jeanlyon Posted June 22, 2020 #276 Share Posted June 22, 2020 (edited) I can honestly say that I have never known anyone ask how much I paid for my cruise. Not once in all the cruises we have done. I also don't remember anyone asking how many cruises we have done. Maybe whether I had been on that particular ship before. The ones I love are those that definitely know better than the Captain whether we can tender ashore or not!! Edited June 22, 2020 by jeanlyon 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zap99 Posted June 22, 2020 #277 Share Posted June 22, 2020 8 minutes ago, jeanlyon said: I can honestly say that I have never known anyone ask how much I paid for my cruise. Not once in all the cruises we have done. I also don't remember anyone asking how many cruises we have done. Maybe whether I had been on that particular ship before. The ones I love are those that definitely know better than the Captain whether we can tender ashore or not!! I wouldn't claim to know better than the Captain.......but. we were on a sea day having left Isla Mararita on Ocean Village. I said to the Captain in the coffee shop " will we see much of the solar eclipse this afternoon ? " I don't think so sir. My DW said he doesn't know what you're talking about. At the noon announcement he told everyone about the eclipse and that officers would be on deck with welding goggles for those who wanted to look. I bet he thought, flipping know all .Great thing that internet. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ann141 Posted June 22, 2020 #278 Share Posted June 22, 2020 I can't remember anyone asking how many cruises we have been on- possibly general questions such as 'Have you cruised a lot?' but if anyone asks how much we paid for the cruise I usually say in a light hearted way 'I thought Religion, Politics and the price you paid for a cruise were taboo subjects.Usually that is enough to change the topic.I do find it useful though gaining tips from others about any aspects of cruising and like sharing tables with other cruisers.I have a table for 2 with my hubby for meals most days of the year and chatting and getting to know others is one particular aspect we enjoy about cruising in general. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SeaJane Posted June 22, 2020 #279 Share Posted June 22, 2020 12 minutes ago, ann141 said: I can't remember anyone asking how many cruises we have been on- possibly general questions such as 'Have you cruised a lot?' but if anyone asks how much we paid for the cruise I usually say in a light hearted way 'I thought Religion, Politics and the price you paid for a cruise were taboo subjects.Usually that is enough to change the topic.I do find it useful though gaining tips from others about any aspects of cruising and like sharing tables with other cruisers.I have a table for 2 with my hubby for meals most days of the year and chatting and getting to know others is one particular aspect we enjoy about cruising in general. I agree with you Ann. As we share a table for 2 most evenings at home dining with others is all part of our enjoyment of a cruise. We always opt for club dining, table for 8, second sitting. We enjoy the opportunity to get to know our table companions and move on to wider topics of conversation beyond the obvious ice breakers. We have met all sorts of people, inevitably some we gel with more than others, but most have been lovely people. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyMichelle Posted June 22, 2020 #280 Share Posted June 22, 2020 4 hours ago, Josy1953 said: I just think that there are more topics of conversation than cruising, yes it is something that we all have in common but if you share a large table every evening in freedom dining it means the conversation is virtually the same each evening. I don't mind people asking how many cruises I have been on but when we say that we stopped counting after 50 it seems to be a reason to ask us why we do so many cruises. One lady even said "you must lead very boring lives is you can't think of something more interesting to do". I have travelled to over 100 countries and spent as little as a week in some and up to 3 years in others so I think that I can afford to be boring now that I am older. The other thing that irks me is when someone asks how do you afford to cruise so much, it is in my opinion extremely rude to ask about a stranger's finances. I don't mind when people try to pick our brains about our favourite ports or ask what it is about a particular port that we like. We have met some wonderful people cruising and are still in touch with some, including a couple who we met on our first cruise in 1988 on Canberra. It is a fact that none of us know everything about every port and it is useful to ask someone who has visited a port several times before whether there is anything that they would recommend seeing. On P&O in particular I feel that often when we say that we have been on other lines we are inviting criticism for not being loyal to P&O. I suppose by doing club dining we only have to have the conversation once. You definitely seem to meet other types of people to us, we have had plenty of conversations about other lines without anybody being criticised. The cruising conversation is usually very short, but I will ask questions and take recommendations happily and also share our experiences if I think we can help newbies. We make sure everyone is included and talk about anything they