arlowood

1 hour ago, Dave W 10 said:

Thanks all for the very helpful replies. We are a UK couple so gratuities not an issue.

Sailing from and back to UK port (Dover in this case) certainly appeals having missed 2 days of a river cruise this summer due to BA flight cancellation. Do I recall correctly that you have the option of free parking at the port rather than the chauffeur?

Yes - you can opt for free parking at the port if you don't want the chauffer driven service.

Only observation I have on that was that on our cruise in June we were supposed to embark at Dover but the SoD was delayed at its final port of Cadiz and left there 17hrs late. It meant that there was no way to make it back to Dover for the turn-around so the embarkation port was changed to Southampton. Caused a few issues for those with their own cars as they had to be bussed from Portsmouth back to Dover to pick up their cars.

I accept that these were exceptional circumstances but the change of port did not affect those with the chauffer service

2 hours ago, Glenndale said:

I wrote the following for someone who had recently booked Viking and wanted a comparison with Saga. Some of it may not apply now with reference to Covid. Hope this helps a little. Both very good lines. Mostly British passengers and age range higher on Saga. 

 

Crew on both lines mainly Indonesian and Filipino, happy to help, excellent service, cannot praise them enough
Cannot fault Viking’s Covid protocols, PCR and temperature tests every day along with a daily health questionnaire. All Viking ships have had Labs added for testing.
Everywhere kept scrupulously clean
Excursions included but have to stay in bubble and wear masks on coaches.
Masks to be warn traversing ship indoors but not when seated.
Cabins very similar at Verandah level and Deluxe Verandah equates to Penthouse Verandah on Viking Heated bathroom floor none on Saga.
Ships are all Verandah
Food in main restaurant very good but personally prefer the speciality restaurants on Saga
Buffet in evening very good, seafood such as prawns, crab legs and sushi always available
Living room area on both ships with bar / coffee bar and snacks Coffees and teas included.
Preferred the layout of Viking’s Explorer lounge to Saga’s Britannia lounge
Beautiful Winter Garden on pool deck and large screen for watching movies and a retractable roof IMO a huge plus for Viking
Spa similar to Saga with the addition of a snow room
Entertainment during day mainly lectures with singers in evening, quite low key but in the main very good
No craft classes, a trivia session on a sea day and didn’t see any organised bridge etc.
No formal nights but no jeans allowed in evening, people very smartly dressed
Gentlemen generally didn’t wear jackets and ties but many ladies wouldn’t have looked out of place on a Saga formal night.
Flights are included
Unfortunately Viking rarely run cruises from / to UK
Gratuities included and wine etc with meals. Possible to purchase drinks package for $19.95 per day, both people in cabin have to purchase. Package gave access to a wider range of wines and cocktails.
Cannot help with how solos are treated but I'm pretty sure you'll have a great time 😃
 

A useful summary by Glenndale but a little out of date since Viking have modified their Covid protocols and now no longer do daily testing and there will be other changes so it's worth checking both cruise lines website to see where there safety protocols are. Clearly they could both change significantly between now and June 2023.

We have sailed 3 times on Viking Ocean but only once on Saga (June this year). While the Saga ship (Spirit of Discovery) was impressive we preferred the more relaxed "Scandi" styling of the Viking ships. This is down to personal preference and is not really a significant difference. You won't be disappointed by the decor and appointments on either line. The food on both is excellent and the free specialty restaurants are very good. Saga has 3 specialty restaurants while Viking only has two and one of those (Manfredi's) is extremely popular and can sometimes be difficult to book. On Viking only the wine/beer at lunch and dinner is included unless you but the Silver Spirits package. Saga is all inclusive and for 2023 they are including premium wines and spirits in the offering.

No formal nights on Viking - dress code is smart casual in all eating venues (no shorts or jeans and collared shirts in the restaurants but the rules are more relaxed in the World Cafe buffet restaurant.) Saga has usually 2 formal nights on a cruise up to 10 days and 4 or more on longer cruises. Dinner suit, Tuxedo or dress suit for men and dresses or smart separates for ladies. Main restaurants enforce the dress code but the buffet is available if you don't fancy the formality schtick.

As said above you almost always have to fly from UK to join a Viking cruise. There are  a couple of itineraries where they start or finish in London but you still have to fly out or home at the beginning or end of the cruise. Saga cruises all leave from the UK and offer chauffer driven exclusive or shared transport to the port. This is free up to 250miles from the departure port (Dover, Southampton or Portsmouth). If you live outside the 250miles you will have a surcharge per mile over that limit.

