Boycey

Agree with you about the boarding arrangements. A very second class first impression belying a very first class experience.

There is not a formula as such. It depends on things like local immigration and customs, what is happening on board during turnover (e.g. large agents group visiting) and whether they need to do a deep clean if there has been cases of noro board

Thanks for that :)

I guess there is no way of predicting then?

We will just pitch up and hope for the best.

Can anyone help me with the criteria for determining whether extended stay is possible on the final day?

I'v read that it may or may not be possible to stay aboard until lunchtime for a fee, but not the reasons underpinning it.

Anyone know?

You will love the ship, I'm certain.

We are on day 3 of the cruise (although really only 2 days in) and you wouldn't know it's a maiden voyage. Viking do very well with crew rotation, which coupled with the standardisation of their ship designs ensures everything runs smoothly from day one.

The food is great. Manfredi's wasn't the expected step up from the restaurant, but more because of the normal standards of the latter. It's very good. We're trying Chef's table tonight.

Everything is so very well thought out, with the only quibble perhaps being the lack of an international mix of passengers, but we hear Viking are working on that, with deals offered in different regions.

It's a great product and we'll be back for sure.

We're currently on the SUN and I write this post from a sun-drenched balcony overlooking Katakolon.

The SUN is by some distance the best ship we've been on, with service levels above our hitherto favourite, Azamara.

Much of the impression may be because everything is so new and obviously unused, but I should say it also suits so well because we are aboard only 1 week.

We have a superior deluxe balcony cabin on deck 6, and no way is there sufficient storage space for a world cruise. In all honesty we would struggle for our preferred 14-20 day period.

That quibble apart, it's wonderful.

Thank you BB and Mrs Miggins. Very helpful.

I will search out the previous threads.

The fall cruise on AZ was strange, in that it now seems to show availability at least on the agent's site, but we've already booked Viking, so we'll see. For sure last week the AZ med cruise went from available and we had a quote we were happy with, to two days later being full with zero availability. We had called the agent to book, only to be disappointed.

Anyway, that prompted us to book Viking for the fall but by a happy quirk we also noticed a good deal for next early summer on AZ (Italian islands), and booked that too, this time directly as we were getting frustrated with the agent.

So two positives (I hope) out of one negative.

Thanks again

Since we stopped cruising with the kids on the mainstream lines, we've moved over to the delights at the deeper end of the pool, mostly Az.

This year however our intended AZ booking for the fall disappeared, or at any rate the ship went from lots of availability to none in the space of 2 days, so we were forced to look elsewhere.

We've booked a Viking ocean cruise in October, and in truth it looks wonderful, but in brochures and adds they always do, so I'm looking for first hand experience.

On this board there's obviously lots of Az fans, but any that have done a Viking cruise too? I'm interested in the service comparisons as actually, despite the higher prices, Viking have more passengers.

Can anyone comment on Az vs Viking Ocean?

WE've booked the Western-Med Isles cruise for June next year, complete with Azamara transfers.

The return flights are from Barcelona to London but not until 6pm.

Two questions:

What is the latest we could check out/disembark (on previous trips we think it was mid-day but normally we're long gone)

We booked a private transfer from ship to airport (with Az). Can we arrange the timing of this to suit our schedule?

Look forward to the expert advice :)

Thanks so much Dec and Eaches. Really good to know people have been on sister ships in similar circumstances and found the correct standards from day one.

We have our eye on a couple of options and waiting for agents to come back to us. Will come back if we book :)

I've asked 3 different agents and got three different answers about the latest addition to the fleet, Viking Sun, so thought I would ask here :)

Does anyone know:

The 'maiden' is described as a 2018 World cruise, but there appear to be cruises in Europe for October/November.

Can this be right?

Can anyone say definitively which are the first paid for cruises?

If it was a mainstream line, I would avoid the first 2 or 3 cruises as the mass-market ships use these more of a training/shake-thru than a customer focussed cruise, but maybe Viking are different? I can't imagine them putting their super-high profile at risk for the sake of a few hundred thousands $ of revenue?

Please. Advice welcome and needed :)

After a few years away trying other lines, we're returning to P&O this year and really looking forward to it.

Some changes though about which we'd be grateful for advice, specifically about Ventura.

How much does the retreat cost? Ideally for whole of 17 day cruise but per day if no choice. Is it usually over-subscribed? I understand you can't book in advance, so do you just go up to the spa on first day?

Thanks in advance

We seem to have two positions: unanimity of opinion from those who were on this particular cruise that it was overcrowded and in parts non-functional, and a stern lecture from some of those who were not telling us we couldn't be right because they'd had a nice time on another Princess cruise sometime previously. I like Princess too - we are Elite level repeat customers - but dumb cheerleading helps no-one.

