Megabear2

It's a regular poster who travels solo in balcony cabins on the two smaller ships who is paying that amount. @Fionboard mentions the cost further up the thread.

Sadly it is possible to encounter this sort of behaviour anywhere so not really cruise specific. However my point, which I've been banging on about more since the physical assault, is that there is more of a fear factor onboard a ship in a "closed" environment and with all the will in the world P&O really don't have an idea of who's onboard. Apparently the New Year Britannia cruise just passed there was a massive brawl on deck after some champagne bottles were knocked over - a friend was onboard and witnessed this - and the offenders were removed at the next port. Hopefully a precursor for the future. I'm aware many on here think these are isolated incidents as thankfully they haven't witnessed them, however a read through the Feefo reviews does seem to suggest more are commenting on undocial behaviour and I noted that the "Code of Conduct" on the website has also been substantially amended at the same time.

I'd agree removal should happen but unfortunately not in my experience. Two of the events I have been involved in ended in a quite large group of well behaved passengers being asked to move away from the drunken and abusive passengers, once on Britannia and once on Azura and in the case of the latter extra bottles of champagne were given to the offending bridal party who were hosting an unofficial hen and stag do in the clubhouse. The next port day we watched to see what happened, yes we saw a removal, it was the mother of the bride being taken into the ambulance with alcohol poisoning, the rest remained on board. The wedding day arrived and they had a massive fight amongst themselves in the evening. These were two fairly extreme events which I wrote to P&O about as frankly the staff were out of their depth an quite frankly frightened. The replies, which I still have, stated that P&O are not responsible for their guests behaviour. Yes, I cruise at Christmas and New Year and in the Caribbean so obviously people are more likely to kick over the traces a little but on my past two of these I've witnessed drunken teenagers stripping off Argentinian football shirts and dancing on theatre seats after a goal, had a youngster throw up violently on my husband whilst watching a Pulse concert on deck, been physically assaulted by a football fan who didn't like my accent and seen somewhat dubious adult behaviour late night on deck. All seen and witnessed by staff, all left well alone by security as the offenders were in large groups. No they aren't deal breakers, I still cruise on P&O and intend to do so for many years. However I doubt those drunken youngsters bought their drinks onboard, so where exactly did it come from?

The rule stated one bottle per passenger if I recall? I'm not someone who has ever even considered bringing a soft drink on board never mind a bottle of spirits so cannot say definitely. However as someone with a rather encyclopedic memory of historic posts I am aware of many stating they take more than that allowance, discussing where to put it, how no one ever checks it etc etc. P&O are not stupid. If there are reports of people openly using their own bottles of drink as described by some very reliable people on this forum they too will have seen it and be aware. So two things spring to mind, abuse of a very generous system and onboard incidents being noted and reported. Add them together and there's the perfect opportunity to stop it. Some, not all, people were given an inch and took a mile. With the drinks package the cruise line has some control. Go over your 15(!) drinks and legitimately P&O can say no more as per Carlanthony's point. Again 15 drinks at 15 minute intervals can or not be extreme depending on what the individual can handle. On a Princess cruise my regularly drinking friend ran out of inclusive drinks by dinnertime because he was ordering two 330ml bottle of beer to make a pint, you wouldn't have even been aware he'd had the equivalent of 7.5 pints as he easily consumes that and more on his nights out. If it had been me or my husband however we would have been falling down drunk for sure. 15 G&T's would most likely cause the latter or more severe consequences however the cruise lines most likely haven't encountered many in preceding years who could actually consume that number. Watching the "camp outs" around the pools on Arvia and Britannia on my three most recent P&O cruises I have the distinct impression many of the new customers are giving that limit a really good try.

Actually had a chat with the guys on the picket line yesterday, they seemed to be enjoying the rare sunshine. As a trade unionist myself, rather rare in law offices, I always like to hear the story from both sides and being a small city I know quite a few people who have or do work on the railways. Interesting conversations. I am going up early around 10.30am and hopefully meeting a friend I worked with in the afternoon. I've been watching Elbow live for nearly 30 years since first seeing them in a Bury pub and this is the first O2 concert since before the pandemic so I'm very excited.

