Gizmo19

On 12/7/2023 at 9:28 PM, Interestedcruisefan said:

Friday night visit to Oistins Fish Fry in Barbados is a fantastic experience 

 

Yes Oistins is a brilliant meal / night out. Smoke, people crammed onto the tables, entertainment weaving between the tables and just plain atmosphere. Wonderful. The Flying fish and chips were great.  

11 hours ago, Selbourne said:

Yes, I’m also happy with the times, as long as we don’t end up with first sitting and can’t change it!

 

Whilst we’ve been to Miami before, it wasn’t by ship. I think I’ve read that the cruise terminal isn’t easy for walking anywhere, even though it looks fairly central.

 

Like you, I’m keen to have dinner ashore where we are in port during the evenings, as there will be quite a bit of repetition in the MDR over 65 nights and a change of scene (and menus) will be nice. My wife isn’t quite so sure though. She thinks we will get attacked or something, even though I’ve reminded her that we were walking around New York on our own at night until after midnight and didn’t feel in the slightest bit threatened 🙄😂

We actually requested 1st sitting in Alexandria, as we had that on R201N and enjoyed eating before the shows. Late sitting MDR was a bit late for us to eat. But yes, it can be a bit rushed to get back into the ship and ready for dinner (but a couple of times we managed to do it in 20 minutes 😄). The actual 6pm sailaway's are awkward with 1st sitting though, unless you get ready early and go on deck before the meal. But, there is no guarantee of moving away from the dock at 6pm. 

At Southampton we should have 'fireworks' on departure (Grand Tours often do) - so that will be good to be on deck for (from Portside promenade deck if its raining / cold / snow 😃).  We will be on that deck for sailaway / fireworks, and if necessary go to the Buffet that night  😄.

Miami looks like a sea of terminals and a massive Highway alongside  - so I think its a question of finding other guests who have sailed into Miami before and getting their view / recommendation (its our first sail into Miami as well).

😄

Overall, the arrival and departure times at each port look really good for R401. The overnight in Bermuda is the only chopped one, as the ship leaves at 8am the following day. So we will probably be eating breakfast as we sail away - or having a lay in 😄

The late 22:00 departure from Miami /FL is good, as it gives us all opportunity to eat onshore early evening, should we wish to. Depending of course on whether there are any eating places within walking distance of the ship. Its a shame more ports don't offer late sailaways.

On 4/11/2022 at 1:06 PM, J110 said:

Hi Gizmo

do you know what deck on Aurora. We are on in 3 weeks - so far no cabin change .🤞.  Mid ship sup.deluxe balcony booked deck 10.

Hi, we were in cabin B140  on deck 10 (De Luxe Balcony). That was port side. Walking back down the corridor to the larger stairwell from our cabin the LAST cabin port side before the Isolation Unit Door was B208.  I did walk forward in the other direction on portside (from the back) for another poster who was in B242. His cabin was also fine (not in affected area). I walked a little further forward past B242 and I could see the block at the end of the corridor, but could not get very close because steward blocked the way. If I had to take a wild guess, I would say that 8 cabins forward from B242 were also clear. 

I cannot really comment on any other decks isolation zones as I did not specifically check any others. BUT, what I can also say is that on R201N, cabin C205 on C Deck (Larger outside starboard)  was also clear and I saw no corridor restrictions that side.  We specifically looked for that cabin as we have booked it for another Aurora cruise. So we wanted to me sure it was not potentially compromised. As we booked that future cruise while on R201N, it was easy to nip upstairs and check the cabin out first.

We always go Select and say we don't want any upgrades. That way we don't get an upgrade that forces us into a potentially compromised cabin position on the ship.  

I cannot comment on the USA aspects, but on Aurora R201N this year (32 night reduced from 42),  all the covid cased were isolated onboard until we got to Barbados. Then, to reduce numbers onboard so that the cruise could continue, many affected passengers, staff and crew were moved to Queen Victoria at Barbados.

The cruise continued with the bulk of the isolation cabins still occupied.

We had to then go back to Barbados and miss Dominica to drop off covid cases and collect those by then negative.

Finally, at St Lucia (the Queen Victoria was moving around the islands), more cases were moved between Queen Victoria and Aurora for the sail up to UK via the Azores

So, the ships do their absolute best to accommodate cases onboard. Hopefully by the time 2023 arrives, this situation will be well tested and more suitable measures in place.  

I fully understand peoples concern about the unknown. Its all very well to write about it, but when you are on a ship thousand of miles from home, that unknown is always in the back of your mind.

