ElmaLee

Celebrity is offering a post cruise excursion on an open top bus around Miami. Then shuttle transfer to MIA with luggage being looked after for you. Has anyone done this? I'm assuming it's a ticket for a HOHO bus round the city and a ticket for a shuttle to the airport afterwards. I'm keen to know if there is a fixed time for the shuttle as we have a very late flight (9:30pm) so don't want to be stuck in airport for too long. Also, is the luggage transferred directkly to airport for us to collect? Thanks for any input.

There are vendors on most public beaches in the Caribbean. They don't tend to pester you too much. Dominican Republic is a very poor country and tourism is its highest earner of foreign currency. We were there earlier this year and visited the capital Santo Domingo, the largest city in Caribbean. Locals very friendly, local police always stopped traffic for us. School children very polite and eager to talk with visitors.

You could say the same about Rome, Florence, Barcelona, Athens....... Cruising gives visitors a "taste" of the places it visits, not an in-depth experience.

If there are unsold cabins then there are likely to be price reductions near departure date. However you need to watch that there are matching flights available from your preferred airport(s). There will be fewer cabins to choose from but if you are out to save as much as possible, just let TUI allocate one for you.

Given the range of airports TUI uses to carry passengers to the ship and the locations of the majority of UK population being in the "south" I would doubt this is ever true.

Casual racism again. Shocking that people on an all inclusive cruise would want more than one drink. What's the world coming to?

"Most of the guests seemed to be first time cruisers and seemed happy (relieved even) with the free booze and pile it high burgers, sausages and chips. The cruise attracted a 60+ crowd of almost entirely British people who seemed friendly and quiet and who hailed predominantly from a Northern English/Scottish working-class background. " This says more about the reviewer than about the passengers.

No. Supposing I’m ready to dine at a table for four. One couple joins Meridian queue and other joins Zenith. When a table becomes available unused one gets cancelled, immediately moving others up the queue. All we did was hedge our bets on which queue would move fastest. This causes no delay to anyone else.

Good review. I’m just back too and we had a great time. lots of positives: food, entertainment, staff, ship…. I had two comments for improvements: Gym - the spin bike studio needs better air conditioning. I did a class and found it extremely uncomfortable. I mentioned it to two staff who said it had been flagged as an issue. The gym has lots of high tech kit by Technogym. Unfortunately P&O don’t link them to internet so many of the features are unusable. My other comment relates to the atrium. It has a wonderful floor which would be great for ballroom and Latin dancing but P&O seem to have dropped atrium dancing on Iona and Arvia.

Formal nights on Arvia are well attended. I was pleasantly surprised. Being such a large ship there was plenty space for those not participating- Brodies and casino, sky dome and buffet .

Multiple queues - easy. Each passenger has the “app” and joins one queue. Other passengers join different queue. Whichever one comes first, you use and cancel others. We tried it once.

If flying Tui their rules are that you have only one bag as carry on and any purchases must fit in it. I’m just back from Caribbean on Tui flights and no one checked, so my wife had a small case and her handbag and I had a carry on case and a small bag for Kindle and headphones. Many passengers had more than one bag. The overhead lockers coped.

Just off Arvia yesterday. No problems getting a table for 6 of us in MDR any night. We liked the table we got first night in Zenith and asked for it next few nights when using “app”. Never more than 10 minute wait around 1845 - 1900. After that we didn’t book. The waiter kept it for us as long as we arrived around 7pm. Restaurant duty manager just waived us in. There is no Captain’s Night, nor can you book a table for 8:30pm. After 6:30 you need to join a virtual queue. When you join a virtual queue it tells you how many ahead of you. You can join multiple virtual queues, so can hedge your bets. MDR is busier on formal nights.

We were a party of 11 on Azura last summer. First night I asked manager for a large table. They had one for ten which suited as we had 2 children and managed 11 places. He kept it for us every night. Tables generally don’t move for safely reasons. I suspect you may need two tables which may not be adjacent.

Which cruise are you on? Requirements vary by destination/itinerary/duration. if you are denied boarding due to COVID, P&O will direct you to your insurers!

We were 11 on Azura in June. The ‘app’ cannot accommodate such a large group - I think 6 was its max. A brief word with manager at MDR on first night and we had a large table reserved for us every night for 7:15 pm. We wanted to use Beach house on night. Booked 4, 4 and 3 then went to manager to explain and were allocated two large adjacent tables.

Is this because of the entertainment going on late?

"Carlsberg don't do celebrations....." 🙂

In September we got £150 extra OBC for our Feb 23 cruise on Arvia. However new customers were getting £650 OBC and same cruise was cheaper. We cancelled, re-booked and saved £1000

Apparently restricted to car and home insurance policies

One of Titan’s A330s has a big Union Flag on the tail. Maybe P&O could “borrow “ it?😀

in UK we mostly use a specialist TA to book out cruise, along with flights and accommodation. Under UK law we get extra protection from booking a holiday "package" that we would not get if we booked flights or hotel ourselves. Twice it has paid dividends. Once in Rome airport closed due to weather and flights got cancelled. TA booked hotel and flight home next day at no cost to us. Second time in Singapore, cruise cancelled at start of Covid outbreak. TA booked extra nights in hotel, new flight home and refunded entire cost of holiday!

We had OBC last month. When we logged in and purchase tours prior to sailing it used the OBC.

You should have an extra night on board in port. What month is your cruise? you may be able to guesstimate your flights by looking at the similar ones in January 2023 when Arvia does it’s first TA.

You will need to collect your luggage at TFS airport. P&O staff will then take it from you and next time you see it is outside your cabin.