Spike11

It will be interesting to see how the fjord itineraries have been adjusted to take account of the restrictions coming in at the beginning of January 2026. I think Flam and Geiranger/Helysylt will be out, but there have been suggestions that Olden might be out of bounds too.

The short stay carpark is just to the east of the terminal. Parking4cruises have a flag and van right at the back (or did when we used them). Hopefully I have attached a photo!

Yes, we are very disappointed and won’t be booking for summer 2025. There seems to be large step backwards in terms of offering a variety of itineraries - which I thought was a big part of Saga’s USP. I suspect that they are finding that there are few options left, in terms of port availability, by the time they get round to finalising their itineraries.

Saga are also sending e-mails out today encouraging preregistration for summer 2025. It just seems bizarre that they are putting resources into preregistration (which you have to do over the phone of course) rather than just getting the cruises out on sale and collecting all those 15% deposits.

We docked on Aurora at Akureyri this summer (though another ship did tender). I understand that Isafjördur have recently extended their quay to allow more ships to dock rather than tender. There are no guarantees of course though - depends on who else is in on the day.

Amazing the effect a discount had on her view of P&O!

The difference is that for the November 2025 cruise you click on a big red button which says “Secure now” , rather than the usual “Book”. There should be an explanation of what this means though.

The local authorities in Key West are now enforcing a limit of one cruise ship a day. So if you’re down to call there on the local port schedule (which you are) then you will be docking rather than tendering. We have had our Key West call cancelled for Venturas February 35 night cruise. Of course P&O tried to hold the line that we were still calling (even though we weren’t on the local port schedule, another ship was) until a fellow passenger contacted the port and they had absolutely no booking for Ventura - so P&O were forced to fess up! I seem to remember you had a similar saga with a Norway cruise some years ago??

Interesting that Tenerife is the same first port, but Ventura gets there the day before Iona!

Sorry you didn’t enjoy your holiday. It would be useful if you could expand on why it was a dreadful cruise. Was everything dreadful, or were there some positives?

Considering the amount of debt they ran up during lock down, now might be a good time to change their policy! Celebrity certainly did a good job of completely transforming some of their older ships to bring them up to a similar standard to their more recent ones.

Interesting that a cruise ship’s life is deemed to be so short. We have just come back from a DFDS “mini-cruise” from Newcastle to Amsterdam (IJMuiden). The ship was built in 1987 and is having another refit early next year. It was all in very good nick - the public areas were very modern - and the cabins were in excellent condition.

In the past P&O have advised to put them on at the departure airport - which we have always done and never had problems with them coming off. If they did come off then there are plenty of P&O staff at the other end to sort out replacements. (We have always travelled Jet2).

The latest e-mail update from P&O is now saying that the improved service with be only in all PUBLIC AREAS by the end of the year. “Work will then continue to integrate with integration into cabins” - but with no date given. Hopefully this won’t take too long, as when we do use wifi, it tends to be when we are in our cabin.

After you arrive in port, it is usually around 30 minutes before you can get off. An announcement will be made telling you which gangways are open. It’s then usually a free for all, but the docking times are usually early morning when a lot of people are still having breakfast (or are still in bed) so there isn’t generally much of a queue. Different if you are docking late morning or afternoon. Back on board time is usually around 30 minutes before you are due to leave - again you will be told this on the day (and also in the horizon newspaper you get the evening before).