Pencil62

Hi. Please don't worry about your pickup time. We were also concerned about our 11:45 pickup time from Trowell services (Derby/Notts border). We always used to be pickup up around 9:00ish. We rang to query this and it was explained that for the larger ships like Iona/Arvia the terminal at Southampton can't cope with all the coaches arriving around lunchtime. We arrived at 3:45 and were on board by 4:00 with no hassle whatsoever.

We're on Iona 10th to 17th Feb. Debra Stephenson will be performing. I though she was very good when on the tele a few years ago.

Thanks. Yes it's a Saturday. Never thought of that.

Sorry, slight thread drift. We've just received email confirmation of pickup time from Nottingham services travelling next month. Having not used Intercruises for a few years we are surprised that pickup time is not till 11:45. Does this sound about right? All our previous experiences have seen us depart roughly between 08:30 and 9:15. We are sailing on Iona and I did wonder if this is to prevent a load of coaches turning up at a similar time.

Yes, they are Presto2.

We join Britannia next Friday. Our itinerary shows that both Sundays and both Wednesdays are the formal nights with the first Sunday being listed as the Celebration night.

Thank you. We haven't had a suite before and since this is for our 30th anniversary we thought we'd splash out on one with a wake view now that there is less of a soot problem.

We've just received a bid to upgrade email. £220p.p for a Mid, Mid/Aft suite on B deck. Now we're already in an aft suite on B deck. My question is what is £440 going to give us that we don't already have? Is it just the fact that they are more midship. This is for Britannia Dec 1st. Also just done a dummy booking and it says suites are sold out.

Not surprised Brodies was half empty if Forest were on.

I believe it will be from midnight on the morning of 7th October. We fly TUI on Dec 1st and were able to book 14 weeks prior. We didn't stay up but we did book around 8o'clock the following morning and I guess only around 25% had already gone. We were sent an email a few days beforehand that stated when booking would be open.

No. We are economy. From Birmingham. 3 - 3 - 3 arrangement

Ours were available to book last Friday morning (from midnight) but couldn't be bothered to wait up till then so tried around 8am when I woke up. Fearing the worst I was pleasantly surprised at how easy the process was. I reckon less than a quarter of the seats were already taken and as someone else stated it offered the same seats for the return flight. £45pp each way.

Thanks Presto. We will do

Thanks everyone for your replies. You have put our minds at rest and we will stick with what we have booked

Thanks, I'm sure we will. I suppose the soot problem must have improved somewhat otherwise we'd have seen a lot more negative comments on these boards.

Thanks for the review Presto. We've done 7 or 8 cruises now, all with P&O including 2 post covid last year on Azura and I have to say we haven't really encountered any problems with the 'app' and freedom dining. This December we're off to the Caribbean on Britannia and to celebrate our 30th anniversary we decided to splash out on an aft suite. After reading your comment about the soot on the balcony I'm wondering about trying to swap it for another suite slightly further forward as there are still one or two left. We are on B deck under one of the canopies that have been added to prevent the problem. Do you think it's worth bothering about?

We did 2 fly cruises from Birmingham to Malta last year. Once in May and another in October. All were scheduled departures with the exception being the return in October. This was a charter from Tenerife as Azura started its winter itinerary.

We join Azura in a couple of weeks. We fly to Malta on a scheduled flight with Jet2 and have our boarding passes printed out. However, the return flight, also Jet2, from Tenerife is a chartered flight. The link on the Jet2 website doesn't show this flight so we are unable to check in for it even though we are within the 28 day time frame. Our travel agent says we do not need to check in as P@o have chartered the plane. Now normally on returning from a fly cruise you are taken by coach from ship to airport and you go straight to security but if we don't have a boarding pass does this mean we have to first queue up at the check-in desk to obtain them. Or is it something that P&O sort out for us before disembarking. Thanks.

Our flight to Malta in May should have been 6a.m. We took off around 30 minutes late but we made most of the time up and arrived at 10:40. It was 11:30 when we lifted our cases off the carousel. Everything was well organised outside the airport and once the coach had filled up it only took 30 minutes to get to the port. Even with the extra checks at the port (vaccination records, insurance checks etc) we were pleasantly surprised to be on board Azura by 12:45. I hope the process is just as good when we board her next month for her repositioning cruise to Tenerife.

Thanks Huggsy. We're over the worst I think. Just feeling a bit lethargic and can't taste or smell much. We've got away lightly compared to many.

We arrived home last Thursday (2nd Jun) after 14 nights on board Azura. No problems at Birmingham for early flight and as you say embarkation in Malta was a breeze. We thought the standard of food was still very good but like you we reckoned there was nowhere near as much choice as we remembered. We used the app thingy to book all our meals in the 2 mdr's and found it worked perfectly except in our cabin where there was no signal. Regarding Sindhu, we were told it was closed because they were using it as a canteen to feed newly arrived crew who were still quarantined. Mask wearing was compulsory for the first week and was then relaxed for week 2. I felt sorry for the waiters on deck who still had to wear them when we were in Piraeus and Kusadasi where it was 34°C. We both enjoyed the cruise and are booked on Azura again in October when she heads to Tenerife from Malta. Unfortunately, we both tested positive for covid the day after arriving home. It seemed as though half the passengers on the flight home were coughing but we both had sore throats the day before returning so must have caught it around day 10 or 11

Thanks kalos. Will do.

LFT's done at local Lloyds Pharmacy this afternoon. I did ring them this morning to make sure they were expecting us. Pay on the day and issued with paper certificates. Glad to say we're both negative. Taxi at 2a.m. to Birmingham.