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Is the plan for the app to be introduced on Aurora in the future?

15 hours ago, heathstockton4 said:

We are on G409 Iona next week and have a 10am pick-up at Burtonwood (North West route), previously we were an 8am pick-up, with final boarding stated as 4.30pm this seems very tight and my other issue is doesn't give much time to get checked-in, unpack and get ready for dinner. 

 

Has anyone done this trip recently and can advise what time they arrived and embarked?

Hi. Please don't worry about your pickup time. We were also concerned about our  11:45 pickup time from Trowell services (Derby/Notts border). We always used to be pickup up around 9:00ish. We rang to query this and it was explained that for the larger ships like Iona/Arvia the terminal at Southampton can't cope with all the coaches arriving around lunchtime. We arrived at 3:45 and were on board by 4:00 with no hassle whatsoever. 

We're on Iona 10th to 17th Feb.  Debra Stephenson will be performing.  I though she was very good when on the tele a few years ago. 

Thanks. Yes it's a Saturday.  Never thought of that. 

Sorry, slight thread drift. We've just received email confirmation of pickup time from Nottingham services travelling next month. Having not used Intercruises for a few years we are surprised that pickup time is not till 11:45.  Does this sound about right?  All our previous experiences have seen us depart roughly between 08:30 and 9:15. We are sailing on Iona and I did wonder if this is to prevent a load of coaches turning up at a similar time.  

6 hours ago, Presto2 said:

Am guessing those are the sea days?

Yes, they are Presto2. 

We join Britannia next Friday. Our itinerary shows that both Sundays and both Wednesdays are the formal nights with the first Sunday being listed as the Celebration night. 

7 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

I just started a new thread on this because I couldn’t find this thread that I started 6 weeks or so ago. Now I realise why. You had resurrected it and it had bumped up to the front page 😂 

 

Re your situation - whilst we had multiple issues with an aft suite on Britannia, depending on which one you have booked I wouldn’t pay more for a midships one. The premium is purely for the midships location, yet IMHO they are far less desirable than the forward or aft suites. 

Thank you. We haven't had a suite before and since this is for our 30th anniversary we thought we'd splash out on one with a wake view now that there is less of a soot problem. 

We've just received a bid to upgrade email. £220p.p for a Mid, Mid/Aft suite on B deck. Now we're already in an aft suite on B deck. My question is what is £440 going to give us that we don't already have? Is it just the fact that they are more midship. This is for Britannia Dec 1st.  Also just done a dummy booking and it says suites are sold out.

1 hour ago, Interestedcruisefan said:

I just say what I see

 

Nobody has to agree with me at all

 

But similarly if I read something I don't see on the cruises I point it out

 

And always back it up with examples?

 

And/or ask questions. And often the answers help me plan better for my next cruise.

 

Knowing potential problems in advance helps me avoid those problems and find solutions

 

I watched a Forest game very early on in Brodies on my Iona cruise on May. It was barely half full. And service for drinks was slow DESPITE being barely half full. So if people say service is always slow in there and not enough staff then I won't disagree. 

 

But it's on my list of places to avoid.

 

Same with Beach Club. Last time I went in there could only get seats at the bar. It really did remind me of Butlins cabaret bars. So again rather than argue with people that it's too busy and not enough staff (we actually got served straight away by a waiter stood by the bar) I just avoid the place.

 

Im one of the first on here to say I find the Arvia and Iona atriums like a busy airport terminal. And also avoid them. It's put me off ever trying the steak at Keel and Cow so far. Despite the great reports on here. 

 

But I guess people who keep using those places every night do have a point. About too busy and not enough staff?

 

And MB is correct - I need people to use those places.

 

But I can at least tell the people on here about other places on the ship they can go for great fast personal service and calm, serene surroundings

 

When I'm cruising on the big ships that's where I head for. The atrium is just for passing through for me to go somewhere nicer

 

But Arvia and Iona 100 per cent have smaller places offering great service, great drinks, great food options and great entertainment. Knowing where to find them certainly helps

 

Maybe just keep it to between us all on here! Lol

 

It's all opinions of course

Not surprised Brodies was half empty if Forest were on.

54 minutes ago, Presto2 said:

We are flying TUI on the 13th January. Can someone confirm when we can book the seats as we need to make.sure we are at home and stay up late. We think it is 6th or 7th October.  Don't want to stay up for nothing wrong night 😉

I believe it will be from midnight on the morning of 7th October. We fly TUI on Dec 1st and were able to book 14 weeks prior. We didn't stay up but we did book around 8o'clock the following morning and I guess only around 25% had already gone.  We were sent an email a few days beforehand that stated when booking would be open. 

