Dryce

Your take on the situation is clearly wrong as the statement says exactly where all tips go to.

It doesn't.

It basically says it's a service charge and that they put it into a staff rewards programme and they distribute something to staff.

That's (a) not very exact about distribution and (b) and says it's a something fuzzy along the lines of a tip which is billed as a service charge which is discretionary.

Our reason for using white envelopes has been that we don't know if P&O can withhold the money - we've heard too many hints that they can. So if your steward looks after say 16 cabins and several complain but you think they were great - if your tip ( ahem 'service charge' which is discretionary) goes into a pool what happens - does it get held back or passed through?

This means that your tip could end up somewhere else other than where you intended.

I have a problem with that.

The train is OK if you only have hand luggage, and the OP has indicated he wants to take advantage of extra luggage that not flying will allow.

The train isn't too hard from Glasgow.

Change at Wolverhampton on the way down and chances are it will be just a walk from one side of the platform to the other for the connecting train to Southampton.

Change at Birmingham International on the way up and use the lifts to change platforms.

However the prices are silly unless booking in advance. So probably not a great option for the OP at this late notice. It's also worth looking at a Two Together railcard if there's time to organise it - this may save more money than the cost of the railcard.

When looking at cheap fares look at the option of a return that gives you a reservation on the return trip but the option of using any valid service - if available this may be only a few £ more expensive than the cheapest advance return.

Sincerely hope they will sort out the severe propeller vibration in the MDR, thus making conversation possible at the dinner table.

Unlikely.

It hasn't been sorted on previous refits. Oriana is the last ship in the P&O fleet that has directly driven shafts and screws. The newer ships including Aurora all seem to have have electrically drive screws.

It is variable - depending on the ship's speed and sea condition. And it's probably worse if you're seated right at the aft end of the restaurant. On a 15 night cruise we had a couple of evenings where it was really intrusive - and three or four where it was what I would call noticeable.

Contact P&O and they will be able to advise you as to whether they will get this sorted if you have a UK passport or other passport that is acceptable to Egyptian authorities - or whether you have to make your own arrangements.

Last time we did Egypt with P&O (a few years ago) the ship took an Egyptian official on board a few days before arrival at Egypt and the passports for those going ashore were collected and processed prior to arrival.

Or along these lines perhaps I could find a luminous wine glass!

Look, kind people, I am 2 weeks away from my first ever cruise and I think mild panic is setting in.

On our first cruise I was pretty negative beforehand because I thought it would be dull and the idea of being trapped on a floating hotel for two weeks wasn't for me - the deal with my wife was that if I really didn't like it after the first couple of days we'd get off at the first stop and fly back home.

Well it can't have been that bad.

At the end of the cruise I would have happily stayed on board for another two weeks if it had been practical.

Our cruises stand out as the best holidays we've had.

In years past, they used to have at least two guest speakers on a two-week cruise but on my last couple there has only been one. That's a bit of a shame as it is good to have a bit more variety.

It maybe varies a bit depending on time of year, itnerary/audience, and availability - we had two speakers on board for 14 nights last summer. I can recall only having one on a 16 night cruise some years back.

4. For our trip to Bergen we want to do either the funicular railway or cable car, it looks like the railway is the easiest to get to. Is it worth pre-booking for say late morning to allow plenty of time to disembark and make our way there ? Is there a shuttle bus to the centre of town or near where the railway departs from ?

Whether there is a shuttle bus depends on where the ship is docking - the Bontelabo at Bergen is within a few minutes walk of the Bryggen and funicular. If you are docked further away then there will be a shuttle bus.

The funicular can get busy - the station is not far from the Bryggen. When we were there last August there were two cruise ships in and the queue extended down the street in the morning. After lunch it was much quieter.

Have you seen P&O's recent advertising campaign?

So far all their other advertising campaigns have failed to deter me.

So that part of their plan isn't working.

Other cruise lines operate like modern hotels and understand what their customers want and aim to provide it.

P&O is not quite like an old seaside hotel. It has some traditions of an old cruise line. And many customers like that. There are different types of customer - and ships have different clientele. We're not all the same. (Though Carnival would seem to want to think that way).

