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Thanks for the reply. We do not normally travel by coach, but have done about 20 years ago for a trans Atlantic when we flew out from Manchester. In such cases the coaches back to your airport are included by P&O and not an alternative for the obc, which we would get as well. I thought it was Intercruises now, though I thought that was a coach company, rather than a company who contracts out, if only sometimes. Eavesway used to do those transfers (as well as the regular ones again), when we did that trans Atlantic. Shows you how out of date I am.

Thanks. Are P&O using Eavesway again now?

Thanks, is it Intercruises which P&O use? The airport transfer is complimentary by their provider.

Can I please ask if there are always toilets on the coaches? We are considering a one way trans Atlantic, which would involve a coach transfer to Manchester airport at the end of the cruise.

As you have not had a reply yet I can tell you that we booked a summer 2025 cruise when those cruises were released last year. Our P&O confirmation is dated 29th April 2023, so if they keep to a similar time of year, that could mean a late April release date. That cannot be totally relied on of course, so best to keep an eye out for them. They normally publish the itineraries a short while before the cruises are released. I have no idea about child places.

The cruises for summer 2025 were not on Fred's website yesterday as I had mentioned. Only ones up to May 2025 which were released last year. The others, for the following year only came on the website this morning when the links went out (apart from about four longer ones which had been advertised and released recently). On sale to Oceans members as of today and general on sale date of the 8th for new ones I think, not that many people clamour to book a Fred cruise early. Just some brochures had been delivered yesterday, so the majority will be arriving on doormats either today or beyond. Not got ours yet, (our postal service is not good), just saw the index of cruises posted by someone yesterday and looked at a couple of itineraries this morning. Nothing of interest to us that we have seen either, largely a repeat of previous cruises with notable omissions. Seems the same with all lines recently, need to increase our land hols, which we enjoy.

We do not fly from Birmingham, so cannot help with specific hotels, but Holiday Extras advertise a number of hotels for airports, (both on airport and nearby), so perhaps worth looking at their website. The on airport Premier inn at Manchester had a shuttle which left from nearby to the hotel and/or they and other near airport hotels often have arrangements with taxi companies to do shuttles to the terminal at a set price. That may well happen at other airports. It may be worth ringing the individual hotels as well, both to check prices and ask about transfer costs to.the airport. Just a search for airport hotels for a specific airport will no doubt bring up options. You could then check trip advisor reviews for likely contenders, those reviews for hotels near airports often mention transfers.

The cruises for summer 2025 are not yet on sale, apart for a couple of slightly longer ones which have been released before the rest of the cruises. The brochures for cruises from 2025 to May 2026 are starting to land on doormats today, so will likely be on the website by the end of the week. They are still doing some cruises from Rosyth for the summer months as they have previously.

The guide from Bar Harbor who did our walking tour had said he expected any judgement to be appealed and could become a legal argument going back and forth for a while to come. What happens during that time we do not know. As there could still be uncertainty, we would not be surprised if cruise lines pull their bookings anyway, but that remains to be seen, or not. The issue that could become a problem is that if a cruise line cancels, they will likely have to pay cancellation fees, whereas if the port is forced to cancel, they may have to pay cancellation fees to the cruise line. Hence a cruise line may just hang in there, having likely explored plan B which they hope to keep as an alternative if needed. May all become clearer as the season approaches. I hope so for the cruise passengers sake as being left with uncertainty will not be a good option imo.

I agree that suet pastry is used for steak and kidney pudding, rather than pie, but that is normally prepared in a basin and steamed. If suet pastry is put on top of the meat (usually in a shallower container) and it is then baked in an oven, I would call it a pie.

I tried to view this, but it is not visible to those in the Europe, presumably because of our data protection regulations. I have heard about the court case which allows the town of Bar Harbor to restrict cruise calls to 1,000 pax though, which is, I suspect, what the link is about. I am the OP of this thread and we were lucky enough to visit last September on our UK based ship which holds about 18,000 pax maximum. It was a good visit, we did a walking tour and then strolled around taking in lunch of lobster roll and bluberry pie. As we were the only ship in with a number of passengers taking trips beyond the town, it was OK, but I can see it would be totally overrun by some bigger ships. Shame for those hoping to call in the future who may not be able to call, though I think the legal argument will continue with appeals. There are other ports though, so hope everyone enjoys their cruise to that region, (which we liked a lot), no matter which ports they stop at.

We are thinking they may well have taken on a one year contract with Stockperks that covers the calendar year. So could be to do with that, which would need renewing at a later date. Just a thought.

Does sound very hopeful, thanks for sharing, but having just gone to the Carnival Corporation Website, I found it still brings up the same document from last year which details the benefit information, including that:- "The benefit is applicable on sailings through July 31, 2024........." I think I have a general distrust of the P&O website, which made me search further for some strange reason......

Can you remember if you were on a schedule flight rather than a P&O charter. I suggest you were. As I and others have said, pre COVID the cases from charter flights went straight to the ship, but if on a schedule flight (which would have non P&O passengers onboard), it has always been necessary to collect your cases at the airport. Now everyone has to collect luggage from the carousel in Malta and the luggage is now taken to vans, which delivery it to the ship, so the next time you will see it is outside your cabin.

