philipsw285

hi i have a few questions i'm traveling with my 75 year old mother.

1st question Gatwick north how far are the terminals and are there travelators (thinking of organizing a wheel chair here and Barbados)

2nd same question as above but for Barbados.

3rd when do you check in on the cruise at the ship or airport.

4th we land at 4.30pm how long does it take to get on the ship from the airport as dinner is booked for 6.30pm and my parents are worried about making dinner.

5th and final any any idea what the current duty free rate is for golden Virginia rolling tobacco 50 gram packs is need to make sure i set enough money aside for it.

questions might seem unusual but we have only ever sailed from Southampton and never been outside Europe on holiday before..

hi Pamela i'm flying to Barbados in march i have one black suit a cheap matalan one i wear this with a white shirt and black tie on formal nights and shirts and trousers on non formal you don't have to have the dinner jacket experience i normally have dinner then go to cabin and change in to jeans and t shirt as long as you're aware that you're bending the rules you can go to quite a lot of places on the ship you don't have to stay in the cabin you could probably get away with a skirt or trousers and a blouse for dinner the only stipulation that p&o do put on dinner in the main dinning room is smart casual which mean no jeans t shirts and shorts......

hi all i'm on azura A805 transatlantic re positioning cruise we got an upgrade in the last couple of days were still balcony but we were HF grade now HB no change in size just position now mid ship rather than forward which will hopefully make the Atlantic a bit better................

i have a few questions...

is this cruise full duty free only ever been to med or canary islands before so know on med cruise you have go to Gibraltar...

just swapped from cigarettes to roll ups can you buy rizzla papers and filters from the shop on the ship?

hi all on azura booked on 9th march sailing a805 this is an unusual question have been told by p&o that there is a coach transfer laid on back to gatwick airport?

i went on p&o's website last year and asked the question they told me to go on inter cruise website when we tryed to book they don't do single trips from the ships and don't go to gatwick.....

phoned p&o they're now saying coach's will be allocated on the ship i just need to know if this is correct as i've had 2 versions from p&o....

hi all booked premium upgrade on flight which was another £126 we did this when booking cruise last year im doing the azura tranatlantic in march the flight became available this week i have had to pay another £25 each to book seats when i checked with p&o as to why i paid this £126 and now you're asking for another £25 i just oh thats how it is.

i needed extra legroom for 2 reasons my parents are in there 70's and need to be able to move and my brother who is asd (a form of aspergers) and can't cope with being cooped up for to long....

in the past we've only sailed from southampton so haven't had this problem has this always been the case.

I agree with the poster above, for Summer/Fall 2019. We're waiting to book our Repo to Japan, as soon as it's available. Some of the cruises through April 2020, will get released in the Spring.That's too bad to hear about P&O. I had hoped that the maintenance issues were isolated to the Carnival brand itself.

I did Britannia last year and considering it was under a year old it was in a shocking state there is no wow factor you walk into the ship and it's like really i that it...

The ship has a loud and very noticeable vibration which can be heard and felt in the dining room on deck 6 rear and in the bar at top of ship in the rear the carpets were wearing out and coming apart and there were signs of rust every where even on the outside..

i sailed on eclipse twice end of 1st season and start of 2nd season 2010 and 2011 so its a while i have been cruising on p&o but becoming disillusioned with state of Britannia and poor maintenance of other ships so looking for celebrity again even tho cost has gone up from when i last went.....

i'm looking for 2019 as i already have p&o booked for 2018 so here's the question when do they launch 2019/2020 i can't see any dates yet?

I am on Briannia now and have to say that while I didn't notice the soot problem last year it seems to be pretty bad in some areas this time. I am surprised that it doesn't seem to get much attention from the staff. I would have thought that they should have someone on regular patrols cleaning the seats at least.

 

Other than that I think the ship is fine.

whats the vibration like at the back of the ship it is very noticeable at 17 to 18 knots plus in oriental restaurant and sunset bar at back on deck 16.

Hi philipsw285 I have no comment to anything in this thread as I haven't been on any of these ships but...I was wondering where you got the profile pictures of the ships on your page they are amazing do you know if Cunard one are available? Thanx Allison

i don't know if the site is going to let me post but here goes.

http://www.cruise-ships.com/tickers/

sorry hadn't read the post's since last weekend.

As I said above, I did enjoy my cruise on Britannia and I'm sure that you will too. However, it just didn't have the appearance of a new ship and they don't seem to have taken advantage of advances in design and technology in building it. Perhaps I was expecting too much!

That's what I felt the only people that thought ship was ok were 1st time cruisers who don't know any difference all the people I spoke to who had cruised before felt the same as me in that they wouldn't sail Britannia again I spoke to about 50 tp 100 different people over the course of the cruise who felt the same as me as I'm a smoke you tend to speak to people as there is only a limited area for us to smoke in.

I did think at the start of the cruise it was me until I started talking to different people.

Something else that came to light is that a few inside cabins are having sound insulation problems they can hear everything that's going on in the middle of the ship at night one couple were move 4 times over this and kept getting the same issues until they moved them to nearer the front.

My phone went wrong posting the last message I didn't start looking at anything else until I'd heard and felt vibration at the back of the ship it has only put me of of sailing Britannia again I'm going on azura in 2018 and friends have told me this is being maintained and I've been on it before and enjoyed it. My problem is solely with Britannia build and maintenance. It didn't ruin the cruise but has made me think more before I book one and if I sail on the new ship it will be once I know from else where it's ok either through here or through friends travelling on it.

I'm not quality control but a carpet and floor

I wrote the original post on sunday and thought it must have been me as over 100 people looked and no one replied.

