terrierjohn

Thanks for link - can't say how helpful I've found these forums! :) it's ridiculous they won't publish times on the itinerary

Clearly P&O would prefer that you booked their excursions rather than DIY.

Originally Posted by terrierjohn

I had previously read that this was to happen fleet wide, so we were very surprised on our recent Britannia cruise to see they still had wine waiters, in fact there seemed more of them than normal.

Yes Azura is the first, then Ventura then Britannia.

Since P&O had decided this before Britannias maiden cruise one wonders why they even bothered to start her with wine waiters.

Just got back from Azura today. Oriental is indeed the club dining restaurant. No more wine waiters as your waiter does the drink ordering and this is then brought to him by a runner.

I had previously read that this was to happen fleet wide, so we were very surprised on our recent Britannia cruise to see they still had wine waiters, in fact there seemed more of them than normal.

I like Dean Andrews as an actor but, like all the other artists featuring at the Limelight, I doubt I would go out of my way to watch him if he was on at the free theatre, so I am certainly not going to pay for the privilidge.

If you palate is for supermarket ready Indian meals then I am afraid that Sindhu is out of your depth. Fresh food superbly cooked is no comparison to a cheaply made very little meat content Indian meal served in a plastic tray if that is the standard you aspire too.

Thanks for that Tom, but my little tray of Waitrose Jalfrezi on Saturday was chock full of chicken, far more meat that any Sindhu main course.

As for my palate being out of it's depth, I should have added to my earlier post that every single main course I had in the MDR was, IMO, far superior to my Sindhu meal, and the presentation was equally attractive and appealing, the only difference was that the MDR meals also tasted delicious. Surely taste is what top class cuisine is supposed to provide, not just a pretty picture on a plate, and a fairly small one at that.

It was fairly full when we ate there on a day Atul Kochar was on board, but he never appeared in the Restaurant, although he did make it to his book signing event.

I thought Sindhu food on Azura back in 2011 was too bland for me but decided to give it a second chance, unfortunately with the same result.

In future I think I will stick to supermarket ready indian meals and treat myself to Akbars in Bradford as an occasional treat.

Can I ask whether that was for a booking in term time or school holidays? I was expecting more than 50% tbh. would be very happy if it's only 50% during school holidays.

 

Thanks

 

Sue

Summer holidays is 80% for child places, maybe Easter will be a bit less.

Of course they won't make it public. Everybody would then remove the auto-gratuity as you are wasting your money. A poster on the other thread claimed a officer stated it was so though.

 

Ask yourself this. If they do not make up the difference, why do staff have to pay any cash gratuity into the 'pool' if the passenger has removed the auto-gratuity?

I believe I read that P&O only top up to a guaranteed minimum, which is quite low but sometimes needed for the world cruises where there is apparently a lot of reduction made to passengers auto tip.

So "stiffing" the staff won't normally cost P&O anything, but it does alienate the stewards and wait staff and, according to some on this thread, they know who you are. So remember always take your toothbrush with you.

This must be new, we went with our Son & DIL and grandson of 8 months back in 2011, on a Canaries cruise which certainly had 2 consecutive sea days down to Madeira first stop.

Thank you that's great I was hoping the room was ready early to drop hand luggage off before we explore

It may not be ready and if not you will not have access to the room or even the corridor. On Eclipse we always minimise or eliminate hand luggage purely because the rooms do not open till late.

Just been checking Britannia deck plans for types of 4 berths and noticed a whole slew of basic, no sofa, balcony cabins which state they have extra beds configured with 1 sofa bed and one pullman bunk, quite a lot on G deck.

Clearly the current issue deck plans are not to be trusted.

DW, if you have enjoyed P&O then I think you would really enjoy Eclipse. In our opinion Celebrity has better food, better service, much better cleanliness and Eclipse is a far better ship than P&O had before Britannia, and probably better than that.

Eclipse entertainment venues not as many nor quite as varied as P&O, and gratuities, drinks, shuttles and shore excursion are more expensive.

But we rate Eclipse as our current favourite cruise ship.

In which case I won't bother, Oh darn it I just have!!!!;)

The P&O website has a very good advice centre section where you can type in your question and hopefully receive a reasonable answer. See attached link:-

http://www.pocruises.com/advicecentre/

Sue, you could wait till you're on board and receive whatever extra OBC P&O are offering as well as the normal extra 5% off for booking before May 31st, and you can ask for the booking to be allocated to your TA and receive any extra benefit they are offering.

But do your homework beforehand so you know what the best price is, which is what we will be doing before our Britannia cruise.

So it sounds like you can just revert to normal tipping...

If you read the other tipping thread you will note several posters state that any cash tips to staff by passengers removing their auto tip must be handed over to P&O and placed in the pool with the auto tips. Apparently the only way to guarantee your money stays with the intended staff is to leave the auto tip in place and tip a little extra to those you think deserve more.