There are plenty out there who actively prefer Fred Olson or P&O or Disney or Silverseas or Hurtigruten or whoever over the competition. They have their reasons for that preference.

And some people like the old traditional hotels too.

There's plenty of scope within the Carnival and P&O brands to provide differentiation for all of us *if* they choose to do so.

P&O would disagree with you, as they have a Hotel General Manager on board.

Cruise lines in general would disagree - they do generally refer to the passenger side of things as the hotel operation or hotel department.

But culturally they are quite different from hotels.

When we booked our first cruise we were advised to request a table for 8. I think it was good advice. But then maybe we've just been lucky with the dinining companions we've encountered so far. We've had just one 'bad' table - and we simply asked to be moved after the first night.

Yes. Bergen is an industrial port so they shuttle you off the ship and drop you in a central area.

Depends on where the ship berths as to whether a shuttle is needed.

If the ship docks at the Bontelabo then that's just a few minutes walk from the Bryggen and the Funicular so no shuttle needed.

We found the funicular was quieter in the afternoon. In the morning the queue was out of the terminal and down the street.

The port authority has an online form that will tell you how much it costs if you enter in the gross tonnage and number of passengers.

http://www.stranda-hamnevesen.no/harbor-charges

Interesting thing about ship size is that Oriana was one of the biggest ships out when she was first built many said she was too big at the time. I thought she was massive !+

I was one of those people :o

However I haven't managed to face the idea of going on anything bigger - so I think that really was my limit. -.

But .... you can't please all of the people all of the time. And clearly there are a lot more people choosing P&O's larger ships given the number of cabins available.

However I hope that P&O continue keep two or three ships like Aurora, Oriana, and Adonia over the coming years.

We booked 40+ for a wedding in 2012 and the best they could do was an extra £30 OBS.

We then took 30+ for a further cruise in 2014 (again booked as soon as open) and no agent/direct could get us more than an extra 1% off. This time we settled for an extra £25 OBS.

I think the lesson P&O learned from this is that their discounting strategy got them repeat business - so hardly an incentive for them to try harder !! :D

Did you get any better or worse offers from their competition?

Last year we visited the Lofoten Islands. None of the cruise line's excursions were particularly attractive to us. I had planned to hire a car to head south from Leknes to A. The main problem with this was the timing was tight. We reckoned about 6 hours from landing by tender to last pickup by tender.

A few weeks before the cruise was due to depart one of the passengers started a Roll Call to find passengers interested in a private tour. This was arranged using a company called Arctic Bus: http://www.arcticbuss.no/

Another cruise group has also used Arctic Bus: http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowUserReviews-g190469-d601340-r216861656-Lofoten_Island-Nordland_Northern_Norway.html

The bus we had was a 16 seater. The cost of the hire was shared equally between the passengers. They allowed payment by credit card. My recollection was that the number of passengers needed to make it competitive with the cruise excursions was 9 and each additional passenger after that meant we were paying less.

My feeling is that going with the private tour group was easier than dealing with the hire car. It worked about a bit cheaper than the cost of a car for us.

However - driving on the Lofoten Islands didn't look difficult - the roads are not wide but are OK and there isn't much option in terms of routes to get lost if going south - though that means there are not alternative routes to avoid delays such as the roadfworks we experienced. The traffic wasn't heavy and seemed to behave sensibly. There are several tunnels.

We were on Oriana last year and there were passangers absolutely adamant that Oriana was being disposed of and would be sold to Fred Olsen this year (the brochures indicate otherwise and Oriana is also scheduled for a refit in Dec 2016)

So I think these rumours circulating around the P&O ships tend to be the norm.

TBH I think Oriana and Aurora would be a more natural fit with Fred Olsen than Adonia.

So, would those prices go down further?

It's your guess.

We normally book pretty late (2 to 4 weeks before travel) and we've seen availability suddenly disappear and the prices can also jump up as well as down.

It's really a roll of the dice.

My view is that if I spot something that is suitable against my itinerary and date requirements then if the price meets the criteria we've set set then we book and don't care what happens to the price after that.

It is stated that Select Fares get choice of cabin and we always have. don't understand this at all.

No.

Check the Ts and Cs and the cabin number allocation is "subject to availability". This is what caught out the original poster. Moreover I would assume from the followup posts she assumed this was a mistake that would get corrected.

