TigerB

Arcadia

Sorry to be blunt, but you are indeed making a fuss. You paid for the lowest grade balcony cabin on a saver rate in the knowledge that you could have a poor location; all of the EF cabins on that ship are forward, and above or below public areas, those on E deck being above the theatre. You have jumped five grades and now have a midship balcony cabin which, given the length of your cruise, would have cost you several hundred pounds more had you selected EA at at time of booking, and probably several thousand pounds more if you had chosen the select fare. Even if you have been given one of the cabins that are overlooked by the glass lifts, you are still lucky and have saved a lot of money. So, as you you suggest you may do, perhaps you should just accept it. That said, I hope you have a wonderful cruise.

That is probably so, but it's not just cruise lines that appear to do the bare minimum for physically disabled folk. I'm thinking about hotels, entertainment venues, public transport and the like; and don't get me started on parking. There is money to be made in tapping into the purple pound, but a lot of service providers cannot grasp that.

I didn't take offence by your use of the word silly, sorry if it came across that way.😟 I knew you were being ironic, and that is why I put it in inverted commas, to accentuate that. 🙂

Out of curiosity LA30, by how many grades have you been upgraded?

It's not just 'silly' folk who book early, some of us have to out of necessity; I'm referring to those that need an adapted cabin. Being in that demographic, we have to plan our holidays carefully and well in advance to secure to most suitable accommodation. Even with the larger ships, the ratio of adapted cabins to regular ones is woefully inadequate; so, they have got us by the short and curlies. 🙄

We are. The roll call thread is here...

White ones 😉

I didn't know Penthouse had an online presence. Say no more!😉🤫

I don't get the cloak and dagger stuff either.🙄 Come on someone, which site?

And if you don't pay that how do they decide who's companion you sleep with? Selected at random by P&O, or is it one of those cruise cards in a bowl scenarios? Asking for a friend.

Well, Lobstermania was our limit; made a net profit of £2.50 over the fortnight, happy with that!🦞💰😄

As Wowzz says, check Google for shops that would be convenient to you and where you stay before you board. I'm not sure if you are a frequent visitor to the UK, but all shops that have an alcohol licence will generally sell all types of alcohol. It's not like some US states where liquor is sometimes sold separately. Bear in mind that the allowance per passenger is 1 litre of wine, Champagne, beer, spirit, or liqueur. If you intend on taking beer then that will equate to just two three bottles/cans, depending on the size.

We're on the third (now second) in January. Just two weeks ago we were going to book the maiden voyage when the special fares dropped. We decided not to because it may have taken the shine off our intended cruise, and our kitty wouldn't thank us for putting her in the cattery again.

Thanks for the replies, folks.👍 I've only just gone and booked the bloomin' thing. 🙂🛳️

I'm looking at the above for September 2024, which has the following ports of call: La Coruna Valencia Marseille Barcelona Alicante Cadiz I would be interested to know from folk who have been to those ports on a larger ship if it is necessary to use transfers from the port to the town, and if any of them are likely to use a tender. The missus is a full-time wheelchair user. Thanks

