nutty nurse gladys

Many thanks all 🤩

Been a while since we sailed with RCL but seem to remember that if sailing from UK there is a kettle in the cabin

Wondering if this is still the case. Thanks

Ah thank you sounds the same as P&O then. Its usually only breakfast we would order if we had a trip booked and wanted to be out early.

Is that for all room service? Was on P&O recently and with them breakfast was free but everything else was charged

Going on the Explorer soon and wondered if room service is still free?

Its been a few years since we sailed with RCL and aware that there have been changes.  Would be interested to hear whats changed in the last 6 years or so.

Many thanks

Many thanks for your replies. I'm sure it will be fine whatever time of day it changes. Got to be better than the awful jetlag we get from flying home. This will be the first time for us sailing home. Always wanted to do it but never had the time before. If we like it then I'm sure it could become the first of many.

We are booked on a TA cruise in a couple of weeks and were wondering how the time changes are managed from the Caribbean to Southampton? I seem to remember hearing that they change an hour each day.

Can anyone enlighten me please. Thanks.

Many thanks, I feel more confident now to start looking..............so many places to go. exciting. :D

Hi all, we have just returned from a 10 day Canaries cruise on the Eclipse. I have to say that we enjoyed every aspect immensly but the icing on the cake for us was a win of $1000 on the last day of the cruise.

Now this win comes in the form of a credit towards our next sailing/booking which has to be done through blue chip at celebrity and not through our usual travel agent.

My question to you experienced folks out there it this - has anyone else ever won this or similar and how easy is it to exchange and book. As we are from the UK and Celebrity being American, just wondering if this is as good as it appears?

Hoping someone can adivse, thanks.

Seven weeks and counting to our Eclipse cruise. Will enjoy hearing all about the ship and who's on it, entertainment etc if possible. Cheers.

Fantastic, many thanks, and yes I agree its lovely to be able to make a cuppa when you want, but then I suppose its a very British pastime.:p

Hi all, I seem to remember that the last time we sailed from Southampton on the Eclipse, there was a kettle in the cabins. Just wondered if anyone knows whether this is still the case. I know that there is not normally a kettle in Celebrity cabins. thanks.

Thanks for taking the time to read my comments.

To add a little more -yes we too missed the mix of nationalities, we do enjoy chatting. We also tried that chatting to many of the crew, but agree that they are probably trained to be more distant. You would never pass a member of staff on celebrity without them acknowledging you and smiling. As always there were a couple of exceptions as I mentioned.

I should also say that it was always well past midnight when we retired but no evidence of cleaners-we too enjoyed Brodies, lovely atmosphere and (so Im told) a great selection of beers, something not available on other lines . Also worth a mention is the reasonable pricing in the bars, another positive.

overall as I said previously there was nothing to fault just slight differences that may or may not impact on the experience.

Just thought I would share a few personal (I emphasise the personal) thoughts and observations we noted on our recent Britannia cruise.

We are 2 couples around the 60 mark who love to cruise as often as we can.

Over the years we have found that Celebrity is our preferred line and we love just about everything they offer, from that welcome glass of fizz to the wonderful staff.

My husband and I have done P&O many times before but not for the last 8 years or so, our friends had never experienced P&O so a week in Norway sounded like a good trial.

So, what did we think? Having heard various stories about embarkation we were prepared for the worst. We were given 3pm boarding and arrived at about 2:20pm. Within 20 minutes we were on board. Fantastic, no waiting no queues, great. So far so good.

First impressions, ok, no wow but we werent really expecting that, having done the Royal Princess which is very similar. Off to find our cabin a pleasant balcony on deck 8. Another wow......our cases were already there. Amaing, never in 20 odd years of cruising have we had that happen.

Cabin definately much smaller than equivalent on other cruise lines and the balcony was tiny. We always open up the partition between us so that did give us a little more room. The bathroom too was much smaller than we're used to and not much storage.

Plenty of hanging space and shelves but not many drawers, however adequate for our needs.

Muster drill and we had to lug our lifejackets with us, something we havent done for some time, and it did go on a bit. Not quite sure how they knew we had attended as there was no logging of cruise cards on entry or roll calls.

We chose second sitting and had a lovely table for 4 right by the window and our 2 waiters seemed very nice, although they did not actually introduce themselves until the end of the meal on the second night. Strange. It was also quite usual for the men to be served before the ladies? Call me old fashioned!

Food we enjoyed but didnt really feel that there was much choice, with a lot of repetition each night rather than different offerings each night, eg. prawn cocktail every night, tomato soup, steak, bread and butter pudd, to name a few.

There was no beef wellington, no souffles, no creme brulee. OK not the end of the world and ok for a week, but we sensed that it would become more boring if we had been aboard for any longer.

