Lancashire Lad 70

As regular cruisers with P&O we had no hesitation in suggesting that my son, his family + his disabled elderly mother in law went on a 7 day Norweigian Firord Cruise on 29th June. They booked direct with P&O and at the time of booking stressed that they needed a cot for their 9 month old baby as well as sterilising equipment and baby food. The P&O booking agent assured them that all would be taken care of and that my son's wife would be listed as her mother's carer. 

They have now found out 

1. That there is no record of a cot being required 

2 That no baby food nor sterilising equipment has been ordered and that it is too late for that to be ordered now 

3 That although my son and family have been given a boarding time of 12.15 his Mother in Law has been given a boading time of 2.00pm. P&O are adament that this cannot be changed even though the booking was linked

They have tried to explain that this is not acceptable but have had no joy 

Does anyone have any ideas about how to overcome these problems which are putting a real damper on the cruise especially as it is their first time  

I have followed your adventures from day 1 and thank you for sharing the ups and downs of the cruise. Like many others I will miss your daily news and wish you and your wife well. Enjoy the next cruise 

We are on Brittania 7th to 14th June 2024. Last time I checked all shore excusions were able to be veiwed and booked apart from Cherbourg where we have the same message as you  

We are thinking about going on a Med cruise on Arvia in 2025 and want to book a sea view cabin. I was ready to go ahead but read somewhere that whilst the majority of sea view cabins have a window with a bench there are some which just have a porthole. Unfortunately the P&O deck plans  do not identify which cabins have windows and which have portholes. Ideally we want a cabin with the bed by the wardrobe and the sofa by the window. Does anyone know which cabins are configured that way 

With thanks They will be completing the accessibility form ASAP so am grateful for this prompt response However

(i) do they get priority boarding or do they have to wait until the allocated time 

(ii) does this apply to just the disabled person, the whole of the party travelling together or the nominated carer 

My son his wife and 9 month old son are embarking on their first cruise on Iona with my son's mother in law who is disabled. She is bringing her own mobility scooter and has an accessible sea view cabin on Deck 4 They have organised parking with CPS but are unclear about boarding protocol or assistance with getting the mother in law on board. As she is disabled and they have a 9 month old child will they get any sort of priority boarding and who if anyone will help them navigate the boarding process 

Do have a good cruise. I will be following you with great interest as we are thinking about going on this ship in April this year 

As those of you will know from my post about not being allocated a cabin we do not have the luxury of any labels at all and have been told by our TA that we may not get to know the cabin until we land at Malta.

I have tried to explain to our TA that once we collect our luggage at Malta airport it is then taken off us after we have cleared customs and put onto a truck so if we do not have P&O luggage labels how will they know which cabin to deliver the luggage to let alone which ship|! We are busy constructing our DIY luggage labels to make it clear our name which ship and which cruise but I am still anxious 

This whole experience is getting me down. P&O used to be my cruise company of choice now I am not so sure

We have in the past done a mixture of select and saver but never have we been this late. I would agree that you are right with the bidding process except that for the last 8 weeks the balcony cabins have been sold out. I suppose that they could have held some cabins back for that process. We will now have to wait and see.  

We are due to fly out to Malta a week today and still no news of which balcony cabin we have been allocated. The TA has contacted P&O on numerous occasions only to be given the stock answer of ' you will get to know soon' 

Whilst I fully appreciate that with the saver fare you have to wait and that P&O are within their rights this is the first time that we have had to wait so long for cabin allocation. I would dearly love to know why, when the balcony cabins have been sold out for some considerable time, we are not able to be told which one. Is the allocation process on saver managed by a computer or is there any type of human intervention. My worst fear is that we land in Malta and the reps say ' whoops we have made a mistake, there are still some inside / obstructed view cabins available so take it or leave it

Has anyone ever been in that situation.

Yes I have read that. The reason I posted is that we booked a long time ago so would have expected cabin allocation when all balcony and above were shown as sold out. I readily acknowledge and appreciate that as we booked saver we are at the mercy of P&O and their computer so maybe in future we will have to go for select so that we have some certainty and avoid the anxious wait 

We booked this cruise some time ago and decided to go for early saver. We said we wanted a balcony cabin and were allocated a forward one. We knew that we would not be allocated a specific cabin until nearer the time but it is now 16 days before departure and we have heard nothing. Our TA has spoken to P&O who have reassured them that we do have a balcony cabin and that they will allocate one before departure; the only issue is when? I know that it can be a late as embarkation day but would have thought that as it is a sell out cruise for balcony and above they would know the cabin allocation and that we would not have to wait until we get to Malta to find out. Has anyone had any similar experiences?  

Thankyou for all the useful insights you have given us; I have really enjoyed reading all the comments. I wish Michelle a very Happy Birthday.

As we are going on Britannia next Friday I am following these posts with a keen interest to know what to expect. We know that it will be a full ship and that there will be plenty of children / teens which does not bother us at all. Our main concern is the weather but that is out of our hands; as our eldest son says  "the weather will be what it is when you look out of the window"! ( however for reasons of economy we are on an inside cabin which will be a 1st as we have always chosen Balcony when cruising with P&O). Also this will be our first time on Britannia tell me, is there any place that you can have a good walk - 

Finally I do hope that you both have a good cruise and best wishes to Michelle for her Birthday on Wednesday. 

We are going next week on Britannia so will be very interested in what you find. Do have a good trip 

Completely agree. Our first time too. No e ticket no luggage labels and like you multiple emails telling me that an excursion has been changed only to find that the new details are exactly the same as the previous ones.

Thanks to all who have given help and advice; much appreciated. I have tried them all and nothing works so I rang P&O and waited an hour for an representative to answer. She told me just to turn up at the Terminal where they would ' sort it out' Hopefully they will and I will not be at the terminal  waving you all off 

This is our first P&O cruise and judging by our experiences to date it will be our last. We are due to go on the Iona on 30th October and have completed all the required information requirements. However try as we might we cannot print off either the e ticket or luggage labels. Out TA has made contact with 

P&O and was told that we have to tell the staff at the terminal. Has anyone else had such problems 

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