Issyalex

53 minutes ago, Happiest when cruising said:

I’ll post do

e of 6404 when we get home. It was a noisy location- you can hear the elevator and the music from below. I would not book it again, although the mid ship was nice. 

Thanks. Looking forward to seeing your photos.

Our TA advised us not to book the two cabins nearest the lift as he thought the noise from the lift might be an issue. Mind you we will be out of our cabin for most of the day and we’re not easily woken with some noise. 

We have booked cabin 6402 for 2025 so hoping to see more photos or some videos of these cabins before then.

On 1/14/2023 at 1:17 PM, Son of Anarchy said:

The choices of cheeses pre-pandemic were gradually becoming less.  Not surprised by the move to pre-plated.  On our last Iona cruise although the selection was not particularly inspiring (for me), the cheeses provided were nonetheless enjoyable.  However, I would prefer to choose my selection. 

On our first P&O cruise several years ago hubbies cheese and biscuits were all still in there wee pre packed cellophane wrappers!!! Just like the small individual ones you but in a supermarket. Up until that cruise we had only cruised celebrity and RCI who gave hubby a choice of cheeses and biscuits.

On 1/5/2023 at 12:33 AM, sunlover5 said:

We booked the hotel jazz for 3 nights superior room yesterday. Looks nice. Now the fun begins researching ports!  
Do you use Celebrity air or book on your own?

I was wondering how far airport is to cruise port????

5-10min taxi ride from hotel Jazz to port. Reception will phone for your taxi. 

I’ve cruised with both lines.

Oceania is far superior in service and food than NCL but NCL’s food and service is fine. Oceania’s entertainment is low-key whereas NCL’s is more up beat.
We love Oceania’s small ship experience and that All non alcoholic drinks are free eg latte’s, fizzy juice, non alcoholic cocktails, smoothies etc. Oceania is a very polished operation whereas NCL’s can be a bit haphazard. 
 

Oceania’s tours will be more expensive than NCL but most ports in the U.K. are doable on your own or by using local tours.
 

Only you can decide which will suit you and work out which, for you, is the best value.

I received a £250 cheque after my Celebrity cruise dropped in price several years ago after final payment. I had to phone my TA to follow up the price drop as I’d been keeping an eye on my cruise price but they hadn’t. They really didn’t know anything about the price drop or if us Brits could get it. After my insistence they did phone celebrity and I received my £250. 
 

Any other Celebrity or RCI cruise I’ve booked have always went up not down in price.

Up here It’s a Sunday roast, which is served all day in Glasgow. Lunch is mid day, dinner is your main meal and supper is a piece in toast before bed. We are ladies who lunch and afternoon tea includes bubbles. 😀
 

There will be plenty of taxis both at the train station and port but the queues might be long but should go in quickly. You could either phone and book a taxi or use Uber.

Thankfully we can still get free test kits from pharmacy or on line in Scotland………for now.

You have to be negative for 14 days post covid before they’ll allow you to cruise. If you test negative on, say 28th March, then your 14 days are up by 11th April. 

We are on the 7th May cruise which is 6 weeks away so plenty of time for you 14 days post covid. 

On 3/25/2022 at 9:55 PM, nicki-k said:

We received an email yesterday to say that our cabins are being moved due to 'taking an approved amount of cabins out of service'. I am not at all happy as I only transferred to this cruise on Ventura in January this year. As isolation cabins are not a new concept the P&O agent should have known that I was booking two cabins in a quarantine zone and advised me to select alternative cabins. I have paid a considerable premium to book a select fare and carefully selected cabins which meet the needs of my Mum. I specified not to be 'upgraded' as it is very important that our cabins are next to each other and near to lifts, my Dad passed away last year and this is my Mum's first cruise so she needs us 'next door'. I am appalled that we have in effect paid twice the amount for the equivalent of a guarantee balcony cabin. I am waiting to see what we have been allocated before contacting P&O. We were booked in C723  and C727.

We were booked in D733 for our May cruise but we thought it best to change our cabin to mid ship on D deck before they reallocate us to wherever or worse still downgraded our cabin. When we cruised in Oct all the cabins 700+ on 4 or 5 decks were used for isolation.

I understand if someone on the bus tests positive everyone on the bus cannot cruise and are bused back. IMO I think the train might be the safer option. 

1 hour ago, MISTER 67 said:

That's good.

Yeah it is as are the wearing of masks.

On 1/2/2022 at 2:28 PM, MISTER 67 said:

I may be wrong but I don't think any of the lines are incuding boosters in the protocols.

