Megabear2

Am I correct that this reservation is for 29 November 2024, the Friday departure? If it is I assume you have paid a deposit around £350 on the amount you mention fof the total. Having looked at that voyage it is indeed a very busy one for inside cabins. If I choose select fare and enter 2 adults and a 6 month old baby it offers me only 3 cabins all fixed beds and if I remove the little one I get only a handful more. The next day's sailing has a slightly more availability but again with the baby added the choice drops to 3 fixed bed rooms. Although you would lose your deposit of £350 you could consider possibly cancelling and rebooking a balcony cabin on a select basis, admittedly it would cost more but currently there is £340 onboard credit which would cover the loss of your deposit. There is little difference in cost between the clear and obstructed balcony cost, literally tens of pounds so you could end up with a really nice cabin - aft cabins on C deck are available for instance. For 2 plus a baby it would be £4407. Obviously I'm not aware of your finances but you would get complete peace of mind doing this. A saver balcony without the OBC is £3907 but again you would lose your deposit without the OBC to make up for it and be at the mercy of P&O's choice of cabin. One other thing, the current P&O offers end on 4 March. Generally within days they will be replaced but the prices of the cruises tend to change on an offer ending. For a few days they will rise, often quite a bit particularly if the next offer is increased onboard credit. P&O use these to "balance" their profit, ie higher OBC but higher base price, lower OBC generally a lower base price but whichever option the customer chooses they end up with the same bottom line. As the customer you play roulette and try to read the market. This cruise is selling well if it is the November one. You need to decide really if you want to enter an argument with P&O or attempt to find another solution. Unfortunately booking a cruise online if you have anything other than a basic 2 adults is a minefield. Simple advice is don't do it, use a good reputable travel agent or at the very least do a telephone booking with P&O and record every detail you discuss and answers given. Good luck whatever you choose to do.

They must be getting more confident ... https://cruise.blog/2024/02/carnival-new-ship-order

Green beans are relatively easy to prepare which may have some relevance. Funnily the only time i saw green beans on Britannia on my last two cruises on her were when our dining companions asked for extra vegetables. These were the same every night a mixture of green beans, carrots and broccoli. On Arvia I asked for green beans in Epicurean and was told there were none onboard but they had broad beans. When they arrived they were actually sliced runner beans.

I see Gettingwarmer beat me to it. Could you also give us details of the cruise, ie ship date etc and also the cabin number ?

Joe, I've just checked Tiger's thread and post number 5 shows photographs and details on his current cabin. For some reason my link won't work but you'll find it here: TigerB (not at all) live from Iona (G404 - Portugal, Spain, and Canaries)

Might I suggest you pop over to TigerB's current thread from Iona as he and his wife use these cabins with her a full time wheelchair user. He has measurements etc for these types of cabin and can direct you to photos etc on threads he has made. Lots of useful information and if i need info I'd consider him extremely reliable. I hope that will help you. He is excellent on detail.

Britannia being in the Caribbean has her "official" NY Eve party on deck and as such a lot of the passengers have eaten in the buffet and taken their seats long before midnight. There is a mix of formal and non formal dressers as a result so perhaps the video mentioned reflected that. However my experience on Britannia is that there are several venues where people gather to celebrate at midnight and the indoor venues do reflect the formal dress.

Azithromycin was one of the antibiotics given to me in Barbados. Apparently it is often prescribed for people with repeat chest infections. My GP confirmed this when I arrived home and said it is quite strong. Certainly it helped me to reduce coughing and sore throat to get me home, although it really only last week that I could say I felt almost completely better. Hopefully the Azithromycin may at least give relief till you get home.

