Selbourne

Yet, as several of us are saying, on Iona they wouldn’t make it if it wasn’t on the restricted list of what was shown per bar. On Britannia they would. @david63 I think on Iona it was option 1 on your list. The other options don’t apply when the drinks are available in other bars, as there is a price for them and they are on their system.

As Andy says, when we were on Britannia we discovered in our last week that whilst there were only a tiny few cocktails on each menu, if they had the ingredients they would make a different one for you. Seems daft that they don’t just put them in the menu to start with, as it must cost them sales. Conversely, when we were on Iona we found that they were more rigid about it. My daughter wanted a cocktail in the Crows Nest and they wouldn’t do it, even though they had all the ingredients available 🙄 Manage your expectations when it comes to what P&O terms a refit. These are almost always confined to mechanical running repairs to meet maritime regulations (which are invisible to passengers) and things like replacing worn carpets and seating. They can be a bit ‘blink and you miss them’. They are often trumpeted as “multi million £ refresh” but on something the size of a cruise ship, just changing carpets and other furnishings easily runs into millions!

See the second post in the below thread;

We are in Britannia Club with Cunard for 2 weeks in May, when you are back with Saga, so we can compare notes afterwards! We have 2 x 14 nighters on Ventura between now and then, so will have experienced 3 different P&O ships and 2 different Cunard ones since the re-start. It is currently our intention, all being well, to use both lines going forward. As to whether Saga will come into the mix only time will tell. We were underwhelmed with their latest releases. I was keen to do the Northern Lights cruise with them, but they don’t spend as many nights in port as P&O do, which is pretty essential for the best viewing opportunities 🙄

We were on Britannia in July Cathy and had no problems with the MDR food. Food is a highlight on cruises for us as well, and with the exceptions of the Celebration night (Marco Pierre White menu) and a balsa wood topped pie I had at lunch one day (😂), all MDR meals that both of us had were very good. No issues with quality or temperature. Portions were smaller than we’d serve at home, but as we always manage breakfast, lunch and dinner on cruises this was never a problem. I don’t know if you are Club or Freedom dining, but the bigger challenge that we had was actually getting in to the Freedom dining MDRs using the app. You might have read my ‘Live from’ blog at the time, or the tips I posted afterwards, but if you didn’t, or can’t find them, let me know and I’ll give you some workaround tips which we worked out by our second week!

That’s interesting. Let’s hope that with Paul Ludlow now looking after both brands he experiences the better Cunard system and questions why P&O doesn’t adopt it. But then again……😂

I agree David, and the biggest oddity is that they don’t even adopt better policies that they have within their own group! We did our first Cunard cruise on QM2 last year and could not believe how much better their disembarkation process was. Chalk and cheese compared to P&O and removed all of the hassle.

I doubt that Club (fixed) dining will be removed on Britannia, as there is still a strong demand for it. In fact, some of the current problems with Freedom dining on one or two of the larger ships are partly caused by people still wishing to dine at the same time and on the same table every night. P&O are allowing this in order to try to pull more people into earlier dining times, which suits some, but it’s causing knock on issues later for others. We were on Britannia in July and they were clearly struggling with Freedom Dining at peak times. If the one third of passengers who are currently on fixed dining are suddenly thrown into the mix of Freedom dining, my prediction would be that this would get even worse, even with all three main dining rooms adopting Freedom. Many of these passengers would be endeavouring to secure the equivalent of Club dining, the result of which being that Freedom dining doesn’t end up working properly for those who actually wish to use Freedom dining as it’s intended! The powers that be at P&O haven’t been terribly smart in considering the second order effects of some of the changes that they have made with dining, even though many experienced customers could have predicted it. As an example, the concept of an app to book dining is great, but it falls over when they still allow walk ups, pre booked tables and pagers - all operating at the same time. The restaurant staff can’t cope, so switch the app to ‘Queue Full’ and prioritise walk ups, which makes a mockery of the whole thing. However, I think that even these P&O staffers would be able to predict that until they can sort the existing issues out, scrapping Club dining on ships where it’s established and popular would open up a whole new can of worms 😂

Thank you for explaining all of that. I found it extremely interesting. We don’t choose expensive wines, but we tend to only drink Australian, South American and Californian wines through choice, which aren’t always the house wines. We also wouldn’t want to feel restricted to the same few included wines all cruise. We never use room service. Yes we were quoted for a private transfer. Eye watering cost 😂 For us, the journey to and from the port is as much about ease of access to the vehicle, short notice toilet stops etc. Much easier if we drive ourselves in our own car, which would be fine for Portsmouth but a pain in the proverbial if it’s Dover! We obviously would have to try the dining to see how it works for us, but the Cunard Club setup sounds as though it would suit us perfectly and we are trying that twice next year. Price wise it’s between P&O and Saga, which may be the happy medium for us, although we are still happy with P&O - at the right price. If we can get the right Saga cruise at the right price we shall give them a go.

Yes we did John. There are only four of them, all on the hump on deck 10. They are numbered 10.423, 10.427, 10.433 and 10.437. We had 10.437 as our daughter was next to us in 10.431 (non-accessible), but 10.433 would be my first choice as it’s at the widest point so will have a marginally bigger balcony, although ours was good. Any other questions just shout. They are excellent cabins.

