david63

2 hours ago, SeaJane said:

We always take a 2.25 litre box of wine and have so far never had any problems.

In your hand luggage I hope.

Quite a number of years ago I did the same but made the mistake of putting it in one of the cases. Unfortunately it was flagged up when the case went through the scanner as the box showed up as a solid block on the scanner and was treated as suspicious. I was summoned to security to explain what was in the case. Never taken one since!

52 minutes ago, Victoria2 said:

No idea on the cocktail shaker and if it’s that important, take your own to be sure of having one available.

Good luck at getting that through security without questions being asked!

Unfortunately those are risks we all take with any cruise and more so with a new ship.

1 hour ago, Landon90 said:

no new booking invoice/email was received so I’d not have known. Maybe it was emailed to the travel agent I booked with

Almost certainly - if you book with a TA then all communication from P&O is via them and they should have forwarded it on to you.

5 hours ago, DS_Dean said:

Has anyone booked a Princess cruise and seen their loyalty carry over? I am reading lots of mixed messages and Princess don't seem to know themselves.

We went on our first Princess cruise last year - my wife became Elite straight away and I had no loyalty with Princess even though we both had the same level with P&O.

This happens all the time - just means that the one with the higher loyalty has to pay for any shop purchases to get the discount.

4 minutes ago, holidaylover10 said:

I have seen a Cunard 11 night cruise too but that is in early may and not sure what the weather would be like then.

We were up that way in mid May last year and the weather, on the most part, was pleasant but on the cold side most of the time although we did have the odd hour where we could sit out on deck in the sun.

4 hours ago, jeanlyon said:

So I wonder what happens if you say you don't need any mobility aids, but you actually take a stick, like I was going to.

There are two options:

1. You are allowed to take your stick onboard with you.

2. You are denied boarding.

The choice is yours

5 hours ago, 9265359 said:

That's going to be fun for P&O when they need to recruit hundreds of new staff to review all those forms.

That is a process ideally suited to a computer

2 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

I can’t see them denying boarding to someone with a walking stick who just uses it to steady themselves, if they can manage stairs fine

Common sense says that but as we know common sense and Carnival do not make good bedfellows!

2 minutes ago, 9265359 said:

 

If that was the case then 99% of the customers would be denied boarding for not completing the form.

No because the way the system operates at the moment is that no form completed = no issues - until you get to the port and then the problems start.

Personally I prefer Sky Princess as a ship over Aurora.

One main difference you will find is that on P&O 90+% of passengers will be British whereas on Sky there will be a significant number of Americans.

A downside of Sky is that there is not a lot of space in the bars - that may or may not be an issue for you.

Basically there is not a lot of difference with the food on either ships.

It is all swings and roundabouts - but if it was me having to choose then it would be Sky

26 minutes ago, 9265359 said:

but that just means that even more people should be challenged and even more hassle for P&O when they enforce the safety procedures.

That is the rod that they have made for their own back and as I said before unless someone gets a grip it is only going to get worse.

29 minutes ago, 9265359 said:

The pop up asks you to complete the pre-registration if you need assistance. If you don't then there is no form to complete.

The pop-up may say that but the form says differently.

33 minutes ago, 9265359 said:

 

You want every passenger on board to complete an accessibility needs form, 99%+ pointlessly doing so, and with the vast majority of the remaining <1% doing so anyway, just to capture the one or two people who either didn't follow the instructions or had a poor travel agent.

 

Hmmm...

Every passenger is supposed to do that now - with the first question being Do you need assistance Yes?No - if "no" then end of form and job done, tales all of 10 seconds.

I would question that there are less than 1% of passengers who would need to complete the form - in my experience I would put it nearer 30% and that is only those with visible disabilities - probably more with hidden disabilities.

10 minutes ago, 9265359 said:

And so the blame is with the travel agent, not P&O, and the only solution to that is either P&O stop selling through travel agents (not going to happen) or to email every single passenger to make sure they don't need assistance, which is many thousands of people being bombarded with irrelevant emails.

No there is a better, and more simple solution. The completion of the form is done by all passengers at the time of, and as part of, the booking and the booking is not confirmed unless the form has been completed.

There is then a confirmation that the details are still correct when doing the online check-in with an option that if the details have changed and the passenger cannot be accommodated that they get a full refund of their fare.

The latest rules are one bottle of wine or champagne per passenger at embarkation and no spirits.

How rigorously the rules are being enforced remains to be seen.

4 minutes ago, purplesea said:

So what happened, as both were sent in the same email?

Left hand and right hand syndrome

Just now, yorkshirephil said:

As keen walkers we always take walking poles in our cases, sometimes we won't use them, but if we go "hiking" we do. We don't use them onboard but seemingly we would now need to register them so that we can take them on board so that we can take them off board😁

The way that the policy is being applied at the moment if you come across a jobsworth at embarkation and have not completed the form then you run the risk of being denied boarding.

And yes I know that it is stupid. I have always adopted the line that if somebody further up the food chain wants to play silly games then I will play silly games and more often than not I have had more experience in the sill games department!!

57 minutes ago, Adawn47 said:

Can I just clarify something?

Does all this rigmarole apply even if you occasionally need to use a walking stick?

Avril

Only if you take the walking stick on the ship with you, and that would include trying to hide it in your case. Technically it is any mobility aid - not restricted just to a walking stick.

I think that the bottom line is that if in doubt complete the form.

Someone at Carnival needs to get a grip of this before it comes back to bite them because the way things are going it will happen sooner or later.

13 hours ago, Victoria2 said:

The strategy is, stand at the head of the couches, monitor the lifts eg which floor and are any heading in your direction, be prepared and dash for the appropriate lift.

Not sure that it is quite that straightforward for @Selbourne as his wife is in a wheelchair.

2 hours ago, Cruisemeister2002 said:

two desserts per day

You may want to pass on those (I have seen them!)

Not good old P&O IT failing again😇

Might be a different story if boarding at Southampton.

51 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

Princess have no mention of  evacuation chairs in their medical questionnaire, which since both are part of Carnival is somewhat concerning.

That is possibly due to the disconnect over such things between US law and UK law.

29 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

One of the many issues that P&O (and other Carnival brands) need to resolve is that they don’t always acknowledge receipt of the Onboard Needs Questionnaire and that issues flagged have been noted. This leaves the customer with at best a nagging doubt that they might run into difficulties, or at worst being refused embarkation at the terminal.

In any well run organisation the status of the questionnaire would be in the cruise personaliser and updated as and when.

11 minutes ago, 9265359 said:

Do you really think that indicates someone who could get to a muster station unaided when there is an actual need to get to the muster station?

And therein lies another problem. How will the "helper" know where to find the passenger?

1 hour ago, 9265359 said:

refusing to rent someone a wheelchair

P&O do not rent wheelchairs, nor any other mobility aid. The OP was renting the wheelchair independently from Mobility at Sea which, to the best of my knowledge, has no connection to P&O/Carnival.

2 hours ago, Jerry987654321 said:

Hi, was wondering if you could help clear up our confusion with the methodology the Maitre'd uses for table assignments in the QG.  I see V2 and Exlondoner have different opinions regarding their "luck" of table assignments.  Are assignments in QG based on:

1. Category of cabin booked

2. Date of Booking (earlier the better)

3. Loyalty status versus first time cunarder

4. Luck of the draw

5. None of the above (or anything else not mentioned)

I am booked on QA in 2026 as a first-time cruiser on Cunard.  So any insight would be appreciated.

 

I have been told that table allocation on any ship is a "black art" known only to a few and if divulged to any passenger would result in said passengers never sailing again😄