Megabear2

https://thepointsguy.com/guide/cruise-devaluations-higher-fees-less-service/ It's everywhere. This is the American point of view, but same observations.

You should dock at the Carnival terminals, either D or E. The port is actually in Biscayne Bay and the highways you refer to are links to the bridges to the "bars" which form the basically recovered land which developed over the years to Miami Beach (Art Deco District/Collins Avenue). I've only ever arrived/departed Miami on MSC or RC but the terminals are all very modern and accessible. The ones I've used are busy and well organised. As this isn't I believe your first US port there shouldn't be any problems with security which is a relief. The nearest centres to the port are Bayside Marketplace - about a 25 minute walk or taxi or bus. This is quite a busy modern area offering restaurants and shopping. Brickell is nearby with high end shopping and more upmarket restaurants. If intending to dine at anything other than the more chain like restaurants it is best to book online as higher end dining is difficult to access without reservations, particularly in peak times. Downtown Miami can be found slightly further on. It's very colourful, still under renovation and some may be put off by that. It does however offer lots of history and if you are seeking things other than sun and sand offers a huge variety. The Perez Art museum, Observation Deck at the Miami Tower and the ferris wheel are good to visit, as is Bayside Park. These are the nearest things to the port. You can also go to Key Biscayne fairly easily- the free Miami tram will take you most places. Miami City centre is distinct from Miami Beach, two totally different animals. Miami Beach and South Beach (SoBe) is best reached by a taxi or the trolley if you're more adventurous. There is a long beach promenade lying behind the hotels directly next to the beach. Some areas have open grass areas where you can see people exercising to be the body beautiful. On the other side of the hotels the main strip along the road allows you to walk on a pavement where there are lots of bars. There are some art deco hotels and buildings along here but if you wish to see the main art deco area move one street behind to Collins Avenue where the bulk of the surviving buildings from the era can be found. Lincoln Road lies between Miami Beach and SoBe and offers a broad open air shopping mall designed with art deco buildings. Personally I find it a bit over rated and the cafes/bars expensive but it is an interesting experience - very popular for breakfast with the worse the wear revellers from the nightclubs! As I said, my experience with the port is limited to other terminals so apart from saying the accessibility is very good I cannot comment. Most of my Miami trips are land based accompanied by my friends who now live in Palm Beach having relocated there from Miami as they now find it too busy. Not knowing when/if you've visited before I would say in the past 10 years or so it has exploded into a typical US mega city and the Cuban influence in particular makes it exceptionally different. The Spanish language is very predominant in certain areas which can come as a surprise. Hope that helps.

That's interesting. I looked at them for variety of ports in 2025 and considering they are all inclusive found the price comparable with what our January cruise has cost. The problem with P&O nowadays is no variety in their port itinerary in the Caribbean and when you travel the area often you get to feel you need a change. Looking at itineraries going forward the only change is Bonaire swaps with Aruba occasionally.

Marella go there regularly on their 14 night fly cruises. I think I also saw MSC in 2025 calling.

The 24 night Aurora Caribbean and 35 night Ventura cruises in 2024 and 2025 are visiting Guadeloupe. Prior to pandemic when the itineraries changed every year Azura called there. Unfortunately the itineraries don't appear to change for variety since 2019.

How far in advance do they go? I'm aware from the Cunard forum that people are piecing together 2026 itineraries but most ports I look at for P&O ships have the usual blanks.

I have one of these on my Cunard voyage in January 2025. It advertises as "overnight" and offers the following: 26 Jan 2025 - 27 Jan 2025 Arrives Early morning Departs Early evening That seems a definite guide to having a full overnight, whereas yours looks a lot like any time after 00:01 would technically be correct.

Thanks for the info. It has been confirmed by both P&O and Cunard that there will be no step test on any of our cruises save the one all passengers take on leaving the ship. We did in fact receive a confirmation from higher up the chain that this was mistakenly told to us as only those who use walking sticks full time and have notified of needing one to one assistance would be asked to do this if thought necessary by crew. As I have stated on the forms the nature and circumstances of the illnesses my husband has the medical advisers were at a loss as to why we were told such an individual requirement had been told to us. I repeat for your benefit that taking a step test was not the problem, it was being singled out that caused the upset. My husband is extremely sensitive about his illnesses and mentally he gets very stressed at even having to mention them. His main illness is totally invisible and as a consequence he did not want me to mention it but me being me thought it wise to do so. For the stress and upset it has caused I am seriously considering never mentioning it again, particularly as at one point they were insisting we had assistance at the airport as well. Ironically in an emergency I'd rely very much on him for assistance as I'm pretty useless on stairs myself.

