frozenflowers

Yes, that is correct. What I am trying to tell you is that a passport with JeanLyon’s dates DOES have three months validity when her holiday ends in October 2025, for the purposes of determining her return date. You are still allowed to count “extra” months for that purpose. What you are not allowed to do is count the extra months for the purposes of entering the EU. So her passport expires for entry in January 2026, and she can’t enter the EU after that date even if the expiry date suggests she has three months left. So no going on holiday in April 2026 on that passport. But it would be absolutely fine to go in October 2025, as the January date is not relevant for determining the date of expiry. There are TWO independent rules here: one rule about the date of ISSUE and one about the date of EXPIRY. A passport has to be less than 10 years from date of issue to enter the EU. A passport has to have 3 months left before the date of expiry when leaving the EU. They are different rules.

That is correct for leaving the UK and entering the EU, but not for coming back. Jeanlyon can enter the EU on her passport until 10 Jan 2026. She will have three months left because her expiry date is in October 2026. What she cannot do is enter the EU on 12 January 2026, as her passport will be more than 10 years from the date of issue. Then the three months are immaterial. People are being refused boarding because they are showing up with a passport thinking that they because have more than 3 months left they are fine, but discovering that because they have passed the 10 years since date of issue, they cannot enter the EU.

That’s what I am saying - her passport does not expire in January 2026 for the purposes of determining the 3 months. It expires then for the purposes of ENTRY to the EU. Basically when you want to enter the EU you need to pay attention to the issue date, and your passport must be less than 10 years old from that point. When you want to LEAVE the EU you need to have 3 months left, and for that you need to look at the expiry date. You can still count those extra added months for that purpose. It is an annoying and confusing problem and it will go away in a few years when the last of the added months passports finally expires as they are not issued with those any more.

https://www.postoffice.co.uk/identity/soon-to-expire-passport Your passport will be valid for your October cruise as you can count the extra months for the purposes of determining the date of expiry, but not for the date of issue: the two rules are independent. To enter the EU your passport has to be less than 10 years from date of issue, so with yours you could enter the EU until 10 Jan 2026. You must also have 3 months on your passport after your return date, and for this you can use the date of expiry even if it is determined by extra months. So there is absolutely no reason your passport wouldn’t be valid for travel to Europe in October 2025. It is confusing though, and for the sake of peace of mind you might want to renew it anyway as it’ll be no good to you for European travel after January 2026.

In my husband’s case it isn’t a question of saving money - it’s about the available selection. He likes a whisky on the balcony (or an aquavit in Norway!) in the evening but he is particular about the variety so preferred to bring his own. It’s not a deal breaker but it is a bit annoying not to be able to do that next time. He’ll live, but I guess it is a small diminishment of a holiday pleasure!

Thanks! I thought this would probably be the case!

I should have said - both the bookings are a select fare. What I’m asking is can I transfer the deposits for two one week cruises to a single two week cruise? Or would I only be able to transfer one and have to forfeit the other? If going on the two week Britannia cruise I wouldn’t want to go on either of the one week Iona cruises - the dates clash.

Just an idle wonder - I have two weeks booked on Iona in July 2025, back to back but they are as I understand it two totally separate bookings. If I wanted to transfer the booking to a 2 week sailing on Britannia in the same month, would I be able to do this with both weeks or would I lose the deposit on one of them?

This is a good question! We had been on cruise pre-pandemic (on Azura, to Norway). We love Norway so quite happy to have gone on more or less the same itinerary multiple times now, although actually we’ve been to one previously unvisited port on each trip so there’s a tiny bit of variety! The Med on Arvia next year will be a change for us: I’m not sure how often I feel that itinerary will bear repeating: I guess I’ll have a better idea once we have done it once. At this stage in our lives repetitiveness is a positive boon - we have stressful busy jobs and a young autistic child so knowing what to expect is actively helpful! I doubt we will feel that way forever and as our daughter gets older I think we will want to spread our wings a bit. I do wish that there was a bit more variation in what P&O offer. In terms of why we like the ships: I like that Iona (and I assume Arvia) feel very modern and not dated. I also like that standard balcony cabins all have sofa beds - I’m not keen on Pullman beds or having to sleep in separated singles to accommodate the pull down beds so it’s a bonus not to have to shell out extra for a deluxe cabin to get that. I like that there is a wider choice of places to eat than on the smaller ships. I like the massive windows in the atrium! Ultimately for us P&O offer a good value proposition, and the opportunity for a nice holiday abroad without flying and with relatively little hassle. I’d happily try other cruise lines but they all seem a lot more like expensive, and at the moment we’re happy with the product we get for the price we pay.

We’re repeat cruisers on the big P&O ships - we’ve been on Iona twice (and have a further two weeks booked on her in 2025) and are booked on Arvia in 2024. We like them, for all they do have faults!

Standard balcony cabins on Iona and Arvia do have sofas (this isn’t the case on the older P&O ships though, which I agree is an annoyance). I haven’t sailed with Celebrity. I’d love to but it always comes out as enormously more expensive than P&O for us - we’ve got a child and as we are able to sail outside of the English school holidays on P&O we’ve always been able to pay almost nothing (once actually nothing!) to have her in the cabin with us. No other line has ever had such a good deal that I’ve found. I get the impression from what I’ve read that service is better on the US based lines. Generally I’ve also heard that the food on Celebrity is better quality than P&O. We do well enough on P&O so it’s probably for the best that we don’t find out for ourselves that we vastly prefer more expensive options!