5 messages on Twitter to finally get a full reply

Morning All, Hope you are well, ? I was looking at a cruise yesterday on Azura in the Med next June. Located an aft cabin I liked but the other half said to wait until last night to book when we could do it together. Went to book and ALL aft cabins and suites are showing as sold out. I have rang P&O and have been told they cannot book any cabins in the Aft on this cruise as they have been removed from sale and all they can do is add me to a wait list. But they don’t know if/when they will be released for sale and if they are what the prices will be. Does anyone have any experience of cabins being taken off of sale and a wait list implemented and if so how long before the cruise were they released etc? Many thanks in advance!

Apologies all, as I had already edited once, I can't amend it appears. I can confirm the ship we were on was Ventura.

Yep definitely Ventura 🙂 will get this changed!

Morning All, We got back on Saturday from a week long trip on Azura so thought I would post a bit of a review / breakdown for anyone who may be slightly interested. Our arrival time was given as 13:00, normally we are down a couple of hours earlier than this but as this was our first cruise whilst having a dog and needing to drop her off for her holiday week, meant we arrived at Southampton at 12:20. We couldn't book CPS this time due to the fact we booked the cruise late and they were full, so we used "Penguin Parking" and I have to admit the service both dropping us off and picking us up was excellent. Arrived at the terminal at 12:35 and we were sat in the Glass House having a drink at 13:00 Sat and had another glass of wine until they announced cabins were ready and headed up to ours. We had booked the lowest rate saver fare possible with a sea view for this trip as it was a last minute decision but we were upgraded..... Ok, our cabin was more midship and central than originally planned which was fab, but our sea view became "obstructed" sea view with a lifeboat outside. In all honesty it would have been just as good as a fully inside cabin, we literally could see about an inch of sea if you stood on tiptoes and pressed your face flat against the window. It also blocked out 95% of all natural light, but oh well! Cabin was perfectly clean and in good condition! Our cabin steward didn't come and introduce himself which is our first cruise that this has ever happened on. We did bump into him in the corridor half way through the cruise and he asked if everything was ok. But that was the only time we ever saw him. What we did in Ports: First port was Vigo - we had booked to do a catamaran tour and local lunch. However on the first night we go back to the room and had two envelopes, one with the tickets in for it and another saying due to lack of demand they were cancelling it. On the sunday we went to shore experiences who confirmed it was indeed cancelled and we ended up booking the garden tours with wine tasting and it was absolutely fab. Lisbon - We did the duck tour which was so much fun and got to see a lot of the city, finished around 12:00 so this gave us plenty of time to still go off and do our own thing - mainly eating lots of custard tarts and i mean lots Porto - did the douane river tour with port wine tasting - was pretty good, got to see a fair bit of the area but everything felt very rushed, we were being hurried from one place to another. Cherbourg - we didn't get off the ship - had a lazy day whilst the ship was quiet Good Points: I was a bit worried by some things I had seen on youtube and FB about the state of the ship. But she is honestly in a very good condition. We couldn't see anything blazingly wrong with her. Obviously if you want to go and find issues, then you will find them! Service for the most part was EXCELLENT (some will be touched on in bad points) with everyone appearing happy to help Sindhu - first time for a few years we have ate here as the last couple of occasions we were left disappointed. But the meal we had here was fantastic! Epicurean - The meal we had in the Epicurean last year on Iona was appalling, it wasn't special and lacked any ambiance, This was well made up for on Ventura, ambience was back and it felt special from start to end. We loved the fact that they are back to preparing dishes at the table again. We had no instances of anything being out of stock at all, whatever was on the menus was available I complained last year about the soundproofing between the cabins on Iona and the fact you could hear EVERYTHING next door. I wondered if i was looking at previous cruises with rose tinted glasses. But I was happy to confirm that I was right in my own head. We didn't hear a single thing from the cabin next door, no toilet flushing, no noise at all and they even had a baby.... Bad Points: My Holiday App - we have never had any issues with this on previous cruises and worked like a charm. However something just didn't seem right on this one. Whenever you joined the virtual queue for a table (albeit we always did request tables for 2 only) the waiting time was on average an hour to an hour and fifteen (Around 40 minutes for breakfast) We both commented that historically in the days before the app, when you were given a buzzer, it would be a max of 20 -30 minutes at most. It seemed (and I may be completely wrong here) that it was as though they had two different sections working. One line was for people who had joined the virtual waiting list. And then another line of people just in a physical line and when you got to the front you were seated. Portion size at breakfast in MDR - You no longer get a big bowl of bircher muesli, it is now small bowls (around 3 spoons) - I asked for baked beans one morning and I swear this is true - I had 8 baked beans...... We had the worst service in the MDR on the first formal night we have ever had. We were seated on the row of tables for 2. We were the first on the row seated, shortly after another 2 tables were seated. Our orders were taken after these and then shortly a 3rd table next to us were also seated. So 4 tables of 2 in the end with us being the first seated. It started off badly when we asked someone if we could order wine and he said he would get someone, no one ever came back with a wine list. With the meal, In short, two of the tables were on to dessert by the time we received our mains, whilst we ate this the other 2 tables left and then we were sat with empty plates whilst the 3 table next to us were served their mains. Our plates remained on the table untouched the whole time the table next to us ate. Their empty plates were removed and eventually ours were shortly after. The 3rd table were then served their dessert to which the gentleman said "i didn't order that, i had the cheese" so it was taken away and cheese was brought for him. It was at this point we clocked that we think they were given our desserts. Eventually someone came over and asked if we wanted tea or coffee and we advised we haven't had dessert yet, 15 minutes later and still nothing so we ended up walking out. This may all sound negligible but this meal took an hour and a half and we only had a starter and a main... We complained to the maitre d' on the way out and he listened intently, took our cabin number etc and promised he would put this right......We never heard another thing........ Niggles Last year on Iona, it didn't sit comfortably with me that their "Musicals" show, showcased Black musicals (Tina, Bodyguard) whilst only employing a completely white cast. There was no representation on the stage yet people were doing impressions of Tina Turner etc... I raised this concern to p&o at the time and was advised my comments would be passed on. Well if they were, clearly people there don't see the issue with this as now on a different ship, the exact same show with a different 100% white cast doing Tina Turner impressions etc. "Battle of The Exchange" in The Exchange bar - not a good idea really for one of the entertainment team to say "This did used to be called Battle of The Sexes until the world got all snowflakey" - Not good to be spouting comments like that when you are in a forward facing customer service role...... All in all we had an absolutely fantastic holiday and now counting the days until Britannia in December!

