FamilyCruiserUK

Yeah those lads attitudes not my cup of tea, Emma has done some good informative blogs without filming everwhere and anyone.

Totally agree, if you walked up and down a beach with camera out people would rightly stop and ask question as to why and report you. Yet these influences/bloggers feel they can do what they want. We are now in a society where people get their phones out and film everything for social media "likes".

Ha i wouldnt go go-karting far, but certainly what should family friendly kids ships have. A bigger pool to start, not the small ones like arvia and iona, the inside pool area is poorly designed and closed late afternoons to set up for the evening shows. Waterslides is the new must have for children as well. We just come of MSC world Europa and the pool area and waterslides a massive hit. Even had adult only pools at the back and they were slightly bigger than arvias pools. Even MSC Virtuosa had much better pools then Arvia and Iona, and they are roughly same size ship. But yeah norway although gorgeous is not really a summer holiday destination, kids want sunshine and beaches and then parents can also chill whilst kids go play nicely.

Totally agree i dont mind people taking photos and that and showing their friends and family the ship but bloggers who usually get the cruise free or sponsored to go and then spend the whole time filming is annoying. Also you have no idea who they are and what they could be filming for their "bloggs"......

The last two summers across here in europe esp the med have been very hot. Check the weather forecast leading up to your cruise, normally the 14 day forecast is pretty accurate. Remember you are in Europe we walk almost everywhere in our cities, the cities are old and therefore the pavements or sometimes esp in greece and parts of italy are cobble stones, dirt tracks or gravel, so wear comfortable shoes, id go with trainers ( sneekers). Remember to bring hats as well. Electrical items have been covered. Bring euros used both in italy and greece, tipping is not really expected tbh, but as always can donif you want. As for maps i always use google maps its free and easy to use. Also gives you directions. Finally do not forget your bug spray, we do get mosquitos and other little annoying flys in europe so best ro be prepared.

I totally agree, and thats why P&O need to diversify more for both the adult only smaller.ship and the family markets who demand more. P&O have had relatively limited competition esp sailings from Southampton but that is changing with NCL,MSC and Royal. I hope they do build modern adult only ships, or even maybe have adult only cruises certain times of the year on Iona and Arvia. 🤔

My daughter suggested Mystery of the seas......which sounds kinda alluring. Lengend....not so much IMO

Nothing much floated my boat tbh. Except prices, but i want more then a cheap cruise, for a cheap cruise id go MSC. I do enjoy P&O to a degree but apart from the price and some specialist resturants the ships are not that exciting for families. I know my daughter (10) has strong feelings on this, she wants more than what P&O have or offer. Slides and bigger pools for example. I enjoyed Arvia but found her a little unsure of her place, not fully family but not fully adult with small standing room only pools. P&O can easily corner the family market if they just push the boat out a bit more with future family ship designs. So much promise but again played it too safe with Arvia and Iona.

Yeah totally agree with you and that's my point. Like you said you cant have fresh cooked food in the mdrs or buffet so you have to expect a lower quality food.

Having been on royal (Oasis), p & o (Arvia) and MSC (world Europa) within the last 12 months i can honestly say the food across all three have been hit and miss. MSC best pizza by far, worst buffet and expensive specialty restaurants. P & O best steak by far, but best food overall for price, but choice is limited at times. Royal best buffet by far and included food, but expensive specialist resturants. Alot is simply down to the way its been cooked. Most is mass produced in the kitchens and warmed up including the food in MDRs. It is subjective and i get he frustrations of the OP, but thats across the board on all companies really.

Totally agree princess is way more expensive then P&O cruises.

Topping up the wages of staff via a graturite, for a multi billion USD company is surely supporting the company in paying a crap wage to their employees....🤔🤷 In effect your suporting royals business model of paying low wages and not a fair wage to start with.

Didnt see any made to order station on world Europa last week. Like been posted before the pizza is fab.

Just measured our world europa ones from two weeks ago. The height of the luggage tag when folded as suggested by MSC( along the dotted lines) is 7cm wide and 13 cm high. We used the royal tag holder and had to squeeze it in. 👍

More then welcome. I agree, we went on oasis when she was first built and again after her refit. Much better after her refit. Will be interesting to hear about WA esp the food situation as this was the only real let down on our recent WE cruise. Have to say though the pizza on WE was better than Royal as it was made with proper cheese and tomatoes ( tin hat time, sorry americans)......

Having been on royal carribean oasis and having just completed a week on WE (5-12th april) in the Med i feel i have a good understanding of whats good and bad on each line, on the aspects that are similar. Ship: Oasis, just a better layout. Pools: WE, pools huge, deep, warm and so much space around the pools. Including the inside pool. Outside space : OASIS, this was close, oasis better over all but MSC better around the pools. Waterslides. WE for me drop slide was fun, never busy. Dryslide. OASIS, faster and better. Decor: WE, looked elegant. Royal sorry but not into brown colour pallet in rooms etc. Rooms: Inside both times, WE wins this. Better decor and more space. Public spaces: Oasis, central park board walk just better. MDR: Didnt use any on either ship. Buffet: OASIS. WE food tasty but very European, even though i am a brit i really didnt like the limited selection, plenty of fish though, baby octopus stew for example. Not for me. Speciality resturants: OASIS, more choice and cheaper. Mexican on WE was tasty for me but royal beats it. Price: WE so much cheaper, Entertainment: OASIS, diving and ice skating shows smashes MSC all day long. Oasis = 6 WE = 4 So over all, OASIS beats WE, if we look at same kinda class of ship. However some parts of WE are much better. Now if WA goes down the american food route then that would be much better. As the food is what really dissapointed me about WE.

