bee-ess

Looking for some help about Carnival shares - we have 5 P&O cruises booked with P&O which are all 14 nights or more so am thinking it is worth getting some shares for the extra OBC.

But, our next cruise is 4th July this year, would we get OBC for this one or do you have to hold the shares for a period before you can claim OBC ?

We have never held any Carnival shares so any other advice regarding the buying process etc would be appreciated.

2 minutes ago, yorkshirephil said:

We got that too. It doesn't affect us but there was much ado on facecloth with people threatening to cancel cruises as they couldn't get booked but other people on their cruise groups had. I can understand that they are not happy but threatening to cancel the cruise seemed a bit dramatic, especially when it was pointed out that there was no guarantee that they would have got booked anyway.

I managed to book some yesterday on CP but that now shows 'Coming Soon". Haven't had an email to say they will be honoured so hope the bookings are OK - should be as I have paid for them

9 hours ago, daiB said:

We must be part of the lucky ones as we have booked all what we wanted on Arvia in 26 days time. I think it all went haywire about 2/3 hours after our booking.

I managed to book some on Monday evening for our July cruise but it wasn't pretty with many failed attempts, they are still showing as booked so hopefully they are not cancelled.

13 minutes ago, tring said:

 

 

There is a full week between being able to see the itineraries and being able to book them.  Sogne said they go on sale on the 23rd.

 

I agree, but the earlier you can register with the TA the more likely you are to get the cabin you want

I wish they would make them available to browse now to allow us time before the 16th to decide which (if any) we want to do.

2 hours ago, RO1123 said:

I'm also on Arvia in the Med for 2025 (K514), Toulon is now live. Saint Tropez, Bandol (beach), Castellet, Aix en Provence, Cassis and Sanary-sur-mer.

Be aware that it is a long transfer from Toulon to Saint Tropez -  it was about 2.5 hours along the coast road but quicker coming back on the motorway.

10 hours ago, amurray88 said:

BUT the price would have to be right and I'm not sure their itineraries really inspire me (I quite fancy doing Eastern Med at some point and don't think they really cover this?)

So....future credit or OBC? What do you think?

 

P&O have fly-cruises to Eastern Med on Azura from April to November

1 hour ago, Interestedcruisefan said:

 

 

Isn't this good for people with OBC to spend by the way?

Only if they stop selling Alcohol

Have been looking at Caribbean for 25/26 and think that the launch prices are a bit too high, and a 10% deposit is a lot for cruises up to 2 and a half years away. They used to be 5% at launch.

But looking at availabilty it seems from trying a few dummy bookings that there are not a lot of cabins available to book online (unless they are holding cabins back). The 22 night TA in October 2025 on Arvia in particular does not have too many cabins available to book online .

Maybe worth talking to this company to see if any of their tours would be possible.

Caribbean IslandTours.pdf

To add to Gettingwarmer's list we have been to San Juan and just looked back on the photos and that looks Ok to walk around with a wheelchair.

Dominica - Roseau town is a bit run down and I imagine would be difficult with the state of the kerbs and pavements. It is a nice island if you can get out of town, there is a good botanical gardens not far out of town that overlooks the port that is good if you can get a taxi to take you up there.

St Maarten - it is about 15-20 mins walk into town. There is also a boat that runs from the ship to town but not sure how practical that would be.

Willemstad Curacao - As Gettingwarmer says this would be a good one to just walk around the port, easy walk into the town with pretty coloured buildings. 

Ochos Rios - echo what Gettingwarmer says, even if you can dock it is not a very nice place to walk around.

If you can use taxis - In most of the Caribbean ports there will be taxi drivers who will take you around for a tour, they usually tout for business as soon as you are off the ship.  

6 minutes ago, gsmt47471015 said:

We visited Catalina island on our first ever Caribbean cruise , they cooked a bbq on the beach and everything had to be brought over from the ship , it was a fabulous day and one we have never had the pleasure of doing since,     Unfortunately 😕

They used to go to more of these - we also have been to Mayreau and Princess Cays for similar days, but sadly no longer.

1 minute ago, Glitterati said:

I'm on Britannia in February out of Gatwick on TUI. 

