cruiser1955

Called at this port in 2010 on Azura so may not be of much use but as Dat says, it isn't a usual port of call.

The only excursion offered to Disney included the price of admission and it was £100 for adults and £86 for children.

Universal and Sea World prices were £98 and £86 for adults and children

Basic Kennedy space centre which may well have just been a transfer was £58 and £38. Other trips to the space centre varied between £70 and £140 for adults.

We are booked to go in March next year and I've been looking nearly every day for a new review.

Is that the 7 March departure?

I returned to Ventura this year and did the Iberia and Morocco cruise with some friends who normally cruise with Cunard. I was dubious about going on Ventura as I didn't enjoy my previous cruise on her in 2010. However, we were so impressed that we decided to book the same cruise for 2017. We will probably look at doing a leisurely excursion to Rabat rather than remaining in Casablanca though.

Prior to my last cruise, my P&O cruises had mainly been on Arcadia and there were certainly fewer moans on Ventura than there were on Arcadia.

Cunard are releasing their brochure at the same time but no info on their website at present.

Seen this on a UK TA site. Nothing on the Cunard site at present but the P&O website says their cruises go on sale at the same time.

I agree with maggiemou but I was lucky and received a free upgrade when I did my world cruise. I'd booked the entry level balcony A7 and was moved to an A5. I did hear of a few others who were upgraded within the same type of cabin, but none moved from say outside to balcony. Some sectors can be sold at very good prices but others can increase as happened with the Pacific sectors (LA - Auckland - LA)

From what I gather P&O are again thinking about re designing their Loyalty Programme. I received an on line questionnaire with loads of different scenarios

Yesterday I received a follow up questionnaire to the one sent out in June asking for views on various options. Part of the questionnaire asked about including benefits, not just from Princess but also other Carnival brands but the emphasis was on Princess. Replies were wanted by 15 July.

Hi CM

Your boarding time will be on your etickets - 5 to 6 weeks before departure if you are on the full fare (select). Any saver fare will usually be later - sometimes just a week or so before departure as it depends on your cabin allocation.

As to alcohol. P&O and Cunard are very good when it comes to taking it on board. Boarding at Southampton shouldn't be a problem if you both had say 6 cans each in your hand luggage (just thinking of the weight for carrying on as you have children as well). You may find cider available in some of the stops you make, so can replenish en-route. Not sure, but you may be able to buy cider from your cabin steward providing I'm not mixing my cruise lines up - usually 6 for the price of 5 at ship prices.

Wine so easy to bring on board at your stops. As you are on Ventura, you may want to try out some of the wine flights (3 small glasses allowing you to try various wines) in the glass house.

I did a similar itinerary for Xmas 2011 when it was 29 nights. It snowed in the atrium for the Xmas eve and Xmas day carol services.:)

Staff do a show on Xmas day and New Year's eve is very lively.

A highlight for me, albeit pricey, was the champagne tasting on New Year's day. 5 premium champagnes with chef preparing a matched hot and cold canapé for each champagne along with caviar.

Had very rough seas on the way out to NY (diverted into the Bay of Biscay as it was calmer!!!) which really showed how well QM2 could handle them.

Compared to the UK, it was very cold in NY especially on returning from the Caribbean.

Love to repeat the cruise, but I now do pre and post Christmas to make the cruising budget go a bit further!

Sorry misunderstood! We found out the hard way once, and we had a caravan in tow!

That's OK. They have had signs up about the disruption/diversion for the last 3 weeks or so. Love watching the GP but some years the roads can be chaotic. Still, it's good for the local economy.

Hope you enjoy your return to Cunard - there is still something special to me about the elegance of the Queens.

Have to disagree with you Cruiser1955, the A43 is now dual all the way from Northampton to Junction 10 of the M40 Cherwell Valley Services.!

Maybe my reply wasn't clear. The A43 is dual, but at the time of the GP, both carriageways are used to direct traffic to Silverstone. The single carriageway route I was talking about was the diversion.

From July 8 to July 10 traffic coming down the A5 and A43 will be diverted via the centre of Towcester, Milton Keynes for the A5/A422, Buckingham bypass, and Finmere before re-joining the A43 south of Banbury turn off. The A43 between Towcester and roughly Banbury will be one way to and from Silverstone. At the best of times this is a busy route and is mainly single carriageway in each direction.

Based on previous years, once you are past J15 on the M1 southbound traffic runs well as most southbound F1 traffic leaves at Northampton.

Hi Barrie

Join our roll call. We are a small group at the moment.

Here is a link:http://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2360566

Just got mine as well! I wonder how long that information will be current, with all the unrest at the moment?

The big question for us in the UK is what will happen with the exchange rates. I can't find the rate that Cunard used to calculate their brochure prices. All I can find is that they will absorb the first 2% of any fluctuation and that if the price increases by more than 10% passengers may cancel without penalty. The UK Online T&Cs do not have an exchange rate - it is shown as xxx in paragraph 36.

Don't want to assume too much, but haven't had any currency surcharges added on any UK run holiday for over 20 years. Don't recall anything being added in 1992 after the fall in the GBP.

