Sealoveragain

Any craft that relies on a screw (traditional propeller or Azipod) will 'cavitate' the faster it rotates - some vessels more than others due to screw/hull design. Cavitation is the effect of creating bubbles in the propelled water where the screws are. The feeling is akin to being in a spa with bubbles all round your body ! It's generally more noticeable in calmer conditions - the choppier the sea surface, the more this condition is masked, to people onboard, by general pitch/yaw of the vessel.

I wonder if that's what we experienced on the Oriana. We were going quite slowly most of the time and generally in calm conditions.

As I said in my last post ---- unless we have experience of Butlins or 3star Benidorm how can we comment on the new ship being like this???:confused:

I didn't have to go to Butlins to know it wasn't for me. I have been to Benidorm, just for the day while staying in Spain. The hotels were like blocks of flats with tiny balconies, hence my analogy. I don't see why you are confused.

I agree sometimes on P&O I feel as if I've wandered accidentally into Butlins.

Anyhow as I've said Britannia will probably appeal to many people, it's just not my idea of a cruise ship. We all have our own likes and dislikes, which is understandable we are all different people.

All these judgements about a ship that hasn't even been finished yet and which no cruiser has set foot on. Yes it is a huge ship but it is not the only huge ship sailing or scheduled to sail. Are they all Butlins or a Benidorm Hotel? As others who have posted here, I love having my own private space, fresh air and views and noise of the sea. We are booked on her maiden cruise and thoroughly looking forward to it. Nobody made us book it, we chose to do so.

No doubt you mean me. No, I haven't been on the Britannia obviously. Yes it's a huge ship and yes there are other huge ships. None of them appeal to me. I suppose they are more cost effective because they can squeeze in a lot more passengers and that's why cruise companies build them. I haven't actually been to Butlins but some of the American huge ships remind me of Butlins and why I wouldn't cruise on them. They all remind me of Benidorm hotels that we've all seen if not experienced. I'm sure lots of people will be very excited to cruise on this sort of ship. I simply think it's disappointing that ships are becoming bigger and bigger and are not really my idea of a cruise ship. As I've already said I hope you enjoy your cruise. I'm just giving my opinion if you are happy with your choice, why should it bother you.

All these judgements about a ship that hasn't even been finished yet and which no cruiser has set foot on. Yes it is a huge ship but it is not the only huge ship sailing or scheduled to sail. Are they all Butlins or a Benidorm Hotel? As others who have posted here, I love having my own private space, fresh air and views and noise of the sea. We are booked on her maiden cruise and thoroughly looking forward to it. Nobody made us book it, we chose to do so.

I sincerely hope you enjoy it. I'm afraid it doesn't appeal to me. Each to their own.

P&O are obviously trying to appeal to a new market of people. It seems they really are becoming the 'Easy Jet' of the cruising world. A HUGE ship with small cabins and tiny balconies so that people think they are getting something special because they have a balcony. It's a shame really. Personally I would never book a cruise on what really is ( and I know it's been said but it really does apply here) a floating Butlins or worse a 3* Benidorm hotel.

We were on Aurora for 14 nights in July and I didn't notice any judder anywhere. On other ships I have noticed vibration in the most peculiar places, eg the Crows Nest on Oriana, but as I say, nothing on Aurora.

One of the reasons I don't like the Oriana was a very uncomfortable vibration in the Crow's Nest. I could also feel it in bed at night and found it disturbed my sleep.:(

We too have had suites several times also on all of the P&O fleet apart from latest Adonia. We also have had several suites on Princess and unfortunately there is absolutely no comparison with the suite perks that P&O provide compared to Princess. When you board any of the Princess fleet you will be directed to one of the venues where a complimentary lunch with champagne will be served.

Just like P&O you get a bottle of champagne in your suite on arrival, flowers, chocolates, bathrobes, magazines, binoculars. On Princess just like P&O you can also choose to have any meal in your suite if you wish - your room steward (not butler) will bring canapes to your suite each evening around 5-6pm, together with the main restaurant menus for lunch and dinner for the following day along with a basket of fresh fruit daily. At that time he will ask what you want to do about breakfast the following morning. There will be one of the select dining restaurants available to suite passengers only for breakfast. You can choose to have breakfast in your suite and can choose from anything from the menu in the main restaurant - cooked breakfast included. If you wish to do this your steward will bring it at the agreed time and set it up, either in the suite or on the balcony weather permitting. You can choose to have lunch from the restaurant menu and your room steward will serve it to you, just the same way that the butler does on P&O.

Very much in line with P&O. However, it is definitely all of the extra additional perks that Princess provide that makes it more special.

 

Free laundry, Free Internet, Free Corsage for ladies and flower for gents on formal nights. Special invitation to Captains Cocktail party for suite guest only. Free photograph taken with Captain at Special Lunch.

