posford

Where next?

Anyone know the next port? Or is it a mystery tour?

Does anyone know the new revised itinerary?

Must just come back on the subject of disembarkation. Last 3 cruises on Iona, Sept, Oct and Dec this year. Passengers taking their own luggage off just after 6.00, all others off just after 7.00. So very smooth. We don’t normally attend guest lectures but on the last cruise was a guy that was in charge of the Crown Jewels at the Tower of London. Three very informative and interesting lectures. Venue packed out for all three.

Hi All, just to close this topic off. A few observations. P&O may not be who they were, but who is. If you really think deeply about it, they/we are extremely lucky that they did not go under because of Covid. I book a cruise. Drive down to Southampton, book my car in to CPS, which comes with the cruise cost, board immediately( lucky to be Baltic tier), hospitality lunch with unlimited drinks, go to immaculate cabin. Lots of onboard spend which we never had pre Covid. Oh yes, can take your drinks onboard for cabin drinking - try that with some other companies. Dining in MDR. Breakfasts are fantastic. Can’t manage lunches as well. Evening meals need some attention, but I addressed that in a previous mail. Olive grove on Iona is exceptional. Shows, especially on Iona, are better than we have ever seen. Organisation including embarkation and disembarkation is second to none. staff continue to be wonderful. So summing up, apart from the evening meals in MDR, what has changed for the worst? The cost of the overall product is, I believe, still very competitive. In the last few months we have rediscovered our love of cruising. Just my honest opinion.

Hi, Temperature in the dining rooms warm. No need for jackets etc. By the way, numerous female waiters on Iona, including female hosts on front desk of all restaurants. Very pleasant intelligent ladies. A pleasure to be greeted by them.

Just back from my third Iona cruise in 3 months. My fifth P&O cruise in 5 months. I do not wish to write a review as I could not match the quality of Selbourne or TigerB. I do though wish to share a few thoughts on my experiences. Iona rides the sea’s magnificently. Force 9 or 10 winds, 10 metre waves, no problems, just a mild sway. The staff, especially the waiters LOVE working on Iona and actually ask to come back on next contract. That is good because they are the best we have had on our 20 years of cruising. I could name so many instances, but just one. A waiter, who was not our waiter, noticed my wife had lost her voice, so he went and got a plate of honey and lemons for her to take back to our cabin. He checked for the next couple of days to see if it had done the trick. Fantastic. The organisation including embarking, disembarking, ports is first class. Much better than all the other P&O ships. One for Lady Selbourne, no problems at all with lifts, especially front and back. The etiquette was exemplary. Wheelchairs and pushchairs were always were given priority. Please give it another try outside of school holidays. The food was good but was let down by the menus, which is company wide. PLEASE P&O SET UP A PASSENGER PANEL TO ASCERTAIN WHAT PASSENGERS WANT. The dining app works a treat because most use it. The food in the Olive Grove is fantastic, why it is included baffles me. The shows are good, enhanced by the quality high tech. The Christmas decorations were fantastic as well. Last thoughts. Cabin steward gave us 4 packs of biscuits per day. Ice when he did the cabin, usually when we were at breakfast. If I told the waiter I liked something he always asked if I would like two. For instance, if I asked for a steak, he said “ would you like 2”. Nothing was too much trouble. Yes, I know P&O is not what it was but it will do for me. Especially as I booked the same cruise for next year and got £830 OBC No, I don’t know why!! Selbourne - please give it another try.

Thanks TigerB

Hi All Does anyone know where P&O are dropping off the shuttle bus these days. It used to be next to the old river bed ( Park) in the middle of Valencia but I have read that it maybe the new part of town now. Any advice would be helpful. Thanks.

Don’t forget, the last 6 numbers on the boarding pass is your “my holiday” login code,

CPS start booking in cars at 11.00. We are Baltic tier and the last 3 cruises (Iona, Ventura and Aurora) we have arrived at 11.00, booked car in, booked in and have been on the ship about 11.30ish. Last month on Aurora we were called to go through and Caribbean tier followed us through. P&O have really improved the embarkation process since Covid. Very slick process now.

No, the green bean era is not over. P&O must buy enough green beans to feed the Nation. Food was good though, apart from the green bean abundance. Off on Iona this Saturday. I hope our experience will be as good as Selbournes. We did this similar cruise last September and the main gripe was lack of staff everywhere. Everything else was good.

Do you have to wear formal gear for the Chefs table?

Sooory, forgot to say. cabin steward, Beatrice, was brilliant. On arrival, asked for 2 flannels, 2 packs of biscuits and ice daily. Got flannels, 4, yes 4, packs of biscuits and ice every day. And spookily, a chap turned up with a large dish of lemon slices every day - never asked for them. she was exceptional, and was rewarded accordingly. Also, 1 last thing. Raffles coffee bar had 3 waiters making coffee and 7, yes 7 waiters serving. Along with fantastic FREE cakes, and rolls. Heaven.

