Chrish2

It's really hard to say. Will they extend deep blue extras even more (a further 6 months)? Will they want to overlap the schemes in anyway? Maybe if most of deep blue extras are featured in the sailing club an extension might act as a cushion for those without enough "tokens" get the perks whilst the scheme gets introduced. Given how freebie driven their promotions are I've wondered how much they really want a tiered loyalty scheme. It can be quite rigid and not allow them to tweak away until they get it right. With sailer loot I think their winning formula is marketing it as "free drinks" but it has taken some time to find that spot.

I don't think its the case every cover was been crammed into two MDRs. My understanding having read comments is for Christmas Day was that MDR service/menu was been operated at least 5 restaurant dining locations with passengers allocated a table and time at one of these locations. * Meridian * Zenith * 6th Street Diner * Olive Grove * Chefs Table I've not see any comment on if Green & Co operated as speciality ... I know a few people who would find that very appealing, nor any reports on Sindhu. I did however see it reported that Epicurean did still run speciality with guests been able to book tables at 15 min intervals. As such the only credence I give to the 2 MDRs comments is maybe i) the layout results in a different cover density ratio, and/or ii) staff switching to a more traditional menu in some locations caused unexpected issues. Anything else is really not attributable the the 2 MDRs situation but a more general failure better attributable to the new ship/first voyage/teams working for the first time etc. In my experience P&O are rather notorious about keeping details underwraps. I do think the passengers on this Christmas/NY holiday are owed more details than P&O usually come forward with. After-all it wasn't any evening meal that standards was under par for, it was Christmas Dinner. And It wasn't just one table, it was many tables. Now the question really is how much can be recovered before NYE meal? My suspicion is NYE will from a stats perspective run slightly smoother but guest perception will be about the same as Christmas day. Furthermore my hunch is any blanket OBS will be after NYE to prevent the goodwill generated been washed away very quickly by any negative events on NYE.

All posts above this point should have been swept into the spreadsheet and it is now up to date with CC posters. Bit of a delay recently in getting this updated and a few short notice booking didn't make it. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1UaItklpqBLClAiCNxN9I32iSRXM4x0rQWND-jUjwGzc/edit#gid=0

Is this the current regulations onboard P&O ships?

From what I have seen Virgin Voyages was happy to seat people for a table for 1. I guess the only difference is nearly all your restaurant tables are booked ahead of time.

Overnight in Liverpool ... do you think they are considering embarking passengers in Liverpool? It's unappealing for passengers who see Liverpool as something you can do on a day trip to instead travel all the way to Southampton just to spend two days down the road from home. Itinerary of B315N for anyone curious 1 Southampton, UK 9 Jun 2023 3 Liverpool, United KingdomOvernight 11 Jun 2023 Early Morning 4 Liverpool, United Kingdom 12 Jun 2023 Early Evening 7 Greenock, United Kingdom 15 Jun 2023 Early Morning Early Evening 10 Kirkwall, United Kingdom 18 Jun 2023 Early Morning Early Evening 11 Invergordon, United Kingdom 19 Jun 2023 Early Morning Early Evening 13 South Queensferry, EdinburghTender 21 Jun 2023 Early Morning Early Evening 15 Southampton, UK 23 Jun 2023

Just so everyone knows it might take a week posting this recent experience. Sent email Sat, 26 Nov got a response back and OBS added Monday 5 Dec.

We was struggling to get something reasonable for someone in our family. However just before buying I spotted a post on social media on this topic. The man had had prostate cancer, 2x heart attacks and a quadruple heart bypass. For a joint worldwide annual policy he pays sub £500! My jaw hit the ground as that was close to what our relative had been quoted for single trip, single person, and a more trivial medical history. What was his secret? I should have known but overlooked it, it was the Nationwide FlexPlus current account. Due to how these group policies are underwritten they often can work out much cheaper. If eligible this will be an annual policy (subject to keeping the account open) and the cost will be £156 (£13 x 12) for the (joint) account, plus £65 if EITHER of you are over 70, plus £xxx for the medical screening, plus (optional) £40 to add "cruise cover" (optional, read what it gives you) Before opening the account you can get a quote for how much extra they will charge you for your medical conditions. Visit https://www.nationwide.co.uk/current-accounts/flexplus/travel-insurance/ and scroll down to "How to purchase and get a quote for upgrades" for link to quote online or phone number if you prefer that and/or want some assurance. Also, one overlooked perk is if you are travelling with someone on the same trip you can add them as a "guest" by paging a fee (varies due to duration of trip age etc) and plus anything extra from medical screening. This is actually what we did to add the person to our policy! Note: you don't even need to use the account, just make sure the fee is covered each month. However there is also a £200 switching offer worth considering.

I noticed that however it could be more a case of "want some more? Here's the prices" so was hoping someone with first-hand experience could chip in.

