Froxfield

6 hours ago, Eddie99 said:

So, that’s the news and the drama.  Chef’s Table & *black tie* tonight.  I think we might meet Ollie Smith, who is advertised as being on board

 

 

A year or so back, Ollie Smith was to be found up in the buffet Chef's Table wandering around and being very chatty.  However, it has to be noted that on that particular cruise, Glass House was not up and running food service!

3 minutes ago, molecrochip said:

This is the bit I don't understand and am asking questions about. It is never the same crew who do UK-Caribbean and then Carribbean-UK in the same day.

 

Cabin crew need 12(?) hours off between end of one shift and start of another. Fine on a dialy route as its one overnight. Routes not operated 7 days a week can be more difficult. I know Virgin/BA/Tui bounce their cabin crew around the Islands to avoid long layovers.

 

With Maleth only operating two days a week, either a set of crew get a 6 day break in the Caribbean or they return to London as passengers. The flip applies with the return crew.

 

If true here, passengers are suggesting that Maleth are so short of crew that they created a 12 hour delay to enable the same crew to work the return flight. For most airlines its cheaper to have crew fly as passengers than keep a aircraft out of use for 12 hours downline.

Given how non-transparent all parties have been here it is indeed difficult to understand. With so few aircraft (and therefore crew?) maybe the hiccup with turbulence that occurred last week, combined with the bad UK weather of recent days, created exceptional issues of crew availability?

23 minutes ago, carlanthony24 said:

Surprising his a teacher and has so much time off.

He is transparent as to the financing of his cruising if you were to review his vlogs. And how the cruises he takes fit into his work as a teacher: this last one on Arvia being evidently in school vacation time! He has held senior management roles in secondary education and is now gradually stepping back into part-time teaching.  I have no direct evidence of his capabilities, but the arrangements he has been able to make to change his responsibilities, whilst staying in the same school, suggest that he must have been considered a valuable member of staff. I have found over the months that his comments are well structured and argued and at least as valid as one encounters on cruisecritic!  Of course he has a style that may, or may not, appeal to all but overall I find him to be reliable and balanced. Very far from the ill-organised rants beginning to appear from other vloggers on this particular incident!  I confidently expect that his full edited reports will provide a detailed blow by blow account with evidence. Let's not descend to criticism of this individual which comes close to trolling? 

I may feel different after our Arvia Caribbean cruise in March, but I am, at the moment, looking forward to it. We are some of the "lucky" ones as our flights still appear to be with TUI. But I have felt for some time that P&O make a rod for their own backs by the superlatives they use in their advertising. Of course, all holiday companies do this to some extent.  The introduction of Maleth is a case in point. Instead of stating the obvious about flight capacity and saying they had done their best and it was Maleth, who would provide an adequate service, they appear to have over-promised an excellent level of service (at the least). This does not really accord with the lack of in-flight entertainment announced in the email. Perhaps they could have offered some OBC as compensation? Managing expectations is important.

As Jamie said, some of the worst of it was a lack of honest communications. I thought almost the worst thing, he described, was leaving a single member of the entertainment team to handle the increasingly restive passengers in the theatre at muster for departure. Where in the name of all that's wonderful were the captain and senior officers? When we had a horribly slow disembarkation from DCL in Puerto Rico on one occasion (entirely the fault of the port) the ship's senior officers were well in evidence, trying to sort things out, apologising and dealing with irate customers.

I reflect that P&O could not have chosen a worse person to aggravate than Jamie, given his following. Actual video footage will be all over the place in due course!!!

We were also on this cruise which was overall a decent experience.  But there were a few first world problems. I would say that QV looked less than pristine in quite a few places!  There were several threadbare seams to be seen in the carpets around the ship, quite a lot of woodwork was scratched/chipped (notably beside the grills lifts on deck 11), areas of deck 6 and 4 experienced plumbing issues and a smell of drains could be found in places around the ship: one day in the Queen's Room! A drydock seems overdue.  We enjoyed the Christmas decorations, which relieved QVs decor, which we always think a little drab compared to her sister QE.

Overall, the food in Princess Grill was excellent and served pleasantly.  Although the choice may be more limited than before, we found it more than adequate: we found the fish (sole, halibut and cod) as well as the soups to be the standouts. I can only say that, unfortunately, I was served the toughest piece of USDA prime rib I have ever encountered and a slab of Tournedos that was also so tough it was difficult to cut, let alone chew!! The Tournedos was replaced with a second that was marginally better: but not a lot. Question! Are the steak knives getting a bit blunt?