All-in-all we would be happy to cruise with either line again (we have an Adriatic cruise already booked for August 2023 with Viking - a carry over from a pandemic cancelled cruise in 2021). For us that will entail flights from Birmingham to Venice and returning from Athens. So no direct flights (Viking only use the main scheduled carriers) and probably connecting flights through Amsterdam or Frankfurt. Not a prospect we are relishing but hopefully air travel may have got its act together by then.

On balance we might lean slightly towards Saga in the future - mainly for the lack of hassle getting to and from the ship. However if Viking ever start up round trip itineraries from a UK port then we will be biting their hands off.

4 hours ago, Wacktle said:

I contacted Saga again yesterday via Webchat. I didn't get very far in getting a definitive answer to the question about whether 2024 would be released in 2 phases and, if so, whether we need to pay 2 registration fees. Briefly I was told that releasing cruises in 2 batches was ALWAYS the case. Was it?

 

I then rang and got through very quickly. (Thank you Saga.) I explained the query to the lovely lady and after discussing several scenarios. This included paying one advance registration, which we had, but not making a booking for the first release and where would we be in the pecking order for the second release, given that some had already registered for both releases. Initially she said that calls for both releases would be in the order of our original, single, registration. However, on further pushing, she messaged a manager with the query. She read out the query text to me to ensure it adequately reflected the question.

 

Half an hour later, she called back. (Again, thank you Saga.) The answer was that, to ensure that we were higher up the queue for the May-Dec release, we should also register for that release. Therefore we paid an additional registration fee. 

 

Apologies for the long post, but I hope it helps.

Yes - we registered aboard SoD during the Icelandic Adventures cruise in June 2022. The lady taking our registration was quite clear that there would be a 2-phase release which she referred to as Winter 2024 and Summer 2024. Opting for both required a double registration fee. We were only interested in cruising between May and September so wo took out a single registration for the "summer" release.

I'm guessing the priority queue will be handled the same way for both releases - ie in date order of pre-registration

Yes I share your confusion.

Under the Ocean Cruise FAQs, I clicked on the "VIP Car Service" option and found the following

"We’ll send a car if you live within 75 miles of the port. If you live further away you can buy extra miles. They cost £1.85 per mile for a shared car or £3.70 per mile for a private car. Find out more."

However if you click on the "Find out more" hypertext it takes you to a section with the following information:-

"Door-to-door chauffeur service up to 250 miles each way

One of our chauffeurs will pick you up from home in a car or MPV, and drive you to Dover or Southampton, then meet you on your arrival back in the UK. If you live within 250 miles of the port, we include a shared chauffeur service. If you live within 75 miles, we include a private chauffeur service.

Additional miles can be purchased if needed at £1.85 per mile for a shared car where you may share all or part of the journey with other Saga customers. If you’d prefer to have the vehicle all to yourself, this can be arranged, for an additional £3.70 per mile."

This clearly has no mention of the mileage charge for distances in excess of 75 miles but less thn 250 miles, so I'm not sure what Saga are trying to say. Have they changed their free transfer policy for journeys beyond 75 miles but less than 250 miles and forgotten to proof read all of their online content to bring it into line? Or is the initial statement about mileage charges an error that has sneaked through?

17 hours ago, Portplush said:

I have looked out my letter dated July 2022.   The text doesn't mention a part of the year.  On the right hand side I have a booking number and holiday start date 01 January 2024.   Thats all.  I just assumed it was for the whole year.

Landc I will post anything I learn on-board.   

Yes we took out our pre-registration on board SoD back in June of this year. It was clearly stated that you had the option of "Winter Schedule" which I assume is the January to April 2024 or the "Summer Schedule" which is April to December 2024. We chose the Summer at a cost of £90pp. I think choosing both schedules would double that cost.

24 minutes ago, happy v said:

I am trying to understand the new booking system. If you book a table for 8pm and it is accepted. Why do I have to carry my phone around. Surely if I turn up on time it should be ready, or why book in the first place 

I can only assume that the table you book for 8pm will probably be occupied by pax who have booked or turned up earlier than 8 - say between 6 and 6.30pm. So I'm guessing the booking system algorithm works out the likely times a certain table will be free for others to use and then calls you forward about 15mins before that time.

If service is slow or people linger to chat rather than leaving the table then your allocated table may not be available when predicted. I think that is the reason you are asked to keep your phone open and live on the booking page so that you are  alerted at the appropriate time.

All of the above is conjecture but may explain why you can't just roll up at the time you pre-booked and expect to be seated immediately.

My experience of the booking system on our Arcadia cruise earlier this month was pretty dire as I could not maintain a reliable connection to the ships intranet system. So the virtual queue was impossible to operate unless I logged in at a location where the Wifi was stable and sat there until I was notified. Not convenient at all. Of course this could be a symptom of the wifi issues on the older ships like Arcadia and Aurora - it may not apply to the newer ships where the wifi was built in from the start.