👀 Anyone want to offer a clarification on the cost of the wine pairing ?

We only found the live TV options near the end of our back to back! It was quite limited, ESPN, BBC World News and maybe CNN(or MSNBC).

Other than prices switching between GBP to EUR are there usually any other changes onboard when the official starting point changes between Southampton and Hamburg? (thinking entertainment, food etc)

@Pacoduck your link is the first that spells something rememberable (JoKE)! I've swept the above codes into the spreadsheet https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1UaItklpqBLClAiCNxN9I32iSRXM4x0rQWND-jUjwGzc/edit#gid=0

Also I found an interesting case. Can anyone explain? £409 pp for 7 nights in an interior cabin on the MSC Virtuosa departing 3rd Feb 2023 from Southampton. When clicked though the price is actually lower @ £359 pp (-12%)!

Thanks for the tip

> Very simple, the 109 is a Bella inside which is not available anymore/at the moment. The 119 is a Fantastica inside, that means you can choose the cabin (and other Fantastica advantages like room service for breakfast). Thanks, I now understand the mechanics a little bit better. > MSC is advertising correct and real prices according to European law. The "from" behaviour seen would be fine on some copy within an ad but its appearing inside a live booking engine that has access to live prices. I can't comment on EU laws but the UK's Advertising Standards Agency says > In the event an advertised fare fluctuates or becomes unavailable, marketers should ensure that they make clear in their communications that the advertised fares are extremely limited or could be withdrawn at any time. If a fare does become unavailable, ads stating this price should be amended. The ASA upheld a complaint against an advertiser where it continued to present the prices for flights it knew were no longer available. The fact the advertiser relied on third party information, did not mean it was no longer responsible for the prices it presented (Moresand Ltd, 22 November 2017). > The ASA understands that there will be circumstances under which an offer has become unavailable, but nevertheless expects marketers to give consumers a realistic indication of their prospects of being able to take up the offer. See Travel Marketing: Availability. https://www.asa.org.uk/advice-online/travel-marketing-pricing.html#Price availability and using “from” Given Moresand Ltd was vending a 3rd party product and MSC is vending a 1st party product there should be more onerous on MSC to ensure its booking engine is displaying prices that are available.

I've seen that before in emails, mailings and paper marketing but usual with "prices correct as of going to print but subject to change". On a live booking system that seems very naughty.

4 nights on the MSC Virtuosa departing 12th Nov 2022 from Southampton

2 nights on the MSC Preziosa departing 5th Nov 2022 from Southampton

Been thinking about a short notice holiday and was checking out MSC. Noticed whilst during a dummy booking checking I can't seem to get the advertised prices. For example. Their site currently shows two sub £200 itineraries. £109 pp for 2 nights in an interior cabin on the MSC Preziosa departing 5th Nov 2022 from Southampton (yes I know tomorrow) £179 pp for 4 nights in an interior cabin on the MSC Virtuosa departing 12th Nov 2022 from Southampton Both prices are reported as "From £xpp*" with "*price is per adult and inclusive of port taxes and service charge/gratuities". After clicking "see detail" the price is further confirmed the respective date and "BEST PRICE". On then clicking "Select" the price jumps The 2 night itinerary jumps from £109pp to £119pp (+9%). The 4 night itinerary jumps from £179pp to £339pp (+89%). Now in the case the case of 4 night itinerary I think I see the cause. It only offers me no inside cabin is offered during the checkout process, just balcony, suite or MSC Yacht Club. With the 2 night I can select an interior cabin so can't see rhyme or reason behind the modest bump in price. In both cases the pricing looks incorrect or misleading however I'm willing to consider a) I've made an MSC novice error or b) MSC website is partly broken and it shouldn't be like this. Anyone able to share some insight?

I noticed most of the comparisons include "wine by the glass" with an evening meal. I assume wine by the bottle is still sold? Off package would people not order a bottle of wine with their evening meal instead? Related, does the 6/12 bottles of wine on the Captain’s or Commodore’s Collection still exist?

It appears to have been offered on selected ships during 2019 according to this thread. I'm curious if it appeared more recently.

The google sheet is up to date. FYI, I check in at least once a week and update the sheet. Then occasionally post this link again as the thread is getting very long. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1UaItklpqBLClAiCNxN9I32iSRXM4x0rQWND-jUjwGzc/edit#gid=0

I think the original concept was to have pagers/buzzers for orders that could not just be handed to you. At some of the stations you see the charging kit for them but no devices. They have the pagers/buzzers at the pizza place.

We had 3 in a sea terrace with a bed that drops out of the roof. We had plenty of room except when it was down. This wasn't a problem as they put it back up when we went for breakfast and lowered it when we went for our evening meal. n.b. have a look at the cost of 1 person in 3 rooms vs 3 people in 1 rooms, with the current promo it might be cheaper.