Selbourne

Shocking. So it’s clearly not solely an Iona issue, nor a Southampton issue. Seems to be firmly a P&O issue. Have to say that I am extremely relieved that we haven’t booked any P&O cruises for 2022 but I’m wondering if we may still live to regret booking Iona and Ventura for 2023. This all very much smacks of a company in crisis.

There are a dozen or so pubs and restaurants in our area that we frequent on a regular basis for meals. Most are affected in some way by either supply chain issues (certain menu items not available) and / or staffing issues. One or two currently close one or two days a week now as a result of the latter. Surely P&O could compromise in this way, perhaps making it clear that some of the select dining venues have some menu shortages and will be closed on X or Y days? Shutting the venues down completely for the entire duration of the cruise looks like throwing the towel in with no consideration of the impact that this may have on those for whom these places are a major part of their cruise experience.

I have no objection to budget brands. I use the newer Premier Inns often and have only ever had good experiences with EasyJet (although I’m very glad that I’m not flying anywhere this summer). Where I have a problem is where a budget brand falls short of what is already, by defInition, a somewhat limited product. I used Ryan Air once and had a terrible experience so would never use them again. Mind you, we had a dreadful experience with BA (hardly a budget brand) around 20 years ago and have never used them since either!

I somehow suspect that the issues that are out of P&O’s control will be miraculously resolved for that cruise!

Thanks for explaining. Regardless of the reason, this will be a serious disappointment to many people especially those, like us, who use these venues regularly. I sincerely hope that P&O manage to resolve all of these issues (including staffing problems) promptly. Recovering the business is going to be tough enough, especially now that we have the cost of living crisis to deal with on top of everything else, without the core P&O product being degraded. Many experienced cruisers will be disappointed and others (like us) are now holding back booking more cruises until things return to normal. New cruisers won’t have the best first impression. Not good.

I sincerely hope that’s not the case. Friends of ours are on this cruise and will be as disappointed as we would be if they can’t use these venues. We have resigned ourselves to the fact that P&O is becoming a budget cruise line on the basis that it’s a lot cheaper than the more upmarket lines, but being able to pay extra on board to make it a better quality / special experience is something we are happy to do. If that choice is taken away then that’s a pretty poor show.

You are right that P&O don’t tell the truth. They stated that they we weren’t going to Flaam due to operational problems with the port. I smelt a rat so emailed the Flaam harbourmaster asking for information on what the ‘problem’ was. Much to my surprise, he was extremely helpful and emailed me stating that there were no problems along with a full explanation with screenshots of the relevant details, changes and reasons. These showed the date that Britannia had been originally booked for the port call and the date it had been cancelled (which was well before it was communicated to passengers - as we know, port changes often aren’t communicated until after balance due dates). The reason for the cancellation and date of the cancellation were also shown and his email expanded on this. The cancellation was at the request of Carnival (not the port as had been implied) and the reason was that Carnival had decided to prioritise Queen Victoria over Britannia. I presented this evidence to P&O and received a financial settlement from them in return for a non-disclosure agreement. The reason why I am prepared to share this information is because in an act of incompetence that rivals P&O’s IT department, the NDA was incorrectly worded and placed the onus of confidentiality on P&O, not me!

In terms of P&O specifically, I can’t help but feel that the percentage of total cabins occupied would be the most telling statistic. I don’t know the exact stats, but with Iona and Arvia the number of cabins has increased massively since 2019. I would have thought that until bookings are ahead of 2019 levels by the same percentage that passenger capacity has increased by, they are going backwards, not forwards.

Good to hear. The problem seems to be more with the bigger ships, as they are far more susceptible to poor weather conditions and are also more restricted as to where they can berth, although we have had a number of changed ports on Aurora in our time! With the ever increasing move towards larger and larger ships this will be a far more common occurrence in the future.

Not necessarily. We were due to go to Flaam on Britannia a few years ago. Carnival cancelled our port call to make way for Queen Elizabeth. We ended up in the Norwegian coastal ports rather than the spectacular fjords, so we were definitely second class citizens that time!

Although keep in mind that Hellesylt was itself a substitution for Geiranger.

With the arrival of Iona and Arvia, passenger capacity is massively increased over 2019 levels, so booking numbers that match those levels must be woefully short of what they need to be - or do you mean that % of capacity filled (as opposed to passenger numbers) is similar?