Used it on Arcadia for our cruise earlier this month. What Cathygh says is pretty much correct I think you need your Surname also and maybe your cabin number as well as the last 6 digits of your boarding pass or cabin key card (Located under the bar code of your cabin access card). 

The only thing I would caution you about is that I was never able to sign in from my cabin. For any reliable access I had to find a public area on the ship where there was likely to be a good and reliable signal. On Arcadia that was usually the Library. If I wanted to do any bookings, I usually went there.

I did find that the quality and reliability of the Wifi signal varied considerably as you moved around the ship and more often than not I found that I had lost access to the My Holiday "App" and had to reconnect from a location with a good signal.

This meant that I eventually  gave up on the virtual queueing system for the Freedom Dining as this required you to keep your booking page open and active while you waited to be notified that a table was available. From my experience that would have meant joining the virtual queue in a public space and not moving from there until your were called to your table. Very inconvenient IMHO.

Maybe it was my phone/tablet that was at fault but I did hear others muttering about the connectivity issue.

Hopefully they will stick to these dates.

We've pre-registered for the summer 2024 sailings (April to December). Got a family wedding coming up in mid-2024 and would like to nail down our cruise dates ASAP

We has a similar experience on our 1st May sailing of Arcadia to the Baltic. Had chosen A129 which we thought was perfect for our needs but were contacted by P&O to say they were moving us to a forward cabin on C deck. Not what we would have chosen or wanted..

I did a "dummy" booking for that cruise and established that there were still cabins for sale in the aft section of A deck so contacted our TA who got on to P&O and persuaded them to reallocate us to one of the available cabins, A131, on A deck. (Was a pointless exercise ultimately as P&O canceled he cruise a wok or so later). Why P&O did not do the logical thing and offer us one of those cabins initially I struggle to understand.

Try to do a dummy booking and see what cabins are still being offered for sale on your cruise. If there are any that appeal then contact your TA (if you have one) to get you switched to one of those. Otherwise argue thecase directly with P&O.

Just be aware that the Flam Railway is a scheduled service from Flam to Myrdal - it is not a dedicated tourist train. When we were there we bought the P&O excursion but noticed that there were several other carriages used by  people travelling normally to Myrdal to connect with the Bergen - Oslo service. 

I think it is entirely feasible to do the trip independently - you just have to purchase your tickets in advance online or at the station near to where the ship docks.

I think it will be a fair bit cheaper than the price P&O charges. If you have the time you can extend your stop at Myrdal and come back on a later train. Maybe go for a walk around the Myrdal station area. On our P&O trip we just had to come back on the next return train leaving only about 30mins at Myrdal.

I've attached the Timetables for 2022 that might be of help.

https://www.norwaysbest.com/globalassets/pdf/rutetider/rutetider-2022/flamsbana_timetable_2022.pdf

On our recent Arcadia cruise in Lisbon all passengers who took the shuttle had their cruise cards scanned by a P&O staff member before boarding the bus. Those on Select fare would not be charged while those on the saver fare would have the cost added to their on board account.

Not sure of the cost off hand as we were on a select fare. Could be between £2.50 and £5 per journey depending on the duration I'm guessing.

4 hours ago, P&O SUE said:

I did laugh when we got the shuttle bus, how close it was! However all the HoHo buses and a tram were in the square it dropped us off at. When we were wondering about later in the day we turned a corner and the ship was right in front of us!

I think things may have changed now. The last time we visited Lisbon we took the shuttle and it dropped us in the large square close to the Arco da Rua Augusta just a stones throw from the River Tagus and easily walkable from the ship if you so desired.

However this last time we were dropped off some way north of that point as I said in my post above. On our return to ship when we did drive through that square by the Arch and it looked to be largely pedestrianised with limited or zero option for cruise coaches to drop off and/or pick up.

Things may be different for other cruises but I sense that the city authorities may have mandated that shuttles drop off elsewhere to avoid the inevitable crowding around the square.

9 hours ago, tring said:

 

Can I please ask where you docked in Lisbon, was it Santa Apolonia or near there, or downriver of Lisbon centre?

 

Arcadia docked at Santa Apolonia on our recent cruise there. Shuttle bus drop off point was north west of Dom Pedro IV square, close to the Restauradores Metro station. Consequently it took a bit longer than we had previously experienced - maybe about 15 -20 minutes due to negotiating fairly heavy traffic. In the past my recollection was that we were dropped off at the Arch at the southern end of Rua Augusta.

