Does size matter?

[jeanlyon]

Yes matters to me.  Arcadia would be the biggest we would consider.  Tried Azura, too big.  Love Aurora.  Loved Oriana and Adonia and the ability to go smaller ports.  Have been on Fred's Braemar and although we enjoyed it, P&O feels better suited to us somehow.  think the smaller ships' days are numbered though.

[Dinglebert]

Have a feeling I should probably wait.  No idea as it stands if my July cruise this year will be going.  If not then I have choices to make

[Windsurfboy]

Personally  I  don't think size itself matters , it's the space to passenger ratio. However there seems to be a inverse correlation, bigger ships seem to have less space per passenger, especially the new giant ones. They certainly have less open top deck space per passenger. 

 

Bigger ships plusses are more varied entertainment,  minus generally more crowded.

 

My ideal ship size is the new Saga ships at 60,000tons and a 1000 passengers plenty of space, but big enough to be OK in any sea.

 

However we would go on any ship for right intinerary,  just need tactics to get piece and quiet. 

 

Don't go in school holidays

 

For larger ships

 

P&O book the retreat asap and/or a rear suite with a large balcony.

 

Book a ship within a ship concept e.g Haven or Yacht club, Cunard  grills, this gives space and quiet and priority boarding embarkation 

[Britboys]

17 hours ago, Windsurfboy said:

...For larger ships

 

P&O book the retreat asap and/or a rear suite with a large balcony.

 

Book a ship within a ship concept e.g Haven or Yacht club, Cunard  grills, this gives space and quiet and priority boarding embarkation

Very happy to follow your advice regarding large ships. Please send a substantial cheque asap...😄

[Bloodaxe]

19 hours ago, jeanlyon said:

Yes matters to me.  Arcadia would be the biggest we would consider.  Tried Azura, too big.  Love Aurora.  Loved Oriana and Adonia and the ability to go smaller ports.  Have been on Fred's Braemar and although we enjoyed it, P&O feels better suited to us somehow.  think the smaller ships' days are numbered though.

 

Sadly you could be correct, we have never sailed in any ship larger than Celebrity Millennium class, love the Azamara size of ship, ex Adonia now Pursuit being one of them.

[majortom10]

We all have differing opinions and its a good job that we do for information favourite P&O ship is Britannia, like Azura didnt like Ventura, like Arcadia and Aurora and hated Oriana and Oceana was OK.

[zap99]

14 minutes ago, majortom10 said:

We all have differing opinions and its a good job that we do for information favourite P&O ship is Britannia, like Azura didnt like Ventura, like Arcadia and Aurora and hated Oriana and Oceana was OK.

Britannia is our favourite along with some of the RCI and NCL medium sized ships, Indy is nice, but we have booked Iona. Celebrity are not too big, so we prefer.........Any of them.

[Dinglebert]

I have currently narrowed it down to two cruises, very different to each other.

 

 

Ship:

Arcadia

Date:

5th July 2022

Duration:

14 Nights

Itinerary:

Basically Norway and Iceland with Belfast thrown in at the end.

 

Pluses:  Not been to the locations before. Scenic. The Norwegian ones are different from 2019.

Its before the English school holidays.  Smaller ship.

Negatives:  The weather could be dodgy.  Its a bit more expensive than the next one.

 

Ship:

Ventura

Date:

16th July 2022

Duration:

14 Nights

Itenerary:

Maderia

The Canary Islands

Seville

Lisbon

 

Pluses:   OK the Bay can always do what it wants but the weather should be OK.  We know and like Ventura.  Only been to a couple of the places before.  Its cheaper than the other one.  In particular the balcony price is £1524 compared to £2129.  Balcony only £424 more than inside.

Negatives:   The English school holidays may mean the ship is far busier. 

 

Unknowns:  The sea days.  Both have 6.  Ventura has three at the beginning. which is more than we have done before.   Don't mind sea-days just not too sure about that many.

 

Thoughts from anyone who has done either of these welcome.

[majortom10]

5 hours ago, zap99 said:

Britannia is our favourite along with some of the RCI and NCL medium sized ships, Indy is nice, but we have booked Iona. Celebrity are not too big, so we prefer.........Any of them.

My favourite ship of all the ships we have sailed on is QM2 by far.

[tring]

On 1/5/2021 at 3:17 PM, Dinglebert said:

  Oddly we are stuck with early July and there are no FO cruises early July showing.  Before and after but not July.

