CarlaMarie

She was a beautiful ship and was my first as well.

I agree, it is sad that this is necessary. There seems to have been a massive shift in the demand for speciality. It used to be an added extra, maybe a once or twice event during a cruise or for a special occasion. I cannot recall passengers in the past booking for every night. Many cruisers of old and those who are not on social media won't be aware of this. You do feel for them because once they get onboard they are finding everything is booked up.

Thank you for sharing your cruise with us, and I'm pleased you have had a nice time. It must have been very new as a first timer, and I have enjoyed reading about the cruise from your perspective with fresh eyes. The big question is.... would you cruise again?

You are probably right that they cannot afford to upset anyone, they need the new cruisers. However it could test the loyalty of the regular cruisers even further, and I guess they have lost alot already with the current high numbers of first timers on each cruise.

Really appreciated your blog and all of the wonderful photos you have shared with us. Hope you enjoy your last day onboard, I know the weather in the channel is not the best here today!

Your main looks very small and again not presented as well as it could be. Kyle's looks far more appealing!

The restaurant managers should enforce the dress codes, the more they don't the more they will be ignored and passengers will feel they can wear what they like. Letting things slide and ignoring problems seems to be happening across the ships in many areas, like passengers smoking on balconies etc...

We also use a credit card for the onboard account, and have done ever since we got that advice from these boards.

Just checked Marine Traffic, it says you are now doing 11.6 kn.

If you book your trips through P&O, for any port cancelled you will get a refund for any missed shore excursions. Have a wonderful time!

Are the Ceasar salad and Tomato Soup on every menu now? I would struggle too @purplesea.

The afternoon tea looks wonderful! Enjoy Cadiz!

Beautiful photos Sarah. Your Sindhu dinner looked great, and I hope you've enjoyed your afternoon tea in the Epicurean. Like everyone else has said thankyou for sharing your cruise with us.

Does everyone think that the presentation of some of the meals could be worked on? So pleased you got to visit the church, and that you were quickly seated for dinner. I do agree about the Celebrity ship, they look very smart and elegant.

On your in cabin telephone, there should be a menu of buttons that will directly link you to various departments and one of them should be room service. The charge for delivery of room service is a fairly new thing! Hope you have all had a great day in Stavanger.

That's a fair point @cruising.mark.uk. What they do promise and advertise though is the Celebration Night Gala Dinner which in their words is available to everyone. Like you, @Kittyonions and@Megabear2 have reported they've tried to persuade passengers away from the MDR on celebration nights, with for example offering the Celebration Dinner menu in the Olive Grove or other specials in different dining venues. They wouldn't have to do that if there was enough room for everyone, nor if they hadn't underestimated the popularity of traditional dining.

It would be interesting to know the numbers. I think you would have to look at the numbers for the 2 x MDR, plus Olive Grove and 6th Street - because that is the evening dining that is technically sold to the passenger as part of their fare on Arvia (even though Olive Grove and 6th Street do not provide the MDR menu). Paying for select dining seems to be very popular at the moment (especially with newer cruisers), so the MDRs are struggling to cope even in spite of that.

Looking forward to hearing how they find the Captain's table tonight.

A good plan. The only issue you could encounter is if they have waiting lists treatments? Once cancelled, would you be allowed to rebook or would they offer that appointment slot to somebody on a wait list?

All onboard credit has to be spent onboard. Anything booked prior to your cruise - excursions, spa treatments etc... will have to be paid for before you sail. You could wait until you get onto the cruise ship to try and make your appointment? That way, it would be deducted from your onboard account. You would however risk them not having any availability, or not being able to fit you in on the day you have in mind. I will just add, if you were thinking of booking an excursion then I would advise the opposite and to book and pay for it before you sail. Excursions are popular and sell out very quickly.

That must be so frustrating, and increasingly so as the cruise goes on. Understandable why you are losing patience with it, and I think you've handled it very well!

I've just read a review written by a couple who having heard that P&O have done away with trays... packed their own and took them to the buffet 😂

Hope you are not in too much pain and that you will be ok for your excursion tomorrow.

Have a lovely cruise! Looking forward to reading all about it.

I am amazed it was allowed to be sent out looking like that.