Shuttle was free to Select Fare passengers

3 hours ago, silkworms said:

Thank you for the update. We are on Arcadia J219.

Would you please let me if the Ocean Grill is open and/or the

Asian restaurant at the top of the ship? We are on second sitting 

club dining, I believe that is now upstairs whereas previously the 

freedom dining was upstairs.
Any other thoughts you have gratefully received.Thank you.

 

Terri

Ocean Grill was not open during our cruise. I think I heard someone suggest that they were aiming to have it open in October but I don't know if that is fact or rumour.

Sindhu was open and we dined there on 2 occasions during our cruise. Enjoyed it immensely the first night but I was less impressed with my Chicken Korma main meal on our second visit. There is a new system in place (well new to us since last eating at Sindhu). Previously we were just charged a fixed supplement per person to eat at the speciality restaurants. Now the set up is more aligned to a normal situation where each individual dish is priced separately and you are charged a total depending on what you select. Our first visit came to £64 for 2 including a bottle of wine which I think compares well with what you would expect at a decent Asian restaurant onshore.

One tip I would give is that if you want to eat at Sindhu, do as we did and make your bookings as soon as you get on board either directly by phone or using the  My Holiday app. Within 2 days on our cruise , Sindhu was fully booked with only a waiting list for those hoping for cancellations.

Just to confirm your final point, the set dining is now in the Meridian on Deck 3 aft whereas the Freedom Dining is downstairs on Deck 2

4 hours ago, Gettingwarmer said:

Thank you for your observations.

Could you advise what deck and area (aft, middle, forward) you cabin was located. 

Hi there

We were on C deck in the mid forward section (C056) and I was never able to log on to the wifi in the cabin. However I'm sure there are also "dead spots" around the ship as I noticed my connection dropping out when just moving from one area of the ship to another. Could be that if you used any of the lifts the reception is poor or non existent. Did make using the app a bit of a lottery so in the end we just went down to the dining room (Freedom Dining section Deck 2 aft) at around 6.30 and opted to share a table. Never had an issue getting in at that time.

Just returned from our J216 cruise on Arcadia (7 night Portugal& Spain) and thought I'd chip in with a few observations following the earlier posts regarding the start up cruise on Arcadia.

Firstly, we had a great time and enjoyed the visit to 2 ports that we had never visited previously (Oporto and Vigo). Sadly due to adverse weather conditions we did not get to visit Guernsey (swell conditions outside the safety levels for tender operations). This was our 3rd failed attempt to visit Guernsey due to weather/sea conditions so e have resigned ourselves to the fact that it is not meant to be.

Our cabin steward was excellent and very quickly learned our morning routine so that the cabin was always serviced when we got back from breakfast. As mentioned elsewhere, there is now no turn-down service in the evening as I believe the cabin stewards have been redeployed to other duties in the evening. (We did meet our steward one evening near our cabin and he was wearing a white jacket rather than the normal blue shirt so he was probably off to his evening shift somewhere else on the ship).

There were a few minor issues that showed how things have been pared back since we last sailed with P&) in 2019.

Bulk bottles of shower gel and shampoo fitted to the wall over the bath. No moisturiser or shower cap provided.

The menu in the Meridian Restaurant has been shrunk and the always "available items" (salmon fillet and sirloin steak) are now included with another 3 items as main menu options.

There seemed to be a preponderance of green beans and broccoli as the vegetable accompaniments to most main courses.

No sweet sauces (caramel, butterscotch, chocolate)  available to add to your ice cream.

Restaurant staff appeared to be struggling to cope on occasions probably due to reduced staffing levels.

The "My Holiday" app facility was a bit of a puzzle. We were on Freedom Dining and tried to use the app to join the "virtual queue" for a table. However it stated that the app page had to be kept open to allow you to be notified when a table was available. My issue was that my wifi connection to the app would not work in my cabin and frequently dropped out when moving around the ship. So in order to get the benefit of the virtual queue I realised that, once I had joined the queue, I would have to park myself in a good wifi area and not move from there until I was alerted to come to the restaurant. In my view the idea is a little half-baked at present but may work better with some tweaks.

We also spoke to those who had used the app to book sets for the entertainment. Some shows were very popular but they said appeared to be no checks made of those entering the theatre to see whether they had pre-booked or not. So effectively the pre-booking system was a bit of a lottery and you could miss out if those who had not booked got there before you.

We had a good time but the various little things that niggled away meant that our enjoyment was eroded by comparison to our earlier experiences on P&O.

Just returned from our J216 cruise on Arcadia and I'd like to update the information on the Library facilities for any others interested.