 

Fred's summer 2022 cruises are not generally released yet and would not normally be until March this year, but do not know if that may be changed in the current climate.  There are just a few cruises for then and beyond which have been released with a big marketing flurry.  They tend to be a bit different or more to the point, similar to cruises which have been cancelled, so giving people a chance to change to that cruise, rather than claim a refund (just my thoughts).

 

There is usually just one ship doing both Rosyth and Newcastle at that time of year and will not be the new HAL ships as they need the right day/time to sail under the bridges to Rosyth and does not happen often.  They have one of the ex HAL ships sailing from Liverpool on current itineraries though (which is likely to continue) and that is nearer than Southampton if you live up north.  Personally would not book Fred early though as prices are high then, but if schools hols it may book up I suppose, though very few children on Fred ships, even in the summer hols.

Edited January 7, 2021 by tring

[yorkshirephil]

19 hours ago, Dinglebert said:

I have currently narrowed it down to two cruises, very different to each other.

 

 

Ship:

Arcadia

Date:

5th July 2022

Duration:

14 Nights

Itinerary:

Basically Norway and Iceland with Belfast thrown in at the end.

 

Pluses:  Not been to the locations before. Scenic. The Norwegian ones are different from 2019.

Its before the English school holidays.  Smaller ship.

Negatives:  The weather could be dodgy.  Its a bit more expensive than the next one.

 

Ship:

Ventura

Date:

16th July 2022

Duration:

14 Nights

Itenerary:

Maderia

The Canary Islands

Seville

Lisbon

 

Pluses:   OK the Bay can always do what it wants but the weather should be OK.  We know and like Ventura.  Only been to a couple of the places before.  Its cheaper than the other one.  In particular the balcony price is £1524 compared to £2129.  Balcony only £424 more than inside.

Negatives:   The English school holidays may mean the ship is far busier. 

 

Unknowns:  The sea days.  Both have 6.  Ventura has three at the beginning. which is more than we have done before.   Don't mind sea-days just not too sure about that many.

 

Thoughts from anyone who has done either of these welcome.

We have done both of these, If you want warm sunny weather where you can sit out then Ventura should be good at that time. If you want scenery then Arcadia, albeit we have sailed on Ventura more often than Arcadia I would pick Arcadia as the better ship, especially being adults only not that you get lots of kids on Iceland cruises. The sea is what it is, we have had all sorts across the bay as we have across the Atlantic and North sea.

[SarahHben]

On 1/6/2021 at 6:58 PM, Dinglebert said:

 

Ship:

Ventura

Date:

16th July 2022

Duration:

14 Nights

Itenerary:

Maderia

The Canary Islands

Seville

Lisbon

 

Pluses:   OK the Bay can always do what it wants but the weather should be OK.  We know and like Ventura.  Only been to a couple of the places before.  Its cheaper than the other one.  In particular the balcony price is £1524 compared to £2129.  Balcony only £424 more than inside.

Negatives:   The English school holidays may mean the ship is far busier. 

 

Unknowns:  The sea days.  Both have 6.  Ventura has three at the beginning. which is more than we have done before.   Don't mind sea-days just not too sure about that many.

 

Thoughts from anyone who has done either of these welcome.

Just a point about the dates, I know Scottish holidays start earlier, but the date I have for the end of summer term 2022 is Friday22nd July. Some schools save up all their development days to have at the end of the summer but it should be a week before most English schools break up I think.

[joeecco]

15 hours ago, SarahHben said:

Just a point about the dates, I know Scottish holidays start earlier, but the date I have for the end of summer term 2022 is Friday22nd July. Some schools save up all their development days to have at the end of the summer but it should be a week before most English schools break up I think.

That is more than likely going to be the first week of the holidays. My moms a teacher and that’s usually around the date she breaks up. 

[SarahHben]

Ah ok, our school doesn't, we usually break up around 23rd-25th. 

[Ardennais]

For the first 8 years of cruising, we had to go during the school holidays. Since then we’ve been able to go during term time and I have to say that I miss seeing children and younger families around. There’s more joy and laughter around somehow and I also love seeing groups of 3 generations together. 

[terrierjohn]

53 minutes ago, Ardennais said:

For the first 8 years of cruising, we had to go during the school holidays. Since then we’ve been able to go during term time and I have to say that I miss seeing children and younger families around. There’s more joy and laughter around somehow and I also love seeing groups of 3 generations together. 

I have to agree, I also derive great pleasure from watching families enjoying their cruise holidays. So cruising during school holidays is never a problem for us.

[Dinglebert]

1 hour ago, terrierjohn said:

I have to agree, I also derive great pleasure from watching families enjoying their cruise holidays. So cruising during school holidays is never a problem for us.

