Tommart

Much appreciate the suggestions so far.  Several possibilities.

Does anyone happen to have details of the P&O tours and prices please, for comparison?  Can't get at these yet on the Cruise Personaliser.

Also, has anyone tried (or have views on) this one please?

https://st-petersburg-tours.ru/two-day-standard-group-st-petersburg-shore-excursion

I'd appreciate any advice on the best tour options for St Petersburg, without personal visas.

I'm assuming that P&O will be the most expensive option by some margin, but what I'm looking for is something that includes the Hermitage (ideally at a time when it's not too crowded - evening perhaps?), the onion domes, and maybe some free time just wandering.

What else is a 'must'?  And which are the best third party tour operators?

Many thanks!

Great idea - love Cork by the way. And the whole of Ireland - a beautiful country. I suspect you'll soon be re-unified with the north too, the way things are going.

Rome's a great place just to walk around - though you could do a few miles. Just the cost of the basic transport (still ludicrously expensive) to the city (dropoff near the Vatican) and then wander round the main sites.

Brexit indeed:

One little-noticed culprit: Brexit.

The U.K.’s on-again-off-again exit from the European Union has rattled the region’s economy and put consumers there on edge. That makes it tougher for Carnival to attract local customers to those cruise routes.

Ah those Brexit dividends we keep getting promised by the Leave Liars.......

9 hours ago, terrierjohn said:

Meanwhile I will continue to make my own choices and hope that govt. legislation is being observed by  most of the suppliers I buy from.

But not, presumably Carnival, P&O, Cunard etc etc:

https://therising.co/2019/06/05/carnival-cruise-lines-to-pay-20-million-in-environmental-damages/

Obviously we all make our own choices, but I do expect some degree of integrity from companies I buy from, and it's clearly not coming from Carnival companies.  I know the others also play fast and loose with the regulations, but Carnival stands out as particularly cavalier, and the recent cynical emails about bits of plastic are just an attempt at a cover-up coming as it does just after some massively bad international publicity for major pollution issues.  If it were accidental it would be bad enough, but it clearly isn't accidental.

15 hours ago, Bazrat said:

Actually I did read it and completely understood the article but to put it into context they were found guilty and now trying to make amends.

I don’t have your ethical standards of just cutting down I am actually ramping up my cruise holidays.

This doesn't sound remotely like a company trying to make amends:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/carnival-cruise-company-20-million-pollution-violations-settlement-today-2019-06-03/

Yet another huge pollution fine for Carnival, and comments like this:

"Time and time again, Carnival has shown its contempt of environmental laws and the rule of law. Here we are again."

7 hours ago, terrierjohn said:

Since the scrubbers remove the particles from the exhaust gases, then surely that eliminates the pollution from the air making it cleaner for us to breathe, which is the major problem.  So what is your concern?

Sadly no - because the sludge produced is being dumped at sea, polluting the oceans. Scrubbers are being used to avoid cruise companies using more expensive low-sulphur fuels, but they don't remotely solve the pollution problem. That's the concern.

On 6/15/2019 at 8:39 PM, Bazrat said:

After the fine carnival received you cannot really argue the fact there standards were or are particularly low,but companies can change hopefully for the better,but to criticise them because there attempts don’t meet the posters high ideals,and then to continue to use there services is a bit hypocritical.

You've obviously not read or understood the article.  The fines prove conclusively how little heed Carnival and its operating companies such as P&O pay to environmental laws or the environment.

"While the cruise industry’s behavior over the last two years, and frankly the last twenty, shows how little concern they have for keeping our oceans clean. Carnival Corporation — the largest cruise company on the planet — recently stated that “their environmental responsibility has been and continues to be top priority… our aspiration is to leave the places we touch even better than when we first arrived.” The criminal conviction of Carnival for polluting our oceans prove that their words are just empty rhetoric."

The recent red-herring email from P&O (doubtless reciprocated by other Carnival companies) about plastic straws etc is just another cynical attempt to cover over the real pollution they continue to cause.

And yes, I do agree that it's hypocritical to continue to cruise with Carnival companies - but I am cutting down!

