majortom10

Getting the food is t the problem but at pearl lunch time it can be difficult to find a vacant table.

Yes perhaps so for one person that doesn't mean the whole cruise was a bad cruise. With over 3500 people on onboard I am sure there were many differing opinions on the food and sure would say it was a great cruise. The same can be said on any cruise with any cruise line because it is impossible to please everyone all the time.

Food is so subjective that one person's opinion might be the opposite to others so don't think one opinion makes it on the whole a bad cruise.

Let's be honest we can catch COVID on any ship in fact anywhere whether at sea or not I don't think there is any one area to avoid catching it when there is large number of people in confined spaces i.e. buffet, coach excursions/shuttle buses and lifts. The blame cannot be put on any cruise line.

Fact is cruising is now a lot cheaper now than when I first started cruising in 1997. If you take into account inflation if it stayed the same it would be a lot more expensive. My first cruise on Cunard was cheapest inside cabin on the ship and it was over £100pppn and remember when Arcadia first sailed we went on a 14 nt cruise in an inside cabin and was over £1700pp. You cannot expect the same standards of food and extras with pricing as it is now.

No there are no ironing boards or irons in any cabin due to the fire risk. There are facilities in launderette I believe.

P&O was taken over by Carnival way before cutbacks and if it had never happened they wouldn't have the ships they have now. When it was announced in 2003 and we were on Aurora and all had a letter with info. Royal Caribbean were the favourites until Carnival trumped them at last minute so that they could get their hands on Princess. Captain told us at his cocktail party that it was a necessity for a tie up because P&O had not got the funding to compete and would have struggled without it.

We recently dined in Sindhu on Arvia and had a very enjoyable meal. We have eaten in every Sindhu and agree that they are not as good as when Atul Kochhar was involved but still worth a visit for price paid.

Be thankful if you booked Q5 in UK you might get OBC but you wouldn't get free dinner in Kings Court Alternative, hotel & dining and certainly not a drinks package. Sorry if I don't feel sorry for you just be thankful what you are being offered because Cunard certainly treat US cruisers better than the contempt they treat UK cruiser's and take advantage of their loyalty.

Trouble with pre registration direct with P&O is they will not let you pick your own stateroom only caning grade. If you book with a good cruise TA you can give them a choice of cabins you would be happy to book and there is a chance of being cheaper than booking direct. Plus you won't have the problem of telephone problems which P&O are notorious for if you have any problems later.

No not for me this time. Decide to have a look round at other cruise lines for Autumn 2025.

There is no way I would book a cruise paying the full Select Fare and only have a guaranteed stateroom. If they wouldn't let me choose a stateroom then I wouldn't book.

We never had any issues whatsoever on Iona in March. We just joined the virtual queue as we were leaving our stateroom and was always ready by the time we had got the lift and walked to restaurant. This was at so called peak times and always for a table for two. We never experienced when going on the app to join the virtual queue the "queue full" issue.

If you are on a round-trip TA and only have a day in New York "In Transit" is what Cunard recommend.

Or block the person.

No but you state on a regular basis that people are being attracted to cruising with P&O with Saver inside cabins. Just because you do that doesn't mean everyone else is the same.

Fortunately not everyone is driven by cost alone but the experience and the quality of the product.

I have a neighbour whose son has recently started cruising last 2-3 yrs with his wife both in late 20s. They asked my advice knowing I have done a lot of cruising about cruising in general and when I suggested P&O they laughed. They have been with Virgin since 3 times and in the equivalent of a suite so proves not all Brits want Saver Inside cabins.

That is total nonsense because not all new cruiser's to P&O are only booking Saver price inside cabins. They might book Saver price which is their choice but many wouldn't step foot on any cruise ship unless in at least a balcony.

Once again you are repeating your own belief. Princess is a mostly American cruise line which is very popular with families from US and they travel to Alaska, Far East, Caribbean and the Med. They are just as popular in America as P&O are in UK and many younger people travel on them because there patents did so just as high in first time cruiser's. The Med cruises with Princess are majority UK passengers many who have moved across from P&O because they are disgruntled with them. Americans if they want to go to Med generally fly to Barcelona so they are not suffering inclement weather and BoB. The round Britain cruises are very popular with Americans and not so UK cruiser's. So you are again wrong in basing that youngsters don't want to go to Princess in general, perhaps so with UK cruiser's but not so American youngsters and families. The elephant in the room which I think P&O are trying is to lure youngsters away from Royal Caribbean and Norwegian cruise lines and cruise with them. But even with Arvia a paltry rope experience, a mini golf and Escape Room and even less on Iona is a poor example of what is available with Royal Caribbean.

Once again you are assuming Princess on 2-3 ships based in UK when they have many more ships around the world and very popular with American families moreso than P&O. In fact Princess is one of the most popular American cruise lines with far more ships, cruiser's and families worldwide than P&O.

It seems to me with your relative cruise inexperience a lot of your information is just guess work without personal knowledge. Having done over 60 cruises you are assuming a lot and are totally wrong. With regards to Arvia/Iona having bigger dance troupes and comparing it to a Britannia Staycation is completely wrong. Having cruised on all P&Os current ships since 2000 the dance troupes are no bigger on normal cruises and not staycation. There 13 on our recent Arvia cruise and was no bigger than all the other ships.

You are well experienced in life and know that companies can and do manipulate figures to suit their agenda. Like I said in previous post bookings might be up but only due to low cruise prices and very high OBC. Having only recently transferred my booking in April. Initial cruise booked on brochure release with free parking and no OBC, transferred to cruise on same ship fortnight earlier virtually same price as initial one with free parking and £660 OBC. That is why bookings are up because of high OBC bring given out at the moment which wasn't available on brochure release. They have had to do it because obviously not selling well and have offered high OBC to boost sales which cannot be sustainable long term. Also honestly after the insulting publicity release by Paul Ludlow of the infamous 99.9% of people were happy on Arvia over Christmas/new year period was embarrassing and don't believe a word that comes out of that idiots mouth.

You are assuming only from your own experiences on Arvia that it is the same every cruise which is clearly not. On my cruise recently Escape Room was available every day and was never fully booked and as far as the rope experience on top deck was never used or very rarely. In fact it was closed most of the time due to wind conditions. Even in good weather when the ship is at sea so looks like it will be closed a lot due to H&S. These might well be popular in school holidays when the ship is full of younger adults with children but most of the year will be very low in children number and don't think younger adults with no children will be interested in Arvia in the cooler months. There was only 126 children on onboard and many all were interested in so being around the pool in SkyDome and camped out for the whole cruise.

You get 5% discount for every use of parking after first cruise when booking direct.