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They were not at the times that I self-disembarked, which tended to be around 7.30 to 7.45am. Hence the people that ignore the disembarkation time slots - all the bags are out and waiting, and nobody is actually checking that you are in that particular slot, they just want you gone from the ship to get it ready for the next load of passengers.

Whenever I have self-disembarked (with my luggage) it has involved walking though the normal hall, and all the normal disembarkation luggage had already been already set out for collection in the hall and none of the staff were engaged in putting any more out.

We recently came back from Tenerife and was chatting to another couple in the airport on the same flight. They had been there for five days and had a 20kg+ suitcase each plus a carry on suitcase each and they found it impossible to believe we just had a carry on bag each despite having been away for two months. Anyway self-disembarkation, we have done it many times and have found that if we leave the ship just before normal disembarkation starts at 8am(ish) then there are very few other people leaving the ship at that time and it is quick and easy away, so there should be no reason not to be at the train station for a 9.30am train.

For anyone using an Apple Pay on an iPhone or Apple Watch on TFL then I suggest they set the card on the phone or watch they are going to use as an 'Express mode for transit' card and then you don't need to unlock your phone or double click the watch in order to tap in/out, you just tap and go through - Use Express Mode with transit cards, passes, and keys in Apple Wallet - Apple Support The system only works with approved transit operators such as TFL so there isn't a risk of unauthorised transactions elsewhere. Sorry, no idea whether Google Pay has a similar feature.

More hassle trying to fit the bottle under a tap than the easy refilling points.

If memory serves me correctly, there is a filling point on deck 6 near the forward lifts so not an awful long detour.

So if these marketing techniques are industry wide, then why expect P&O to change their strategy to one that is less effective by allowing people to use OBC prior to boarding with a discount?

Not at all - just that P&O's marketing techniques persuaded you to spend far more than you had intended by the combination of restricting the use of OBC to onboard and offering discounts prior to boarding. Now if P&O can persuade you, who is not a fool, to spend far more than you intended, then why would they change their marketing as you seem happy with that additional spending.

Doubtful because of what you did - You had £500 of OBC which you had paid for - yes you had bought it for cash as part of the overall package - but decided to 'save' money by instead of spending it onboard you pre-purchased your drinks and internet. The result being that you ended up with the OBC that you had bought that you couldn't spend on anything that you actually wanted, so used it to buy a watch that certainly had a massive mark up despite its apparent discount (was it the usual 'ship special' only sold onboard so no way of actually checking the real price). What a marketing wheeze from P&O - they sell you OBC and then persuade you to hand over even more cash to buy the stuff you actually wanted in the first place, and then they sell you overpriced stuff you didn't actually want with the OBC you bought.

The same opportunities exist as they did before the discounts, it just means that £100 OBC is only worth £80 if there is a 20% pre-boarding price for the stuff you want to buy - quite clever marketing.

Or just go via one of the water bottle filling points that exist on Iona.

From when I have used it in the past there certainly aren't any directly linked to the gym, and most people using it do seem to come directly to and from their cabins.

I certainly think they do. A minimal cost for the perk, whether it is a shareholder OBC or a tier level with a lunch, slippers, early boarding, whatever, and people keep coming back and handing over thousands. Supermarket 'loyalty' cards are a completely different kettle of fish. Although in the past they were loyalty cards with the aim to accrue points to get rewards and make customers 'sticky' to that retailer, now they seem to exist to convince mugs that they are getting a 50% discount on the item that is priced at £4 without a loyalty card and £2 with it, and to ignore the fact it is sold by every other retailer for £2 (and will be sold by the loyalty card retailer next week at £4 on a 'buy one get one free' deal with no loyalty card discount).

Only on two conditions. 1 . It requires people not spend less than they would have done had they not received the OBC, and an awful lot of people treat OBC as 'free' money and spend the same 'real' money as they would do anyway. 2. It requires people to be booking a Carnival Corp cruise irrespective of the OBC, and being persuaded to book a Carnival Corp cruise over another cruise line, another type of holiday, or no holiday at all because of the OBC. Sure some people will spend less because of the OBC and some would have booked anyway, but you really don't need that many people to be splashing thousands on a cruise they wouldn't have done just because they get a £150 in OBC, OBC which most likely will result in them spending no less cash onboard.

£150 of OBC spent in the bar is costing Carnival about £15 at most - and if someone has spent a few thousand on the cruise to redeem that OBC that costs them virtually nothing then I am sure Carnival are more than happy with more people doing so.

The figures of $250 / €200 / £150 haven't changed in years and just reflect the declining value of sterling - at £1 to $1.66 or £1 to €1.33 the OBC would be equal, but sterling hasn't been there in years.

My experience with the Stockperks app for the shareholders OBC this week. I installed the iPhone app and registered an account - pretty straightforward other than dates being mm/dd/yyyy rather than the usual UK format of dd/mm/yyyy. My share platform, iWeb (part of the Lloyds, Halifax, Bank of Scotland group), wasn't one of those listed where they can link directly, so I downloaded a single page of the pdf of my most recent statement that showed the shareholding from iWeb and uploaded it through the Stockperks app on Tuesday morning - about ten minutes of effort from start to finish. Wednesday morning the app showed that the shareholding had been confirmed and offered the opportunity to redeem the OBC, and just needed the cruise booking number, the date of the cruise, and my name - about two minutes of effort. This afternoon, Friday, I received an email from Stockperks saying that the the OBC had been applied, and then eight minutes later an email with an updated statement from the travel agent I use. Frankly it was an *awful* lot more efficient than previous cruises with P&O and emailing the shareholder team with a statement, and on more than one occasion painful lengthy calls to find out why they hadn't dealt with it.

You do surprise me.

Jainism certainly is, and it is promoted within Hinduism and Buddhism and I am not sure that P&O would want to argue in court that it is not a requirement of a particular religion. Take a read of the Equality Act 2010 and then see if the courts would agree with that view. But irrespective of whether P&O are required to do this, it would be a pretty stupid business that would deliberately exclude a section of the population that want to give it money.

You are conflating vegans by choice with vegans due to religious conviction, and the latter means it would be impossible for P&O or any other UK cruise company not to offer vegan food.

Given the amount of criticism people have for any sort of food served then perhaps P&O would be better off not serving any food at all.

That does sound a great offer compared to what any professional photographer would charge in the UK for 10 photos.

I really really hope that you don't use either online, and if you do that you have no financial or personal information on them.

I have been in some Spoons where the clientele was a bit rough around the edges, but so was the neighbourhood they were in. And I have been in plenty of Spoons where the clientele was pretty upmarket, but again so was the neighbourhood they were in. So to use Spoons as a descriptor might reveal more about the area you live than you might wish to!

It is just another example of P&O having poor systems. Don't take requests as that diminishes the value of Select fares, but simply use the information you already hold to reduce the number of people asking to change sittings. It really wouldn't be rocket science for P&O to identify that 'Bob & Sue' who book on Saver fares always ask to change to late seating, so rather than flip a coin to randomly allocate them between early and late, have the system just automatically allocate them to late. There is no need to tell 'Bob & Sue' what you have done and diminish the possibility of them upgrading to a Select fare, and if this cruise 'Bob & Sue' actually want an early sitting then they can queue up as now and ask to change.