lujaha

1 hour ago, Adawn47 said:

I always turn down the custard zap. It's a horrible ,watery, strange, dark yellow gloop that bears no resemblence to custard at all.

Avril

I found the custard varied.  The first day I had it it was as you describe above but some days it was more creamy than others and was just passable.  

2 hours ago, Cathygh said:

The current issue with P&O seems t be the same as it has been for the last 10 months or so. Lack of staff which they say are trying to address, and food and drink supply issues partly caused by collapse of their main supplier in Southampton. However they really need to pull their finger out and get this sorted, I have a final balance to pay in 20 days for a May half term cruise on Iona and if my grandchildren can't get chicken (as occurred on their  last cruise in October half term) there will be a riot. 

Things could change, but we are just back from Iona.  There was chicken on the menu in the MDR every night we went in.  Chicken all the time in the Quays, the Olive Grove and loads of chicken in the buffet for lunch.  

We booked a saver fare on Iona for 14th January.  We have had £150 OBC added to our account.  Nice surprise.

Iona next January.  Select fare plus £1080.  £120 obc or free parking.  Beggars belief!

I cancelled and rebooked and still saved £320.  They even transferred my Tesco vouchers over and put my FCR on the new booking.

Not quite the same, but our cruise was cancelled at the start of Covid and we had used some Tesco vouchers.  We booked another cruise straight away and P&O were supposed to transfer them.  There was a mix up and they refunded them to my Tesco account instead.  I had to contact Tesco and get them to send them to P&O.  Later I noticed that our cruise had gone down significantly and I asked P&O if we could cancel and rebook and still use the vouchers.  This was no problem at all.  Just to say that there doesn't seem to be a problem with chopping and changing and Tesco vouchers.

14 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

Wouldn't like to be doing the washing in your house! On the other hand I'm buying shares in Unilever if we are all going to wash 14 bath towels a week ....

There are six of us in our house, that's 42 towels to wash a week!  

1 hour ago, Bobblehat71 said:

 

I think this sums P&O's current offering up nicely  "What was once a genuinely luxurious holiday experience is pretty bog standard now"

 

IMHO P&O have something of an identity crises. They are trying to attract a younger demographic without actually offering anything for them. The only thing that has changed is the marketing . 

I've not long turned 50 and my preferred lines are currently RCL and NCL. I still cruise regularly with P&O but that is simply down to price and the convenience of leaving from Southampton.

We have chosen P&O for our last few cruises for the same reason Bobblehat.  Got to Platinum on NCL, but their prices have increased so much and P&O from Southampton is much cheaper and convenient.

Couldn't agree more.  Long evening dresses, especially the fitted ones with strappy or sleeveless tops do no favours to those of us past our prime!  I'm happier in a slimming pair of black trousers and a pretty sparkly top.

Now that is a very good idea.  Well done!

Things must have changed since our cruise in Jan/Feb.  We never booked a main restaurant and always got seated straight away.  Usually around 8 in the evening.

28 minutes ago, Stu UK said:

We are currently onboard Iona. No testing apart from embarkation. However temperature checks each morning at restaurant entrances. I believe the crew are tested weekly. Yesterday evening there were announcements in public rooms for passengers to report to reception and later in the evening we saw on deck 9 a group of people being moved  with crew in white protective suits and sprays escorting them. Guess there has been a small outbreak. 

Oh dear, we were on the previous cruise and saw no evidence of this.  There was an ambulance at the ship in Valencia, I think it was.  Couldn't see what was going on though.  When we got back to Southampton an ambulance came but again didn't see what was going on.  We had just left port when the ship stopped to disembark a passenger by boat.  That is all I know of on that cruise, but others may know more.  Maybe we were lucky?

1 hour ago, picsa said:

The simple solution is to remind the waiter that you want a freshly cooked and hot egg when you order and if it arrives cold then send the breakfast back.

 

Same in the buffet restaurants, if you find the food is cold then tell the restaurant manager - they will get you a hot version of whatever you want.

 

Don’t be a doormat and put up with poor service.

Should you have to ask for a hot egg?  Eggs are freshly cooked, fried or poached on other cruise lines.  Next time I have an all day breakfast, I will make sure I ask for a hot fried egg, or ham hot egg and chips!!

I know the Americans like their eggs for breakfast.  As do we Brits.  P&O is the only cruise line I have been on that doesn't fry eggs to order.  Their fried eggs sit on a tray.  On my Iona cruise, just back, I saw a man bringing a fresh batch of eggs to put on the tray.  Ah, I thought, hot eggs.  No, cold eggs again.  Omelettes cooked in advance.  In my search for a hot egg we tried one of the main restaurants for breakfast.  I chose to have poached eggs.  Sadly they were cold too.  You can get a fresh omelette in the Quays though!  

Megabear, this letter is your best yet!  Pure genius.  Please God something good comes from it.  We go on Saturday Spain and Portugal.  

Just now, lujaha said:

Megabear, I have to apologise.  I asked my husband what date we took the policy out as he had the paperwork in front of him.  He told me the 19th August.  I just checked my emails for the policy number to contact HE and it is 18th September!  Just as well it is me who does all these arrangements, I dread to think.  

 

Oh dear I meant 18th July.  What a pair we are.

11 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

Hello.  Would you be able to send the policy number to Liz Gray and ask the question - say you have been told that the terms are different for policies bought before August.

 

I'm trying to get hold of my aunt for her policy number but she's off on a jaunt at present!

 

support@holidayextrashelp.zendesk.com

 

 

Megabear, I have to apologise.  I asked my husband what date we took the policy out as he had the paperwork in front of him.  He told me the 19th August.  I just checked my emails for the policy number to contact HE and it is 18th September!  Just as well it is me who does all these arrangements, I dread to think.  

