doog442

18 minutes ago, jeanlyon said:

Agree.  Fred Olsen do not allow any alcohol to be brought on board at all.  There must be others.

Freds bar prices seem reasonable unlike Celebrity, Princess etc who are double.

P&O seem stuck between a rock and a hard place at the moment. 

18 minutes ago, molecrochip said:

Plus is drinks + single device internet + gratuities

 

Premium is Plus package plus deluxe drinks and 4 device internet plus signature deserts plus multiple speciality restaurants plus prize draws.

Princess have dragged the bog standard drinks package down until its almost meaningless and the premium plus puts its way above P&O offerings price wise.

As you know P&O have tried to appeal to a new demographic and succeeded . People aren't daft, I know cruises are selling but if this is true there's not much difference now between that all inclusive in the Caribbean or Med and P&O attempting to squeeze things. 

'Pre drinks' are almost part of UK culture, balcony, getting glammed up etc, yet the bars are still as busy as hell afterwards. 

If this happens and they rigidly enforce the policy at cruise ports (not been happening) it will be interesting to see. 

We were allocated 8214 on Arvia last year on a last minute saver however we both caught covid so had to cancel. We went back this year but I splashed out on an aft cabin so we had a good look at what we 'might have had' on deck 8. 

We were on a Caribbean cruise so lots of traffic on that deck. However down here where I live people pay an absolute fortune to have a beach hut, on the promenade and don't bat an eyelid with hundreds of people walking by yards away. Just imagine you're in a posh beach hut 😉..because that's what its like...minus the beach of course. 

Firstly people might have a quick 'nose' when they arrive on the ship but after walking around the promenade deck within 5 minutes they lose interest, it becomes normal, people are there sat on their so called 'balcony' (*see below) like they're sat outside a beach hut, a cafe - whatever, no one cares. It's not a thing unless you're a blogger / vlogger with nothing better to do than scare people with daft vids.  

However I hate the way its marketed as a standard balcony because it isn't a balcony by any stretch of the imagination apart from marketing people on cruise ships pretending it is. To be fair its priced accordingly. Anyone booking a balcony cabin on a saver on Iona and Arvia needs to be aware in advance because trust me that's where you will probably end up and as we found out P&O will absolutely refuse to move you beforehand on a saver.

That aside as others have said the location is absolutely spot on for amenities.  

Hi Andy. I hope you're having a great cruise.

I'm hovering over Britannia for a 14 nighter to the Canaries end of Aug.

I'm just wondering what your opinion on the cabins and general areas of the ship are now after the refit. I think you said new carpets but does it all look quite uptogether (no yellow loo seats etc)🤣

cheers

7 hours ago, FamilyCruiserUK said:

 

P&O can easily corner the family market if they just push the boat out a bit more with future family ship designs. So much promise but again played it too safe with Arvia and Iona. 

They'd nail it if they followed Norwegians design on the Prima...a go kart circuit dominating the ship and drop slides but lets not give them any ideas eh 🤣...we just stared in disbelief.

Yet they stick a Norway and Iceland itinerary from the UK for the summer.....? 

'Here kids we're going to Norway and Iceland for your summer holiday but you have a race track to keep you busy'. 

1 hour ago, jeanlyon said:

That's my complaint about all P&O food.  Roast and spuds seems to be all they can do.  Just cruised with Fred Olsen and didn't see a roast for the first week.  Many different dishes.  Really so much better.

I don't think we ever ate a roast or spuds on our recent Arvia cruise, very easy to avoid plus we'd never entertain those dishes in the Caribbean.

You think a new ship branded to specifically target a new younger family demographic would only serve roast and spuds ? 

1 hour ago, Rupert2251 said:

We stayed in 15735 on Arvia last year they are fantastic. We had no problems with noise from above our only gripe was the DJ in the bar below but he was based on starboard side not port. I'm sure you will enjoy, have a great time.

Yes we had ' DJ Griggsy'  belting out his Ibiza chillout music from the sunset bar below on our Caribbean in Jan. We noticed he alternates between deck 8 and deck 16 so good to hear there's no noise when he's upstairs. Annoying as he was it hasn't put us booking another aft cabin, on deck 14 this time and just out of the pool waterfall drop zone. ☔ Those suites look lovely by the way.

10 minutes ago, yorkshirephil said:

Yes you do. I think when I did mine it took five days, two of them being a weekend. This was the message I got after registration;

Cheers Phil, we had the same although they've extended their response period to three working days. 

Anyone else with Hargreaves Lansdown ? I've uploaded a very minimal PDF which is about the only thing I can directly access on their site with a date on it.

Just to confirm with the app you 

1. Register

2. Upload proof of shares

3. Then 'Redeem perk' ?

Do you have to wait for them to acknowledge the proof of shareholding before 'redeeming perk'?

cheers

6 hours ago, Neecy1 said:

There was a cruise ship in port on our recent Brittania TA. Can't remember which ship but it had a water slide on the side. Looked horrible. I can appreciate ships having them on the top deck for kids but this looked so awful on the side of the ship.

