Megabear2

This is not good news! According to my booking I can book dining on 2 December for my Christmas cruise. We are hoping to do the special Epicurean Epicurean Christmas dinner on Christmas day as we have on all our previous holiday cruises. Hopefully as that is not a "normal" booking they will sort it out so all can try to book. There are a lot of flights arriving at different times on 16 and 17 December and it would be extremely unfair if early arrivals get to snap up all reservations on the cruise.

There's extremely little availability of cruises of any length from Southampton in the whole of December according to leading t/a websites. Apart from Iona on 17 December they also appear to either be over the Christmas period for lengthy trips or to cold weather places like Norway. Anyone who cannot fly or deal with the cold is therefore more or less totally without choice. A couple of Fred's from Portsmouth and Liverpool, a Cunard on QV and a couple of Sagas. Overall there's actually more space on actual Christmas cruises and many don’t like being away during that period or cannot take leave then.

Thank you. I'm glad you managed to get the things you wanted.

Were they drunk, fightingwith who? Any idea what happened to the offender? On a positive note glad to hear sail aways are back, another sign of normality returning.

Were any of the speciality restaurants and Limelight available to reserve before sailing?

Regardless of who's to blame for the late delivery the p...poor offer of compensation is rather insulting, particularly as the cruise would have been so close to Christmas and many as a result will have difficulty rearranging time off work etc. The firm I worked for had schedules every year to ensure the workload was spread through the whole of December and early January. This schedule was organised in October to ensure as many as possible got off the days they wanted and once agreed it was nigh on impossible to change your requested days. There will therefore be people trapped in this type of scenario who will need to source another holiday at what is a normally busy period with encumbent high prices or else be forced to sit at home twiddling their thumbs as they've saved annual leave allowance to take this trip. The casual flippant message sent to these people is very poor.

Your transfer appears very early. You are required to leave your cabin by 8.00am but normally those on P&O flights have freedom to stay onboard and come and go until their transfer time is called. You cannot take anything other than hand luggage on the Farewell trips - these bags are stored in the coach so you can tour unencumbered. Hold luggage for those taking these trips is collected the night before. The Farewell trips would not therefore be suitable if you are not taking the charter as passengers are taken directly to the airport. However for information these leave at around 10.00 and drop at the airport mid afternoon - depending on which you take 2.30 or thereabouts - most of the charters leave early evening. My recollection of the flight departure boards in the past is that the BA and Virgin flights are slightly later, but not by much, it may we worth checking with P&O in case I am wrong but in nine trips I cannot recall seeing any hold luggage on these Farewell trips. You could perhaps consider a later pick up time for your transfer, allowing you to stay onboard to continue to use the ship's facilities, many do this. P&O also offer a limited number of day cabins on Britannia at a cost. These are limited and can be booked onboard on a first come basis when released. You will have access to the port area and it is also relatively easy to walk from the port to the local areas. Regarding your luggage you would be best served to ask your travel agent to check with P&O the normal arrangements for this. There are quite frequently non charter passengers onboard these cruises and therefore a routine must be in place. However if you are retaining your luggage storage facilities on a left luggage basis operate from the theatre but I am unsure if large suitcases can be left there. I hope this may help a little.

Dam health in Southampton.

Yes. I fly Friday 16.12, test booked Wednesday 14.12.

I thought PCR testing had ended before July and was by then LFT. Where were you travelling to/from to have a PCR - I assume a long cruise to Canada or something?

I assume if agents are pushing the substantial reductions that's why P&O are drawing attention to it.

I often receive personal email offers from both P&O and Cunard. Sometimes they are reduced prices on cruises they think I'd like, other times OBC offers. To be truthful I've received these over a number of years so assumed they were normal. I'm not sure why but I get lots of brochures and offers by post as well.

Iona 29 October

We will be doing the same as we have medical needs for early dining. We also like a table for 2 and this way we can ask for that. Normally no problem in getting our requested time particularly if we explain medical need.

Personal email from my booking contact at P&O.

