Selbourne

Interesting approach 😂. Wouldn’t work for us unfortunately, as we use Freedom Dining so would have different waiters most days!

Unfortunately, as we have to have an accessible cabin our options are extremely limited with Saga. Even allowing for the size difference, the provision of accessible cabins is quite poor with Saga compared to P&O.

Yes, thanks to advice from Wowzz (where is he BTW?), I have pre-registered for the next 2 Saga launches. We were registered for the last launch, but felt that the prices were a bit steep and the cruises that we might have been interested in clashed or were too close to others we had already booked with P&O and Cunard. That’s the problem with Saga - they don’t release until much later than the other ex-U.K. operators.

Well at least they got to play “Do you think that’s Dai?” for 5 days of their cruise 😂

From our experience, yes. As we have some reservations as to whether the post-Covid P&O will still be for us, we self imposed a price cap of £100 pppn for a balcony cabin on a Select basis, plus free parking. We have managed to book 3 x 14 night cruises over the next 9 months for well under that (one on Britannia and two on Ventura). Iona and Arvia are even cheaper, but we aren’t interested in making any other bookings on those until we have tried Iona in August (which was booked at launch and is in peak school holidays, so cost considerably more). Away from P&O, we have started using Cunard after a fantastic cruise a few months back. We booked one cruise at launch for Britannia Club and the price was significantly more, but less than we used to pay for a suite on P&O (we won’t book suites on P&O any more, as we no longer feel that they are worth the price premium). However, we have recently booked another 14 night Cunard cruise, also in Britannia Club, for £200 a night less than the one we booked at launch. At less than £50 pppn more than P&O (where we won’t have any of the benefits that you get with Cunard’s Britannia Club) that makes Cunard an even better bargain in our eyes. Unfortunately we have yet to see Saga offer any big discounts, as we are very keen to try them, but as their policy is to apply any discounts retrospectively to those who have already booked, I doubt that real bargains are to be had there.

Usually yes (on some they can’t due to the structure of the ship in certain areas) but be aware that in some cases this can result in the balcony divider partially obstructing your outlook through the ‘fixed’ panel of the balcony doors. Your cabin steward will do this for you.

Thanks Andy. I guess it’s more about the convenience than the price, as it’s yet another thing that made cruises special that has gone, but it’s good to know that if we have to buy glasses rather than bottles we won’t be fleeced for doing so! I just hope that they provide the wine promptly. I can’t stand it when the wine doesn’t arrive until after you’ve started eating. Am I right in thinking that wine waiters have gone in the MDR and you now order wine from the food waiters?

Quite an interesting article in the Travel Trade Gazette about the impact that the current pricing strategy of lines such as P&O (designed to attract the ‘new to cruising market’) is having on cruise specialists and TAs. https://www.ttgmedia.com/news/discounting-dilemma-are-cut-price-cruises-hurting-agents-bottom-lines-41181

That’s interesting and chimes with what I noticed on the Limelight Club sample menu (i.e. 3 x 250ml glasses worked out cheaper than a bottle). Still not as convenient as them storing the bottle (I don’t always want a 250ml glass of white and a 250ml glass of red with every meal), but I think I might go with that as a better option than carting around half used bottles of wine which, apart from being inconvenient, looks naff IMHO. Thanks for the tip.

I had been under the impression that this was one of the ‘because of Covid’ excuses that had since been rescinded? We like to have a bottle of white and a bottle of red on the go in the MDR, but only drink about two-thirds of a bottle in total each night between us (mostly me, as my wife can’t drink much alcohol). Being able to leave the unused wine to be returned to the table the next time we used the MDR was always something that we loved about cruising. We buy different drinks in the bars and don’t drink in our cabin, so have no need to take the wine with us and it’s a pain in the proverbial having to walk around with half used bottles of wine and then having to remember to take them back next time. I hope that was a one off and someone can confirm that the previous facility to leave part used bottles in the MDR has returned, as I thought it had?

I’ve just looked up the cruise and she doesn’t appear to have been scheduled to tender, so that’s a great shame for any wheelchair users onboard. We try to avoid cruises with tender ports as my wife cannot get off the ship. Plus it’s obviously a faff for those that can go ashore, although hopefully the waits won’t be as long as they can be on the larger ships.

That’s great feedback Andy - many thanks. We shall aim for the Peninsular restaurant on our cruise and we always avoid the MDR on the first night anyway. Glad to hear that you enjoyed the Glasshouse last night after your disappointing experience in Epicurean. Most importantly of all, a very ‘Happy Birthday’ to Michelle! P.S. Just looked at my notes for our cruise, and your feedback that Peninsular is the restaurant to use is also consistent with the feedback that P&O Sue gave during her cruise. Duly noted!

Yes the pre-Epicurean restaurants were excellent. Our favourite was Oriana Rhodes. Pre-Covid we always felt that Epicurean on Ventura wasn’t as good as Epicurean on Britannia, but we are on both ships over the next few months, so will be interested to see if things have changed.

