Winter 23/24

[gsmt47471015]

1 hour ago, majortom10 said:

With regards to 20% VAT in the onboard shops that was applicable to all cruise lines during their Staycations in the Summer around British Waters and not exclusive to Cunard as P&O charged the 20% VAT because of government rules. There is no extra charge of 15% of anything purchased in the onboard shops and never has been on all their ships. The only time 15% is charged is as a service charge on drinks, bottles of wine and Princess/Celebrity charge 18% service charge if you do not have their drinks packages. 

15% is a lot of money for nothing,  and been on Celebrity so well aware of their corkage fees etc. I suppose the advice would be if you don't want to pay it don't go with them, hence our reluctance to be in no rush to travel with Cunard again,  as apart from a better class of furnishings and decor there was no wow factor. 

[gsmt47471015]

1 hour ago, tring said:

 

Could not have been much less than 4 hours from what I remember as they started early and must have been late morning by the time we were cleared.  There were a couple of US ports including Cape Canaveral (or whatever the port is called), in Florida.  Hence I suspect St Thomas was put in as the first US port as not likely to need a long day ashore.  Was a few years ago now, about eight I suspect, but not sure if there have been improvements since then.

Will see in February😂

[majortom10]

27 minutes ago, gsmt47471015 said:

15% is a lot of money for nothing,  and been on Celebrity so well aware of their corkage fees etc. I suppose the advice would be if you don't want to pay it don't go with them, hence our reluctance to be in no rush to travel with Cunard again,  as apart from a better class of furnishings and decor there was no wow factor. 

15% is a service charge for the serving of drinks etc. which many cruise lines charge and also a lot of restaurants, hotels so cannot really class it as for nothing. It is a matter of opinion on wow factor and what you look for on a cruise but in my experience of nearly 50 cruises with varying lines the whole cruise experience is better than many but by no means the best and is certainly not the most expensive but again IMO better than Princess/P&O.

Edited November 25, 2021 by majortom10

[tring]

17 minutes ago, gsmt47471015 said:

Will see in February😂

 

If you mean on Aurora this winter, we have cancelled it and are now booked on a May Baltic instead on the same ship.  We have been doing a number of cruises and beginning to think we had been a bit over zealous booking that 40 nighter, then we got notification from our insurance company that they were changing their underwriters to one which only allows up to 31 days away from home for any one holiday, so that cinched our decision to cancel.  We still have a lot else booked, including a 28 night Aurora Caribbean next November as well as the 35 night Ventura we have just booked for 2024.  So will have to  look at other insurance policies by 2024, probably before, though can leave this year's in place.

 

Want to leave some space for land holidays as well.

[gsmt47471015]

1 hour ago, majortom10 said:

15% is a service charge for the serving of drinks etc. which many cruise lines charge and also a lot of restaurants, hotels so cannot really class it as for nothing. It is a matter of opinion on wow factor and what you look for on a cruise but in my experience of nearly 50 cruises with varying lines the whole cruise experience is better than many but by no means the best and is certainly not the most expensive but again IMO better than Princess/P&O.

You are correct , 15% is for the serving of drinks, however in Cunard's case during the whole cruise they had  a severe shortage, IE none of the common branded whisky and other spirits and no 'rose wine whatsoever, anywhere,  we had to " make do " with wine and spirits which were not our first, or second choice and to then be charged 15% for something we didn't really want does not leave a good impression of the so called superior experience, and please do not get me started on the size of the portions in the mdr. Perhaps I should rephrase my original comment to say 15%is a lot of money for something you don't want☹️

[Host Sharon]

On 11/25/2021 at 5:55 PM, majortom10 said:

15% is a service charge for the serving of drinks etc. which many cruise lines charge and also a lot of restaurants, hotels so cannot really class it as for nothing. It is a matter of opinion on wow factor and what you look for on a cruise but in my experience of nearly 50 cruises with varying lines the whole cruise experience is better than many but by no means the best and is certainly not the most expensive but again IMO better than Princess/P&O.

