pennib

I agree Dave. I visit both sites on a very regular basis and am quite disappointed that there is hardly any activity on the Marella board. The other board is frantic at the moment with umpteen people being bounced off their cruises with no refunds due to incorrect completion of a pre cruise health questionnaire. We are due to sail on Explorer next week and I have just had a pre cruise questionnaire sent on email from TUI asking all sorts of questions relating to covid. Answers are yes/no. Scary. Sorry, don’t know why this has gone into itallics!!

Something has got to be done. It reminds me of the situation we and others found ourselves in last December when queuing at Manchester airport for our flight to join Azura in Barbados. We were given a form to fill in whilst in the queue to check in. Everyone was tired having queued for 5 hours in the airport just to get to the check in queue and most people completed the form wrongly (it was a yes/no situation). A helpful P&O person pointed this out and people changed their answers. Now it seems that you complete the form at home and send it electronically. So the danger of completing it incorrectly are greater . The maxim is (following an established trade practice of measure twice and cut once). 1. PRINT THE BLANK FORM AT HOME BEFORE FILLING IT IN. 2. CHECK THE ANSWERS AT LEAST TWICE. 3. WHEN YOU ARE HAPPY THAT THE ANSWERS ARE OK, CAREFULLY FILL IN THE FORM make a copy of it AND SEND IT OFF. Remember that the key word is SYMPTOMS, not whether you have or had COVID. Good luck

Yes, we will never go on Cunard again after our experience on QM2. Plus we thought the clientele contained a lot of jumped up never come down people. We like Marella and I am sure you won’t be disappointed.

Hi and welcome. We did our first Marella cruise last March and were really impressed having done around 25 cruises with other companies. Whilst we never dined in the MDR we ate in the alternative restauants and were seriously impressed. Dress in the evenings is smart casual and they do a “dress to impress” night once a week for which you can put on your tux etc. we upgraded to the super all inclusive for the big names in drinks which we thought was well worth while. We are going again in a couple of weeks. As we struggle to get around these days, we don’t do trips but the prices are not dissimilar to what other lines charge. I am sure you will enjoy.

Hi pensioncruiser, interested that you can book restaurants now for your March 23 cruise. We go on 7 November 2022 and are not able to book anything except excursions. What is your formula please??

Yes, it will be the food and wine pairing one. Thinking about it, a degustation is more adventurous!! Can’t remember if it was a sea day. The second week was a different menu. I think we had to book on board and not from home. Anyway you won’t be disappointed.

Further to the above, it is a step up from the Kora La and S&T but you pay a few bob more. We will be there in a couple of weeks!!

We did the dining club twice in March. The first week was a degustation which was excellent. The second week was from the ordinary menu. Both were excellent. Go for it and enjoy!!

Yes,I read that too but bear in mind that the Cuba cut off date is 11 years ago. Quite some time!!

Yes, we are also on the Canaries ones in November and have had the same messages as you. Just have to keep looking.

Thanks for the information. I am just wondering which package to get. Basically, the main thing we need is to download our daily newspaper each day so do you think the essential plan would be OK or do I need the ultimate plan?

Thanks for the info.

I have just put a post on the Britannia board about face masks. Please read.

Anyone know how this is going? Last Christmas on Azura it cost £500 for 4 weeks and did not work. We are on Britannia this Christmas. Has anyone booked internet in advance of boarding the ship? Any idea on cost?

We upgraded to the premium package which we found well worth it. Dh found a red wine which he liked and asked for it in each restaurant. He was happy that the wine he got in the glass was the correct one and the staff got to know us anyway. I was the same on white wine. So I wouldn’t worry about being given duff stuff.

To all of you who are comparing prices, don’t forget Marella is all inclusive with an option to upgrade the basic all inclusive (which we found to be very cost effective) and P& O are not all inclusive and a glass of wine will set you back a fair amount.