Sorry to revive an older thread. I am looking to book one of the Caribbean 35 night cruises in 20245 - either January or March. My travel agent has offered a special deal on a sheltered balcony with all grades tte same price. As transatlantic in winter will be involved this seems a good option? Regarding position and deck are there any preferences to bear in mind when choosing? I am very familiar with the Queen but have never sailed in a sheltered balcony. I will be accompanied by my husband who has never sailed on Queen Mary 2, his only Cunard trip being on Queen Elizabeth and in September next year on Queen Anne. Budget is a consideration in our choice - we have also been offered an obstructed view with automatic upgrade to the top grade sheltered. Thank you.

I'd say yes you will need to. Certainly they made us do one for each cruise despite our submitting the old paper version and reading Terrierjohn's post he too has filled them in on line a second time. Incidentally a highly regarded travel agent many on here use just booked a couple of Cunard and P&O cruises for me and they insisted I gave them details over the phone at time of booking despite my saying I'd do them myself online. I was told they would not make the booking without my stating one to one assistance minimum with the occasional use walking stick.

I ended up filling in 3 forms for each cruise! After a lot of discussions and argument I received this: Good morning X Thank you for your email. We have received the On Board Needs questionnaire for Mr X, and this has been recorded against the above booking. Should any requirements change prior to sailing please do let us know. We look forward to welcoming you on board. Kind regards Megan Guest Support Representative Accessibility" Your guess is as good as mine.

Rc had cruises departing Barbados a while back. The Americans hated them, didn't like the airport and immigration rules apparently. It was during the pandemic but they were very unpopular on the forum over there.

Never mind Arvia, it's been that way since Ventura and then Azura and Britannia! Airport Expansion is planned into the Concorde Experience, perhaps P&O could fly everyone home on that!

That's pretty standard then.

Munich airport reopened 6.00am this morning and playing catch up. My friends live in the centre and today are going to the Christmas market and ice skating. If that was the UK with an inch of snow it would be shut for a week!

Assuming it's based on the technical issue the compensation will be £520pp, so certainly not to be sniffed at.

How delayed were the TUI flights? Assumedly some were weather related but for them all to be delayed seems rather odd.

Is this visiting the gardens before the visit to the village where most of the scenes are shot? If so that from my recollection is where the bumpy and hilly ground was. However I did the tour back in 2017 so it may have changed. I do recall the actual place where filming takes place as being very small - one street - and although the buildings etc were recognisable the signs had not been put out for our trip. Regarding the beach, if you mean the one where the shack is it is lovely but be aware the shack is dismantled when they aren't filming.

Excellent.

From Antigua Airport site: https://vcbia.com/?s=&r=&airline=&flight_number=Maleth 2023-12-02 20:00 Maleth-Aero DB1106 Manchester Airport cancelled

They're scheduled back in at just before 2.00am. I hope no one is relying on public transport in this weather.

The 12.00 Maleth flight to Antigua is currently shown as boarding. The flight in is due 15.35 from Barbados. If this is correct another plane was supposedly available.

The contract with Thomas Cook was in place. Don't forget they went out of business in September 2019. The pandemic came along then so no cruises so very hard to plan in fairness.

Thank you for the information. As one of the people affected by TUI flight problems over the past few years (and also the broken entertainment system) I was simply pointing out that no matter which airline technical issues happen. These P&O charters very rarely leave on time regardless of which airline although last year's flights truly were a nightmare regardless of which airport was the source. As has been mentioned throughout this thread both Virgin and BA had no aircraft to offer to P&O this year for charters. In your reply to Zap you mentioned higher cost and choice. Are you advocating that P&O stop the charters and get passengers to add on flights? Interestingly going forward to 2025/26 Cunard are moving Queen Elizabeth to a winter Caribbean season. There will presumably therefore be more pressure on air services to that reason to meet the demand and it will be interesting to see what arrangements are being put in place for these cruises. Meantime we have Princess considering chartering to fly people to their Mediterranean based ships due to the difficulties they are having getting their guests to thr region. It is going to be an interesting time with fly cruises, particularly if the new aircraft deliveries don't start rolling through.

There is a worldwide shortage of aircraft due to delays in deliveries. On several occasions last year there were very long delays for P&O passengers, these being TUI flights. I believe one Christmas flight from Manchester had a 12 hour delay last year so delays of this length have occurred. One Glasgow flight failed to arrive in Barbados on the Friday at the same time and the passengers were returned overnight to the ship. Unfortunately it happens. Maleth are going to unfortunately be a little more open to a long delay if an aircraft goes technical, purely down to them having less aircraft to call upon at short notice. However they did thankfully source the aircraft and passengers did make it to Barbados. The real gamble on all these flights whatever operator is the Saturday flights getting into the Caribbean in reasonable time as the ship's schedule will be impacted. A couple of years back Britannia waited a day extra in Barbados for late aircraft arrivals which led to the loss of the first port of call. To their credit P&O laid on excursions, and gave everyone some OBC by way of compensation. Travelling a long distance to join a ship is a risk and passengers need to accept that.