The comment about celebrity eclipse I saw it 3 times whilst away twice at Southampton and also in citevetchia where I had a good look she still seems in very good condition from the outside I sailed on her the last European cruise of 2010. she was built in meyer werft in Germany.

I spoke to a friend who had been on royal princess last year and asked him what its condition was like as it is the same ship but a different brand and he reckoned it was immaculate when he sailed at the end of the year.

I also said about the vibration and he said he hadn't notice anything and it very noticeable on Britannia.

So the question is is it p&o scrimping on maintenance and Italian ship builders poor workmanship?

the free coffee in horizon isn't that good from the machine changed to tea after 2 days the Douwe Egberts in the room are good and costa to just avoid the horizon coffee machine

i have just returned from britannia's latest med cruise the ship doesn't have the wow factor that azura oriana and even adonia and this along with the vibration felt and herd in oriental restaurant and sunset bar on deck 16 when the ship is travelling at 18 knots or more which was at least 70% of our time at sea.

I work in carpets and flooring and always look at the floor which is very annoying to my family the ships carpets are showing signs of wear and holes and gaps which it shouldn't do at the age of the ship and as you walk round sunset bar all the speakers are rusting which then made me look else where and all they seem to be doing is varnishing and not painting white like they would normally. i wasn;t the only person on the cruise who had this opinion quite a lot of people i spoke to felt the same....

is this fleet wide as i had the same thing on adonia as far as maintenance painting and flooring but put it down to the fact that they announced adonia was leaving the fleet on our cruise last june.

i'm sorry i started this thread now for people who were having A GO ABOUT ME REMOVING IT i'm sharing a room with my brother who is not the tidiest of people my parents are in the room next door and we feel sorry for the room service attendant he gets a raw deal no matter how much i tidy by the time the attendant gets to it the room will have clothes all over it we....

the room attendant gets a lot more...................

we give the same amount as auto.

we did adonia last june and i'm sure it wasn't this much trouble to do the same thing.

i'm all for building it into the price of the holiday and then you don't have to think about it at all please p&o listen........................

i'm currently on britannia and wanted to remove tips as we have done before and pay our waiters and room attendant directly i don't know if english is a foreign language to all the staff at the pursers desk but they are going out of their way to stop us from doing this we have never had a problem in the past they gave us a form earlier which is for adjusting the amount not stopping it last week they told us it was 4 or 5 forms to fill in and couldn't be done until the 2nd week of the cruise????

anyone managed to remove it recently?

the new internet package is on Britannia its a lot better connection to what we had last year when on Adonia buttttttttttttttt i have been buying in individual days as when i'm in port i can use my mobile internet.The thing i spoted this morning was that we get off the ship Saturday week and the charge for the balance of the cruise works out to being all day Saturday as they offer 24 hour package or entire cruise package. I don't know if this will change later will look when i get back from Barcelona....

glad to see its being built in papenburg so won't be the signs of rust britannia already has. As dry dock is covered and technology they use is the most advanced in the world.

more staircases and lifts our muster drill was diabolical the staircases were blocked with people trying to get to the headliners theatre nothing was moving it was like trying to get into an underground station on a weekday at 5.30-6.00pm.. god help us if the ship had to do a proper emergency drill.

more lifts and staircase full stop needs at least 4 sets of lifts and 4 sets of staircase that go all the way up not one front and one back like britannia.

decks that go all the way round you seem to walk into walls and have to go up or down which makes the ship seem twice as big and very tireing.

As it's being built by meyer werft azipods because Britannia at 18 knots plus you get loud vibration sound in the oriental restaurant and i've been on ships with azipods and you get none of that when its flat out 20 knots plus.......

the tv's in the balcony cabins are samsung they do lift of the wall but be careful on right hand side are 3 hdmi ports and a usb slot p&o's remote will not work any of this we spent ages trying to get a hard drive working what we found after getting a one for all remote in cadiz which didn't work is my brothers mobile a samsung has Infrared he went to google store and there was an app which controls the tv hey presto instead of watching laptops we can now watch videos from our hard drives................

It takes 2 people 1 to hold the tv and the other to plug the lead in (if you have small hands you may be able to do it without taking the tv of the wall)

when you put the tv back make sure you line it up centrally you will know if you haven't as it will stick out lift the tv slightly and push the bottom in.

i hope this helps someone......

i've been looking at the entertainment in the limelight club on my cruise this SATURDAY and wondered if you have to have a meal to enjoy the acts or if there is a bar area so people can come in and watch the entertainment?

as Cheryl Baker is on and Jonty Stephens and Ian Ashpitel as Eric and Ern......

thanks for that didn't know if we would be flying at 6am but from what the 2 of you have said its between 8 and 10am which means i need to leave about 6am from where i live just need to get an idea now on the price for taxi to gatwick.

I'm doing barbados to southampton on azura in 2018 i know its a long way of but can someone give me a rough idea what time of day the flights normally leave gatwick as we wan't a rough guide on taxi prices and time of day effects pricing at our local cab company.

my parents used club card points for the 2nd time recently you can only book select price and not saver i don't think you could book last minute as they have to check the voucher which each time we have used them took about 6 weeks. if your'e sailing from southampton you won't get free parking and the last time we went they didn't get on board spending and i did p&o do seem to change rules about this each time we've booked using it.

The other thing is you must tell them at time if booking as after cruise is booked they will not accept the vouchers.

i have sailed on a few ships in p&o fleet so i know that previous ships we couldn't plug into hdmi ports and play laptop or tablets through them has this change on Britannia as i'm sailing at the start of september.