Finally on the list of gripes, we thought that the quartet of singers in the main theatre were quite the weakest we have ever heard at sea: the two young ladies were frankly unpleasant to listen to: loud and flat. The arrangement one evening of "Over the Rainbow" was a particular low spot!

By contrast we thought that the two speakers (on 1960s music and technical innovation) were pretty good.  The classical pianist was more than OK: I think the strangeness of his schedule reflected the arrangement of the cruise with all the sea days at the beginning and end of the voyage. The Newfoundland folk duo were good value and certainly packed out the Queen's Room.  I think maybe they could have used the Theatre, in preference to one of the shows!

It can't have been that bad, because we have booked again for QA in 2025 in addition to the Alaska trip on QE that we already had in the calendar for next year.  We are looking forward to QA with its increased selection of dining venues and have deliberately booked in Britannia as we intend to use them as much as possible: the grills would be a bit of a waste on that basis! We have learned from Arvia and Iona that we quite like the overall approach of lots of venues: and, at the risk of upsetting some people on here, we quite like Christmas jumpers!!!!

We are looking forward to our upcoming PG trip on QV and think the above menus look fine. Maybe I have a faulty memory but on our first PG trip back in 2011 on QV I am sure we only got to see a much vaunted A La Carte menu on occasional days, as a special treat.  Things gradually changed on our biannual Canary cruises to a more liberal regime.  Perhaps we are now back to where we started?? Or even a little further forward than 2011. Cunard can not be blamed for seeking to differentiate product, when there is a substantial price difference? For myself, I have never seen the attraction of going off-menu. One of the joys of restaurant dining is being able to decide what to eat without having to plan in advance!

2 hours ago, terrierjohn said:

I have to confess that I also find the Beechhouse food far tastier than Epicurean. However Celebrity Eclipses Tuscan Grill food was always delicious, and well worth the extra cost, especially as we always managed to get a discounted price.

Just goes to show how subjective food is. We were desperately unimpressed by Tuscan Grill on Celebrity! On the other hand Murano we found excellent.  Much more expensive than Epicurean, which we have also found excellent on Arvia and Iona. However, we enjoyed Beachhouse as well.

5 hours ago, 9265359 said:

 

The cost of using Epicurean (or the Beach House or Sindhu, etc.) is a supplement to what you have already paid to use the MDR not the whole cost, so to compare it to the whole cost of a meal in a pub or restaurant on land is not comparing like with like.

I have often wondered how much "cost", within the fare, is attributable to a single MDR dinner: I suspect surprisingly little, given bulk buying and preparation!  

Thank you both for the update. Clearly we do not cruise with Cunard often enough! In any event it's not really a problem: I even would not be that disappointed to miss lunch altogether.

1 hour ago, Bell Boy said:

That was during the first several months when Cunard retuned back to regular service during the Pandemic . The same in the Britannia restaurant too. 

2 hours ago, exlondoner said:

But that soon changed. It was lunch by 2022.

21 hours ago, exlondoner said:

Remember Grills lunch on boarding day is almost invariably 1.00 to 2.30, so I really don’t think you will have a problem.

Back in 2021, on our Canaries cruise in autumn, there was no PG lunch.  Afternoon tea was offered (early) on embarkation day. Data on photographs taken at the time suggest we were served just before 2pm!  As I remarked we actually quite liked this approach.

On 11/3/2023 at 10:56 AM, majortom10 said:

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.

Well, although not Diamond, we are in the same boat so to speak! I was a bit surprised to get a 1PM port arrival time for PG on deck 6. But now it doesn't look so bad and, if boarding is smooth, will be OK. However, it does indicate to me that there should be no presumption of embarkation day lunch in the PG restaurant.  Maybe afternoon tea as it was the year before last? An approach we actually quite enjoyed.

The latest I have seen suggests that ETIAS will be delayed yet again until 2025!! Anyone planning Europe needs to keep a sharp eye on developments.

Agree, beyond eye-watering quotes for insurance this year! I am not sure if it is the cruise element or Caribbean/USA costs that are the problem.  Of course, I am awaiting a course of treatment so was expecting the worst!! We decided to suck it up and booked some extra trips to reduce the cost per day.  Nevertheless, I sincerely hope the insurer makes a lot of profit out of me!

