TigerB

Annoying when that happens, isn't it? I try to be pragmatic and think that if I'm happy with the price I paid then that's it. If it goes up or down afterwards then so be it. It doesn't stop me checking and second guessing myself though, that's just human nature. To answer your question about a possible upgrade, check out this thread: https://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/topic/2925169-upgrading-cabin-on-board-from-inside-cabin-to-balcony/#comment-65045328 If your cruise is below capacity, you may strike it lucky.

You're welcome.🙂 I've just double checked, and Norway is included in the Sky Passport at £2 per 24 hours.

We're cruising in June. The prices they are quoting now is £300 less than when I last checked three weeks ago, so that's quite good. Our grade is now £150 more than we paid at the back end of 2021, but with £160 more OBC than we got. So, we're £10 worse off. Right, I'm going to call to cancel our cruise and book again!😉

This subject was discussed recently here: https://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/topic/2913807-summer-2025/#comment-64788355

We've had this before, sending three identical forms in three separate emails for three separate cruises, and one of them being rejected because it was supposedly on an old form. So, no consistency. A training need, perhaps?

Who is your phone provider? I ask because some still offer free European data, and others may charge a nominal fee. For us, with Sky, it is £2 for 24 hours.

When I called I was told the rate would be as the original booking. I never expected it to be free, and don't know why it was; after all, there was nothing wrong with our inside cabin. Perhaps it was because the ship was only at 80% capacity. I was prepared to pay and had worked it out that, based on the original price paid, the cost of upgrade should have been £80 per night; I was prepared to barter it down to £40 per night. So, was really chuffed with the free upgrade. It'll probably never happen again, but I will try again in the future. What is even sweeter though is that we had a problem with the shower drains smelling in the upgraded cabin. It wasn't a vomit inducing smell, but was there in the background and, despite engineers coming a few times, never got sorted. I contacted P&O after the cruise to let them know that it hadn't been sorted; it wasn't a complaint, and I said that the cabin was perfect otherwise, and the cruise and ship were great, just that it would need looking into for the comfort of other guests. Anyway, we got a call a couple of weeks later, and received £500 OBC for a future cruise. 👍 So, needless to say, I am impressed with P&O's customer service.🙂

We were on the maiden Caribbean cruise on Arvia in January, and had an inside accessible cabin on deck 9. I called P&O four days before the cruise and was told that the only available accessible higher grade cabins were a suite, for which there was a wait list, one GB and one GA. During that call, the price to upgrade to the GA from our PF inside would have been just short of £1200 (£80 per night); and that was based on the select price we paid when we booked our cruise; it would have been more if we had booked later. The advisor suggested I ask once we were onboard as things may have changed, and we may get a better price. After embarkation, while it was quiet at reception, I took the opportunity to ask if there were any upgrades available, and more importantly, how much would they be. I had set myself an upper limit of £40 per night, but I really didn't expect there to be anything available. The next morning we had a letter outside our cabin, it informed us our upgrade request had been approved; we had been offered a mid-ship GA balcony on deck 11. The upgrade cost: a big fat £0.👍

As above; sometimes we receive acknowledgement fairly quickly, sometimes not. Always though, she is on the list when we turn up. Don't fret, it'll be fine.🙂

I was perusing the comments on the YT page as it was going on; practically all of them were positive. If I was a cynical person I might think all comments had gone through a P&O PR filter before appearing onscreen. 🙄

I think that was her attempt at irony; something the Americans don't really do.😏

What a waste of good rum!😯

Shouldn't that read, 'Xavier launch ceremony' or 'Our Via launch ceremony' ? 🙄 Yes, that is what is making this car crash more bearable, the live subtitles.😂. Poor Ludlow indeed.🤭

If anyone on here could predict how many spaces would be available in a public car park on a given Sunday, they probably would have won the lottery several times over by now.😉 To your advantage though, it's a Sunday so shouldn't be busy with shoppers until later on in the morning. If any cruisers parking in any of those has disembarked that morning, they may have already returned to their vehicle by the time you park. So, you really won't know until you enter the car park, but the chances are that you would likely get a space. You may be as well dropping off the other passengers and luggage at the terminal before parking. From Eastgate it will be about £7/8 in a taxi; if you're feeling fit it will take about fifteen minutes or les to walk.

Is this something new? Stavanger, Olden and Haugesund are all on our June itinerary, and none are shown as tender ports.

It's what our lass does when I've done wrong.🙄 (light blue touchpaper)

I've got three! 😯

Good luck on getting a savvy cabin steward.😉

You're correct, you can't as a single user. The poster may have been in a group where they were each in a queue. That said, it may be possible for a single user to be in a queue for one MDR and then also join a queue for a differently named MDR.

We were on Britannia in the Caribbean five years ago, when it was my 50th. My cards went up the first day. On the second day I received a generic 'Happy Birthday from P&O' card and a free spa treatment.👍 So, I thought that must have been down to our cabin steward noticing the cards and taking action. Last September we were again on Britannia, this time on a Baltic cruise, and it was our daughter-in-law's 30th birthday the day before we sailed. She did as I suggested and put up her cards the first day. She got nowt!🤭

Thanks for the report👍 Tell me, did you notice what it was like for wheelchairs; the pavements and terrain and such like? Is it like the centre of Bridgetown, where kerbs are high and drop down kerbs are few and far between?

On a recent trip on Arvia I saw that two adjacent cabins had the divider open between them, albeit they weren't conservatory cabin. I don't see though why all balcony cabins would be any different.

You're welcome.🙂 Do as I did, and call ahead to check how much an upgrade would be for each of the cabin grades you fancy; then you can set yourself a limit for how much you are prepared to pay. As I wrote, I was prepared to pay up to £40 per night; I felt very lucky to get it for nowt, and not sure it that will happen again. Our ship was at 80% capacity.

As wowzz writes, why wait until day 2? Go to reception as soon as you embark, while it is quiet. We were on the maiden Caribbean cruise on Arvia in January, and had an inside accessible cabin on deck 9. There was nothing wrong with it, and although it had been downgraded to a partially accessible cabin, my wife managed fine in her wheelchair. I called P&O four days before the cruise, I was told that the only available accessible higher grade cabins were a suite, for which there was a wait list, one GB and one GA. During that call, the price to upgrade to the GA from our PF inside would have been just short of £1200; and that was based on the price we paid when we booked our cruise; it would have been more if we had booked later. The advisor suggested I ask once we were onboard as things may have changed, and we may get a better price. After embarkation, while it was quiet at reception, I took the opportunity to ask if there were any upgrades available, and more importantly, how much would they be. I had set myself an upper limit of £40 per night, but I really didn't expect there to be anything. The next morning we had a letter outside our cabin, it informed us our upgrade request had been approved; we had been offered a mid-ship GA balcony on deck 11. The upgrade cost: a big fat £0.👍

You may have already tried, but if you haven't, do searches that include the numbers of all the other GD cabins. They all have sofas, some converting to beds, and some have pull-down beds; other than that, they should more than likely have the same layout. Are you aware that balconies of the aft cabins, particularly the more central ones, could suffer from water spills fron the infinity pool? BTW - welcome to the boards.🙂