True but the more expensive lines - Regent, Silverseas, Saga,  etc are all inclusive. I must admit the 15% annoys me as well. Just add it onto the prices so you know what you are paying.

[terrierjohn]

2 minutes ago, Host Sharon said:

True but the more expensive lines - Regent, Silverseas, Saga,  etc are all inclusive. I must admit the 15% annoys me as well. Just add it onto the prices so you know what you are paying.

P&O have always said that their drink prices include a service element to provide waiters with their tips, so I agree other lines could also do the same.

[majortom10]

I think the % service charge is more an American way of doing things like some cruise lines in US advertise cruise fares and then add port fees and taxes. However way it is done whether P&O way or Cunard/Princess way they both end up with service charge being paid and as far as all inclusive no doubt drinks and service charges will be included in drinks fare. What does annoy me when cruise lines advertise free drinks packages and gratuities when we all know there is no such thing as it is included in the price and is a marketing ploy but many still fall for it.

[gsmt47471015]

24 minutes ago, majortom10 said:

I think the % service charge is more an American way of doing things like some cruise lines in US advertise cruise fares and then add port fees and taxes. However way it is done whether P&O way or Cunard/Princess way they both end up with service charge being paid and as far as all inclusive no doubt drinks and service charges will be included in drinks fare. What does annoy me when cruise lines advertise free drinks packages and gratuities when we all know there is no such thing as it is included in the price and is a marketing ploy but many still fall for it.

Don't mind paying for drinks on P and O as the prices are reasonable and if there are other charges on the other lines fair enough, Its just the extra 15% which makes the already expensive drinks etc a price too far. Never tried an all inclusive cruise yet  but done dozens on land based holidays which when the kids were young was the best option for all the soft drinks, but as we are not serious drinkers not too sure we would get the benefit? 

[wowzz]

1 minute ago, gsmt47471015 said:

Don't mind paying for drinks on P and O as the prices are reasonable and if there are other charges on the other lines fair enough, Its just the extra 15% which makes the already expensive drinks etc a price too far. Never tried an all inclusive cruise yet  but done dozens on land based holidays which when the kids were young was the best option for all the soft drinks, but as we are not serious drinkers not too sure we would get the benefit? 

I have to say that the £30 pppd package on Princess is seriously good value, as it includes not only the drinks,  but also wifi and auto tips  as well.

[gsmt47471015]

11 minutes ago, wowzz said:

I have to say that the £30 pppd package on Princess is seriously good value, as it includes not only the drinks,  but also wifi and auto tips  as well.

Well it is good value and if its what you want and works for you then why not, on a personal level the amount we drink is relatively small and as for wifi we have little or no interest in it while were  away

[terrierjohn]

35 minutes ago, wowzz said:

I have to say that the £30 pppd package on Princess is seriously good value, as it includes not only the drinks,  but also wifi and auto tips  as well.

How long will that heavily discounted price last though wowzz?

[majortom10]

2 hours ago, gsmt47471015 said:

Well it is good value and if its what you want and works for you then why not, on a personal level the amount we drink is relatively small and as for wifi we have little or no interest in it while were  away

But the way Princess are progressing with their Medallion Class if you didnt have wi-fi your cruise would be very severely impacted  so therefore makes £30pppd very good value as drinks prices on Princess are high and they add 18% service charge and gratuities at $12-13 per day. You cannot check in on their website everything has to be done on their Medallion App which is a proper App not like P&O/Cunard which you cannot download until onboard and so many things onboard are either only available on the App or make life a lot easier.

[tring]

3 hours ago, majortom10 said:

But the way Princess are progressing with their Medallion Class if you didnt have wi-fi your cruise would be very severely impacted  so therefore makes £30pppd very good value as drinks prices on Princess are high and they add 18% service charge and gratuities at $12-13 per day. You cannot check in on their website everything has to be done on their Medallion App which is a proper App not like P&O/Cunard which you cannot download until onboard and so many things onboard are either only available on the App or make life a lot easier.