Where to start? We have been to the Caribbean many many times both cruises and land holidays. If you have not been before I think you should do a cruise as you get to a lot of islands and P&O have all the best. We really like Britannia and will be on her again this Christmas. The other thing is that P& O have the travelling bit really sorted. You put your cases in at check in and the next time you see them is outside your cabin door. We have done Marella once and will be doing them again next month in the Canaries. We were really impressed. Don’t think they are quite on a par with P&O but it is a close call. January, February,March should be fine for weather but you can get rain any time. I would favour a cruise rather than a cruise and stay. Hope this helps and have a wonderful trip.

I think you are ring fenced with your seats. Yes I made a mistake, it is row 7 that you don’t have a window. We have gone on the Christmas cruise every year since Adam was a lad so know how the system works or should work. This year was the worst ever. The sooner they stop this working from home the better customers will be served. Apparently seats can be blocked for a number of reasons such as disabled access etc. we are not quite in that category yet but are working on it!!! The other thing is that you have to book on a round trip basis so as the vacant seat availability for our return journey was quite good I can only assume that a lot of people are doing back to backs. I don’t think you can just do a week now as they stopped the weekly flights to and from St Lucia as too many people were scared on the transfer journeys from airport to port. We have another cruise before the Caribbean on Marella round the canaries. We did our first one with them in March and were really impressed.

Good morning Megabear2. No it is usually stressful but this year has outstressed itself. My husband sat up to 01.45 this morning and could not get in. I was on the case at 08.00 on the laptop instead of iPad and got in quite quickly only to find that the choice in PE was virtually non existent and we couldn’t get 2 at the side for going out but could get them for the return flight. So I took 2 seats in the middle section (guess who is going to have to sit in the middle seat of the 3 in the row) and the 2 available at the side for return just to make sure we at least had 2 together. I rang P&O and was greeted with a 45 minute wait. Eventually a nice young man answered. I wanted to know if it would be possible to change our seats even though I had paid. The answer was yes but nothing could be done as everyone is working from home and he could not even get the seat plan up on his computer. He said the seat booking section is in total meltdown and he had already dealt with 3 customers before me. The only advice was to call back after lunch. Very apologetic but no use if you see what I mean. So I will ring again after lunch to ask if we can change our outgoing seats to 2 at the side which are “ blocked”. Not really very hopeful. Even row 4 seats were blocked but you don’t choose them as there is no window for 4A. As you quite rightly said, we have to pay for the privilege of being ………….about. Nice work if you can get it P&O. Might see you on the ship!!

Presumably this includes the Canaries??

Hey, we are having the same as you Megabear. Just had the email that booking is a minute past midnight 22/23 September. However we will continue checking in the meantime. All fun and games (not)!!

Update to my previous post- just spoken to P&O. Helpful lady asked if we were using Google to access their site. I said not as we use Safari. She said we should try Google. (Why don’t they suggest this in their advices??). Anyway she then tried to access our booking without success. She said we have to wait until the time and date notified in our email. I asked if customers get the same treatment in Caribbean level if they are in premium economy or economy. I was told that it doesn’t make any difference which category of seat you have booked. I mentioned that we had been messed around before when trying to book pe seats and are anxious that the same does not happen again. There is enough stress as it is.

Got the email but we can book our seats only from 08.00 on 21 September so how have the previous posters been able to book (unless they are Ligurian or Baltic) of course. We are Caribbean.

You can have 30kg on Emirates both going from and returning to the UK. That would give you a fair few evening gowns!,

Thanks everyone for your replies. On the subject of checked baggage we always take 3 cases, 2 ordinary ones and one suit carrier (for DH dinner suit etc). I have known cases to be weighed at the airport including hand luggage but on the subject of the latter, the weight was increased from 5kg to 10 kg a few years ago which helps. Yes, I think there are a few more late nights to beat the 1 minute past midnight deadline! We just have to hope that the airport queues won’t be like last Christmas when it took us 5 hours queuing just to get to the plane.