Cruisemeister2002

Truthfully it's an individual decision. Personally have never gone for a Saver fare I like to choose my cabin, have the onboard credit, dine at a set time and not have to pay for shuttle buses if I haven't booked a tour. I know it will probably be pointed out to me that the new ships are both freedom dining, therefore I would have to book onboard, but you still, according to P&O get priority over saver fares although I doubt this would impact too much. Priorit boarding depends on which tier you have achieved and not on whether you book Saver or Select. As for pay restuarants normally you can go onto P&O website, work out when you want to use one and book and pay for it there and then.

How long is a piece of string ? Sadly you cannot predict the Atlantic. It can be like a mill pond or be pretty rough. I have been across the Atlantic on Oriana, Aurora and Ventura. One particular cruise the Captain came on the tannoy one evening and said he expected a force 9, the following day he said it had actually been a force 12. On another cruise we were due to call in at St.John Newfoundland but due to a hurricane coming up the east coast he decided to steam away and come home, we caught the very tail end of it. But I must say that I found both Aurora and Oriana handled the weather very well. The most recent crossing was on Ventura in March this year and the sea was pretty calm. That was our 7th transatlantic crossing.

Glad you had a good cruise. Unfortunately ours on Ventura in March was possibly the worst cruise we have had on any P&O ship. Food in MDR was poor, brocolli with everything except the dessert. Problems boarding, cabin changed the day before, but it seemed they forgot to tell the crew as we received other peoples luggage, key cards were for someone else. Celebration Package I ordered and paid £399 for took 15 days into the cruise to sort out. Nightmare immigration in New Orleans, air bridge problems in Miami. Missed Key West as removed from itinerary a few months before cruise. Missed Bermuda as the Captain decided 4 days before docking that the weather was too bad. 3 medical emergencies and a rescue of a yacht that turned out to be a man in his forties who had two young girls onboard who were being trafficked. Oh, but Sindu was great and a couple of tribute acts were superb also. Added to that P&O, after a letter, gave me a £800 refund and a hamper. So I will be sailing with them again next year.

Get to twenty pounds and I might consider selling. Meanwhile i will enjoy the extra OBC.

Thought Dunlop had retyred

Hope you got through immigration o.k. thought it was a nightmare. Some didn't get to go ashore until 4.30 in the afternoon meaning two days in New Orleans ended up as one and a bit. When a ship has some 2,400 passengers and around 1,200 crew you would think that they could have a few more than five or six processing passports, esta's, finger prints and photo's. I found it quicker on a previous cruise when immigration came aboard and New York was definitely quicker than New Orleans.

Did get them on Ventura in April although not presented as well as on previous cruises. Were signed by our waiters, although a fellow passenger on our table thought that they had made a error as our names were on their menu's. Turned out that they had signed both the same. Didn't for the first time ever keep ours, except for the page signed by our waiters as was so disgusted with the poor quality and repetitiveness of the fare dished up that we threw the rest of the menu's away. I did feel for our waiter as he seemed to continually be apologising about the food which was bland, varied between warm and cold, brocolli with everything, thin custard, poorly cooked steaks which never seemed to be done as requested and the quality of desserts were nowhere near what we had been served on previous cruises.

At the moment the share price seems to be reluctant to keep above £8 although I believe an update on profits is due this month. As airlines and other cruiselines have been doing well I see no reason for shares not to continue to rise. I doubt we will see £40 per share anytime soon though.

Hope you have a great time. Sadly my recent 35 night cruise on P&O Ventura was one problem after another. P&O changed my cabin the day before departure, sadly it seemed that I was the only one aware of it as cards outside the cabin for entry and general use were someone else's, the dining arrangements were also someone else's. I had paid £399 for an Ultimate Celebration package and it took me 17 days to get it sorted properly. We got four cases that were obviously the persons luggage that were originally given our cabin. My wife was ill for a few days and I wasn't 100% for all of the cruise although when I arrived at Southampton I was fine. But the number of fellow passengers with hacking coughs was considerable. There were cases of Covid and Noroviris onboard and I had to visit the medical services due to a swollen leg/foot which meant out of about 8 pairs of shoes I took with me I could only get one pair on and ended up buying another pair when we reached land. All of which were made worse by continually queuing everywhere. New Orleans which was where we went through immigration took three and a half hours, some people lost most of the day although it was adverised as a two day stop. Bermuda which was an overnight stay was ruled out due to weather conditions, though I dispute that as it was four days before we were due to arrive there and Key West had been removed from the itinerary some months prior to the cruise. Truly about 10 days before disembarkation I couldn't wait to get off the ship.

On our recent cruise the toast was so cold the waiters served it wearing thermal gloves.

Our recent cruise meant you had brocolli with everything. The custard was so thin I've seen thicker water and some of the desserts were described as pina colada or rum infused I think they meant refused.