 

We were on Sky Princess late Oct/early Nov and have no experience of what you are saying.  You can just turn up at the port to check in from scratch, though with a great battle DH was able to do what was requested with the app pre cruise, whilst much of the time the app did not work at all or was extremely difficult to deal with.  Once on board the app would not work at all on his phone despite being told by a number of staff, including the IT gurus, that it would work with 4 gig of RAM, which his phone has. Once they tried to use the app on his phone, they could not get it to work either!  He was given an apology and assured that they were aware there were glitches with it and that they were being dealt with, though I fail to see how that could help him or our cruise experience.  The thing worked on my phone but was a really unfriendly thing to use and each drink had to be ordered separately or it would be assumed one person was ordering two drinks, so one gets charged to our account.  In practice the vast majority of passengers, including us, where ordering via the waiters who were commonly taking orders themselves, yet in some places they were very difficult to find and were very slow at supplying drinks.  The ship was appalling in all ways and as a first Princess cruise was also very likely our last Princess as well.

Edited November 27, 2021 by tring

[wowzz]

4 minutes ago, tring said:

The ship was appalling in all ways and as a first Princess cruise was also very likely the last as well.

Sorry Barbara, but to just say the ship was appalling without supporting evidence is just wrong.  

As you know,  we were on the same cruise,  and whilst early on things were not great,  the last week was great.

And the Medallion worked brilliantly throughout, from ordering drinks to finding my wife !

[wowzz]

5 hours ago, terrierjohn said:

How long will that heavily discounted price last though wowzz?

Well, all through next year, and into 2023 ! 

[tring]

7 minutes ago, wowzz said:

Sorry Barbara, but to just say the ship was appalling without supporting evidence is just wrong.  

As you know,  we were on the same cruise,  and whilst early on things were not great,  the last week was great.

And the Medallion worked brilliantly throughout, from ordering drinks to finding my wife !

 

I explained the app fully from our experience and from what we saw certainly most drinks were being ordered directly from waiters by other passengers.  I accept you may well have had a different experience and quite possibly frequented other areas, but that does not make my account bad from our point of view.  Everyone has their own opinion and preferences, but the world would have no variety or choice of different things if everyone had the same preferences.

Edited November 27, 2021 by tring

[wowzz]

5 hours ago, gsmt47471015 said:

Well it is good value and if its what you want and works for you then why not, on a personal level the amount we drink is relatively small and as for wifi we have little or no interest in it while were  away

I understand. But the autotips are roughly £14 pppd, so if you just have two mocktails a day, you will be "in profit".

[wowzz]

2 minutes ago, tring said:

 

I explained the app fully from our experience and from what we saw certainly most drinks were being ordered directly from waiters by other passengers.  I accept you may well have had a different experience and quite possibly frequented other areas, but that does not make my account bad from our pint of view.  Everyone has their own opinion and preferences, but the world would have no variety or choice of different things if everyone had the same preferences.

I totally accept your point of view. However,  just explain what you meant by "appalling ".

[tring]

54 minutes ago, wowzz said:

I totally accept your point of view. However,  just explain what you meant by "appalling ".

 

I could go on at length about s number of things, but do not have the time to do so.  It was admittedly the first time we have been on such a large ship and TBH a think a fair bit of my feelings were a consequence of that, though we were happy to try such s ship, and have no regrets at all for doing the cruise, quite the opposite.  We were also new to American ships and I think that was another difference we did not particularly like - such as in the speciality restaurants having waiters read out a whole menu to us and saying what they thought we should order rather than giving us a menu and allowing us to get on with looking at it and making our own choices.  The service in the MDR was extremely slow as well.  A big absences imo was a lack of an observation lounge, or in fact anywhere peaceful such as a piano bar.  Also no speakers at all, yet the talks are the one daytime "activity" which we frequently enjoy along with classical music recitals occasionally.  It was very difficult at times to find a seat indoors at times, yet the ship only had approx two thirds of the normal passenger numbers.

 

To be honest as the cruise progressed we felt it all more of a problem, rather than feeling happier towards the end of the cruise. 

