Arcadia or Aurora first to go

[Selbourne]

4 minutes ago, molecrochip said:

If you take Ventura or Azura onto those longer itineraries, why do they need to ban kids. The few that are on there will get lost in the number of adults.

Because just one screaming baby or unruly kid can ruin the ambiance of any bar or restaurant, and parents these days rarely remove the little oiks until they calm down, as we did when our kids were young 😂

 

On a serious note though, an adult only cruise is a positive selling point for many and can command a price premium (as happens at present). You can’t do that whilst there’s any chance of kids or babies on board, however few there may be in reality. 

[molecrochip]

1 hour ago, Selbourne said:

Because just one screaming baby or unruly kid can ruin the ambiance of any bar or restaurant, and parents these days rarely remove the little oiks until they calm down, as we did when our kids were young 😂

 

On a serious note though, an adult only cruise is a positive selling point for many and can command a price premium (as happens at present). You can’t do that whilst there’s any chance of kids or babies on board, however few there may be in reality. 

I could argue adults only venues but I do take your point.

 

But there is the question @Selbourne, should P&O be operating two different pricing structures?

 

And if yes, how do you suddenly introduce a premium pricing structure onto say Ventura when up until a point it’s been operating on a standard family based pricing structure?

[ChadCabriolet]

I'm on the Aurora now for my first cruise and it has put me off coming again if this is what P&O have to offer.

 

The staff are lovely, but the rooms are really dated, the TV's don't have proper reception so the picture quality is terrible, and there is only 1 plug socket to charge our phones.

The whole décor of the ship makes it feel like a floating retirement home, but that does explain why all the entertainment is aimed at the retirement community.

 

There are burst pipes on the Lido deck by the burger bar, in the Curzon theatre which cancelled a show tonight and also in one of the cabin hallways on deck 6 (I think, I may be misremembering the deck number). 

And to top it all off we are now spending Christmas day at sea, leaving Alta a day early than advertised because everything will be shut on shore! Surely they would have known that before advertising the cruise?

[paulatsea]

7 hours ago, zap99 said:

Can you imagine one of the big ships as adult only. Full of grumpy folk tut-tutting about the good old days. 🤣

Sounds good to me. I would be on it.

[Selbourne]

8 hours ago, molecrochip said:

I could argue adults only venues but I do take your point.

 

But there is the question @Selbourne, should P&O be operating two different pricing structures?

 

And if yes, how do you suddenly introduce a premium pricing structure onto say Ventura when up until a point it’s been operating on a standard family based pricing structure?

I would argue that P&O already have at least two different pricing structures. If you take Select fares, the two adult only ships are already considerably more expensive per night than the other ships. Arvia and Iona are the other extreme, with very keen prices. The remaining ships fall somewhere in the middle. Always exceptions, of course, but broadly that’s what happens. 
 

If Ventura became adult only, it wouldn’t need to carry as much of a price premium as Aurora and Arcadia do. As you have rightly reminded us on many occasions, the economies of scale of larger cruise ships generate far more profit, so a Ventura full of adults will generate far more profit than say Aurora.

[Selbourne]

4 hours ago, ChadCabriolet said:

I'm on the Aurora now for my first cruise and it has put me off coming again if this is what P&O have to offer.

 

The staff are lovely, but the rooms are really dated, the TV's don't have proper reception so the picture quality is terrible, and there is only 1 plug socket to charge our phones.

The whole décor of the ship makes it feel like a floating retirement home, but that does explain why all the entertainment is aimed at the retirement community.

 

There are burst pipes on the Lido deck by the burger bar, in the Curzon theatre which cancelled a show tonight and also in one of the cabin hallways on deck 6 (I think, I may be misremembering the deck number). 

And to top it all off we are now spending Christmas day at sea, leaving Alta a day early than advertised because everything will be shut on shore! Surely they would have known that before advertising the cruise?

Sorry to hear that you aren’t enjoying Aurora, but please don’t be put off P&O by this one experience. We love Aurora, but she’s getting on a bit now (in cruise ship terms) and I agree that the cabins are now unacceptably dated. The ship has a ‘classic’ cruise ship style that many of us love, but to others can be perceived as dated. Unlike hotels, ships move (sometimes quite a bit 😂) and movement sometimes causes issues with mechanical and other equipment, but we have always been impressed with the on board maintenance teams who work tirelessly to keep on top of these things (where they can - some issues require work in dock). 
 

The three newest P&O ships (Britannia, Iona and Arvia) have far better cabins with, for example, large, modern interactive TVs (picture quality and stability still isn’t great, but on demand films etc are fine). Iona and Arvia look and feel very modern in public areas. We didn’t like it at all, as we felt that it was like a modern conference hotel and lacked a ‘quality’ feel to it, but our adult kids did. Nothing like a retirement home, so you may feel more at home on those ships. Britannia is perhaps somewhere in the middle. More modern than the older ships, but more ship like than Iona and Arvia, although she doesn’t have a promenade deck which is a rather big negative for many. 
 