Sadly the onus seems to have been shifted to the passenger. Trouble is what industry hasn't ? Whether it's bank statements or online banking, insurance companies, mot's etc everything is online. But like many when I go on holiday I want a relaxing time and whilst to many to access an app isn't any great shakes to have to do that every day is frankly turning a holiday into a chore especially when you consider before leaving home labels have to be printed, boarding passes and filling in of personal information on the cruiseline website. We then have a 45 minute journey to our coach pickup point, a coach journey including a stop off at South Mims which takes five hours and then this year when arriving at Southampton queues and piles of luggage.

I think what they need to remember is that those now in their 20's and 30's will hopefully be such as ourselves be in their 60's and 70's in forty or fifty years time and they like us will still want to cruise. Perhaps it;s the fact that when you get older, you hopefully get wiser. You won't pay through the nose for things you know you can get cheaper. Many don't drink as much, go on excursions or do a DIY excursion. I have recently come back off a P&O cruise and unfortunately found it necessary to write a strongly worded letter due to the many problems we incurred. Admittedly to their credit they have compensated me, but nevertheless my first holiday in four years and my only one this year ended with me looking forward to disembarking many day's before the cruise ended.

On our last cruise in March Ventura didn't set sail until 11.30 pm so I'm not sure whether the sail aways are like they were back in 2018. I presume the brass band still plays on the quay, but I believe due to environmental issues streamers are no longer used. I would also imagine that waiters with champagne still wander about, at a charge of course.

Unfortunately in a lot of cases this happens. I remember when first cruising back in 2002 that I went to P&O directly to book and when onboard with two lovely couples at dinner was told to use some other companies that discounted quite considerably. I used these companies for some time, but as time went by two bookings I made with these various other companies they went bust. Fortunately in both instances P&O took over the bookings so I didn't lose out. I now very rarely go outside of booking direct with the cruise company. However I have had similar experiences to yourself. One particular cruise was disounted by over £1000 on my original booking and although I lost the deposit I was able to secure the same cabin at the cheaper price and still save nearly £700. So it really depends on whether you would save enough to cancel and rebook. I don't know whether it is still the case, but in our early days of cruising everyone seemed to have paid a different amount for the same cruise. Obviously if you have a higher graded cabin such as a balcony against an inside or sea view you would expect to pay more.

As fellow travellers have advised exact times aren't forthcoming. If you consider P&O and I presume other cruise lines can't even guarantee that you will go to a particular Port Of Call they won't be giving an exact time either. Maybe it's just me, but I do feel that cruise line T's & C's are hidden behind of when it comes to them missing a port of call. Whereby they state that if circumstances arrive then they may not dock at a certain P of C. On a recent cruise we were told in advance that Key West was deleted from our schedule, four days before arrival at Bermuda for an overnight stop we were informed by the Captain that due to adverse weather we wouldn't be making this P of C. The reason for Key West was I believe due to them not wanting Ventura in. Yet they advertise the same cruise next year with Key West as part of the itinerary ? Whilst I am also aware that safety is paramount and adverse weather can prevent a ship docking it doesn't to me hold true that docking can or cannot be determined four days before arrival. Further to this I was told by P&O that if another P of C was available they would have docked. I questioned this as on previous occasions we have visited the US and it used to take five days. We travelled from Port Canaveral to Punta del Garda over six days and a further three days to get to Southampton. Missing Bermuda also meant after a call at La Coruna we had nine sea days before Freeport Bahamas. I also note that on many insurance policies missing ports of call can be covered forn extra money. Seeing as mine cost me £1800 I didn't take the extra out. But was told the T's and C's by P&O and told to claim from my insurance, which obviously I couldn't. Although cruiselines may have to feed people when not calling at a port they are also getting the extra spending onboard via drinks and other spending.

Apart from our second cruise, which was onboard Sea Princess we have taken the other 16 cruises on P&O. My wife keeps saying "why don't we try Ambassador" but although some of the P&O ships such as Aurora launched 2000 and Arcadia a few years later are older ships I look at Ambassador and think that although they look o.k. they really are old and forgive me if I am wrong, but weren't these virtually scrap before being resurrected.

Our cruise on Ventura in March didn't matter much whether you had a check in time, had a boarding pass or priority boarding as when we got off the coach the baggage and queues were horrendous. all due apparently to Ventura arriving five hours late due to a refit. What they refitted I have no idea, maybe a few carpets ? There were still fitters on board days after we sailed, which instead of being around 5 p.m. ended up at 11.30 p.m. and one of our bags still wasn't at our cabin by the time we went to the MDR at 8.30. Having changed our cabin a day before sailing I had to cut all the labels from our bags and reprint. On arriving at our "New" cabin the cards allowing entry and purchases etc were someone else's, the dining arrangements were wrong, we no table number. Our Celebration Package which I paid £399 for non existent and we ended up with our luggage minus one, plus four of the other persons cases. Which i presume they had been moved also, but either didn't pick up the notification or weren't notified at all. Having said that, I suppose they must have known otherwise we could have ended up four in a bed ?

