Megabear2

Wiltshire Council has closed all the steam rooms, thermal suites and saunas from this month at the leisure centres they own citing electricity running costs. However knowing the manager of the local Salisbury one my husband was chatting with him the other morning and learned its actually self sufficient and runs on thermal heat pump and solar. Intrigued we looked into it more and discovered the heat pump requires electric the equivalent of running a 9kw electric fire 24 hours a day. I doubt there is an answer.

You aren't having to book accommodation though. The cost of that is almost double worldwide. UK hotels are shown as 40% dearer in the inflation figures borne out by my quote yesterday for 2 nights in the Premier Inn Newmarket at a weekly with no racing at £277 for their basic room and no car parking. Same weekend 2022 was £211.

Thanks for the info. I enquired about the 18 February Arvia cruise a short time ago and was surprised to be offered a Heathrow charter on Virgin. The new deliveries explains that one.

I've always found this helpful as a starting point. Just add the port name, ie Zadar, Split, Dubrovnik or wherever. https://www.whatsinport.com/

Very true. I've moved 40 miles back towards Fort Lauderdale so I won't need the car and my friend is happy to drive to meet up instead. Luckily I know a very good old style resort hotel a bit out of the way and saved myself another £800. Has the bonus I can walk to the beach on Sunday and watch the cruise ships leave as well. Certainly need to shop around.

Last week I priced my normal Jupiter (Palm Beach) Hotel for October, not been since 2019 due to pandemic. Cost for 7 nights is now £2,562 for a parking lot view! In 2019 I paid £2,000 for the flight, hotel and car for 10 days. According to BA the car would be £700. The world has gotten a whole lot more expensive I'm afraid.

How is the recruitment going? I saw this adverts appear 3 days ago so assume this is a new phase.

I think they've all had big increases this year from what I can see. Britannia Epicurean is now £30. I believe we'll all find everything much dearer this year whatever line, it's just the way it is. If we don't like like it I'm pretty sure someone else will!!

That's pretty much in line with all the big US cruise lines in my experience. At least the big ships have venues you can book in advance albeit a bunfight to try to beat the rest, however the smaller ones you're stuck, particularly if you're a late boarder and all the select dining is gone. If they are going that route a dining package as offered by RC and Celebrity might be a good idea and also opening up the select restaurants online for all ships to level the playing field. I doubt their it tech could cope but I still prefer the Disney method of on sale x days before by the day rather than a whole voyage on sale at once. I'm glad you had a better holiday this time, but realistically it couldn't have been much worse! Good luck in sorting out your next cruise be it the one on Britannia or one on RC.

Yes I thought 40 minutes. Last couple of cruises Horizon chalk off an hour in the programme before next event. The lunchtime musical one around the pool is normally longer due to the music intros being involved. The RC speed quizzes were 20 minutes.

I appreciate that, I actually meant a booking window just for cancelled guests before it went on general sale. A bit like the tiers for season on sale - as a lowly person I never get the best cabins!

How short were these quizzes please? Most of the ones I've come across are about 40 minutes (20 questions) plus the answers so booked for an hour. Have they gone for speed quizzes which I first came across on RC out of Miami? They seemed very popular with the US guests but seemed very rushed to me.

Draft beers are restricted to certain brands as is wine. The latter is only in small glasses. Soft drinks are from fountain only, no cans or bottles. 15 alcoholic drinks a day limit with 15 minutes between them.

Is the new 27 October cruise mentioned in the notification a passenger carrying cruise? If so were those cancelled offered preferential booking for this one?

Do you have a final answer from your travel insurance saying no valid claim? If so email it to P&O at Executive.Correspondence@carnivalukgroup.com stating you are giving them 7 days to respond and will be opening an ABTA case against them. In your email state you are aware others have received a settlement for FCC when the insurer has said no valid claim. The form has been discontinued due to pressure from the insurance industry and ABTA. Do not give up, keep chasing.

The latest figures quoted in the trade and to some extent the inflation figures are quoting a 40% increase year on year for flights and hotels. Package holidays too according to my friend who is an independent travel agent. In her words those expecting big bargains may be disappointed as bookings are fast and furious.

Yes, I understand the Britannia problem. It was the reason we chose to move to Arvia ourselves. Of course we've now cancelled that and jumped to Celebrity. As you say the cruise cost on the other lines has risen considerably driven, I think, by demand. So many have been looking for alternatives to their regular P&O cruises it probably hasn't helped as Marella in particular has been mentioned over and over. The p&o transatlantic cruises have always offered good value price wise. However I'm surprised they chose to keep Britannia on a full season rather than Arvia as after all the latter is supposedly their bright new shining star. I guess volume needing flights has prompted the choice. The compensation offered to you is a bit insulting considering that any replacement you might pick will now be at a far higher price. I suppose we shouldn't be surprised at their lack of interest in your plight considering their track record at present with compensation to the downgraded passengers. Looking at the list of cancellations I'd be interested in knowing how many bookings they actually had on these cruises. None of which helps you and your wife. I do hope you get sorted with something soon.

Sorry to hear that as I know how much you enjoy that cruise every year. Did they say if Britannia was going ahead or offer you her in exchange? I've noticed there are a very large number of these Caribbean cruises this year stating cruise only as well. I was told that flights are a problem for those too.

