tring

Or perhaps a computer glitch. Glad you are now booked.

We have stayed at that hotel and although a no frills hotel, it does have an area as a bar/cafe downstairs where you can no doubt wait and buy the odd coffee if you wish. We have not been there pre cruise, so not sure how busy that area is on those days, but have booked it for a future cruise. There is also a pub that is walkable and another that is attached to the Premier Inn Nursling which is not far away. Holing up somewhere like that may be easier than wandering aimlessly around Southampton, which would be our other alternative.

The op said cruise in question is past balance due date, so more likely very little availability now, so P&O are trying to sell any remaining cabins as the more expensive select fare. I know that has happened on a couple of Aurora cruises I have been looking at. As someone has suggested doing a mock booking will show how many cabins are now available. Of course they now have upgrade bids as an extra source of income if the odd few cabins are still available before the cruise sails. I suspect the cheapest cabins are out soon after balance payment dates, perhaps two or three weeks later when some people have cancelled, as also said by a previous poster here.

Yes I am also aware the church is important over there, the districts still being known as the parishes and named as such. It is lovely to see the local ladies all dressed up for church with their hats.

We were there about eighteen months ago, a couple of ports that Fjord cruises visit and then Oslo on the way to the Baltic. We always take at least a small amount of local currency, but we do not remember needing to use it as most payments were by card. The exception was that we took a local bus to the folk museum in Oslo and had to find somewhere selling the tickets as they do not take cash or cards on the buses. We find Trip advisor forums are usually the best place to get information on public transport. I suggest if you stick to tourist locations/outlets cards, you will be fine, but we will continue to take a small amount of local currency. I doubt any local currency would be needed on excursions.

Selbourne, regards churches as stop off on tours, I suggest that is because most cruise passengers visiting are from the US. Those big ship's carry a lot of passengers from home ports over there.

We have generally docked there, which is also central for the lovely Cobh itself, as we use smaller ships. Once there was another ship in the main Cobh docking location, so we were scheduled to be out of town at a deep water dock. It was a distance and no shuttle bus only an "On your own" trip. I took to trip advisor forums and seemed the local buses are not really viable from there as very infrequent (I think only about once an hour) and may not be able to get on them. So it does depend where you are docked. I am pretty sure I got our docking location from the port authority site there, which I had googled. I know the QM2 can only dock in the out of town location, though seems there are sometimes water shuttles put on into Cobh, which is a much shorter distance than by road that goes right around an inlet. Do not know about other ships so worth checking.

We have transferred a cruise and got the discount as well. If the onboard booking agent was aware it was to become a b2b, I suspect t they would have calculated (or more to the point the computer would have calculated) the discount when you were given the extra price you needed to pay for the 35 night one. Of course they always advertise a headline price, which will likely be the cheapest available cabin grade at saver fare. A select fare, even if a low grade cabins, will be a much higher price. Still worth asking though and if booking is now with an agent, they should look into it as you probably know.

I agree with Phil, you do not have to book the cruises at the same time for the -10%, we have done it with a couple of cruises adding a second cruise at a later date. As PHil saya has to be select bookings for both cruises and they have to be over a certain length (?7days). If it looks like it was not done for you, time it was queried, though it is possible the price of the second booking was reduced to a level that took account of the -10% on both cruises. Did you book both cruises the same way, i.e. through the same agent, or direct with P&O, though not sure that would make a difference?

Yes he talks about cold cases. We remember the porthole murder, so it must have been on Aurora round trip Caribbean in November 2022. It must be easy to find the same talks done on more than one cruise, which can be quite a blow if someone is on for a long time, since P&O do not use many speakers on the same cruise. Thanks for your continued reports Selbourne, still very informative and readable. I hope you do not become an alcoholic before you return 🙂

