florence11

On 12/4/2022 at 10:31 PM, the penguins said:

Was this before the introduction of AI?

I don't think so, the last 4 cruises we have do with celebrity to Asia and the Caribbean we have booked balconies for all of us (through a travel agent)as the drinks were included and other offers at that time. She only had the one package and always gave the room steward extra as we all did and she always pay double occupancey thats her choice. We are cruising again in march but this time we have paid per day for drinks, wifi and tips which were separate. I just look for whatever offers are on the time.

17 hours ago, iandjm said:

Hi all.
 

I frequently cruise with Celebrity Cruises as a solo traveller. I appreciate and understand we pay twice in order to have our own stateroom unless a single room is available. Since celebrity have separated the all inclusive fares you are quoted a price for the stateroom and an add on supplement to have drinks tips and WiFi included at a rate for the entire cruise. For example £400 per person.  Sadly, in the case of the single traveller, we are made to pay the same supplement for drinks, tips and Wi-Fi as two people.  So I would also be expected to pay £800 extra.  Surely this cannot be right and is blatant discrimination against single travellers?
Oddly enough if a single room is available you only are expected to pay one supplement for the drinks tips and WiFi add on ie £400.
Surely paying twice for the stateroom if occupying a regular room should cover the fact you are a single traveller, and you should not be hit again by having to pay double supplement for what is one persons drinks tips and WiFi?

 

I have been in contact with the Celebrity cruises Executive office and they seemed surprised but have not done anything about it. 

 

We have sailed with Celebrity many times and my sister in law is a solo traveller and has only ever booked a balcony she pays for double occupancy minus the tax and has only ever paid for 1 drinks, wifi and tips package.

Thank you all for your help😍

16 hours ago, andlep said:

You haven't posted what passports you are holding.

Here is the link for  Australia. Follow the steps and it will tell you what visa you need. For New Zealand, if you are from a visa waiver country, you'll only need a New Zealand travel authority (NZeTA).

Hi, We are on UK passports

7 minutes ago, indiana123 said:

Very sorry to hear that.  I hope you are both feeling a lot better now.

 

Good to know you were looked after.

We are both ok now just a little breathless at times.

Thanks

Hi

We are on a cruise in March 2023 and 1 of the islands we are stopping at is Trinidad. I have been looking online trying to find out anything good about it or I will spend the day on the ship. Has anyone been there recently and can help me out.

Thanks

HI,

We have booked a cruise on Celebrity Edge going to New Zealand from Sydney. We are travelling around Australia for about 4 weeks before we cruise and not sure if we are suppose to get a visa or something called and ETA it s little confusing. Can anyone help please?

Thanks

This was our 1st cruise since before the covid lockdown we were really looking forward to it. We arrived in sunny Malta for a week around Corsica, Florence, Pisa, Rome and Sicily. We booked an inside cabin so we could spend more on excursions and other stuff and it was fine. I did miss the turn down and the chocolate on the pillow but we did find out that the stewards were being used else where on the ship. We did struggle with the App for a while but soon got that sorted. The muster drill was strange we had our paper scanned and the following day we had a warning letter to go back again as apparently we had not been done.

The evening entertainment was hit and miss, 1 night cancelled due to the weather and another due to technical issues we left after 3 attempts. We spent most evenings in Brodies doing the quiz.

The meals in the main restaurant were good but not like before Covid there wasn't as much choice. I didn't like the idea of ordering the whole 3 courses as I didn't know if I wanted a dessert and the meals were smaller than they used to be, we never saw a wine waiter either. I was dissapointed with the buffet there was plenty of choice but such a small area and no egg station for omlettes or eggs benedict.

We did go to Sindhu and the food was very good but the was empty and according to the staff they were only allowed to book out a certain number of tables such a waste, we also did the Epicurean restaurant which was ok but too much fuss and not enough food.

I found all the staff on board were extremely helpful and we never found any problem at all getting sunbeds when we wanted one.

We returned to our cabin 1 evening to find staff placing masks on the cabin doors just as a precaution we were told but on the evening of the 20th Sept I was physically exhausted we had been on 2 long trips so I thought it was that, but I didnt feel 100% so I did a LFT test it was positive. I could not believe it I work for the NHS and have had all my vaccines and have avoided Covid for over 2 years then it finds me on a cruise ship. My husband was fine and we were moved to a balcony cabin on C deck which was fine. We were very well looked after and we had very nice neighbours.

My husband tested positive later so we were to isolate on the ship for the next 7 days. We cruised up around Croatia and Dubrovnik we saw it all from the ship and were hoping to fly home the following Thursday. We were tested that day and still positive we were then told by Frazer that we were to be transfered to a hotel in Malta. This is where things did not go to plan. We were being tested everyday on the ship (after day 7) and Frazer informed us on the mini bus that we would continue to be tested everyday at the hotel and once negative we would fly home and we had a point of contact in the hotel that we could could speak too. We were taken to a lovely hotel and then informed there was no more testing we were there until day 10 and our point of contact was in the UK at the end of the phone or email. I think P&O staff should tell passengers the truth not just what they want to hear.