It's a shame you only saw the immediate area around the cruise port as Antigua is a beautiful island filled with fascinating history. Even some of the beautiful beaches hold amazing stories. Galleons Beach in particular is fascinating with skeletons appearing after a hurricane in 2010 and then even more surfacing after the catastrophic 2017 hurricanes which made Barbuda uninhabitable. After the first bones were recovered it was assumed these people were captured slaves being sent to English Harbour for sale onto the British. However testing of the bones showed they were of European descent and caucasian. They also contained extremely high levels of lead which totally bemused the investigators. Fast forward to 2017 when the sand had moved even more. The skeleton numbers rose enormously from the 7 original ones until 258 had been discovered, all clearly not slaves. They were at first thought to be victims of Yellow Fever or other tropical diseases, however again they were full of lead. It transpired from records held at English Harbour that the British Navy were purchasing huge numbers of barrels of local rum as rum was considered to be good for health- daily tot of rum ration etc. Unfortunately it transpired that these local distilleries had pipework with extremely high levels of lead and the poor hapless individuals onboard the ships actually died from lead poisoning. The disposal of the high numbers involved was carried out on Galleons Beach and it is actually a graveyard. Unfortunately due to Antigua relying for its income from tourism the digs have stopped. The 2017 hurricanes solved the mystery but the huge losses to the twin nations of that devastation and then the pandemic has meant a plunging income and economy only just being rebuilt and recovered. Most tourists sitting on the beach have no idea what they might ge sitting on! Antigua remains in the Commonwealth but received little aid in 2017 from the UK apart from the initial few months of aftermath help. They intend to have a referendum on becoming a republic after Barbados' success.

I love the Del Monte - did you see the man who says yes, or is it straight from the tin?

Selbourne I note the recommendation for the Villa Maria Seaspray at lunch time. Purely as a matter of interest coukd you check if it's anywhere else you visit and if so is it covered by either drinks package. Just being nosey as there was some debate we witnessed in Limelight on Britannia when it was the only Sauvignon Blanc on sale there and some people we met were quite upset as it was extremely pricey. Thank you.

The flights are looking expensive at present. I'm looking at Tokyo to Seattle May 2025 and Cunard are £2,000. A quick check via my t/a retells me currently if I bought today for tte same time May 2024, ie relatively soon, the cost today is around £1600. I'm waiting.

I'm fully aware what the thread started over and also that I along with yourself, Carl Anthony and others said it's what it is wait and see. The discussion moved on from there some months back though and anyone who didn't give them a chance really should have. However sadly they have failed dismally on several occasions, a fact acknowledged by Paul Ludlow in his announcement to travel agents. It's not just 2 occasions there have been a lot of the problems with relatively "normal" delays of several hours. On my Gatwick trip 13 January flight we had 20 odd passengers from Manchester who were "paid" to miss a day of their holiday and travel down to Gatwick to fly a day late. I have it on good authority from onboard Britannia that this also happened on the 30 December flight. This was due to an aircraft change which meant less seats on the flight were available. These sort of "minor" problems have been occurring all year. Moley has told us that Maleth has broken their contract "numerous" times. He would not say that unless it was true, nor would P&O have terminated their association after one season (particularly with the known shortage of suppliers of charters) if their customers were thrilled with their experience. The quality of the crew, the comfort etc are neither here nor there ICF. The availability of those crew, ie do Maleth employ enough of them, the service ability and reliability of the aircraft etc are the problem that the passengers are rightly complaining about. No amount of straw polls amongst people on a flight that's gone well will hide those facts. As I keep saying the past 48 hours, Maleth have had their moment in the spotlight, P&O and their customers appear not to have liked the experience and now all discussion should move on to where everyone goes from end of March.

That's fine ICF, glad it was good for you. However others had a lot of problems with delays etc. I do not think the overall flight comfort is the problem, it's the unreliability and very long delays. A couple of January cruises lost a port while waiting for arrivals. I do understand where you're coming from on comfort in standard but that's across virtually every airline nowadays and is why so many pay to upgrade. Unfortunately no one is going to be able to get airlines to put passenger comfort top of their list. It's not a case of what we are wishing for, it's very much a case of P&O acknowledging it simply wasn't good enough. Back at the beginning of September it was discussed about TUI legroom and acknowledged that in standard there's remains a market leader. P&O need to charter, TUI do charter (the England football team frequently use their planes) so if it's the best available that's what it is. It's not what people are wishing for so much as something they know and in most cases trust. If you want tight legroom don't fly internally in the US on some airlines, that really is horrendous. People love Jet2 on here. Yet most of the aircraft are not brand new. Presumably it's the reliability and quality of service they like. If Maleth had offered that then maybe others would be sing9their praises too.