1 hour ago, Megabear2 said:

Nationwide appear to cover quarantine in some form.  They have been asked previously but did not answer.  As an account holder might I suggest you give them a call and ask the question sent to HE to get a definitive answer. 

 

On the subject of HE if anyone has a policy purchased before August 2021 they apparently have different terms and conditions.  I am attempting to get my aunt's policy number to follow up with Liz Gray who contacted me overnight.  Does anyone else have one of these policies please.

Hi Megabear.  I have an annual policy with HE taken out 19th July 21.  What would you like me to do?

p

Still trying to get my head round this!  In a nutshell, HE are saying they will not cover the negative passenger being disembarked with a positive passenger.  But does the positive passenger have to need medical assistance to be covered by insurance, where they could have little or no symptoms?  Whereas we were led to believe P&O were "making sure no passengers were out of pocket" before, they are now putting the responsibility purely on the insurers?  Have I got that right?  Seems things are getting worse.

Thanks once again Megabear for all you are doing.  We are due to go on 29th Jan and I don't know how many times I have changed my mind.  I finally made my mind up not to go, then my husband went and got the dreaded Covid!  He has just done his 2 negative tests so all clear now.  Despite us just carrying on as normal indoors I didn't catch it from him.  So now my theory is that he won't be at risk of catching it onboard, so there will just be me at risk and if I didn't catch it from him.......So we are now going...I think.  How wonderful it would be if you got some positive answers from Holiday Extras before we go.  And of course all the other insurance companies.  You certainly deserve all the treats from P&O.

6 hours ago, Megabear2 said:

Does this lady indicate whether these people were offloaded at the same time as her or are some from earlier?  There seems to be a trail of Iona passengers and crew scattered across the Spanish and Canaries ports!

 

I am due to travel on 1 April to the Canaries with a large number of my family and am most definitely not happy with this Spanish situation, particularly hearing of Swanseasailor's description of Tenerife quarantine facility and Molecrochip's explanation of how we got to this.

 

Once the bank holidays are out of the away I intend to go back to my contacts at Carnival head office and have a serious chat about all these things which are coming to light about European cruises, particularly Spain. 

 

Clearly the cruise lines, all of them not just P&O, are gagging these passengers and tying them up in non disclosure agreements as if they raise their head to say anything after one post they disappear and are unable to answer any questions we may like answerd.  Understandably when money will be at stake, and probably a lot in some cases, the passengers are over a barrel.

 

Also on the Cunard board I see some of Britannia's crew have transferred to QM2 which would indicate the new arrivals I saw were not in fact additional people for the expected 2,200 Britannia passengers but some of those moving from QV and also arriving by air yesterday.  Considering that Britannia has to date had no crew sickness this will be an interesting experiment.  I was also surprised to read that QM2 passengers apparently moved to Britannia to await their "late" flights, again rather odd as according to Bridgetown airport staff their last flight each day leaves at around 9.00pm latest.  

 

 

Glad to hear you are 'on the case' megabear.  It sounds as if you were lucky on Britannia to have a relatively stress free cruise.  For all the work you are doing on these boards you deserved it.  I have decided to cancel (transfer to a later date) my cruise at the end of January on Iona.  Just waiting, and hoping, that something will be resolved with this Spanish situation.  If it were a case of just isolating on board until return to Southampton, then I would still go.  We survived our cruise on Ventura back in Oct/Nov with no problems, but this omicron situation is another matter.  My daughter's school where she is a special needs teacher are secretive about covid too.  They are reluctant to tell parents why a teacher is off.  They wouldn't tell the little boy's parents  why my daughter was off for 5 weeks.  His mum was worried she had left the school, and the boy wasn't capable of understanding what was going on.  Good luck with your search for the truth and thanks once again for the time you are taking to do this.

17 minutes ago, cruising.mark.uk said:

This morning's figures for the week before Christmas which show that 1 in 25 people in England (1 in 15 in London) had Covid suggest that Wowzz is 100% correct - I'm not aware of any ship getting anywhere near that number of passenger infections.  The threshold to be 'under investigation' by the CDC is 1 case per 1000 passengers!

That may well be true, but if you catch Covid at home, you are not thrown into a Spanish quaranteen hotel and fed awful food then left to find your own way home, not knowing if your insurance will pay for it or not.  

7 minutes ago, Interestedcruisefan said:

Lots of questions there I doubt anyone could answer with any confidence

 

A lot must depend on the number of positives omicron starts causing on the ships

 

Could put an awful lot of crew and passengers into isolation at the same time

 

Big problem in the normal world right now is the amount of staff off work either because they are positive or a close contact

 

My two worries putting me off cruising are firstly quarantine abroad

 

Secondly the cruise itself being spoilt by too many others catching covid on board and everything being disrupted from all the quarantine of others whilst on the ship

 

Im not too bothered about getting off the ship for excursions. Could live without them 

I'm thinking along the same lines as you.  We cruise end of January on Iona.  Or will we?  To go or not to go, that is the question.  Rather hoping the decision is taken out of our hands.  

I have a horrible feeling that we won't be cruising in January.  We go at the end of the month.  Like you hoping for the best, planning for the worst. Out of our hands if that is the case.  

8 minutes ago, lujaha said:

A couple have been removed in Alicante and have been on the book telling us all about it.  They say they are concerned for their health and finances.  They had coughs and volunteered to be tested and were positive.  People are praising them for being honest and thinking of others.

They wrote yesterday they were being removed in Alicante, but obviously they didn't stop there, so waiting to hear again from them as to what has happened.