TigerB

Welcome home Andy & Michelle, and the rest of the gang. I'm glad you had, in the main, a great cruise.

I know what his answer will be, same as mine: YES! Some folk like it, but many more don't. We've done it just the once, and won't bother again. But if you like getting dressed up to eat in a canteen, where you are right on top of your neighbouring table, then go for it!😉

That's good. It was the Assistant F&B Manager on Iona that told me in February the next increase will be in May/June time and it would be 'across the board'.

Thanks Andy👍🏻 Those are the same prices as February, so it looks like the anticipated price rise on drinks hasn't happened yet. Mind you, you may wish to check the physical menus too; in October we encountered a problem where the prices on the My Holiday app/non-app were showing old prices, whereas the physical menus reflected the September price increases. That was a fleet wide problem.

If you are really early they may direct you to the 'naughty queue' and you will have to wait your turn. If you are no more than about thirty minutes early they may send you straight in; it will probably depend on how busy it is and who it is you first encounter. If you have someone in your party that requires special assistance, and if you all need to stay together, you should be directed to wait inside the terminal, or may even be directed to proceed directly to check-in. Either way, you can drop off your luggage and return, if that suits.

Here's hoping you and your gang have a great time. Will you be walking about barefoot to really benefit from that new carpet experience?🤭 I have one request, if you don't mind; can you please report back on food and beverage price increases, which should be happening about now, if not already? Perhaps, if you're able to, post a couple of photos of a physical bar menu or a screenshot from one on the My Holiday app/non-app. Ta muchly 🙂 Again, have a great time.

Welcome to the boards @CharlieNo 👋🏻 Regarding Sindhu, you choose what you want from the menu, at the prices shown. When you get your bill, all food will be discounted by 20%. They then further discount your bill by the £10 pp pre-payment. You won't find drinks prices away from the ship. Perhaps someone onboard now may be able to photograph and post one of them for you. Mind you, if they haven't already, prices should be increasing about now.

@84k, bear in mind that they only charge for the first two trips in each port; handy if you are in port for a while and wish to make multiple trips into the centre. However, I'm not sure if that extends to overnight stays, or if the clock restarts on the second day. When we were in Stockholm in 2022, the shuttle buses dropped off and picked up on Strömgatan, outside the opera house... From there it was a steady thirty minute walk to the Vasa museum. In Helsinki we were dropped off near to a ferry terminal...

If you do have late boarding, and are waiting at the terminal for your slot, you can access the My Holiday app/non-app there to make any bookings. You need the last six digits from your boarding card to do so.

I'll second what @Selbourne wrote. I really enjoyed it, and thought it represented good value for money, more so if you pre-book. There are two menus, a meat/fish one and a vegetarian one. You can pick individual dishes from each; that suited me as I am a pescatarian and had a fish dish from that particular menu.

A typical day at P&O Towers..... "Hey lefty, what are you doing"? "It's a secret righty, what are you doing"? "I'm not telling you".

For £42 I bet you're secretly hoping that will include a bit of twerking while he's sat on you!🤭 I am quite sure that when he was on Iona in February the onboard price was about £36. So, an increase of almost 17% more or less confirms what I wrote in the other thread about the Assistant F&B manager previously telling me about price increases across the board. @cuatbar58 quoted Epicurean as now being £35 onboard, that being another price hike of almost 17%. It will be interesting to hear from those who are onboard now, or cruising in the next few weeks, what the other increases are on food and drinks, and if almost 17% is going to be the standard increase for all items.

In February, during a conversation with the Assistant F&B Manager on Iona, he did say that in May/June time there will be another price increase, but it won't be just on drinks; it will be across the board. That would explain the price hike for Epicurean; an increase of almost 17% though is quite a hike!😯 I don't know what's going on with Limelight though, with the inconsistencies that folk have encountered, and the response from P&O about the venue never attracting a 20% discount, as quoted by @AndyMichelle on the other thread We have had a discount on pre-booking Limelight previously, albeit that was in 2022, but it was exactly 20% as far as I can recall; it was rounded up or down to the nearest pound.

I've found that too with the app/non-app, not just with Beach House either. Politeness and a smile with an actual human goes a long way.

That's strange as on our February cruise it was £9.50 onboard. As I replied to Andy, the OP paid £7.60, which is 80% of £9.50. You've had me second guessing myself, so I've just checked our credit card statement, which confirms the full price was £9.50; we paid £7.03, which is 20% off that, and then the Peninsular discount applied.

A discount also applies to Limelight, Andy; or at least it did. It wasn't exactly 20% though, it was rounded to the nearest pound. As I recall when we booked it once, the price quoted online was £22 each, and onboard it was £28. The price of £9.20 shown for Beach House is strange; the OP paid £7.60, which is 80% of £9.50, and it was that price on Iona in February.

You pay the discounted price upfront. Any additional charges when you dine are applied to your onboard account.

If it is showing as £9.20 online, then that is a typo; the full price should be £9.50. But, as @happy v correctly states, you get 20% discount for pre-booking, hence £7.60.

After paying over £6 for just a regular bottle in Lidl the other day, I did wonder how my shares in the Genco Pura Olive Oil Company are performing these days.🤔

As @Lee117five0 writes, it's a regular meal in a speciality restaurant. We ate in Epicurean, which I booked before the cruise to make sure we got the time slot. Our son and daughter-in-law joined us, so I changed it to a four-person meal when we were onboard; I used the voucher for the birthday girl and I, and the pre-booking took care of the kids. If you get the cake delivered to your cabin, you can expect something like this... I was called on her birthday by Room Service to ask what time I wanted it delivered. To make the day even more special we had breakfast in Epicurean, good value at £8.50 each.

Ours are with HL too, and as they weren't one of the brokers with a direct link to Stockperks, I also had to upload a screenshot. Three days later I received confirmation of our share holding, and was invited to input the cruise details. Within about half an hour I received confirmation of the OBC and also a new booking confirmation. To be fair, under the old method of sending the proof of shareholding direct to Carnival, it's both been quicker and taken longer. If I were your Selbourne, I would chase up with Carnival.

For the discerning gentleman: tracky bottoms and a 'wife beater' vest?🤔

To make some of the clientele that P&O are trying to attract these days feel more comfortable, like they are eating in a 'Spoons🤭 (he says, with tongue in cheek; or is it?)