Tejas57

 

Of course, I'd be curious to know how it happened in the first case, but it's not as though we'd ever be told that.

Going by what was said on the phone I get the impression someone got a manual upgrade into a room that we were going to get and therefore we were downgraded.

The woman I spoke to on the phone was not happy with this at all.

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Last year we booked a family cruise with P&O for the September school holidays (we booked early due to P&O limiting children on board)

We selected an oceanview (window) room in the midship (for which we paid a surcharge for).

Got our room assignment to find that we still had an ocean view room but we had been moved to the back of the ship in a cheaper room, with OBC for the difference.

I called P&O's manilla based call centre where I was told that the terms and conditions allow them to do this (I checked, the section they cited doesn't allow them to downgrade you) and there is nothing I can do.

I posted on the facebook page and was brushed off as well. I called the head office in Sydney and left a message as well as asking on a facebook group I'm in if anyone has a local number I can call. The mod of the page messaged me, got my details and passed them onto his contacts.

Within an hour I got a call from a lovely woman at the head office who was as unhappy as i was over the situation and she gave us two options:

1 - $500 OBC (i'd actually talked to my wife and we decided this was the minimum amount we were going to take anyway) or;

2 - we can be upgraded to a suite (as all the balconies are full).

we, of course, picked no 2 and we were moved into a suite whilst we were on the phone. Needless to say we are happy with the outcome, but IMHO it should not have gotten that far

hope things iomprove. due to a screw up by P&O doengrading us (from OA to OF) and me actully looking at the T&C's they cited we got an upgrade at no charge to a suite. we are quite looking forward to it as the best cabin we had in the past was a balcony

What I would do if you are worried is not link your card until you have to. Just use the onboard credit first and when that has run out take your credit card to reception

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we have to have a window (at minimum) - due to having 2 intellectually impaired children we spend a bit of time in the cabin so a window is a must. next is location - needs to be between two decks of cabins (we cruised on the carnival spirit once and ended up in a cabin below the disco - was not fun). than it's price.

this is an interesting conversation. we have cruised with P&O (Jewel and in September the Aria) and Carnival (We were on the 3rd sailing of the spirit when it relocated to sydney).

We are already planning our cruise after the one we already have booked (i think we are addicted) and am seriously considering RCI. As we are taking the kids it's all about them honestly but i'm lead to belive RCI are pretty good there right?

can someone explain to me how priority works? we have priority boarding for my upcoming cruise out of brisbane due to having an intellectually impaired child.

does this mean we get an early check in time or are we given one like normal and we just have diffrent queues in the terminal to get though checkin and customs easier?

also, whats the earliest time we can board? they obviously need to get all the incoming pax off first and do turnaround so i'm thinking 11 or 12

october is also the time for school holidays as well. we are crusin on the aria on the 28th of september to the 5th of october and the ship is sold out for children (we booked a year in advance).

been anther today- https://www.sbs.com.au/news/search-underway-as-woman-falls-overboard-on-p-o-cruise-ship

got my parents on board and we called and made sure it was not them. they are having drinks whilst the search continues (what else are they supposed to do?)

i have booked into portside

 

By the way, you will probably have a boarding time either selected by you, or allocated by the cruise line. In our cruises over many years, the check-in staff didn't care when you were due to board, they let you check in and continue to the boarding area. Not now. We have cruised out of Portside four times in the last 7-8 months and in each of these, the people at the door would only let us into the terminal if it was our boarding time. Arrange your arrival into the parking yard to match up with your boarding time, otherwise you will be standing outside in the yard or sitting in your car waiting for the correct time slot.Not fun with kids who are anxious to get on the ship.

thanks for letting me know.

we have priority embarkation and disembarkation (i got onto P&O and explained about the children's disabilities)

we definitely don't want to be waiting outside so if it looks like we will be early we will just give the kids some extra play time at the macdonalds we are stopping at for breakfast

Hi All

I'm cruising in the september school holidays from portside in brisbane and wondering about parking.

I'd like to book ASAP due to it being holidays and selling out (also as i have 2 intellectually impaired children and being in our own car would ease any issues that come from the disembarkation process).

anyone have any recommendations as to where to park? I'm looking at portside as it's only a short walk to the terminal (if we went with portside i'd drop off my wife and kids, park the car and than head back and go though the check in process)

looking good. i took my honeymoon cruise on this and i'm planning on booking a suprise cruise for my wife for our 10th anniversary in 2020 assuming that it's still in the fleet

theres quite a few islands in in the great barrier reef that have been abandoned - Brampton, Hook and Lindeman islands for starters.

