Son of Anarchy

Hopefully things can only improve following your poor embarkation experience.

We used CPS in April, the first time in years.  Everything went smoothly, however that was at Ocean Terminal.

Using CPS at Mayflower this Saturday, hopefully they will have learnt from their poor handling of your cruise's embarkation.

Since the re-start we've only done one cruise out of Mayflower and we arrived by taxi on that occasion.  Lots of priority boarders though (terminal staff said there were 650) and we did have to wait around a while after checking in.  Also was Aurora btw.  However unlike yourselves we did not have to wait outside, and plenty of people were allowed into the terminal after us.  Maybe you had a lot more priority boarders than when we were on board.

Enjoy your guest speaker's presentations.  I would certainly have been attending U Boat talks. 

Thanks again for the update, may your onboard wifi access continue un-interrupted!

59 minutes ago, david63 said:

No doubt it is due to "operational reasons"😀

99% of people agree 🤣

18 hours ago, terrierjohn said:

TBH, I have not seen a honesty table on any of our post covid cruises.

They had one on our recent Ventura jolly.  I did see one lonely passenger using it one day.  As mentioned earlier, scanning staff weren't telling pax to hand their grog over.

Have a fantastic adventure!

We were on Ventura just before Christmas.  At Gibraltar, security scanning was done on the ship.  We'd bought our full spirit allowance there.  The scanning staff didn't say anything about our haul.  We would have quite happily handed our stuff over to save storing it in the cabin.  All drinks made it home safely home un-opened.

Currently at SIL's:

Shared the day with lovely little Tric:

Worldie Formals have appeared overnight as well.

17 in all.

Nothing on our doormat so far.  A diary would be nice.  Can't remember whether we got a calendar last year.  Certainly no hard copy Moments this year.

Anyone claimed for a missed sea day?

Boarded Ventura 5 December.  Scheduled to arrive Vigo on 08 December.  Bad weather coming in, so Captain puts the handles down to get ahead of it and we arrive in Vigo on 07 December departing the following day.  Rest of itinery as scheduled, so one sea day less.

Tongue in cheek aside, we had our best port call to Vigo ever.  We'd booked the Santiago de Compostela on your own trip, which was brought forward to the 7th.  So a day out there, and then went ashore in Vigo in the evening to the Old Town and the Christmas Market near the harbour.  Lovely lights and decorations.  Great pre-Christmas atmosphere.

On 12/15/2023 at 7:06 PM, terrierjohn said:

But I am amazed at how much hand luggage some passengers disembark with. I try to send everything I don't need in my large cases, and only have the minimum of hand luggage in one small case.

Gave me a little chuckle.

Just got off Ventura.  SIL was with us on this one.  She had four bags to carry off in addition to the case she collected in the hall.  Ok, one was a handbag, a large one though.  Then three fairly decent shopper/carrier type things.  Combination of spending copious amounts on Spa products, Christmas booze in Gib, stuff for grandkids and general squandering.

On 12/15/2023 at 2:06 PM, Selbourne said:

Just 19 days until our Aurora 65 nighter and still no details on the Cruise Personaliser about which nights are formal nights (or even how many nights are formal). 

 

Apologies for not wading through 500 posts if this has already been answered, but how far in advance of the cruise is this normally posted?

 

Also, in the past I remember that buried somewhere within the P&O website there was a list that you could look at and it told you, by cruise number, how many formal nights there were and what, if any, theme nights there were. I can’t find it. Does it still exist?

That's reminded me to check our worldie for next year.  Thank you.  Now 19 days to go as well.  Also no mention in the itinery section of My Cruise as to dress codes.

I remember the lists that used to be available re number of formals, theme nights etc.

Used to be available by this link:

Life on board - What will the dress code be whilst I am on board?| Frequently Asked Questions | P&O Cruises | Complete Cruise Solution

However, the page now only refers you to My Cruise.

That said, I still find Complete Cruise Solution still worth looking things up.  Contains stuff that is either hard to find or unavailable on the P & O site.

Also has info regarding Cunard which may be useful as you've dipped/dipping your toes into their domain.

Icon of the Seas.  Bit surreal with those cranes.

Light snow here this morning.

15 hours ago, Josy1953 said:

I have never watched Dr Who since the first episode when the daleks terrified me.  I used to go and read in another room every Saturday afternoon when it came on the TV, fortunately DH isn't  a fan either. 

I still get creeped out when I  go into Oscars in Newcastle because there is a dalek just inside the door there.  If I could persuade my friends to never eat there on any of our ladies nights out I would be really happy.

A house near us used to have a Dalek in the front garden.  Disappeared a few years ago.  I always used to wonder if there was a higher proportion of traffic collisions near there because of people looking at the Dalek instead of where they were going.

Several years ago we were visiting friends in Boise, Idaho.  Noticed a house there that had a Tardis in the front garden.

We tried to buy dressing gowns on Arvia back in April, partly cos we had lots of OBC.  Neither the spa, nor the shops were able to supply.

4 hours ago, brian1 said:

BIL is 79 today,he said he'd take us for lunch.No pub lunch or restaurant just the cafe 100 yards over the road.All the best greasy spoons in London now IMO are Turkish owned and this is one of them.I had liver,bacon onions,chips,beans,2 eggs and a slice and it was a feast,lol.Walking up the gym now to burn it off.

