devonuk

4 hours ago, UKsatcom said:

Really sorry to hear this , they promised everything would be sorted ......obviously not.

They need to scrap those two dinner sittings and the app for now and get back to "real" freedom dining.

When talking to the Hotel manager we suggested this and also said they should get folks into the dinning rooms without having to check in at the two desks [ obviously a system to expose those pirates who had boarded mid Atlantic to get a free meal ]

 

Sounds like you have already encountered the Covid incubating corridor.

 

Take care , try to enjoy at least something of the cruise

There is freedom dining only. The ship is great the service is poor. MDR’s in the evening I have queued for over an hour on 2 occasions to be given a pager for another 30 minutes 😧

Out of the number on this ship there will always be those that think it’s great and those that don’t. As an experienced cruiser and having now spent over a 100 nights with P&O i can IMHO say it’s poor. 

Maiden + 1 is a shocker, especially at evening meal times. A great ship but poor organisation 🤷‍♂️

12 minutes ago, amajaa said:

Well you were lucky we never had the choice of beer in November just the other ones in you list. I had the sparkling wine , my husband the red wine.

 

Does anyone know if they are still doing the Welcome aboard lunch for the higher tiers on Arcadia. It will be our first time being eligible and wondered if it was still going.

We had a suite on the Ventura recently and got invited to a welcome aboard lunch with free drinks. 

On our last trips on both Iona and Ventura out of Southampton we boarded with 2 bottles of Prosecco and 24 plastic bottles of a well known Cola drink. We then bought more soft drinks in ports as required 👍

11 minutes ago, wowzz said:

Yup - HL are in deep do dah !

I can’t cash in my CCL shares just yet as the average of the 300 I currently own is in the red, but getting better as I buy on the lows. 😬

4 minutes ago, wowzz said:

Fortunately I dont use HL, for which I am very grateful considering the enormous law suit they are facing !

Ah, the Woodford issue 😳

11 minutes ago, wowzz said:

Which is why I always do it myself. 

Print off my portfolio, hide/tippex all irrelevant data, take a photo and send off my claim. Takes five minutes, plus I have proof of my application.

 

Works for me and my shares are in fact held with HL. They messed up twice for me so never again 👍

2 hours ago, ozzysdad said:

Not for me, I rang them and they assured me it was all done but it wasn't showing up on the booking, fortunately my TA chased it up for me and it was all rectified within a few hours.

Similar to my experience. Why wait until you’re onboard and when it could be too late. 

3 hours ago, sandancer said:

Didn’t for me. I gave them all the info they needed for our Princess cruise confidently expecting them to deal with the application. What I didn’t realise was that they would hold onto it until they had a group of applications and then send them off in a job lot. My travel agent intervened and we got the green light 48 hours before we left home. For our next cruise I simply applied myself as advised by some of our helpful posters and the OBC was added in around a week. We don’t cruise until March. My advice DIY. 

Exactly why I asked my question 👍

1 hour ago, slug33ukuk said:

Hargreaves and Landsdown.....The first time I rang them and they inform the company about you holding shares......but they dont show up until you actually book in on board. PRINCESS do a similar thing.Tell them REF NO....SHIP...DATES

Has the HL process actually worked for you?

2 minutes ago, terry2 said:

Sorry if this is a  bit of a silly question.

Now I am going on the Iona on 14th Jan.  However the boarding pass says : " Don't arrived before 15:45 and the final book in time is 16:30"

Now 45 mins seems a bit short to me.  Has anyone else seen this sort of short time window ?  What do people think? 

That’s the final boarding time not the departure time so you’ll be fine. The boarding time quoted is often exceeded by many hours for various reasons 😬 Relax and enjoy your cruise 👌😎

1 hour ago, buddy 27 said:

Does anyone know if the Sauna and steam rooms on Arvia are open to all at all times, with no charge.

Love a steam room between beach day and evening meal.. Regards Graham 

I don’t know, but I’m sure if they can charge for it they will 😬

8 hours ago, dog said:

 

Oh okay,

I get it!

 

spelling errors- did you mean waiter. And trouble?

 

still confused about “ ticks”. Please explain.

Ticks = text(s) in erroneous predictive text. 

7 hours ago, Chrish2 said:

 

I don't think its the case every cover was been crammed into two MDRs. My understanding having read comments is for Christmas Day was that MDR service/menu was been operated at least 5 restaurant dining locations with passengers allocated a table and time at one of these locations.

* Meridian

* Zenith

* 6th Street Diner

* Olive Grove

* Chefs Table

 

I've not see any comment on if Green & Co operated as speciality ... I know a few people who would find that very appealing, nor any reports on Sindhu.  I did however see it reported that Epicurean did still run speciality with guests been able to book tables at 15 min intervals.

 

As such the only credence I give to the 2 MDRs comments is maybe

 i) the layout results in a different cover density ratio, and/or

 ii) staff switching to a more traditional menu in some locations caused unexpected issues.

