jaceyar

Our main bugbear with P&O is the endless repetitive itineraries - particularly those in the Caribbean. We have rather overdone the Caribbean cruises over the years and have enjoyed most of them on the lovely Azura although also once on Britannia and a 28 day bean feast on the lovely little Adonia. We've visited the ABC Islands, Grand Cayman, Trinidad & Tobago, Isla Margarita, the Amazon, Ocho Rios and  the St Maarten, St Lucia, St Kitts bunch (repeatedly). Often we booked a B2B  - 15 day islands then a few islands and back to Southampton. Now of course there is no variety between concurrent weeks so not much joy in a B2B.

To add to all this anyone flying from Gatwick(?) or Manchester will fly in an old plane with no in seat entertainment. We've enjoyed the alcohol laden TUI flights in their lovely Dreamliners immensely. Perhaps P&O now realise why most cruiseliners don't include flights. I think that's possibly on the cards.¹

We did Arvia's first TA out to the Caribbean this January. We had lots of FCC from Covid cancellations so spent it on a Premium balcony cabin on the aft. No complaints about the cabin, it was comfortable and being aft had a huge balcony. We couldn't believe when walking around how awful some of the cabins were with totally exposed balconies that people walking by could look into. The MDR was awful - you felt you had to be out of there asap. So so noisy too because so many hard surfaces. The Olive Grove we liked above the others, the other Diner type not so fond of. We loved the Quays and often lunched there and liked the chairs and tables just outside. Many would find having to book everything on an app difficult but P&O don't care at all about their traditional customer. It was made clear to us that we were not their target customer. The Dome is a complete waste of money. The acoustics are shocking and chairs sparse and uncomfortable. As somebody else said, remove it and make it an outside deck. There was definitely a shortage of staff onboard too - the younger ones not too bright. I mourn the cruises we've loved on P&O - the fabulously funny sailaways, the cheese board trolly, the quoits competitions etc etc.

We now cruise mostly on Azamara. We followed the lovely Adonia and love each cruise with them - inclusive drinks, amazing itineraries and fabulous food and beverages. P&O you've lost your way....

29 minutes ago, Grandma Cruising said:

Thanks, added to spreadsheet. I think you’re right about 7 March cruise - I was surprised at the invitation to bid.

Where are you from in E.Yorkshire? I grew up in Cottingham and went to school in Beverley.

Jacqui

We booked a Veranda cabin for 25th Feb & 7th March B2B.

Invited to upgrade on 24th Jan.

Bid £520pp for a CC Suite.

We are Discovery.

Success today for 25th sailing.

The 7th March cruise is full I think, so may not be successful for that one. 🤞

The MSC website isn't working properly. I tried around 50+ times to enter into for checkin and status match and it was rejected everytime. I tweeted them and eventually it was sorted.

We recently did our first MSC on Divina after 30+ cruises on other (mostly Carnival Group) brands. The ship is fantastic, food ok, service good, cabins good (no body lotion supplied though). The multi-lingual muster was ridiculous and if there was an emergency I wouldn't fancy our chances. The management of arrival at ports is appalling (ie:nonexistant) - no information given and hundreds of people pushing and shoving to get off. This may seem negative but actually was our experience - in New York and Ponte Delgada I've never known such chaos.

The ship is very lively and the Black & White lounge at the back is buzzing every night and the dance floor is full. We were status matched to Black Card and the parties we attended were amazing - loads of drinks available throughout. There are no self service laundries onboard which is unfortunate but you can pay for laundry services. Lots of our fellow passengers were Italian, French, Spanish, Portugese, German etc which made the dining rooms very noisy and Tannoy announcements took a while. The quality of the Theatre shows was good especially the dancers. We unfortunately didn't have good weather on our cruise because the deck area is fantastic with a lovely adults only pool at the back. We elected not to purchase a drinks package and were £200+ ahead at the end despite the drinks being pricey. It was cheaper to buy bottles of wine rather than individual glasses. All in all we enjoyed our cruise and if an attractive itinerary comes up and the price is right, we may try MSC again.

Princess counts P&O cruises to your account with them. The reverse is not done

They stopped that in December 2017.

Thanks for the suggestions re buying wine in Barcelona to carry on for $18 corkage fee. Definitely something to consider.

You can buy a nice bottle of wine or fizz in Europe for €2 upwards. Win win with the corkage!

Thanks for catching that, you are so right. :)

Yes we all so love eating dinner gazing at people's hairy knees and armpits - so classy.

So, no alcoholic beverage service in the Crow's Nest? In what lounge(s) was Happy Hour offered?

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We experienced the EXC thing on Westerdam. I personally think they've ruined a really nice bar. It reminded me of a kiddy zone in a museum with easily accessed bits of information - none of it very in depth.

We went up there for a drink one evening and we're told "No Ma'am this is a morning bar."

Westerdam was pretty dire each evening apart from BB Kings - and who wants that every night?

We've only cruised HAL in Europe but in June when we embarked in Civitavecchia, the bag scanning was done by the port people and nothing further from the ship. There were 4 of us travelling so we had 4 wine bottles in one carrier. We could definitely have brought on more at embarkation. Later on in the cruise we brought on another 2 and nothing was said. When we did it again we were asked to go to the table and we paid corkage but it still worked out a whole lot cheaper than HAL's wine.

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Does anybody have experience of how HAL handle gluten-free diets?

Huh . Was yours a special rate like a casino or interline rate ?

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HAL is most definitely part of Carnival group,

You can submit your stockholder credit request now .

 

 

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Has anybody ever had their shareholder obc refused because they got such a good deal?

We loved The Glasshouse having been recommended by another couple we met on the cruise via FB group.

We that is 8 of us ( they had to specially put two tables together for us all) attended the wine pair meal tasting evening and really enjoyed it.

We then also often popped into The GH lunch ish time for 3 plates our favourite being Butterbean Casoulette. We went a number of times as we were on a T/A.

 

We look forward to returning again on our soon Fjord cruise again on Azura :):):) I

Gosh that sounds awfully familiar.

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The ship's phone number is printed on the Horizon every port day so in case of emergency you can notify the ship.

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It's almost next door to the ship. Done this many times. Buy your return ticket as soon as you arrive in Capri and don't wait till the last return boat. Capri is wonderful. Go up to Ana Capri for fab views.

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I would think if you were on the same booking, there's a good chance you'd be near each other.

We have actually cancelled our excursion to JVD now as I was worried how I would cope getting from the small landing craft onto the beach and vice versa due to my poor arthritic knees, I didn't want to risk making a total fool of myself! We will find a local beach instead...we have done the soggy dollar bar before so its not the end of the world!

Hi Amanda, fancy seeing you here!

Jacqui W x

We just didn't bother with sunbeds and enhanced our tans on the beaches. The sunbeds are far too close together anyway.

Always got a Theatre seat. Go in on Deck 6. Everyone sits in the aisle seats and leaves gaps - just get past them and hear them tut!

OK I put my hands up and I admit it, I really like P&O....

 

So, do you think I would like Fred Olsen too?

Yes of course you will - food and service is exemplary but the ships are old and small. Depends what's important to you.

The Beach House is also a good option for evening dining. A £5 cover charge plus some dishes an extra supplement up to £5.95. The kebabs though are fantastic.