Mollag

8 hours ago, Megabear2 said:

I hope you have a great cruise. Just to say events such as those I have experienced are very rare and P&O are still a good line to sail with. I've just been unlucky.

Won’t be any problems with us in August MB🤦‍♂️😂

10 hours ago, JeanieC,Aston said:

Thanks

I thought it was those ships,,,I wasn’t sure.

You stated in a previous post about people taking opened bottles from the dining rooms which they do and is fair enough but the giveaway is the people bringing full bottles which have quite obviously been used several times before I.e. well stained to the bars several nights on the run and shouting at the staff when they try to remove the empty bottle because they’re taking it home as a souvenir 🤷‍♂️😂

26 minutes ago, Gettingwarmer said:

Are you saying it’s the newbies replacing us that are bringing their own drinks to the bars. Seems this is what P&O wanted and now they’re cracking down. 

It definitely wasn’t newbies on Auroras 65 nighter doing it all old school on there  even to the extent of checking the wine bottles for dregs at our Ligurian do in Barbados and filling empty bottles brought from the ship to bring back to the ship and they were still carrying them into the bars onboard days later telling the waiters it was leftovers from lunchtime. This is as well as others openly pouring drinks into glasses of tonic water and other mixers

8 minutes ago, david63 said:

If that is true then there is a logic error in the policy. In the section on spirits it says "when guests first embark the ship" therefore the logic of that statement does not preclude taking spirits onboard at ports of call.

P&O and logic in the same sentence 🤔😂

From another forum I’ve edited out the source but that’s the third different one I’ve seen

2 hours ago, Megabear2 said:

Surely the answer is to wait until Thursday to see if anything happens, after all that's the first date in the supposed email in post 1?  Rather than speculating on what is or isn't happening if that date passes and nothing occurs that will settle the issue of whether it is a fact or not.  Until that time it would seem rather futile to stress over the issue.

Notification emails being sent out tomorrow in order of sailing dates allegedly 

1 hour ago, majortom10 said:

Sorry have not responded but had no internet onboard only in ports. No great deal just £100 per cabin and free parking for a 14nt Medical Cruise on Arvia. Think you get more OBC if you don't have parking and deposit was £100pp.

Can’t beat a medical cruise

22 hours ago, cruisefan2012 said:

Has anybody managed to find any itineraries leaked on t'internet?...

 

I think I know what I'd like to do, if its an option...

Just do a search for the last 5 years itineraries that’ll be 99% accurate 

17 minutes ago, Lee117five0 said:

I can answer this question as my partner purchased the birthday package for my 30th celebrated on Iona.

 

Birthday package involves a free photo, a free cake delivered to your cabin or served in a restaurant (you book the cake at reception), a free bottle of prosecco which you can take to a restaurant without paying a corkage fee (or drinks in your cabin) and then the meal.

 

The meal is totally free of charge. Any restaurant and any meal. Two starters, two mains and two desserts for you and your fellow guest. Drinks aren't included though.

I think you’ll find they’re not free you pay for it all in the package 

16 hours ago, LondonLad60 said:

I was on P&O's Oriana when rumours were flying around about her being sold. At a Peninsular Club lunch the senior officer (I think it was the deputy captain) was asked if he knew anything. He straight batted the question back with the standard reply, "We are not aware of any plans to sell Oriana". A lady on the table said, "This ship has been sold". She was asked, do you mean it's up for sale? She said, "No, it has been sold - and that's all I'm saying". Within a week or so, the sale was announced...

On our recent Aurora cruise one of the officers was telling people that P&O were buying SAGA, he was most taken aback when I said god forbid that happens and SAGA gets dragged down to P&Os level. 

22 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

 

Presumably you have very little observation or what could be construed a complaint or in need of major improvement in your replies? Obviously if the answers are all high starring they won't bother.  

 

As a matter of interest do they make any comment or acknowledgement answer of Feefo to you?

 

An example: we took an excursion on a catamaran in Grenada two years ago. Due to weather conditions it should never have run due to sea conditions.  I wrote my views on my otherwise positive Feefo request.  Checked back 24 hours later and online answer in a matter of hours apologising and asking me to detail my experience to customer service by email, which I did.  Acknowledged in 24 hours with details of an investigation with the ship, reply to be 28 days.  Day 27 call received to discuss the matter, apology received and money refunded plus some extra OBC on my next cruise.

 

I always give high praise where due on my forms as it's very easy to be negative by accident. However if something is obviously wrong and needs improvement I do say so.  Nothing is ever perfect in life so I leave petty things out but do not hesitate to suggest where things were okay but could be improved.  

 

My feedback is generally acknowledged, good or bad which I appreciate.

