BouncingWheel

I have heard people in those balconies are given a free umbrella🤣

I can understand Cunard saying that anyone tested with a transmittable virus should be quarantined as that I thought that was a standard cruise ship wide procedure before Covid (used for norovirus etc...) but the room partner should either be quarantined and compensation (is that what would happen with Norovirus and I take it insurance pays for both passengers as doctor's have enforced quarantine for both) or the virus free person is moved to another cabin and allowed to roam freely and have the standard holiday experience. This in-between scenario is the worst of all options.

Is the removal of Afternoon Tea in the MDR now across the fleet or just Aurora?

Can I just say thank you again @Megabear2 for all the updates you give us regarding your fantastic proactive emails and calls to insurers and cruise companies.

Can I ask did you pre-book the Retreat or once onboard? Have you booked for the whole voyage or certain days? Thanks.

In my inside cabin there was only 1 socket

Just got off Aurora - 4 night trip to Amsterdam that never made it and we bobbed around for 3 days and popped into Zeebruggee for the last day. Agree that Aurora is still a beautiful ship though sure the main atrium feature was a water feature and it now looks a bit tired and non glistening without it. Some carpets and generally toilet areas in need of replacing as stained but the majority is still in excellent condition. The prom deck is still magnificent though Afternoon Tea is apparently a thing of the past according to the purser's desk and you have to make do with afternoon snacks (same food plus a few extras) in the horizon buffet instead - definitely not the same. All in all, I was personally very glad to be back onboard her. Finally, thought the entertainment was very good including both Headliner shows that both had a storyline - yes we also had the shrill lady vocalist previously mentioned but it didn't spoil the shows for us. Heard quite a few unhappy 1st time cruisers onboard (mainly due to the fact of itinerary changing just beforehand and then the port being cancelled) but I also felt that Aurora was not the right type of ship for many of them anyway as it is not really a booze cruise type of cruise ship.

The deals on MSC are amazingly good at the moment

Hi, it may help if you say what you loved about Iona and what you disliked about Ventura so that people can give you better advice. For better all round entertainment for kids 7-10 then RCL definitely have the most activities but it comes at a price and not all their ships have the same features. Funny enough Ventura is a popular family ship. It is older but has the arcade area which kids love and, in normal times (which we haven't made it back to) have one of the best kids clubs/teams though I have heard that Iona's is better.

Pre-pandemic I didn't think P&O could be over subscribed as they only allowed so many numbers of each age group on board. You will often see places available but once you put in the ages of children then no cabins are unavailable - change the age of the child and availability can appear again. I believe they still do this now with numbers on board but do not know if it has any impact with the current grouping system for kids clubs.

I have only noticed the big drinking on Princess or RCI (British Cruises) but that is probably because of the drinks packages and Brits love to get their money's worth. P&O drinks packages do not tend to be that good value for money so, other than the 3-4 day booze cruises, don't lend themselves to a drink fest. P&O do have a lot of daytime activities but they are more sedate such as quizzes, dancing, lectures, ship games/tournaments so a definite difference to RCI but that is the beauty of cruising at the moment - something for everyone.

Does this also mean the end of quarantine cabins? Will they still be asking people to report for a test if displaying symptoms? It seems that they are classifying the virus like the common cold but I do not know what the restrictions were onboard, pre-covid, if you had a common cold though I know it was not quarantine. Allowed free-roaming with the passenger expected to be mindful of not spreading it about?

We have travelled on both lines a bit and totally agree with @WestonOnethat there are really 2 P&Os (Smaller Adult ships: Arcadia and Aurora) and the rest. It is a really big difference between the rest of the fleet to Cunard but not as much, though still significant, from the smaller ships to Cunard. Differences (against the small P&O ships) are obviously the dollars being the onboard currency. It is also more formal and has a much bigger ship within a ship setup with the Grills area. There is more emphasis, and space, for ballroom dancing and more classical music (especially lovely during afternoon tea). Afternoon tea was a big difference in that Cunard is more elegant focusing on the music and the food whereas the P&O MDR ones are more of a social "natter" event. As previously mentioned, the food and drink quality is better, more varied though more expensive. I think entertainment and lectures work out about equal though Cunard do bring in bigger names/emphasis for their lectures whilst P&O big names are for their singing venues/shows. Hope that helps. The biggest selling point to us was we wanted to do a Transatlantic crossing and we believe nothing beats QM2 for that and I believe many others would back us up on that.