I was just coming on to post the same 🙂 That's Epicurean and Sindhu booked, which means everything I wanted to sort is now done. So just a case of getting there, getting on board and relaxing!

We have ate four times over the years in Beach House, out of those times we have one really good meal, One Average, one awful and one atrocious. We have said that we won't be giving it another chance now. I even said to my husband, if i get a few gins inside me on the ship and suggest us going there, lock me in the cabin!

And you! I cannot wait to be on board and sat with a gin and tonic!

Morning All, Just a little rant..... Booked on Ventura leaving a week on Saturday. Been checking daily over the last couple of weeks as we want to book Epicurean and Sindhu so it is one less thing to worry about once on the ship. Last week a notification came up on the dining page to say dining bookings would be going live for our cruise on 15th. Checked numerous times since then and whilst the page has been updated, you can't physically book for anything. Still states as "Coming Soon" So I sent a message to the p&o team on twitter to ask if they could find out what was happening and/or when it would actually be going live. Their response summed up was "Sorry you can't seem to book online, you will be able to book once on board the ship" Really........

We were on her for a cruise in November and thoroughly enjoyed her. Yes somethings need updating, refreshing etc but all in all it was good and would 100% cruise on her again. Staff were friendly, no issues with toilets, everything we wanted to drink was in stock. Plenty of room in communal areas. Only downsides were: MDR was so busy, they had withdrawn set dining and given everyone on board freedom dining and it just didn't work. But we were quite happy to have a pager and go for a couple more drinks. Sindhu was closed - again not a problem for us as we are not totally keen Ocean Grill - Was one of the worst meals I have had at sea. Service wasn't great and the food was well below par. The worst piece of lobster I have ever had.

Thank you for this Tring! I have just managed to get the Ventura cruise nearly £200 cheaper in total!