I agree we have mainly used P4C for recent cruises but CPS for one and they made us all stay in the car for quite a while until they processed us, so could not get luggage out and I could not even pop out to use the loo in arrivals (which is allowed whilst waiting for a driver to return from the P4C car park. We were Caribbean level by then as well, so had arrived early. Very slightly further to walk for the P4C section on return, but depends where your car is actually brought to by CPS as can be a big walk across the car park, so can be nearer for P4C. All a matter of chance. We agree that we will use which ever is the better deal. We got a long winter cruise parking for £100 with CPS last winter as they seem to have gone for pricing according to demand, so summer cruise prices hiked and winter reduced - so we cancelled P4C and re booked with CPS. We have also looked at park and stay with hotels, though usually found it better to arrange hotel and parking separately. Have gone with CPS through P&O for April as we had a high OBC and prices of booking ourselves was not that cheap. I think the main thing is to arrange parking/hotels as soon as you book the cruise as prices can go up and easy to book cancellable deals (even with the car parking companies), so could always cancel and re book if prices do go down.

Ok thanks, that indeed makes a difference, does that mean Azura always docks over by the ferry terminal, near Plaza de Espana? If so that saves a very big walk and great if there overnight and intend to stagger back to the ship after a meal or a couple of drinks. We love Santa Cruz, especially at night. A real local vibe and also spent evenings up in La Laguna, which is s a gem, especially when the Christmas lights are on. Regular trams back down, so an easy evening base from the port.

If that is the case it is very new. There did not used to be shops at the port, though may just have changed in the last two years or so. Is there a new cruise terminal building in Tenerife, I know some shops are now docking by the ferry terminal, though most still on the other side of the harbour? We know the.port very well and have disembarked Azura there since COVID, but not embarked her there, only other ships in the past when a glass structure was used further round the harbour.

I would buy your duty free either in the UK airport, on the plane, or possibly in Tenerife airport after landing (I know there is an outlet on arrival in Malta airport, but not sure about Tenerife airport). The walk from the ship to the shops in Santa Cruz de Tenerife can be a very long one, depending on exactly where the ship docks. No shops in the port in Tenerife. You can only take the alcohol on the ship when boarding, so cannot drop hand luggage, then go off to find a shop.

Yes the twilight check in is really useful if you are staying in an airport hotel. I believed that is not available for P&O flights though, even it they are run by TUI, who offer that for their others flights for package hols or just flight bookings.

Or just enjoying themselves. I think he mentioned there is a stretch of port days (?4) coming up. I suspect he prefers to make the most of the port days and use the sea days to catch up here. Would make sense to do that, especially as he is often on tour as well as taking his wife out later on the same day, so very tiring. He has been spoiling us so far. Hope all is well though.

Received our upgrade bid invite this morning. Standard balcony minimum bid prices are quite a bit higher for our 19 night Med cruise on Aurora, compared to prices you have been given for your 18 night Med cruise on the same ship, and we are in a sea view cabin at present (select price). Not such a big difference on the deluxe balcony though - not that any deluxe ones are available at present anyway. These are all the minimum prices we have been given:- Suite (aft) £3,740 Mini Suite £2,080 Deluxe Balcony £990 Standard Balcony £670 Sea View (larger) £290 Prices seem to have been maintained on both our cruises and not much availability now, so probably not a big chance of an upgrade and we would not pay a high price for a cabin in any location. We have put in a low bid for a deluxe balcony and very near the minimum price for the standard balcony. Both still a fair bit less than half of what it would cost us to upgrade, if we paid for a specific cabin, though depends how much you paid initially as that is what is charged to upgrade. I am quite wary of the standard balconies though as there are so many badly placed ones on deck A, (under open decks), which can be noisy. We ay get cold feet and withdraw our offer on that as uncertain about it. We can access links to withdraw or change our offers.

