Windsurfboy

The CAA quotes £200 per night as a reasonable maximum, so that's not a 2 star dump.

Always check against hotel website, but:- What's that got to do with the fact that booking.com showed lots of hotel availability in Palma, in 5 and 4 star hotels. At the time P& O choose to put everyone in the cheapest 2 star hotel they could find. Why are people defending such abysmal customer service , just because it was easy for P&O. Unless you think P&O is a 2 star cruise line and thats all it's paying customers deserve.

I've used them lots of times , never had a problem, never turned up and hotel full.

You don't need a couple of hundred in one hotel. When I checked online booking.com . Dozens of 5 and 4 star hotels with space. Put the people in nice hotels , contact via sms when they need to go to airport. More workyes.

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No longer own a dark suit so it's DJ or a casual eatery. Think DJ as long as there are 2 in a fortnight

These pictures are making me reconsider.

Ease of Logistics for P&O shouldn't outweigh passenger comfort. As they were commicating by SMS , didn't need to be in one place. That would have been true before mobile phones became ubiquitous. Lesson is don't volunteer. Look after yourself no one else will Try to ascertain where they are sending you before you go. If you end up in a dump, try as soon as possible to book yourself into a decent hotel and send P&O the bill

Reading this thread The high winds did not come out of the blue. P&O kept every one together in a cheap hotel for their ie P&O's convenience. They could have sent them to better hotels , but that would have entailed more complex logistics and more money.

Our problem is we liked the old club table ,but not the 6.00 or 8.30 one too early other too late and nowadays unfortunately food quality pushes us to speciality. We also like Cunard QG where you get to know neighbouring tables. Saga fixed table is a bit of pot luck, sometimes two or three fixed tables are near each other and you get to know neighbours. Other times it new neighbours each night.

That solves it. If space matters go for Seabourn or Regent

Firstly space on a cruise ship is far more limited than shore based. A suite at 45sqm would be an ordinary room , a deluxe balcony at 20sqm would be a small room on land The common currency for comparing space across ships is passenger space ratio. Iona, Arvia and mega ships less than 30 Aurora and traditional ships 35 to 40 Saga 60 Seabourn etc 75 to 80. It's how they use the extra space. The traditional ships with club dining had to accommodate half the passengers at any one time. If you want true freedom dining no queues you need nearly as many seats as passengers, ie twice the space of club From what we hear on this forum, with queues on Ariva on Iona, this is not the case, people question if they need to use some tables three times, and think they have less seats per passenger than traditional ships. Saga is the only line to publish how many seats it has (see guide to SOD) 740 in MDR plus speciality, 300 in grill. 1040 for 890 guests. They have done this by sharing and less space between twos.They could have had more space with less tables, but then that would mean more potential for queues.. Cunard to give everyone in grills their own table is tightly packed , but still two sittings for majority of ship. I expect the expensive ships they still prioritise number of tables , and no queues over space between tables. Not being able to get a table when you want on a premium ship is a bigger no no , than slightly tighter tables , space is still at a premium

On QM2(PG) the vast majority, 95% of tables for 2 are in rows a few inches away from others. You quite rightly were given a table with more space around it. Only been on Aurora and we chose a table for 6, thus was years ago, there were very few tables for 2. Can't say anything about others. As someone said post covid tables for two are now what the majority demand. The only way to fit them in in mainline cruise ships is as close as possible. Going back to Saga with a passenger space ratio of 60 compared to Iona's 30. They must have made a conscious decision to go for shared tables and normal for cruise ships high density dining. This allows the rest of the public spaces, e.g. living room , Britannia lounge , library with a coffe bar etc to feel very spacious.

No different to majority of the Cunard or P&O layout, so really no tables for 2 on most cruise ships On P&O Epicurean is tables for 2 well spaced But beach house is even closer than MDR We like our privacy in morning , as not morning people and still half asleep, so glad to be having breakfast in Epicurean. However like a chat in evening, but plan to eat mainly in Epicurean most often , Sindhu and othes occasionally. Can you opt to share in Epicurean or does it work like a shoreside restaurant.

I think the major problem is towels left for hours on unused beds

All much of a muchness

Cunard PG

Saga

Iona tables for 2 look just as close as Saga

Not only more decks underneath the pool deck, but much of the top open space is not for sunbathing. As well as skydome reducing available space , you have the theme park out door adventure where people could otherwise sit. Plus then the pay for retreat. At moment sunbeds dont earn money. Perhaps the only way to get more sunbeds is to make it like continental beaches and charge by the hour. Hope no one from P&O reads this. Perhaps though one should put a deposit on sun bed which is forfeited if left empty for more than half hour. Could be a revenue earner.

I think for 4 nights CPS is cheaper, P4C works out better for longer trips. Different pricing model . CPS one daily charge irrespective of length. P4C is a admin charge then a smaller daily amount. Think crossover is circa 10 days.

The question have you ever tried to book hotel rooms for 321 people as a defence of the poor hotel is irrelevant. Whether it's easy or difficult it's P&Os responsibility to find decent accommodation, not the easiest and cheapest. Spreading people across hotels is more effort , but that's the job of customer service. The current dump should only be looked at if every decent hotel was full and absolutely no alternative. Worry that P&O made that the criteria ie cheap as possible and as easy as possible.

The is a difference between blame and responsibility. Things can go wrong even if you make sensible decisions. In the end P&O can be held responsible, that as I said doesn't mean they were negligent or unprofessional.

Selbourne, in general the Saga tables are better spaced than PG on QM2. Saga are accommodating ring them up explain your needs they will find and keep you a table in a quiet slightly more spacious position. Like on PG there are some seats in quiet positions. Ps at breakfast or lunch half the MDR is empty, so they can find space easily.

Depends on how far over the 75 miles you live. If you live 76 miles away you only pay for 1 mile , so very cheap a no brainer to up grade. If you live 250 miles away , you pay for 175 miles so can be expensive .