snaefell

Good old package deals often didn't specify an airline or aircraft type,you typically didn't find out what the aircraft was until you reached the check in desk,you found out the airline when you saw the plane! It didn't really matter as long as we got there!!!

Only way to think IMO,we were in the Med on Arcadia in May,she had done the same cruise in April & seen record breaking 40+ temperatures,certainly wasn't that way for us! Enjoy!

The weather is so variable everywhere so that is so hard to say,a few years ago we went to Portugal in November,the first half of the holiday was t shirt & shorts weather but after a storm the second half of the stay might as well have been back in the UK!

IME, there are Dreamliners which aren't so comfy,I'm not just talking about legroom either,just before Covid we flew out East with Etihad which involved two flights in each direction,at six & a half feet I found the legroom 'snug' but the biggest problem was the seats,quite the most uncomfortable airline seats we have ever experienced,thin plastic with hardly any padding,the age of the plane really doesn't always mean a better journey!😎

Some years ago our first cruise was with Princess to Iceland & Norway in July,you just knew that the other passengers were not a hardy bunch when in The Irish Sea on the first day many were dressed for the Arctic,it was very lonely up on Deck by the time we reached Iceland!😁😁

Everybody's different,what may seem perfectly comfortable to some will no doubt have others reaching for the coat,scarf & gloves,a wrap sounds a great idea!

P&O are not the only cruise company to change things after booking,others do it too,IMO more annoyingly they change the itineraries,it matters so much more when they remove the place or places that you were most interested in, without any chance of cancelling & getting your money back. At least in this case with P&O you are still getting the cruise you wanted thanks to P&O sourcing extra aircraft.

Depends on what you call a very long time,for those of us who cut our long haul teeth back in the 1980's when the likes of Laker Skytrain,Monarch,Aertours & others crammed as many as they could onto flights getting extra legroom in one of the very few exit seats was pretty much a pipedream. At six & a half foot,17stone & with a dodgy knee it wasn't often comfy but if I wanted to see the world it was what we had to put up with...happy days!!!

The small print will surely get most,if not all of us sometime,all the benefits offered are all subject to operational requirements. I really do not understand the fuss,PE & IFE have only been on offer a relatively short time yet suddenly people can't do without them & object to flying on anything over a few years old,sounds like people have been spoilt! As has already been pointed out cruises are planned years ahead whilst airline schedules are usually on a much shorter time scale,if travel companies had seen Covid coming I wonder how differently they may have planned things.

Looking at this from a different perspective maybe we should be applauding P&O not slaughtering them. Reading this thread it seems in the past people have turned up at the airport & had bad experiences due to the aircraft they end up on is not what they expected if one turns up at all,maybe we should give P&O credit for trying to avoid that happening again by making sure enough aircraft are in place to carry all the extra passengers expected due to the larger vessels. Also maybe people are mistaken in expecting things to have returned to normal after Covid,that could take some time if it happens at all!

I can well imagine the airline details along with other things are covered by phrases like subject to change due to operational requirements! Travel history is full of similar incidents,for one I remember Lion Air,a charter company used by travel companies back in the 80/90's,always in the news seemingly because of problems with an ageing 747 which became known as the flying pig! I had to chuckle at the " full 8 hour flight without entertainment" complaints,that was pretty normal until fairly recently IME,we have done many flights to & from the States with no or little entertainment provided,we are used to taking a book,puzzler & or a Walkman to pass the time,including a direct flight from Manchester to Honolulu years ago which took 20 hours,mind you the drinks were free so that helped!😀

Must admit not to have looked,for one I tend to find packages not great value but we hadn't tried OG before so wasn't sure how good it would be,as for Sindhu we hadn't been impressed with our one past experience so basically were only certain of using a speciality restaurant the first night,we were pleasantly surprised!😀

No probs,my only real bug bear was booking,departure day was my Wife's Birthday so OG on the first night was a must,not being able to book until on board was frustrating,being told it was full when we got on board was annoying,refusing to accept that had the desired effect though,enjoy your cruise!

Seems ages ago now but £30 for the two of us sticks in my mind,the quality was superb,the portions generous & on two occasions the service was amazing,on our second visit our main course seemed to get lost somehow,the waiting on crew seemed more upset than us that things had gone wrong!

In our 19 nights we had one celebration night & 2 formal nights,should have been 3 but the itinerary changed as we went along,on 'posh' nights MPW's name did appear on the menu but I wouldn't say the menu was that special.We We ate in the Ocean Grill 3 times & Sindhu twice,the worst thing I can say about Sindhu is that we didn't consider it to be as good as the Ocean Grill which was outstanding,especially for the price being asked,to put things in perspective we are booked with Royal Caribbean in April & have booked Jamie's Italian for the second night,that is over £90,I know some people seem happy to pay whatever the cruise lines ask,I'm not one of those people,having tried RCI's steak house Chops in the past,OG was far better at a fraction of the price,dining(& drinking) on P&O is a bargain!(no I don't work for them!)

It seems to vary across the fleet but we were on Arcadia back in May & even though the cruise planner origionally said that restaurants would be bookable 2 weeks before departure that never happened,2 weeks from departure that changed to book on board.

I get the impression with a lot of cruise related things you find out by experience!😎

When it comes to pre booking restaurants there seems to be one rule for Arvia & Iona,very different for the smaller ships & poor old Britannia seems stuck somewhere in between!😆😆

She did have a good go,we had a great time & ended up paying £300 each which included 2 visits to Sindhu & 3 to the Ocean Grill,quite a difference to £1500 just for drinks!😎

Used Sindhu twice on Arcadia back in May,couldn't book until on board,no mention of £10 to reserve back then.

For our 19 night cruise back in May the drinks package would have cost us £1500,when you consider that I don't drink alcohol,sodas,coffee or tea it would have been some going for my Wife to make it worth the money on her own!😂

I tend to be the 'kiss of death' to anything new tech & tend to rely on paperwork too,hence the title,I am always being caught out by spellcheck,I checked the message but didn't notice the title of my post had changed!😁, Thanks for your replies guys

Just booked a TA on Anthem for April 2024,just curious to know how technology has moved on these days,is everything booked on board using the app ,our last Royal cruise on Quantum in 2019 the new tech was often refusing to work. Also how rigid do they tend to be at Port Liberty with checking in times please guys?