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On 9/12/2022 at 7:22 PM, Methuselah55 said:

I'll keep looking but intend to find the help desk as soon as we board and get the app reinstalled so I can get the meals sorted.

If you remember how you accessed the "App" every time you wanted to do something with it on your last cruise, you should find that doing the same routine will work straight away once aboard your up-coming cruise, without the need to get the Help Desk to reinstall it.

Just off Ventura and we used a UK 3 pin adapter with a USB port in the back of it to charge our phones.

Re the thread on here about the problem with pre-booking seats in the Theatre, we have just got off Ventura and received a copy of

the "Cruise Log - Notes from the bridge".

The first sentence states:

"Saturday September 3rd 2022: After a busy turnaround, Ventura departed Southampton with 1,099 crew and 6,949 (sic) guests, together with enough stores to last the duration of the cruise."

I wondered why she was rather low in the water and the sea kept lapping into our Level 12 balcony as we crossed the Bay of Biscay!

Reece.

Yes, I am currently still waiting for a standard insurance letter from P&O confirming a missed port on July 15th that I need in order to claim against my policy.

Email replies promised me a response in 6 to 8 weeks (sic), so went the telephone route and received promises of 5-7 working days but am now at 19 working days and still counting!

Have chased the telephone route - all at P&O are amazed that I haven't received said document; they would process it again (I should receive in a couple of days); plus the supervisor will be alerted to my predicament; profuse apologies.

Result? - nothing, of course.

"We particularly spent a lot of time selecting our cabin on C deck due to the bigger baloneys"

It seems P&O's Select booking system is a load of baloney too!

"currently for those calls it is a non observed home test the day before."  Nope!

"At the moment you just have to declare that you've had a negative covid test in the previous 72 hours." Nope!

Sorry to be the pedant again, but although the manner of testing info is correct, it is currently 2 days before embarkation - I should know as I am leaving on a P&O cruise on Saturday!

Just issued by P&O:

"E‑tickets to be replaced by boarding passes.

Please note: We no longer require e‑tickets for check-in, and the option to download and/or print them will be removed from My P&O Cruises early‑September 2022. You will only require your boarding pass and luggage label, which will be available 21 days before you embark."

E‑tickets to be replaced by boarding passes

Please note: We no longer require e‑tickets for check-in, and the option to download and/or print them will be removed from My P&O Cruises early‑September 2022. You will only require your boarding pass and luggage label, which will be available 21 days before you embark.

I assure you that posts 5, 8 and 9 are correct!

I am on a September 3rd cruise and received an email from P&O in July specific to my particular cruise with the information itinerant_life posted.

Just wanted to prevent anyone on "my" cruise or earlier being panicked by the doubts being raised, especially given P&O's stupidity in now only showing what happens after September 5th and no longer describing the situation for current cruises up to that date too.

33 minutes ago, emam said:

 

 

 

 

Testing requirements

Changes to testing requirements: Guests on cruises after 5 September 2022 whose testing requirements differ from the below policy will be contacted directly for their upcoming holiday.

Unless otherwise communicated, all guests aged five years and over must take a lateral flow/antigen test within two days prior to embarkation of the ship. This can be at any time in the two days before or on the day of embarkation. Guests will no longer need to provide a test certificate, however, they will be asked to confirm the test has been taken, with a negative result, as part of the pre-boarding health declaration at the cruise terminal/airport.

Just in case anyone is unsure, cruises starting before September 5th also do not now require proof of a negative test to be obtained/shown.

Just had a mental image of the Queen Mary filling up with E10 at pump number 4!

"Was almost perfect on Britannia the other week: well, apart from broken glass in the serenity pool that found its way into my partner’s foot."

P&O are liable - end of.

IMO you really should take this up with P&O to at least pay for your medical bills.

When you book a tour on P&O you also get an email confirmation. I assume this is also true of Cunard but can't remember.

The email will show the names of both parties on every tour booked and the price paid (with my wife described as "mistress" rather than Mrs!).

It is a clumsy design on P&O but does contain the true facts, whereas elsewhere it often only shows me (I assume as the person who made the booking) rather than both of us.

Print it off and take it with you - then you are safe.

13 hours ago, FangedRose said:

Nah. That's pins and needles.

Talking of pins, did you know that in the U.S. split pins are called cotter pins, whereas in the U.K. a cotter pin is associated with fixing pedals to the cross axle on an old bike?

We didn't get notification at all before we left - it does seem to vary a lot!

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Rule of thumb - 2nd night (assuming Day 2 was a sea day).

Also night before the last night, again assuming that day was a sea day.

Never on the evening of a port call day.

