gadabout60

The balcony cabin on Oceana was the smallest cabin we have ever had. Someone told me they were originally designed for7 day cruises

The waiters usually remind you in the evening of the clock changes

Unless I am in a grumpy mood (not often on holiday) I am happy to share a table.

Cruising IMHO is a sociable holiday

I won't instantly love everyone I talk to but its all part of life's rich tapestry

Perfectly serious.

 

If everyone did this P&O would quickly get the message and deal with it.

 

If you want to put up with "McDonald's" service levels, then fine. Some of us expect better.

But not in a buffet

I don't mean to be rude but I sincerely hope I never meet you on a cruise

I will share a table in McDonald's.

 

If P&O expect their customers to do the same, then they obviously have a low opinion of them.

 

Personally, if I cannot find a table for two straight away, then I hand the trays of food to the restaurant manager and tell them why. And then get another tray of food, and if still no table, then repeat previous.

Seems a bit childish! P&O is not a six star line and you are not guaranteed a buffet table to yourself

I didn't find it all that special being in a roped off bit of the buffet so I wouldn't book this again if I was on Oceana

It has been advertised on the home page of CruiseCritic for a few days if you missed it there is nobody else to blame but yourselves.

That's a bit harsh. Britannia is too big for me so I wouldn't have been interested in watching, but I never go to the home page - I bookmark the p&o pages. It wouldn't have hurt to have advertised this at the top of this forum

I never do afternoon tea, and didn't know they did it on the first day anyway with drills and the like.

I have enough to do coming on holiday with sorting out work, without having to make a sandwich!

And anyway there is something rather nice about sitting down to that first lunch knowing your luggage is on board, the journey is out of the way, you are checked it and your holiday is starting.

Wouldn't feel the same if I was rescuing a sandwich made and packed 5 hours before and eating it in my cabin!

Tell you what if you get the pilots boats out , maybe you can board with the pilot.

They have to empty the ship from the cruise before yours. They have to clean it.

If you are in a suite you should be having lunch in a separate lunch from the buffett, that is not crowded and you do not have to get there early to get a table.

I really think pando need to rethink about providing lunch on the first day. With everyone saying ignore your boarding times, get there 11.00/11.30 more and more people will turn up earlier. This will just encourage large queues earlier and earlier.

I don't think CPS parking open the parking for the new cruise until 11.30, if you are driving down.

Priority boarding means you will not be in huge crowds. Give them a chance to prepare the ship for you.

I have to say I hope cruise companies don't stop providing a lunch. We travel by taxi for 2 hours or so generally leaving between 10.30 and 11. If there was no lunch I would have to bring a sandwich as I couldn't last until 8.30 dinner (skipping meals gives me a migraine)

No thats true, but then you have no comparison to make an informed judgement. Just a judgement on P&O.

 

We did have a 45 min wait to clear soup courses on P&O and have experienced very average service. Its our opinion, each person has their own. Service on our P&O cruises has ranged from average to poor. On our last RCI cruise we had a waiter we recognised from P&O. He said he had to escape as he wanted to better himself but his colleagues were lazy.

 

Service is subjective, but opinions are biased unless they are from those that have a fair comparison.

 

 

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Kevin

I agree with your last remark up to a point - but we all know whether we have waited 45 minutes for soup courses to clear or not - I never have and other than you have never heard anyone say that this has happened to them.

Currently I am cruising both P&O and Celebrity and by and large the service is excellent on both - IMHO of course

Don't know what you have booked for Gibraltar and what you are paying for it, but I would be inclined to cancel and join one of the taxi buses on the quay. No need to book, they fill them up with 8 people at a time as you come off the ship and take you up to the rock and the various sites then drop you to shop in town Great value - I think just over £20 each for a 90 minute tour.

Gibraltar must be the easiest place to diy

I am being negative about the way they are doing it. Introducing something that might irritate passengers and dressing it up as an 'improvement'.

 

someone suggested you get to choose your embarkation time if you buy select. Ok, what happens when 60% of the ship have bought select and they all want a 12 noon embarkation - a lot of unhappy customers!

Booking select doesn't mean you get everything you want - there is obviously still an option of first come first served. E.g. we can't all get the same cabin - once a cabin is booked you have to pick another one.

Are we not making too much of this?

Its an effort to try and spread passengers boarding. Some will adhere to it and others won't. I doubt they will turn anyone away but it is still likely to spread the check in so will work up to a point.

It seems a shame to be instantly negative

Sarah

There is no real need to do this. There are loads of minivan/taxis on the quay and they just make up groups as you leave the ship

It costs just a bit over £20 each and they do a great tour for about 90 minutes - 2 hours then drop you to shop in town.

You see most things and the taxi drivers are great. From memory there are about 8 people on each tour

We do this as well:)

So do we.

