PJ's

We were in cabin F211 on the Britannia in the Caribbean in January this year and had no problems whatsoever with the position.It was pretty quiet and easy to just walk down the forward stairway to get to the restaurants and shops although we used the lifts to go higher up the ship (to pool & buffet etc).

We were in Norway last May and had a wonderful time, the best views ever. Have a great time..........:)

Thank you PJ, I am a Peninsular club member so I don't know why I don't get it! I can't have ticked "no mail" as I get other P&O mailings in the post - normally after I've already had them by email!

 

Could I ask who is Captain on Azura on 2nd Oct 2016?

Doesn't look like there is one!!!! Ha Ha. Only states that the Deputy Captain is Sam Twitchen from 3 Jly-2 Oct but no dates after that!! Strange..........

On having a second look at the schedule all the dates for 2016-2017 are not listed, perhaps they hadn't finalized the schedule before printing the mag.??

Sorry.................

I don't get sent that either :(

We receive this magazine maybe once or twice per year. This year it came through the post last week. It says on the front MOMENTS For Peninsular Club Members and on the first page inside say "This issue, we're giving you a sneak peek of our inspiring new collection for 2017/18. Blah.....Blah..... It gives a cruise calendar 2016-2018 and also the schedule of senior officers for 2016-17 so if you want to know who is the captain when you cruise let me know and I'll have a quick look. The only ship which is not shown is Adonia.

It also has some good articles and some competitions which you can enter to win various things inc luxury stay at Combermere Abbey Cottages, on the border of Shropshire/Cheshire, a day out at RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show 2016, subscription to wine club and the P&O Cruses Monopoly game.

It also has some itineraries for 2017 including this one for:

Oceana E707C 11th May 2017 - 14 nights. Fly UK to Valletta - Athens - Mykonos - Ephesus - Chania - Valletta - Dubrovnik - Hvar - Venice - Split - Valletta Fly to UK. and

Oceana E710A 7 nights 15 June 2017 - Fly UK to Valletta - Athens - Mykonos - Ephesus - Rhodes - Valletta Fly to UK

I thought that all Peninsular Club Members receive this magazine.

Just been looking at the Moments magazine which we received today and it looks like Oceana is doing the Greek Islands from Valletta (Malta) in the summer of 2017.

E713 27/07/17 (14 nights) - Fly UK to Valletta - Athens - Mykonos - Ephesus - Chania - Valletta - Split - Venice - Ravenna - Dubrovnik - Valletta - Fly to UK

I'm sure this will be repeated in August 2017???

Oceana is also visiting Rhodes in June 2017 and Messina, Sicily in Apr 2017.

Looks good!!!!!:D:D

Unfortunately not on Britannia, Mysticalmother. We asked for ice and our marvellous steward, for whom nothing was too much trouble, was profusely apologetic, but said he was not able to supply ice and it had to be ordered from room service IIRC. We found the fridge to be much better than on other P&O ships (Azura and Aurora), though, it kept any drinks in it very nicely chilled.

We were on Britannia from 2nd Jan to 16 Jan 2016 and our steward always filled up our ice bucket every day - no problem.:D

Just remember that any wine/alcohol you take on board is only for cabin consumption. If you take a bottle to the dining room you will be charged a corkage fee.:eek:

Well done you!!!!

We've just disembarked from Britannia on 16/01/16. Had a great time but sea days were bad for sunbeds. Saw quite a few squabbles!!!!

The only documentation that you will need are your e-tickets (printed off at home from your CP) and your passports. You will have to complete a health questionnaire before you check in your luggage. You will then not see your luggage until you embark your ship and it will be delivered to your cabin.

I am on countdown now as we embark Britannia on 02/01/16.

Merry Christmas to everyone!!!!

I have also registered with Princess Cruises and found that I am already in Ruby tier!!! even though I have never cruised with them. I presume that after my next cruise with P&O in the Caribbean I will be on the next tier (Platinum) as I will have a total of 57 points???:D

I think with P&O I will be on the 2nd tier (Atlantic)??

Must look at Princess for next year.

A couple of years ago we also did a transatlantic cruise, flying out to Barbados and cruising back to the UK. We also upgraded our outward flight to premium (there were 4 of us flying out) but when I tried to allocate seats for our group the system would not let me. After ringing P&O I was told that only 50% of the seats in premium could be booked and we would be allocated seats at the airport. When we arrived (very early) we had a word with a P&O representative and asked which seats had been allocated to us (the configuration was 2-3-2). He told us that we were all behind each other at the end of the middle row, (seat E) so neither of us was next to each other. We were not happy and after a discussion he managed to get us two seats at each window at the back of the premium cabin.

I will never book premium again as I do not think that the exorbitant price is worth the money.

