Selbourne

Price and value are completely different things though. One is factual and the other subjective. If we can get a balcony cabin for say £150 per night for the 2 of us, then I’d consider that to be good value. Conversely, because we’d rather not cruise at all than have an inside cabin, if someone tried to sell us an inside cabin for half that price then yes, it’s cheaper, but to us would still be poor value. Also, there is often an assumption that those of us who book balcony cabins cruise less often as a result of that choice. For many of us that is not the case.

I’ve succumbed and bought my wife a Kindle for Christmas so that she has one for our long cruise, but I’ve bought some ye olde worlde physical books for myself 😂

We didn’t notice any issues with staffing levels on either Britannia or Ventura this year. Service was excellent on both ships and we didn’t have to wait long to be served anywhere. Iona was completely different and the bars in particular seemed under staffed, but the ship felt overcrowded so I suspect that was a factor (it was summer school holidays). We found the MDR food to be good on all our post Covid P&O cruises, although there’s no getting away from the fact that choice has diminished (with the ‘always available’ items now used to pad out the menus) and portion sizes have decreased (most starters would struggle to fill half a saucer 😂). We’ve all felt the impact of food price inflation over the last year, or so I suspect that they have been tasked with trying to keep to the same budget, so something has had to give. Whether we agree with it or not, I think we have to accept that P&O has changed its market positioning. When we first started cruising with them I’d say they were what you might call ‘upper-mid’ segment. Over time they gradually became ‘mid market’. Now they have moved to be very much a ‘mass market’ operator, aiming to be the cheapest ex-UK operator in order to attract the burgeoning ‘new to cruising’ market. From a business perspective, I think that this is a very wise move, as it’s where the growth potential is. I would have an issue if this had happened with prices (in real terms) remaining as they were but, in fairness, they haven’t. The prices that we pay now reflect the absence of the things that, to many of us, made cruising unique compared to land based holidays, but the market that they are targeting now has no knowledge of the past and therefore don’t miss these things. I also suspect that many ‘traditional’ cruisers will happily do without these things in return for the lower prices. Whilst we noticed a few dozen cutbacks on our P&O cruises this year, we were surprised that, with just 2 or 3 exceptions, most had very little impact on our cruise experience.

Maybe because less than half the population own one!

Yes, I recall doing some research before our Northern Light cruises and I’m sure I also read that the best time to go is around March.

Did you happen to notice if there was an option for wheelchair users to be wheeled on and off?

You’re welcome. There’s also a land train and a sightseeing bus (both extra cost) but I can’t comment on them as we haven’t used them (I don’t think that they are wheelchair accessible).

P&O no longer provide a shuttle in Haugesund (they used to). What you saw is a privately operated service. It’s an easy walk for the able bodied (if there’s no snow) but a ruddy nightmare with a wheelchair, as the bridge is quite steep and the pavements are narrow when you meet another wheelchair coming the other way. On our last two visits my wife has stayed on board. Thankfully she saw the town before the P&O free shuttle was withdrawn.

I beg to differ. We were on Iona in August. The ‘library’ was nothing short of pathetic. A few cupboards in Anderson’s and the choice was absolutely dismal. My wife’s assessment was that this was probably because most of the passengers on our cruise probably couldn’t read, but she really had a downer on Iona due to the lift problems that we had and, frankly, even if they had the British Library on board I don’t think that I could tempt her back on board 😂 As a serious answer to your question, it’s rubbish. Take your own books or a Kindle (other brands are available).

That’s what I would have thought. Anyone needing a walking stick, even occasionally, would surely not be deemed suitable to sit in a row with an emergency exit? In an emergency, every second counts….

On Azura, they are provided in superior deluxe balcony cabins and above, but must be left in the cabin after use. In lower grade accommodation u can buy them and then are able to keep them.

With respect, wouldn’t it be obvious that Economy seats with the most legroom will be the first to go? I haven’t flown for a few years, but aren’t the rows with extra legroom often the rows with emergency exits? If so, disabled people cannot sit in them anyway?

That’s true. The maintenance guy who sorted out our creaky cabin on Ventura had an industrial sized can of WD40. I’m guessing that they use it a lot 😂

I wish that I’d agreed a commission deal with Peller wines for the number of people I’ve persuaded to try their Ice Cuvée 😂 I hope that you enjoyed it? Earlier today I stumbled cross a small travel sized can of WD40 in the cupboard. That’s going in the case for our long cruise on Aurora 😂

When we were on Iona in August the coffee shop was understaffed (as were most of the bars TBH) and there was a queue all the time. No idea how long it took as I didn’t join the queue, but there was often only one waiter serving those of us who were seated and they struggled to keep up. This was a complete contrast to Ventura a few weeks back where we were always approached very quickly once seated and all the bars were adequately staffed.