During Library opening hours the book cabinets are open and you are able to browse the books and select what you want to read.

There was one cabinet that was always open and contained what looked like donated paperbacks and other books from passengers who had finished reading them and did not want to carry them home. My wife and I made use of this at least once during the cruise. So effectively there is a book exchange system in place though I don't think P&O publicise the fact.

During our cruise there were at least 2 jigsaw puzzles on the go that anyone could have a go at completing or adding pieces.

There were at least 6 or 7 desktop PC's up and running for those who wanted to browse the free internet options (usually only P&O website or related sites) or search the wider web if they are on a WiFi package and don't want to fiddle with a smartphone or tablet/iPad.

Not only do they not care but they are also staffed by people appear to be strangers to logic.

On our  1st May cruise on Arcadia we had booked a select fare cabin in the mid-aft section of A deck (A129). Shortly after we had paid our full balance?????, we had an email apologising but informing us that we were being moved from our chosen cabin to a forward cabin on B-deck. Not a happy camper at that point as we would definitely not have selected a cabin there. I went on to the P&O website and did a "dummy" booking and established that they were still offering cabins on A-deck just slightly further aft of our chosen one.

I contacted our TA and after much toing and froing she eventually managed to persuade them to switch us to A137 - pretty close to were we wanted to be.

Now what I can't fathom is why they could not have switched me to that cabin in the first place. I would still have been a bit upset at losing our chosen cabin but would have been relatively happy with the A137 alternative. Instead they shunted me to a lower forward cabin.

I'm afraid in the end it all proved to be a bit academic as they contacted us in early April to cancel the cruise due to staff being re-deployed from Arcadia to other larger ships.

Where logic is concerned I fear that P&O were missing in action at the tutorial

If you are interested in the details of the different tiers and their benefits the PDF below will enlighten you

Peninsular-Club.pdf

Yes I'm sure they are not routinely disinfecting all the books that people handle when browsing for something to read. They may disinfect returned books before placing them back on the shelves.

However it's a pretty pointless exercise as the scientific consensus appears to show that the likelihood of contracting Covid from surfaces is vanishingly small.

If you're looking to do a book swap then it's probably best to just drop the idea into the conversation with other passengers at lunch/dinner etc. That way you may land lucky and find someone on the lookout for more reading material. Could be a bit of a lottery depending on the respective tastes but who knows, you may stumble over an author you would otherwise never have discovered.

Due to board Arcadia in just over a weeks' time and looking forward to it.

Much relieved to hear from recent cruisers on Arcadia that Sindhu appears to be open and functioning as normal. Have not heard any comments about the Ocean Grill so I suspect that is still closed but we live in hope.

My main query to any recent passengers on Arcadia is about the Library. Is it open as normal and are you able to withdraw books as per pre-Covid days. IIRC there were also several desktop PC's in the library available for passengers to use as required. Are these still there and accessible.

2 hours ago, Ranchi said:

Thanks, terrierjohn. I found it. Unfortunately it is going to let me know nearer the time- we go next week. 

We go on the 30th August and the dress code is showing for our itinerary.

Having briefly read the new Princess Upgrade Bidding system it does not seem to clarify whether you will be able to bid for an upgrade to a specific cabin or just to a higher grade of cabin in an area where these are located.

I know that some pax with P&O have fallen foul of the free upgrade system. At the time of booking , if you select that you are open to an upgrade then if you are offered an upgrade, you cannot refuse it and you may end up in a nominally better cabin but in a much worse location on the ship. I was advised not to tick the upgrade box when booking to avoid that issue.

If you are bidding and paying hard cash to upgrade then I would hope that you can at least pick which upgraded cabin you are moving to.

35 minutes ago, Fionboard said:

On Arcadia, Sindhu open but Ocean Grill closed.

Hi there

Thanks for the update. Has Sindhu been open every night of your cruise or is it only on selected nights. Any info on ease of booking or is it difficult to get a table.

Reason for my question is that our J216 cruise is only for 7 nights and we have a chunk of OBC to get rid of over that short period. 

My idea was to eat as several times at Sindhu as a means of reducing the size of our OBC credit

Yep - we've just had the "softening up" email from P&O ahead of our J216 cruise on Arcadia departing 30th August.

First there is the paragraph about "supply chain challenges" and "global staff shortages" 

This is then followed by a paragraph stating that "Current opening days and times in our speciality restaurants may be affected as well as service in some bars etc etc......"

My heart sank when I saw it as I had hoped that at least Sindhu would be open but I have a dreaded premonition that I could be disappointed.

Other posters recently seemed to suggest that Sindhu was up and running on Arcadia but from the email received that situation may have changed.