Like most on here you are a regular cruiser aside from your obvious connection to the airlines and hospitality industries. As such I would also assume that if you were subject to serious delays and inadequacies (particularly if you were on holiday for only 7 days) by parties who failed to keep you informed, tried to ignore your communications and generally gave the impression tough, you just might be a little upset and want to complain or vent your anger? Your reply about 767 aircraft, entertainment etc is going back very many years and is of little relevance to the problems some, not all, have experienced. The questions here are on 2023/24 and going forward into 2025/6 so although true old TUI, Thomas Cook etc problems have very little relevance and most likely will lead to even more moving off topic in this thread which started out and should continue to be about P&O's choice of airline partners. While I fully appreciate everything stated about airlines and aircraft is totally correct and do not in any way dispute any of it, it remains that replies to the people who have had the bad experiences (not I hasten to add by anyone in particular) are beginning to show very little compassion for what in some cases sound like pretty horrendous experiences. Individuals could surely do without lectures on how the industry works or being told they are unreasonable in expecting an airline to acknowledge their claims for legally. Until we are living it ourselves with every one of us having different inbuilt "triggers" surely we can offer some empathy rather than pour fuel on the fire of that person's personal anguish? We all react to situations differently, some can sail through adversity some, like myself on Arvia with the noise issue, will find it extremely difficult to cope. I do not read most popular social media sites as I am uncomfortable with them and find a lot of what is said there complete nonsense. That said I have followed this Maleth issue on the TA and airline social media sites and have been totally shocked by the vitriol and mocking of P&O passengers on them by so called "experts" in aviation. Comments insinuating that the people are buying cheap holidays and should expect it, mocking them for comments which although silly do not deserve to be singled out as individual figures of fun, suggesting their intelligence is low level etc. I would have expected that those of us who cruise and have taken part on those websites just might have tried to defend the cruise passengers rather than allow people in the US, Middle East etc to belittle them.

I don't disagree airlines have plenty to improve but they are what they are and most people are fully aware of their failings. As to choosing not to fly that's a personal choice just the same as what class you fly. A lot of posters on here who choose not to fly have other reasons apart from airline customer service. Thousands of flights take off every day, overall very few have major problems. Those who choose to continue to fly do so because they are happy, they deserve the respect not to be told constantly that every airline they may choose to fly with will let them down, they probably board with everything crossed anyway. The Maleth situation appears to me being them getting over confident when taking the contract and appearing naive about the need for reliability and punctuality with a ship on a tight schedule. That's not a general airline problem that's over promising and under performing by one organisation who clearly are totally unsuited to the job requirements and tried the best they could but sometimes failing rather spectacularly. If as Moley says they were the last resort, no doubt P&O will think twice before getting into such a situation again.

As I said I'm not interested in getting involved in any slanging matches no matter who said what. I was hoping for some positivety for what next Caribbean season may hold. Unfortunately here and elsewhere the Maleth situation has deteriorated into a what can go wrong on every airline thread no doubt unintentionally but that's how it's reading. The TA thread (which you are also on so must read) has taken a turn for p... taking of P&O passengers, that's just unfair. Can we not at least try here to give some positive ideas of what those who book for next year might expect. I for instance I no nothing about Norse so what are they likely to be bringing to the table? I also fly BA and am fully aware of their shortcomings but as someone booked on several BA flights this year I really don't welcome lots of comments on their frailty in the IT department or need reminding of it.

