Windsurfboy

If it is cheaper on same basis I.e. you can specify room , then Sagas price guarantee shoukd kick in, you should get difference in some form. Either OBC or a room upgrade.

Is that cheaper price on guarantee basis

Just looked at my November 2023 cruise, 165 doubles and 30 singles available. So all working ok. My question these are cabins you can choose from. What is situation with guarantee cabins allocated on sailing. No idea how many. From above you could think that there is still space for 360 people to sell. So cruise no where near full. But could there be 164 unallocated guarantee doubles and 29 unallocated singles already sold with the cabins not allocated So available to choose from. So in reality ship is full. Or does it truly mean the ship is under 2/3rds full with 360 spaces. I hope the later as then no problem with space , speciality dining etc

With 1200 children on board, assuming most were in extra beds in parents cabins, then that's a lot of extra seats needed in dining rooms. If system can cope with extra 20% numbers, then it bodes well for out of holiday service on even a nominal full ship.

Basically apart from app and getting dining time you wanted and the odd show everything was pretty good. Presume ship was completely full, with all the extra beds in use. Did you manage to book Sindhu on board? Things have improved since launch, interesting to see if things get better again after summer holidays are over.

If you book suite as an early saver, all you can guarantee is a suite, but not the grade of suite, so if you want e.g. aft suite on Arvia with big balcony, the chances of getting one of these is zero on a saver. If you like the less popular forward suites then go for it.

Agree a better use could be found if card and craft could be combined in one room. As all the dining rooms share kitchens at back couldn't be full restaurant. So coffee shop. I quite fancy Sushi bar , which need very little kitchen spece.

A few points I agree that once Saga cruises get below a 25% discount they no longer seem good value. As a non card player or non crafter , then I wonder about the space these rooms take up, perhaps they could find some way of making them more multi use. However I've never found there to be a lack of lounge space on Saga ships. Where they are dont see how they can add additional dining space. As to spacing in dining room , it's a balance, more spacing means less tables, less tables means more chance of not getting a table when you want. It depends if Saga think customers want space or no wait. I think they have gone for freedom rather than space.

But the CAA also says , you can spend what is necessary, but then the onus is on you to prove there was no reasonable alternatives. I suppose screen shots of a few booking sites would suffice. There must be certain standard that you are entitled to. I would argue that this hotel unless it was absolutely the last thing available, was not of the standard of my suite. I'd be willing to take it to mcol (make claim online). Luckily when I've had problems with flights, BA has put me up in very good hotels. As I said earlier, it's up to you to look after yourself, I remember when a P&O ship couldn't re-embark tenders at Monaco. Some people acted promptly booked themselves into hotels while still a few available, those that relied on P&O slept in a sports centre.

Per room excluding meals

The CAA quotes £200 per night as a reasonable maximum, so that's not a 2 star dump.

Always check against hotel website, but:- What's that got to do with the fact that booking.com showed lots of hotel availability in Palma, in 5 and 4 star hotels. At the time P& O choose to put everyone in the cheapest 2 star hotel they could find. Why are people defending such abysmal customer service , just because it was easy for P&O. Unless you think P&O is a 2 star cruise line and thats all it's paying customers deserve.

I've used them lots of times , never had a problem, never turned up and hotel full.

You don't need a couple of hundred in one hotel. When I checked online booking.com . Dozens of 5 and 4 star hotels with space. Put the people in nice hotels , contact via sms when they need to go to airport. More workyes.

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No longer own a dark suit so it's DJ or a casual eatery. Think DJ as long as there are 2 in a fortnight

These pictures are making me reconsider.

Ease of Logistics for P&O shouldn't outweigh passenger comfort. As they were commicating by SMS , didn't need to be in one place. That would have been true before mobile phones became ubiquitous. Lesson is don't volunteer. Look after yourself no one else will Try to ascertain where they are sending you before you go. If you end up in a dump, try as soon as possible to book yourself into a decent hotel and send P&O the bill

Reading this thread The high winds did not come out of the blue. P&O kept every one together in a cheap hotel for their ie P&O's convenience. They could have sent them to better hotels , but that would have entailed more complex logistics and more money.

Our problem is we liked the old club table ,but not the 6.00 or 8.30 one too early other too late and nowadays unfortunately food quality pushes us to speciality. We also like Cunard QG where you get to know neighbouring tables. Saga fixed table is a bit of pot luck, sometimes two or three fixed tables are near each other and you get to know neighbours. Other times it new neighbours each night.

That solves it. If space matters go for Seabourn or Regent

Firstly space on a cruise ship is far more limited than shore based. A suite at 45sqm would be an ordinary room , a deluxe balcony at 20sqm would be a small room on land The common currency for comparing space across ships is passenger space ratio. Iona, Arvia and mega ships less than 30 Aurora and traditional ships 35 to 40 Saga 60 Seabourn etc 75 to 80. It's how they use the extra space. The traditional ships with club dining had to accommodate half the passengers at any one time. If you want true freedom dining no queues you need nearly as many seats as passengers, ie twice the space of club From what we hear on this forum, with queues on Ariva on Iona, this is not the case, people question if they need to use some tables three times, and think they have less seats per passenger than traditional ships. Saga is the only line to publish how many seats it has (see guide to SOD) 740 in MDR plus speciality, 300 in grill. 1040 for 890 guests. They have done this by sharing and less space between twos.They could have had more space with less tables, but then that would mean more potential for queues.. Cunard to give everyone in grills their own table is tightly packed , but still two sittings for majority of ship. I expect the expensive ships they still prioritise number of tables , and no queues over space between tables. Not being able to get a table when you want on a premium ship is a bigger no no , than slightly tighter tables , space is still at a premium

On QM2(PG) the vast majority, 95% of tables for 2 are in rows a few inches away from others. You quite rightly were given a table with more space around it. Only been on Aurora and we chose a table for 6, thus was years ago, there were very few tables for 2. Can't say anything about others. As someone said post covid tables for two are now what the majority demand. The only way to fit them in in mainline cruise ships is as close as possible. Going back to Saga with a passenger space ratio of 60 compared to Iona's 30. They must have made a conscious decision to go for shared tables and normal for cruise ships high density dining. This allows the rest of the public spaces, e.g. living room , Britannia lounge , library with a coffe bar etc to feel very spacious.

No different to majority of the Cunard or P&O layout, so really no tables for 2 on most cruise ships On P&O Epicurean is tables for 2 well spaced But beach house is even closer than MDR We like our privacy in morning , as not morning people and still half asleep, so glad to be having breakfast in Epicurean. However like a chat in evening, but plan to eat mainly in Epicurean most often , Sindhu and othes occasionally. Can you opt to share in Epicurean or does it work like a shoreside restaurant.

I think the major problem is towels left for hours on unused beds