The only time I have seen people removed from a ship to a land based hotel, was on Gran Canaria last December. But Spain may have relaxed their rules by now.  

Hi. Although not Britannia, just in case anyone is going on Aurora in the near future, the isolation cabins on the 32 night caribbean cruise in Feb / March 2022 were all midships. I would think they will stick to that.

So each ship is different.   

On 3/30/2022 at 10:55 AM, Tablelamp said:

I have stayed loyal to P and O for very many years and have seen many cut backs. I now find they have completely overstepped the mark as they will not even serve fresh coffee in your cabin for breakfast.  And this whilst charging £2.50 for cabin service.  Does anybody have any comments?  Also, I understand that there is no turn down service.  Although I have a 45 night cruise booked for March 2023, I think I may cancel this and not cruise with p and o again.

This seems a little harsh perhaps in the current climate?

The breakfast room service menu that you leave outside the cabin each night with your choices makes it very clear what they are providing now. Based on our 32 night Aurora cruise, the staff were run off their feet trying to cover restaurants and buffets each morning (bearing in mind reduced numbers due to some isolating), so to try and deliver fresh coffee with room service is perhaps just unrealistic at the present time. The good thing is, with the cabin tea and coffee station, we could pack our own favourites from home and make our own each morning.

We personally felt the cabin service breakfast was too restricted, so we chose to go and eat at the buffet each morning. This enabled us to select our own breakfast time -and give us a 4 hour window (7-11)

As to the turn down service with chocolates  again, due covid, we were actually pleased not to have anyone entering our cabin more than absolutely necessary and we were quite happy to turn our own beds down. Our steward did a great job. There were enough calories onboard, so we were happy to avoid the pillow chocolates🤣

We booked 2 more cruises with P&O whilst onboard Aurora, one of those 65 days in 2024. We are very comfortable that P&O will continue to deliver a well priced and fair service, based on the difficult environment that all cruise and travel companies continue to endure.  

On 2/20/2022 at 3:23 PM, Astrajet said:

I shall look forward to reading your reports as we sail on Aurora on 1st April. 

Could you please tell me if there is/was the opportunity to book any speciality restaurant before sailing?  The booking button is still showing "coming soon"! 

Hope you have a super cruise. 

Thanks 😄.

As to the pre booking of restaurants, no. I tried again only yesterday and it cannot be done. So it looks like everything will be via the P&O 'App' once we are onboard. This inability to pre book also seems to apply to the gym / spa. The my booking etc programme seems to show the ability to book, but once in  the basket, you cannot go any further. So we have given up, and will see what the process is on board.

From what I can see Aurora only had Sindhu (£10 booking fee), Glass House and Beach House.  

On 2/4/2022 at 10:50 AM, Mollag said:

Has anybody that cancelled the cruise had their refund yet?

No not yet. I have had the cancelled port trips refunded (very quick) and P&O rescheduled the remaining trips to accommodate the date changes.

Sorry I gave a wrong answer. That will teach me to re-read the question before typing😊

On 2/18/2022 at 1:13 PM, SarahHben said:

Thank you. 

My sister sent me a photo from facecloth giving cabin numbers that took out all of mid ship deluxe balcony cabins on decks 9,10, 11 & 12 😳

I've just called P&O, selected 'book a new cruise' and got through immediately 😂 The phone operator told me the quarentine areas can change on a cruise by cruise basis. 

I feel all unsettled again and feel like the cruise may not happen for us. 

I don't think the cabins can change. Sounds strange. If you have a cruise docking at 7am in Southampton for pure example and the same ship going out on another cruise at 5pm same day, how are P&O going to justify putting new cruisers in a cabin (s) that had been used by covid cases only hours previously. The staff will have cleaned them well, but even so, I would be furious if I found out our cabin had been a quarantine cabin only 6 - 8 hours before I boarded the ship.

I am sure P&O have put in place a sensible and viable system around this. The senior cabin steward on your area (once on board) may be able to shed light on that matter.

On 2/15/2022 at 5:28 PM, boatboy2000 said:

Hi does anybody have travel insurance with their account and what banks have cruise cover included with the account?

Thinking of switching banks TIA

We have Nat West Platinum.

My husband paid a small extra premium each year for some medical issues, but the cover only lasts 31 days. I think it was about £26 extra for a few small medical issues for the year.

For our upcoming cruise:

He has now also paid an extra £75 a year for age, as is age 70 next month.

