Selbourne

I have never heard of them, but their website looks professional and if @Cloudyrain has used them multiple times and says that they are fine then I wouldn’t worry. The default option tends to be CPS and I have had damage to cars on two occasions with them, so no option is without some risk!

Isn’t it weird how things can change literally from one cruise to the next. We didn’t see a single bucket or evidence of a leak the entire 2 weeks of our cruise (although we did feel that the air con wasn’t very efficient and assumed they had just cranked the thermostat up to save money). Thankfully no sign of any nasty bugs either, although I developed slight cold symptoms the day after we got home and wondered if it was Covid (it wasn’t - I tested) but thankfully this came to nothing more than a mild head cold and had gone within a few days. I blamed the woman who had been coughing continuously near us in the MDR at breakfast on the penultimate day! As for general maintenance, again, we didn’t notice anything untoward. In fact, our balcony was scheduled for a redecoration on the day we were scheduled to be in Skagen but didn’t happen due to the port call being cancelled. In all honesty, apart from one side of one dividing panel when the paint was very slightly blistering, I didn’t feel that it even needed a refresh! We definitely had an active Cruise Director on our cruise - John Bartram. My engineering knowledge wouldn’t fill the back of a fag packet, so hopefully someone else can address the vibration, but I was always under the impression that it was caused by resonance from the propellers (or whatever they are called now - Azipods?) and not as a result of the fuel used for propulsion - hence why it’s prevalent at the aft of the ship when at speed? Iona and Arvia plod along at very slow speeds as a matter of course, so would rarely have any vibration issues.

The fact that kids get the soft drinks package free certainly makes the drinks packages far more cost effective for families than couples. Just be aware that all adults in a cabin have to have the same package. I guess that for any single parent travelling with two kids a drinks package would be an absolute no brainer!

Very frustrating. If you eventually decide to give up, when you call back select the option for making a new booking. They will answer much quicker and, unless things have changed, it will be the same people that you will currently be on hold for! Also, first thing in the morning, as soon as the lines open, is usually much quicker to get an answer.

Thanks. Chicken Tikka Masala sounds good to me 👍

We were pleased to find on Britannia recently that the early boarders lunch was a proper sit down MDR meal with waiter service, which was a nice way to start the cruise. Am I correct in thinking that on Iona it’s still a small buffet?

I think that the info that I was referring to is buried within this thread. Might be worth reading it all through if you are considering a drinks package. There hasn’t been much feedback on the deluxe package yet as it’s quite new, but a few people have been disappointed with the previous (now Classic) package as they hadn’t read all the restrictions properly before buying it.

We were on Britannia 2 weeks ago and I suspect that the answers are the same. There is a proper wine list in Epicurean and I have a feeling that whilst it certainly wasn’t comprehensive, it was better than the one in the MDR. I can’t really answer your question about the drinks packages as we’ve never bought one (we wouldn’t get anywhere near our moneys worth out of it), but there was a recent thread on here when the prices changed and the deluxe package was introduced and it seemed as though that package covered pretty much everything. Be careful with the Classic package though, as there are an awful lot of exclusions and limitations. All the drinks menus clearly state which packages permit them and I have a feeling that someone posted a number of them. The search function is pretty poor on this site, but if you go back page by page I think you might find it.

Interesting. I’ve not cruised with MSC, but dropped one of my daughters off at Horizon Terminal for an MSC cruise and it seemed deserted. She texted me 15 minutes later to say that she was on the ship, and by the time they got to their cabin their luggage was already there - and that wasn’t priority boarding either. I wondered if it might be because passengers board at numerous stops, not just Southampton? Picking them up was a breeze as well. However, she said that the shuttle arrangement in Hamburg was dreadful and they had to wait 90 minutes for one to go into the city. We were there 2 weeks ago with P&O and it was exceptionally well organised and I was on a shuttle within minutes. I was glad that my wife stayed on the ship though, as I couldn’t see a single accessible shuttle, which was odd as there were quite a few in Copenhagen.

Thanks for clarifying. I was just asking a question about how long to allow for the CPS aspect on a ship the size of Iona as I have no experience of it. I don’t feel stressed about it as we all have early times, but was just curious to know if it’s much different to the other ships, in particular so that I can advise our daughters who are travelling to the cruise independently for the first time. I’m pleased to hear that you had a good boarding experience.