Toiletries in suite bathrooms have to be seen to be believed in quantity and quality. In saying all of the above, I must admit I personally prefer P&O with or without the additional perks.

 

freddy 1974, P&O can't be really that bad, I am booked on Azura for 28 days Oct/Nov 2014 and on Britannia 29 days Oct/Nov 2015 and yes both in suites.

 

I'm sure you will enjoy your suite, hopefully you might come back and let me know how you enjoyed yours on Britannia next May:)

I find it very interesting that in spite of all the perks on Princess you still prefer P&O. The next company I intend to try will be Cunard, I'd like to see how that compares to P&O.

I agree with all the other posters. We have only cruised with P&O and as I've said previously they do not give enough benefits to people who book suites. All you really get is a larger cabin and the services of a butler, which really isn't enough when you are paying sometimes very large amounts of money. I've finally realised that other cruise companies do give more perks and I'm going to be trying them after my next cruise.

Which after all of this OP just need to go on their cruise and see what THEY think of the service etc.

We have never had a bad waiter-but then you reap as you sow. I am always chatty and smiling (yes one of those!!) I am always polite to the waiters, say hello and smile.

I do not go so far as to know their family history , but I have seriously never had a bad waiter.

Hard sell does go on, on Pando..I had a haircut on one of my recent cruises...I forget how much it cost but I decided never again. Not just because of the cost, but because of the selling.

I think I have read that spa staff are not employed by Pando, so I guess we cannot blame them for that.

How lucky you and others are not to have experienced what we did. We certainly did NOT reap what we sowed. We are always friendly and polite (we've NEVER been unfriendly or impolite) in fact I tell my husband off sometimes because he is too friendly. We have always asked them to call us by our names but they always stick with Madam and Sir. On our last cruise the waiter asked US what our names were and we thought how nice a really friendly waiter. I won't go into all the detail but he actually was NOT friendly and as I've said was quite arrogant. He came as quite a shock to us and I can assure you it was nothing to do with our attitude at all. All the other staff on our cruise were the usual friendly, polite people we have been used to.

We've only so far cruised with P&O, but I'm not really a fan especially after our cruise this year on the Oriana when we experienced a really arrogant waiter in the MDR who put a real damper on our cruise. After our next cruise which is a World cruise, I'm thinking of trying other cruise lines.

You are all very naughty but very funny:D although you are putting me off cruising:eek:

I know it's annoying it's happened to me too and to lots of other people. I still think it's worth booking early to get exactly what you want and prices sometimes go up. Try not to let it worry you and just enjoy your first cruise.

The cabin steward usually puts a little cardboard notice on your bed too. So there are plenty of reminders.

I think that sounds fair to me. What more did you expect. The trouble is when people drink wine (I'm guilty of it myself) they never think they've drunk as much as they have.;)

I don't often go to the theatre, but I do enjoy the Headliners. One of the girl's (One of the lead singers) was a tour escort on an excursion we did in Nagasaki. I certainly don't think she behaved in anyway as some sort of diva. She was very pleasant and took her task as an escort more seriously than most.

The only thing I will say was that when we were in Vietnam (I think) and there were huge queues for the tenders and a group of the dancers were allowed to go to the front of the queue. That was unacceptable and more down to the staff running the tender operation pandering to them and not to paying customers.

I agree with most of the other posts. The wine should have been replaced and any clothing should have been laundered free of charge. I'm interested to know what was offered.

Sorry I meant, no insult to you at all. I did not say you withheld anything. I could not understand what you meant by giving to those who deserve it! On the thread there has been talk of giving tips to other staff.

 

My comments at the end were based on the thread in general and as you can see there have been a great deal of posts. I admit that I had not put you two posts together. However I was still not inferring that you with held tips.

 

Regarding the point about auto tipping and how it works, I picked up a great deal of information from US boards and when I have asked those in the know they have confirmed that it works in very much the same way, ie as I have described above.

 

I feel that this is one of those times when, if we had had this conversation face to face we would not have had the misunderstanding.

 

I apologise if I have offended you, that was not my intention.

 

 

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You are quite right Dai. As I said I remember you from the old P&O forum and I always thought you were a very reasonable person. I should have realised you meant no offence. I'm afraid I overreacted. So I apologise for that.

Generally that is my understanding through being involved in many forums and having it confirmed by people I know. Secondly the staff would have to report any tips received as they could not get double tips form you and the pot.

 

Can I ask you what do you mean by "we only tip those who we think deserve it"? Who do you mean. As stated above the only people to benefit from auto tips are your cabin steward and table waiters. These are the only people whom you were suggested you tip in the old system.

 

If anyone is on freedom dining then no one would be tipping every night so you need auto tips. If you wish to tip any other members of the crew then that is a totally different matter and has no bearing on auto tips.