Much the same on both lines. Disembarkation ends a bit later on P&O and they keep the buffet breakfast open later, which is the only difference I can think of. Can always be minor changes obviously. TBH we have always gone ashore on change over days, if only to do a bit of shopping for water and soft drinks, or just a stroll, but we do not rush off the ship. If we have needed to change cabin, we have usually been moved before 10am or earlier, so no delays there.

B428, which you said you have been allocated appears to be an inside cabin. So presuming that is what you have booked, it is possible that the majority of inside cabins would not work with a cot in the cabin. There is often very little room to move around cruise cabins (particularly insides) without any additions, so may well be why the only way it could be done is with twin beds and the cot between them. That would also explain why your bed configuration changed when you requested a cot. There are loads of U-Tube videos of cruise cabins, so you may be able to find one similar to your, so you can assess the size of them. If that is the case though, I think you should have been given a proper explanation. It is certainly worth sending an email as suggested to see if a resolution can be obtained, but a shame you did not request a cot when you first made the booking.

You have been given generally good advice, you will be looked after. However, whilst Fred used to not start embarkation until about 2pm a few years ago, he now starts embarkation about midday for the higher decks, often a tad earlier than that for suite passengers. Hence lunch on embarkation day is served in the buffet restaurants (Palms on Balmoral), which will be available for you. The buffet remains open during embarkation, but does change to afternoon tea type food later in the afternoon. The one problem we have found for B2B's is that breakfast tends to finish earlier, room service will not be available and you will likely be woken up by announcements from 8am, so do not expect a lie in that day. Must admit we often take a snack back to the cabin from the buffet the previous night. All bars will likely be closed during the morning but will open during the afternoon. The bar which services the buffet will be open at the start of lunch service, from midday of soon after. Also drills are often now just a case of reporting to your muster station and giving your cabin number, but sometimes they hold a full drill, when you have to stay in your muster station for a while and listen to instructions and of course that could always change. Our last Fred cruise was just before Christmas. You will get a letter towards the end of your cruise with details for your change over day and will have a full daily sheet as well, possibly not delivered until the next morning. This is the link Fred gives on his tickets now, so you can use it to get an idea of your embarkation time for your first cruise and disembarkation time of your second cruise, which usually remains the same, but best to check at a later date as well:- https://www.fredolsencruises.com/check-in Enjoy the cruises.

Good map showing a central docking location. I am the OP and when we were originally due to dock there on Aurora, we were due to dock in Vartahamnens, which is right out on the edge of the city suburbs. If you scroll out on your map it can be seen on a different waterway, which would require forking right before approaching the city. The berth was the most northerly of two there, which are shown at the end of a dotted shipping track. They are not marked as cruise terminals, but they do appear to be used regularly by some cruise ships. Tendering straight to the old town was great as it was a really short hop to the old town, which many people want to go to and was also very well placed to get around within the city, on both boats and other ways, as well as proving good views of the city from the ship.

It presumably depends on rules for different countries, but it is something to do with immigration and not allowed now. Not a case of blaming Brexit, but like it or not rules did change and will change more next year, when more paperwork required unless plans change before then. As I said, (and another poster has confirmed), the bags went straight to the ship from the planes before COVID, but that cannot happen now. That is if you are booked on a charter flight, any schedule flights still needed the bags to be collected on arrival in Malta. They did do Malta fly cruises before COVID, but not on Azura.

No they cases went straight onto the plane from outside cabin door when we sailed on Azura, but had to collect case from luggage carousel and take to a van which transferred them to the ship when we flew out. It was a change that took place in Malta after covid - I think it is something to do with not being in the EU now, forget the full explanation, but think it was because we had to take the cases through immigration ourselves. We were on P&O charter flights both ways.

Yes we were able to get free tea and coffee after check out a few years ago, but I did not mention it as I thought that had changed by last year, but I may have been mistaken. Just had free access to the coffee machine

I think it is usually the begining of December, about the first.

I just googled cruise schedules for Stockholm and came up with this site (I have searched for May/June ship visits to get this screen). Looks like Britannia is docking in STADSGÅRDEN. I then googled that to find out it is quite near the centre, so a shuttle will likely be available.

That cruise was the year that itineraries were changed to remove St. Petersburg. When our cruise was changed, P&O also got rid of a lot of other ports in the Baltic, so we were allowed to cancel for full refund, which we did. We then booked a Fred cruise with a far better itinerary, which included two days in Stockholm. That cruise tendered direct to the old town in Stockholm. We really liked the city and spent all of our time in the old town, spending a fair bit of time at the Royal Palace. There are a lot of different parts of the Palace you can visit, and we did most, possibly all of it, though enjoyed time just wandering round, with drinks stops as well. Not sure I still have the link regards the port calls there, but if you search the relevant section of the ports of call board on here, you should find it, if not you could post a question there yourself. Enjoy the cruise, lots of interesting ports in the Baltic.

I suspect your cruise was the Nov 2022 one which we did. I agree no problems at all with the a/C and we had really good weather for most of that. We were also on Aurora for a one week Spain and Portugal cruise last August, followed by a 30 night Canada/US and no problems again. I hope it is sorted by late April when we are on her again, but the Med in May should not be that warm. She is the best ship left in the fleet in our opinion, so hope it can be sorted and quickly for you @Selbourne. All our cabins were by the midship lifts.