Whilst the lack of a turn down service wouldn’t particularly bother us, finding speciality restaurants closed would be a major issue for us. We use them a lot, especially Epicurean, and they form a major part of our cruise experience. Hopefully all of these issues will be sorted out quickly, but going on a P&O cruise and finding them closed could well be a ‘nail in the coffin’ issue for us. We have two cruises booked for next year and don’t feel inclined to book any more until we have been on them and established whether the current P&O offering is still to our liking.

The problem is that with a Saver booking, P&O may ‘upgrade’ you to a different cabin type (which may be in a very poor position) and you can’t do anything about it. There are Conservatory Mini Suites on the promenade deck that have no privacy (similar to Grahams photos) and someone booking a balcony cabin on a Saver basis could be ‘upgraded’ to one. We have booked Deluxe Balcony cabins on the ‘rump’ of the ship on a Select basis and have said ‘No Upgrade’ so that this won’t happen to us. We have a separate problem though, in that we have since discovered that the cabins we have booked are in a quarantine zone, so if that policy persists we shall be cancelling before the balance due date! As Davecttr has pointed out, the other main benefit of booking Select is that you can choose your dining preference, but this is irrelevant on Iona / Arvia as they are 100% Freedom (anytime) dining. It maybe because we tend to book at launch, but when you factor in the extra OBC that you get with a Select booking, the price premium over Saver fares isn’t much and is certainly worth paying to guarantee a cabin in a good position. However, given the current problems with quarantine zones, this is all up in the air at present. My advice would be to only book a Select fare if you know that the cabin you have selected is not in a quarantine zone. If money is tight and / or you don’t mind the risk of being above or below an area that may be a source of noise disturbance, or a balcony that fronts the promenade deck rather than having a view, book a Saver.

MarineTraffic shows Iona’s ETA into Southampton currently tracking as 0415 on Saturday, 15 minutes before Sky Princess which is running just behind her on the same route, so the late departure from Haugesund appears to have caused no issues. She has averaged 20 knots since departure last night, which is up on her usual cruising speed (which I believe is 17 knots) and illustrates the point that I was making in post #377.

Doesn't that prove my point though? They can run faster than planned to make up some time.

Well at least we know that she will get to Southampton, unlike Geiranger! They usually have quite a bit of slack built into the schedules which allow them to run at lower speeds (less fuel used = cost saving) so when things like this happen it’s amazing how much time they can recover if they need to. We have had very late departures and even major diversions to unplanned ports for medical evacuations and still arrived at the next port on time!

It Often Not Appears

I agree and that is why we will be cancelling our three bookings for Iona before the balance due date if P&O maintain the policy of having quarantine zones.

So can they also trial the abolition of quarantine zones as well, or is that not a decision that P&O can make? I just can’t see them being needed. With people no longer testing, surely hardly anybody is announcing themselves as positive to warrant isolation and the handful that do could isolate in their booked cabin or, if they are inside cabin passengers, be moved to any vacant balcony cabin (as far as I know, ships aren’t sailing full). What am I missing?

Let’s hope that it is successful then, as it’s another positive step towards normality. With Iona doing prolonged runs of 7 night cruises, where most people who pick up Covid are unlikely to become symptomatic until they return home (if at all), I am struggling to see why quarantine zones are needed. Is this being reviewed? We will be cancelling our Iona cruise next year if they are still being maintained, as we aren’t able to relocate to an alternative cabin that would be acceptable to us.

P&O ships very rarely seem to go at full speed these days. The priority seems to be saving money on fuel rather than maximising passengers time in port.

Wishing you both a very enjoyable cruise.

Glad to hear that you had a good cruise and thanks for providing the feedback which was reassuring. Having been on all the P&O ships bar Iona, Britannia is probably the ship that we like the most (although our best cruises have been on Aurora, if that makes sense). Epicurean is our favourite restaurant at sea and the only thing that we miss on Britannia is a promenade deck. At least Iona has addressed that, with the added benefit of being able to nose inside dozens of cabins whilst you walk around it 😂

I agree with the last few comments that P&O should be more honest, but can’t see them ever doing it in all cases. As mentioned on another thread, we once had a port call to Flaam cancelled on Britannia. Consequently, the advertised ‘fjords’ cruise didn’t do any of the proper fjords. It became a Norwegian coastal ports cruise. P&O implied that there was a problem with the port that was out of their control. After some investigative work, I found out that there was no problem with the port and Carnival had voluntarily cancelled Britannia’s port call in order to prioritise Queen Victoria. They were desperate to silence me, so offered compensation in return for an (incorrectly worded and therefore not legally valid) non-disclosure agreement. I can’t see them being up front about instances such as this!