HalifaxYorksCruiser

3 hours ago, Mrs Miggins said:

Seems to me that the UK deal is no better than those being offered recently plus its a very reduced list.

 

Yes it’s a very meagre offering

Just had a look - just 13 cruises listed between early Jan 2024 and late April 2024. Not sure if any represented any decent savings compared to earlier listings.

34 minutes ago, anniegb said:

Not for me.

Yes back up and running now.

Just had a Black Friday e mail (U.K.) but upon clicking through the Azamara website is down 🤣🤣🤣

1 hour ago, uktog said:

Very much depends on the port authorities I can name several where once you’re on you’re on. The position changes each year so I would leave it until around May 2024 and clarify directly with Azamara 

1 hour ago, uktog said:

Very much depends on the port authorities I can name several where once you’re on you’re on. The position changes each year so I would leave it until around May 2024 and clarify directly with Azamara 

Thanks. Would be really disappointing if we couldn’t have a walk around Monaco. We did get chance to walk around the port of Nice after embarking. I note on my booking Pursuit doesn’t leave Monaco until 9.30pm and the cruise description says:

19 hours ago, combine said:

We embarked at Monaco in April . Dropped our bags which were tagged for cabins and we were then directed through the buildings to the ship. Check in was carried out in Cabaret Lounge.

We were not allowed off after this. 😢 so if you thinking of dropping bags and wandering you’ll need to buck the system, which may or may not be possible. The port area was not very pedestrian friendly where we checked in , we only saw taxis drop people off. 

That’s disappointing to hear as we are embarking in Monaco on 6th July 24 and we were intending to have a walk around Monaco after lunch. We have embarked on previous Azamara cruises and been allowed off the ship to walk around the port of embarkation.

Thanks for the review. Have booked Pursuit 06/07/24 . Been on Quest twice and looking forward to trying Pursuit.

Was looking at a new year Caribbean cruise with P&O. As our nearest airport is Manchester will probably now wait and see what others think of the flights before booking.

interesting video:

41 minutes ago, DCGuy64 said:

Just out of curiosity, what line were you on? Was it P&O?

P&O Britannia

We paid 10% tax on drinks whilst docked in port ( Cadiz, Cartagena , Ibiza and Mallorca ) 18/08/23- 01/09/23)

A good explanation as to what happened in Palma

1 hour ago, db51 said:

Thought I’d start a live-ish review. Today is the third day and we are in Kiel. Sailed on Britannia in October last year, both times in an aft suite so it is easy to compare experiences. This year we are unfortunately in A726, I say unfortunately because right above us is the damaged ceiling from the Sunset bar which P and O are currently repairing at night., in fact all night. They drag chairs around from midnight right through until 7.00 in the morning. My husband went upstairs at 5 to ask them to stop dragging chairs around and they carried on despite his polite request. I phoned reception this morning explaining that we couldn’t sleep last night and was told that we should have phoned last night instead of going to speak to the staff doing the repairs. This is pretty typical of the behaviour of the crew this cruise. 
Free room service comes with a suite; on the first sea day I phoned to have room service lunch - I ordered 3 salads, a sandwich, a curry and a fried chicken. I was told by room service this was too much food to order, and it was only when I explained it was for 4 people that they completed the order after warning us it would be over sn hour to deliver. It was 2.00 - our food arrived after 3

At the formal dinner on the first sea day we weren’t offered any rolls and our waiter forgot to bring my daughters soup - on mentioning she had no soup he walked away quickly. We asked someone roses waitress to get her a roll do she had something to eat. 
Generally so far food is good, crew are grumpy, and the ship is VERY tatty.

We were on Britannia on its last cruise and my mother is on this Baltic cruise. The ship is looking a bit tatty in places eg carpets in corridors and public areas, seats in Crows Nest. Everyone we met  was complaining about dirty balconies ( we were due for them to be cleaned last Sunday in Palma but events meant that this was obviously aborted. Unfortunately all the balcony connecting doors in the areas due for cleaning were unlocked which meant that when the storm hit the doors swung back and forth against chairs and dinted and scraped the doors). We were not alone in noticing that the shower seals were suffering from black mould ( didn’t look to have been cleaned for years). Our bathroom sink was blocked and when the plumber removed the pop up plug we saw the drain was full of black sludge. So far as dining was concerned we were pleasantly surprised. The hot food was served on hot plates and was of reasonable quality. Our waiter Amin ( table for two - tables 198, 197 and 196 in Peninsular restaurant ) was excellent- being next to a window these tables are very nice and as we went to dine early we nearly always got these tables when we asked at the restaurant check in desk). 

8 hours ago, Advanced Diver said:

It is per person, you need your letter from P&O dating you missed a port and there was no compensation paid. I just claimed for 2 missed ports on our Baltic cruise and got £400 back (£100 pp per port).

P&O delivered to our cabin two letters addressed to each of us confirming the missed port and that there was no compensation paid for the missed port.

3 hours ago, xAlanox said:

We stayed at the hotel for 2 nights. @P&O SUE

 

@Megabear2 I would say there was definitely over 200 paying guest that left the ship. Yes P&O kept us all together at the Bellevue Apartments, correspondence was via SMS messaging. 