They would be scheduled flights though and if your airport work like Gatwick and Heathrow check in for those would be shared with thousands of people on numerous flights. The Maleth one only had to deal with 230-240 passengers and over a 2/3 hour window it's doubtful queues would build?

That was also when one plane was out of action so only two available. The "freak" incident seems to have destroyed the back up plan if it even existed.

I notice Moleybsaid the spare plane should come in after "X" hours. Although we will never know I'd be interested to know exactly what Maleth and P&O considered a reasonable time. Certainly in December 2022 we had 4 hours with TUI so assumedly that was considered okay, although not by us!

Legroom on that particular plane does look good. Will be interested to see if the plane home is the same, perhaps a couple of more photos if you've time. It seems these planes don't just turn around, the Manchester arrival seems to be the Gatwick departure at Bridgetown on occasion. Of course these aircraft being older have the layout from back 20 years ago and at least two of them were from Middle Eastern airlines who as I understand it tried to be market leaders in passenger comfort to get a foothold in the market. On the TA "complaint" rant I've seen people complaining some of the seating signs are still in Arabic though as they are in English as well can't see the relevance. You are right about the passengers being sold a dummy over newer aircraft, many airlines chose to stick extra seats in - I believe BA and Virgin were big offenders which may be why you noticed it. To accomplish this use of every bit of space manufacturers also had to become very innovative on size of seats (new ones seem narrower) and padding etc had to change as well. I find the new A350 most uncomfortable but others love them. Airlines also wanted to make the aircraft lighter for fuel economy. All this adds up to a less comfortable ride. As you'll have read the Maleth contract is no more from the end of March so it's going to be back to TUI and another as yet unknown company. I doubt P&O will risk more upheaval so will be interesting to see who they get. I can confirm I booked on Friday for Christmas December 2024 and the flight was confirmed at point of sale and is in my cruise personaliser immediately. I believe Presto2 also had that experience. It will be interesting to hear from others, particularly those booking Arvia to Antigua if they have had the same experience.

On a lot of the islands the agricultural workers live nearer the coast but work inland. Many walk miles to their employment as they have no car and access by public transport is not possible due to the state of the inland roads - I'm sure you have encountered many of these on your excursions (I recall you mentioning horn tooting which is a staple of inland driving to make people aware of larger vehicles which may mot be visible)! The machetes as tools of the trade are carried to and from work. In Jamaica we had a lovely pool attendant who slept on a sunbed in the pool house and walked four hours home on Saturday night to sing at his family church and take his wages to his family, then walking back on Sunday evening. He explained no buses can go into the centre due to the forests but there are villages up there.

Not wishing to get into personal slanging matches here but can we try to be a little more positive about this now that it is nearly over? Opinions are just that, we all have them and don't like to be contradicted. At the moment, yet again, there are around 500 people who have been in their version of a day of personal hell trying to get to/from Arvia. No amount of debate on the merits of airlines and their reliability on a day to day basis will change anything. Going forward P&O have accepted publicly Maleth has been a mistake and are looking to improve for next year. Rather than continuing to discuss and point out what can and does go wrong in the airline industry it would seem better to start looking for positives. Carlanthony you do indeed have great first hand knowledge of the airline industry but now may perhaps be the time to offer some positives rather than the Fraser like "We"re all doomed"!

Glad it's living up to expectations. Hopefully you'll not be delayed and if late make up the time. Yes, we noticed excursions very much taken by the cruise lines probably guaranteed income for the operators. Definitely noticed far less private tours and a lot were charging comparable to the ship. I booked for Christmas yesterday and can't believe excursions are already on sale.

I'm sure you'll find a four leaf clover before then! The pattern does appear to be mainly the Antigua flight being jinxed. The Gatwick to Antigua flight seems to be doing okay most weeks and apart from a few minor delays they were picking up. Looking at the flight history of the three aircraft there seems to be one which goes technical far more than the other two. Have they said anything about sailing time and if the delay will cause port schedule to be okay? You seem to have seadays tomorrow.