grapau27

Sandi @StLouisCruisers. Wishing you and your dear twin sister a wonderful birthday.

Thank you Dani. The sunbeds in front of the conservatory suites are actually on the promenade deck for anyone to use. I'm always happy to help you and pleased it is helping your friend too. Graham.

This gives you an idea of the wrap around deck 8 promenade deck Dani. You walk around the 1000 metre long promenade and you can look into the balconies.

Dani @dani negreanu. I'm home now and checked. Conservatory suites are only deck 8 and 9. The photo shows the lack of privacy on deck 8 promenade conservatory suites. If your friend wants to book Speciality restaurants on line they are available to book 14/15 nights pre-cruise with your preferred dining time. The best speciality restaurant is Epicurean at £30pp for a big 3 course choice.Booking direct you get a 20% discount off this. Our loyalty discount gets us an extra 8.5% discount. Sindhu Asian restaurant has a £10pp supplement. In Sindhu food is individually priced and the supplement is deducted off the total price with an additional 20% taken off when paying the bill. There are no gratuities required anywhere on P&O but I tip £5 every night in the speciality restaurant and give our cabin steward something as well. Graham.

You are very welcome Dani. There are few perks for these cabins which are just like a large balcony cabin with an enclosed conservatory sitting area then the balcony.

The Mini suites are called Conservatory suites and most are on deck 8 and 9. They are overpriced and the promenade deck is deck 8 which goes all of the way around the ship and people can look into your cabin while walking past.

Thank you @aussielozzie18. We have been to those ports many times before and we enjoyed being lazy on the ship.

Before my heart attack I would be in the gym every day when cruising. 8°C and partly sunny here.

Dover is the main Ferry port to Europe and the traffic can be miles long and why we won't sail from Dover.

Thank you. There are lots of hotels in and around Southampton you can book direct which we do every time we cruise from Southampton. Google Southampton hotels. We often stay at Premier inn West Quay Harbour parade which is next to a big shopping centre and 5-10 minutes taxi to any of the cruise terminals. Our next cruise we are booked in Leonardo Grand Harbour hotel. We sailed out of Miami end of January 2023 on Oasis of the seas staying 2 nights pre-cruise and 2 nights Post- cruise at a hotel on South Beach Miami. Icon looks awesome so I hope you have an amazing cruise. There have been numerous train strikes in the last year in England so I would be apprehensive of using the train especially from London. Regards Graham.

Thank you.

Thank you Sue. Sunderland.

Thank you for your nice words Terri. I hope you are feeling better. Pauline and Sarah are well thanks. Sending you my best wishes always. Graham.

You should be able to book with an online agent for P&O in the US although Royal Caribbean ship facilities are in a different league. On our recent cruise I spoke to Spanish and German passengers. We have sailed on every P&O ship and would give you helpful information if you decided to book. National Express special offers are online and for peace of mind you would be best to pre-book. In 2007 we got a National Express coach from Heathrow airport to Dover when we sailed on NCL Gems maiden voyage. I only post on the Daily on HAL and have not sailed on HAL and i joined when I got a mailshot of Rotterdam and wanted more information. The majority of the Daily posters I would love to meet and the reason I still post here. 30 of our 67 cruises have been from Southampton and if only HAL sailed from Southampton we would sail with them without any doubt. The few new HAL itineraries from Dover were twice the price of P&O balcony cabins and my wife Pauline likes P&O. On Royal we have been Diamond plus for 10 years but now I mainly post on Dani Negreanus daily thread. On P&O I mainly post on their daily. Even though we are Elite on Princess I rarely go on their forum.

We sailed on MSC Virtuoso in April 2023. I status matched our Princess Elite loyalty for their top Diamond status which got us a free speciality meal,10% discount and late cabin check out on disarmbarkation day. Our Diamond+ loyalty would only afford us Gold second highest status on MSC. We had an aft balcony but heard their Yacht club is special.

Thank you Jane. I'm saddened to hear your dizziness and feeling unwell episode. I hope it doesn't happen again but definitely tell your cardiologist.

The food at lunchtime was nice in the free restaurants and I'm sure it would be on a night time but we prefer the better experience in the speciality restaurants for Dinner. I booked and paid extra for Dinner every night in speciality restaurants like we do on Royal but the price was significantly less than what we pay on Royal Caribbean.

Thank you Arzeena. We had 2 night's hotel pre-cruise and 1 night post cruise as well and we had an amazing relaxing cruise.

Thank you Sue. There was 6500 passengers on board including 2000 first time cruisers but it didn't feel crowded There are no tips required on board and no additional gratuities on drinks or food although I did tip in the speciality restaurants because the food and service was outstanding. The price of drinks are reasonable considering they have a captive audience. Aurora and Arcadia the 2 smallest and oldest ships are Adults only. Arvia,Azura,Britannia,Iona and Ventura are all nice ships. The biggest and newest Arvia and Iona have much more choice of everything. We were on Iona in November 2023 and January2023 for 14 nights and March 2024 for 7 nights. 2 negatives on this ship are the deck 8/9 balconies are not private because of the wrap around promenade deck on deck 8. The aft balconies are great but the Infinity pool on deck 16 has been known for people splashing water on the balconies below.

Thank you Dani. The weather was not good and my hip and knee arthritis was a little painful so we just took photos from the outside. I watched a film on the ships TV showing inside the cube houses and they are unique.

Thank you Sandi. Most of the crew in the speciality restaurants recognised us from our 14 nights cruises in November and January on Iona and there was quite a few hugs and handshakes.

Thank you John. I brought a couple of pairs of shorts but it was a little cold to wear them. It rained most of the time but we still had an amazing relaxing cruise. I hope you and Gail are well and wish you both an amazing cruise in 3 weeks time.

I pre-booked online all of our 7 nights in Speciality restaurants.

On Friday we got the ship shuttle from Zeebrugge to the beach resort Blankenburg where we bought quite a bit of Belgian chocolate.

We had a lovely Port side aft balcony. On Sunday at sea we went to the wonderful Easter Sunday church service on board. It was pouring down with rain in Hamburg so we relaxed on board. In Rotterdam we got a water taxi to the Centrum and walked to the centre where we saw the famous cube houses. VID_20240403_114134.mp4