We did the Northern lights cruise in March and it definitely meant a lot of packing and suitcases. You can definitely wear the "California Casual" during the daytime and I seem to remember @rakkor in shorts 😉. They obviously try to control the inside temperature to be warm and comfortable even when there is snow outside. However, you will definitely need thermals/winter wear etc... as well as the formal wear mentioned. For cruising, it was no issue with the amount of clothes taken but if it is only a leg of many tours then transporting all the extra luggage around elsewhere could be cumbersome and costly when it comes to planes, trains and transfers - I am guessing that is what you are trying to minimise but I don't see much of a way around it.

There has always been talk of what is the next ship to leave the line. Will it be Aurora or Arcadia and when? Maybe we are all wrong and it will be Iona😉. It could go somewhere like P&O Australia or become a Princess etc... where it can be located for a better fit and P&O can have another one that will work better for UK to Norway cruises due to its climate and the country's ever increasing restrictions.

I am afraid that it can if it is clarifying/giving more detail of the offer (such as can be withdrawn at any time). It is like those radio ads where the main hook is at the front and then they speak very fast with the actual conditions at the end. That has been legal for years.

Being British. Being cheaper than RCL etc.... for cruise price and onboard drinks etc.. Being great for very young families (ones not yet ready for RCL type activities but the Nursery and splashers have always had great reviews). That is the P&O market as I see it. In addition, with cheap pricing, good entertainment and extra little things like Silent Disco they have consistently proved that they can rake in the money with short "booze" cruises to places like Amsterdam as partying Brits don't need all the RCL extras. I think that niche policy would work except I am not sure they will be able to easily fill the bigger ships on longer voyagers outside holiday season but if they only need 40% and the price is right then I am sure they will manage.

Totally agree with you but cannot put my finger on why, for me, a harpist improves afternoon tea more than any other musician.

If they only need 40% capacity at normal pricing to break even then they should be easily able to get above that with use of some discounting etc... even in trying times. However, my opinion is that will lose more regular, current P&O customers - who want more than just a floating, basic, cruise experience - and pick up loads of one-off try P&O/ try cruising passengers who see it as a very good value holiday. So my opinion to your question is I think they will be fine but the difference between Adult only and these 2 new ships will become even more chalk and cheese. In 5-10 years time they will become a 100% budget cruise line like P&O Australia but that will also work as every industry needs them.

Arcadia goes on its world cruise at close to the same time as Arvia debuts. Unless that is cancelled then that mothballing is ruled out. Also, on previous cruises, I have come across crew that have said that the world cruises are popular amongst crew so I guess if there is any kind of way that crew can pick and choose/ask for certain contracts then I am guessing the worldie ones would be popular and fully staffed - may even be able to open all Arcadia's speciality restaurants!

The consensus then seems to be that in "normal" pricing times Princess will be more expensive than P&O (even if you take the gratuities etc.. into account). Having been on both (and also being in the minority who is a big fan of the medallion technology), I don't really see much real difference between the two to justify a large difference in price. Although it certainly makes sense about the US folks wanting to do fly-in Britain cruises but doesn't make sense to me for the overall brand trying to undercut each other / flood the local market. Again, my view is that they are trying to build the Princess brand in the UK (I agree that might be due to circumstances) but that is not helping the P&O brand or the overall business.

£5,000 is not an issue for almost all mainstream insurers - they are usually around the 15k per person limit. Your issue is more likely to be around the number of days away - over 90 and things can start getting tricky. My advice, for UK travellers, is to contact BIBA (British Insurance Brokers Association) on 0370 9501790 and they will put you thru to a specialist broker who can handle either long durations and/or large amounts to be insured. I recently went thru this route myself and basically all routes basically ended up at BIBA in the end. Most standard insurers will direct you to a money advice service travel directory but if you get to speak/online chat to a human being there they will direct you to BIBA.

I don't believe P&O are trying to compete with RCL as they offer less activities, entertainment etc.. but they also charge less because of it. Their strengths were a very british product paid for in pounds and good for families with younger children. The issue is that they gambled on trying to attract many more of these people and the economic outlook is that those are the type of people that will be cutting back. Maybe they hope that some of the RCL folks will be attracted by the cheaper fares. At the same time they are also trying to undercut the likes of SAGA with Aurora & Arcadia but again not really competing as they are offering a cheaper version of a similar product. At least with this area I think they will have the people still flocking to them as long as they can stop annoying them and make them feel valued. I would say for P&O their competitors, for price, are Fred Olsen, MSC (starting to encroach), Ambassadors and maybe Marella. What I do not understand is why Princess is now becoming more of a player over here as I see them vying most with P&O and that is just Carnival competing with Carnival and again Princess ships have nothing like the activities that RCL have.

This honest review thread is veering towards a game of Top Trumps 🤣

So passengers on decks 5-8 in Aft cabins cannot get thru to middle stairs and lifts and have to go down (or up) and along? Obviously the same distance but only if you remember and we didn't always when we encountered the same setup on a previous cruise!