We have had the policy extended to a longer period of cover (longer cruise over 31 days coming up)

Nat West (like all banks I think) added an addendum to their policies early in 2021 to cover covid.

The terms and conditions (which you can print out from the Nat West site) sets out what it covers. So we have printed that off and highlighted in yellow all the bits that shows cruise covered, plus repatriation and medical covers. That saves trawling through loads of small print at Southampton (or on ship).

As its an annually renewable policy, we get Nat West to send us a letter stating all areas covered. Its best to phone Nat West, tell them what you need, get them to give you a quote and ask for a letter to be provided to you to confirm covers. You should be able to access that letter from your bank account screens online. You can then print it out (if the postal version is delayed)

Using Nat West and adding what we needed was so much cheaper than a new plan. Staysure quoted us £800 when I ran what we needed through their online quote system.

1 hour ago, davecttr said:

IMO the buffet along with the casino and anything else that makes germ transfer by touch easier needs some serious thought. I was happy that Iona's buffet last August had the plates made up by the crew. I only used it once in the evening but took a very early breakfast in the morning.  The pre packed sandwiches are dodgy too with people examining every pack. I like the Quays where you don't get to paw the food as it is plated for you.

I agree. I have also noticed lengthy queues building up around the hot food counter at the buffet at lunch and dinner. We have also been in those queues. As I recall, in December 21 there must have been 10 people queueing at any one time and 2/3 staff serving. So you get 3 layers of people. The staff serving, the people queueing and the general movement of people walking behind the queue getting to their tables and moving between food counters. Add the potential lack of basic hygiene on top. 

I think on balance, the MDR may offer a safer option. 

Novovirus. Yes, I picked that nasty up at a hotel in Marsa Alam Egypt in 2010. I was very careful what I ate, but, a rice based meal one night was my undoing.  I avoided the meats thinking it would be safer, not realising that cooked rice could also prove a problem based on how it is chilled and reheated.

On 2/18/2022 at 5:26 PM, Bazrat said:

I agree about p&o food and we found Marcella restaurants was good if you could actually book one, but still cannot understand the deconstructed prawn cocktail without any lettuce

We had no problem booking on Discovery in 2019 (the Kora La was the best speciality restaurant we tried), or Explorer (2 cruises in 2021). The TV booking facility from our cabins last year helped, as we just used that to plan the weeks the first days we were onboard.😄

Deconstructed prawn cocktail, I think the menu was constructed with 'current fashion' in mind, rather than classic favourites. Quite often a mistake I think 😃.

After the December Explorer cruise, we felt that the overall quality of the restaurant food had perhaps gone down since 2019 (from experience of both Tapas and Indian restaurant meals in December) But, I am sure the upcoming P&O menus will be great. As said, I will report back from Aurora. We have purchased the ships wifi, so I will be able to feedback en route so to speak. I think many others will do as well, as its Aurora's first cruise out for over 2 years.

3 minutes ago, Petenviv said:

We have never eaten at the "paying" restaurants onboard ....never felt the need to to be honest....but just seen the Glass House menu on Aurora and might try it for a change from Christmas fayre on our December cruise.  Can anyone give me any idea as to the costs for these "pay" venues please. Thanks

In general we have eaten at 'extra cost' restaurants on both P&O and Marella.  They can be excellent and worth the money, but it does depend on what your personal favourite dining experience is. We have always found P&O MDR excellent and, pre covid, we have been on tables with great table companions that we chose to stay eating with each night. 

We are on Aurora as from 28th February, so I will report back after the cruise😃

But, expect to pay upwards of £20 per person for a speciality restaurant, with drinks extra on top. I think the range may be £20 - £35 per person. Current cruisers on other P&O ships may be able to expand on that.

The last time we did this speciality dining (December 21), we paid an extra £24.99 per person for a 3 course Tapas restaurant (Marella), not realising that to get the 'meat and fish hanging skewer content, cost an additional £9.99 per person. So, we had a mixed tapas starter on a small dinner plate shared between 2 people, then 3 small tapas bowls each (think here small cigarette stubbing bowl, and a desert. So in reality, that should have been costed at an extra £35 per person (which may have put some people off). My husband did order the skewer in the end, but none of us realised that the cigarette bowls would be so small. One of mine was mushrooms and I think it contained 2 tablespoons of finely sliced mushrooms 🤣.

As comparison, on the same 'line' in May 2019, we had 2 fabulous meals in speciality restaurants.

My experience of P&O (only Britannia and Azura to date) is that the speciality restaurants are very good indeed and we would always look to book at least one evening each week of the cruise.