C510 is a good cabin from the feedback I've seen - I guess you enjoyed it before?

10 hours ago, Danamis said:

We are on Azura on the 19th April so I would imagine that is possibly the first cruise after the refit. It would be nice if the cabins and public areas are refreshed but nothing we can do if they are not.

As you say, nothing you can do. Refits cost a vast sum though, and I'd hope they'd do a decent job of it.

16 minutes ago, remharri said:

 

These days I only notice NCL drastically cutting prices - and it's normally very last minute. I can't travel last minute, so I typically have the same mindset - I'm ok with the price when I booked. 

 

The price I was quoted was the Early Saver - looks like it's just a no thrills rate. Which is fine - I think I'll be ok with "no extras".

 

Thanks again for all this feedback - truly appreciate it. 

"Early Savers offer a reduced price and are made at the relevant grade with the cabin number allocated by P&O Cruises prior to departure. Dining preferences are not guaranteed. Shuttle buses in port are an additional cost for Early Savers and Savers."

Might be worth just checking what the difference is between the Early Saver and the Select Price.  Sometimes the difference is minimal, and sometimes it's actually higher for some odd reason.  There are also some additional perks worth having sometimes with Select.

A calendar? Really? I'm obviously not a good enough customer!

1 hour ago, Well boy 91 said:

Hi   I think you will find that OV did not collapse. The brand was in fact very successful. The ships always sailed with high passenger loadings. The accountants did not like the financial drift away from the premium brand (as they saw it ) P and O .  The move was done to protect the P and O brand.

Love the idea of P&O as a premium brand - those were the days! Another vote here for ditching compulsory formal and replacing it with something akin to smart casual.

If some people choose to dress up, that's fine - I'm a tolerant sort of guy. But given that I'm prepared to be tolerant about people dressing up as penguins, I can't see why they can't be equally tolerant and allow others to dress smartly, but not as penguins or in dark suits. Jacket and tie - just fine.

It's coming, inevitably - just learn to live with it and try to stop clinging to the past. Those days disappeared when P&O stopped targetting the Guardian/Times/Telegraph readers and aimed at the Express and Mail!

Some helpful comments in the P&O forum are leading me to consider Fred Olsen as an alternative to P&O. 

Must admit that P&O's attitude towards their customers (the Amsterdam Ijmuiden con trick for example) have led to that, and frankly it's all got a bit too Skegness/Blackpool/Butlins lately.

Anyone use both? How do the ships and onboard services/facilities compare? 
 

2 hours ago, daiB said:

Don’t agree at all that it is cost. The simple solution would simply be to pass on the Tax to the customer. Remember it is a tax on tourists not cruise ships. 

 

If you are happy to take second hand reports from the Oh it not like it used to be lobby then go on. You are the one missing out. There are vast numbers of people  reporting that they have had great cruises on P&O on other forums. So they must be wrong??? You clearly have your mind set so why ask the question on the P&O page should you not ask on the Fred page?

I doubt they could pass it on to customers - it would have to amount to more than 2% of the price paid to allow that, and in most cases it would be irrecoverable.

I'm genuinely open minded about P&O, but the reports about poor experiences are becoming significant. Maybe I should ask about P&O on the Fred page - good idea.  Let's get a bit of balance.

Interesting report!  Sounds eventful.  And I know what you mean about the Headliners.

Just out of curiosity, what was the problem with the first table of 8?

4 hours ago, daiB said:

You seem to have been taken by the myth of the change made by P&O and a number of other cruise lines to not dock in Amsterdam as being driven by cost saving. This is false as the cost of coaches takes up most of not all of the savings. And what is this about Skegness Blackpool and Butlins. Again you seem to be taking some of the anti P&O brigade at face value. 

 

Only you can can decide what a ship is like and that can only be done by you trying it.

Of course it was done for cost-saving reasons? Why else do Carnival companies do anything? And why are they being so ridiculously devious and evasive about the reasons, if it's not that?

