terrierjohn

They have had a couple of chances already and not opened it up for passengers, so I doubt they will this time.

It took a very full 5 working days from stockperks advising that the OBC request had gone to Princess, to them advising that it had been agreed by Princess.

Probably because the cabins no longer look as new and pristine as the old photos. Also since turnround day only has about 1 hour max when they are cleaned and tidy and empty, I doubt that P&O have the ability to organise such a photo shoot!

I still have a tux that fits and does not have ( too many) gravy stains on the lapels, so I think I can manage 2 on a 2 week cruise on Iona, and maybe even 5 on our 5 week cruise due next year, although I hope this might be reduced to 4, one either side of Tenerife on the long sea crossings.

I think you may be correct, I think P&O still register your card as part of the check in procedure

Black tie nights now 1 per week for Iona and Arvia, but still 2 per week for the other ships, although I would speculate that this may reduce to 3 every 2 weeks for Azura, Ventura and Britannia in the not too distant future.

I tend to agree, but that's only because I could indulge myself if I wanted to and to hell with the expense. But many people do like to budget in advance and want to know they can drink what they like without worrying that they will overspend.

I think P&O could make a significant dent in Noro outbreaks if they followed the Princess lead of serving tea, coffee and juice at the tables in the buffet. The queues at the coffee stations, coupled with all the spillage and handling of crockery and cutlery, must make the stations a veritable bug breeding ground.

I wonder if Maleth/P&O could use clause 5b to avoid paying the going rate of compensation. In their shoes I know I would use every possible wiggle room to avoid paying out the sums that would apply to scheduled delays.

You could try Free Spirit, they were quite reasonable with our existing medical conditions when Staysure would not cover us.

I have now had my OBC applied to our May Sky Princess cruise, no point asking for our Sept Iona cruise until after the annual report is published, assuming they continue to offer the OBC. Although since they have gone to the trouble of switching the requests to stockperks, that seems highly likely.

The only thing that brings any sort of lasting relief to a sore throat for me is paracetamol, Strepsils do help a little, but the anaesthetic effect wears off fairly quickly.

But if you have been reading @Selbourne he has reported that the accessible cabin TVs are still on the small side.

Thinking back to my youth, the pubs we frequented on weekends were far more crowded than any cruise ships, and I doubt that the guys selling shrimps, cockles etc were maintaining the highest standards of cleanliness. So whether it was Noro or too much beer that left us feeling unwell the following morning we will never know.😯😇

If people are concerned that they are likely to fall ill on a cruise, or be disturbed by people coughing, then they have the option not to cruise.

No we were on board shortly after the pre covid refit when theTVs were replaced, but they hadn't bothered to change the accessible cabin TVs, apparently because they were not prepared to remodel or remove the dressing table surround to enable the bigger TVs to be wall mounted.

There probably is no reason for P&O to reduce the quality of the food onboard, the economies of scale, especially on the 2 new ships should be enough to maintain, or even increase profits, and the smaller ships already have higher pricing which should enable them to maintain standards. So maybe it is down to the standard of the chefs, which would account for the variability in dining standards that we so often read about.

@SelbourneI agree with you about salted caramel irritating the throat, I have found the same problem while eating up our Christmas chocolates, fortunately it doesn't last, so I keep persevering.😊👍

While walking around Ionas upper decks last time we were on board, the beachcomber pool was heaving and very noisy, and very tiny.

Would you drink 4/5 lagers every day on a port intensive cruise though.

Has your wife tried CBD oil or capsules?

I thought he was a 50s film star?

Auroras accessible cabin TVs are still rubbish, as are all Ventura and presumably Azura cabin TVs and Princess have managed to change all their Grand and Crown class ships TVs, so P&O have no excuse.

But some of us who are older and less mobile than others, do use our cabins more and like to have TVs large enough to see from anywhere in the cabin, and which have stable pictures. Which in a modern world with state of the art satellite communications should be achieveableveven at sea.

If you google oatcakes, you will find they come in various shapes and sizes from thick round hard biscuits to large thin soft ones, savoury or sweet, filled or seasoned, Yorkshire ones are cooked from below and have bubbly tops, who would have thought, anyways that's a wrap!!!👍😇