gadabout60

Thanks Angel - thats helpful

We are going to be in the Tivoli Gardens just before Christmas and they will have their Christmas market. Has anyone been there at this time?

i am just wondering how much kroner to take as I don’t anticipate doing much more in Copenhagen. Don’t want to take too much currency but want to have enough to buy anything I want in the market. Or would cards be accepted?

if anyone has been at this time would be grateful for their thoughts

I don't necessarily agree. I have done 2 cruises on Fred where drinks were included. Didn't see anybody falling about drunk or anything like it. It was just nice not to have a bill at the end of the cruise.

I rarely drink any alcohol drinks except white wine and on our first and last Fred Cruise I thought the wine was awful. One night I bought a bottle of Pinot Grigio at the dining table and it was not pleasant. I donated it to our young waiter and even he said to me the next night he couldn’t drink it.

We didn’t have the drink package on Fred and actually didn’t spend much on alcohol the whole week. I did have a pina colada one night - cheesy I know - and again it wasn’t especially nice. Badly made and stringy pineapple juice. I left most of it.

Not at all offensive just a simple statement of fact !

Not at all. You can want to use the internet without being addicted

Does using the restaurant make you addicted to food?

Does having a drink in the bar make you an alcoholic?

Nothing is ever free it just means the rest of us will end up paying for the internet addicted.

That sounds a tad offensive, hopefully I am reading it wrong

I don't think P&O entertainment is up to much so rarely use it - so I am paying for others to be entertained.

At present internet is not free so whats the issue ?

Whilst I quite agree that I don’t want people on their phones in the dining room, it’s a personal choice to pay for internet on board, and it’s not harming anyone else

I like keeping up to date with news, with a sick friend, with the office. That’s my choice and doesn’t make me a “sad” person. I’d rather do that that sunbathe. I also research future ports, organise tours; send photos of speciality meals to friends. My choice, my money. It’s a better use of my money than wasting time on shore looking for free wi-fi

I didn't find it a decent meal. And the service was awful. Not worth paying extra for at all

For example. There was four of us, two people had been served, the third person had a request, the waiter stopped serving and went to find the item. Leaving two people with cooling food in front of them (being well brought up declined to start) the third with half a meal, and the fourth with nothing. That is not good service!

I agree thats not good service and I would have said something

To be fair that is a one off though

Generally speaking you get good food and service

On top of what you've already paid! Not in my neck of the woods you don't.

You do virtually everywhere for a top style restaurant with quality ingredients

Try ordering 3 or 4 courses with fillet steak etc

We are all different - I'll happy pay more for a decent meal and on P&O I don't find the MDR great quality

£28 on top of what you have already paid in the cruise fare is a lot of money.

Yes but think what you would pay for the equivalent standard in a restaurant on land. Much more than £28

Hi all.

 

Resurrecting this as I promised to report back. Returned today from a fabulous itinerary around Scandinavia & Russia

Our observations:

Check in & disembarkation - seamless and far better than P&O. A few niggles however such as our linked bookings hadn’t been carried through to dining. Our drinks packages were not included on our boarding cards correctly which we didn’t discover until a few days later. All issues were dealt with efficiently (including cancelling one drinks package half way through the cruise as it hadn’t been used due to their error)

Cabin - we loved the bigger bathroom & style but storage space for clothes was lacking (3 in our cabin)

Ship (Silhouette) was gorgeous. Loved the modern airy feeling, however too many high end shops. No ‘basics’ shop which thankfully we didn’t need but would have been good to have. Same old selling of tat at various points of the day.

Kids club - difficult to compare as few teenagers due to itinerary (& A level results week) so middle child didn’t have any company. Youngest child loved the freedom and mix of nationalities though and preferrred it to P&O.

Entertainment - pretty much comparable day time & evening activities. Very limited TV available (specifically comparing to Britannia last year where top new release films were available for free). Saw a couple of great acts and some that really didn’t do it for us - but everyone likes different things so to be expected and with a mix of nationalities (large US & UK contingent but people from India, Germany, Australia, Spain & numerous others) it would be difficult to please everyone.

Drinks - we had a package so didn’t affect us but prices were outrageous!

Food - this is the decider for us as pretty much everything else was comparable to Britannia at least. Great that ice cream available free during the day - big hit with the kids. Buffet - good range for most people and liked that all food is allergen labelled. MDR - very surprised at quality given most posters here consider Celebrity to be better. Very disappointed (only cruise I have ever lost weight....). We had to ask numerous times for extra veg as frequently there was none. I have specific dietary needs and was not well catered for at all compared to P&O. Even preordered meals were frequently bland at best. No gluten free crackers for cheese were available for example. I know i’m difficult to cater for and knew this would be an issue, however the rest of our party who eat almost anything felt that (apart from steaks), P&O were far superior in service and quality of food. We didn’t try the speciality restaurants as felt cover charges were way too high.