 

Not sure what you are getting at. It is this kind of discussion which confirms my thoughts that it should be included in the cruise fare and then everyone pays.

 

 

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You have obviously misunderstood me. We have ALWAYS tipped and in fact have always given EXTRA tips to staff. So please don't mistake me for some tightwad. I find your last comment extremely insulting. In fact, I personally would much prefer that tips were included in the price of the cruise. In my previous post ( which you obviously didn't read) I said that we had deplorable service from our waiters in the MDR and please let me assure you (before you make the assumption), we are ALWAYS polite and friendly. We left the auto tips on but really given a choice we did not think our waiters deserved a tip. We have NEVER felt like that before. That is why I said I would prefer not to tip those who DON'T deserve it because they didn't. How dare you infer that I am someone who would withhold tips without a good reason. I may be new to this forum but I have been reading forums for a number of years now. I remember you from the old P&O forum. I don't pretend to be a fountain of knowledge regarding how tips get paid to the staff, I just wondered why you speak with such conviction on the matter.

No the money goes into the pot and is shared out to the staff involved as in the list above. It is a way of making sure everyone gets a fair share and does not suffer by having a number of stingy passengers they serve. Also this is the only way you can do it if you have freedom dining.

 

It was the introduction of freedom dining which brought in auto tipping.

 

 

 

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So if we remove our auto-tips and tip only those we think deserve it, the tips will nevertheless go to those we don't wish to tip. Can I ask how you seem to have insider information on what happens to the tips given in an envelope to the staff ? as reading several forums there seems to be several opinions.

Also it was my understanding too that auto-tips were brought in because of the strike on the Arcadia.

If you go in the main restaurant you do not have to have a 3 or 4 course lunch you can ask for as much as little as you want just a main course or soup and a sweet it is entirely up to you.

Exactly. I don't like a large lunch, so I usually have the 'lighter option' and very occasionally a dessert. Far better than the buffet, which I generally avoid as much as possible.

Auto tipping was honoured. My gesture was an attempt to make matters a little more personal. There are that many differing responses I must assume nobody knows for certain.

I have read so many different opinions about tipping one thing I am sure of is that NO customer knows for certain.That is why on almost every cruise forum the argument goes on ad infinitum.:rolleyes:

We have always left the auto-tipping on and give extra to those who deserve it.

On our last cruise and for the first time we had very poor service from our waiters in the dining room. It certainly affected our enjoyment of the cruise. We didn't turn up on the last evening because we really couldn't thank the waiters for very poor service. In spite of this, we didn't remove the auto tips because others would have suffered.

I'd be happy if P&O paid the staff more and increased the cost of cruising. It seems to work on Saga according to 'balf'.

On our next cruise we'll be seriously deciding whether to remove the auto tips and tip only those who give good service.

We usually have a suite so I'll tell you what I've found.

Q1 No, we tried to book at the last minute on a cruise 2 years ago, and we were told by our Butler that the restaurant was full. Things may have changed, we had no trouble booking at the last minute on our last cruise. I thought it was because the restaurant wasn't full. Who knows?

Q2 The only thing our butler did was to bring our laundry to us. He doesn't actually do it. We've never asked him to iron our clothes even though that's supposed to be one of their duties.There is no discount because you are in a suite.

Q3 We have often eaten in our suite. The food was usually hot. He brings each course individually, generally asking how long before he returns with the next course.

Q4 You can check in as soon as the check in desk is open. Just say you are in a suite and you will be directed to the check in desk for suite passengers.

Q5 Yes you get priority embarkation passes for tenders.

Q6 I remember there was a Concierge Service when we first started cruising, but I thought that had been stopped. Any queries we have now,we usually contact our Personal Cruise Specialist.

I hope this helps.:)

The trouble as I see it and I see it on all the cruise forums I read, is that P&O customers want cheap deals and still want everything to remain as it used to be. They want everything to suit themselves but as cheaply as possible. If anything changes and they think they may lose out it's just 'bleat' 'bleat' 'bleat.I really should stop reading cruise forums.:rolleyes:

Thanks. I do :D

 

 

 

To be honest, on last years WC it was a pain in the bum for one stop in Mumbai. The photos are not a standard passport size, but square. It was expensive at £48 and you have to use an agent, you can't do it direct with the Indian High Commission. And it takes up a whole page of the passport. I actually went to the agent and dropped off the forms, it took a fair chunk of the afternoon. Much as I love India, I'd be happy to miss out a single stop there and save all the hassle and bureaucratic rigmarole so beloved of the Indians.

I agree it was a lot of time and trouble filling out the information for an Indian visa for just one port. Even if you didn't want to get off the ship you still had to apply for a visa, it's ridiculous.