I think I must be on a blacklist after the issues we had on Auroras first cruise back after covid and last years debacle on Azura maybe they don’t like being pursued through ABTA. Like you we always give praise where praise is due but can’t do it without the survey

22 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

In my experience if you complete the Feefo one you get a questionnaire follow up and if there are genuine points with problems a call or reply asking you to pass the things on to customer service.  This has happened with my last five P&O cruises.  Some of my points were pretty mundane but I still got asked to do the follow ups.

I’ve filled the feefo one in for previous cruises and never heard a thing back so don’t bother anymore 

12 hours ago, white_bear said:

We were on this crise (R401) also, and have enjoyed the daily blogs - agreeing with some, and not others (as you would expect).

A couple of comments:

1. On phoning Nationwide FlexPlus insurance today to make our "missed ports" claim, it became apparent that they have also had a lot of Covid/ gastro claims. Came as news to me!

2. Re MDR food - yes, menus were repetitive, but overall, we thought food OK. My main complaint was that menus too much biased to veg/vegan,  compressing options for meat and fish eaters.

We never heard the C word once on board although like Selbourne we saw the ghostbusters out spraying on a few occasions mostly late at night when most were turned in. 
Out of interest have either of you had the questionnaire yet all we’ve had was the feefo thing which isn’t worth bothering with it seems only a few get the P&O one maybe only the ones they know will answer positively 🤷‍♂️😂

2 hours ago, Megabear2 said:

Early morning noise actually no problem for us as we are up around 5.30 anyway!  Am I to take it other noise wasn't a problem?

 

I've found the sign others referred to, thank you.  I've found a few balcony cabins on C deck now as well but a lot aren't available.  C316 and C317seems to be free, that's more forward.  C252 appears to be on hold.

There was water flushing from somewhere most days/nights but the noise from the walkers was the worst thing and the reluctance of P&O to do anything about them just the same as them not doing anything about the sunbed hoggers 

9 minutes ago, RaspberryCremeBrulee said:

We have only been in outside on D deck near Raffles. good location but unfortunately they have bath with shower over.

 

Looking at Aurora deck plan there is a cabin note symbol referring to Cabins with shower only.

Most of the outside cabins appear to be decks 6 and 5 mid fwd/fwd eg. E152/E157.  

@Mollag you mentioned being in cabin on deck 6 but it had a bath with shower. Which cabin no were you in / did you experience noise from above e.g.from Charlies, Andersons, Theatre?  Just wondering if shower only on deck 6 would be OK location for megabear2.

 

 

 

 

It was under the prom deck only issue we had was the ignorant ones out walking there herds of elephants at 5 in the morning, I had a word with one of the security officers who didn’t think it was a problem even though it clearly states no walking before 8 he wasn’t even aware of the signs telling everyone this 🤷‍♂️

We’ve just come of Aurora had a sea view cabin on deck6 and that was shower over bath

11 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

Do you think so? I’m surprised that a few hours late leaving here would result in a few hours late arriving in Tortola, given how much slack there has been in our timings the whole cruise. Would have thought they could make that up without any issue whatsoever. There was due to be 39 hours between the two ports and we can’t make up just 2 hours? 2 hours at even 15 knots (which is faster than we’ve been going many days) would mean that just going 1 knot more than they planned would easily get that time back. Something doesn’t sound right, unless their fuel budget is as tight as their tug budget 🤔. 
 

For those of you wondering what on earth Mollag and I are talking about, we had a relatively short day in Jamaica and all had to be on board by 4.30pm. At 5pm the Captain announced that we are still taking on supplies (that arrived late) and, as a result will be late leaving. People can now go ashore again with a revised all on board of 7pm. Suspect that very few will bother. Apparently, this minor delay is going to result in us getting in to Tortola a few hours late which, given the slack timings on this cruise seems very odd. 

It’s 720 miles in a straight line so probably a few more to add to that avoiding the islands in the way so 36 hours at 20+kts if we leave in the next hour or two. 
We were chatting to a few of the crew this afternoon and one said we wouldn’t have been using the other berth anyway as it’s owned by one of the other companies and would have cost more plus I don’t think we could’ve taken the stores on there. 
One thing for sure I bet we won’t be late into Antigua when our vociferous captain is getting of. 

52 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

Yes room service is available but we’ve not used it. My wife and I are very different. She eats to live, whereas I live to eat. She’s happy to skip meals, something that is an alien concept to me 😂

Tortolas looking doubtful Selbourne I wonder what they’ll blame that on for the insurance letters

8 hours ago, Selbourne said:

It’s true we will never be told the truth. P&O sadly have form with telling blatant lies about why ports are missed, as I discovered some years ago by doing some investigative work on why a fjords cruise became a coastal towns cruise. They blamed the port making the change when in fact it was as a direct result of a Carnival instruction to cancel the P&O slot to make way for a Cunard ship. 
 