Service in general - bar service on P&O was far better. We often had to go up to the bar to be served - few waiters around and those that were seemed disinterested in actually serving. Little things were better on Celebrity - flavoured water & covered seating area on return to the ship for example, line at reception / guest services being surveyed by other staff to see if they could help without you having to wait.

 

All in all. A fantastic cruise & really liked the atmosphere on Celebrity, however the food would be a serious consideration if we were to return.

That’s really interesting. I am a big fan of Celebrity and have found the food better than P&O. However I don’t think MDR food on either is as good as it was 5 years ago

Buffet on Celebrity is considerably better than P&O in my view

However we have grown to love the speciality restaurants on Celebrity. Off with them again next month on the Silhouette (lovely ship) and have booked a 5 dinner package so will be happy with that

When they sold Adonia, we rebooked on Oriana, I think we got £100 extra OBC and that was it. We paid £200 more each for the new cruise or the same length.

Mind you we rebooked after Adonia on Braemar and that was an awful experience. Never again with FO

They get cancelled if for some reason the ship goes into dry dock for a problem although not that often. they also get cancelled if P&O sells the ship!

Yes and when they sell the ship they offer you derisory compensation (token obc) to book another cruise, much higher prices and allegedly (I am told though I haven't personally verified) increased the prices of similar cruises the days they announce the sale

To be honest I just wish they’d remove the minibar

If you want a minibar option they should let you book it on the cruise personaliser

The first thing I do on every cruise is empty the fridge so I have room for my own soft drinks or nibbles. The stewards are busy and I don’t want to give them another job. Usually it ends up under the bed in a tray or bag

I don’t drink tea or coffee so I get rid of the tray as well as it just takes up valuable counter space in most cabins

Unless I am in the minority and most folk use the minibar contents ?

I did a Strictly cruise on Azura last year and loved the Strictly element of it as I am a fan

However if I was not a fan I don’t think I would gave enjoyed it so much. As far as I can remember the theatre had 6 evenings out of the 14 used for strictly events - so if you didn’t like that you might feel peeved at missing out on the theatre

My thoughts as well. We are all "paying customers". We have paid to be on the cruise. Surely we are allowed to sit anywhere there is a spare seat. Some people don't always want a drink at any given opportunity.

 

 

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Fair enough but I must admit it annoyed me last year on Azura when we struggled on several days to get a table in the Glass House for lunch and lots of tables were taken up with pax reading or playing cards and not eating or drinking.

There did seem to me though to be a lack of places on board to sit and read but nonetheless annoying when you wanted to order lunch

Celebrity ships are too big for my liking. I suppose I agree about Freds ships, although I like the Braemar, I shall stick to Aurora and Arcadia whilst they are still here. Did look at Cruise Maritime, but didn't like the reviews and also our friend who travels with us tried a CM cruise and said the staff were surly, the food was terrible and that was enough for us.

I also prefer medium or small ships but I have now been on 3 Celebrity ships and had no problems. They flow really well, you rarely see a queue and they feel very spacious

Well, personally, there is not much difference between P&O and Fred. The service we have had has always been perfect with cabin stewards and also dining room waiters and staff. I just felt Black Watch was very dated and needed updating. Felt like an old peoples home. However, last Oriana cruise was rather similar and I love Oriana. We both commented on the number of elderly people on board. Mind you that doesn't make any difference to our enjoyment. We had a great table for 8 and a super time. Problem with Fred is the price. Inside cabins are a great deal more than P&O

Jean sorry to disagree but I felt there was huge differences between Fred and P&O

Only thing better on Fred was the quality of food

If you think inside cabins are expensive you should see the price of the balconies which are vastly inferior IMHO.

Fred was very much like a care home and was full and dowdy

At least there is more activity and life on P&O

Celebrity still by far my favourite though

So you have not tried it personally then. As I said, try it before you judge it.

Frankly I would say don’t waste your money - there is much better out there

Not signing receipts didn't stop drinks being charged to my account on celebrity.

Maybe we’ve just been lucky

The drinks package seems positive. I guess future prices will tell us what direction P&O is heading in

I must admit I think I prefer the Celebrity package. We tend to just drink wine and the Classic package works for us. It includes cans of soft drinks which I like as we can take them to the cabin and keep a small supply there - wouldn’t like to have to carry glasses of soft drinks back and IMHO soft drinks from guns never taste as good and go flat quickly.