Thanks all, pretty much what i thought subconsciously in all honesty! Now to argue between us, I want to go back to the Fjords and the husband wants to go to Portugal..... Thanks again everyone 🙂

Thanks! that is what I was thinking in all honesty! 🙂

Hi Everyone! Looking for some guidance please. Normally we book months if not years ahead for cruises. However we have booked a week off in may and are eying up two cruises from southampton, both departing on 29th April - Fjords on Iona and Spain/Portugal on Ventura. We have been keeping an eye on them and watching the prices with the plan to book the cheapest. Both went up SLIGHTLY a while ago but then held until today. Iona is still holding but Ventura has actually increased very slightly from yesterday. To those of you who always book last minute, what is the likelihood of prices actually dropping, or with it being close now and balances paid, will they maintain or even increase? I do understand if this is one of those questions that the answer is "nobody knows" as every time it is different 🙂 Many thanks in advance!

Morning All, I just thought I would throw in my two cents worth into the thread. I have seen this topic for a while and have actively not clicked into it, mainly because I didn't want to face what I thought would be countless posts in the negative. And whilst I am really happy to see that the comments for the majority have been positive, the mindset I had of not wanting to read the thread just cements why meet ups like these are important. The meet ups are not there to single any other people out, they are not there to make us feel special and they are most definitely not there for us to flaunt our sexuality as one poster put it. My husband and I have been together for 10 years, he proposed on Azura and we had our honey moon on Azura. However we have most definitely seen and been recipient to instances whilst on p&o cruises during our time we them. Men in Brodies shouting and asking "where are you two ladies drinking this evening then!" Ship photographer asking "who is the lady in the relationship" NUMEROUS conversations that start "I'm not homophobic BUT......" Yes, these occurrences are few when taken into consideration the amount of time we have spent cruising, but these are things that hurt and get remembered. We don't like sharing tables at dinner or lunch because you have to mentally prepare yourself EVERY time as to what way a conversation can go based on people's prejudices and it is tiring. People think you only have to "come out" once, but you don't, you have to do it time and time again and every reaction is different. We do not hold hands on the ship, we don't show any public displays of affection (that one is mainly because I don't like anyone doing that lol) What I am trying to say is if that meeting, on a cruise, gives like minded people (and i am not just talking about LGBTQ+ Meetings, there are the single cruises, the crafting meet ups, the bridge meet ups) a chance to connect and potentially make friends with other people, whilst in a "safe place" what does it actually matter to someone who has no need/desire to go. It doesn't, but just because YOU don't see a need for it, doesn't mean there isn't one. Just because YOU don't fall in the "category" that it appeals to, doesn't mean it shouldn't happen for other people. I don't want to play bridge, but just because I don't, I don't think they should get rid of the meet ups and their card playing should be done behind closed doors, I don't have a problem with cards, some of my best friends play cards, i just don't want them flaunted in my face....see how silly it sounds.... I do want to say though, the majority of people on cruises that we have met have had no issue whatsoever and it isn't even mentioned other than we are married. And in general people are lovely and kind and caring, (which this topic has shown) but it is always the bad apples that spoil it for everyone, in every walk of life. Sorry, i'm done now, well done if you read it all lol

Morning All, Hope you are well, After our cruise in April, a couple of weeks after I sent to p&o a "complaint" mail listing some issues we faced whilst onboard. Nearly 4 weeks to the day after I sent it I had the usual acknowledgment saying someone would be in the touch. The usual sort of thing to ensure they hit their response targets etc. Since then nothing, I have sent numerous requests for updates and nothing. It's now been 4 months since my initial complaint, has anyone else faced a ridiculously long wait from them recently ?