I’d suggest giving Iona or Arvia a go. Chalk and cheese compared to Aurora and in most respects they feel like a different company altogether. 
 

Sorry to hear about Alta. I agree that’s poor. Alta is lovely just to wander around, even if the shops are closed, but the main purpose of being there is to see the Northern Lights, which are far better seen on land than from the ship.

[jeanlyon]

We were on board in October.  Which bits of the cabin are dated?  Plenty of cupboard space, very comfortable mattresses, which appeared to be new.   And we were in an inside.  The rest of the ship seemed fine to me.  There was a leak near Champions bar, but we went on Azura when she was almost new - 3 months after the start - and toilets were leaking and out of order.  Can happen on any ship.

[john watson]

14 hours ago, zap99 said:

Can you imagine one of the big ships as adult only. Full of grumpy folk tut-tutting about the good old days. 🤣

 

It would be interesting to find out which years comprised the good old days.  I think many would be at variance of which particular years were the pinnacle of their cruises.

 

Regards John

[yorkshirephil]

1 minute ago, john watson said:

 

It would be interesting to find out which years comprised the good old days.  I think many would be at variance of which particular years were the pinnacle of their cruises.

 

Regards John

Next year for me

[Dorset cruise fan]

We were very happy with our cabin on Aurora, the bathrooms do need an update but the cabin size and facilities are excellent. TV reception is poor regardless of ship, it's because you are off shore. If you want to watch TV I would suggest sticking to the prerecorded stuff.  We were on Iona 2 weeks ago (where I  suspect our Covid came from)  and the cabin was lovely, bathroom definitely an improvement but the cabin was so narrow, a real squeeze round the bed and storage is nowhere near as good.

Try to relax and just enjoy what the cruise has to offer - scenery, snow, wildlife. Even if it's not what you expected there should be some venue on board that you can enjoy. 

[Selbourne]

7 minutes ago, john watson said:

 

It would be interesting to find out which years comprised the good old days.  I think many would be at variance of which particular years were the pinnacle of their cruises.

 

Regards John

1996 to 2009 for us 😂 

[Josy1953]

1 hour ago, yorkshirephil said:

Next year for me

Having cruised for over 40 years I find it hard to say which year was the best.  I enjoyed all of them but sone were better than others.  In the early days it was much more formal and far less children.  Our first cruise was on Canberra in an outside cabin and we thought that if was fantastic, as the years past we found that balcony cabins were what we wanted so that we always had somewhere to sit quietly reading or watching the world go by when we were at sea, now it is a minimum of a mini suite.

I suppose that like most people we just enjoy cruising and accept that time moves on and for various reasons some changes are for the  better and others are not.

Edited December 25, 2023 by Josy1953

[Cathygh]

11 hours ago, ChadCabriolet said:

I'm on the Aurora now for my first cruise and it has put me off coming again if this is what P&O have to offer.

 

The staff are lovely, but the rooms are really dated, the TV's don't have proper reception so the picture quality is terrible, and there is only 1 plug socket to charge our phones.

The whole décor of the ship makes it feel like a floating retirement home, but that does explain why all the entertainment is aimed at the retirement community.

 

There are burst pipes on the Lido deck by the burger bar, in the Curzon theatre which cancelled a show tonight and also in one of the cabin hallways on deck 6 (I think, I may be misremembering the deck number). 

And to top it all off we are now spending Christmas day at sea, leaving Alta a day early than advertised because everything will be shut on shore! Surely they would have known that before advertising the cruise?

The problem with dated cabins is changing them. I believe but I stand to be corrected that the cabins are premoulded so changing them is an expensive challenge especially for bathroom fittings. 

The other ships apart from Arcadia are much more modern. Just been on Britannia and had excellent tv coverage and a goid selection of films and box sets. Aurora and Arcadia need to be brought up to that standard at least.

[yorkshirephil]

1 hour ago, Josy1953 said:

Having cruised for over 40 years I find it hard to say which year was the best.  I enjoyed all of them but sone were better than others.  In the early days it was much more formal and far less children.  Our first cruise was on Canberra in an outside cabin and we thought that if was fantastic, as the years past we found that balcony cabins were what we wanted so that we always had somewhere to sit quietly reading or watching the world go by when we were at sea, now it is a minimum of a mini suite.

I suppose that like most people we just enjoy cruising and accept that time moves on and for various reasons some changes are for the  better and others are not.

We are a few years behind you in experience but still love our cruising as much as ever, it isn't just cruising that has changed it is us, what we did and liked 30 years ago isn't our thing anymore. There are plenty of choices out there and I am sure there is something for almost everyone.