 

We spoke to quite a number of people towards the end of the cruise who were new to Princess and virtually all of them said they would not return to Princess, the lack of seating in a ship which was far from full to capacity was one main dislike by all of them.   People who had travelled with Princess previously, did seem far happier with the cruise and more to the point the ship.  I think that has been a very good point this year in that people are tending to try other cruise lines, which is good, after all we may have found it very much to our liking.  We had considered using Princess for US based cruises, so know now that we would probably go for something else, though with the right itinerary if we did repeat the cruise line we would be doing so with knowledge of what to expect.

 

We in fact found the food quite good as we eat a lot of salads etc. and I particularly do not eat much meat and found it was always possible to find something to suit.  The cabin was also excellent for the price, though normally we spend very little time in a cabin.  In a warmer climate cruise, we may have liked the chance to sit on a balcony and relax in the cabin. Overall though we felt post cruise that from a ship perspective we would prefer a ship with more space and seating in the public areas as well as a quieter, more relaxing environment, even if price wise we decide to go for an inside cabin.

 

Well I did not mean to say so much and did not mean to totally pick holes in so much, but since you asked it does perhaps explain the differences in our preferences to those of yours.  We have done quite a lot of P&O cruises, though not generally on the bigger ships apart from a Fjords on Ventura during her first season, but have found the ships ok overall for the prices we had paid.  Any problems we have felt on P&O have mainly been related to food and restaurants and that alone is not something which we had felt to be a major problem of the cruise given the prices paid.  Their fly cruises are good as there are more port days and we cruise for the itinerary, rather than the ship in normal circumstances.

 

Vive la difference.

 

Edited November 27, 2021 by tring

[wowzz]

8 hours ago, tring said:

 

I could go on at length about s number of things, but do not have the time to do so.  It was admittedly the first time we have been on such a large ship and TBH a think a fair bit of my feelings were a consequence of that, though we were happy to try such s ship, and have no regrets at all for doing the cruise, quite the opposite.  We were also new to American ships and I think that was another difference we did not particularly like - such as in the speciality restaurants having waiters read out a whole menu to us and saying what they thought we should order rather than giving us a menu and allowing us to get on with looking at it and making our own choices.  The service in the MDR was extremely slow as well.  A big absences imo was a lack of an observation lounge, or in fact anywhere peaceful such as a piano bar.  Also no speakers at all, yet the talks are the one daytime "activity" which we frequently enjoy along with classical music recitals occasionally.  It was very difficult at times to find a seat indoors at times, yet the ship only had approx two thirds of the normal passenger numbers.

 

To be honest as the cruise progressed we felt it all more of a problem, rather than feeling happier towards the end of the cruise. 

 

We spoke to quite a number of people towards the end of the cruise who were new to Princess and virtually all of them said they would not return to Princess, the lack of seating in a ship which was far from full to capacity was one main dislike by all of them.   People who had travelled with Princess previously, did seem far happier with the cruise and more to the point the ship.  I think that has been a very good point this year in that people are tending to try other cruise lines, which is good, after all we may have found it very much to our liking.  We had considered using Princess for US based cruises, so know now that we would probably go for something else, though with the right itinerary if we did repeat the cruise line we would be doing so with knowledge of what to expect.

 

We in fact found the food quite good as we eat a lot of salads etc. and I particularly do not eat much meat and found it was always possible to find something to suit.  The cabin was also excellent for the price, though normally we spend very little time in a cabin.  In a warmer climate cruise, we may have liked the chance to sit on a balcony and relax in the cabin. Overall though we felt post cruise that from a ship perspective we would prefer a ship with more space and seating in the public areas as well as a quieter, more relaxing environment, even if price wise we decide to go for an inside cabin.

 

Well I did not mean to say so much and did not mean to totally pick holes in so much, but since you asked it does perhaps explain the differences in our preferences to those of yours.  We have done quite a lot of P&O cruises, though not generally on the bigger ships apart from a Fjords on Ventura during her first season, but have found the ships ok overall for the prices we had paid.  Any problems we have felt on P&O have mainly been related to food and restaurants and that alone is not something which we had felt to be a major problem of the cruise given the prices paid.  Their fly cruises are good as there are more port days and we cruise for the itinerary, rather than the ship in normal circumstances.