Oh happy day, it's dry!! Been up since 3.30 when my ginger monster decided he REALLY needed his mummy to give him biscuits and then let him out for some early morning mouse patrol. He seemed quite shocked his paws didn't get wet! Preparations for London tomorrow with a visit to the O2 to see Elbow the highlight. Apparently going to be no rain there either unless I manage to take it with me. Thankfully train drivers are not striking just overtime banning so it should be better than last week's nightmare trip to Newmarket by car. Thanks to my early awakening I've checked in for my Queen Anne jaunt and printed labels and boarding passes, I seem to be moving all over the ship, now got yet another cabin number all supposedly upgrades but just moving around in position. Not sailing until the 24th so I'm probably to end up back where I came from at this rate. I assume it's all to do with paid upgrade bids but it's getting a bit odd. Have a good day everyone.

Thank you for your explanation. Unfortunately much as we would like it to be the case our individual needs and preferences are not necessarily going to be in line with those of others and on this occasion the change clearly is something you as an individual are very unhappy about. I note you are going to take the cruise upcoming and hope that you have a great time regardless of the new rules on spirits being taken onboard. Going forward only you will know if the new experience is something you wish to repeat and whatever your final decision is I hope you find something suitable for your future needs. Times are changing in the cruising world, the clientele is very different to the past, particularly on mass market lines. As some mentioned above of these only Cunard now stands out as allowing personal alcohol to be brought onboard and the cynic in me says that Carnival will look long and hard at this in the near future. As someone who has complained vociferously on this forum about drunken behaviour of some guests on recent cruises, I would be very two faced if I said I was surprised that this action has been taken. Whether I agree with P&O "punishing" all for the sins of that handful is a moot point, they are P&O's vessels to do with as they like and in light of the videos on social media of major alcohol fuelled problems and bad behaviour on the Carnival ships sailing from the US it is very easy to understand the board of all Carnival companies may wish to prevent a lax approach causing problems on any of their lines. Bad publicity is not something they would want at a time when they are rebuilding cruising after the hatchet job done by press and governments through the pandemic. Sledgehammer and nut? Possibly, but it is what it is, nothing personal to anyone just a corporate decision out of individuals' hands.

Unfortunately that as standard practice ended with covid. Anytime dining MDR guests cannot have wine stored on any ship but on the smaller vessels those on fixed dining have reported that storage is still being offered.

So a bottle of your favourite tipple overrides all the other things you mentioned in this rather nice post from last December. That's rather sad.

That may indeed be the best solution but once again as they are trying to compete for the AI package holiday family they have rather painted themselves into a corner on this one. It seems ironic that the very youngest adults appear to be very anti alcohol but their parents and grandparents get very stressed and uptight about its availability. Strange world for the leisure industry to try to juggle balls in unfortunately.

Pre loading has been a problem ashore for some time. The LGA were looking into it some timecback in 2016 as police and local councils were growing very concerned about problems, particularly in connurbations. Perhaps P&O is looking to stop the possibility of pre loading, particularly as it is fairly normal practice amongst some age groups. As the cruise demographic is changing so too will the different sections of society's attitude to what is the accepted norm. Nip it in the bud perhaps.

Out of interest I note that quite a lot of the policy change subtly mentions a lot about responsible drinking, which with some of the behaviours and antics witnessed and reported on some cruises over the past year or so isn't really a surprise. However can anyone enlighten me as to the following, please? "Why are you changing the alcohol policy? We've reviewed our alcohol policy and decided to align with the cruise industry to adhere to HESS guidelines around our responsibility to serve alcohol." What are HESS guidelines, and does anyone know what they say? I'm quite intrigued.

My husband bought a new lawnmower in the Autumn but has yet to be able to use it die to the wet. Ironically while he was away last month we had two dry days and my friend cut it for me. At least it's nice and green albeit rather long. Returning to my moan about Water Parks the latest newsletter just arrived. Apparently the trees which can't be planted have been bought and are now being given away to charities for their use. The Environment Agency will buy new ones in the Autumn. Me being me wonders why a charity will be able to plant them and the EA/builders can't, could it be actually that they're so far behind the trees will probably die if they don't get planted? These are mature trees, I'm so delighted the taxpayer can afford to give them away and buy more. Bad enough they've planted marginals and water plants twice already only for them to be lost in the deluge they created. Anyway I've attached the Community Newsletter in case anyone wants a laugh or is planning a trip to our City to enjoy a picnic in the car and coach parks with a lovely view of the toilet blocks with the thousands of pounds murals painted on them. As you might gather I'm not in a good frame of mind today .... Community newsletter May 2024.pdf

Never mind bank holiday washout, it's been more like a season washout! My diary shows it has rained in one form or another most days since August, I kid you not. We have had flood warnings since December, currently five in place since February, to be reviewed on 8 May. Some parts of the City look like a war zone with over running flood prevention works - ironically no one can remember these 100 year floods they're preventing - but the works have managed to flood people's homes, collapsed the river banks and caused the water to be so high and fast that two unfortunate people have lost their lives in the water over the winter. The latest update on completing this River Park which should have finished in April is it has been too wet to plant the mature trees so they'll be held off until November 2025!

