bee-ess

9 minutes ago, Son of Anarchy said:

Just log in to Cruise Personaliser.  Go to entertainment and you should see all the theatre shows and dates.  Click on the show that you are interested in, it should come up with times.  Tick the boxes for both of you and you should then see which seats you've been allocated (weren't restricted to those seats once onboard Iona), and accept, or something like that.

 

You then get an e-mail confirming your choice.  Repeat for each show that you want to see!

 

BTW, when we were on Iona, we couldn't book for the Limelight Club in advance.  Had to be done on board.

 

Once you get on board and have downloaded the app, your theatre bookings should appear in there as well.

Thanks, after over 40 cruises this is all new to me, if you wanted to see a show you just went, didn't have to make up your mind 2 weeks before. Oh well, this and all the rigamarole to get into Barbados, this cruising seems to be getting too much bother I think or I'm getting too old for it all.

We are on Britannia on Jan 1st and have just seen this note in our Personaliser under Entertainment - Is this for Theatre shows and if so how do we book them when the time comes - is it through the personaliser ?

1 hour ago, Interestedcruisefan said:

Will do for sure

 

Anybody you could recommend ?

Staysure for us, but you need full worldwide cover for the Caribbean

58 minutes ago, Caravan 37 said:

Oh - confused

It was announced by the Govt that the PCR test would be replaced by Lateral Flow at the end of October, the date is still to be announced, but it was said that it was hoped to get this sorted in time for October half term.  We return to UK from Lanzarote on 20th October and have bought 2 cheap PCR tests from Tui. As Zap99 said in an earlier post if it changes before 20th we will just use them as a substitute for the Lateral Flows.

1 hour ago, Caravan 37 said:

No need for the 2 days PCR tests as of today from Spain/Portugal 🤦🏻‍♀️
 

I paid £110 for 2 on Saturday 😏

you still need the 2 day PCR until 'somewhen' at the end of October

It is in the P&O website in the New Health Protocol  dated 30th Sept 2021 so I doubt they will email anyone- thanks to Megabear 2 for the information originally,

COVID-19 vaccine and testing requirements

For holidays to the Caribbean from 22 October 2021 - 27 March 2022

Given the long-haul destinations and the number of different countries visited, combined with the current health protocols and entry requirements in the Caribbean, all guests (irrespective of age) must have completed their vaccination course at least 14 days prior to travel. This can either be two doses of the currently approved COVID-19 vaccines or the approved single-dose Janssen COVID-19 vaccine (approved by the MHRA). A single dose of any other vaccine will not be accepted. All guests of all ages must meet the requirements of the COVID-19 vaccination policy. 

All guests on a Caribbean fly-cruise will also need to organise and pay for a private PCR test within 72 hours prior to travel. The test must be administered at an accredited or recognised laboratory by a healthcare professional. You’ll present your negative PCR result at the airport as well as complete a complimentary antigen test organised by P&O Cruises. 

For guests setting sail in Southampton, you will complete a complimentary antigen test at the terminal and must pay for a PCR test on board within 72 hours of arriving in the Caribbean.

We are lucky that P&O allowed to move our payment date from Oct 3rd to Nov 3rd which gives us another month to make a decision. It will still be a tough decision to make. If the conditions on the weekly document shows it being the same or better than todays we will probably go but any worse and we probably won't.

I was expecting worse than the document shows and am trusting them to be truthful about it, the only bad hit seems to be the PCR test for Barbados fly-in but we were expecting several tests for the ports and apart from that the document  shows no tests, just Grenada undecided. At present we can get off in 4 ports which is better than I thought. Just have to wait and see what happens in the next 4-5 weeks.

17 hours ago, Megabear2 said:

There is a useful document on the website which shows port by port situation with tests/excursions.  Seems quite helpful for working out extra costs to be incurred. Doesn't look as bad a first thought but still could be considerably more expensive if excursions are compulsory to get off the ship.

A-Z-destination-entry-requirements-30-September.pdf 727.75 kB · 32 downloads

Hi Megabear2 - can you tell me where you found this PDF on the P&O website

29 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

There is a useful document on the website which shows port by port situation with tests/excursions.  Seems quite helpful for working out extra costs to be incurred. Doesn't look as bad a first thought but still could be considerably more expensive if excursions are compulsory to get off the ship.

A-Z-destination-entry-requirements-30-September.pdf 727.75 kB · 10 downloads

Thanks for this - It is better than I thought.  

24 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

Nothing from P&O yet, but this has just arrived from Cunard, perhaps P&O will be posting shortly:

Important information about your upcoming voyage.

 

QUOTE

 

In October this year, we will set sail on our first international itineraries since our pause in operations. We continue to work hand in hand with authorities and regional partners in the destinations we visit to ensure we comply with evolving local protocols. We are continually monitoring the entry requirements of the ports on our upcoming planned itineraries and following our latest review it has become necessary to make a change to our vaccination policy.

All guests of all ages will need to be fully vaccinated in order to travel on any voyage departing from 13 October 2021, up to and including 17 April 2022 for Queen Mary 2 and up to and including 17 May 2022 for Queen Elizabeth. The vaccine policy currently does not apply to sailings on Queen Victoria, who is scheduled to return to service on 22 April 2022. Our definition of ‘fully vaccinated’ is a minimum of 14 days following the second dose of the currently approved Covid-19 vaccines or 14 days following the approved single-dose Janssen Covid-19 vaccine being administered. Please note, a single dose of any other vaccine will not be deemed 'fully vaccinated'. Further details of our vaccination and testing policy can be found on our website.