Don’t think Celebrity has a 15 minute rule - when we order a glass of wine at lunch we are nearly always urged to take a bottle of water as well

Handing over 2 cards is soon second nature

Usually the package is included in our fare and as Pete said earlier on another thread I think often the cost of a Celebrity cruise plus package is much the same as P&O without drinks included.

I have never seen the package misused on Celebrity in that I haven’t seen people very drunk

I doubt most of us could drink 15 alcoholic drinks in a day but I don’t believe Celebrity has a limit

More fool them. I thought that P&O were far too slow to ban smoking on balconies and had naively assumed that all ex-UK operators would have done so years ago.

Thats why I didn’t check before booking - I assumed the same as you

Very interesting to read the feedback on Fred Olsen. We thought we might give them a go as their itineraries are more varied than P&O, but I hadn’t realised that they allow smoking on their balconies. Until that outdated practice is barred, I’m afraid that they will not see a penny of our business.

Selbourne I have a letter from FO saying that they have no plans to change their smoking policy

Part 3

Before going on this cruise I had joined the FO fb page where everyone seemed to be going on about how friendly the staff were - not my experience. I should also say that I am always pleasant and friendly- smiling and saying hallo and thanking people.

Our waiters were pleasant but didn’t chat. They looked harassed and frankly scared.

Our cabin stewardess was frankly useless. Told us for example we could turn the air con off - you couldn’t but she was adamant.

The security staff bordered on rude. On P&O and Celebrity they are friendly and welcome you back. We never got even a grunt from them - they just blanked us.

I was amazed when we boarded that our cases were delivered by young lads dressed up in bellboy uniforms including caps etc. They were carrying heavy luggage about for goodness sake - they don’t need to be wearing tight outfights - they just needed something smart and comfortable. When I mentioned this on the FO fb page I was slated so just unfollowed the page.

I bought a WiFi package but couldn’t get one for the length of the cruise. You could buy by the hour or day or I think for 6 or 7 days - we were on an 8 night cruise and you couldn’t buy one covering that

Amazingly FO have lots of fans. We met a few people like ourselves who were on FO for the first time and found it awful compared to others. One woman a couple of doors down from us said that for the first time ever she spent most of the day in her cabin watching tv. Entertainment was very amateurish. Yet as I say splits of people wee lapping it up.

Never again - was so pleased to get off that ship

Part 2

Food was well cooked but if you didn’t - like me - eat fish then quite a restricted choice. Never any steak. 3 nights out of 8 I had an omelette through not liking the look of anything else. Lovely omelette but not what you expect on holiday.

We always like to try speciality restaurants and Braemar had one which is outside and never open.

Didn’t enjoy the buffet - food there was the same as MDR but not as well cooked

Very limited dining times. On the first morning after clocks went forward overnight we met a couple who had missed breakfast (10am) as theirs body clocks were at 9 am

Room service menu was quite good

We cruised in April and weather was varied but regardless there was never much activity on the top decks. I am not really a fan of the sail away party but this was the opposite - no festivity at all.

Muster drill was a farce

To get a shuttle bus in port there was a ludicrous system whereby you queued at guest relations for a voucher, then queued at another desk outside a restaurant for a ticket for a bus then you went to a lounge to wait to be called to the bus - which on the second occasion took an hour.

Shuttle buses were infrequent and very old (eg nails protruding out of seats)

So the saga of our Fred Olsen experience- part 1

We were on Braemar. Even after getting a discount as a result of a marketing initiative to entice former Adonia passengers the balcony we had was the most expensive per night we have ever had (on P&O and Celebrity)

I didn’t do my homework and didn’t realise FO permitted smoking on balconies - so outdated nowadays and restricted our use of the balcony in the daytime.

I have never had such a badly laid out room with useless bedside cabinets at the foot of the bed. An extra tiny fridge. An awful safe built into the back of a wardrobe, angled and accessed with a key that was very difficult to turn because of the location of the safe. And it was too small to take any more than passports and purses / wallets. No room for cameras or even mini tablets.

Balcony had a huge overhang and was essentially a restricted view as lifeboats below and you couldn’t see the sea looking down. FO don’t consider this restricted.

I like to sleep with the curtains open, and also to sit for a while on the balcony at night but you couldn’t do this when we overnighted in port as there was a huge floodlight in our balcony that apparently had to remain on. It was w strong powerful light and really intrusive.