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Thanks for your helpful replies everyone.   We are all in the same cabin.   We will most definitely attempt a 12:15pm boarding.  If we encounter any problems I will report back upon return.

We have just become Caribbean level, well three of the four of us have.  My wife, my 13 year old son and I.  My 9 year old daughter is one level below.   We have been given a 12:15 boarding time for Ventura on the 19th august.  My daughter unfortunately has 2:30pm.  I guess strictly speaking we need to go at 2:30pm. 

Just to jump in on this.  I was given one of the letters on Britannia august 2022. I already had a short cruise (4nt on Ventura) booked for October 2022.   I took the letter to the casino and they gave me the credit without any question. Hope this helps. 

Well after yesterday’s good news of my wife getting her jab next week, I’m receiving mine the day after her.  After the loss of my brother it feels very bittersweet as he would have also received his vaccination.  I’m personally missing cruising very much and can’t wait to go again.  We’re due on Iona in April 2022 on a back to back,  Northern Europe and then followed by fjords.  

A little update from here in Retford in north Nottinghamshire.  Things seem to be going well with the vaccinations, my wife has been booked in for next Friday for her jab.  She is 44 years old but in category 6.  I’ll be so relieved once she’s had it.  My mother in law had the az jab 4 weeks ago and had no side effects from it.  Fingers crossed for everyone else still waiting and that you get yours soon.

A quick update today was my brothers funeral.  It was a beautiful service for a wonderful man.  On a more positive note after leaving the crematorium and switching our phones back on, we had received a message asking us to book my mother in law in for her vaccination.  She lives with us as she has physical and mental difficulties resulting from a car accident many years ago.  She turned 70 last weekend and is on the shielding list.  My wife has just brought her back in from her first dose of the Oxford vaccine.  She had it at the outpatients clinic at Retford hospital and everything went very well.  My wife said it was very well organised.  

Thank you everyone for your kind words.   As I said earlier I’m an avid lurker and feel like I know some of you even though I’ve not met you before. Maybe I have on past cruises.  Thanks again and I may start to post a bit more. Take care everyone. 

I don’t often post but I am an avid lurker/watcher of posts by others.  Over the last 10 months I’ve been through so many emotions, like most of us.  I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and the roll out of the vaccines has given us all hope. I hope that everyone will take the option of a vaccine when offered.  Last week my heart was broken as my brother sadly passed away due to COVID.  He was only 49.  This is not something that only affects the older population.   I am 44 years old and therefore I will have a bit of a wait for a vaccine, I will take any vaccine offered to me that has been passed as safe to use. Stay safe people. 

Yes many thanks for being so helpful. 

On 10/17/2020 at 5:04 PM, Ulsteinvik said:

Iberian Coast from Southampton, 4 April 2022 (12 nights)

If you don’t mind Please could you give me the details of this itinerary on Ventura. Many thanks in advance. 

That’s a shame.  That’s what we had on oceana last New Year’s Eve. Thanks again you’ve saved me some pennies. 

To those that have done this Cruise was the New Year’s Eve Menu Haggis, neeps and tatties. My favourite, if so I may need to book.  Thanks in advance. 

22 minutes ago, AchileLauro said:

 

We were on Aurora a week or so before you that year (Christmas markets) and have to say that for us it was one of the better cruises. The food we found to be very good and our cabin which was an inside cabin just below the crows nest was simply perfect (dark and quiet).

We wouldn't do a Christmas markets cruise again as while nice to experience we thought that once was enough, though we spoke to many people who seem to book a similar cruise every year as it was their thing. None the less for us it was a very pleasant holiday even if the weather was typical of northern Europe at that time of the year.

I’m pleased you enjoyed your cruise.  I wish we had your cabin.  Ours was also quiet and dark.  However (going to be as polite as possible) the stains from previous occupants was disgusting. We didn’t have a functioning tap in the bathroom, we had a piece of metal attached by gaffer tape.  As mentioned before P&O refunded us nearly 50% of our cost, this was obviously processed whilst we was still onboard as it was in the post received 2 days after returning home.  I’m sure many people love aurora but not us. 

Only been on aurora once, Christmas 18. Oceana 4 times. For me oceana appears more generally run down in most areas.  Our mini suite on oceana this Christmas was in a real bad way. Still seem to love the ship for some reason, find it very friendly.  Never found it noisy.  Aurora was a very bad experience, P&O agreed with us and gave us nearly 50% of our money back within days of returning.  
 

Our cabin was an inside cabin for 4, 2 adults and 2 children. We have been in many inside cabins so knew space was going to be tight.  It was the condition of the cabin that was a shock. It may have been this particular cruise but we found that their was a lack of atmosphere onboard.  The food was dreadful apart from the very first lunch, Christmas dinner was awful, although oceana wasn't much better.  Only cruise I’ve been happy to leave, normally I’m dragged off kicking and screaming. 
 

We met a higher percentage of children haters on this cruise, those who directly tell us children shouldn’t be on cruise ships.  My personal favourite was the clicky finger man we shared a table with who was in the child hater group.  Laughed quite a lot when a few days later he came out of a children’s carol performance and turned to his wife with a beaming smile, “that’s just made my Christmas”.
 

Thankfully our cruise on aurora the following Easter was cancelled when it went adult only.

7 minutes ago, daiB said:

Just hand it in and use it.