This is a change from our previous stated vaccination policy.

If any guests on your booking will be impacted by this change, you will be able to take advantage of our flexible transfer policy. For added peace of mind, our flexible transfer policy means you can move your booking, free of charge and as many times as you like, prior to the balance due date. Moreover, in order to provide booked guests with as much flexibility as possible we have taken the decision to relax our balance due payment terms on all holidays departing up to and including 31 March 2022, to 30 days prior to departure. You can find our latest booking terms here.

Thank you once again for your continued understanding and support.

Simon Palethorpe
President, Cunard

 

Hope I'm forgiven for posting this here!

Hopefully P&O will do the same

With a lot of folk still making up their minds about paying their Caribbean balances or not it would have been nice to have a certain date for the 2023/4 launch to aid on the decision if the launch is before the payment date. We are in that position. Maybe that is the reason they are not telling us when the launch is hoping that folk pay up and also book a 2023/4 cruise or am I just being cynical.

Why not tell us when ?

33 minutes ago, bbtablet said:

If you were P&O, what would you say to customers?

I think under the circumstances that P&O could not provide the information at payment time that 100% FCC (not 125%) would be a fair compromise. If the protocols are not acceptable to me I would accept that if it was offered. Will P&O offer it I would say they won't.

Maybe they are waiting until the Caribbean season is 100% certain to happen, the testing required for entering the islands could still make it not viable. We still have no details of that or even if we will allowed off the ship independently and the first cruise is only 4 weeks away.

2 minutes ago, bee-ess said:

Double post - ignore

4 hours ago, Son of Anarchy said:

Sounds interesting.  Only the other day I mentioned to The Ole Lady about Princess Plus and the cost.  She asked why aren't we cruising with them then!  Might well be in 2023.  Thanks for posting.

We did a Princess seacation a couple of weeks ago and the Princess Plus for £30 per day is a no-brainer.

£30 is about $40 and for that you get free tips and Wifi and drinks up $12 a shot - usually have 2 double scotches before dinner and that alone costs $36 (drinks are expensive on Princess). So just those 2 drinks and the tips would cost $50 and  you get the rest of your drinks (you are allowed 15 per day) and the Wifi for 'free'. The only downside we could see what that you cannot have mixers in bottles or cans unless you pay for them - all drinks are made up with the syphoned stuff (and filled to the top if you don't watch it) but they are happy to serve the mixer in a separate glass. 

Thanks, We are Jan 1st which is 15 weeks away so I won't worry about it just yet then.

Although we have been to Caribbean with P&O a few times we have forgotten - the seats are on sale 14 weeks before but is that 14 weeks before the outbound or inbound flight.  

Also I assume that if the cruise is cancelled that the costs of reserving seats would be refunded but would they be refunded if we decided to transfer the cruise once we know a bit more about excursion protocols and testing.

2 minutes ago, bee-ess said:

I am booked with P&O direct and just want to speak to someone about it. I will try tomorrow when they open. Hopefully I can get an extension until the 2023 brochure is out so I have somewhen to move it too and also by them the protocols should be a lot clearer.

19 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

I'm sorry for your troubles. My balance was due 22nd September but my agent has managed to extend this date until 9th October in the hope the Caribbean protocols will be decided and also the UK Government requirements will be confirmed. Is there any way you could arrange an extension or are you directly booked with P&O?

Please Ignore

I have been trying to get through to P&O all morning on various numbers with no luck. We have to pay our balance on Oct 3rd with little or no information available to be able to make a decision on whether to proceed and pay Balance or move it. We need to know if we can get off independently and how much testing costs will be before we can make an informed decision. This cruise includes a £3400 FCC so we cannot afford to just cancel  it.

As we have 4 further cruises booked with P&O in 2022/3 we don't really have a slot to move to until the new 2023 Summer launch we are in an impossible position and cannot even phone P&O to vent our feelings. I basically need them to offer a solution to our problem or I think we will just cancel those 4 future cruises and lose our deposits. 

We are due to go on Jan 1st with Balance to pay on Oct 3rd. Just had our flight allocated which makes it all a bit more real - just not sure what to do now with all the uncertainty about potential testing costs and still not sure if we will be allowed off on our own. We have 4 more cruises booked so have no slots to move to unless the Summer 2023 programme is announced before Oct 3rd.

My understanding is that if it is for a seacation cruise you have to make sure that you have £2mill Health Cover on the Policy, most policies only cover 10K for UK holidays so you need to ask your insurer for a letter to say that you are covered for at least £2mill on a UK Cruise. 

8 hours ago, wowzz said:

We should probably be discussing this on the roll call for this cruise, but since you ask, because no Brits can currently enter Italy without going into quarantine.

I think I heard on Sky News that this was changed yesterday to allow double jabbed visitors from UK with a negative PCR test into Italy without the 5 day quarantine.

How can they allow you to roam independently on a P&O excursion but not allow you off the ship independently. It makes no sense.