We were next to the Norwegian Prima. It had a 'drop slide' on the port side...it looked like a water slide but the victims were sat on some kind of mat. Without fail they nearly all got stuck halfway down and had to be dragged out by staff at the bottom.

It also had a very large go kart track dominating the top deck just to set things off as a ship to avoid at all costs. 

I just don't get it . If you want this go to Florida and do the parks with a nice villa for probably half the cost.

Anyway back to the new carpet on Britannia.

On 4/3/2024 at 10:38 AM, buchanan101 said:

Looking at the cruise on QA to fjords that I booked the day it was announced; cost me £5,052 in PG1 (including 5% Cunard and 5% TA discount)... it now costs virtually double in the same class (£9,558).  BC is almost as much (£8,598) - who would pay that?

 

Question - currently are almost all prices trending upwards towards departure, or are there occasions where they drop? I like to book early (I book my Avios flights for skiing 355 days in advance...), so quite pleased if booking early is usually the best thing to do (this will be only my second cruise/crossing, previously a QM2 WB TA)

 

Maybe it's because it's a new ship...but demand all round is up I believe

 

 

We've booked the Fjords on QA for July 2025 and PG 1 wasn't that far off what you paid - it still isn't, same for July. As it's a Cunard taster for us I booked a BC grade balcony cabin for £2300, less $500 OBC and our shareholder credit and it was about the same as any P&O offering so a no brainer.

2024 was a different story. When I booked in Feb most QA offerings were double 2025 prices.

4 hours ago, Megabear2 said:

Sadly a few years back a passenger from Azura was sadly killed in Tortola whilst on an excursion.  If anything would have tightened things up that would have been the time but truthfully I see little difference.

 

As passengers we have to take this into account when deciding to book excursions and make a personal choice as to whether to go or not.

Dominica I believe. Regarding Tortola we did an official ships tour, the 'vehicle' if you can call it that I honestly thought was to transfer us out of the port area but no it took us around half the Island. 

No seat belts, bench seats, no doors, screaming brakes, horrific roads but fantastic views.

That said I've done public bus rides down the Amalfi coast in Italy last year that were nearly as bad. 

On 3/31/2024 at 9:20 AM, sweep2907 said:

Just been looking at starting prices for Caribbean inside cabin and shocked to see they all around £1900pp now. Has this been a big increase in recent weeks as I am sure I saw £1400pp when itineraries came out. I wonder if the large increase could be due to having to pay more to source a better airline than Maleth? What I am being quoted for balcony now on Britannia is not far off what I paid for a suite on her pre covid.

I've just quoted our Arvia aft cabin, same Caribbean cruise and date that we had in Jan this year (booked March 23) and the 2026 price is showing a 52.75% increase (this taking into account OBC as well) - no drinks package.

These prices are exceeding decent land based all inclusive hotels on spectacular beaches territory with top shelf unlimited drinks. Their strength recently has been undercutting that particular market hence the recent very good value offerings. That said I don't blame them for making hay while the sun shines and /or perhaps the market is changing. 

Having eaten in both Meridian and Zenith recently we didn't even notice what was on the table. I do recall one waiter trying to be quite artistic with his crumb cleaner on one occasion so I guess we were in Zenith that night. 

Third world problems I guess.

We were on Arvia in Feb in aft cabin 11746 which is one of the outers on the central four beneath the pool.

On most days we'd get spots of water (not an issue as we're in the Caribbean). However on one day in heavy seas 11748 next to us got an absolute soaking, it sounded like a real 'smack' as it landed, fortunately no one was on the balcony.

Having looked at the 'overspill thingy' I'm struggling to see what caused it, perhaps a combination of movement and a large guest jumping in.

We'd have the same cabin again in a heartbeat but not one of the inner two beneath the pool. 

We'd kind of faded away from cruising, instead choosing land based all inclusive holidays (Maldives, Mauritius, Antigua, St Lucia Mexico etc).

We have an absolute minimum standard - so decent quality hotels.

We did a Princess cruise after Covid in 2022 but it almost put us off for life - clearly struggling in all areas from covid plus an extremely elderly demographic.

We thought we'd give it one last go and did the Arvia Caribbean in Feb. We had a fantastic time and it's converted us back, not fully (as we'll still do beach holidays - Maldives next month) but it reminded us why we started cruising back in 2007, they just nailed it. We've booked Cunard for next year ( to sample the Queen Anne) but I have quite a few P&O cruises on my radar.

On 3/11/2024 at 3:27 PM, zap99 said:

At the moment we are quite happy with P&O's prices and quality. As you say, our OBC will cover most of our onboard bill. Our April Arvia cruuse will decide whether we book with P&O or RC for October.

Funnily enough there was a thread recently about price increases on the RC forum with some threatening to jump ship to Princess. 

10 minutes ago, Presto2 said:

To be honest wherever we go we are careful and treat all the same. Best to take care wherever.  Have yet to find Utopia in today's world .. 

 

Have to ask PO how we can avoid looking like tourists.. did make us chuckle....

We also had a decent chuckle at that. As for Utopia, we found that in the Maldives but not if you read the Foreign office advice 🤣

6 hours ago, Megabear2 said:

The Government safety and security site makes interesting reading on that front too!  