I want to go outwith the English holidays not because of the children but because the ships seem to get far busier due to the numbers in each room.   That said my only real experience with the English holidays was on RCI who don't limit numbers.  P+O do as I know to my cost when I wasn't able to book a couple of years ago as they had reached the limit on then 16 year olds able to sail.

 

We did book onto Ventura yesterday for the 16th July 2022, which is before the holidays. Got a room directly next to one we have had before so happy.

Edited January 9, 2021 by Dinglebert

[joeecco]

On 1/9/2021 at 1:58 PM, Dinglebert said:

I want to go outwith the English holidays not because of the children but because the ships seem to get far busier due to the numbers in each room.   That said my only real experience with the English holidays was on RCI who don't limit numbers.  P+O do as I know to my cost when I wasn't able to book a couple of years ago as they had reached the limit on then 16 year olds able to sail.

 

We did book onto Ventura yesterday for the 16th July 2022, which is before the holidays. Got a room directly next to one we have had before so happy.

Just out of curiosity what do you

mean by P&O limit numbers? Never heard of this before so im interested! 

[majortom10]

1 hour ago, joeecco said:

Just out of curiosity what do you

mean by P&O limit numbers? Never heard of this before so im interested! 

P&O have a limit of the maximum number of children allowed in each age group.

[Dinglebert]

1 hour ago, joeecco said:

Just out of curiosity what do you

mean by P&O limit numbers? Never heard of this before so im interested! 

Good question and the answer surprised me at the time.  A couple of years ago we were looking for a cruise. It was going to be at the time four of us.  Technically 3 adults one child (15) as the other child going was 18.   We narrowed it down to two cruises one RCI on P+O.  P+O would not allow us to book two cabins on the ship as they had filled their quota of 15 year olds. I am guessing it wasn't an exact age but more to do with age groupings.   We did question it as we struggled to see why they cared given it was two separate cabins etc.  They stated and I am not making it up that it was to do with lifebelt sizes which I didn't fully follow as my then 15 year old is 4 inches taller than me and not a child lifebelt.   It then came to light that P+O will only allow on board a certain amount of children at different ages.

[terrierjohn]

2 hours ago, joeecco said:

Just out of curiosity what do you

mean by P&O limit numbers? Never heard of this before so im interested! 

I know that P&O limit numbers to the children's clubs, dependant on capacity and the number of carers.  But since some people never use the kids club I do hope they allow for this when limiting bookings,

I suspect that RCI just limit the kids club at sign on, so if you are late your child might not get accepted.

[ann141]

It also has to do with the fact that different age groups need different child to adult ratios for the childrens club so it depends on how many childrens entertainers P and O employ for each age group for example there may need to be 1 adult to every 3  under 5 year olds but 1 adult to every 9  over 11 year olds.Once they have reached the limit for a particular age group they won't let you book a place for that particular age group even if you say your child won't go to the kids club

Edited January 10, 2021 by ann141

[terrierjohn]

3 minutes ago, ann141 said:

It also has to do with the fact that different age groups need different child to adult ratios for the childrens club so it depends on how many childrens entertainers P and O employ for each age group for example there may need to be 1 adult to every 3  under 5 year olds but 1 adult to every 9  over 11 year olds.Once they have reached the limit for a particular age group they won't let you book a place for that particular age group even if you say your child won't go to the kids club

I have heard this before, as well as the lifejacket issue, although neither need to be a problem, and other cruise lines just seem to limit the numbers that get access to the kids clubs.  That certainly seemed to be the case on Princess, Celebrity and RCI cruises.

[davecttr]

3 hours ago, majortom10 said:

P&O have a limit of the maximum number of children allowed in each age group.

Agree, a few years ago I was in my TA looking to book a Caribbean cruise, the TA asked my if I minded sea days, no I said, OK she said, how about a 24 nighter to the Caribbean on Oceana, only £130 more expensive than a 14 night fly cruise. £13 per night!. why? Life boat capacity, no kids aboard so to fill cabins they wanted lots of solo cruisers. Good cruise as well 🙂

[joeecco]

5 hours ago, davecttr said:

Agree, a few years ago I was in my TA looking to book a Caribbean cruise, the TA asked my if I minded sea days, no I said, OK she said, how about a 24 nighter to the Caribbean on Oceana, only £130 more expensive than a 14 night fly cruise. £13 per night!. why? Life boat capacity, no kids aboard so to fill cabins they wanted lots of solo cruisers. Good cruise as well 🙂

Wow that is amazing!