My main point was about the withdrawing of the ability to book a table for a particular time on ATD. If you haven't seen this feature advertised or referred to you haven't been paying attention. There's even a direct line on every phone on the ship - what do people imagine this is for? As for whether the ATD system would be more or less efficient if no tables could be booked, who knows? Withdrawing the feature on an ad-hoc basis is the issue. Other cruise lines manage to seat people at the customer's convenience. Princess usually do, and do it well. This time they didn't, and I think the reason is clear.

Finally it's also worth considering the literal meaning of the word capacity. It's not an elastic figure. Princess's own documents refer to a capacity of 3082. It doesn't say 3082 plus another 700 for school holidays. The additional upper berths are meant to add flexibility for family groups (some normal cabins will be single occupied as a counterweight). The difference between 3082 passengers and 3700 passengers is the difference between a functioning and a non-functioning ship. I know this because I experienced it, even as a fan of Princess.

Hi

 

Full capacity is 3670 which includes upper berths etc,

 

3080 is total of lower berths, so expect lots of kids,

 

Assume fixing dining was under used.

 

One reason we only cruise if we have fixed dining so much more relaxing.

 

 

yours Shogun

3092 is declared capacity (on Princess website). Upper berths are meant to add flexibility (for families/groups) not simple additional capacity otherwise the 3092 is a meaningless number. We've travelled many times with a full complement of 3000 and the facilities are stretched but functional. Add another 600 and they're not.

Fixed dining was full too. We (and according to Maitre d'hotel, many others) tried to change to it. Even if it would never be a first choice for us it would have been better than the anytime chaos.

Wow. That's a +15% load. I can't say we have experienced that. It must have stressed the crew's ability to manage their tasks. One of the Princess attributes that we value most is the consistency of their product.

Please let us know what management say about your experience.

Thanks. I'll share the response when it comes.

We've travelled at this time ex-UK for a number of years on Princess, always on one of the grand class ships (Crown, Emerald, Caribbean) and never before have we experienced this level of over-crowding. The crew as always did their best, but they couldn't cope with the numbers.

Like you, what draws us back year after year is the consistency, and the unique balance Princess manage to strike between elegance and informality.

I hope it's a blip, not a trend.

We just got back from an Emerald Princess Mediterranean cruise and if this was amongst our first Princess cruises there's no doubt we wouldn't be back.

The ship had in excess of 3600 guests according to the cruise director, which is around 500 more than the normal capacity declared by Princess. Boy did it show.

For the first time ever for us the ability to call and reserve a table on the day was withdrawn for Anytime Diners. This despite all Princess brochures and ads (including bizarrely those on board) trumpeting the feature. Waiting lines were 30 minutes plus just to get a pager; the additional wait was then never less than another 30 minutes and some nights was 90. The reason was clear: nearly all the tables were re-arranged to be for 10 or 12, and staff pushed (a little too hard for many people's liking) the idea of sharing. Fine if you like it, an imposition if you don't.

After 3 nights of this, again for the first time ever for us, we gave up and went to the buffet. So did several hundred others, with the result that it too became unworkable, with the servery area so crowded the crew couldn't refill the shelves. In the end people were taking their main meal at the pizza or burger bar, sometimes even in formal gear. What a joke.

People blame school holidays and the presence of lots of children, but the fault isn't theirs, it's Princess for allowing too many people on board. Anyone with any experience of cruises could and would have predicted the problems, so why were they allowed to happen? I have asked Princess and look forward to their reply.

Does anyone know what were the MUTS in July 2016? Our family are big movie fans and would love to know. Princess Customer Service couldn't help.

Thanks!

Jungle book

Man from uncle

Hail Caesar

Joy

Concussion

Batman v superman

Daddy's home

There were others that I can't recall (back yesterday from emerald) but I'll add to the thread later

Y

P&O do *Not* make up the balance.

They dont have to.

 

 

.

You must be quite high up in the Carnival corporate structure to make such an unequivocal statement, yet you self-describe as a lady of leisure.

It couldn't be that you're just guessing too, could it?

Hi

Is it Ajaccio in Corsica?

If so it's a small but bustling town, and worth a walk. There are some much smaller Corsican ports that are sometimes available, but it depends on the size of ship. The larger ones can dock only at Ajaccio.

If you are into deserted Mediterranean beaches, then you can take a small boat from Ajaccio harbour which tours round the island dropping people at the small beaches that are inaccessible/difficult by land. These can be a treat. Just be sure to agree a pick up time.

Hope you enjoy it.