I booked our seats a couple of weeks ago. We fly to Barbados on 2nd January 2016 and they cost £20 pp each way (£40 return pp).

Hi, can anyone tell me if Britannia has an outdoor movie screen.

No - Azura does have a sea screen on which they show movies.

If you go to http://www.cruisett.com it will show the times which the ship is due to dock. For Aruba it is showing 0800-1800hrs for our arrival on 8 January 2016. At the moment she is the only ship in port. You can also check the other ports on your cruise.

Hi Rickpo - yes, got the answer. Thanks again.

If you go straight through security when do you get your boarding cards for the return flight? I presume you do need these??

We also stayed up last night to book our seats. We fly on 2nd Jan from Manchester. Shame the flight is not earlier but we also will probably get a couple of bottles from Manchester as don't think we will arrive in Barbados in time to go to the duty free in the port.

The other difference between early saver and saver is that if you book an early saver you only have to pay 15% deposit (same as select) but with saver you have to pay the full amount.

I have booked both in the past and have been able to request a dining option with early saver via a link which they send you after booking. With a saver fare you get no choice BUT we were able to change our dining option after embarking. For some reason they had given us 1st sitting (which I thought was the most popular) and we prefer either freedom or 2nd sitting.

Usually when final payment date has passed the prices quoted are select & saver fares. The early saver fares change to just saver fares. You can still pay select fare and these may change but not always. Of course with saver fares you do not get any preferences.

Hi bee-ess - we have booked early saver a few times. We usually travel with friends and therefore get our bookings linked. In the past we requested second sitting, table for 4 and got first sitting but still a table for 4. We were able to change this to second sitting which was our preference at the time. My understanding is that first sitting is the most requested so do not know why we were given first sitting.

You have to join the queue at the MDR on the day of embarkation if you need to change dining but you may not be successful.

On our next cruise in January we have booked a select fare and have asked for freedom dining - never done this before but it gives you the choice of what time you dine.

We have been to Bergen twice and both times disembarked the ship as early as possible and headed for the funicular. There were no queues when we arrived and were straight on the cable car. The views are amazing!!!

On our return back down the queues were pretty long, well down the street so if you have no luck in booking online, then get there as early as possible.

We prefer to have the full day in Barbados at the end of our cruise so we are flying out on Saturday 02/01/16 this winter. After a long flight to Barbados we just want to chill out and the Sunday is a sea day before we hit the ports & beaches. Also there will be no rush to get back to the ship on the last Friday so can stay on the beach as long as we want. ROLL ON ..........:):)

Thanks for the feedback. We will probably look at the prices in Manchester before flying out to Barbados, I think this is what we did last time when we flew to the Caribbean. I know the prices are good in St Maarten but we don't arrive there until the second week.

Hi Everyone

We are flying out to Barbados on 2nd Jan 2016 to join Britannia - can't wait!!!!:) but my question is this: Can you order a bottle of spirits and bottles of wine for cabin consumption as soon as you get on-board and will they be delivered to you straight away?

We usually take our own on board when we sail from Southampton but because we are flying and we have quite a substantial amount of OBC we thought we would order from room service for this cruise. I have looked at the price list for room service and you can get a litre bottle of Gordons gin complete with 6 cans of mixer for £27.40 which seems pretty reasonable to me. Cannot remember the prices in the Barbados duty free when we were last there and the other alternative is to purchase it in Manchester before we fly. What do other people do?

The duty free shop will be open if one of the ports of call is Gibraltar. Although you will be able to buy tobacco products and take them back to the cabin for your use you will only be able to buy spirits and then collect them a day or so before you disembark the ship. You can order spirits from room service but these will not be at duty free prices. Of course you can take a bottle of whatever you want on-board for cabin use. We always take a bottle of gin for DH, a couple of bottles of wine for me and sometimes a bottle of champagne for sailaway.

Enjoy your cruise.

We were also on Azura in Norway at the beginning of May. Tenders were suspended in Geiranger although some shore excursions had already departed so we did not get to visit. The ship then sailed to Flaam and ended up staying the night after developing a fault. We had a wonderful day in Flaam but did not expect to still be there the following morning. We missed our next port of call (Stavanger) and the ship eventually sailed to Bergen where a specialist engineer had flown out from Germany and embarked her. We then set sail for a leisurely sail back to Southampton and arrived there a day late. (Arrived Saturday 9th, should have been Friday 8th).

Captain Turnbull kept us informed of everything and we did get compensated in the form of OBC and a percentage of the fare we had paid back to use on a future cruise. Not sure what anyone would do if they were not going to cruise again??

In spite of everything we thoroughly enjoyed being on Azura again and think that P&O did brilliantly.

BTW we managed to visit Bruges & Guernsey on a 3-nighter last year. Had a wonderful day in Guernsey and the tender went without any problems.