Last summer we had to nip over to Basildon to sort out some personal admin.  Hadn't been there for years.  Wandered around the town centre area for a little while.  I couldn't believe the amount of Turkish greasy spoons that were now there.  All busy as well.  If we'd have known that beforehand we would have gone a bit earlier and had a breakfast.  With a big bottle of Efes as well!

27 minutes ago, Winifred 22 said:

They used to make the chocolates for M and S . I used to but mine there. One year I bought 15 boxes to give to the different  home carers who visited my mum. As the house was always warm I though the garage would be cool to store them. Local mice population certainly enjoyed them. When I went to get them to wrap all that was left were a few half eaten bits and loads of plastic and foil. Emergency trip to CoOp. 

Damned mice.

I used to have an old MG.  Mouse/mice chewed a hole into one of the seats.  Over £400 for new seat covers at that time.  Luckily there was an upholstery repair place round the corner.  Took the seat out (easy on that era of car) and the chap stitched in a new strip of leather from his collection of offcuts.  Matched perfectly - £15.

The one excursion we've got booked on our next cruise isn't part of this promotion.  However, we did see one at a different port that is part of the promo.  The Black Friday discount and the loyalty discount brought the price down sufficiently to book.  Saved about £36 between three of us.

3 hours ago, davecttr said:

Just had an email from P&O. They are delaying the boarding times for Ventura on Thursday by 2.5 hours. Gastro Intestinal reports on the previous, current? cruise. i suppose it means a deep clean. My boarding time was 12.15 and is now 14.45 so no Peninsular lunch and I have to leave the hotel at noon. It is going to be chaotic and I think the revised boarding times may not be realistic. 😟

Surely they will simply put the Peninsula embarkation lunch back as everybody is boarding later?  Or have they told you that it will be cancelled?

We're on the cruise after, I doubt they will be able to fully sort the noro issues, so may well be delayed boarding for us in a couple of weeks. 🤔

We pre-booked a table for six in Beach House on board Aurora in October.

Just had to select the number of diners.  Our bookings were linked, however we didn't have to specify which cabins our four friends were from.  Also, we got 10% loyalty discount for the cover charge for each diner.  None of our friends are in the same tier as us.  Small result.  Went towards the grog.

On 11/17/2023 at 10:38 PM, scooby1 said:

Cruising has become way cheaper, we managed to book a 14 days cruise cheaper than it was to get a good half board hotel in the Balearics, that never used to be the case.  

Totally agree. 

We did our first P&O cruise in 2009. Just over £1600pp for 2 weeks in an outside cabin, free parking.  We were pleased with that.

Just over a week ago, booked 12 nights on Ventura in a Superior Deluxe Balcony on a late Saver fare for three of us.  Just over £1600 (a bit of TA discount).  Works out at £47pppn.  Although a week later those prices were no longer available, I noticed that inside cabins were still be sold at £499pp, £41.58pppn for two.   Depending on location and dates you can't get a Premier Inn for that.

On 11/18/2023 at 11:43 AM, Fionboard said:

Malaga

Although I don't like the idea of Christmas decs before December, good to see that the decs are up in time for our port call there next month.

35 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

Yes, I remember it. It wasn’t terribly accurate. Also, in addition to errors, it only tracked the base price. As we know, P&O have a habit of using on-board credit to mask price fluctuations and imply ‘deals’ that aren’t really there. 
 

For example, one cruise may evolve through several offers such as;

Launch price - £2,500 No OBC

Post Launch - £2,750 with £250 OBC

Double OBC Promotion - £3,000 with £500 OBC

’Sale’ Price - £2,500 No OBC

 

If, as I do, people work out the net cost of their cruise as the base price less OBC, then all 4 different promotions amount to exactly the same net cost, yet a tracker site would imply something completely different 😂 Now if someone could devise a tracker that monitors the price net of OBC then that would be useful. 

 

Just to throw a bit more calculating into the mix:

Depending on loyalty discount, the OBC may not be quite as good as initially thought,

eg. someone in Caribbean or above will have 10% discount on on board spend, so....

Assuming an on board spend of £1000:

’Sale’ Price - £2,500 No OBC

No OBC, customer gets a final on board bill of £900.  Total outlay £3400

Double OBC Promotion - £3,000 with £500 OBC

£500 OBC, £500 real money spent, less the 10% = £450. Total outlay £3450

The OBC has originally been included in what is paid for the cruise, so is really only worth 90% of it's face value.

I hope tha! makes sense (an expression I hate btw!)

1 hour ago, molecrochip said:

People drop out due to illness / personal circumstances. It doesn’t mean that there is capacity which has been held back.

6 minutes ago, majortom10 said:

We are due soon on Cunard's QV in Princess Grill and a while back received an e mail asking if we wanted to bid for upgrade to Queens Grill. There was a minimum bid for different grades and we made a bid. The e-mail stated there was no guarantee and at the time QG was sold out. There has never been any availability since then always showing as sold out but have received e-mail saying our bid had been accepted and we have been upgraded.

 

Still hope for us then on Ventura next month! 

Our Late Saver cabin has already been allocated.  We're happy with it, a small upgrade within category already.  We won't be disappointed if in all liklihood our bid isn't successful.