Is this just Azura? This would be an issue for us if it extended to other ships. We usually go ashore during the morning and return to the ship for lunch. We are happy to use the MDR but if we are too late we go to the Glasshouse. We never use the buffet.

Even P&Os IT isn’t that incompetent 😂 In fairness, I was impressed when I cancelled the one excursion that I’d booked that had been discounted and my internet plan (which I’d booked at a 15% launch discount but was now 20% off). They both disappeared off my Cruise Personaliser immediately and within minutes I had the emails to confirm that the refunds had been authorised. I then immediately re-booked both at the lower Black Friday prices and, again, I had the confirmation emails within minutes and both re-appeared on my Cruise Personaliser immediately. It’s a shame that it’s not possible to do the same thing, with such ease, when the cruise price falls 😂

Depending on the cruise, multiple discounts come into play. I have got the Essentials plan for £6.48 a day. This is a combination of longer cruise discount (50% - our cruise is 65 nights), Black Friday discount (a further 20%) and my loyalty discount (a further 10%). I’ve never bought a plan before, but as we are away for so long, have a lot of sea days (that I find boring), and my mobile phone only gives me free calls and data in Europe, I decided that as it was only going to cost me the equivalent of one drink a day it was worthwhile. I was also impressed that it worked extremely well on Ventura when I tried it for 2 x 24 hour periods as a trial before buying it for our long cruise, but I have since discovered that StarLink has yet to be installed on Aurora, even though P&O are promoting it as being on all ships! However, @molecrochip assures me that it will be installed before our cruise departs (3rd Jan) 🤞

Odd. I’ve just logged on to my cruise Personaliser again and the landing page is full of Black Friday offers for our cruise - WiFi packages plus selected excursions, spa and gift packages.

On our last cruise an old chap was calling a lift with the base of his walking stick, and he and his wife thought it was amusing. I was walking past rather than using the lift, or I might have pointed out that the base of that stick may have earlier been on the floor of a toilet 🤢

Good luck for tonight Pete. On our first cruise to see the Northern Lights we had an absolutely spectacular display in Alta between around 10pm and midnight. They could be seen from the ship (where my wife stayed) but they were significantly better from the field that I went to on the tour, well away from all the light pollution from the ship and dock etc. We also had a brief but great display the night that we were at Tromso at about the same time. As mentioned before, the second time that we did the cruise we didn’t see them at all the whole cruise (well, a minuscule whisp of white which I didn’t count) and I was fascinated by Alta airport. There was a blizzard and almost white out and they were just spraying the planes with de-icer and then off they went. Nothing like at home where 2cm of snow closes our airports 🤔😂

I couldn’t get on at all with my iPhone trying to take photos of the Northern Lights, even using an app designed for this purpose, although your iPhone is a newer version than mine. Those with decent cameras were getting great shots albeit (as is always the case) their photos showed the lights at an intensity that was several times greater than you actually see with the naked eye. A decent camera will show the phenomenon that might only appear a whispy white to the naked eye as a vibrant green.

I had wondered if they’d done away with them, as I’ve not seen them promoted on any ship this year. Just a thought, but we bought a wine package once and decided that we wouldn’t again. The discount wasn’t huge and you have to choose from a restricted selection. Also, now that P&O has done way away with the ability to keep unfinished bottles in the MDRs (with a few minor exceptions) they have far more choice of wines by the glass and the prices of the 250ml glasses are no more than one-third of the price of the 750ml bottle. I think that P&O have shot themselves in the foot with this policy change as the result, in our case, has been that we have spent much less on wine during each cruise than we did previously when we always had a bottle of red and a bottle of white on the go!

Log on to cruise personaliser. Click ‘my orders’ at the top. Find the relevant order (you have to use the down arrows to open). Click ‘Cancel’ and then confirm the cancellation.

I don’t believe that this is possible on any P&O ships, but am prepared to be corrected. I certainly didn’t notice any facility to do this on Iona, Britannia or Ventura when we were on board this year. As it’s not an app I should imagine that it might be difficult and P&O IT department can't even cope with simple things 😂