daiB

5 out of the 7 are now with only Iona and Ventura available between New Year and the end of March. There are thousands of cruisers who do not want to fly And the two above are on long Caribbean cruises.

I don't care where they go. I think the ship is the destination although we do get off at every port, weather permitting. I think that is why i like the two big ones where there is plenty to do on board. I also have to say the daft expression "Same old, same old" really grates. Exactly where are p&O going to magic up these new ports.

So do I.

Pennib, Assistance does not start until you get inside the terminal, at Ocean It’s on the left as you go in and at Mayflower it is to the right before you go up the ramp. If assistance is needed from coach to the terminal I would suggest you need to have your own chair.

Cunard and Princess seem to be very slow in applying the OBC once you have been verified. On the other hand P&O are very quick. Our October cruise took 1 to 2 hours to be confirmed and I had an email from my TA the next day. Not sure why P&O should be better I would imagine they are using the same systems as the other two.

There were some price drops due to COVID but we are getting back to where we were before the pandemic. As far as I could tell none of our cruises since COVID have been reduced, although I have to admit I did not look to closely for the first 3/4 as we were so glad to get back to cruising. BTW i have just checked and got a shock, we have done 13 cruises since the start of cruising again.

And you know this ..How. If prices are going up then the cruises are selling. The prices are based solely on supply and demand. The company has used this system for many years.

If the price has gone up by that amount then the cruise is selling very well. The price is set y the computer algorithm which compares actual bookings with expected. If the actual is way above expected then there is a hiker in the price. Going back to what I said before this cruise has been on sale since the middle to late October 23. This is going into the highest point in the booking period. Prices are driven by sales… nothing else.

That may be wishful thinking. I think it may have been talked about but it may not be a policy which is sustainable long term

Fairly early will not give you the best prices. Prices for some cruises go up on the afternoon of day one. However if you do not book on day one then you are correct to wait as the prices will peak between 18 month and 6 month before the sail date. If there is a drop it would come after the balance payment date. But even then rarely will it go below the price we pay and of course you have to take what is left.

Which confirms what I have said for a long time, the best prices are to be had on day one of the booking process. Eg a deluxe cabin on Britiannia, the one which on Princess would be a mini suite, 2 weeks to the Canaries in Oct 25. I paid less than £100 pppn. Price now up to over £140 pppn.

But did you book on day one anything else is not early. I have still not had my price I paid on day one beaten for any cruise, up to 5 per year. It got close just after COVID but it is now back to pre 2020 conditions.

I think some people are more susceptible than others, my wife and I have been on 60 cruises and never had NV we have had a cough and runny noise a couple of times. On the other hand friends of ours on their first P&O cruise got NV, bad.

Peter it is called supply and demand.

I have used a scooter since 2008 but I have only been using adapted cabins for about 6 years as I could manage in an ordinary cabin, or should I say suite as I need to be in one as I had my scooter. However it does mean that if I want to cruise I have to book on day one of booking to get an adapted cabin. I cannot say that I have observed every adapted cabin but each one I have seen has been occupied by someone who needed it. The times I have read about people being allocated this type of cabin when they were not disabled has been on fly cruises as for a lot of disabled people flying is a pain. I am afraid if you want to cruise with a wheelchair you need to book very early.

You still have to in some way prove to Stockperks you have shares. They are in New York. I have not seen mentioned anywhere that you can do it other than electronically. I get the impression they do not accept asking foor OBC by email now

The App allows you to download a photo

Contact the company who holds your shares and get them to send you a letter to confirm your holding. If you hold the certificate the surly as good photo of it should do as long as you have the above points covered.

From my enquires this is not going to be spread to the rest of the fleet. They do not have the capacity.

Yes, for scooters they have been doing this for 5 or 8 years or perhaps longer.

My experience is that second sitting is rarely full as we always noticed empty tables near us on all cruises with club dining. However we are now Iona/Arvia converts so we have to put up with freedom dining. To be honest I am not sure that club would work for us on the bigger ships because of the choice of venues available. It would not be fair to only go to the table 3/4 times in a cruise.

You do know it is only Iona and Arvia, There are about twice as many tables as suites on both ships therefore they have plenty of room. We have used this service a number of times and the dining rooms has been about a third full each time. I am not aware on any other cruisers doing as we did. We were always given a table near the back as I* suspect it was easier with my scooter. We have traveled in a suite on most ships in the past and I cannot remember any of the restaurants used being anywhere near full, ever. Perhaps others are put off by the cost of £17.00 per couple,

You should take your children to the Epicurean most certainly. The staff will make a fuss of them

As a mobility scooter user for the last 15 years it is quite clear that they should not be left outside a cabin. There is no need for them to be outside as to be able to have one on a cruise you have to be in an adapted cabin. (Or Suite) therefore you should always be able to put the scooter into the cabin. If you are a full time wheelchair user you will also need an adapted cabin for the toilet facilities. If you do not need these facilities then you are not a full time user.

It looks to me that because you have the Keel and Cow one deck above the steaks and fish has been moved to that menu and the Glass house has concentrated on Tapas type food. There are dishes on the Glasshouse menu which are not on the menus of other ships.