We had everything we needed in the hotel and the staff were great we were out on day 10 negative or not and flew home on the Monday 3rd Oct to Gatwick and were driven to Bristol to get out car.

Bristol airport were not interested in why our car had been there for extra 10 days and charged us for overstay but I have to say P&O paid for everything including the carparking I cannot fault them for anything.

Would I sail with them again! yes I would they looked after us from start to finish and have been looking already. 

Hi,

We are looking at going to the botanical gardens on our own, then having a little nosy around the town and walk back to the ship. How easy is it to get to the gardens and back to the town. We are on Emerald Princess and have seen online that the larger ships are docking further from the town so just wondering so just wondering how easy it is to walk back to the ship.

Grateful for any information.

On 10/18/2022 at 9:08 PM, antsp said:

Why would you tell them

I honestly did think about that I was going to keep my mouth shut as we were flying home the following day, but then thought about what if I infected someone and they were seriously ill. I work for the NHS so I had to say something, my husband started feeling ill during the day he tested postive that evening.

If we had made it to the airport who knows where we would have ended up if he had not been allowed to fly. We were extremely well looked after on the ship and then in a 5star hotel everything was paid for so we can't complain.

I have just got off a P&O cruise basically I tested positive on last day of cruise, I isolated on board for 1 week then 4 days in a hotel in Malta. I had no symptoms and apparently Malta rules are you have to isolate for 10 daysif you get Covid on a cruise ship but after speaking to the locals they don't isolate if no symptoms.,  maybe it depends on the country you are docking in.

We have booked our hopefully retirement cruise in March 2024 on Celebrity Edge to New Zealand, 1st we are travelling from Perth to Adelaide, Melbourne ,Brisbane then Sydney fingers crossed if things go to plan we will then cruise and relax. 😁

On 10/9/2022 at 7:26 PM, Bin man said:

When we have cruised the mdr waiters that serve your food asked  if you want a drink with your meal .Has that stopped now ? 

We were only ever asked if we wanted water and what I also noticed is you also had to order your dessert the same time as starters and mains, that never used to happen before they would come back with the menu later for that.

14 hours ago, Sea Hag said:

We only did one cruise with Celebrity, quite a few years back. It wasn't terrible, but I've had no incentive to go there again. 

We have done the Reflection and the Eclipse which we found very good but not so fond of Constellation and Millenium. We have booked Edge (traditional balcony) for New Zealand hopefully it goes ok.

On 10/3/2022 at 10:51 PM, degenerateftw said:

I've been on that many cruises I've never felt the need to sign up on here or post but I felt compelled after this trip. I've enjoyed almost of all of them with odd bug bear! Let's start:

 

No turndown service. Ok - I can live with that and the cabin and ship were beautiful. 10/10 for those.

 

Sadly the food and service were not. I'll try not to comment on the breakfast buffet since they are hard not to like. You kind of accept a bit of crowding in the buffet. Anyway...

 

I found that I was thirsty for almost the entire cruise. Table service is pretty non existent so you need to find a bar and tackle a lack of staff to get a drink before you want to do anything, including dinner, which was a bit of a shock. My partner doesn't drink, which pretty much meant a bottle of wine to myself every night and then lug it about for another 5k steps back to the cabin unless you want to glug the lot to avoid looking like an old soak (i'm not sure which was worse). There was no other drink service in any of the MDR's. In the buffet, there's nothing worse than finding a table and then realising you're in for an hour long saga of going to the buffet in turn. You can put dining together to one side in there - it just won't happen. It's carnage.

 

Deck bars being open are obviously weather dependant which you'd expect - but the bar staff shortage is very apparent even when these bars were shut. On sail away night from Southampton, there was 30 minute queue to get a drink before we'd even set sail. You can't really call it a sail away night either, for so many reasons. I liked the quizzes but I came to learn not to expect a drink from the bar in Brodies either. When I did venture up to the bar, they told me to return to my seat for my order to be taken (it never was).

 

We didn't do a drink package as 15 drinks in a day is too much for me, but you need to factor in the soft drinks too. £3.25 for a can of coke is extortion, so even if you are a non drinker that could be an issue. If you don't drink and are happy carrying about a bottle of water all day, then you are fine as they have refill stations throughout the ship. For me, this was a holiday, so hot food, beverages and good service were my biggest things. Unfortunately P&O failed on this occasion as they managed none of these. I'm glad I took a bottle of Brandy on board with me.

 

Food was edible but nothing special. Buffet was feeding time at the zoo (in terms of capacity and quality) and they used the restaurant leftovers for late night snacks. No light bites or snacks to speak of. They did have some very good fish and chips in 'Hook Line & Vinegar' so don't miss out on those if you can get a seat.

 

I've read another post which stated who P&O's targeted demographic are - and I can confirm they have achived their goal. For me it is indeed a Butlins at sea. It's just a very new one.

 

It won't be my last time on P&O as I badly want to try the adult only ships and with a much reduced capacity. Let's hope they make up for the lack of class on board Iona. By that I mean, the service, the food - and yes - some of the people.

