Selbourne

Definitely book solo now. If a second person comes they recalculate based on the prices on the date you booked. If, however, you book two and one cancels you may incur cancellation charges.

They tasted stale to me from the day they were made. 😂

😂 Never liked wagon wheels. Always tasted stale to me 😂

Thanks. Not interested in Arvia or Iona and only book balconies, but will take a look when I get home.

Same with all chocolates these days. A fraction of the volume and not as good quality. Tins (or plastic tubs) seem to have around a third of the chocolates they had, but now with wrappers that fill the space. Boxes of chocolates just as bad. The plastic trays used to be full of chocolates. Now more plastic space between them than chocolates. Bars have got smaller and smaller, with ‘chunks’ that allow loads of air between each piece. Worst example is Terry’s Chocolate orange. Used to be completely solid, now more air than chocolate. Not that I’m obsessed about these things you understand 🤣

I’m not at home at present so can’t check, but can you clarify? Is that per person and what type of cabin? I’m assuming inside cabin per person?

Also, when you look at the excursions by port for your cruise the ones with 20% discounts are clearly shown. The excellent cancellation policy for excursions and internet etc also works to our advantage with this offer. As I have found this morning, dead easy to cancel existing bookings and re-book under the offer. As a result of re-bookings and some new bookings that I was going to make anyway I’ve now saved £50. 👍

Go on to Cruise Personaliser for your booked cruise. A black bar with Black Friday offers now shows. Follow links to discounts for excursions, WiFi, spa treatments, gits for your cruise.

Thanks for this. It applies to selected shore excursions and internet packages as well. I’ve just cancelled a shore excursion that I’d booked and immediately re-booked the excursion under the offer, saving £10. I’ve also cancelled the internet package that I’d booked and immediately re-booked under the offer, saving a further £25 (even though I’d originally booked under the 15% launch offer). So that’s £35 back in my pocket for 5 minutes work.

Yes they are.

You need to use the shuttle in Alta, but it’s a good and frequent service.

We WILL get value out of our drinks package 🤣

Have to say I’m not at all impressed with them. Very little info on the ‘sights’, far more on cafes, bars and restaurants (which we don’t use) and obscure things. Also not terribly user friendly format. What people want to know is where do we dock, is there a shuttle and if yes where does it drop off, and if you are only going to visit somewhere once, the must see sights are x,y,z.

The new online version gives you an option to save the completed form, which you can then print. I have printed them off as evidence just to be safe (given what I’ve been told - post #71), although as my wife is a full time wheelchair user and therefore has her own wheelchair, I would hope that we would never be questioned as it is blatantly obvious that she has a genuine disability.

As @Megabear2 says, it is important that those with genuine issues complete the required form in advance of the cruise. I have been told that from December P&O are going to start clamping down on the use of the assistance service, in order to reduce the number of people who manage perfectly well throughout the cruise, but suddenly need ‘assistance’ for embarkation or disembarkation when they perceive that it will give them some advantage, such as getting off the ship quicker (which it doesn’t). I believe that the first step will be to only assist those who have completed the on board needs questionnaire in advance.

Interesting. Definitely not on the breakfast menu in Bay Tree, as shown below

Hopefully very early, as we depart on 3rd Jan 🤔 At least they knew about it. I asked at reception on Ventura and they had absolutely no idea what on Earth I was talking about 😂

Brilliant. Thanks for that. You’d certainly hope that Aurora would be sorted before embarking on a 65 nighter.

@molecrochip Disappointing to hear that Starlink isn’t live on Aurora yet, as I was under the impression that it had now been rolled out to all the ships. I have paid a fortune for WiFi coverage for our 65 nighter commencing 3rd Jan, on the assumption that it would be as good as we experienced on Ventura. Do you know if it will be installed by then?

Never thought about it TBH. Don’t tend to use the fridge. However I tend to do everything anyway.