Bank Holiday washout well and truly here. Driving home on A303 on Sunday reached Basingstoke and hitbtorrential downpours, followed by high winds and even hail. Just as bad at home when I got here. Apparently apart from a couple of hours on Saturday it hadn't stopped raining since I left. Yesterday was dark, wet and miserable, we had to put the lights on at 3.30pm it was so bad. This morning we have mist and a little haze. Very doubtful the talked about 20 degrees is going to materialise although hopefully it will be dry. It's all very draining and depressing no hint of Spring at all, the thousands of snails that are wandering around the garden are having a field day. Just took 20 of the little so and sos of my youngest Acer. Still cold enough to put the heating on yesterday morning to take the chill off. So yes I can confidently agree with bank holiday washout!

Surely the answer is to wait until Thursday to see if anything happens, after all that's the first date in the supposed email in post 1? Rather than speculating on what is or isn't happening if that date passes and nothing occurs that will settle the issue of whether it is a fact or not. Until that time it would seem rather futile to stress over the issue.

My most favourite place ever!! So so jealous. Really need their psychedelic football shirt fir my collection....

Yes, I am referring to the frozen concoctions.

Most of them are indeed premixed, it was explained to us whilst on Britannia that was the company policy. Several people were complete frozen cocktails had little flavour. The packets being used were from Funkin which you can buy in the local supermarket.

Another brave run! The hero of the hour says thank you.

There's a strange unidentified yellow object in the sky up here in Newmarket! Strange rumblings and exclamations of excitement from the gathered ensemble in the breakfast room mixed with trepidation as to whether this could be an early sighting of the Death Star or a forewarning from the Emperor of his latest devious plan to bestow us with hail stones and copious amounts of freezing rain. The going is officially good, the forecast is for a dry and bright morning, turning to a cloudy afternoon with sunny spells with the threat of an isolated light shower. A small miracle - could it just be I might, yes really, not need that heavy duty raincoat this afternoon?

Very cold and miserable here at the home of racing. Took nearly 6 hours yesterday in torrential rain and today it continued. Who in their wit and wisdom decided to dig up the M25 near St Albans for two junctions in the run up to a bank holiday and to proudly announce it's until Summer 2025! All very depressing. For the first time in 50 years my packing for this weekend's racing consists of three winter weight woollies, two pair of boots, my Austrian winter hat and a heavy raincoat. Certainly no hope of glamour this year! On a more positive note the hotel has switched the heating on, Dutch Decoy is declared to run and the new super horse City of Troy has arrived from Ireland. I just have to not freeze to death or get washed away before the big event!

QA is 13sqm apparently around 145sq ft. This is actually slightly larger than P&O Arvia at 135sq ft and these are more than adequate as their layout is different. The one inside shown in the videos I have seen does not have a layout to make the small space feel larger in the way QE and QV has. This is all beside the point really, the fact is there is a big market for inside cabins on all cruise lines from Southampton which seems to get overlooked by posters on all of these forums. With rising interest in cruising many will choose an inside as a tester and these cabins will become that. The person to whom I replied was in my opinion a little flippant about those choosing inside cabins. My point was they aren't "cheap" when compared with other lines sailing from Southampton and no matter how good the offering is if new UK passengers - as suggested in the X comment two days ago by Cunard - are being tapped for this ship "designed for the UK market" it's best not to forget those people.

The QA insides are considerably smaller than the Vistas and Queen Mary. As for "cheap" as the ship has been built without any single cabins they will in a lot of cases be the only reasonably priced cabin for many solos. For 14 nights on 8 September that miniscule inside cabin is costing me £3508. Admittedly the 24 May late booking on late saver was only £2098. There are apparently 348 of these cabins which is a fairly large number on a 3,000 capacity ship. You mentioned P&O's Britannia back in your comparisons and she has 448 with no outsides and her insides are 170 sq ft minimum. These "cheap" inside cabins will need to be filled to ensure the ship stays profitable. Disregarding the people choosing them is a little short sighted.

Not much use to the OP as he's bought the park tickets as advised by p&O and presumably they weren't cheap.