 

Anything else is really not attributable the the 2 MDRs situation but a more general failure better attributable to the new ship/first voyage/teams working for the first time etc.

 

In my experience P&O are rather notorious about keeping details underwraps. I do think the passengers on this Christmas/NY holiday are owed more details than P&O usually come forward with. After-all it wasn't any evening meal that standards was under par for, it was Christmas Dinner. And It wasn't just one table, it was many tables.

 

Now the question really is how much can be recovered before NYE meal? My suspicion is NYE will from a stats perspective run slightly smoother but guest perception will be about the same as Christmas day. Furthermore my hunch is any blanket OBS will be after NYE to prevent the goodwill generated been washed away very quickly by any negative events on NYE.

I have sailed on the Iona twice now and I really did not like the Pearl and Coral restaurants, preferring the Opal and Aqua venues, mainly due the intimacy of the surroundings. 
Therefore when I cruise on the Arvia next week I’ll be hoping that the Zenith and Meridian are a step up from the Iona venues! Failing that there’s the Quays and the new ‘roast’ option 😃

3 hours ago, Bazrat said:

Fine dining for us is eating in Tewkesbury's wetherspoons cheap eats is the one in Wolverhampton, not really into spending a fortune just to say I have eaten somewhere.

There’s a Wetherspoons in Tewkesbury? 😳

1 hour ago, jeanlyon said:

we left Southampton on Balmoral in a Force 12.  After 3 days at sea, which wasn't that uncomfortable, we were still south of Plymouth!  We missed Cadiz and went on to another port.

We could have waved to each other 👋😊

The thing with Princesses is that you just don’t know what you’re going to get 😗😇

You just can’t predict what you’re going to get these days and unfortunately you don’t know until after the event whether it was good or not 🤔😇

1 hour ago, GOQ said:

Thanks for that devonuk.

 

Just checked my account and find I have been allocated one of those "best be avoided" deck 8 balcony cabins near the bow. Never mind, it will be an experience.

 

My account has been updated with the cabin number and I can print out my luggage labels which was my main silly worry, but my boarding pass still says cabin "tbc"

 

I bet I was right about that bloke with the clipboard.

What grade did you pay for initially? 

6 minutes ago, GOQ said:

 

I wonder, I am still waiting for my cabin allocation for the January 6th cruise, I have an image of a guy with a clipboard examining each cabin followed by a fellow pushing a trolley loaded with bedding.

"Right Fred this one's got a bed and the toilet works, set it all up and put it on the ready list".

 

Hope they do mine next. Seriously it must be a bit of a logistics problem to get 2610 cabins initially set up with all the needed contents.

 

Really looking forward to this one, the maiden transatlantic.

  

We were allocated ours this morning. 4 grades higher than we booked but not a location we would have chosen 🤷‍♂️

1 hour ago, devonuk said:

Don’t want to bother them as we’re hoping for a suite 😂🙏

Ironically we’ve just been notified of our cabin! 
Gone from a PF allocation to a PB on 15 deck. It’s handy for the Sky Dome pool though, as it’s below it 🙄😆

49 minutes ago, Tablelamp said:

Telephone the P & O freephone No.

Don’t want to bother them as we’re hoping for a suite 😂🙏

17 minutes ago, chrissie p said:

Thanks. It looks like if we are quick off the ship we haven't got much to worry about but will check out the online booking in a bit more detail, just in case.

If you’re feeling adventurous take the journey on to Voss, you won’t regret it. It just requires a change of train at Myrdal and often the ships excursions will do this as well. If you’re in port all day it’s very doable 👍

On 12/22/2022 at 1:10 AM, GOQ said:

I have booked an Early Saver fare for the K301A cruise next month however no cabin has yet been allocated and the check in page states:

 

“Your cabin will be allocated when you join us on board”

 

What do I do about luggage tags, since I will be taking the Intercruises coach down to Southampton, how will the coach driver/P&O know where to deliver my case?, a bit of a worry.

 

A friend of mine had her cases delivered to the wrong ship last summer so P&O had to sort her out with some clothes for the voyage, so she was not very impressed with P&O.

 

Also I have only previously cruised with P&O to/from Southampton, this time I will be returning from Barbados to Gatwick by air. I have my flight details and seat number but there is no mention of flight boarding passes anywhere, there doesn't seem to be any option to download them. How do I get boarding passes for the return plane journey?

We’re in the same situation but our allocation wording differs from yours 🤷‍♂️

Inside Cabin Fwd

Just now, chrissie p said:

You've just made my day, thanks 😄

Just get off straightaway and head to the ticket office, we’ve never had a problem getting a slot but I believe some have in the past by not getting over there quickly 🤷‍♂️

I don’t know if you can book direct in advance so perhaps try that. This is certainly a trip where you do not need to waste money on a ship excursion.