3 hours ago, Ardennais said:

I think that getting the right shade is important. Remember American Tan ladies?!  I’ve been told that there are some sheer ones available now which make you appear as if you’re not wearing any tights, but give the legs a smooth appearance. I sound like an expert but I’m not - having not worn tights since late last century! 

Hi. I remember the American tan as well 😄. I have been buying my sheer tights from The Tight Spot on line. They seem to have a great selection at a fair price. I bought 6 pairs of 10 denier nude colour specifically for cruises about 3 years ago, and I am still using them. No ladders or holes (yet). I paid under £8 per pair at the time. I checked them last night, as we are off on another cruise this month. Still good.

24 minutes ago, Tikka234 said:

Hi I haven't done formal before just smart trousers and top. Going to Spain and Portugal in April and brought a couple knee length dresses ( haven't worn a dress for years) so not sure what ladies wear now do you still wear tights  or bare legs as it's early in the year my legs haven't seen the sun so looking quite white. Have court style shoes can't wear heels. 

Any advice would be appreciated

Thanks

Hi.  I wear tights (flesh coloured and 10 denier) with knee length smart / cocktail dresses in the evening and these are teamed up with court shoes. I only pack 1 black patent pair of courts.

For long evening dresses, bare legs, as it looks better with evening sandals. For trousers in the evening, if smart casual, I tend to wear flesh coloured 'knee highs if I am wearing court shoes. If I am wearing strappy sandals with trousers in  the evening, no knee highs.  

On 1/21/2022 at 8:23 PM, john watson said:

I agree with other posters insofar as the price you would pay to upgrade from outside to a balcony cabin would be calculated on the price ruling at the time you booked.  Yes, none were available at the time but it would be proportionately more expensive than an outside cabin.  Aurora balconies are not of the glass fronted type but the hull cut out type and not huge.  I should not want to pay a big premium for this type of balcony when the new passengers price is significantly cheaper due to overall general price reductions.  Your aunt has only booked inside cabins, so a window is a big improvement.  If it were me I would phone P&O and ask what the upsell price is and based on what they say take it or leave it and hope you get a random free of charge upgrade which the upgrade fairy bestows on lucky folk. Mention your aunts loyalty status hoefully you know her cruise history in detail as it may help your case.

 

Regards John

I think Aurora balconies are a mix. There are decks with 'metal' surrounds and others with glass. I think B Deck De Luxe Balcony's and above grades are glass. I may be wrong. But the external pictures look like that.

On 1/31/2022 at 6:46 PM, tring said:

Can I ask what is port mapper and is it any more reliable than many other sites which list future cruise itineraries, (e.g. ports of call, and the crew site which lists cruises and their itineraries)?  My understanding is that they are not always up to date and can have a lot of omissions or errors.  Surely in these days any cruise could easily be altered up to departure and there have always been minor itinerary changes after sailing, though admittedly big changes would be decided before sailing, with cruise lines probably needing to allow cancellations in those cases.  My understanding is that ports are booked a couple of years in advance, though of course changes can take place.

 

If there is something called cruise mapper that is more reliable than other sites regards the up to date info about port bookings by cruise lines, I would appreciate information about that.  I have not previously heard of cruise mapper though.

 

Hi. Cruise Mapper is an excellent App in that you can search by ship and it shows all upcoming 'planned' itineraries, ship info, deck plans, ship history and also shows the ships current location. But yes, things do change, so the itinerary is planned, not written in stone. Our cruise on 28th Feb is not even shown, it shows Aurora not coming into service again until 1st April for example.

On 1/31/2022 at 3:34 PM, Car painter said:

Hi, I’ve been asked to pay the balance of our cruise to the Med leaving on May 5th but I have noticed that there are no arrivals or departure times on Port Mapper.   Does this mean none of these ports in the itinerary are confirmed? 

We are on the long cruise on Aurora that has been put back from leaving Southampton on 20th Feb to 28th Feb. It is due back at Southampton on 1st April (they have cut several of our ports hence delayed departure and reduction from 41 to 32 days). We still have no scheduled sailing time from Southampton on 28th Feb, but I would assume from 1700 as a minimum (maybe far later). 

Usually, on every ship we have been on out of Southampton, we have floated back to the dock early morning around 6.30 - 7am.  As our cruise timings are not yet known (and we go in just under 3 weeks), it may be that the 1st April departure time will not be listed until early / mid March. They then have a whole ship to disembark, and clean, ready for the same day departure.  It will be interesting to see how rapidly they can turn it round that day. Perhaps we are sailing at reduced capacity (quite possible), and those empty cabins will be ready and waiting for your cruise.

