terrierjohn

If you check the Palma cruise port website, you should be able to see how many ships are scheduled to be in the same day as Arvia, and that should give you an idea of the likelihood Arvia will be cancelled.

Not sure that's accurate, the evening turndown service has been dropped for stewards and they are now doing what the assistant waiters used to do. This was initially brought in because of the shortage of waiters, to free up the assistant waiters and maximise service standards. I was one of the early complainers about this, as we shower in the evening and like the bathroom cleaned and tidied before we turn in for the night. But we are not missing this service, and if it enables staff to be redeployed to the dining rooms, and for extra cleaning around the ship, then this seems a sensible way to optimise the use of the staff.

I think we need Scarlett or Georgia to be given a chance with the phone camera, with instructions to get some good photos of their Mum and Dad We also enjoyed Pulses Guilty Pleasures set, the dance floor was crammed full throughout.

It is a good feature though if you want to keep the door open.

But when we have been with family members, including children, during school holidays, you tend not to notice what other families children are doing unless it's extremely bad behaviour. When it comes to meal times, these usually revolve around what the children want to do anyway, so you you dont necessarily notice the queues or slow service. That has been our experience anyway when we have cruised with the family, hope it runs smoothly for you as well.

Do they float well in the shower?

On our last cruise the lady on the roll call leading this jolly seemed to be bringing knitted ducks. So they should be more environmentally friendly.

I think P&Os pricing policy and Britishness must be hurting MSC at present. If their prices keep going down at the same level, they will soon be paying us to cruise.

Not really, I think it's a bit tacky as well, but for those families with younger children I can perhaps see the fun aspect of it.

Rubbery Tiger prawns on our last cruise, I must remember to stick to steak in future if I dine in Epicurean again, the chefs dont seem to be able to ruin that.

On last 3 cruises, all post covid, we have noticed a marked improvement in the speed and efficiency in which the buffet tables are serviced and cleaned. All cruise lines seem to have declared that they have enhanced their cleaning protocols post covid, and we were glad to see this in operation in effect in the buffet. Which incidentally showed little resemblance to a bun fight, even at the busiest of times.

I doubt that every cabin steward is as conscientious as the best, so it is conceivable that the odd item of rubbish might be found, and it's also possible that they might not be as thorough when it comes to cleaning the cabin. In those circumstances I would hope that most passengers would report the issue to housekeeping, or maybe initially to the steward, in this way standards can be kept quite high. Fortunately we have been lucky to have had some very conscientious stewards over the years, but even then we have noticed some differences in the standard of cleaning.

That's my understanding as well, however as someone who does require an accessible cabin this is good news, it should reduce the demand, and leave more accessible cabins available. PS. Sorry Selbourne I should have read the thread to the end before replying.

Oh dear Brian, it's not looking good already.

If you order a starter and a soup, you will get them both, dont worry.

Yes.

We generally use our credit card instead of cash for normal monthly expenditure, which we know will fall within our budget. So we know we will have sufficient funds to pay the entire amount each month. However we do also use it for major items as well like holidays, mainly because it allows us to make maximum use of the extended payment period, but only when we know we have sufficient funds in our savings account to clear the credit card charge. That way I only need to balance the books once a month, instead of constantly needing to keep an eye on the bank account, it also ensures that we have enough funds in the bank account to meet the regular direct debits.

I agree entirely, when we have done round trip Caribbean cruises on Ventura we have used the buffet a number of times for dinner, often to avoid the plethora of formal nights where they try to cram 10 formal nights into the sea days. It has always been much quieter than breakfast or lunch, with table mats and cutlery on the tables, and in pre covid times they had themed evenings and Indian, Asian and Thai nights were very popular.

If your description of Arvia is accurate, then clearly its buffet is light years better than Iona's. The menus Dave posted do look attractive, however on Iona I struggled to see anything that looked as appealing as those menus. We did have soup and a roll for a light lunch a couple of times, and probably would have done it more if the soups had been more appetising, they were definitely a lot better in the MDR. I accept that for some the buffet is a preferred experience, but we enjoy a leisurely meal in the MDR, on a shared table with interesting companions, which is what we generally find.

I go along with that sentiment Selbourne, and in just about every review I have done, I have reported on a few negatives. Fortunately they have never been severe enough to spoil our overall enjoyment of any cruise.

But it must get deleted before the next statement because in over 35 cruises we have never seen a holding charge on any statement.

For Peninsular members there is 10% off the brochure price, and 5% for all others. But with fluid pricing in 2 yrs time who's to say whether that was a good deal or not.

All the road works are after Winchester.

Whilst we very rarely have a meal ashore, we do often have a coffee, or beer if it's very hot, and maybe a cake at a sidewalk cafe. However I do understand why some people like to sample the local fare, quite often because they want to benefit the local economy, and I imagine they will possibly skip lunch or dinner as a result.

I can understand why many people do not like using a credit card, however if you can afford to set up a direct debit to pay off the credit card every month, then it is, IMO, the easiest and safest way of managing your finances.