Same dilemma here. I have no doubt that the Saga ships will offer a better overall cruise experience than P&O and their ships are very new, unlike Aurora, but @Dermotsgirl recent and extremely helpful thread comparing the two lines have given us pause for thought. My wife cannot drink much alcohol, so that aspect is wasted on her. Also, the drinks say ‘house wines’, whereas we tend not to order those through choice. The transfers to the port would be shared (not keen on that) and we are unsure how suitable the vehicle would be. The included excursions are pretty basic and we may not even be able to do them. We aren’t bothered about free WiFi as we can access emails etc free of charge in all ports. We like speciality restaurants, but it sounds as though they re ‘rationed’ on Saga. Finally, the tables for two sound less than ideal and they have a funny system for seating. I’m sure that many of these concerns would turn out to be OK, but at two to three times the price per night that we now pay for P&O my expectations would be sky high. We are happy to pay more for a better experience, as we did with Cunard, and if we didn’t have all the accessibility issues I would try Saga in a heartbeat, but I am beginning to wonder if it might be an anti-climax for us.

Not been on Saga but have stayed in most of the accessible balcony cabins on Aurora if you have any specific questions about those? P.S. What did you think of the Winter 2025 Saga cruises released yesterday? We were underwhelmed. Thought the Northern Lights one was a possible until we looked at the detailed itinerary timings to find that there’s only one overnight in port (which is far better for seeing the lights than being at sea).

😂 Understand that, whereas we view sea days as a means to an end in getting to ports! Besides, you could always stay on the ship in the extra ports. Surely better than a sea day, as the ship would be much quieter and you’d at least have something to look at? 😉

Yes, the same with the two 2025 35 nighters. If you look at the Caribbean port calls only, Ventura has 11 different port calls, whereas Iona only has 7. A massive difference seeing as the two cruises are exactly the same duration.

Keep in mind though that they have massively more capacity to fill now with the two mega ships, so it would be an absolute miracle if their forward sales weren’t at the highest levels ever. That was PR spin! In isolation, this measure alone doesn’t really give much of an indication as to their fortunes. Occupancy percentages and average price paid per night would be more relevant. The former seems to be holding up well, but maybe at the expense of the latter? My sense is that they are doing well though, albeit I don’t know what sort of contribution they will make to reducing Carnivals ginormous debt burden. I seem to have missed those as well!

I most certainly am! Thanks Harry.

Many thanks. We aren’t calling at Fuertaventura. We are doing Madeira, La Palma, Tenerife, Gran Canaria, Arrecife de Lanzarote, Cadiz and Lisbon. Any other tips for DIY in the canary ports (with a wheelchair) much appreciated!

No need to apologise. I appreciated the advice none the less.

Thanks Sarah. I’m sure that there are plenty of excursions of interest, but unfortunately my wife can’t get on to a coach so we are restricted to the very few (and very expensive) accessible tours. As a result we tend to just DIY these days.

That looks fun. It definitely appeals to me, but I don’t think that Lady Selbourne would enjoy it, as I would want to stand directly underneath 😂 We’ve only done one Canaries cruise before and that was when the kids were young, so we did tours everywhere (water park, camel rides, whale and dolphin watching, volcanic landscapes etc). This time, as it’s just the two of us, we intend to just wander independently. Our relatives said that two of the ports were naff - Lanzarote being one, but they couldn’t remember which the other one was. They thought it might have been La Palma?

Glad to hear that you had a good cruise and, in particular, that the Bay Tree restaurant was good, as we are on this cruise in a few weeks time and reverting to Club dining for the first time in many years after problems with Freedom dining on Britannia. Interesting about Lanzarote. I suspect that those who don’t do excursions (and therefore wouldn’t need a bus) would have been a bit miffed about that. However, relatives of ours did this cruise recently and said that Lanzarote had been a waste of time, as it was a Sunday and everything was closed. We are due in Lanzarote on a Sunday as well!

That was the same as on Britannia. We thoroughly enjoyed the lunch and were sat with some nice people. There were surprisingly few of us. Only around 100 from memory. Looking forward to it again on Ventura.

Thanks. That’s good. The buffet on Iona was very good, but we prefer a sit down meal. I’d find the Donald Campbell talks fascinating, but I doubt he will be on Ventura again so soon after your cruise. Fingers crossed though.

I’m delighted to hear that you had a great cruise as we are on Ventura doing the same itinerary in a few weeks time! Can I ask you a couple of questions please? You mention the priority boarders lunch. Is this a buffet (like we had on Iona in August) or a waiter served 3 course meal (like we had on Britannia in July)? Were there many guest lecturers on board? We like attending those on sea days and we have a few of those on the cruise. Thanks.

I would pick B deck. The balcony construction varies by deck on Aurora. B deck balconies are the same as you will find on other ships. A and C deck balconies are ‘cut out’ of the hull and, as a result, are slightly more enclosed, with a metal frame curving around the entire aperture. You still get glass under the hand rail, but the outlook is not quite as good as on B deck.