Just sharing this with the forum. Good to see that there are no changes.

Dear MR WILLIAMS,

Following the result of the EU Referendum vote, I wanted to take a few moments of your time to reassure you that there are no resulting changes to any aspect of your upcoming holiday with Cunard, including check-in and immigration. These all remain the same as they were before last weeks vote.

Should there be any changes resulting from the United Kingdom leaving the European Union, we will naturally contact you with all and any related information.

For now it remains business as usual for us and we are looking forward to welcoming you on board.

Yours sincerely

Angus Struthers

Director, Cunard

Brian,

Indian visa requirements changed last year. Have a look at:

https://indianvisaonline.gov.in/visa/tvoa.html

Got this link from the UK FCO advice site. This is for the e-visa which may be of use. If not, you may need to visit one of the UK consulates as I believe a bio-metric visa is now required. The e-visa can be used if you enter India by one of the airports that support the e-visa. E-visa cost is US$60 plus 2.5% currency handling fee.

Is your trip organised in full by P&O? If so, they will probably provide you with details nearer the time of departure regarding visas.

This is a link to the High commission site in London:

https://www.hcilondon.in/pages.php?id=28

Full one year visa looks to cost around £110 per person

When I visited India a few years ago, a multiple entry visa was required as the ship visited more than one port in India.

I've noticed that some cruise lines have dropped India from their itineraries - may be due to the new requirements?

I've had the survey. I also think that it is looking at the loyalty scheme. Much more detailed this time as it also asked what you thought about other loyalty schemes that you belonged to.

Have to admit that to me it seemed more along the lines of what they could drop from the scheme. One of the longest surveys from P&O I've filled in - took around 25 minutes. Mainly tick boxes ranging from agree to disagree. Not much opportunity to add your thoughts.

As Pete has said, they asked for the amount you had spent on cruises, transfers and flights but not on board spend or excursions over the last 3 years and to then, break it down by percentage over the cruise lines you had travelled with in that time. First time I've seen this sort of detail on spend in any survey I've done.

Just seen your comment scriv. Yes, the survey seemed to change depending on what your replies were.

Email address is:

shareholderbenefits@carnivalukgroup.com

Hey cruiser1955

 

Can I be really cheeky and ask if you could possibly email them to me as well please?

 

We are on the Ventura in October so would be interesting to see before we go. I was on the Oceana last June so would be nice to compare to see what if any differences there are.

 

Cheers

 

T

Sure. Happy to do that. Just send me an email - my address is below in my signature and I'll forward the ones I sent to silversurf. There are 6 emails and the files are in jpg format.

I was on Oceana in January and was impressed with Ventura which to me was in much better condition than Oceana. The speciality restaurants, although more expensive than Oceana served superb food and I thought were well worth the extra cost.

I still have mine from this years cruise so I'll scan them in and sent them on to you. Files will be big, so I'll do several emails.

We have just booked this cruise. Went onto Personaliser but no excursions showing yet. When are they released please?

I did this cruise this year so can send you a copy of the electronic brochure which lists the excursions and prices. My email address is in my signature below.

I enjoyed the itinerary so much that I have booked it again for 2017. Weather was also very good.

Just received this from P&O. Guess that it will spread to the other ships eventually:

Important Information

Dear ,

We hope you are looking forward to joining us shortly for your cruise!

We have been listening to feedback regarding dining arrangements and our recent experience on board Oceana has indicated that dining earlier in the evening gives you more time to enjoy the fabulous entertainment we have on offer.

Therefore we have amended the times of Club dining so that first sitting starts at 6pm and second sitting starts at 8pm. Freedom dining will be available from 6pm as usual.

We hope that this small adjustment to times will provide you with a much better dining experience.

We look forward to welcoming you on board Oceana very soon!

Kind regards

Just been on again and it is now working. I was hoping that it was the upgrade fairy at work but it wasn't:D

................. Going back next year early August. Like Norway very much. Once you

Have seen it, you will want to return.

Then it becomes addictive as you want to go a bit further afield and see the fiords in Chile and New Zealand:)

Agree with Dai, you will probably get your cabin number about 2 weeks before sailing. So you will be able to print everything off then.

That has always been my thought, but I depart on Arcadia in a few days time and my cabin was upgraded on Friday having originally been allocated three weeks earlier. So, given that there may be a late upgrade, I'd now suggest waiting until 3 or 4 days before departure. My booking was also on a guarantee basis.

Assume that it will be wet but also sunny. I've been in Tromso in June when it has been 70F with blue skies. The same cruise visited Bergen where it was wet and dull. So, a bit like the UK - unpredictable:)

Some ports you dock in the centre of the town so wheelchair access is probably good. Stavanger seemed to be wheelchair friendly. Bergen you usually dock a short distance from the town so you may need taxi if shuttle won't take the wheelchair. Some of the smaller ports have cobbles. You may find access difficult in some locations e.g. Greigs house and some car parks in the mountains were gravel surfaces.

For me, June or July is the best time to visit. You get up to 24 hours of daylight depending on how far north you go, so plenty of deck time in the evenings.