 

"Crime 

There have been incidents of crime in St Lucia including murder, armed robbery and sexual assault. 

There is a continuing serious risk of homicides, primarily gang related and involving guns. Some incidents have taken place in public areas. 

Take precautions to protect your personal safety: 

• make sure your accommodation is secure – this also applies if you’re staying on a yacht 
• take care when walking alone off main roads and during late night street parties 
• avoid isolated areas, including beaches, after dark 
• only use licensed taxis 
• do not carry large amounts of cash or jewellery 
• leave valuables and travel documents in your hotel safe or a safety deposit box "

It says the same almost word for word for Antigua, St Kitts, Barbados and others.

As regular visitors to Antigua and St Lucia it really is a case of just using common sense.  The majority of serious crime in St Lucia for example is locals on locals and gang related.

The only area to really avoid at night in St Lucia is one small area of Castries which was pointed out to us by our driver. One of the Islands most regarded hotels (Rendezvous) is literally the other side of the small runway adjacent to the port on Vigie Beach in Castries. We've stayed there without issue, walked into Castries with no problems. 

Incidentally Martinique (French) Aruba and the Dutch Islands are deemed much safer by the foreign office of course still funded by France and the Netherlands respectively and you can tell infrastructure wise. 

You have more chance of being a victim of crime in any UK seaside resort. 

5 hours ago, brian1 said:

It's strange that people put themselves on the Ancestry platform but "bottle it" when contacted.

My wife bought me a kit for Christmas and I've ticked all of the privacy boxes. She bought it for a laugh as hers showed she had a big chunk of Norway and Scotland in the DNA and she wants to know if she's more Scottish than me (my dad was Scottish). That's it no more, no less - simply a bit of fun. I only sent it off yesterday.

Incidentally we got one for my wife a few years back when it was all the rage because she's dark skinned and it intrigued us as we can't see a family link . It transpires there was a mass movement of blue eyed dark skinned folk to parts of Norway thousands of years ago from the Med which may explain it - who knows. Anyway it's a decent joke at parties- nope she's not from somewhere exotic, she's bloody Norwegian.🤣

Heads up. OBC has now returned to previous levels as of 4/3 at least across the half dozen cruises on my radar and prices are the same. The OBC isn't a patch on what some of us were getting last year mind.

Coincidentally I just received an e mail promoting 'offers incoming' which for one of my cruises is exactly the same as before they slashed OBC to the bone a few days ago. You couldn't make it up🤣...well I guess you could. 

oops delete that - brain stutter

4 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

I suspect it’s nothing more than having to ‘rest’ a promotion for a while in order to trumpet a ‘new’ offer in the future, a bit like the 28 day rule with ‘Sale’ prices. Standard marketing ploys. 
 

Call me a cynic, but I also strongly suspect that certain grades are temporarily placed ‘off sale’ in order to show as sold out or with limited availability (to encourage bookings), only to magically reappear at a later date. I’ve seen that happen with cruises that I’ve monitored. I suspect that the marketing team at Carnival more than pay for themselves - unlike their IT team 😂

Haha. I guess I'm just thinking out loud. As you said earlier its frustrating, we had a window of opportunity I'd kind of decided on cabin etc, they they pulled the rug and the Yorkshire in me appeared. It's no so much the loss of the OBC but as you state what might around the corner. To be fair it now makes our Cunard cruise next year look excellent value - until of course they change things. 

Enjoy your final black tie night, it seems an eternity since I posted that pic of Aurora from the Arvia in Barbados ! I put on 9 pounds in two weeks and I don't think I was really overdoing it yet you're still at sea, marvelous.  🤣

2 hours ago, Megabear2 said:

It's pretty standard, however I'm not so sure this year we will get the bargains.

This is what I can't really get my head around. By all means adjust OBC , prices etc for individual cruises based on demand but they literally cut OBC by more than half across most of the fleet on the same day. There wasn't a particular sales drive happening in that respect unlike the Cunard triple offer which had an end date, the same day they culled OBC on P&O. Are they trying to keep price disparity between both, I've no idea it just seems odd.  

Just for interest and please don't shoot the messenger but I noticed this happened yesterday. I've had my eye on numerous dates / ships this year and early next (7 nights &14 nights). In nearly every case OBC was cut by half (and much more) yesterday however the select price and overall prices haven't budged. This appears to have coincided with the Cunard triple spend offer ending at the same time, again no real movement on select prices (I can confirm as I have one booked).

I appreciate prices are dynamic etc however future prices seem to be on average 20% higher than last year and now OBC has been cut to the bone for the time being at least. I notice the 20% off the drinks package is now 10% 

I assume this is 'a correction', either that or they really are selling cabins (I know the Arvia has really kicked off the Caribbean - our recent cruise is now 20% more with £450 less OBC for next Jan) but I don't think they are in all cases. For example Britannia at the end of Aug has loads of availability but prices remain stubbornly high and OBC slashed from £300 to £120 yesterday.

Food for thought I guess, some will say perfectly normal but I thought perhaps it could have been a bit more 'subtle'. 

Incidentally what this did was immediately make me look elsewhere !