It's possible they could pick one of these up for a steal and make them private

can anyone confirm - i'm looking at getting an edge pass for a cruise i've got coming up but someone told me your restricted to 1 activity on a port day and 2 on a sea day. is this correct?

Obviously there is some drunkenness aboard, but I cannot agree that it is totally due to alcohol packages. Some will drink heavily even with out the package, as in the carnival ships, which have no drink packages and the short P&O cruise which also do not offer drink packages. The bar staff are supposed to adhere to the responsible service of alcohol but like any policy if no one is policing the policy then incidents will occur. That said, I do believe that these incidents occur less frequently than if the same conditions were on land. i.e the same people drinking too much over many days in the same place every night, I am surprised there are not incidents every night.

Maybe, But I can;t help but think that drinks packages encourage drinking. If your paying $95 a day for a drinks package your going to want to get "your moneys worth"

Drinks packages like this are banned (at least in Queensland) under licensing laws

Liquor Act 1992 - Section 142ZZC

© a promotion that is likely to indicate to an ordinary person the availability of liquor, for consumption on the advertised premises, at a price less than that normally charged for the liquor. Examples of promotions for © include:

• 'happy hours'
  
• 'all you can drink'
  
• 'toss the boss'.
  

I get that these ships are in internarional waters and local laws do not apply but there are extremly good reasons for the above law

along with the booze packages that no normal human can actually consume to the fullest extent,

 

 

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This is a big one. I'm going on P&O later this year and i have 2 family members getting the top drinks package ($95 per day). They are planning on drinking a ton - you'd have to so you'd get any form of value out of these packages

\ Would be great for 7 day cruises to the islands; visit up to 4 ports, just a week turn-around, just like USA. I would drive 5 hours to Brisbane to save 2 days at sea instead of my current 3 hour commute to sail from Sydney..

I'm going a 7 nighter out of brisbane in september - only 3 ports though (Noumea, Mare and Villa)

this is the first i've heard of the spirit being moved up here. i wouldn't mind that. i was on it's 3rd cruise out of sydney and really enjoyed the ship

Apologies if there is already a thread for this but I have not seen it.

Background: Portside Wharf can not handle large cruise ships so currently they dock at the grain terminal which has limited facilites for cruise ships. As per https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/queensland/brisbane-s-158m-cruise-ship-terminal-proposal-hits-a-hurdle-20180302-p4z2jr.html

The Port of Brisbane has teamed up with Carnival to build a market demand driven terminal. Carnival proposes to pay an annual fee to the Port of Brisbane Authority for 15 years in return for “first pick” of 100 berthing days at the new cruise ship terminal as part of the agreement, to a maximum of “four days a week”.

The ACCC is not too fond of this and could knock the proposal on the head meaning it will not go ahead

Just ring room service for jug of cold milk

it's not cows milk we are refigerating. it's specialist formula for anti reflux with bulking power.

The rules on holding a koala (if thats what you want to do) are pretty strict.

You can only do so in 3 states (Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia).

this website https://news.experienceoz.com.au/where-to-cuddle-a-koala-in-australia/ has a pretty good rundown of the rules

(and yes, i know this person has probally finished there cruise, but this could be useful for other people)

I would call and speak with them before the cruise, they may be able to make an acceptance if you have a doctors report that your child has a younger social age... this being said on the other hand they may exclude your child from the kids club all together claiming they are not equipped for children with disabilities.

i'll give them a call. neither of the kids need any special accommodations such as hoists or anything. she's basically a 5 year old in a 7 year old body

just wondering how flexible they are with the ages in kids club?

we are cruising in september on the aria with our 2 girls who will be 3 and 7.

I see turtle cove is for 2 - 6 years old. the issue we have is 2 fold:

1 - the 3 year old absolutely idolises the 7 year old and will not stay in kids with out her sister so they help settle each other and

2 - the 7 year old has an intellectual disability and is around 5 or so mentally. she would be much better in turtle cover with her sister than in shark shack. she also has some difficulties with motor skills so the activies they would do in turtle cove would be better for her.

which ship?

depends on the embarkation port. if your leaving from australia you'll have Back to school, Gatsby, Bianco and the sailaway party (have a look at https://www.pocruises.com.au/experiences/at-sea/entertainment/parties for more info)