Froxfield

A year or so back, Ollie Smith was to be found up in the buffet Chef's Table wandering around and being very chatty. However, it has to be noted that on that particular cruise, Glass House was not up and running food service!

Given how non-transparent all parties have been here it is indeed difficult to understand. With so few aircraft (and therefore crew?) maybe the hiccup with turbulence that occurred last week, combined with the bad UK weather of recent days, created exceptional issues of crew availability?

He is transparent as to the financing of his cruising if you were to review his vlogs. And how the cruises he takes fit into his work as a teacher: this last one on Arvia being evidently in school vacation time! He has held senior management roles in secondary education and is now gradually stepping back into part-time teaching. I have no direct evidence of his capabilities, but the arrangements he has been able to make to change his responsibilities, whilst staying in the same school, suggest that he must have been considered a valuable member of staff. I have found over the months that his comments are well structured and argued and at least as valid as one encounters on cruisecritic! Of course he has a style that may, or may not, appeal to all but overall I find him to be reliable and balanced. Very far from the ill-organised rants beginning to appear from other vloggers on this particular incident! I confidently expect that his full edited reports will provide a detailed blow by blow account with evidence. Let's not descend to criticism of this individual which comes close to trolling?

I may feel different after our Arvia Caribbean cruise in March, but I am, at the moment, looking forward to it. We are some of the "lucky" ones as our flights still appear to be with TUI. But I have felt for some time that P&O make a rod for their own backs by the superlatives they use in their advertising. Of course, all holiday companies do this to some extent. The introduction of Maleth is a case in point. Instead of stating the obvious about flight capacity and saying they had done their best and it was Maleth, who would provide an adequate service, they appear to have over-promised an excellent level of service (at the least). This does not really accord with the lack of in-flight entertainment announced in the email. Perhaps they could have offered some OBC as compensation? Managing expectations is important. As Jamie said, some of the worst of it was a lack of honest communications. I thought almost the worst thing, he described, was leaving a single member of the entertainment team to handle the increasingly restive passengers in the theatre at muster for departure. Where in the name of all that's wonderful were the captain and senior officers? When we had a horribly slow disembarkation from DCL in Puerto Rico on one occasion (entirely the fault of the port) the ship's senior officers were well in evidence, trying to sort things out, apologising and dealing with irate customers. I reflect that P&O could not have chosen a worse person to aggravate than Jamie, given his following. Actual video footage will be all over the place in due course!!!

We were also on this cruise which was overall a decent experience. But there were a few first world problems. I would say that QV looked less than pristine in quite a few places! There were several threadbare seams to be seen in the carpets around the ship, quite a lot of woodwork was scratched/chipped (notably beside the grills lifts on deck 11), areas of deck 6 and 4 experienced plumbing issues and a smell of drains could be found in places around the ship: one day in the Queen's Room! A drydock seems overdue. We enjoyed the Christmas decorations, which relieved QVs decor, which we always think a little drab compared to her sister QE. Overall, the food in Princess Grill was excellent and served pleasantly. Although the choice may be more limited than before, we found it more than adequate: we found the fish (sole, halibut and cod) as well as the soups to be the standouts. I can only say that, unfortunately, I was served the toughest piece of USDA prime rib I have ever encountered and a slab of Tournedos that was also so tough it was difficult to cut, let alone chew!! The Tournedos was replaced with a second that was marginally better: but not a lot. Question! Are the steak knives getting a bit blunt? Finally on the list of gripes, we thought that the quartet of singers in the main theatre were quite the weakest we have ever heard at sea: the two young ladies were frankly unpleasant to listen to: loud and flat. The arrangement one evening of "Over the Rainbow" was a particular low spot! By contrast we thought that the two speakers (on 1960s music and technical innovation) were pretty good. The classical pianist was more than OK: I think the strangeness of his schedule reflected the arrangement of the cruise with all the sea days at the beginning and end of the voyage. The Newfoundland folk duo were good value and certainly packed out the Queen's Room. I think maybe they could have used the Theatre, in preference to one of the shows! It can't have been that bad, because we have booked again for QA in 2025 in addition to the Alaska trip on QE that we already had in the calendar for next year. We are looking forward to QA with its increased selection of dining venues and have deliberately booked in Britannia as we intend to use them as much as possible: the grills would be a bit of a waste on that basis! We have learned from Arvia and Iona that we quite like the overall approach of lots of venues: and, at the risk of upsetting some people on here, we quite like Christmas jumpers!!!!

We are looking forward to our upcoming PG trip on QV and think the above menus look fine. Maybe I have a faulty memory but on our first PG trip back in 2011 on QV I am sure we only got to see a much vaunted A La Carte menu on occasional days, as a special treat. Things gradually changed on our biannual Canary cruises to a more liberal regime. Perhaps we are now back to where we started?? Or even a little further forward than 2011. Cunard can not be blamed for seeking to differentiate product, when there is a substantial price difference? For myself, I have never seen the attraction of going off-menu. One of the joys of restaurant dining is being able to decide what to eat without having to plan in advance!

Just goes to show how subjective food is. We were desperately unimpressed by Tuscan Grill on Celebrity! On the other hand Murano we found excellent. Much more expensive than Epicurean, which we have also found excellent on Arvia and Iona. However, we enjoyed Beachhouse as well.

I have often wondered how much "cost", within the fare, is attributable to a single MDR dinner: I suspect surprisingly little, given bulk buying and preparation!

Thank you both for the update. Clearly we do not cruise with Cunard often enough! In any event it's not really a problem: I even would not be that disappointed to miss lunch altogether.

Back in 2021, on our Canaries cruise in autumn, there was no PG lunch. Afternoon tea was offered (early) on embarkation day. Data on photographs taken at the time suggest we were served just before 2pm! As I remarked we actually quite liked this approach.

Well, although not Diamond, we are in the same boat so to speak! I was a bit surprised to get a 1PM port arrival time for PG on deck 6. But now it doesn't look so bad and, if boarding is smooth, will be OK. However, it does indicate to me that there should be no presumption of embarkation day lunch in the PG restaurant. Maybe afternoon tea as it was the year before last? An approach we actually quite enjoyed.

The latest I have seen suggests that ETIAS will be delayed yet again until 2025!! Anyone planning Europe needs to keep a sharp eye on developments.

Agree, beyond eye-watering quotes for insurance this year! I am not sure if it is the cruise element or Caribbean/USA costs that are the problem. Of course, I am awaiting a course of treatment so was expecting the worst!! We decided to suck it up and booked some extra trips to reduce the cost per day. Nevertheless, I sincerely hope the insurer makes a lot of profit out of me!

We found the new look Sindhu on Iona less than impressive (and nowhere near as good as the previous Atul Kocha offering on other ships: now long gone). Apart from anything else the portions seemed enormous! Given there are plenty of other good options on Iona and Arvia we are likely to give it a miss in future.

We enjoyed Clare Balding very much and she is very far from the worst speaker we have had on a cruise!! (subjective opinion of course). Her frequent appearances on television are likely down to her undoubted competence and professionalism in a wide variety of topics. Except line dancing as observed in Queen's Room on QE and as she admitted on stage!