mike x ftc

We love Fred but we accept when we cruise Fred we have a window as balconies are far too expensive, when we cruise P&O and other lines on bigger ships we have a balcony as it is cheaper but we know dining, service etc will not be the same. It's all about choice, where you're going and for how long. As someone has said Fred's drinks packages are very cheap and more often or not they have an offer and they are free, our 2025 Northern lights cruise included one. This is worth quite a bit of money on a 10 night cruise. Other lines drinks and drinks packages are prohibitively expensive.

Lovely photos, thank you.

Thanks very much for your replies - Britannia Club it is then!!

Does anyone know if you are guaranteed a table for 2 if you book club dining on QM2? If not - what's the benefit of doing it?

We did our first Fred cruise in November and we were really impressed, we felt it was everything P&O used to be and should be, it's all the small touches that make it a bit more special.

Interesting, thank you. We are booked on her in November and we're just not sure the crowds and queueing is going to be our thing - but we'll go with an open mind.

We've cruised on all the main lines many times, we're rapidly going off P&O - the cut backs are just too obvious. We are booked on our 3rd Marella cruise in May, we love them. We accept its not the most polished cruise product but its just really good! The staff are amazing and so friendly, the food is good - especially if you pay for the specialty restaurants - they are superb. The ships are older but are not dated at all (well maybe the cabins a bit!) but they are kept immaculately clean. Where Marella win massively is the flights (they are always good times) the transfers, the departure day where you just stay on the ship and continue to use all the facilities etc until your you get called for your flight is just brilliant, its just seamless. For some reason we find passengers on Marella far more friendly and upbeat than other lines, I think this comes from the warm, friendly nature of the staff - it seems to spread!

Thank you.

Does anyone know how easy / difficult it is to get from Newcastle train station to the cruise port, is there a local train from the main train station is it easier by Taxi? We're coming from the south coast and not sure whether to drive or get the train. Thanks

We have friends who boarded on Sunday, they were staying in Venice so it was relatively easy for them to get to the check-in in Venice cruise port then they were taken by coach (2 hours) right to the ship and boarded almost straight away. So following a couple of days of worrying about it they said it was really smooth. I don't know how the people got on disembarking in a different port??

We're from the UK and did it in May, we just used our Uber App and it worked really well, it was about $65 which is good as its quite a long way.

Are they upgrading the buckets catching all the drips??? 😁

HI, they are definitely larger, they are a bit strange as they have just added the standard cabin fittings, they are just oddly spaced out! They could have made much better use of the space or made them family cabins. It was great to have the extra space but they are dark, there is no natural light at all from the window, you can't see anything except the lifeboat, just a slight glimpse of the promenade deck below. I don't have any photos i'm afraid, maybe someone else has?? They are definitely much larger than any standard cabin I have ever stayed in. I hope that helps.

Why indeed?? We've just done our first fly cruise since the pause - it was with Celebrity and to be honest we had forgotten just how good they are, it really put our Christmas cruise on Arcadia into perspective. We have now decided we will never cruise on an older P&O ship again. We were on the Celebrity Millennium and you would think you were on a brand new ship - and she's 5 years older than Arcadia!! Literally everything has been updated - Arcadia is old, tired and dated with many many plumbing issues. We have booked Iona next year to give P&O one last try. But there is just so much better out there.

If you are nervous about the site you can just email the Hotels directly, I have done this successfully in the past, the airport hotels are used to this sort of thing.