We found the new look Sindhu on Iona less than impressive (and nowhere near as good as the previous Atul Kocha offering on other ships: now long gone). Apart from anything else the portions seemed enormous! Given there are plenty of other good options on Iona and Arvia we are likely to give it a miss in future.

On 5/20/2023 at 5:11 PM, AnnieC said:

Gosh, that's an odd one; Cunard usually get excellent speakers: once went to one by Sir David Frost who was, of course, hugely entertaining and Lord Digby Jones also superb - QV theatre jam packed for every lecture. The low point was Clare Balding, just about the worst speaker I've heard on any cruise line (subjective opinion, of course). Her ubiquitiousness (is that even a word? Where's wowzz when you need him?) has been a mystery to me ever since.

We enjoyed Clare Balding very much and she is very far from the worst speaker we have had on a cruise!! (subjective opinion of course). Her frequent appearances on television are likely down to her undoubted competence and professionalism in a wide variety of topics. Except line dancing as observed in Queen's Room on QE and as she admitted on stage!

Disneyland!  Try Disney prices against P&O!!!

I have probably said this before, but I'll say it again anyway!  We first cruised P&O in 2012 and would never have described it as a "special" experience although the cruises were decent value for money. This particularly applies to the food in the MDRs (silver service and all) which reminded of the old Trust House Forte of the 1970s: loads of overcooked meat and two veg.  

17 hours ago, Selbourne said:

That’s exactly our view, even though we are long standing P&O customers. Given all the changes, we are no longer prepared to pay what we once did for a P&O cruise, but we don’t mind a more budget experience as long as the prices reflect it. We are fortunate that we are able to do a number of cruises a year. If we want a special cruise we will now use Cunard or Saga, but for ‘filler’ holidays we will continue to use P&O - unless any of the cruises that we do this year (our first since Covid, and on 3 different ships) convince us that our P&O days are numbered. Hopefully that won’t be the case 🤞

Well we have one more Cunard cruise coming up in November and then we will see. Frankly we don't much care for the Britannia class experience, based on two QM2 transatlantics and Princess Grill is becoming prohibitively expensive for us! Again, whilst the Grills restaurants are nice and true Freedom dining (!), the menu seems resolutely stuck in the 1970s with things like duck a l'orange And I do not need caviar: having lived in Moscow for six years, I have had my fill of that!  We enjoy the grills cabins on QV and QE but (horror of horrors) the new Queen Anne cannot offer a bath in the bathroom: shower only!  And the prices! We think this might be our last Cunard cruise.

To get back on topic, I think P&O offer a great choice of dining experience. And I must disagree with Snow Hill above. The experience is nothing like the "ferries" of my experience. Just a normal good international hotel standard. We now have three more cruise booked on Iona/Arvia.  Wild horses wouldn't get us on the smaller ships! It takes all sorts......Other opinions are available!

5 minutes ago, TigerB said:

 

They're still asking; or, at least I was this morning.

Yes, we were asked a couple of days ago when booking onboard for 2025. I only hope the answer got put onto the system!!

Given the prices I have been quoted for 14 day cruises in 2024 and 2025 over the last few months I would not be surprised if cost cutting continued! Frankly I think that P&O are offering remarkable value for money at around £100 per person per day all found for a select fare in a balcony cabin on Arvia/Iona. Although most of the entertainers on offer do not appeal to us most of the time, we are still more than happy with value for money! At the price, we are more than happy to ante up for speciality restaurants and like the variety of the larger ships. I understand that long-standing former P&O passengers may be less than delighted with this option but I am guessing it is the shape of things to come on most, if not all "bulk" cruise lines.

2 hours ago, Megabear2 said:

Collected and on-board in room by 3.40pm.  Still.big queues outside when I boarded.  Assistance man told me today had been a "good one", not sure what a bad one will be like!!

I think "a good one" means that they tipped all the self loading cargo off in good time. When we reported to our disembarkation holding location the statutory 10 minutes before time we were told we could go straight to leave the ship! The result seemed to be that the the ramps were very crowded and the baggage hall a real scrimmage. Tempers were getting a little frayed. We were lucky to get one of the last five trolleys available at the time: but it wouldn't steer well!!! Nevertheless we got though in reasonable time and it didn't spoil our cruise

 

My tea/coffee drawer is broken, pulled it out, everything fell on the floor and it wouldn't go back in.  Took me ages to get it back in.