 

I had a great experience on Iona and I'm glad I tried it for a few reasons. Unfortunately it was nothing to do with the food or service. We too experienced missed ports, but at that stage I wasn't bothered. Seems I failed on not mentioning the buffet. 🙃

 

I have just finished a cruise on Azura around Italy (interesting) I also noticed no wine/bar waiter in MDR so if I wanted a drink with my evening meal I would stop off at a bar and pick one up. 

On 10/2/2022 at 2:27 PM, sopo1953 said:

We were on the Enchanted Princess from Southampton to Denmark and Norway for seven days. We had a kettle and coffee, tea etc. We stayed on for the transatlantic and noticed the room stewards removing all the kettles except from the cabins with B2B passengers. We kept our kettle until we arrived in New York where it was removed from the cabin.

We will be going from Fort Lauderdale I think I will just ask the steward as I have found from most cruises the water in the buffet is never quite hot enough.

On 10/1/2022 at 7:41 PM, Ombud said:

I just order a modified tea for 3pm. My taste buds love tea, scones, cream, marmalade,  sandwiches on my balcony. They bring a full carafe of very hot coffee, small pot for steeping tea, and milk. No idea why milk. I'm drinking tea. 

 

My waistline not so happy with the set up

 

That sounds really good.

Hi,

We are booked on Emerald Princess March 2023 and we British do like our tea, can anyone tell me if there are tea making facilities in the cabin or not.

I have just come across this thread about FCC, I tested positive on the last day of my cruise so had to isolate do I get anything from P&O or does everything have to go through my travel insurance.

3 hours ago, Megabear2 said:

Oh goodness, so your total quarantine will have been 19 days until you board your flight.  Are you alone or is your travelling companion sharing your room ashore, I know in Italy they split families so hopefully Malta is a little more accommodating, particularly as you are a long way into your illness.

 

I do wish you better and hope all goes well with you getting home.  I appreciate it's not the main thing on your mind at the moment but perhaps further along you might feel able to give us an update on how your insurer handles your case and what they required from you.

My other half is here so it's fine and we have just been given our flight details for Monday when we get to escape 😆

8 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

I'm so sorry to hear this. I hope you get home soon.

 

Unfortunately your experience is not unique I know of a great number of people this is happening to, not just on P&O.

 

I'm glad they are looking after you well. Assumedly your insurer will now be treating you under the medical section of your policy rather than the confinement section.  Not much comfort I know but at least if you are ashore with a positive test in hotel quarantine it should make your claim far easier.  May I ask how many days did you quarantine on the ship before disembarkation?

I spent 8 days isolated on the ship.

Hi,

I boarded Azura in Malta on 15th September for 1 week and had a lonely 6days until I tested positive yhe day before flying home. We had to isolate onboard as apparently hotels were full. We were well looked after with a balcony cabin  and cruised around Croatia, (I would rather have been at home) and were then tested day 6 still positive. We had to disembark in Malta  which was day 7 to a hotel and were told by P&O staff we would be tested again and as soon as negative can go home. We were also told there would be people at the hotel we could talk to and sort things out what they don't say is they are actually at the end of the phone or email  in the UK. Malta  rules are 10 days isolation and no testing after day 6/7 regardless and even when I have served my time of 10 days on Saturday I am still not allowed out of my room until my flight on Monday!! 

I know P&O have looked after us and are making sure we get home safely but the communication really needs to improve. They keep saying that getting us home is there main priority so test us every day and get us out of here I have found plenty of cheap flights on line to get us home just do it!!

Oh well will have to stick it out for a few more days I suppose there could be worse places to be.

I have just printed out my covid pass and do have an exiry date under the QR code.

4 hours ago, arizonaperson said:

Yes, unfortunately you will have to be out of your cabin by 8 am or 8:30 am,Give or take so your cabin steward can clean the room and prepare for the next guests.With that being said you could probably be out of your cabin and stay on board until the last people are off ,but then you Will just be waiting in the lounge or wandering the ship with hand luggage.(.  Unless there is a back up of disembarkation ,you’ll probably be off at 10 AM at the latest and that might be pushing it if you stay onboard until the last moment)

You could also sign up for a princess disembarkation tour ,they usually have those and you can inquire once on board. I’m assuming you have a late flight from Fort Lauderdale? you could get a day use hotel room in the Fort Lauderdale area ,we did that once when my husband wasn’t feeling well and we had a late flight and he just wanted to sleep. Or you could rent a car and have a place for your luggage and go tour  around the Fort Lauderdale area and beaches. 

We are planning on booking a  ship trip for the last day something that will take us to the Miami airport, we have a flight booked for 5pm back to the UK so its not too bad.

10 hours ago, skynight said:

By law you are not permitted to remain on board in Fort Lauderdale. Every passenger must leave the ship. If even one passenger remains on board that passenger must be located and be escorted off the ship. Once disembarked passengers that are not on b2bs not permitted back on board. Those on b2bs go through immigration and once all passengers are off the b2b passengers are permitted back on board. 

I have been on  several celebrity cruises and I know you have to get off early, I was just enquiring about Princess how they did things and also stating  how P&O do things in the Caribbean which is great for us in the UK, they don't do it I the Mediterranean though.