@TigerB Thank you for another brilliant review. I’m glad that you made the food (with loads of photos) the main thrust of your review, as that was the aspect where we felt that Iona was excellent. The fact that you don’t mention problems getting around the ship via lift suggests that our problems were indeed caused primarily by the fact that we had 5,750 people on our cruise - now that really was rammed! Obviously this was exacerbated by the fact that the lifts are too small for how busy the ship can get, a fact that was confirmed when we had no issues whatsoever on Ventura with nigh on half the passengers but noticeably larger lifts. It was also very interesting that you didn’t mention the rough seas (and impact on passenger comfort) as much on the outward run, which confirms my hunch that Ventura and Azura don’t handle rough seas as well as the other ships. Although I didn’t feel seasick at all during our Ventura cruise, and my wife was only ill for one day (probably not helped by her neurological condition affecting balance at the best of times), there were a lot of people struggling on our cruise during the same crossing that you had. There were prolonged periods when it was difficult to stand up without holding on to something (I was grateful to be holding on to a wheelchair) and walking along was up hill and down hill! Interesting that even with fewer passengers you still experienced patchy service in places and notably in Olive Grove. We absolutely loved the food in Olive Grove, and felt that it was a superb addition to the food offering on P&O ships, but service was poor on the occasions that we dined there. With the exception of the MDR (which was excellent), we found Iona to be understaffed in relation to the huge numbers of passenger on board and again, this was brought home by the sharp contrast on both Britannia and Ventura where we had no service issues anywhere. As has been discussed previously, cruise ships have a unique challenge that land based hotels don’t have, in that their staff numbers can’t flex up and down as customer numbers go up and down, so if you go in peak season (as we did) you get an entirely different experience to someone who goes off peak, with the same staff numbers dealing with far more passengers. I’m sure that we are not alone in getting to know quite a few staff very well during our cruises, whether that be stewards, bar staff or restaurant staff, and when I have asked them which ships they’ve worked on and which they prefer, quite a few have said to us that they and their friends least like working on Iona and Arvia due to how busy the ships are and the impact that has on their roles. This comes as no surprise to us, as I mentioned during my Iona review that, in addition to struggling to get served in bars during our Iona cruise, we couldn’t help but notice that the staff didn’t seem as happy as on the other ships. That would obviously be magnified during peak school holidays, which is when we went! You did well to find the accessible shuttle in Lisbon as we couldn’t. That being said, as you have since discovered, it’s easier and quicker just to walk there. You were right that you relegated us into the cheap seats in Cadiz but, in fairness, the port provided (free) shuttle was brilliant. No waits and most buses were wheelchair accessible. The new style accessible shuttle that you experienced in one of your ports does indeed look excellent. Let’s hope that they start to appear in more locations. I’m glad that you seemed to enjoy your cruise, in spite of your wife being unwell for part of it. Iona is certainly a great ship for food lovers and the accessible deluxe balcony cabin that we had was superb. Sadly, Lady S will not be shifted in her view that our experience in August is not one that she wishes to repeat and, much as I stress that our problems were exacerbated by it being peak school holidays, Iona and Arvia remain firmly off our list of cruise options. This wasn’t helped by us meeting several different people on our Ventura cruise who had been on Arvia who, when I asked how they found it (hoping that they would give a positive account which might give my wife pause for thought) they replied “never again” 🙄😂

Interesting what you say about Premier Inn beds. We also find them to be way too low and I have to pull my wife up from them, which not everyone could do. When I mentioned this at reception at the last PI we stayed in (when I asked for Elephants feet to raise the bed - which they used to provide, but no longer do) they said that the bed heights were determined to be the most suitable for wheelchair users. Funny that, given that those of us who have partners in wheelchairs agree that they are too low 🤔

I saved mine until last, so as to take the taste of the Negroni away 😂

I tried one of those in the 710 Club on Iona because you raved about them. 🤮😂

Interesting. Does the ‘other’ site still only monitor base prices?