Departure is usually late afternoon 5-6pm.

On our cruise we only have rough port timings - eg arrival early morning -departure late afternoon etc. No exact timings. Although the port trips give a good indication. The bulk of our trips start at 0830. The only later one is the Azores with the trip at 2:30 - so I think we don't dock there until mid-day. So if you have booked ships excursions, look on your manage my booking at the trips. There is an excellent calendar facility where you can see the whole itinerary and port days. Each trip will be on there and have the planned trip departure time listed against it. That may help.  

1 hour ago, paulatsea said:

When I arrived early it was not busy (they were actually waiting around to test people) and I was waved through to drive through testing - I am obviously happy to wait if required - but I thought it was worth a shot in case - I’ve no problem being turned away if necessary and drive somewhere scenic maybe and wait.

 

obviously doesn’t change boarding time - but at least that bit is out of the way.

 

best of luck

Thanks 😄

3 hours ago, Amyracecar said:

It's such a small thing to get right, but so irritating. I was just booking travel insurance and had input everything with my details first, and my Husband as the second person, yet when the quotes came up it started with "Hi Jason, here are your quotes!" 

Made me want to go with someone else, but unfortunately the deal was quite good. 🤣 

That's really annoying. They all seem to assume that the husbands arrange everything, and / or pay for everything. Which is not always so. Its often whoever has the time to sit at the computer / phone and sort  / book  the needed services.

On 1/28/2022 at 9:25 AM, amajaa said:

Morning All, has anyone else had this. It's always me that books the holidays, fills in forms, prints documents etc. So why on our most recent booking have P & O put my husband as the lead Passenger which means I have to go in as him to fill in his forms. On my sign in I can only do mine whereas he can do both. I know it's only a small thing and considering what's going on around the world it's insignificant but a point of principle and something to talk about other than Covid. 

I booked and paid for ours via a TA, and I am shown as the lead passenger. That probably made the difference and it would have been who set up as the first name I assume. So I have been able to do all the paperwork etc. I am glad you managed to get it changed😃  

18 hours ago, paulatsea said:

I was on Iona and Marella explorer 2 and was ok - suppose it depends on who is manning the testing site entrance and how busy it is maybe.

I think we have got a good excuse to try and get away with say just 20 minutes earlier, a 5 hour drive down to Southampton - and Monday traffic.  Even though we are staying overnight near Southampton the night before, our address evidence may support 20 minutes leeway allowance. 

1 hour ago, amajaa said:

 

I'v still got the list from before Covid and I started a thread on here last year to see if the list was still operational. I didn't get that many replies but those I did get didn't correspond to the list anymore.  Hopefully this link will work to that thread.

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2795363-boarding-times-by-deck/

 

I think I will resurrect the thread and check for all ships as it looks like the thread mainly referred to Iona 

 

Interesting link thanks. That is pre covid as it reflects our B Deck on Britannia in 2018, when we had a 13:30 check in.

We are on B deck on Aurora and check in at 14:45. We are using CPS. Others on A Deck are 13:00.  But, my comment is that P&O will not know we are using CPS, they may have the 14:45 thinking we are going straight into the terminal and doing tests and paperwork checks there.  But, if we are in a virtual LFT queue when we get to CPS testing, thats fine. As someone has said, if we are recorded as arriving, it should not leave without us 🤣

As a point of interest, Ventura is shown on Southampton cruise port movements as sailing at 17:00 on 11th February. If one was to go by that, a check in time at CPS testing of 14:45 would be quite tight - just over 2 hours for everything to be done and be on ship including muster. Many ships will not sail unless all guests have confirmed muster done. When we were on Marella Explorer (June 21 staycation and Dec 21 in Canaries), you had to register with your cruise card at specific locations on the ship that you had watched the muster drill video in your cabin before sailing.

It will be interesting to see what time its sailing on 28th. Once that shows on Southampton port cruise movements I will hopefully feel a little more comfortable with the 14:45.

18 hours ago, majortom10 said:

There has been mentioned recently since cruising restarted that on some occasions if you arrived early at CPS testing site at dock gate 10 than what was on your boarding pass they were turned away.

Thats what I have heard. When we did a staycation from Southampton on Explorer in late June 21 , the queue for the paperwork checking alone outside Mayflower was about an hour. Once we got inside, for the LFT testing, I think we had another 45 minutes  elapsed for the testing, check in at desk and walk to ship.