It's easy to understand the Ts and Cs though I think less easy to understand the reasoning behind it. While it's easy to point a finger at the customer and say they accepted the variation in the offer from P&O the general lore is 'select allows you to choose your cabin'. So P&O are opening themselves up to criticism - and at the end of the day a customer who genuinely feels misled isn't a good thing when it comes down to an asterisk+footnote or smallprint in the Ts and Cs.

P&O should split Select into 'Select' and 'Select Guarantee' to cover this scenario. Basically if you wait too long they sell out 'Select' and only allow you to buy 'Select Guarantee'.

so we were hoping (stupidly, I'm sure you'll say) that the person who took our booking had got it wrong and if we quoted the T&Cs we would be allocated the specific cabin of our choice.

Except that's not what the Ts and Cs actually say. Or at least not how you chose to read them. I'm guessing your interaction with CAB and TS are based on your presentation of the Ts&Cs and not P&Os actual Ts and Cs.

It's a hard business and you've basically got caught by the yield management system and not looking uiot for the dreaded asterisks and exclusions.

Ironically yield management systems in a competitive market typically reduce prices for customers because they reduce wastage - but those customers who get caught out aren't going to see this advantage.

My guess is that unless your cruise has been booked out by passengers of the same and higher grades and there are no cancellations then you'll actually end up technically better than where you would have started.

While the upgrade fairy may sometimes appear to be dispense goodwill randomly my impression is that she understands price and pecking order when it comes to allocating and reallocating what is available in the last few weeks.

I then tried to put in a number that I know is available, because my TA only just offered it to me when I was booking. It said it didn't exist. I'm sure it's a glitch on their system.

Booking systems can keep separate allocation blocks.

So a bit of conjecture:

As a cruise line you may want to restrict the number of cabins availabe via the internet to stop competitors finding means of probing your booking levels and to stop malicious attacks finding means of blocking off your booking system.

OTOH in house sales staff and TAs will have their own logins and can be offered greater access.

Sounds like a bait and switch scam to me which is unlawful.

It's not and therefore it's not.

I Although the T&Cs say subject to availability, it doesn't count if P&O make your choice of grade of cabin unavailable and refuse to allocate one because of (deliberate) overbooking, which P&O have admitted on two separate occasions. The words "sharp practice" were used by Trading Standards.

'Availability' means anything P&O want it to.

Sharp Practice? No not at all *if* at the time of booking they don't offer a cabin number and *you choose* to accept that variation in their offer. Then it's all above board.

As for Trading Standards? Well they can be hard hitters some times - but my feeling is that they're a bit like sleepy valley - quite happy to let you think that they're agreeing with you for an easy life. But ask yourself - if it was so obvious that laws were being broken then what did they do to deal with it. Let me guess. Nothing. Therein lies the truth of the matter.

Trading Standards confirmed that P&O are in breach of contract and breaching at least a couple of consumer laws,

Just exactly what are they in breach of? Which laws?

Hi

Hopefully this would be less stressful than a long coach journey starting at midnight from Glasgow. As this is a special occasion Cruise (oh) 60th I dont mind spending a bit extra to make sure it is memorable for all the right reasons.

The Eavesway coaches normally start out at about 0400 and are spacious and comfortable.

If flying I would be inclined to fly down the evening before and stay in a hotel. While the GLA-SOU service is reasonably reliable it can still get messed up by winds or fog at SOU. So having the extra contingency is a good peace of mind thing.

If you're not taking your luggage because it's been sent separately the train becomes more attractive. It can be done with an early start on the day (0430 train - which will pass the Eavesway bus somewhere near Carlisle) and then a transfer at between stations in London. Alternatively the sleeper is another option and the sleeper services are being revamped as they have a new operator. ISTR that there is a slow Cross Country train that goes to Southampton from Scotland - that might be an option if travelling down the day before.

Not sure what bus service Balf is refering too but it sounds more like a Megabus sleeper service than one of the cruise connection services from Intercruise or Eavesway.

Amazingly the huge majority of cruisers who go on their various voyages and return home fully fit do not post their successful accomplishment on any forums.

And there was me sitting back watching the posts thinking what a great immune system I must have compared with just about everybody else.