I can assure you that my comments were meant with much affection. I am a keen follower of your excellent and informative input, on all subjects. Back to Ventura. The food was imho poorly cooked and poorly presented. As they do not use the app, if you wanted a table for 2 you could wait 20 mins to 1.5 hours. l don’t know whether I should paste Paul Ludlow’s reply, but I will. This was followed by the £200 obs. I understand throughout your email you had concerns regarding the main dining rooms onboard and I do want to start by apologising for having a lowered experience than usual. Your next points are regarding the service you received in some of the dining venues onboard which is really disappointing to hear. We are very set on you having the best service as possible and I can understand that throughout these experience you had, especially in the Main dining restaurants requires care and attention and this Is the dining room staff’s responsibility. Along with you having amazing service we also expect your food to be of good quality and to be served appropriately around the table and to be of a high standard and quality. After the pandemic we have faced some struggles regarding supply across all our services onboard but we do wish for this to change and to be more appropriate for you for future. Training of our staff and making sure they are confident in their particular roles is also imperative to the success of your dining experience and this we are also looking into with the Dining and Beverage managers onboard to encourage any further training needed to help eliminate any issues with service, we hope that with this we can also help support the queues and wait times for the restaurants as service becomes more smooth. We do understand the importance of the organisation and the logistics of each service and venue you visit onboard and your feedback for these areas is crucial for our improvement. Along with this making sure our technical systems are sound and working correctly so our guests can be served as soon as possible. I have highlighted the issues you have mentioned both to the Dining and Beverage managers onboard along with your comments regarding the food quality and the conflicting information regarding using the My Holiday app, I understand these elements need to be worked on as quickly as possible so that your experience is enjoyable and be able to maximise your evening activities.

As a precursor to this review, I’m afraid it will not be of the standard of the excellent Selbourne, Damien or Paris Hilton. I was 45 years an engineer so my reports are more factual than whimsical. This is our 42nd cruise, 37th with P&O and 3rd since Covid. We did this Vigo, Lisbon, Porto and Guernsey (though Coruna instead of Guernsey because of the weather) on Ventura 8 weeks ago. We enjoyed the cruise so much we decided to do it again hoping to get to Guernsey this time. The only problem with the Ventura cruise was the dire food and the chaotic dining organisation. I wrote to Paul Ludlow and he agreed with me and kindly gave me £200 obs to spend on my next cruise. Now the review. As we booked late, all that was available were outside F deck. After researching that I could get one without pull-down Pullman beds we booked a cabin opposite the front lifts/ stairs. What a revelation, NO noise, NO vibration, NO movement the whole cruise. Just along from Palm Court for embarking and disembarking. Next to the front lifts, and Mr and Mrs Selbourne, I thought about you every day, they were nearly always empty. Huge lifts empty. So on embarking, after the lunch and numerous drinks, I went to the freedom restaurant. I asked the head waiter the best way that I could get a table for 2 about 7.30 every evening. He said come down at 6.30 and ask for a table for 2 at 7.30, go and get ready for dinner and take a pager and come down at 7.30. So we did. Sometimes the pager would go off as we were walking down, sometimes it would go off, in our cabin about 7.15 and sometimes it would not go off at all. Never mind we got a table every night, always by a window. The head waiter was a joy. The first night it was a table by a window, the next night a romantic table, the next a romantic table with candles, the next a table with candles and roses, the next candles, roses and a choir. He ran out after that. Just to say I am 70!! Now the food, I was going to say that it was pre Covid standard, but it was much better than that, it was the same standard when we were last on Aurora in 2015. Very well done P&O. I will be mailing Paul Ludlow to tell him There was only one critique that was with the Beach House. The food, waiters and especially the head waiter were very poor. It was a lovely cruise with if I can say it, a very traditional P&O passenger dynamic. We are on Iona in 3 weeks. Hoping for the best.

Problem is that it is not Freedom dining. It is, when you can get in, dining. If you fancy dining at 7.30. It could be anything between 7,30 and 9.30. And as for people saying they can’t get in anywhere, and go to the buffet - disgraceful. P&O must somehow fix this. We went on Iona last September and we’re able to book every night before we went. We even got the same table every night. Worked a treat. Ventura did not even use the My Holiday “app”. It was suspended. Dining room chaos every night. Don’t know what else to say, really. 41 cruises, 36 on P&O, I know how good they can be.

Hi Selborne and SeaJane, I was the one who posted about the awful food on Ventura last month. I contacted Paul Ludlow’s office and got an apology and £200 obs on my next cruise. It was a real shame as everything bar the dining experience was excellent. So much so that we are doing the same itinerary on Aurora in 2 weeks time. Going back to the complaint, it seemed to me that that P&O knew about the Ventura dining problems. Hopefully they are now sorted. In my opinion, P&O have no clue how to organise freedom dining. I have a few ideas, the first being that they treble the number of tables for 2. Anyway, roll on 2 weeks to Aurora, hoping that they still have the loyalty buffet and not a sit down 3 course lunch. If we are the only couple who enjoy the buffet, so be it, but we do enjoy it.

Work on Ventura, that’s a joke. We were on there last month, they didn’t even use the my holiday app. It took ages with a pager to get into eat. Mind you it was not worth the wait. The food was dire. By far the worst on any ship from any company - and we have done over 40. The food on Iona last September was much, much better and the dinner organisation much superior.

Hi All, ls it still a buffet on Aurora or a sit down lunch? Had a sit down lunch on Ventura in June and it was absolutely awful. mind you, the food in the MDR was awful the whole cruise!

Thanks Maisie. I’ll book it then😊

Hi All, we are on the Iona this Saturday, so last minute help would be appreciated. 1. Are there tables for 2 in the Limelight club? 2. Anyone know where muster station F is? After 3 years I can’t describe how much I am looking forward to it. Thanks all, Tony

Yes Jean, after doing 40 cruises between 2003 to 2019, I feel like a newbee again. still, I can’t wait now.

Jean - it’s all changed since you and I last cruised. That’s why I asked.

Thanks all. next question, anyone know where muster station F is?