smollett

Maybe this is a stupid question… but the insurer recommended by P&O on their website seems pretty good value. Why spend ages reading small-print on other sites and getting special certificates when you could just get that?

That’s exactly what I did… and the conversation at departure was ‘I used your ensurer, here’s the certificate/dates’. Job done. 
 

I can appreciate if you’ve already got a yearly policy it’s worth seeing if that’ll cover (at no extra cost)… but I’m left thinking with some of these threads that people just like to make their lives difficult. 🤷‍♂️

I think Marco Pierre White and Eric Lanyard had been hired to run the cooking experience classes... but because of the regulations they were cancelled. So instead they ran a short interview session hosted by the head of entertainment, just going through some stories and background on the two. 

It was all pretty short (45 mins?) but I'm a fan of Marco so I was happy enough to attend. 

Incidentally they both raved that the lamb chops at Sindhu were the best thing they'd tasted on the ship... so perhaps worth a try!

I was on the 1 July Britannia cruise... took a regular suit for the formal night. 

Since the ship was only 1/4-1/3 full, there was never much footfall in the central atrium during the evenings - so on formal night I didn't really feel there was much of a dressy atmosphere and I regretted packing it. Others may have felt differently.

Incidentally I ate that night in the Epicurian and wasn't impressed. Although the dishes were a bit more showey, I didn't think the cooking was as good as the main restaurants.

They're not doing PCR tests - just lateral flow... and the sampling method was pretty half hearted. I don't think it's an immense amount of work frankly.

43 minutes ago, Cathygh said:

The app is useful for tracking on board spend but as most of the time we were only asked for our name and cabin number when buying drinks it is open to abuse. You are relying on staff getting things right.

I noticed for the first couple of days staff were asking for room number to bill and I also thought that was poor. 

However on Saturday/Sunday, more were using these clip boards with built in cruise card readers. Hopefully this is something they're working on and it'll end up being the preferred way of paying.

I think the cruise lines might remain quite conservative when it comes to mask wearing. 

I've just this morning disembarked from the 3 day Britannia staycation cruise. All staff members were wearing masks throughout - and passengers wore masks when not sat in restaurants/bars/on deck. I felt very safe throughout.

Let's face it, for the cruise line, the biggest risk they probably face is amongst their crew members, most of whom are likely to be unvaccinated not from guest to guest. If an infection broke out below decks it would be much more likely to spread compared to amongst the double-vaxxed passengers. P&O absolutely need to avoid this as it could shut a ship down... so I think they might keep the mask ordinances in place to protect them from the guests.

Second thing I'd say is that for someone worried about infection - use decent PPE grade masks! There's no shortage now amongst medical staff - so you're not denying a nurse a mask by buying these better ones yourself. I only wear 3M brand FFP2 or FFP3 masks in situations where I think the risk is higher - and on this cruise I judged that to be in the lifts and theatre. An FFP2 or FFP3 mask won't just protect someone from you - it'll protect you!

It's pretty buggy isn't it? 

Just completed the July 1st Britannia staycation, so I got to try out the new 'My Holiday' App.

Firstly, it's not really an app - it's a web site that can only be seen when on the ship, logged into the ship WiFi (unlike some other lines, which have full app-store type downloadable apps).  

You log in by entering the last 5 digits from your cruise card, name and date of birth. 

Having logged in, the main functionality is booking events, booking restaurants, viewing your calendar and accessing medical help. It's still being developed, and thus far it seems that only the view calendar feature really works properly. We were told that event booking wasn't yet implemented (although the system does hold the events you've pre-booked on the web before embarkation). 

I believe that restaurant booking was supposed to be working, but that wasn't my experience. I tried booking a seat at the Epicurean... (screen presents different times and seat number options) but it didn't seem to complete the booking. I then tried again and was told that I'd already booked and this was a duplicate... but no booking showed on my calendar. I went to reception who confirmed no booking was made and actually made one... this then appeared on the calendar. 

If it's new I can understand there being some remaining bugs. Got to say, I'm less convinced that having it as a web app reliant on ship WiFi is a good choice. You can't access the information in port, or if you're connected to 4G for instance... so I had to keep switching off the phone signal to switch back to ship WiFi.

Just finished my first cruise on Britannia and TBH I was very pleasantly surprised by the drinks prices. Around the £6-8 mark for 250ml glasses of wine in the restaurants, less than £5 for a pint of beer. That's less than what I usually pay in pubs in London - so no complaints from me. 

I took a pack of 4 beers on with me, in case on-ship booze turned out to be shockingly dear, but I ended up bringing them home un-drunk.

Yep - just got off Britannia this morning. Went to the buffet at 8am (my cabin was on the Lido deck, so it was convenient) - pretty quiet and I got seated straight off. 

On Voda... for a good few years the free roaming has covered more non-EU countries than it has EU countries; so I can't see why a change of status with the EU would change that (it's not really about being in the EU or not). 

Voda have also been the only operator who have supported roaming in places like Japan (albeit at a small extra charge) for years - which has been very useful for me.

So I'm not expecting any big changes here.

1 hour ago, Bertie Doe said:

Pity there's nothing in the cabin to heat milk.

I bought one of those small stainless steel milk jugs you often find in hotels. I put the milk in it, put it in a bowl or cup and pour boiling water round it. Brings the temp up to 40 or 50 which does the trick.

I like travelling with the aeropress. I also always pack a thermos mug... I like to take my time with a good cup of coffee and the thermos stays hot for a long time.

So I got an email from P&O to check in, and I went to the web site to do that.

On the page asking for Document Information... they've only copied my first name into the "All Given Names as per Document" box, missing my middle name off (even though they have it... it's on my booking confirmation). I guess this needs to be 100% correct, since it's an official passport check - but that box is blocked and can't be edited on the web. 😑

Been phoning the P&O customer service line this afternoon to fix it, but I keep getting the irritating 'we don't want you to have to hold the line so long so we'll cut you off' message. 🤬

Anyone found a way around this - or do I just have to keep phoning them to try and get them to correct their mistake?

I'd booked pretty early for the 1 Jul cruise - I went for an internal room. Got an email confirmation a few days back with an upgrade to a balcony. 

So I guess they're honouring early bookings, and since they've got fewer travelling, they're moving everyone out of the inside rooms?

I think the wise approach is to get a physical print out.

Hopefully P&O should also give more guidance as the sail dates get closer.

45 minutes ago, yorkshirephil said:

Strange, just checked again in case it had changed due to an update

Yep - do you have an Apple or an Android phone though?

Different platforms, different apps.

I have an Apple.

5 minutes ago, yorkshirephil said:

On the app your name is above date of birth, I just cut the snip short for security

 

 

 

Interesting. Are you on Android?

I've got the latest update of the app on the iPhone and it doesn't have name/address on the vaccine page. 😞 

Where is it listed on P&O's site how many formal nights there will be on each cruise - I've been searching and can't see it anywhere.

Booking my first cruise (a 3 day UK 'staycation' in July) and I'm not sure whether any of the nights need formal wear...

I don't think this app has reached 'final form' yet... having some text on a screen isn't particularly secure - especially given your name isn't on that screen at the same time. Will you have to demonstrate you're logging in, then browse to the proof screen?

Eventually they'll end up with some internationally-scannable QR code that includes protection against copying, but I suppose what we have now is a start!