We were on Britannia this September with our adult children and their partners; our eldest is a coeliac. She has cruised once before, with Marella, and said the buffet on that cruise offered more choice but the restaurants on Britannia were much better. On our first evening in the Peninsular I asked our waiter, Asanta, if we could have the same table whenever the eight of us dined in there, or be in his section if fewer than eight dined together. That was so he and his assistant waiter, Anindya, would get used to our likes and dislikes, but more so because of my daughter; that paid off. Asanta's knowledge of the ingredients of particular dishes and allergens was excellent, and he was very careful about cross-contamination; there was one morning when Anindya went to place regular toast on the table and in doing so was going to pass the toast rack over my daughter's plate; I stopped him and, on seeing that, Asanta took him to one side and gave him what for. It didn't happen again. Generally, in the Peninsular, there were a choice of at least two GF items for each course. Asanta would give my daughter a copy of the next evening's menu or, if she wasn't dining with us, give it to us to pass to her. If she wanted something that wasn't listed as GF, and if it could be adapted, she was able to pre-order. She ate in all the speciality restaurants at least once and, with the exception of the Limelight Club, all had good choices of GF dishes or she was able to pre-order. The Limelight Club's menu choices were poor, a choice of two starters, two mains, and just once dessert. However, with pre-ordering she was catered for; an off-menu dessert was made for her. Once or twice she did ask for GF dishes in the buffet, but found it a hassle and said the choices were poor. She usually joined me and her mother for breakfast in the Peninsular and there was loads of choice for her. She said the bread items were good. She went for breakfast once and said it was dire. I don't think the coeliac in your party will have a problem. Incidentally, I would say that about 70% of all desserts on board were GF anyway. Also, a good thing for vegetarians, all the marshmallows were vegetarian and many desserts, such as panna cotta, which is usually a no-no for vegetarians, did not contain gelatin.

As it happens, I've just read your review from 2012 for A303 on Aurora, and seen photos and videos for the equivalent cabins on C deck; they are pull down beds in the ceiling. I note the accessible balconies on Riviera deck are shaded, and on C deck are partly visible to others. Having stayed in both of those, did either of them cause you any problems?

I was looking at accessible cabins on Ventura and Azura yesterday. You mention R302 is a potential four berth cabin, but the key does not indicate that; it shows only that it has a shaded balcony. A302, B302 and C302 each have two pull down beds, according to the key. Can you confirm that R302 does have the two extra beds, and if they were wall or ceiling mounted? Thanks

Thanks for the reply. From my research, it appears that, if dealing directly with TUI, they would usually seat special assistance passengers with mobility problems in the bulkhead row; for us that is row 1. However, the problem appears to lie with Carnival who deal with seat allocations for charter flights. The agent that responded to me said row 1 did not have sufficient room for wheelchair users as it was a small cabin. What an absolute crock of 💩! It seems to me that Carnival are more interested in 💷 than vulnerable guests, and could shoot themselves in the foot, giving the buying power of the purple pound. Anyway, I'm in touch with the President's office.

They were on Britannia the other week and were excellent 🙂

As Eddie99 writes, you could also have a look at the cruise ship movements for each port; I did that for a recent cruise and while not precise, it wasn't far off. I've also used Son of Anarchy's idea too.

Yes it is, but quite typical of some organisations who put profit ahead of the needs of some of their customers. 😐

Thanks for the reply.🙂 We've flown many times since my wife has been a full-time wheelchair user and some airlines are better than others. From your response, it looks like whenever you or your TA deal directly with TUI it has been a reliable service. We though are cruising with P&O and flying back with TUI; I've had recent contact with both and so far, am not impressed with the former. For our cruise, the Carnival 'flight team' deal with special assistance requests and seat allocations for the flight. It has always been our experience that the bulkhead seats are blocked for special assistance and babies. Given her limited mobility, those seats are best suited to my wife's needs. When the seat booking facility opened up the other day, there were pairs of seats blocked out in the premium cabin, but it appeared that the bulkhead seats had been sold to other passengers. When I queried this with Carnival, the response was that row 2 was blocked for special assistance but all other seats, including the bulkhead seats, were available to be reserved by any other passenger. She also said that the bulkhead seats were not suitable for wheelchair users as they don't have sufficient legroom; we are on a Dreamliner. Not so from our experience! 🙄 I get the distinct feeling that Carnival are more interested in generating income from folk prepared to shell out £38 each to reserve their seats, including offering the bulkhead seats, with the extra legroom, as an incentive for them to part with cash.

As Fionboard says, yes they are. We saw the original line-up on Britannia in 2018; the musical director and guitarist was Mark. The group containing him was on board Britannia (B222) again last month, so it would appear he and his band stay with Britannia. All apart from him and the drummer, I think, there was a different line-up. They were good, the 70s set and Pink Floyd set being really good.👍