Sea Green

I  do inside cabins and have a sunrise alarm. I've been caught out before by my phone adjusting itself, and find the movement of the bridges channel annoying. It's not just having alarm to wake you up. There's no time signifiers in an inside. So if you wake up and the alarm light is not on, you know it's not morning yet.

1 hour ago, terrierjohn said:

I suspect that most of our recollections of Celebritys superior  service were pre covid, certainly our last one was 2016 when coffee and juice trolleys were evident in the buffet, and the quality of the MDR meals was far superior to P&O at the time, and danish pastry trays were evident in the MDR at breakfast.

Princess do the pastry / muffin tray for MDR breakfast too, one thing I really liked about them, because you can choose what you actually want instead of taking pot luck with an order. This is post covid so I'm hoping its still a thing for next week.  😁 

2 hours ago, Grumpella said:

The other restaurants that can be booked are fully booked. 

Have you tried the Olive Grove? It's very nice but not as fancy as the for-fee places so there might be spaces, or cancellations.   

3 hours ago, Cathygh said:

Iona's dress code is dumbed down, but still better than Princess. It's worth noting that P&O is a meant to  be a 4* line and Celebrity is 5* and there is clearly a differience

I hope you enjoy the rest of your cruise

I'm a little surprised by the reported lack of suits, as I recall my two Iona cruises all the formal nights were very well attended and most people stuck to the dress code - the younger people seemed to be particularly glamorous.      

14 hours ago, Grumpella said:

Last night was Celebration night. I was very surprised that there were several men without jackets or ties in the MDR. No options like prime rib, beef wellington or shrimp cocktail that we are used to on formal nights.
 

My husband wanted to see the Sky’s the Limit show last night, which I had booked in case we wanted to do 1 show. It was ok. 
 

The captain announced last night that we would be leaving Stavanger today at 3 pm instead 5 pm, as bad weather was forecast and he wanted to get ahead of it. I credit him with making the announcement the day before, as to give people a chance to change their plans. He stated that all excursions in the late afternoon will be cancelled.

 

We just arrived in Stavanger. Cold and raining.

Please don't base your view on P&O production shows on Skys the Limit alone - I've seen a lot and this show was the worst by a big margin.  Just very odd. Judging by other threads on CC, lots of other people agree.  

23 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

I am very surprised you got served drinks anyway, coffee, water and orange juice are normally self service.

Not in the MDR.

9 hours ago, Grumpella said:

We had breakfast in the Pearl restaurant this morning. Food was ok. The food service was timely but as for getting coffee and juice refills, very slow.

 

We had lunch at the Quays. Excellent fish and chips. There is a section off to the side to get water, salads and desserts. 
 

The Grab and Go on deck 16 is empty, I was told there are “technical” issues and it has been broken for some time. Seems like cutbacks to me.

 

 

 Refills not really 'a thing' in the UK, so you'll find this issue everywhere, not just in P&O.

It's worth noting that unlike Celebrity you cannot prebook MDR times in the P&O app. Instead  when you want to dine , you join a 'virtual queue ' on the app, and request private table or sharing table, wheelchair space or not. Then you get a notification when your table is ready.  Formal nights get busy, so it's a good idea to check the queues a bit earlier than you want to eat on those nights.

Got my one point, which is actually my FIRST CC point, and has bumped me up to Classic status.  I believe that earns me a free scoop of gelato on my upcoming July cruise.  Thanks posters, couldn't have done it without you.  😁     

I booked my two premier specialty dinners on the app with no issues. It showed me I had dining credits, and when I got to the payment page of the reservation it showed the final price as 0:00, and removed one credit.   

Always 3 months or less for UK brands. Think its to ensure you don't sell the shares as soon as you get the OBC 

7 minutes ago, govanguy said:

 

 

Are you saying the Medallion Accessory is like the one shown in the illustration in your response?

Buried somewhere in the info is a picture of the 'Premier Accessory.' Its a very unexciting, blue and yellow clip. Doubt I will use it.     

I've booked two nights in Crown Grill and Sabatinis using dining credits. If I cancel to book a better timeslot, will I lose the credit? I'm guessing if its on the same day It will simply overwrite the original booking. But for a different day, I would have to cancel the booking first. Will the dining credit revert back to my account?  