 

Vive la difference.

 

Thanks for the extensive reply !

I appreciate your reasoning - however,  I still do not think that your complaints are sufficient to warrant the description " appallling". 

[gsmt47471015]

Interesting thoughts regarding the Princes cruise, they are one of the lines we have not yet used but we are looking at them for sometime in 2024 to Japan ,along with Celebrity , who we have used , while not afraid of the new technology (apps, medallion etc) we much prefer the personal touch and tend to leave mobiles and tablets locked in the safe. Also the lack of seating areas ,and quiet spaces is a little concerning as a bit of peace is something we both look forward to . Always good to gauge peoples differing opinions on ships/ lines before we make any future decisions👍  

[Gettingwarmer]

We were on a Regal Princess cruise this year and the app worked fine before boarding and whilst on the ship. Ordering drinks was easy but the waiters still came round. The lack of talks etc was due to covid but the music in the atrium and wheelhouse bar was good. We love the food. I do miss the Crows nest though. 

[Selbourne]

10 minutes ago, Gettingwarmer said:

We were on a Regal Princess cruise this year and the app worked fine before boarding and whilst on the ship. Ordering drinks was easy but the waiters still came round. The lack of talks etc was due to covid but the music in the atrium and wheelhouse bar was good. We love the food. I do miss the Crows nest though. 

Some friends of ours also went on Regal Princess this year and whilst they had major problems with the app, they enjoyed the cruise and felt that it was a better overall experience than P&O. 
 

I’m interested in the absence of speakers being ‘because of covid’. Did they have theatre shows? If so, surely there’s no reason why they couldn’t have had speakers as well? This ‘because of covid’ line seems to be being used by countless organisations (not just cruise lines) nowadays as an excuse for poor service or cost cutting!

[tring]

1 hour ago, wowzz said:

Thanks for the extensive reply !

I appreciate your reasoning - however,  I still do not think that your complaints are sufficient to warrant the description " appallling". 

 

Other issues I did not mention, but basically as we do not generally go to shows etc. or partake of game show type stuff a la Princess live, we pretty much had nothing to do much of the time, especially those last couple of days.  It we were to have sat in the cabin we may have well been at home imo and difficult to use drinks pack.  We were able to order drinks/snacks on room service via TV  (we took a good supply of coins for tips for that), but took a while for orders to arrive and they were not always correct (room service at back of ship and we were mid fore).  We did enjoy Take 5 at night early on and bar service excellent in there, but got boring by the end of the cruise.  Also we liked Vista lounge at first but the music was turned up louder as the cruise continued which was not to our taste.

 

The restaurant we were mainly booked into, Cielo, suffered extremely badly at rear from noise and vibration, especially when bad seas or ship moving quickly.  We were easily identified as not normal Princess passengers as we all had different medallion colours according to loyalty rank and we became convinced that affected the table we were given though a request not to sit at the very back was improved on most of the time.  We found the self service good, especially the quieter part nearer midship and the staff excellent, though we did not turn up at busy times.

 

We did visit the ports, which we enjoyed and is what we cruise for, but apart from that the ship board experience is not something we got anything from at all and would have largely been a lot better at home during time at sea, so for us it was appalling.  Getting to the Med and back from the UK out if season is not something we would normally do unless part of a much longer cruise, so becomes a lot less significant as part of the holiday.  Again an interesting trial of such, but a ship which provided things we enjoy such as the chance to enjoy a quiet drink, use an observation lounge with enjoyable music and some interesting talks helps a lot with that and is available on the ships we normally use.  Must admit I did not fully investigate the cruise line, but had made a mistake on assuming those things would be available on Princess as it seemed to have a reputation for taking older passengers and be a good quality cruise, but again different people will want different things and I am sure people who exclusively spent their times in the noisier bars, and places such as Princess live area, would not like ships we normally use.