As Fred has now made the decision on the new itinerary it seems better to to let the individuals concerned be told about changes themselves by Fred as that will include full details of any choices the individuals will have. The only reason I have a bit more interest is because I know someone on the ship who I have been in touch with at times. Your post had said they were sailing straight to Cape Town, and implied there was only one more port so imo that was best corrected in case someone is still waiting for notification of changes by post. Samantha is in post now and reportedly has had been in involved in those decisions, in fact would seem very strange to me if she had not been. We do wonder if it was her decision to delay bringing in the no smoking on balconies plan as well. We had obc given for a cancelled excursion in December, but it was refundable obc. We had questioned that as we were on the drinks package and were told immediately that we could go straight to reception and have that given to us in cash, (or could do so at any time before the cruise ended), if we so wished. That would have actually got us the refund quicker that it being put back in our cc. They are travelling through the Pacific Ocean at present as it is longer than some wc's so will be a while before they even get to the changed section, unlike some Carnival brands, e.g P&O which were changed earlier and had far fewer replacement ports. Borealis was not due in Dubai until 26th March. Indeed it is worrying for those booked to disembark/embark at future ports, we have been in that situation ourselves with other cruise lines when war/unrest has broken out and waiting to hear did seem a very long time indeed. I do not deny that and I do indeed sympathise with anyone affected. We have always taken out disruption insurance though, or our plans were made either through an agent or in a way that we were taking on a risk which we were happy to take on. It is best imo that any problems should be discussed with Fred at this stage and problems sorted by the individuals. Fred has responsibilities to take passengers to the booked end point of their cruise, if the ship cannot go there. Sadly itineraries do change and cruising does seem to be more affected due to world events, though events have always occurred.

No idea where you saw that. I saw a copy of the new itinerary posted a few days ago. Yes, it shows them missing India and beyond, but calling into Mauritius, Durban, two days in Cape Town, Walvis Bay in Namibia and Mindelo before calling into Tenerife and arriving back in Southampton on the 17th April in time for the next cruise. I do not know of any other cruise going through the Red Sea at present and I doubt anyone would have considered that as an option under the current circumstances. Some changes had been made to the original itinerary before they left. Indian visa and cost and any handling fees refunded and a small obc. Also a future cruise credit of 30% of the fare paid for the whole world cruise, for those on the full cruise. Fred said in the letter that approximately one third of the proportion of whole cruise is affected. I have no idea what is being done about the other segments or for people on them, but I would suspect Fred will be wanting to offer preferential places to those previously booked to go on, or who are on the ship at present. So perhaps will take a little while for them to be advertised. Changes were only announced a day or so before the weekend though, so something more may just happen tomorrow.

Fred has re arranged his cruise now, new itinerary given to passengers on board a day or so ago. Hopefully the OP will have heard by now. Not sure if anything new on the website yet, but yesterday morning cruises covering future sectors were marked as "please ring", which is what Fed does before editing his website.

Thanks for the replies about pre booking for Aurora restaurants @galeforce9 and @Selbourne

Showing as pre booking coming soon on our Aurora cruise starting late April. Not sure if it will be pre bookiable though, as for our previous Aurora cruise last September that and the Beach House could only be booked once on the ship, even though they were pre bookable on other ships. If anyone can tell me if they are now pre bookable, I would be very appreciative as the cruise coincides with a big anniversary for us.

True a lot of people do not bother, but DH does, a habit he has always been in as he has a work background in legal work in that field. Must admit he also reads them through a lot quicker and more thoroughly than I would because of that experience as well. I think I have been well schooled though, so even if I did not have him to check that sort of thing for me, I would still read them. Picking up a car if he has a free loan offer, (meaning we can keep the cash in savings longer) really does miff the sales agent as they do not expect someone to sit down and read through the agreement before signing it 🙂

Except it is on the website if you care to take a look. Clicking through to the next page via "read more" will give more detailed information:- https://www.fredolsencruises.com/faqs/on-board Also, Fred's cruise sales staff have always told prospective customers what to expect on the ships, there has never been any great company secret about that .

Quite agree, though as I am sure we can all see, it is better that the smoking issue has a lead in time, so probably it is best to delay it for a year, though should have been done many years ago. Fred now appears to have changed it to the start of April 2025, though perhaps will take account of when individual cruises finish on each ship, as was going to be the case when the change was planned for this year. Hopefully clear plans will come out everywhere in the not too distant future. Sounds as though it may have only been mentioned on one or more ship(s) so far, but those thinking of booking suites may have been advised of the changed plans by head office - I have no knowledge of that though, so perhaps not. There is a new brochure due out in March (usually fairly early March), when the majority of cruises from spring 2025 will be released. Not many are on sale yet.