majortom10

We visited Epicurean on both Iona and Arvia this year and personally had the lobster on both ships and both excellent meals with first class service. The t bone pork was also excellent on Arvia. With pre booking and getting 20% discount and then 10% Peninsular Club discount made it £21-60pp. Excellent value for money and a meal of that standard for the cost was exceptional. You would struggle in many pubs to get 3 course meal for that price. Think people's expectations are too high when these days fish and chips to take away in paper can be in excess of £10+.

So sad for your loss but unfortunately that is in the booking conditions that you agree to when you book holiday. Not just P&O but all cruise lines and land based holiday company adopt the no deposit refund in their booking conditions.

They do ongoing maintenance with contractors onboard all the time. We sat late one evening watching 2 contractors in the atrium by reception on QM2 replacing the carpet. Very entertaining and the highlight of the roundtrip TA 😁

I do not think size of ship is a reason of anti social behaviour. We have encountered occasional incidents on all sizes of ships. We even encountered a male passenger attack with fists a waiter in the Lido buffet restaurant one lunchtime on QE2. Long before drinks packages and would expect better from clientele on a Cunard ship but obviously not.

Sorry to say and I don't want to sound snobbish that P&O seem to be that desperate to fill their larger ships they are allowing the wrong type of clientele onboard. I also believe that the drinks package and the quest for value for money means people are drinking more or an amount they should not be doing. All in the name of profit.

The rules have always been you can only have extra OBC benefit from BLC if you book Select, direct with P&O and only when making new booking. There have been reports in past of some being lucky enough to have BLC benefit applied after making booking. I think this is more an occasional mistake by P&O than the normal. They seem to be more spot on these days and stick to T&C's which are clearly stated on BLC App.

If they resort to P&O method of check in they check your embarkation time at the entrance to terminal. If you are early as stated on boarding pass they don't even let you into the terminal you have to queue outside. We were bang on time of our boarding pass and we bypassed the queue of those that were early and the terminal was empty with every seat vacant.

Personally don't think embarkation on deck order is factual and just an excuse given by Customer Services who half the time don't know what they are talking about. We are deck 6 in PG with priority boarding, if I am correct caravan 12 is also on deck 6 in a balcony without priority boarding. If deck by deck and only given priority boarding on your deck cannot believe those with priority like myself at 1pm it then takes 2-5 hrs to embark the rest of deck 6 as caravan 12 is 3-30pm.

I will be honest with what seems the decline of loyalty tiers and the fact they have stopped UK cruiser's from purchasing Future Cruise Deposits, but not US/Canadian cruiser's, I am become very disillusioned. Because we cannot purchase FCDs we have cruised less than what we did pre pandemic and can see it getting even less or stopping altogether. There are other cruise lines out there that offer as good an experience as Cunard for less money.

We are on the same cruise in PG and for the first time as a Diamond member. we are on deck 6 and have a boarding time of 1pm and states on boarding pass "priority boarding". Sounds to me as if it is another "perk" of CWC being lost so does make you wonder about loyalty to Cunard.

not so sure about that we regularly get 20% discount on meals in pubs and saved a considerable amount. i have just renewed mine and will get my £4-99 back in discount of 20% we get on meals in pub we use in Southampton pre cruise at end of month.

Never booked direct with P&O and claimed extra OBC BLC benefit. Always had better overall deals from a TA.

No you cannot add the extra OBC after you have booked your cruise.

In 1997 Golden Sands had a flat roof which was badly damaged and I believe since then it has been replaced by a succession of pitched roofs.

If it is the same TA as I have used in the past they have details of my BLC on file and has been beneficial, they give a better discount than without it recently. The discounts that have been given normally without BLC has dropped since pandemic to as low as 1-5/2% and after only comparing with other cruise TAs have they increased discount to match rather than losey business.

Just to prove how unlucky we are we were on holiday in Jersey at the time of the infamous Michael Fish weather forecast in 1987. We were staying at Golden Sands hotel right on the beach at St Brelades and it blew the flat roof of the hotel and we put a waste paper basket collecting drips through ceiling. Never knew what happened to our balcony furniture as it disappeared during storm never to be seen again.

We were on Caronia once heading back to Southampton up the coast of Portugal when we were hit by a severe storm. Captain Nick Bates closed down the ship and told everyone to return to their cabins for their own safety. Next day he said he hadn't experienced it that bad for many years and he had sent a second officer on deck and was photographed recording the wind speed on Beaufort scale. It was off the scale and was so rare he said he had arranged for everyone to receive a photograph as when they told friends they wouldn't believe you so you had proof. It was very scary and did a lot of damage to the ship. We got in bed under covers for our own safety and the cabin looked as if it had been bombed.

It explains T&C's and what OBC you get on BLC app.

You have to book direct with P&O to get extra OBC and you have to do it when booking if anyone have had it added retrospectively then they are lucky.

That is correct just type of cabin, suite i.e. QG, PG, Club or balcony and then there is different pricing for grades of cabin/suite.

I have had the need to contact Harding Retail in Bristol in the past regarding a watch I bought on Cunard. They also operate shops on both P&O and Cunard and we're very helpful and solved the problem. It wasn't a fault or defect just the watch was limited edition and should have been in a special box but wasn't. They contacted the watch company and got the correct box and sent it to me very efficiently.

End of the day you are on a moving ship and subject to the weather and sea state regarding creaks and noises. All parts of the fun of cruising IMO.

Caronia was sold on to Saga and became Saga Rugby.

I am not from Yorkshire and is a common word in many parts of the country.

Having done a few roundtrip TAs on QM2 at differing times of the year they are always very popular with people from all over the world. Iconic way of travelling transatlantic and can see QM2 lasting for a good few years yet. Nobody knows what need there will be for a cruise ship or liner and is anyone's guess what will be built in the future.