AndyLovesCruises

Love this larger room, what would I ask for when booking? The cat's online are balcony or deluxe balcony but this extra space looks superb!

And I'm sure they will be fine for your in the future, but not for me...

A small family run business should know better.. It is what it is though.

**UPDATE** So having booked this some weeks ago, I reached out to the company this morning as I wanted to find out the exact drop off point. The website just says the 'short stay car park' I jumped on google maps and there was no short stay car part at Berth 46 the listed car parks that I could see were CPS Car Park AB Car Park Triangle Car Park Platform Car Park I jumped onto Portside meet and great as they had a chat box and left them a message asking for a name or a post code, the replied a few hours later. Here my question : Do you have the postcode or address for the short stay car park at Ocean Terminal? All the booking info just says look for the signs but an address would be most helpful. On google maps around Ocean terminal Berth 46 cannot see any short stay car parks. They just told me its 100 yards from the Berth, when I asked for a name or postcode they just repeated the answer but then said 200 yards from the berth. I pressed again and said it was a bit strange there reply was : Every terminal has its own short stay capark across the road from the ship..the is the SHORT STAY CARPARK............ 9:51 No idea why you find it strange!!! 9:52 is this your level of customer service? 9:52 Please book elsewhere .... 9:52 I think I will 🙂 Now am I being a difficult customer? Maybe. Having traveled from S'hampton a few times its usually gridlock on a saturday with 3-4 ships in port. I'm traveling with my wife and toddler so really don't have time to fath around, all they needed to do was maybe add a few images to their website and making the process simpler than '1,2,3' and I would have gone with it. Needless to say I canceled the booking and managed to find a spot with CPS. Its cost me another £50.00 but id rather pay double to be fair. I wont be leaving my Cayenne in their hands for a week!

I have booked with them now so we will see how it goes. With regards to the address not being on the website, I have never found a meet and greet company that show the off site address, personally would I want a site with 100's of cars unattended clearly advertised? Probably not. If I was running that business I would at least show images of the site, however looking on google earth its not a great space for marketing purposes, but is well fenced off and the owner would appear to be living on site. I'll will report back on this thread once I have had the trip 🙂

I absolutely trust Emma Cruises so if she's promoting it I would be VERY surprised if its dodgy. Famous last words!

There is a company called port side Southampton that's been forced to closed for using short stay NCP car parks and people where getting fines. I cant imagine Holiday Extras allowing scammers to use there platform ? Its just odd there is no reviews of them. What have you read ?

Portside Meet & Greet – Portside Southampton (portsidemeetandgreet.co.uk)

I have booked some parking through holiday extras and unable to find any online reviews which is now making me a little nervous. Am I allowed to share Z company that I have booked with there for feedback ?

I have seen horlicks on Iona reviews on you tube as recent as Feb 23 so you may be in luck!

Lots of posts on this about sleeping and natural light on google. Interesting reads

Hey Shelia, I think if you are considering it enough to ask the community here then its defiantly worth seriously considering the balcony option. You will know both the pros and cons having stayed in both which is a good benefit to have and has others have made very apparent in this thread there are pro's and cons for both options. Unless the sailing is full, maybe book an inside cabin, then once onboard after a week or two, find your feet and if the ship is not sailing full talk to guess services about moving. I did this on my first ever sailing, we had an inside cabin but moved on day four. It just wasn't for me but that's just my personal preference, others love them. Emma Cruises is one of the biggest bloggers on you tube and she LOVES them! Opinions are wonderful aren't they! Whichever you decide I'm sure you will have wonderful cruise.

There are other sources saying that the Fjords will soon follow suit, sadly as mentioned above the major lines are more into churning out new ships yearly than looking into their environmental considerations. Plenty of green washing of course! Barcelona which is the main departure port for most EU routes are going to be imposing larger tax's on cruise visitors which would be paid via the cruse fair . Restrictions on ports and ships will sadly increase the price of cruising across the board but I'm not sure if this is a bad thing? We recently had a trip to Mykonos (not on a ship) the old town was a no go during the day, most days there will 2 / 3 ships in port and these little towns cannot cope with an additional 6 / 12 k people in peak season! Have RCI seen this coming for a few years now? The latest ships donning the tag line 'we are the destination' 10 / 20 years from now will cruises to nowhere be the norm?

I agree but if you can afford it then why wouldn't you ? More so when you are on a 35 night sailing. They are definitely not a prison ( you get a window in prison) 😆

Thank you, we will probably head straight to the kids club when we board and check out the venue first to make sure we feel comfortable 🙂

We sailed in Jan this year when my son was 15 months, overnight in the buggy with black out cover no problems whatsoever. We watched shows ate meals in noisy MDR's he slept through the lot for 11 nights. His so much more aware now though at 2 YO i doubt we will be so lucky! Thank you for your advice.

35 days with no window / balcony IMO would be a big no and terrible for you mental health ! if you can afford the extra for me it would be a no brainer. On a 35 day cruise there would be times when you just want some privacy outside to chill and the balcony in your own space. It will be worth every penny. Just my opinion though!

Hi All, Traveling on Iona in a few weeks and have been trying to find out if anyone has any experience with the night nursery? Is it first come first served or do you book as part of the enrolling online before the cruise ? We will be traveling in the kids holidays so I'm guessing it could be hard to impossible ?! what will be will be! Any tips would be appreciated!

Hi All, I have been researching Hellesylt it though it looks stunning it appears there is very little to do unless you want to pay the crazy ship tour fee's. I was wondering is there are tour operators at the gate here? Iona (P&O) is no longer sailing past seven sisters which we would love to see and I was wondering if there are boat tours to book on the day or via the web that are not official cruise tours? There is very little on line .... We are going to be there in Aug. Many Thanks

Hopefully they will confirm this is also the case. Lets hope so! Enjoy your trip

Yet if you go tgo book now its still showing Olden and Hellesylt!

I was having a browse through the posts today and cam across this Thread. I am on the BH Sailing (Aug 26th -Sept 1st) I have clicked on the 'Your Itinerary' and Olden and Hellesylt have been removed, this is what mine shows : 26th Embarkation Day 27th Sea Day 28th Port day: Stavanger, Norway 29th Port day: Port day: Nordfjord (cruise-by), Norway INNVIKFJORDEN (CRUISE-BY), NORWAY NORDFJORD (CRUISE-BY), NORWAY 30th: Port day Port day: Storfjorden (cruise-by), Norway GEIRANGERFJORD, (CRUISE-BY) NORWAY SUNNYLVSFJORDEN (CRUISE-BY), NORWAY 31st: Haugesund 01st Sea Day 02th Disembarkation Does anyone else have this? When I booked the cruise we was stopping in Olden and Hellyest which where the two stops I wanted to get off out, is the above it the new change this I have been misssold and would hope I can get a refund! I have reached out to P&O and waiting to hear back

I have been moved by a nice lady on the phone. Deck 14 forward. All good !

It’s all down to taste and personal preference. i have met couples that have said to me they prefer TUI over RCL and NCL. Thats just plain incorrect to me IMO but who am I to judge !

.Are the Fjords known for there high winds ?