It's not just the cost of the coaches (though bear in mind Carnival have a formidable negotiating position, and it's only the passengers actually travelling to pay for, as against the entire passenger list for the tourist tax) - it's a long-term stand-off between Carnival and Amsterdam, and they're looking at the long-term costs.

And the other comments?  Based not just on comments here, it's just a forum with some pretty entrenched viewpoints, but discussions with friends who used to cruise regularly with P&O but won't now because, they say, it's gone too far downmarket in their attempt to fill the very large number of cabins they now have to sell. Pile it high and sell it cheap used to be Jack Cohen's slogan in the early days of Tesco, and from what I hear that's now the way P&O operates.

I was just wondering if Fred Olsen's any better.

Some helpful comments on another thread (thanks tring!) are leading me to consider Fred Olsen as an alternative to P&O. 

Must admit that P&O's attitude towards their customers (the Amsterdam Ijmuiden con trick for example) have led to that, and frankly it's all got a bit too Skegness/Blackpool/Butlins lately.

Anyone use both? How do the ships and onboard services/facilities compare? 

10 minutes ago, tring said:

We had two brilliant days docked centrally in Amsterdam on Boudicca.  You could always jump ship/cruise line 🙂

 

That's interesting - so Fred didn't scrap its Amsterdam visits in favour of Ijmuiden then to save itself some cash, like P&O?

What's Fred Olsen like these days? Is it less Skegness/Blackpool/Butlins than P&O's become?

I always use a specialist TA, for the better service and the additional discount, but until now it's always been possible to research my specific needs in advance of the telephone booking with the agent.  When I make the call, I know the ship, the date, the price and the cabin numbers. It works well.

Now I find there's no apparent way to get a price and availability for any given cabin, even with Select - what utter madness on their part. The whole point of the extra cost of Select is being able to get the cabin you want, but now they've put hurdles in the way.

Can anybody understand why they'd be so plain stupid as to produce a website as bad as this? Do they have a death wish?

20 minutes ago, tring said:

I would suggest the important wording is 'significantly affecting'  i.e. is it a 'significant change' regards our package travel regulations.  I am not convinced it would be, the wording just seems to be just mentioning your legal rights if there is a 'significant change' and a change for one port has never been a significant change of a cruise.

I'm inclined to agree - though whether it's 'significant' must depend on the significance of that one port in relation to all the others.

In the case of, say, Lisbon, on a 12 nighter with 5 ports, each for one day, probably not significant.

But Amsterdam tends to be for two days, usually making up the whole or a very significant part of the cruise in terms of port days - almost certainly 'significant' therefore, whatever P&O might choose to pretend.

Has anyone tested their resolve on that one yet?

There's an interesting clause tucked away in the P&O terms and conditions:

CANCELLATION BY THE GUEST

38. The Guest has the right to cancel the Contract prior to commencement of the Package
without paying any cancellation charge in the event of unavoidable and extraordinary
circumstances significantly affecting the performance of the Contract. In such circumstances the
Guest shall be entitled to a full refund of all monies paid, but shall not be entitled to additional
compensation. 

And there's some comment on it here, funnily enough in relation to the Amsterdam Ijmuiden switch which has upset so many customers.

https://tomscruiseblog.com/2019/04/19/cancellation-charges-unreasonable/

Has anybody invoked this clause successfully, or are cancellations always done under this part of the clause, with lost deposits etc:

The Guest may cancel the Contract at any time prior to the commencement of the Package via
their travel agent or, for Guests who have booked direct, by calling our Reservations Department,
but if the cancellation is not as a result of unavoidable and extraordinary circumstances
significantly affecting the performance of the Contract, in that event P&O Cruises shall be entitled
to levy a cancellation charge as a percentage of the price paid in accordance with the following
scales

1 hour ago, Bazrat said:

If it was just the original post I would have the greatest of sympathy for him,but it’s the continuous moaning about p&o from the formal nights to the buffet to even include toilet paper,I made a previous comment about s lover scorned I stand by that.

You seem to have some difficulty with facts, Bazrat.

Don't know about the formal nights, but I raised the question of the toilet paper - as a joke!

Kind regards  -  Tom xxx