The fettucine alfredo and the souffle desserts 

Thanks all. Looks like its best to stick with our current 7:10 bookings then

Hello,

When should we book the Crown Grill and Sabatinis on Sky Princess in order to also make the 09:30 theatre show without rushing? Is the service there fast or slow?  

We are Princess Premium so I have read something about reserved theatre seats too.  

Hello,

When should we book the Crown Grill and Sabatinis on Sky Princess in order to also make the 09:30 theatre show without rushing? Is the service there fast or slow?  

We are Princess Premium so I have read something about reserved theatre seats too.  

17 hours ago, mom says said:

Although some might argue that Chicken Tikka Masala is about as Indian as Chop Suey is Chinese. In other words, it's more Indian-ish.

17 hours ago, Lady Arwen said:

Yup, and pizza with ham and pineapple is definitely not Italian!  The Indian food on most cruise ships is a North American version.  Sorta Indian.

To be fair Indian-ish, sorta Indian food is still better than NO Indian food  ☺️

8 minutes ago, wowzz said:

Balcony cabin ?

I don't cruise in a prison cell !

Sea View, which we only used to sleep in. 

3 minutes ago, wowzz said:

£1000 for a two week cruise ! 

You should be so lucky! 

OK you caught me out. Its £1099. 

Which doesn't beat my two weeks round the Baltics on a music themed cruise with P&O for £899, but is still quite a good deal..... 

13 minutes ago, Bgwest said:

Wife and I were on the PE to Southampton segment (first part of what was to have been a B2B for us) that docked on 5.1. Wife contracted the C virus mid cruise so we were involuntarily disembarked at Southampton on 5.1 anong with bus loads of other folks. We witnessed hundreds, literally.  Princess put us up and paid for a hotel in the LHR area. Given the state of the infections that were surely still on board, I cannot image that the remaining 9 days that we missed were anything but miserable. Being involuntarily disembarked in Southampton and allowed to enjoy London (at that particular moment in time, masking and other C virus measure had already been abandoned in London) at our leisure was a godsend. 

Yes  That was the one. Rumers about infections started spreading as the days went by. I was lucky enough not to get it, especially as we had family visits planned in the port stops.    

23 hours ago, wowzz said:

Interesting !

I think some people just have an agenda. 

My 'agenda' is to find out if its s good idea to drop £1000+ and two weeks leave with Princess.  

12 hours ago, SunshineCoast said:

In respect of ‘muster the lifts’ - the wrong terminology may have been used but if you have sailed regularly you must have done at least one cruise where there is at least 1 member of staff in the lift area to ensure passengers are coping ok and nobody ‘pushes past’ those who have been waiting longer and with special care given to those in wheelchairs and their carers.  Having experienced several really busy times of boarding and especially when ‘cabins opened’ announced - the process does work more smoothly with a member of staff being present to help.

Yes this is exactly it - muster / marshal, whatever term is right. Normally on every cruise I have been on. Princess did, however, manage to have a photographer standing right in front of the main lifts getting in everyones way. 

SunshineCoast, thank you for your long, considerate reply.  🙂

On 8/25/2022 at 10:31 PM, dides said:

Well yes, activities have been limited post-Covid but they are gradually coming back. e.g. saw a post recently from one of the Assistant Cruise Directors about plans to bring back the Pop Choir.  But depends what you are looking for. We've been on 3 cruises out of Southampton this summer on Royal-class ships and never had an issue.  I've just posted a couple of patters from our June Sky Princess cruise here so see if it looks any different to what you experienced.

Thank you these made interesting reading. Im glad to see the Insights lecture - were there many talks / presentations throughout the cruise?   

23 hours ago, JimmyVWine said:

This Trip Report paints a rather different picture.

 

 

Yes. It paints a picture of a different cruise to the one I was one, by someone who mostly wrote  about the ports and avoided the shipboard entertainment - the thing I was asking about?

This is the cruise I was on.... 

"06/01/2022 at 10:27pm docerman wrote -

So lucky you are...i was on the trans atlantic and then the may 1-9 version in spite of being super cautious tested positive covid on may 2 so was quarantined on deck 12 with lots of others and missed every single port on the second leg.  There were a lot of covid cases ; masks were few and far between on passengers on May 1 sailing with busloads of people having to further quarantine  May 9 and up to a week or so in London before flying back to usa...not a lot of fun...more like the cruise from hell

glad your's worked out"