Boosters are mandatory at the moment  on cruise ships embarking from U.K. 

On 11/3/2021 at 7:12 AM, lindyloo22 said:

Can you both go on one or is it separate for each person

One for each person.

51 minutes ago, free from work said:

Thank you for the information. We only do showers. Seems like there should be plenty of space onboard. 

 

Looking forward to the speciality dining. Hopefully the shows etc will be available. 

 

We plan to enjoy ourselves come hell or high water. 

 

Life is too short to wait for guarantees. 

 

Jim 

There were 3 shows a night in the theatre and other venues. Masks had to be worn in the theatre but not in bars, restaurants etc if seated. 
 

there was a shower over the bath. 
 

your right life is too short to wait. Go and have a fab cruise and make more memories. 

On 10/15/2021 at 2:13 PM, free from work said:

Thank you for your summary of life onboard. 

 

Did you get any information on the ship occupancy level for the cruise? 

 

We are on Ventura 23/11 and since we booked last week, only a couple of Superior Balcony cabins are now available. When we booked there was plenty of availability in all grades except Suites.

 

Jim 

There was just over 1700 passengers onboard Ventura. We had a superior cabin plenty of room and a bath for hubby to boot. 😂

We disembarked Ventura yesterday.

From parking our car to being onboard it took approx 2hrs. We had to show our vaccine certificate, boarding pass, health deceleration and passport. 
 

Food choice was very much reduced and repetitive in both MDR and buffet. Smaller portions served in MDR  which I preferred, food well presented and tasty. Service was a hit or a miss, some nights it was very slow and other nights it was like being in a fast food joint. Staff served you in buffet. 
 

Entertainment was not up to their usual standards and again repetitive. 
 

Public areas were kept clean. Passengers wore their masks 99% of the time and if someone wasn’t wearing a mask or not wearing it correctly they were quickly asked put their mask on by senior staff.

At all our ports we were able to get off independently. Locals in Spain and Portugal were wearing their masks in the streets as well as in shops. 

At disembarkation no one asked to see our PLF or vaccine certificate. 
 

It was so nice to be back onboard and to feel somewhat normal. 

6 hours ago, Technoman2 said:

In Barcelona today. Really to far to walk out of port to centre I would estimate 40 mins. Had to take passports and proof of vaccination off ship. £4pp charge each way for bus or free if in select but a hell of a walk to sagrada familiar from bus drop off point. Taxi cost 16 euro back from sagrada families to ship. Money well spent

You could have got the port bus. Cheaper than P&O’s transfer and drops/collects you at the same place as ships transfer buses.

On 9/19/2021 at 11:08 PM, Son of Anarchy said:

We arrived by taxi, so went straight to Ocean terminal.  Drop off your luggage at the appropriate hole in the wall for your cabin and join the queue for testing.  We were led round the side of the building into the luggage hall where the testing stations were all set up, after that you go back outside to go in through main departures door and upstairs to wait for your test result before checking in.

Thanks. Our TA is on Britannia just now and phoned me to tell me, as we’re not using CPS parking,  we can park our car and go direct to Oceania terminal for our LFT.

On 9/20/2021 at 7:58 AM, TravelMadBrits said:

Hi

If driving I’m sure it was gate 12 - it is in an Information email from P&O which is quite long but tells you where to go if driving or being dropped off. 
For the drive in testing it felt like we were driving forever down a long road to nowhere but there are staff in jackets along the route waving you on. We and a few others were confused as to where to go afterwards. If you don’t leave the dock area back on to the main road and tempted to try and keep inside the docks area, you will get caught in another cruise line testing area (Celebrity we saw). 
It was a short drive to join the right gate to the Ocean terminal and signposted well. 
 

Thanks for the info TMB 

I’ve made an account for both myself and hubby. I’ve completed the DOB, address, passport numbers etc so if we cannot get free WiFi before we dock in Southampton I’ll just fill the remaining details in when we’re in the car park. 

Where/what dock did you have to go for your pre boarding covid test? 

Celebrity, RCI and Azamara crew have been vaccinated.

1 minute ago, wowzz said:

Sorry - a bit confused!  

But the principle is still the same. Using the A1 from Haltwhistle makes no sense at all. 

As a matter of interest,  why did you use that route? Surely you must have known it was an idiotic routing?

Hubby just followed the sat nav as it was our first time travelling from Haltwhistle.

4 hours ago, wowzz said:

I have to say that for a sat nav to take you to Glasgow from Southampton via the A1 is sheer nincompoopery !

Not from Southampton but from Haltwhistle near Hadrian’s wall.