 

The Britannia ship was looking a bit worse for wear, we stayed on Deck 15 on the even side, one of the rooms was leaking so bad it was coming out to the deck corridor, there was blue cloths on the ground, but when you walked past, it was splurging as it was so wet. 

 

@HalifaxYorksCruiser I wish we did what you did, how was the rest of the ships journey and what did they offer you some sort of compensation?  Yes we did feel we were at the mercy of P&O arranging things for us. It was terrible, and if this becomes national news, no passenger would ever leave the P&O ship if they were ever asked

 

@molecrochip Yes they offered and paid 4 nights of Pro-Rata in to my account already. 

 

There is so many things unclear, like our onboard accounts, they just took money £170 from my wife’s account, which was cleared daily on the 30th August, when we were already away from the ship. 

Normally I presume we would get a statement on the last day. It’s looking more than likely we will get nothing and just have to pay whatever P&O charges. I will of course contact them on Monday to query this. 

In response to your question above the rest of the journey home was uneventful. As we were travelling at greater speed the wind across the decks was higher than it would have been ( higher decks were closed one day) . Other than the speed (23knots) it was the usual sea day activities. Everyone got £40pp whether they were really affected or not. We received no compensation for the missed port of Gibraltar and told to claim on our insurance. I have just checked my insurance and we get £50 but it’s not clear from the policy ( ours is a joint policy) if that is pp. To be fair Gibraltar was always going to be a bit of a rubbish day as it was only 4 hours in port. By the time you got off, got a taxi/ shuttle into town and back it left little actual time in port . 

We received a letter in our cabin ( deck 8 ) to say that we may be asked to leave . I just ignored the letter as it was pretty clear from others that had been down to reception that it was highly unlikely that anyone would be forced to leave the ship and be flown home. There is no way I would have voluntarily left the ship and left myself at the mercy of P&O making arrangements for hotel and flights as I feared they would just take the cheapest options. 

5 minutes ago, Bin man said:

Thanks for picture .Looks a bit of a write off wonder how long to replace a lifeboat or can it be repaired ? My neighbours car took 9 months to repair shortage of parts don't think they will have a spare lifeboat to fit 

Yes the lifeboat looks a write off. Further back I could see during our sailing that the railings around the canister style life rafts was badly damaged.

My personal thoughts are that day 2 in Palma should have been aborted as it was already predicted by the Captain on day one that the weather on day two would be wet and windy. The advance weather charts did show storms for Sunday. We had got off the ship to stretch our legs and so had to endure a miserable 5 hours in a disused terminal with no lights, water or food. Not sure £40pp OBC makes up for a wasted day.

I suspect the resulting costs to P&O  ( damage to Britannia and the merchant tanker, port costs, tug costs, repatriation of passenger costs, additional fuel costs etc) might make P&O look in the future at relocating the ship to a safer port when bad weather forecast- in this instance Valencia might have been a better option instead of staying in Palma.

Desert - Granachan

My wife had the beef tenderloin but the mushroom crust seemed to be absent. My best dish of the cruise was Lemon Sole at one of our formal nights.

beef tenderloin:

I only took one menu photo.

Here are pics of our 3rd formal night menu earlier this week on Britannia with pice of my choices- crab starter and lobster/prawn main. We got chocolates on the third and fourth formal night. We went to the Glass House on the first formal night (day 2) as I correctly guessed it would be slow service in MDR which other diners confirmed it was. Happy to report that all food in MDR served hot on hot plates other than salads etc of course which were served nice and chilled. We were on anytime dining but dined early and therefore nearly always got ( as requested at Peninsular reception) table for 2 ( table 198) which was next to a window and we had great service from waiter Amin.

We left Britannia about 9am this morning and I took the below pics from the walkway. There was further damage towards the aft but could not photograph that from the walkway.

1 minute ago, NMcAllister said:

And we are moving 🎉🎉🎉

Ooh yes it’s so smooth I hadn’t noticed

6 minutes ago, P&O SUE said:

Just seen a positive post of some pax enjoying celebration night as they sail off!

Yes the food in MDR was the best Celebration Night food we have had. The lemon sole was lovely. The biggest laugh was at about 7.15 during dinner in MDR when the entertainment or guest relations manager came on the PA to say that tonight’s dress code had been changed to casual - everyone in MDR was in formal attire ! A bit late to tell everyone. 

2 minutes ago, majypoo said:

Booked with the next cruise on Sept 1st, do we think it will be cancelled this week?

I don’t see any reason to. At worst maybe a few passengers might get cancelled if the lifeboat situation hasn’t been sorted. 

6 minutes ago, Esprit said:

We’re the 321 passengers selected because of their muster station location close to the damaged lifeboat!

Once you have been assigned one how can it be changed mid cruise!

 

I don’t think anyone was forced off. Think there were enough volunteers plus pax on freebies ( eg relatives of crew) . No one has ever announced exact numbers. The last 2 coaches have left but didn’t see how many other coaches have gone before. 

Captain just finished his announcement. All but 2 of the departing pax are now on their way to hotels. captain didn’t say when they were flying but indicated flight delays were easing.  Last 2 pax leave shortly. No idea what their compensation is. We are sailing sometime tonight. Captain says that we will have some obc “ to enjoy a drink”.