Morning All, Hope you are all ok, I thought I would do a breakdown of our thoughts from our week on board Iona last week and how we found the ship etc. Embarkation was a breeze - apart from the hell of waiting for the negative test results to come through, however once through we were on board within about 15 minutes. Our boarding time was 13:00, we actually got on around 12:50. Cabin was cleaned and ready when we got on board however no cruise cards so we dumped our hand luggage outside the door and headed for a pint! Got the cards around 14:00 if I remember correctly. Cabin Only saw our cabin steward twice during the week, when we first boarded and when we disembarked. We didn't feel the cleaning and tidying of the cabin was up to the standards we have previously had on P&O. For example we found an old sock under the bed. After we had unpacked we folded the luggage bed protector and placed it under the bed. The next day it had been removed and thrown on the sofa. So we then put it down the side of the sofa. Two days later it was once again left on the sofa. Balcony was great, really good size. Didn't have any of the reported creaking and banging Bathroom was amazing, best bathroom I have had on a ship. We were unlucky to be the last cabin before the firedoors were shut in the corridor for the "isolation" zone. This wasn't an issue to us and we actually had nobody in the cabin on one side. However..... what was an issue was passengers (and crew) still used the corridor and were constantly opening the fire door and letting it slam shut which disturbed the peace...... Previous point links in to my biggest gripe of the cabin. We commented to our friends before getting on board that we had never heard the adjoining cabins ever. Well, that certainly changed on this ship. I don't know if it is lack of insulation or something different but the noise was definitely noticeable. Every day we heard them coughing, talking, etc. When they flushed their toilet it genuinely sounded like it was ours flushing. The thing that annoyed me the most with it though was if they let their door shut on it's own, our cabin physically shook. Most mornings we were awoken with the bang and our headboard/pillows shaking. Honestly I am not exaggerating how bad it was. Restaurants and Bars MDR's were all fine and perfectly agreeable. We ended up sticking to Aqua most of the time as we felt the service there was the best. There were a couple of occasions where we chose something because we had to and wasn't anything to particularly excite us but I guess that is luck of the draw! Glass House - this is our favourite restaurant on Azura and holds special memories. This one just felt too "open" and it seemed that the food menu had been greatly cut down - was still pleasant for a relaxed lunch. Keel and Cow - I will hold my hands up and admit I did not want to go here, I didn't fancy it at all. However we decided to go for lunch and wow. The choice was excellent, the food was amazing and the service was the best compared to anywhere else in the ship, including Epicurean. Epicurean - Our favourite thing to do in the Caribbean is to go to The Epicurean and enjoy the meal sat outside on the deck under the stars. Perhaps we have been spoilt? But Epicurean on Iona lacked any wow factor at all. It was too bright, tables too close together. Normally the service is second to none but it felt like we were just sat in the MDR but paying extra for it. Waiters were dropping trays of drinks, none of the things that are normally prepared at the table are being done. It is all prepared in the kitchen. Resulting in a very plain and sparse looking plate of Iberico ham and cheese. also tough crepe suzette where they had been sat under the heat lamp. Olive Grove - Amazing, wish we had had chance to go here again. Relaxed and lovely. Beach House - we didn't want to go, we decided to on the off chance as couldn't decide where else to go. It was awful, absolutely hated it. Nachos swimming in a cheese sauce so were wet and soggy. The meat sharing plate was overcooked and dry. Ended up eating a few mouthfuls of the main and leaving. Brodies - We adore Brodies on Azura and spend most of our time in there. Iona seems to have doubled the size, packing more people in and the ambiance has just gone. It is just too loud and too busy on there for us to properly enjoy. Emerald Bar - We loved sitting here with some drinks and people watching. However you are lucky to get what you want to drink. We sat down on the first night and asked for the cocktail menu and was told "It is awful, it will be easier for you to tell me what you want as we have nothing in stock" and from discussions later on in the week, out of the whole cocktail list they only had things to make two of the cocktails. Entertainment Pretty awful to put it plainly. We went to see "Digital" in the headliners and it was so "odd" we could do nothing but laugh. For example, a guy street dancing whilst dressed as Pac-Man - BUT we loved it! to the point we wanted to see it again but missed our chance. We ended up liking it so much we decided to go and see their "Musicals" show. Wish we hadn't, the biggest issue we had with it is the whole cast was White. There was no black representation in the cast, however they decided to sing medleys of songs from both The Bodyguard and Tina The Musical. It just did not sit right seeing these songs by fantastic black artists being sung and in some occasions "mimicked" (Singing style and dancing) by an all White cast. It needs looking at... I planned this to be short and sweet but seem to have gone on a fair bit.... Reading it back the above seems really negative and I don't mean it to be. We did have a a fantastic week, it just wasn't to the level we are used to. Would we go on her again, yes without a doubt, but I don't think I would want to do a two weeker on her.....