Having been forewarned that this is the new approach, I shall be doing exactly the same. I never know what I fancy for dessert until I’ve finished my main. Also, if the portions are as small as some have reported, I won’t be afraid to ask for cheese and biscuits to follow the dessert (which, as you know, always used to be the case anyway, but apparently now is listed as one of the dessert choices, rather than an additional course) 😂

Interesting. In all honesty, on our recent Cunard cruise we wouldn’t have entertained an extra cost restaurant as the food was so good (admittedly Princess Grill). On Britannia over the next fortnight we are planning to eat in speciality restaurants for all but the formal nights. We have never had any complaints about dinner in the MDR on P&O pre Covid, but we have made this decision based on fairly consistent feedback that it’s not as good post Covid. Hopefully we might be pleasantly surprised.

Thanks. I won’t ask why, as I don’t think I want to know 🫣

Andy has confirmed that it wasn’t crew, but my (albeit technically incorrect) definition of crew is anyone who is being paid for by the cruise line, not all of whom wear a uniform. The reason I asked is that we have seen crew (my term) in most speciality restaurants we have been in (usually, but not always, wearing name badges). Whilst none has caused us issues, we have noticed that they often get the priority attention of the serving staff and Andy’s comments had made me wonder.

Thanks Andy. That’s our plan. Thinking about that disruptive group, it’s unusual for groups of guys to go on a cruise. I wonder if they might have been crew, or even some of the entertainment people? We often see groups of crew in the speciality restaurants. Thankfully none has ever caused us any problems, other than it grates a bit when the restaurants are showing as full 🤔

It should say on your cruise Personaliser. If you look at the page that shows the itinerary for each day, it should say what the dress code is. However - a word of warning. It was initially incorrect on our 14 night Britannia cruise, which was irritating as I wanted to book the Limelight Club when it wasn’t a formal night. When it corrected itself, I had to change the booking. On a 14 night cruise on Britannia you will have 4 formal nights. The first (Celebration Night) will be the second night (first sea day). The other 3 will almost always be on the sea days, but never the last day. Using that knowledge, I can usually predict when the formal nights will be and 9 times out of 10 my guess work is correct 😂 I hope that helps?

Thanks for expanding Andy. I can now understand why that was such a poor experience. I can’t stand it when we get a noisy table nearby. Unfortunately some people can be so inconsiderate in restaurants and don’t give a damn that they are ruining it for others. My wife gets on edge as well, as she see’s me getting irritated and is anxious that I might say something! I think we might save our steaks for the Beach House. They are usually excellent in there. I hope that you get in to the Glasshouse and have as good an experience as last time.

Thanks Graham. Much appreciated. As always, we will go with an open mind, but it’s good to know that we have options should things not go to plan. Always best to be prepared! We eat later than you on cruises, so realise that we won’t get a window table, but as long as the food and service are both good we will be fine.

Thanks Graham. So, just to confirm, if we make all our speciality restaurant bookings when we board, as long as we give at least 24 hours notice we can cancel and it won’t incur any charge whatsoever?

Delighted to hear that the weather has improved Andy. Iona wasn’t able to dock in Stavanger yesterday due to it and an Arctic rowing team had to postpone the start of their expedition (from Norway) also because of the weather. I’m so sorry to hear that Epicurean was a disappointment, especially having told you that it was our favourite restaurant at sea! I respect the fact that you don’t want to explain why (just as you didn’t expand on why the MDR was problematic at the start of your cruise), but can I ask a specific question to help us with our cruise (as you know, we embark Britannia when you disembark)? Am I correct in thinking that because you can only book the speciality restaurants when on board, there is no pre-payment (or commitment) when you book? We were planning on using Epicurean 4 times over the fortnight, but if we find that it’s gone downhill and our first experience (on Friday, hopefully) is below par, would we be able to cancel the other 3 bookings without it costing us anything? I guess if we are going to have an underwhelming experience it’s better to have that in the MDR, where there’s no extra charge for the privilege 😂

Well, on paper, yes, but only if we sold them, which would then cost us the OBC which was the only reason that I bought them 😂. I’ve already recouped 130% of my purchase price in OBC, so if they dropped to 1p a share it’s still been a great investment, but having had my fingers burnt a few times in the past I would never buy shares in a single company as an investment. Far too risky. Much prefer portfolio investments. The thing that I’m particularly pleased about is that we also get the OBC on Cunard cruises. Having done one recently, we now have two future 14 nighters booked with Cunard and will get the OBC with them as well 👍

Epicurean on Britannia was always our favourite restaurant at sea, so I hope that you find it in good order! We are hoping to be dining in there again on Friday. Really looking forward to it. Enjoy the glacier. We enjoyed the Troll car up there and were lucky enough to see a section of ice come away from end of the glacier whilst we were looking at it.