Its all very well getting all high and mighty and saying things like "I don't get tips in my job" - the fact is these waiters and stewards rely on tips to make a living and they do so much to make your holiday special

Ah - thanks everyone - I obviously looked at the wrong moment and suspected a conspiracy!

Apologies if this has been raised before but I am looking at Christmas 2015 and note that there is nothing for Arcadia - and nor is there anything for the first few months of 2016. Her last listed cruise is 24 nights from 25th November 2015 - then nothing!

Anyone know what is happening to her ?

Just back from Celebrityand had the classics drinks package - it was fine for us - included prosecco, some lovely dry white wines and the odd cocktail. Also all soft drinks etc. I probably drank a tad more than usual but not substantially so

I am a cruising newbie compared to many as I have just returned from my 7th cruise - 5 with P&O (3 x Adonia, 1 x Arcadia and 1 x Oceana) and 2 with Celebrity Eclipse.

My favourite ship of all of these is Adonia and am pleased to be going on her again at Christmas. In the 3 1/2 years since I have started cruising though I have noticed a change in "standards" on P&O though overall I still enjoy cruising with them.

Having just come off the Celebrity though on a 14 nighter to Iceland and Norway I have to say I was blown away by the quality of the food. In terms of choice and quality it is miles ahead of P&O. There is nothing wrong with P&O but in the main dining room I feel you could be dining at home - on Eclipse you knew you were in a top quality restaurant.

I have always found service to be great on P&O but actually it was better on Eclipse. Your needs were anticipated and the restaurant waiters and wine waiters were very attentive and nothing was too much trouble for them.

The speciality restaurants were far better than those I have tried on P&O. The buffet again was just in a different league - P&O's buffets to me are tired and uninspiring.

I always have a balcony cabin and on the Eclipse these are much bigger than any I have had on P&O and the bathroom is far superior - great showers and plenty room to move about. The in cabin TV also offers loads of information, account details, room service, tour details, live TV channels and films both free and on demand - much slicker than P&O.

I am not much for entertainment on any ship - and I found much of Celebrity cheesy. It is refreshing though to have more nationalities on board - lots of interesting people to chat to. There were the usual moaners but you get them everywhere. Someone mentioned earlier that they don't like converting from dollars to sterling but its a quick and easy conversion and any of the shop assistants would tell you an approximate UK price if you can't convert it yourself.

There are several things I think P&O does better - e.g. the library and the prom decks.

We like to cruise from Southampton and we prefer ships with few or no children on them so we are restricting ourselves in terms of choice. We have booked Celebrity again for next summer as it really is a quality product. But as I mentioned above I am very fond of Adonia and am looking forward to my Christmas cruise on her.

I have feel differently to others here. It seems to me that in the tourism industry (as in restaurants, hairdressers etc) pay is low and tips are generally considered the norm

I have only once not tipped on a tour bus - in Israel where our tour guide - a woman - was rude and nasty. otherwise I always tip. Many of these guides give us a fascinating insight to their country

My personal hate is when they come round the dining room. If you are on a biggish table they expect you all to get up and get positioned where they want you - its a big no from me

We visited Saaremaa Island on Adonia last July and booked the tour which incorporated a walking trip in Kuressaare including a visit to the castle, then a little bit of free time in the centre of town then a drive round the town and places of interest. From memory it cost about £34 (though I could be wrong!)

There was a little bit of walking on a very hot day though you could have asked to be dropped at one of the cafes and missed the castle.

The drive was mostly through forest and quite interesting, and the drive round the town was worth doing, but having said that if I ever cstopped there again the town centre itself would not tempt me back especially. There was a small market and a couple of cafes and that was about it. Castle worth seeing with the moat.

We were in Visby on the Sunday and it was closed!! Not much to see. I did enjoy Kalmar and wandering round the town

Was on the Adonia last July on the Baltic cruise and it was very very hot. Don't recall the temperatures but Stockholm was baking hot and we enjoyed being on the hop on hop off boats to catch a breeze

St Petersburg also very hot. Couple of overcast days elsewhere in Germany and Sweden but on the whole lovely weather

We're off to Iceland next month (with Celebrity next time) and have a couple of private tours booked.

I assume if I want to tip the driver/guide he will take anything (euro, sterling or krona)?

Which is the slippery path I am on about. The auto tips are a thank you.

We will just remain with leaving auto tips on.

The lady who started this has a very long cruise to look forward to...

On a 7-14 night cruise-doesn't seem too bad.

However if you are on a very long cruise does your extra tenner and twenty seem quite so good spread over lets say 50 plus nights. So then you start thinking ooh shall I make it 30 and 50...then the slippery slope starts.

Should also add the wine waiters are going,so will your waiters get the wine waiters tenner.

Sorry English lady - I am by no means wealthy but if I can afford a cruise, given how low the autotips on P&O are, I will try and give the staff something. Very little to me in the scheme of things, a helluva lot to them