The adverts are quite enlightening on the Indeed website. A lot state you must have experience of at least a year in the travel industry or a call centre. I'd guess that's going to rule out quite a few old or young. A great number of the jobs are home based and can be done part time. A lot of the staff required are: "The Role Holiday bookings are up, the ships are back to service, and that means we need to grow our contact centre to keep up with demand! We have various roles within the department, all crucial roles in the customer journey, each forming part of the jigsaw that completes the guest’s holiday. Duties Include: Acting as the first point of contact for guests and travel agents by phone Booking fantastic cruises with guests over the phone, as well as adding holiday extras such as cabin upgrades Answering questions and queries from guests and travel agents, giving advice tailored to guest needs Dealing with guest complaints by phone and email, resolving as quickly as possible About You Excellent customer service skills, with the desire to go the extra mile for our guests Experience within a contact centre/high volume/customer service role A flair for sales and hitting targets Travel industry experience would be a bonus! Flexibility to work shift patterns – between 8:30am – 6pm Monday to Saturday We can offer you hybrid working (2 days per week in the office) or fully remote – we can discuss at interview with you!" Benefits: "As a Carnival UK colleague you can enjoy a range of benefits including: HUGE, discounted cruise with Cunard and P&O Cruises plus late availability offers Flexible hybrid working Excellent career opportunities Minimum 25 days of holidays and option for holiday trading Contributory Defined Pension scheme Company paid Health Cash Plan Company paid Health Assessment Employee Shares Plan Life Assurance Cycle to work Access to digital GP Opportunity to join employee led networks Extensive learning and development opportunities Employee assistance programme Shopping discounts portal Opportunities to undertake short secondments on our fantastic ships to support the on board sales team through busy periods" That doesn't sound too bad and the benefits look good too. I notice no mention of salary, though. I have seen local adverts suggesting £10.50 a hour is average but that's not definite.

Probably want to save the jobs for the "missing" oldies that they are convinced really must go back to work!

Okay, sorry we had a misunderstanding. I recall some time last year you mentioning your preference for RC. Although your points are valid - as you know I didn't have a particularly brilliant cruise on Britannia last month - there is little point in saying we didn't know in advance the offering and the mention of ice rinks confused. It is no secret that after my four cruises last year the final one on P&O was a long way short of my experience on Celebrity Edge and Regal Princess (medical emergency aftermath excluded)! Interestingly though the other comparison is Britannia January 2022 -v- Britannia December 2022 and frankly the latter was vastly inferior. That being the case I know where you are coming from on the entertainment overall as we too found it lacking in quality and the debate on the food quality, availability, and service is being amply covered on other threads. If you have a £350 casino voucher I hope that means at least your experience there was more enjoyable. However in view of your rather disappointed tone perhaps you may be better to walk away from P&O now rather than being unhappy with another cruise. You've given it another go after your covid problems and unfortunately it doesn't sound like your latest cruise is one you want to put down to experience as just unlucky. I will be interested to read your section 2 on the cruise and apart from missing ice rinks etc look forward to hearing what you found good, bad or indifferent.

Not wishing to be nasty but surely you knew Iona didn't have ice rinks and golf courses - assumedly the latter couldn't have been used in the bad weather either. It seems then the cruise offered was simply not to your taste on this occasion and the entertainment offering was not actually poor but not something you personally could enjoy. When you refer to cinema showings being restricted are you referring to the time and number of showings, I understood there to be 4 screens showing different films in each. It was unfortunate that the speaker was of no interest to you but again many others may have found him enjoyable. I assume the dance classes etc were also not to your taste either but these do appear on every cruise line I've sailed on and actually are very well attended. My husband had never done these before but at Christmas he took part every day (I watched) and really enjoyed them. There is unfortunately a limit to what can be offered and maybe it's a case of you can't please all of the people all of the time. I do however agree the cruise lines seem very happy to rely on things like sports events to entertain us but that's maybe the way the world is going. I assume overall the experience was reasonable as I note elsewhere you are looking at a Britannia cruise despite saying never again after the one before your Iona cruise.

Thank you, I guessed that was the case but as you referred to day 9 Cadiz having nice weather I thought I'd ask. As you say if we choose a winter cruise we will get bad weather occasionally. On a side note, not P&O related my friends are in Majorca and yesterday it snowed very heavily inland with much heavier expected middle of the week. It was 3 degrees in Palma where they are staying and very little heating available. Returning to your cruise, looking forward to part 2 of your review.

Was it an inclement day so outside activities were restricted- I ask as there is no mention of them in your list. What was missing that you were expecting, it would be helpful to know please. I'm sailing on Iona in March for her last Canaries trip this season so it would be helpful to know as I anticipate my first days at sea will be inside activities mainly. Thank you.

No! Not to be encouraged tbh. Never act in a way to arouse their interest in my opinion. If you felt unwell then possibly test because you want to know, but I'd suggest not having the tests anywhere within sight of P&O. Bag them in the provided bags and take a small plastic box to hide in your luggage and dispose of them ashore or take them home. You're under no obligation to test for covid and therefore I'd say don't unless you genuinely feel unwell with what you think might be symptoms and want to know yourself. Remember if you say anything they will lock you away in your cabin, you can always make the decision not to mix with people and isolate yourself without formalising it, after all its what you would do at home.