Camberley

We were in 4192 recently and no issues at all.

31 minutes ago, TheMichael said:

 

Forgive me for doubting your level of expertise here. I'm sure that if you could provide your training and credentials, that might alleviate some skepticism.

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

On 5/23/2024 at 7:30 AM, TheMichael said:

We've been told that it's real butter by not only those of us who know how unsalted butter tastes, but also the actual Executive Chefs in charge of the butter, so at this point people calling it "fake" are either delusional or believe in conspiracy theories.

It’s is quite an art that they make the whipped up, so-called real butter taste so cheap and synthetic.

9 minutes ago, zap99 said:

We got back from Arvia a couple of weeks ago..So many places to eat..We only ate in the MDR 3 times. Not ,grim, pub like  or joyless by any stretch of imagination. In fact probably 3 of the best meals we had eaten in MDR's on various P&O ships. Folk onboard seemed happy. Perhaps they don't know about the cheese wheel days🤣

Yes so many places to eat apart from the MDR and their other free venues are decent. But it is really down to personal tastes, isn’t it? But I do find MDR meals mostly as I described: very occasionally it is actually good in the evening. That said, lunches in the MDR are usually much better than evenings. 
 

We should pop up photos in lifts and elsewhere onboard of majestic cheese wheels of years gone by to plant subliminal messages….

We flit between planning elements of our cruises and taking it day by day, but we do like to book our Speciality restaurants for a foodie treat. We would love to just turn up at the speciality restaurants on the evening without having booked in advance, but on the last few P&O cruises they were just too full and prebooking was the safest bet.
 

If the MDR food were better than canteen/budget pub food (we often find it vary between grim, joyless or functional) then we would happily dine just in the MDRs. We have found some similar cruise companies to be a step up with their MDR food, but for us it is the speciality restaurants on P&O make this no frills yet affordable cruise company a touch more special. 

Leisurely embarkation lunch, followed by a few hours enjoying the balcony with a cocktail or two and then our first night speciality restaurant. Ok, most nights are a speciality restaurant but the first night is the most special!.
 

For us this really gets the holiday started.

Do as you would normally do on your usual cruise lines and I am sure you will enjoy it. On the few Cunards we have now done, we did just that, in keeping with recommendations onboard re: attire etc (I am sure there are some who travel and just want to be contrary!). With the exception of very few snooty passengers who would never be happy with anything in life and seemed to moan at everything and treat crew with disdain, the passengers were really lovely: chatty, engaging, mutually respectful etc…fabulous crew, too.

We found it was far removed from an intimidating ship experience as some had led us to believe initially and the whole atmosphere onboard was lovely. 

They have a really good selection of films especially. We have watched a few late into the evening on occasion.
 

Oh, and I particularly like channel 99.9 which is a compilation of Ludlow videos over the years. Truly thrilling

14 hours ago, david63 said:

It is simple - report smoking to reception and if nothing happens then a letter to the Capitan.

Absolutely right

We love Princess - now loving them a bit more than P&O - although we sail with both and feel each offers better things than the other in places. For us, Princess curiously still has a slightly less “mass market” vibe to it when on board and doesn’t feel quite as cheap/penny pinching as P&O does in areas.
 

But yes, their breakfasts were a poor second to P&Os: ugh, the bacon. And without sounding like I’ve escaped from a Carry On film, trying to get a good sausage on board was a saga! But we found Princess’s food quality in the MDRs much better overall and more variety, although we slightly prefer P&O’s speciality restaurants. 

We usually do aft suites as we love them, but we did have a fwd suite to the Med and Canaries. The inside suite was fabulous. We were sometimes able to use our fwd balcony at sea but it was mostly not a comfortable experience with the wind. But fine for the time in port when we got back to the ship although the balcony, while being a long corner balcony, was very narrow. I know, first world problems and all that!
 

If were us and that’s all they had left, for the price and given the limited P&O suite perks compared to other companies, we would not book a fwd again and would instead either do a different cruise or use a different company that had the aft balcony/other experience we wanted. That said, I know many love the fwd suites. Just not for us again,

8 hours ago, Peter Lanky said:

we've only been on one P&O cruise and I found it acceptable, but not very inspiring,

Oh this needs to be snuck into their advertising campaign as a passenger quote. Love it 🤣🤣

Some love it and we wished we did. Once should have been enough for us but we tried again a few cruises later (still Iona) just in case we had an off night. But now we have learned! The (pretty much the same) menu itself each time was very good (on paper!) but the execution of most of our dishes barely rose above adequate. It was a chaotic, fairly rushed affair, in pretty grim surroundings, adding up to being culinary meh and an experience so far removed from the celebratory event it was trying to be. Such an anticlimax but it might be better on the smaller ships.