want to, including cruising. Andy 6 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Josy1953 Posted June 22, 2020 #281 Share Posted June 22, 2020 1 hour ago, AndyMichelle said: I suppose by doing club dining we only have to have the conversation once. You definitely seem to meet other types of people to us, we have had plenty of conversations about other lines without anybody being criticised. The cruising conversation is usually very short, but I will ask questions and take recommendations happily and also share our experiences if I think we can help newbies. We make sure everyone is included and talk about anything they want to, including cruising. Andy I am tempted to book club dining because as you say you are with the same people so the conversation does not get repeated. I have to say that for many years everyone had club dining and thinking back I can't remember ever having poor dining companions and we have recently enjoyed having club dining on Cunard where there is still no freedom dining. On Princess there tends to be a greater mix of nationalities and consequently the conversations seem to be more varied than they are on P&O. On Celebrity we book Aqua class so eat in Blu which is for Aqua class only so is smaller and there are a higher proportion of of tables for 2. Perhaps for us P&O is now the wrong cruise line but we can't fly and fly and P&O have far more cruises out of Southampton. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeanlyon Posted June 23, 2020 #282 Share Posted June 23, 2020 We have done Freedom dining for the first time last cruise and I have to say we loved it. Mainly due to the horrific people on our last table in Club. We had no problems striking up conversations each night and it certainly wasn't all the same stuff. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
No pager thank you Posted June 23, 2020 #283 Share Posted June 23, 2020 56 minutes ago, jeanlyon said: We have done Freedom dining for the first time last cruise and I have to say we loved it. Mainly due to the horrific people on our last table in Club. We had no problems striking up conversations each night and it certainly wasn't all the same stuff. Our views on this are always to request our own table at dinner (in Freedom), we always have to be honest and won't change. We wouldn't do club / group based table dining full stop; just against the concept - another reason why we do not consider ourselves amongst the "traditionalists." In terms of the friendly conversation that you can have with fellow passengers, we tend to find that discussions in the bars, perhaps via the (many) quizzes and such like give you plentiful opportunities to socialize more naturally and spontaneously. We often enjoy these interactions and avoid unhelpful discussion around how much you paid etc etc. These opportunities also benefit from not feeling constrained by a 2 hour plus "dining experience" just in case you meet one of the, admittedly few, horrific, passengers. Also, feeling any implied (quite British) social awkwardness about meeting up at the same time on the subsequent evening. Suits us a treat! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare DamianG Posted June 23, 2020 #284 Share Posted June 23, 2020 On 6/21/2020 at 9:34 PM, molecrochip said: Carnival will sell any ship if it receives the right offer for it. You make an interesting point. When Britannia first launched, P&O were overwhelmed with complaints about no central staircase. At this time, there was a very high percentage of existing customer cruising on Britannia, and the core demographic was 60+. By 2018, a significantly higher proportion of Britannia's passengers were first timers, and a significantly higher proportion of younger passengers. Guess what, the number of complaints regarding the central staircase dropped - to practically zero. History says that if a problem persists, complaint persist. New passengers didn't expect a central staircase and didn't miss it. Instead of a costly change of central staircase, P&O spent the budget on changing the atrium which was still receiving poor reviews. Sadly, this is a case of familiarity bias. People line them selves up to be disappointed by no central staircase and therefore were disappointed once on board. I can't tell you the number of times I read "I don't like large ships but I've booked to go on Britannia's maiden". Those passengers had already told themselves that they were not going to like the ship before arriving at the port. Its very difficult for a company to change that presumptive perception in most cases. Those passengers then look for the negatives to confirm their perception. They fail to see the positives. But hey, they got to sail on the maiden cruise - tick! They probably complained after, got a hamper and a letter starting "We're sorry the cruise did not meet your expectations". Of course, this is the complaints team following the mantra of the customer is always right. The letter should have started "We're sorry you failed to set your expectations correctly. We did explain what you were buying correctly but instead you hoped it would something different." We sailed on Britannia in it's maiden season 2015 and when we went to the Caribbean Tier lunch almost everyone else at our table was grumbling about the ship. The table host was a young lady working her first season with P&O and she handled all the usual complaints superbly. We didn't join in and instead enjoyed some great conversation with another couple, so much so that we stayed behind chatting long after the lunch had finished. Shortly before we left one of them said "I don't know why the rest of them booked to sail on this ship?" The likes of Jean and Avril have tried big ships and decided it's not for them, meanwhile others continue to book cruises on them and then spend a lot of time grumbling onboard. I just don't understand the mentality of that. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare DamianG Posted June 23, 2020 #285 Share Posted June 23, 2020 On 6/21/2020 at 11:25 PM, Adawn47 said: I can understand why you like the larger ships. We like the smaller ships because to us they feel more comfortable and have the feeling of 'being at sea' I'm probably not explaining it properly but it's the only way I can think of to describe it. Avril You've explained it very well and it is a an often stated view that P&O are pushing passengers upwards away from the sea with these newer, huge "tower block" ships. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare DamianG Posted June 23, 2020 #286 Share Posted June 23, 2020 On 6/22/2020 at 7:45 AM, AndyMichelle said: I am not sure it is the question that is the issue, it is the bragging that apparently comes after that seems to offend people, although we have never encountered this. Quite typically, we will be sharing with 3 or 4 other couples and quite inevitably, we would sit somewhere between the newbies who are worried about etiquette etc and the very experienced cruisers. If we don't know your cruising history, how can we learn or help others? I would love to sit next to Graham & Pauline for instance and listen to their amazing stories and pick up tips, but if I wasn't allowed to ask, I would miss out on all that knowledge. Andy Andy, you'll get your chance to meet Graham and all the other lovely regulars on here when you invite them on your "lottery winning celebratory invitation only cruise" that you promised us all ages ago. 😉 There's just a few minor details to take care of to make that happen, e.g. your lottery win, the return of safe cruising, ports accepting ships again, appropriate and affordable travel insurance... 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emam Posted June 23, 2020 #287 Share Posted June 23, 2020 If you search on the video internet for 40 cruise ships for sale 2019, there are 3 Carnival ships, 1 P&O Australia, 1 Princess ship plus others. I don't know if they were sold before or are some of the six mentioned. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Presto2 Posted June 23, 2020 #288 Share Posted June 23, 2020 Sorry I have only just seen this thread having had a spell away because I was fed up of people talking about schools and Covid 19 --- Now I am back I am horrified that our beloved ship is at threat. Have read half the posts but in a nutshell to save me the evening and more stress --- is she safe ?? Had a horrible 2 weeks so need good news ! PS No mention of baked bean cans now or else !! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grapau27 Posted June 23, 2020 #289 Share Posted June 23, 2020 (edited) 1 hour ago, Presto2 said: Sorry I have only just seen this thread having had a spell away because I was fed up of people talking about schools and Covid 19 --- Now I am back I am horrified that our beloved ship is at threat. Have read half the posts but in a nutshell to save me the evening and more stress --- is she safe ?? Had a horrible 2 weeks so need good news ! PS No mention of baked bean cans now or else !! I hope whatever made your last 2 weeks horrible is sorted now. No word yet on which ships might be leaving Carnival. Oceana is at Tyne Dock apparently for the next 3 month's which is a Fred Olsen home port so there might be something to read into that. Pullmantur a 49% owned RCL ship company is going bust as well as Cruise and Maritime so soon there will be a number of small ships flooding the market which might have a bearing on Carnivals plans to move ships on. Edited June 23, 2020 by grapau27 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Britboys Posted June 23, 2020 #290 Share Posted June 23, 2020 49 minutes ago, Presto2 said: Sorry I have only just seen this thread having had a spell away because I was fed up of people talking about schools and Covid 19 --- Now I am back I am horrified that our beloved ship is at threat. Have read half the posts but in a nutshell to save me the evening and more stress --- is she safe ?? Had a horrible 2 weeks so need good news ! PS No mention of baked bean cans now or else !! There is no confirmed, immediate threat to Oceana. In case you haven't waded all through this, Carnival Corp have said that they have agreed to offload 6 ships across their brands and are considering others. Naturally, that has led to speculation as to whether Oceana could be at risk. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyMichelle Posted June 23, 2020 #291 Share Posted June 23, 2020 51 minutes ago, Presto2 said: Sorry I have only just seen this thread having had a spell away because I was fed up of people talking about schools and Covid 19 --- Now I am back I am horrified that our beloved ship is at threat. Have read half the posts but in a nutshell to save me the evening and more stress --- is she safe ?? Had a horrible 2 weeks so need good news ! PS No mention of baked bean cans now or else !! I think she will be OK for a little while. Consolidation is the word that I like to use, so a more likely option is delaying iona2 and sticking with what they have, for now at least. Sounds like there will be plenty of other bean cans available... Andy 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Britboys Posted June 23, 2020 #292 Share Posted June 23, 2020 6 minutes ago, AndyMichelle said: I think she will be OK for a little while. Consolidation is the word that I like to use, so a more likely option is delaying iona2 and sticking with what they have, for now at least. Sounds like there will be plenty of other bean cans available... Andy Yeah, but if top of the range Heinz come calling with a bid.... 😄 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Presto2 Posted June 23, 2020 #293 Share Posted June 23, 2020 Thanks everyone & thanks for the kind thoughts grapau27, just been hard going but we have lots to be thankful for so shouldn't really complain . We are well and healthy so that is the main thing. 🙂 Thanks for the updates re Oceana - it would be very sad to see her go but am guessing that it will happen one day ........... after that I would have to have Branston Beans as we couldn't face the thoughts that andymichelle could be right !!! Seriously, I do hope that they keep some of the smaller ships and give us all a choice - horses for courses and all that. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adawn47 Posted June 23, 2020 #294 Share Posted June 23, 2020 4 hours ago, DamianG said: You've explained it very well and it is a an often stated view that P&O are pushing passengers upwards away from the sea with these newer, huge "tower block" ships. Would that their new interpretation of a fly cruise😉? Avril Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DS_Dean Posted June 23, 2020 #295 Share Posted June 23, 2020 (edited) Oceana is my favourite ship. She has had rumours about leaving the fleet on and off for many years now and thankfully never materialised and infact she gained an extensive technical refit/improvement in 2017. With that in mind I am hoping she is safe for a few more years yet. However.. the North Shields berth has me a little worried. She is due to stay for 3 months (source) and incidentally Carnival announced the six ships would be leaving the fleet within 90 days. 😕 Other ships seem to be on the move a bit more whereas Oceana seems to be in a more significant cold lay up than the rest of the fleet. Do we know if Oceana has left the port at all? Oceana is the youngest in the Sun class of cruise ships and makes me wonder if she would get caught up in decommissioning of that class of ship with the oldest going back to 1995. My fingers are crossed this is not the case, though. Edited June 23, 2020 by DS_Dean 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grapau27 Posted June 23, 2020 #296 Share Posted June 23, 2020 9 minutes ago, DS_Dean said: Oceana is my favourite ship. She has had rumours about leaving the fleet on and off for many years now and thankfully never materialised and infact she gained an extensive technical refit/improvement in 2017. With that in mind I am hoping she is safe for a few more years yet. However.. the North Shields berth has me a little worried. She is due to stay for 3 months (source) and incidentally Carnival announced the six ships would be leaving the fleet within 90 days. 😕 Other ships seem to be on the move a bit more whereas Oceana seems to be in a more significant cold lay up than the rest of the fleet. Do we know if Oceana has left the port at all? Oceana is the youngest in the Sun class of cruise ships and makes me wonder if she would get caught up in decommissioning of that class of ship with the oldest going back to 1995. My fingers are crossed this is not the case, though. Oceana still at North Shields and will be there for quite some time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
terrierjohn Posted June 23, 2020 #297 Share Posted June 23, 2020 11 minutes ago, grapau27 said: Oceana still at North Shields and will be there for quite some time. Is she making the regular trips to sea to dump grey water, like all the others are doing? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bee-ess Posted June 23, 2020 #298 Share Posted June 23, 2020 44 minutes ago, grapau27 said: Oceana still at North Shields and will be there for quite some time. I wonder if she will do the Arabian Gulf season starting at the end of October. Although the ship would have to sail to Dubai first. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emam Posted June 23, 2020 #299 Share Posted June 23, 2020 3 hours ago, grapau27 said: Pullmantur a 49% owned RCL ship company is going bust as well as Cruise and Maritime so soon there will be a number of small ships flooding the market which might have a bearing on Carnivals plans to move ships on. Those ships are also on the 2019 list of 40 ships for sale. Astoria Marco Polo Marella Saga P&O Aria (Oz) Carnival Fantasy Carnival Ecstasy Carnival Inspiration Sun Princess Plus many more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DS_Dean Posted June 23, 2020 #300 Share Posted June 23, 2020 3 minutes ago, emam said: Those ships are also on the 2019 list of 40 ships for sale. Astoria Marco Polo Marella Saga P&O Aria (Oz) Carnival Fantasy Carnival Ecstasy Carnival Inspiration Sun Princess Plus many more. Where is this list exactly? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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