Regarding fares late or early, I've just been invited to book a very short notice cruise at a third of the original price. I had already cancelled the cruise but am now seriously considering it. Basically no single supplement, £325 OBC as well. If I took a saver its even cheaper. I doubt very much I'm going to book anything P&O in advance after seeing this and what's happening with my Christmas cruise price. Been busy sorting out Pippaluck for 2024 as unfortunately all the midnight sun cruises in 2023 clash with my annual Kefalonian holiday. Now very close on that one thankfully.

Extra hands can often be arranged...

Queen Anne for me! Fingers crossed ... my mum and I did QE we loved it.

They all go online. I did a totally scathing one for Princess in July. It's there in glorious technicolour.

These "surveys" replaced the in cabin ones a couple of years ago and are actually reviews for Feefo. Read into that what you will ...

I would think 2024 bookings would be more of a marker as all the FCC will have washed through? The evidence on land based holidays in Europe at least is questionable depending on where you look and in what price ranges. The Azura fly cruises have offered good value along with the rearranged Baltics and Iona Norway "shuttles" but certainly not most others unless they are the last minute savers. All cruise lines are about to see what people think of the 2024 offerings and pricing before we say it's all okay.

I agree about Americans - I cruise out of the US on a regular basis. My point, trying to be polite, is that the AI packages are ideal for that market as apart from a few isolated younger people there are not so many intent on drinking as their main recreation (not just on a ship). Unfortunately that is beginning to creep in to their society too - see reports of drunken fights in Epcot at Disney World Food Festival for example so even travelling with children does not curtail the enthusiasm. We would be lying to ourselves if we do not admit since the 80's heavy drinking has become a symbol of the British abroad and as a result we are perceived in some places as a bad influence - all inclusive resorts in Majorca limiting drinks at some all inclusive resorts for instance. P&O rightly need to be careful with their image and as a result want to make an offering but not one which allows excess. I'm not in anyway judging people as that would be pot, kettle and black. I have nights in good company where I get drunk, hopefully not to nuisance levels, but I could not drink to that level every day. Regarding Princess my experience on a fly cruise with predominantly US guests was completely different to my staycation on the same ship with only UK guests. Boisterous and excitability Americans were a totally different animal to the latter who got progressively more rude and self centred at they neared their 15 drink daily limit - the bottles of beer being used to make a pint running out for many before dinner leaving the men in particular cross as their allowance was gone. I include my own friends in that one and I know it repeated on their cruise to Norway and Denmark this year.

The well dressed man - you get what you wish for 1980's style.

Excellent. Are any areas off limits, ie locked so you can't go from one end to the other on any deck apart from the normal rear restaurant dead end? If not then hopefully no quarantine zones which would tally with my having no recollection of any displaced Britannia passengers. All good news here hopefully. Thank you Walkingdude for your detective work in our cause!

I find this latest debate quite interesting. Am I to assume that the provision of a decent drinks package as discussed by our two most recent posters is one of the more important aspects of choosing a cruise nowadays. If that is so I wonder how the lines such as Princess, Celebrity and RCI who threw it in as a freebie on most of their cruises after the pandemic are fairing. The Princess offering for instance is much the same as P&O and Cunard one in the 15 drinks a day. I know that draft beers were almost non existent on Regal with beer offerings bottled. Now that it's no longer automatically included how many are paying to upgrade or indeed upgrade twice? Celebrity also offered two levels of package when I sailed with them in June and it was totally unlimited. As someone who doesn't drink alcohol a great deal I was glad of it for the "free" iced coffees etc but can truthfully say I wouldn't necessarily choose it if I hadn't been given it. Passengers' alcohol consumption on the Celebrity and Princess cruises I took this year was I would say substantially higher than on my P&O ones and the crowd (mainky American) as a result louder and more boisterous. This isn't in any way a criticism as each to his own but perhaps P&O are aware of the UK's sad reputation abroad with alcohol and are deliberately walking a fine line to temper their guests enthusiasm.