I booked for several visits to Epicurean and other specialty restaurants for our July cruise when I saw the 120 day thing: having found previously for busy cruises the slots seem to be booked up. And I see it is now back to the normal “coming soon”. Thankfully they still appear as booked on the personaliser, credit card has been charged and when I emailed P&O to check the bookings are definitely in place they confirmed: and with surprising speed. 

I have to say I usually find the vast majority of these cruise bloggers and vloggers to be self-indulgent and pretentious: the whole promotion of their so-called “influencer” status. No thanks: they’re just filming and posting stuff. IMO they can be useful but sometimes even so called “amateurs” who offer short pics,videos and info on forums etc..do it just as well or badly. Sometimes not!

While many are at least respectful of other passengers, we had a vlogger try to organise a “shoot” on Sky Princess the other week: he and his fellow vlogger were trying to stop people going past so they were not in their way as they filmed themselves and a few chosen ones who were fawning around them. And boy were they annoyed that other non vloggie folk were ignoring them and went past anyway. And last year on Iona a vlogger at a table next to our table asked us to be quiet for a few mins while she spoke about her meal into her device. 

Ok, some are fine to watch on YouTube and some can be entertaining - in very small doses - but I find for most it is mainly just about me, me, me.

Just from a personal view, it’s very much a “no frills” cruise company, but arguably without being too tacky. For the prices involved I think it’s absolutely fine, even in school holidays, but not particularly special if you crave something a bit more upscale - but it is, I feel, decent value for money for what it is.
 

We used to just do P&O but we now do far fewer P&O cruises in favour of other cruise lines which tick our boxes much better, but we still keep our options open with P&O.

52 minutes ago, yorkshirephil said:

I have also tried some of the desserts as they looked fine from the description but were tasteless. We used to have a local cafe where the lady who ran it made various vegan cakes and pastries which were delicious, so it can be done.

It can indeed be done and there are some phenomenal foods that are any combination of gluten-free, dairy-free, low sugar, low salt, suitable for vegans etc…..

Sadly, a combination of using cheap alternatives for the key ingredients (which are themselves often ultra-processed rubbish), and making the dishes without any real conviction or love of food, will rarely a result in a good dish! And for me, a good dish - be it suitable for vegans, meat eaters or whatever - should be able to stand up well in its own right rather than a very obvious afterthought to “tick a box”.

Ah I came to this thread thinking it was about the movie under the stars but with a typo 🤣

We are also likely to be jumping ship as for us P&0 has become far too watered down and the last couple of cruises with them has been only about adequate overall. We are finding that even the extras you pay for are becoming less value. We have one paid for this summer with family on Arvia…..But despite my criticisms of them - and praise where it has been due - I always board with a very positive mind, so fair play if they win me back over: I am giving them every chance to - and I really hope they do. 
 

Granted, other cruise companies have also made cuts and changes, but for us some of those in a simpler price bracket we have also done have offered better value and a better experience. Again, this is just how we feel: I appreciate how subjective it all is.

This thread is now well and truly saturated 

18 hours ago, Cruisemeister2002 said:

Sorry for this. But obviously "To infinity and beyond"

Well, this issue has certainly generated quite the Buzz!

9 minutes ago, d9704011 said:

You've actually done that?

No although it sure seems like it at times

18 hours ago, tonit964 said:

I agree completely but currently Princess is saving me a ton of money by still allowing smoking in the casinos.

I will not drop one penny in there as long as it's smoking.

Absolutely the same: it’s like diving into an ashtray and rubbing it all into your clothes, skin and mouth. Just a horrid, horrid experience 

I’m so sorry about this and how you were treated onboard: a little concern for patients and looking out for them more can go a long way. I hope it doesn’t put you off cruising but I understand how you will be feeling at the moment,

17 hours ago, HappyGiraffe said:

Based on our experiences of Iona last year, the two weaknesses in the design seem to be that at times the "overspill thingy" filled up faster than it could drain, so if there was much movement in the ship then the water rolled up the nice conveniently-angled glass ramp and onto the balconies with a big splosh (especially from the corners if the ship rolled side to side) and that if someone was happily splashing water over the glass pool wall and managed to hit the right diagonal angle, there's not enough distance between the corner of the pool (on the right hand side of photo above) and the side of of the overflow to stop the water overshooting the overspill tray. We saw one little monkey who discovered this loophole and was making the most of it until a staff member caught up with him!

It really is a dreadful flaw - and each time we’ve been on Iona we’ve seen from that deck the deliberate splashing by folk on the pool - and have been with friends on their balconies below as water cascades down. And normal swimming etc in there doesn’t cause this waterfall onto the balconies below. Personally I’d throw the offending splashers and family off the ship at the next port 🤣