Always going to get Noro in places where there are lots of people in semi confined places. Reporting: very few will actually report it for a number of reasons 1. You will be confined to the room, people dont want that. 2, You may have to have a doc visit or something and thats probably chargeable. I know my travel insurance would require a docs note from the ship. If i want ro make a claim. 3, you wont get anything from royal for doing what is right, compensation etc so why bother reporting it. Human nature. Also be honest now how many people do you actually see washing their hands now adays, and thats anywhere on the ship, buffet, toilets. Not very well enforced at all. So as far as royal are concerned theres hardly ever a outbreak. Except post cruise social media posts

Totally agree with you. Love royal, love their ships, love the food (mostly) love the staff. I have already paid for all that in my cruise fare, so i expect a known ship as i research it, staff to do their job, (im not needy so dont need to be pampered or served 1 minute quicker then the next person) and good food, well that one can be hit and miss lol. However being asked to pay in advance for a service that i have yet to receive is a no no. I will tip if i feel its above and beyond and on top of their basic job specifics but its my choice not royals. Graturites should be earned not expected. It would be morally better to pay the staff a known wage each month without the need to "fleece" your customers to make up the wages. Considering how much the CEOs get paid, and thats all the staff not just the few that get money from Graturites. However royal know, at least in the US, that passengers will pay them as its their culture. So if you keep paying them then people cant moan about the price rises. I have no idea how much the staff get paid and how much of that they have to pay for food and accommodation onboard, however i am sure that there isnt an issue with recruitment and the wage is soo much better then what they get in their home countries. I have seen the odd video he tube that explins some of it and tbh they have more disposable income then a lot of people i know. Royal will not put the Graturites in with the cruise fare, as one of their selling points is the initial advertised price which we all know always goes up once you start the booking process. I suspect they may start to do it in Europe as lots of cruise lines are now doing it, well for UK cruise website bookings, P&O, MSC, Marella and some NCL cruises. However the US is their primary market. But as i always say its up to the individual if you pay Graturites or not and how you tip the staff, and people should focus on themselves and not worries what others are doing. 👍

Royals uk website kept crashing this morning when i was looking at cruises,...,.......prob due to seeing the really high prices currently on offer lol 🤣 computer said no lol

Juat completed a weeks cruise on World Europa out of Barcelona. Have submitted a review if it helps anyone. https://www.cruisecritic.co.uk/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=714085 Any questions please ask away.

Hiya I think most cruises bow are full or very busy tbh. Its become very popular. Your dates should be ok in regard to kids on board. There will be a few but not that many as its not school holiday dates. Again as with any cruise, people will drink excessively and we all have no idea when and where that will be. We went on Virtuosa end of March last year. Was too cold to be outside in the pools but the pool deck are is massive and lots of sunbed space. In fact the pools on MSC are the best at sea IMO, we have just sailed on world europa and the pools on her were massive and deep. The high ropes was fun as well. The only time the ship felt busy was in the buffet, just felt squished and packed most of the time TBH.

Always disappointing when you pay a lot of money to go on a cruise. They can get jammed packed sadly. However i have to say, do your research.....even us across the pond we know not to cruise if you can help it during spring break or major US Holidays from the US. As for the pools yeah i agree with you there. Hate the small pools, standing room only. Just been on MSC world Europa from Barcelona and the main pool was huge, biggest and best at sea. Even inside pool was big and deep. The buffet is a buffet, will get packed and is a free for all. But to only be closed for 1 hour isnt really a hardship.....🤔 As for hand cleaning, same on royal and all other cruises. Not enforced at all now. Even on our cruise last week on Europa, hardly any one washed their hands even though there was a lady stood there with a bottle of hand wash..... I take my daughter out of school and in the uk we get a fine of £120 to take her out, however its much cheaper cruise prices and less children outside of school holidays. But that is dependent on my daughters school attendance, behaviour and work effort. She knows that and works very hard at school, carrot and stick work hard and she gets rewarded with a cruise holiday.

Royal shouldn't charge for the towels even if people steal them. Imo, they are the worst pool towels at sea.....

There are soo many variables as to why the cruise line decides to leave people behind. Its not like they can sit around all day with their feet up waiting. Port fees, as in keeping the port staff longer, security and rope people. Fuel to next destination if they have to speed up Same as aircraft at airports they have time slots to move in and out of ports with pilots Opening times of shops onboard. Money lost from sales. Keeping to schedule, prob lots of pressure from above. Longer hours for the staff, some may be cutting into their scheduled breaks, before their next job around the ship. And that's just off top of my head. By all means take any kinda of trip you want but make sure your back in time.

Health and safety. Imagine if someone got injured or fell in. Pilots are trained to board a vessel safely. NCL would be sued until their eyes bleed so it was safer for the captain to say no. Now the tour operator should take full responsibility and costs, but i doubt they will.