We also puled the tea drawer right out and struggled to get it back. I am not sure it is broken, just poorly designed?

Big news:  NO BISCUITS ....

Biscuits appearing haphazardly seems to be the new thing!  It also took a couple of days for our welcome bottle of Champagne to show up. (I know us in mini-suite!).  Mind you I don't remember it being Taittinger before: maybe other supply issues?

Overall, we loved our cruise. There were reports of rude passengers but we didn't see too much pushing and shoving.  Just one occasion when one of the "Great British Passengers" decided to verbally abuse one of the VERY hard working bar staff who, I must say handled it with great composure.

I ope you enjoy your cruise as much as we did.

On 4/4/2023 at 1:26 PM, majortom10 said:

Food is very subjective but having done over 30 cruises with P&O since 2000 we were disappointed with the food served in MDR on our recent Iona cruise. No issue with quality just small portion size and very repetitive menu with poor choice.

I can't go back that far but my memory of P&O ten years ago is of dated silver service of vast quantities of overdone, soggy vegetables somewhat reminiscent of railway dining cars back in the 1970s. Frankly, that was one of the reasons we gave up going on P&O! Although we weren't that impressed with Iona's main dining rooms ( I recall one really quite poor, tough piece of sirloin steak) we found the quality rather better than our experience on the smaller ships.  The steak is on the menu every night, of course, and I have avoided it ever since.  The portions are perfectly adequate, we feel: it is hard enough to avoid weight gain on a cruise as it is!

We first "discovered" speciality dining on Celebrity: where again I have had some poor MDR meals.  Now I would avoid ships where there is not a good range of  speciality dining. Iona scores well because of the great range on offer and the moderate prices charged for the quality. Each to their own taste, of course, but Celebrity is now off our list because we find Tuscan Grill unimpressive and do not want Le Petit Chef. Although I miss Murano!! Just to say to offer a bit of comparison to P&Os offerings.

Now looking forward to trying Arvia at the end of this month

On 4/1/2023 at 12:08 PM, Interestedcruisefan said:

I suggest just go and enjoy the parts of Arvia you can enjoy

 

Avoid the parts you can't. It's a big enough ship to easily avoid places. 

 

It's also big enough to ensure there will be plenty you don't like. But enjoy the cruise. Dont write it off before you've even been.

 

And then if you don't like it. Do as you suggest  and take your business somewhere you prefer. 

 

Right now for my wife and I we love the value Arvia and Iona can deliver us

 

 

Absolutely agree!  One benefit of larger ships, which I had not appreciated until going on Iona, is that you can easily avoid what you don't like: particularly in respect of entertainment.  Wild horses wouldn't get me to the Limelight or (probably) 710: even (sacrilege!) Gary Barlow. But I can avoid and still have plenty to do and it is great for those who do like those things!  Iona and Arvia are now our favoured ships, although I do concede that the itineraries are a bit limited: mostly to places we quite like to go!

It would seem the Ministry of Truth is alive and well in the P&O PR department? Fortunately, none of this matters very much. The naming ceremony will be yesterday's news quickly! Everyone must recognise that the superlatives dolled out by the PR departments (of all cruise lines) overhype the "luxury" and experience available to the "self loading cargo".  Despite this the overall experience remains, at least in my opinion, pretty dashed good and excellent value for money: there is enough variety for one to pick and choose what suits and ignore what doesn't. PR and advertising has always exaggerated. It used to be said that all advertising was aimed at the CEO of the company in question, to boost his or her ego. The danger arises when they start to believe the publicity: complacency can set in!

Likewise! we had an invite to a lunch in the MDR on embarkation day, left in the cabin. Deck 9 Conservatory suite is our choice when we have the budget!

I am afraid I found it pretty cringe inducing.  Superlative upon superlative description delivered with little sincerity, mediocre singing etc., etc! If I didn't already know that I enjoyed the Iona product (and had bookings I am looking forward to on both Iona and Arvia) this may well have put me off! Much kudos to the prime minister of Barbados who was short and to the point and knew when to stop! Olly Smith did his bit well.