 

 

And me, I have been 15 times and it has always been from Gatwick

4 hours ago, sweep2907 said:

Good spot 👌 Never seen Jamaica stop on P&O itineraries so that's nice change. Never understand why P&O stick to same 8 islands or so year in year out when there are so many others that are visited by other companies. You got me interested in one of those now even though Britannia isn't my favourite 

We went to Ochos Rios, (which is near to Dunns River Falls, famous for the Dr No movie) in 2007 on Arcadia. This was a standard 2 week fly cruise, P&O had much more varied Caribbean cruises back then.

This was the itinerary then

15 minutes ago, Interestedcruisefan said:

 

 

I dislike physical queues myself enough to not get involved and funny enough have never had to queue more than 30 seconds to get into the theatre

 

(If I've ever seen more than a 30 man defence second queue for the theatre I've just walked to one of the other 3 entrances nearby)

 

No problem at all

 

 

 

Thanks for your solution, I'd never of thought of that

We are in a minority but would like it if club dining was available on these 2 ships or at least the option for same table same time every night 

On 8/1/2023 at 5:34 PM, Presto2 said:

We've just checked and now have times leaving 11.05am Manchester and arriving 15.50h. Can't book our seats yet though. 

Looks like we'll have to race you to the speciality dining ....can't see .any left by the time we board. Any idea what time we will be leaving Barbados that day?

Pps The speciality restaurants are now saying coming soon not please enquire on board like it did for our Norway cruise so fingers crossed.

Scheduled to leave at 21:00 on the Saturday if all the planes are in, if not they wait for the planes. These are the times P&O gave me for our cruise in Feb - we are Fri-Fri.

24 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

Thanks to all who have posted.  Out of interest I asked which ship the affected passengers are/were sailing on - my gut says Arvia - could I kindly ask if people would mind confirming this please?  I know ICF is definitely on Arvia for instance but no idea on the other folks plans.

We are on Arvia Feb  2024 flying from Gatwick 

We have Tui flight details on the CP saying TUI 12 out at 10:35 and TUI 13 Home

15 minutes ago, Presto2 said:

On our personaliser it says the time of the flight and the flight number and carrier. TUI.

Is that a good sign .. please say yes as this cruise has been one headache after another and we have just managed to chill it will be ok !!!!!!! 

Ours shows the same, so we should be OK

We have our details for next Feb, we are on TUI12 and TUI13 from Gatwick. Won't be keen to fly if that is changed to a Maleth Aero flight.

But I guess they won't tell us until after we have paid our Balance in November and they have our money.

22 hours ago, Lee117five0 said:

Me and my partner cruised on arvia in June/July. The epicurean menu changed at the half way point of the cruise.

Thanks, was it the same for Sindhu ?

Does anyone know when Epicurean switches it's Menu from A to B on a 2 week cruise, we want to go twice but once on each menu 

15 hours ago, Eglesbrech said:

Perhaps if they charged a bit more for the cruise, served better quality food in the MDR and reduced the long waiting times then people would not feel the need for multiple bookings in speciality dining.

I would happily go back to when there were no speciality restaurants when the MDR food was far superior to now and we had proper wine waiters and silver service, although I am probably in a minority. Dinner then was a far better experience than it is now.

59 minutes ago, Maamgu74 said:

I totally agree with you Cuatbar58 

2x costas each morning 

2x beers lunch 

2x ciders afternoon 

2x berry coolers

costa 

2x procescos

2x red wines Dinner 

2x Beers

2x cocktails  

4 x bottles water 

then the kids 

4x sodas a day 

2x hotchocs

6x bottled water 

this adds up to more than £40 pp per day 

and you’re getting your extra 7.5% off

making it £ 37 PDPP 

 

great choice Mate !!! 

 

 

Isn't there a limit on the amount of alcoholic drinks you can have on the package ?

3 hours ago, mitooki said:

Can you reach the ship's WiFi from the bag drop off area? Our boarding time is not until 15:15 but will be dropping bags off early.

Nor sure about outside the terminal, I did ours sat outside of the security bit waiting to get hand luggage checked. They told us there would be a short delay so I did it them then. We were in the first lot through after the suites and Baltics though. Worth trying outside the terminal though.