Food was always hot and portion size ok. We did not feel that the staff were as attentive eg every night having to ask for water glasses to be refilled, normally waiters clock that we like lots of water with our meal and would automatically refil. Although the wine waiter had no such problem, always on hand to fill the glasses.

Entertainment was outstanding. The energy that the dancers and singers had was amazing and every show we went to we were impressed. We also liked being able to go to late shows as the American ships do tend to favour early shows. Guests were also good.

we didnt do any speciality resturants so no comments.

Lots of venues to spend time and enjoy a drink or two and never had a problem getting a table whatever the time. Never saw any officers wondering around, not at all visible and only saw the captain once and that was at the welcome party. The staff generally were not as chatty as we are used to and there was not a lot of banter or interaction with just the odd exception.

One of the biggest differences we noticed though was the cleanliness or lack of it. Late at night we are used to seeing staff cleaning away in public areas but not once did we see any evidence of anyone cleaning. Not in the lifts or indeed in the toilets at any time. We were never encouraged to use the gel although we did. Upon returning to the ship after being ashore there was nobody ensuring that hands were sanitised. OK theres sinks on the entrance to the buffet, but we observed so many people not bothering.

So, all in all we really enjoyed our trip and it was definatly good value for money. We would certainly consider booking with P&O again. There wasnt really anything that you could find fault with, I guess these were just our observations of some of the differences with American lines that we encountered and maybe will be useful to others.

Many thanks for all your replies, hand luggage it will be then :).

We are shortly joining Britannia and having done many American lines recently, we are looking forward to the more relaxed attitude towards bring aboard wine which it seems is more acceptable with P&O. As we intend to bring a couple of bottles to enjoy on the balcony could you help with how is the best way to bring it aboard -? is it better to bring it in the hand luggage and be open about it, or is it best to stash it into the cases? Just wondering how open they are about it and what is considered an acceptable amount.

thanks for any suggestions.

At least now I know that there's no bathrobes I will bring my own. One of the advantages of sailing from Southampton not having to worry about weight. Getting excited.

Wonderful to get so much helpful info so quickly.

Many thanks.

We have been away from P&O for several years, spending time instead aboard American lines mostly Princess and Celebrity. As we consider destinations primarily when booking cruises we are about to return to P&O shortly aboard the Britannia. We are looking forward to the cruise immensly and it will be interesting to see the changes over the last 8 years or so since we last sailed with them.

We have read several threads relating to the differences between the American lines and P&O and have open minds in relation to what to expect.

Anyway a couple of questions please.

We realise that all on board spending is in sterling, does this also apply to the casino. Especially the slot machines, is it sterling? It never seems like "real money" when inserting dollars and I sense that it will feel quite different inserting £s.

Also is there still a semi-formal dress code? its only a 7 night cruise so I understand that there will be 2 formal nights, will the others all be casual?

Finally, do they provide bathrobes in the cabins? (we have a balcony not a suite of any kind).

Many thanks in advance for your help.

Absolutely loving reading this as we too are about to set sail next week and getting very excited. Will be our second time on eclipse.

many thanks for everyone sharing and have been particularly interested in a couple of threads regarding the evening chic, I too was under the impression that there would be 3 on a 14 day trip, but it seems as if there are just 2.

Am I correct in this assumption? I am sure that we will still dress up as we do love to do so and there are not too many places left where this is still possible. Many thanks again for all the wonderful advice and suggestions, keep them coming.

Many thanks for all your replies. Looks as if we will be able to indulge and yes perhaps there are some days when we dont "drink our monies worth", but to us its so much easier, and a great opportunity to try all those cocktails that perhaps we wouldnt normally pay for in case we didnt like it, and yes I realise that we will have already paid for it, but for us we are on holiday and its all about trying something new and enjoyment.

Just 50 more sleeps!

I agree, its a really long day when traveling home post cruise. We have paid extra next time to fly out at 17:00 hrs, which is a little better. Still dont arrive into Heathrow until 06:30!

In the past we were taken to a day hotel and given lunch, but that all seems to have stopped now. We have also paid to do a trip which is ok and passes a bit of time. The problem with doing things on your own is the suitcases!. But hey, we will have all had a fabulous cruise. x

We are shortly going on the Ruby for B2B cruises. Although for us its a 14 day cruise, technically its classed as two separate 7 day cruises.

Do princess now offer the drinks package on these cruises? I know originally the packages were only offered on cruises longer than 7 days. Just wondered if this is still the case? Having had the packages on our last few cruises with Celebrity, find it very convenient and easy to manage. Would love to indulge ourselves again :)

We are going on the Ruby after Christmas and we have been booked into the Intercontinental. Our flight is from London heathrow to Miami . Having stayed here previously it seems this hotel is frequently used by Princess.

Does anyone know if the duo Alan and Alana are still on the Princess ships? and if so which one? thanks.