Approx 2 per week, as FangedRose said, so you can often guess pretty accurately from those observed practices.

5 hours ago, david63 said:

Bear in mind that there may be a cancellation fee, depending on the lead time for the excursion and I don't know if this has been re-introduced post Covid but pre Covid excursions were slightly more expensive when booked onboard than when booked pre cruise.

On board>

No fee when I had to cancel due to falling up (sic) the stairs on the ship and injuring my knee. They had a waiting list so that may be why I was refunded even though within a day of the planned tour - within two days you are not entitled to a refund.

Before you go>

Yes, pay before you go and you get the discount.

Pay on board and it will use up your OBC first. However, if no OBC left you will get the discount on board and your card will be charged, of course.

Regarding the original question, you cannot cancel pre-paid tours within the last couple of days of setting sail and get the money back on your card - you're too late see conditions explaining this. Nor can you book them during this period, I believe.

Also if you do cancel prepaid and it is full, then you have shot yourself in the foot!

Also if you try to book again onboard you will have no priority over those still booking so it becomes a risk that your chosen tours become fully booked between the time you cancelled and tried to rebook on board.

All far too risky for my peace of mind - I pay before the cruise, get the discount and have done with it!

You will receive an email from P&O about three weeks before you sail telling you that can now access this information on your P&O log-in site.

They give you a time - there is no choice.

I think the best course of action is to phone Cunard for definitive information - good luck!

You also have to consider this:

P&O charge a price to provide you with a means of conveyance and all that it provides in the ship for x days - it's called a cruise, not a taxi. It also plans to let you off at certain places the ship intends to visit.

If those places have to be changed, you are still getting the on-board cruise experience for x days, i.e. the major part of the offering, from P&O's point of view, with, in this case, the same number of ports.

Unfortunately, and I've done it too, some of us tend to see the product being sold as a means to enjoy the intended ports as the fundamental purpose of the trip, but I suggest P&O would argue that this is not the prime mover of the cruise being offered, and their booking terms that we sign up to state that ports may have to be changed.

I am not an apologist for P&O, and have been affected, prior to sailing, by issues with St. Petersburg and Venice, the effects of changes in emission regulations, port berth availability, etc, but I don't think this entitles me to claim that the contract can be avoided, much as I would have liked to have had that option.

1 minute ago, AnnieC said:

 You are, perhaps, confusing what P&O will try and get away with (and usually succeed)

I'm not confusing the two stances - just stating the current position as both posters, including the original one, confirm, and I believe it will not change even though I agree it is unfair.

De facto as opposed to de jure.

18 hours ago, emam said:

Have you checked your cruise guides in your personaliser? They give you some distances and a little map.

I am logged in to my cruise but am struggling to find these - whereabouts exactly are these cruise guides please?

Posts 12 and the first part of #20 are the relevant ones here in practice.

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1 hour ago, kruzseeka said:

Do you remember how long it took for the refund to go back on your card?  We paid for an excursion prior to departure but were unable to go (isolated).  We were assured by Reception that it was in hand, I also rang P&O on our return but are still waiting three weeks later.  

If you mean you cancelled it once on board because you couldn't go on it (Covid?), do you remember how many days or hours notice you gave Reception on the ship?

There is a cut-off (something like within 2 days of the tour) which means you cannot get a refund thereafter unfortunately - it's in the terms of issue.

22 hours ago, slug33ukuk said:

We have provisionally booked our excursions,  but have not put in card details as yet. We are thinking of canceling them last minute along with putting in card details and booking them as soon as we get on board using our OBC. We know there is a chance that the ones we booked might be gone, but we have a lot of OBC and its the only way to spend it.even if we don,t get the "discount" We are not "big"drinkers, and the drinks package would cost over £1000 anyway which is extortionate, cheaper to pay as you go for us.

Anyone else had this situation ?

Yes - exactly describes our situation too.

We have found that tours placed in the basket pre-cruise can be left there for a very long time without the basket being cancelled/timed out. We hope this means that even if a trip sells out, our places are still there, but we don't know for sure. This would let us "reserve" tours until just before the cruise and only pay for them at the last minute (say, a week before departure) in order to still get the discount.

However, as you say, it would be best to use the excessive OBC and therefore not "pay" for them at all, but this means waiting until the cruise starts, not getting the discount, and running the risk of your chosen tours being full.

A dilemma indeed!

This time we have failed safe and paid for the tours pre-departure.

Incidentally we had a port changed on our last cruise, due to bad weather, and the discounted amount we had paid before boarding was refunded to our card - that was fine.  However the replacement port hurriedly put on tours for which we were charged against our OBC and so no discount!

but the issue is that a full refund is never going to be offered for you to accept!