I know that you always make similar comments on any thread about boarding and, as the originator of this thread, presumably your comments are directed at me. To clarify, as I have said, I am very happy with the boarding times that all of our group have been given. That is not the issue. We have never been on a ship the size of Iona, let alone in the August school holidays when over 6,000 people will be boarding. Furthermore, our last experience of CPS in August school holidays wasn’t brilliant - and that was on a smaller ship. I therefore consider it to be a perfectly legitimate question to enquire from those who have experienced boarding Iona or Arvia in the peak school holiday period whether our usual arrival 30 minutes before our allocated time is still sensible or whether we should allow longer. Those who do not feel that this is a legitimate question are free to ignore this thread.

When we went on QM2 in May we had priority boarding at 12.30pm. We arrived at midday and were on the ship within minutes. In all fairness, with most of our P&O cruises we have been on board at around our boarding times or before, unless there has been a problem. Iona is a different scale altogether though, hence my original question.

Given that only 3% of the cars on our roads are EVs and even by the 2030 date (which is bound to be moved out) it is only predicted to be 19%, I think that scenario is many years away but, to answer your question, I guess the same applies to those who have EVs now - you have to make sure that you hand over your car with enough range to get home or plan on a re-charging stop en-route. However, if I was the owner of CPS (or any other long stay car park operator for that matter) I would be working up a solution to offer charging - at an exorbitant fee 😂

We have been given 12pm also and are just Caribbean. I’m optimistic that we will be on board pretty soon after that and will be disappointed if we aren’t. In spite of what @molecrochip says, I struggle to think that P&O would set themselves up to fail, giving their highest spending and most loyal customers a time that they know that they cannot meet. That would take a level of incompetence that ……. (fill in the gaps 😂).

That’s a relief 😂

Whilst there’s no getting away from the fact that most people walk straight past the hand washing stations, even when intending to use the buffet, it’s worth remembering that not everyone needs to stop and wash their hands. We never use the buffet, but walked through it at least half a dozen times on our recent cruise getting from the aft lifts to the Crows Nest or vice-versa. The first time a staff member stopped me but let me carry on when I explained that we weren’t using the buffet, but thereafter there was nobody manning them. Have to say I think I only noticed them being used once. As I say, we don’t use the buffet 🤢😂

That’s great news. Well done. I wonder if those who booked Select get the best of the upgraded cabins? That would seem fair, but I guess would rely upon P&Os IT systems…….🤔😂

The earliest time in the main dining rooms is 5.30pm. I believe that those who wish to dine that early can pre-book slots, but hopefully someone else will confirm. There is a kids tea in the buffet from 5pm if that works better for you. No need to book, you just turn up.

Well it doesn’t have to be to the precise minute, no, but it would be nice if they could board at around the time they have been told, as we’d like to meet up with them for lunch. Surely that’s not an unreasonable expectation?

I don’t know whether we’ve just been lucky, but since reaching Caribbean tier we have had embarkation times of 12.15 and 12pm.

We’ve done 8 cruises on Aurora and only once had a delay with embarkation, and that was when there was a problem with the air bridge at Mayflower. Like @david63 we have found P4C to be extremely quick and efficient and, on the bigger ships in particular, quicker than CPS. As Caribbean tier passengers you should get a boarding time somewhere between 12pm and 12.30pm and there’s no reason that you shouldn’t be on board at or around your boarding time. If using P4C I would aim to arrive 30 mins before your embarkation time, use the taxi drop off lane to get rid of your big cases and then drive over to the short stay car park to check your car in. That way you only have your hand luggage to deal with and by the time you get back to the terminal you should hopefully be pretty much straight on the ship 🤞

That really surprises me. Surely security should be manned and ready to go at 12pm latest? When cruises are full, a delayed start is surely a recipe for disaster. I would have thought that the exact opposite would happen and they would start early to help minimise the build up of queues.

Thanks. This may be a daft question, but given that we now check in online in advance, leaving security as the only activity before boarding the ship, why are people given 12pm boarding times if security doesn’t open until 12.50 - or did you mean 11.50?

Thanks. That’s very useful. From the times that you have given it sounds as though you were let into the terminal at around 11.30 even though your boarding time was midday. Is that correct? If so, I might aim for an 11am arrival rather than 11.30 to allow for the car queues, handover, luggage drop off etc, especially as my wife is in a wheelchair so it’s a bit more challenging for me. Hopefully someone who had a boarding time at around 1pm may be able to provide equally helpful feedback on their experience.

Thanks, but my questIon is not really about traffic in Southampton, but more about when to time our arrival at the terminal. If we get to Southampton early we kill time in Mayflower Park, so we can time our arrival pretty accurately regardless of the traffic situation, not that we’ve ever had a particular issue with traffic - we used to live in Southampton so know lots of ways in and out!