[Selbourne]

4 hours ago, Cathygh said:

The problem with dated cabins is changing them. I believe but I stand to be corrected that the cabins are premoulded so changing them is an expensive challenge especially for bathroom fittings. 

The other ships apart from Arcadia are much more modern. Just been on Britannia and had excellent tv coverage and a goid selection of films and box sets. Aurora and Arcadia need to be brought up to that standard at least.

The bathroom furniture can be changed on Aurora. The reason I know this is because in one of our cabins we had a white toilet, surrounded by the usual pink everything else 😂 

 

Agree that the TVs need upgrading, but can I add Ventura (and presumably Azura) to the two adult only ships? As far as I know, only Britannia, Iona and Arvia have anything approaching a decent TV!

[Selbourne]

8 hours ago, daiB said:

We have been on 4 long Ventura cruises to the Caribbean and can confirm that there are very few children go on these cruises. One year there were 3 children and on the others around 10 to 15. Now personally I like children on cruises as I was a teacher. So Ventura does not need to go adult only as it is not as problem.

On those month long cruises I’m not surprised that there are so few children, but the long Caribbean cruises only occupy a couple of months of the year. When the first of Aurora or Arcadia go, it would be nice for passengers seeking adult only normal length cruises to have a choice of more then one ship, but this of course assumes that P&O will still be targeting that market. 

[paulatsea]

9 hours ago, daiB said:

We have been on 4 long Ventura cruises to the Caribbean and can confirm that there are very few children go on these cruises. One year there were 3 children and on the others around 10 to 15. Now personally I like children on cruises as I was a teacher. So Ventura does not need to go adult only as it is not as problem.

Not a problem for you - but it is for me.

If you like children on cruises then family ships are for you - and there are several.
This is about replacement of adult only ships.

[john watson]

4 minutes ago, paulatsea said:

This is about replacement of adult only ships.

I was thinking it is a thread about which would be the next P&O ship to be withdrawn and Arcadia and Aurora were cited

 

.Regards John

[Cathygh]

12 hours ago, Selbourne said:

The bathroom furniture can be changed on Aurora. The reason I know this is because in one of our cabins we had a white toilet, surrounded by the usual pink everything else 😂 

 

Agree that the TVs need upgrading, but can I add Ventura (and presumably Azura) to the two adult only ships? As far as I know, only Britannia, Iona and Arvia have anything approaching a decent TV!

The toilets don't seem to be be part of the premoulded elements. On some ships the walls and the tiles seem to be premoulded, making it difficult to change the colour scheme. 

[paulatsea]

13 minutes ago, john watson said:

I was thinking it is a thread about which would be the next P&O ship to be withdrawn and Arcadia and Aurora were cited

 

.Regards John

Yes  - and they are both adult only ships 

[john watson]

Modern ships have modular cabins where the entire cabin is manufactured on shore and put through on to the appropriate deck slid into position in a big row.  All the electricals and plumbing are fitted and just need joining together.  What parts would be able to be removed and replaced I suspect would depend on the exact construction system.

 

Regards John

[john watson]

4 minutes ago, paulatsea said:

Yes  - and they are both adult only ships 

Yes this is currently true but one or both might be withdrawn from the fleet and experience should tell you this has not always been the case. The designation of Adult Only tends to shift from one ship to another and one would think will remain the P&O policy.  It is possible they might withdraw one and redesignate another from the rest of the fleet.  The important part is will one go.

 

Regards John

[Selbourne]

35 minutes ago, john watson said:

I was thinking it is a thread about which would be the next P&O ship to be withdrawn and Arcadia and Aurora were cited

 

.Regards John

It is, and therefore debating which ship, if any, might eventually replace that ship as adult only is naturally part of that discussion. It would be odd if it wasn’t. After all, when Adonia went Aurora was switched to Adult only. 

Edited December 26, 2023 by Selbourne

[Selbourne]

26 minutes ago, Cathygh said:

The toilets don't seem to be be part of the premoulded elements. On some ships the walls and the tiles seem to be premoulded, making it difficult to change the colour scheme. 

Yes that’s very true. From memory, the walls in the bathrooms are a moulded plastic rather than tiled which, as you say, makes them fixed. I wonder who decided that pink would stand the test of time 😂 

[terrierjohn]

1 minute ago, Selbourne said:

Yes that’s very true. From memory, the walls in the bathrooms are a moulded plastic rather than tiled which, as you say, makes them fixed. I wonder who decided that pink would stand the test of time 😂 

I would guess that the bathrooms could be re-fitted, but you would need a massive team to refit all 1000 or so bathrooms on even the 2 little ships during a normal 2-3 week 5 yr refurbishment, and 3 times as many on a new giant ship.