On Ventura in March/April had the same problems, this time brocolli with everything. Got to the stage where some of it had a brown tinge to it. Obviously past it's sell by date. Desserts were bland. If it said rum cake or pina collada cheesecake I reckon the dessert had a cork waved above it as no distinct taste of any alcohol. My wife had what they described as a trio of chocalate. It was impossible to see more than two. She has had this on previous cruises and loved it, not so on this one. Also no Opera cake of sassha torte. Not sure really if it mattered as it wouldn't have been very nice judging on the rest that was dished up. Breakfasts were generally o.k. apart from the odd eggs benedic being cold and the burgers, pizza and chips were all good on deck. The buffet was so, so, some days very good, some days not so good and no curry nights on the buffet, which are usually good. Sindu was superb and the Beach House good. But then you pay extra for these. Our four best meals were 3 x sindu and 1 x Beach House.

Returned from a cruise on Ventura, 35 nights. Itinerary was originally La Coruna, Bermuda (overnight), Freeport Bahamas, Cozumel, Rhoatan, Belize, New Orleans (two days, Key West, Miami, Port Canaveral and Punta del Garda. Several weeks before departing we were informed that Key West was deleted, then when heading for Bermuda was told the weather wouldn't allow us to dock. Mind you, that was 4 days before arrival. I questioned if the Captain had a crystal ball. Due to the length of time the US authorities took for immigration into New Orleans we lost the morning and some passengers most of the afternoon also. We didn't do excursions in either Rhoatan or Belize and felt both a complete waste of time. It was put to me by P&O that had other ports of call been available other than Bermuda they would have taken them in. I questioned this as due to a medical emergency we had a passenger leave the ship and I believe we could have docked in Bermuda on the return journey from Port Canaveral. I say this as it took 6 days to get to Punta del Garda and a further 3 days to get to Southampton. Whereas I have been on cruises to the States where it has only taken 5 days to get back to Southampton. Could this have been due to Ventura arriving at Southampton for the outbound journey 5 hours late and instead of a departure time of around 17.00 hours we didn't leave Southampton until 23.30 hours ?

Don't know whether it's just post pandemic or not but our recent experiences on Ventura meant that I longed to get off the ship many days before we docked in Southampton. It just seemed we encountered one problem after another and seeing as this was our first cruise for four years it was very disappointing. However we are giving P&O another chance to redeem themselves next year. Age and mobility have caught up with me and I cannot be bothered with the hassle.

I nearly fell over (Not through drinking) when I looked on MyHoliday at the previous day's spend. We had two glasses of Souvignon Blanc and the bill was £19. I queried it at receiption and they looked into it. But apparently it was correct. Due to it being quite difficult to get the wine waiter and he didn't have a wine list with him always I just ordered them. I could have got a bottle for the same price.

I do wonder seeing as Carnival shares have dropped on occasions to around £5 if so many have purchased a holding of 100 shares so as to benefit from the OBC that they are looking into whether to reduce these benefits as you don't have to cruise for weeks on end to get the £150 OBC. I had the OBC on Ventura earlier this year and I hope to receive it next year.

We, that is the wife and I did a 35 night cruise on Ventura in March/April we took with us a 1 ltr bottle of gin and vokda. When we left the ship there were still some vodka left. Mind you, it's a individual thing. each to their own as they say. A couple on our table of six had a bottle of wine, she had white, he had red, which they drank over two nights and continue that throughout the cruise. We on the other hand didn't always drink at every meal and if we did we had a glass of wine or I had a beer and the wife a G&T and on the odd occasion we consumed a bottle. I simply don't go for a drinks package as there's no way i'd get my money's worth. But if a person feels that they can consume that amount then why not ?

Hi All, hope you are all well and enjoying your cruises ? Has anyone had similar experience to me and my wife with regards to Celebration Packages in that it does appear that staff are not trained well enough to impliment these packages. The one that I have taken out on my last two cruises is the Ultimate Celebration Package consisting of A bottle of champagne, a champagne breakfast in bed, two champagne flutes in a presentation box, formal portrait in frame, flowers in cabin, box of chocolates, dressing gown and slippers, facial or massage, 2 visits to a restuarant (such as Glass House, Beach House, Sindu) and Canapes twice. The current price is £425. Sadly on both of our cruises there has been several errors. The first of the two some the flowers died after a couple of days. I went for a massage and my wife a faciial, I came out after the 50 minutes and my wife was still sat outside. She received a different day to attend which was subsequiently changed again. The specialist restuarants didn't really know how to deal with the vouchers. The second cruise which was in March this year we had endless problems. The first being they changed our cabin and nothing was in the new cabin and it took 17 days to sort everything out.