I believe you can't remove tips if on freedom dining

I know this applies on Celebrity but never heard of it on P&O.

Well yes that would work if everyone got enough obc But they don't. My 23 days on Arcadia was without ANY obc. This was for various reasons and I am not quibbling about it. If the gratuities are shared fleet-wide, then they would appear to be going towards the fleet operating costs. Why not call them a non-refundable service charge. Everyone would then know just what the cruise cost is and could then tip extra for any service over and above what is expected.

 

 

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That's just too sensible DC, a lot of people do seem to enjoy complaining about these charges suggesting that tips or gratuities should be at the customers discretion, and even changing the name is unlikely to change their mind.

They will not be satisfied until they are incorporated in the basic price, which of course means the cost plus all likely overheads immediately become a charge against the P&L account, and will affect the return on equity, leading to far higher prices than at present.

I know Thomson and some of the luxury lines do include gratuities in the basic price, which is probably why the luxury line prices are so much higher, and even Thomson fail to compete adequately with P&O.

John, I keep thinking (hoping) that P&O are quoting the 205q ft for our Balcony Cabin minus the size of Balcony which would then make it 222sq ft approx - the same as Royal Princess I know for a fact that the storage space we are going to have on Britannia compared to Azura/Ventura is definitely less but all booked now and short of taking a bedside cabinet and a cupboard with us we will have to make do:) A friend of ours was on Britannia last week for 2 days and gave us photos of Cabin

Yamanid, I would check out You Tube there are several videos there showing different cabin grades, these might put your mind at rest, I think they look almost identical size to Azura.

You can get this from Princess & P&O websites where it clearly states the sizes - and our Travel Agent confirmed our Balcony size for us last week when he was onboard Britannia - we have 2 cruises booked on Britannia and I am feeling very disappointed as there is less storage space than on Azura & Ventura - a ship that size and the cabins are smaller!!!!! I know the Royal & Britannia are exactly the same size John but totally different inside

Yamanid, despite what you might read on any website I am fairly certain that the cabin dimensions on Royal and Britannia will be identical for the equivalent grade of cabin. The ships have the same overall dimensions, are built at the same yard, have very similar cabin numbers except that Britannia has some single cabins, and the cabins will have to be exactly the same size to fit into the alloted space.

So whatever you have read about peoples reviews for Royal and Regal, for accomodation and storage you can expect the same on Britannia. In fact I would expect them to have almost identical storage space to Azura/Ventura from the schematics shown.

Yes Britannia might be a clone of Royal Princess but the cabins on Britannia (I am talking about balcony cabins) are smaller than on the Royal (17q ft smaller)!!

ROYAL PRINCESS Balcony 222sq ft BRITANNIA Balcony 205sq ft - I am not a Happy Bunny about this

Where did you get this info, I have seen on one website where Royal and Britannia are identical, but on Choosing Cruising, which is my preferred site neither Royal or Regal have any details showing as yet.

A strange interpretation in my opinion, especially as P&O clearly state 'your' and 'you'. There is no suggestion whatsoever in P&O's statement that part of your auto-gratuity is paid to staff that had nothing to do with you.

 

I would think the 'pool' is simply an administration method of making one payment to a staff member rather then 20 odd individual payments from 20 odd individual passengers on board accounts.

Let's also be clear that "your" and "you" can be used to categorize a group of people and not just as a singular as you are suggesting PM.

Also I would be amazed if P&O, as part of Carnival Corp, operated a different system to Princess which, according to them, operates the gratuity pool in exactly the way Dave suggests, and they also stress that only cash gratuities made over and above the auto tip level can be kept by a staff member, all others are to be put into the pool.

However I am sure Lynn will be telling you I am also wrong and she is the only right minded person posting on here.

We use a TA and pay them at the last possible moment, no point paying out until its essential.

I don't see why. The object wouldn't be to increase the total revenue but share it out among all the passengers. The passengers who cough up now would effectively pay less and the tight wads would pay more. The total take would be the same and it would be guaranteed assuming the ship was full.David.

 

Originally post by dryce The quote is terse and specific - it's specifically in context given the post of mine that preceded it and which you quoted.

 

I'm not trying to score points - just make one that is important. Not everybody on board is well heeled - and some have to be careful. Circumstances of passengers can vary quite a bit.

David, You clearly did not read or fully understand post 90, once a large company put staff onto their payroll those costs have to absorb their share of the business overheads, which in most cases doubles the cost.

So to all those who want it added into the cruise fare do be prepared for it to cost more.

Dryce, everyone who cruises should be aware of the way the hotel staff receive their remuneration, and need to factor this into their cost planning.

Quote:

I believe they may be over extending themselves and should consider a cheaper holiday.

This sort of off hand statement misses the advantage to somebody on a very very tight budget in that the cost of the cruise can be almost totally contained. And it can be a cheap holiday if managed carefully.

You are obviously quite a politician, taking this statement on its own and out of context like that.