Two night cruise?

[Scriv]

I didn't witness the late night/early morning parties personally, but walked past the clubs and pubs on my way to bed lol - and heard revellers going back to their rooms and heard them all talking about it next morning and what time they had gone to bed etc etc. . Also spoke with the entertainment manager who said the barman had gone to bed at 05 15 after serving the last of the dancing hens lol but the barman's manager was so pleased ha ha. HOWEVER - although very busy and hectic and more rushed than on longer cruises, we never experienced any unpleasant behaviour on these cruises at all. The large groups - whatever they were celebrating - didn't impinge on our enjoyment and were generally very pleasant people. In fact there was one stag group of varying ages who reminded us of a male voice choir and were such fun around the ship that they actually added to the atmosphere.

[Selbourne]

Hi... what you are missing I think is the intensity of the pace on these 2 day cruises. Many parties and large groups and normal 2 night people usually head for the bars and start celebrating en masse straight away on board in the bars..... Bars used less on changeover days? You have never done a 2 nighter, Selbourne, obviously LOL. This continues through the afternoon and through the evening and often through the night. The pubs are full to bursting until very very late and/or early hours and the nightclub bars carry on until dawn sometimes. We have witnessed it ;) . Celebrating goes on too in the cabins - usually full to capacity with groups of friends - and often needing a lot of tidying up after them. I know this having seen inside the doors of some when the steward is valiantly trying to sort out the rooms! Entertainment pared down? Hmm not sure about that - the shows and tributes can be overflowing - and again, drinks also overflowing. There is never the quiet break moment you can experience on a longer cruise..... folk haven't got the time. Serving large celebration groups with food, drink and entertainment is challenging at the best of times - but if any of these then get under the influence of the drink in a not very nice way, handling these revellers can be even harder. OK, so that's why there is extra work lol - and I am sure that's not half of it behind the scenes.:)

 

Hmm. I shall continue to avoid them! I realise that the bars will be rammed from late afternoon onwards, but the point I was making about embarkation day is that the ship is near deserted from mid-morning until mid-afternoon, so even if it's busier later, the bar staff have a very quiet day until the majority are on board, which I guess helps offset it. Apart from the cabin stewards, I still struggle to see why overall, start to finish, the staff workload is any more. Almost all cruises sail with a full passenger compliment, so there are no more people on board. If the entertainment isn't pared down, it's still the same as a normal cruise. And they do cut certain things out on short cruises (Captains drinks reception etc). As I have said, the shortest cruise we have done was 4 days, but the staff worked less hard than on any other cruise we had been on. We are usually very pleased with P&O service (well, on board at least), but apathy prevailed on this short cruise. We have a number of full cruises booked and hope to see normal service levels resumed!

[Scriv]

Hmm. I shall continue to avoid them! I realise that the bars will be rammed from late afternoon onwards, but the point I was making about embarkation day is that the ship is near deserted from mid-morning until mid-afternoon, so even if it's busier later, the bar staff have a very quiet day until the majority are on board, which I guess helps offset it. /quote]

 

Thought you'd say that lol. Actually, as I think I have said on an earlier post, I have done enough of them now and feel the need to move on and avoid them for a more relaxed experience. The pace on board does start quite a bit earlier though - maybe because there is less luggage to load - or maybe as some may say, because there is serious profit from early drinking to be made by lots of people boarding early. By 1 30 lots of people are on board and in the bar by our observations. Maybe there are not so many priority boarders either, so they get on to us lot faster once the suites are on. Just a thought. And as regards cabin occupancy, from what I saw as I peaked in cabins I passed with a group of hens in, the poor steward would have had a helluva job to clear away their used glasses and crockery amongst the tip of items scattered across the room and floor and get to putting up/down the beds etc for the night.

[daiB]

The way staff have explained it to me is that people are only on for two nights but want to do everything and want to be in the bars longer. On a longer cruise people do not feel they need to do everything at once. I the dining room especially freedom, people do not want to sit chatting and so want to rush and a normal delay between courses on a long cruise becomes a problem to them on a short one and they think they are getting poor service.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

[Florry]

On reflection most of my short cruises have been 3-5 nights often in Adult only. On a 2 nighter on Azura, now I know the mani g of a party cruise [emoji23] some people didn't go to bed until 8.30 this morning!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[Scriv]

On reflection most of my short cruises have been 3-5 nights often in Adult only. On a 2 nighter on Azura, now I know the mani g of a party cruise [emoji23] some people didn't go to bed until 8.30 this morning!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

Looking forward to your review, Florry lol...... hope you didn't stay out that late (or early) ???

[john watson]

Even on two night cruises I have never seen anyone organising a cabin cavalcade. I think British people are more reserved and even the hen parties seem to just have a sash and do everything together as a big group keeping themselves largely to them selves. Stags might have had special t-shirts printed.

 

 

Regards John