That’s what I was thinking. Worse case get nothing!

I received one of theses letters on my oceana cruise in October.  If I remember correctly it had to be used with 6 months of issue.  Luckily I was back on for Christmas.  At the end of the Christmas cruise I was given another letter but the terms had changed.  In order to get my “free play £250” I need to book a new cruise and use by October 2020.  Interestingly it says any further information to contact P&o players club, I can’t seem to be able to find anything regarding this. It did have phone number which turned out to be just P&o booking telephone number and placed me in a queue I was too busy to waitin. I may give them a call at some point as I book most cruises well in advance, booked right up to April 2022 so can’t really book any more. 

Hi

We have just returned from Azura at Easter.  I can confirm that there were more children than places in the kids club.  We were told that P&O have changed the policy regarding child numbers as they believe that some of the children will be taking part in other activities with their parents.  

We never had our children turned away but others did.  It seemed to affect the 5-8 year group, but this could have just been this particular cruise.  On this cruise we were told by kids club there were 150, 5-8 year olds and only 80 places at a time in the club.

Queuing to get into kids club did become a problem and queues began forming 20 mins before opening and signing in was extremely slow.

Once booked we phone p&o and request a cot which they provide. Also a baby bath for the shower and bed rails. My daughter at around the same age as your nephew will be, used to cry when we left her, within 5 mins she was fine and would come back all smiles. We’ve never forced the issue with them both and they both look forward to going now.

We’ve cruised with ours from as early as 4 months old. We love P&O for what they offer for our children.

Cabins on Britannia can’t help that much only been on once in a obstructed balcony cabin with a sofa. Would be ideal as has a sofa bed and a normal double bed, but I do understand about budget constraints sometimes they can be quite reasonable. We have used Pullman’s on other ships, me on Pullman I’m 6ft. Could the 3 of them fit in a bed? If so could they try a cot and let them in the bed if it’s not working?

I’m sure on the ship the restaurant manager would try their best to get you altogether. Request freedom dining then just turn up altogether. If some of you get allocated fixed dining they are normally good onboard in trying to change your allocation.

The kids club is fantastic. They are really good even with the most clingy children. They also normally allow a parent to stay for an hour with their child in the kids club. There is also usually a baby room which is unmanned but staff often come in to interact with children and parents. This room has toys and games in it and often a nice place to meet other parents. On Britannia their is also a small outdoor wet play area they can use. The night nursery we’ve never used as ours didn’t settle very well with others. They have cots for the children to sleep in but I’ve seen children in their pushchairs parked up asleep in there. If you manage to leave your nephew in the night nursery they give the parents a pager so they can contact you if they wake up and they can’t resettle them.

Something that works for us as we are early eaters anyway is to take the children to children’s tea first. This is in the buffet restaurant and starts at 5pm. It has normal type of childrens food, fish fingers, Bolognese, fries, roast and veg amongst lots of other stuff. I normally take our children here whilst mummy gets showered and dressed. She then takes over when ready and I change. Our children then join in the children’s club activities whilst we go to the main restaurant for our meal. It’s nice to have a meal without entertaining the children. We ask our children if they would rather dine with us but rarely do they choose to do so. Hope this helps a little.

We were booked on a 16 night to the Azores. The itinerary was why we booked. Just been confirmed we are on Azura instead. On the two cabins we had booked It has come out over £1000 cheaper so we can’t complain really, although we have lost 3 night onboard and a better intinerary. Swings and roundabouts.

Selbourne you are correct. We were offered 5% of the value of our original cruise as a future cruise credit and a full refund. They would hold the credit for 12 months against our accounts.

Our children love cruising and have been on all sizes of ships and they love them all. My youngest first cruise was when she was 4 months old. It was to Svalbard on Thomson spirit. Quite a small ship. My son who was 4 at the time loved this cruise in particular. As there were only about 20 children of all ages onboard they became a bit of a family with the big ones making a fuss of the little ones. Cruising has been such a benefit to my son and even his teachers can see the impact it has had on him with his knowledge of the things he has seen. Hope everyone else in a similar situation gets an acceptable outcome.

Well what a morning we’ve had. It looks like we have managed to find some child places on Azura, just waiting for confirmation. We are still sad as we were looking forward to the cruise we had booked on aurora but there’s nothing we can do about it. We are booked on aurora for Christmas and so that will be the first and last time we sail on her.

You just beat me to it. Can these threads be merged?

We have. I think it was g405. The Pullman was above the sofa bed. So we had a double bed and a sofa bed with a Pullman above it.

Sindhu is a 'pay extra' restaurant. Did you mean 'only other'?

Yes meant only other paid. Sorry for any confusion for my lack of attention to detail.

We have taken our 2 children age 3 and 8 into sindhu on a couple of occasions. From memory there isn’t a children’s menu. However the restaurant manager was superb on both occasions (Azura). We booked on board and asked about children being welcome. They were and he pre ordered chicken nuggets and fries and 2 bowls of vanilla ice cream from the main restaurant. It turned out on our last visit my 8 year old decided he liked the look of my chicken and helped me eat it. The only pay extra restaurant we have taken the children to is the glass house. We have only gone at lunch time normally for a light bite and a glass of pellers ice wine. We’ve never looked for a childrens menu here as they normally share a fish and chips with extra portion of chips. Hope this helps.