I’ve heard today on fairly good authority that Key West was cancelled as the port was demanding £29,000 for the use of a tug and P&O refused to pay it, presumably as it wasn’t a budgeted cost. If true, it’s a classic example of ‘sod the customers, we won’t have to reimburse them so have nothing to lose and everything to gain by just cancelling the port call’. 

If that’s true about Key West then surely all these letters would be making those who are claiming for missed ports will be claiming fraudulently although they are unaware of that. One of the Celebrity ships has just aborted Cayman by the looks of it, the forecast for tomorrow shows the wind decreasing slightly and more North East as opposed to Northerly at present so it’ll be interesting to see what happens tomorrow 

1 hour ago, Presto2 said:

Apologies if you've told us, but am wondering if you have a new Captain - I remember that you weren't too impressed with the one you had when you boarded.

Still the same one at the moment Simon Love is supposed to be taking over in Antigua. I’m with Selbourne no idea why we couldn’t get in this morning and after the Captain making out he was a hero in Belize by waiting an hour to see what the weather was going to do why the rush to get away from here if I wasn’t suspicious of anything I’d say they’ve got some kind of issues with the ship especially after missing Key West as well in light to moderate winds but we’ll never be told the truth

2 hours ago, Selbourne said:

My wife had the steak last night. The steak came with chips, a flavourless and watery mushroom sauce and………green beans 🙄😂

I asked for carrots with mine and actually got them not a green bean in sight and agree about the sauce no idea what it was supposed to be🤷‍♂️

On 2/10/2024 at 6:59 AM, Selbourne said:

That would make sense. It wasn’t a problem, if anything it’s all part of the adventure, but I do feel that telling us the actual reason why we were 3 hours late would have been common courtesy.
 

Like many others, I find the lack of information from this Captain to be baffling. It’s as if the passengers are incidental to the whole experience and only need to be told the bare minimum. 

Apparently the reason they couldn’t recover one of the lifeboats was one of  the wires used for lowering/recovering it had jumped of the sheave in the block and got jammed so firstly they had to free it up possibly replace the wire and the sheave then retrieve the lb before lowering it again to make sure everything was okay, how the sheave was allowed to still be in use with so much wear on it is anybody’s guess but judging by the state of the ship in general maintenance is minimal

6 hours ago, Malcolm142 said:

Selbourne, thanks for writing up your excellent blog on a regular basis.

I have taken an extra interest, especially in ship matters, as we are on Aurora in two cruises time to Norway. We have not been on Aurora but did go on Oriana 25 years ago.

 

So 1000 plus replies to your ‘Letter from’, How many will it be by the time you get back

to Southampton?!!

 

As an aside, do you still get a free cake with coffee at Raffle

At the moment you get the free cake but according to the staff in there charges will be starting soon

On 2/6/2024 at 7:28 AM, Selbourne said:

Same now. Glasshouse always nice and cool, as is the pub (not that we use the latter). The theatre is usually OK. Only been to Carmens a few times and that’s generally been alright, as is most of the Meridian restaurant. 
 

The lifts and stairwells are unbearable. When I went to pick my wife up from the show last night, someone in the lift mentioned that the Crows Nest had been fixed. I’ll check later, but @Mollag had heard that to do that they were going to divert AC from the forward stair well. Our cabin is just off that and I’m wondering if that might explain why our cabin is now not cooling as well as it did. 

Sorry to hear you’re still feeling ropey yesterday was the first day after 8 days I wasn’t coughing so maybe the ends in sight for you🤞

I can confirm the A/C is now working to a fashion in the Crows Nest which is comfortable enough but like you say the forward stairwell is pretty warm🥵

just read a couple of pages of your blog and agree with you about the repetitive nature of the menus now making it difficult to find something at times. 
I would also like to comment on the state of the ship which is very poor with rust nearly everywhere you look and doesn’t seem to be much in the way of maintenance going on

On 1/31/2024 at 1:04 PM, Malcolm142 said:

With plenty of port days coming up can you make sure you get the prom deck welding workers on it PDQ !!

Now the Crow's Nest A/Con we are less concerned about.

We are on Aurora on 12th March (R403N) to Norway, not sure we'll need the A/C at the North Cape 😄

To the serious issue of cutting out the cakes and sandwiches in Raffles....... can you and Selbourne stop eating them all and leave some for us LOL

Sorry to upset you but they hope to have the A/C diverted from the forward stairwell to the Crows Nest imminently only taken them a month🤦‍♂️, the welding works on the prom deck are done, even got the freezers working by the Lido grill for the ice cream things are looking up 😂