4 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

Are you PE? The seating arrangements there are the bug bear in a limited space of 2 - 3 - 2 so not many together seats.

No. We are economy. From Birmingham.  3 - 3 - 3  arrangement 

Ours were available to book last Friday morning (from midnight) but couldn't be bothered to wait up till then so tried around 8am when I woke up. Fearing the worst I  was pleasantly surprised at how easy the process was. I reckon less than a quarter of the seats were already taken and as someone else stated it offered the same seats for the return flight. £45pp each way.  

Thanks Presto. We will do 

Thanks everyone for your replies. You have put our minds at rest and we will stick with what we have booked 

3 hours ago, Al_W said:

 

We have done 2 Azura and 1 Britannia cruises post Covid. No problems at all on Azura but freedom dining wasn’t as good on Britannia when we were on the Baltic last month. Queues over 100 people and waits of over an hour, if we sail on her again we will do 2nd sitting rather than freedom. We used the specialty restaurants more than usual to save the agro. So unless you are happy to share a table and get in quicker this might be something to consider. 

 

We sailed on Britannia in the Caribbean in an aft balcony room, didn’t like the soot, marked a number of shirts, and when I was reading on the balcony soot landed on my book, just wondered what micro particles you are breathing in, and put me off using the balcony. They installed the canopies after but not sure how much that helps, but I have seen a number of recent reviews saying soot is still being deposited on aft balconies, if there are suits more forward might be worth considering if this might put you off too. 
 

On another point the housekeeping is not as good anymore, we didn’t have our carpet vacuumed in the 2 weeks on Britannia. When we sailed in Caribbean she was only a couple of years old and the carpet was already grubby with soot, so if they haven’t deep cleaned or changed carpets since dread to think what they are like now. Although I’m sure the suits should be in better condition and have better housekeeping than the standard balcony. 
 

We loved our Caribbean trip on Britannia, so hope you have an amazing time to celebrate your special anniversary. 

Thanks, I'm sure we will.  I suppose the soot problem must have improved somewhat otherwise we'd have seen a lot more negative comments on these boards. 

Thanks for the review Presto. We've done 7 or 8 cruises now, all with P&O including 2 post covid last year on Azura and I have to say we haven't really encountered any problems with the 'app' and freedom dining. This December we're off to the Caribbean on Britannia and to celebrate our 30th anniversary we decided to splash out on an aft suite. After reading your comment about the soot on the balcony I'm wondering about trying to swap it for another suite slightly further forward as there are still one or two left. We are on B deck under one of the canopies that have been added to prevent the problem. Do you think it's worth bothering about?

We did 2 fly cruises from Birmingham to Malta last year. Once in May and another in October. All were scheduled departures with the exception being the return in October.  This was a charter from Tenerife as Azura started its winter itinerary. 

We join Azura in a couple of weeks. We fly to Malta on a scheduled flight with Jet2 and have our boarding passes printed out. However, the return flight, also Jet2, from Tenerife is a chartered flight. The link on the Jet2 website doesn't show this flight so we are unable to check in for it even though we are within the 28 day time frame. Our travel agent says we do not need to check in as P@o have chartered the plane. Now normally on returning from a fly cruise you are taken by coach from ship to airport and you go straight to security but if we don't have a boarding pass does this mean we have to first queue up at the check-in desk to obtain them.  Or is it something that P&O sort out for us before disembarking. Thanks.

1 hour ago, tring said:

 

He originally mentioned at least 2 hours for clearing airport + transfers, but his last post, (which my reply referred to), was purely talking about the journey to the port from the airport, which is 4.4 miles according to Bing, I knew it was pretty near.  He was confident it would not take less than an hour - but we will see.

 

I have just tried Google maps and it is giving 15 minutes to the cruise port, though yes, a few minutes longer if you drive into the city.  I am using the "by car" option as the alternative of bus, is on a public service bus, which will have bus stops and go through the busier areas.  I do agree that those online maps can only be used as an approximation - we would normally add another 30% to that time, but have not found it to take four times that estimate.  Admittedly, sometimes you can be waiting quite a while for a coach to leave the airport whilst waiting for other passengers, though I was hoping with the number of passengers going to embark Azura there would be a number of coaches which will leave when full, but another unknown for us until we get there.

 

 

Our flight to Malta in May should have been 6a.m.  We took off around 30 minutes late but we made most of the time up and arrived at 10:40. It was 11:30 when we lifted our cases off the carousel. Everything was well organised outside the airport and once the coach had filled up it only took 30 minutes to get to the port. Even with the extra checks at the port (vaccination records, insurance checks etc) we were pleasantly surprised to be on board Azura by 12:45.   I hope the process is just as good when we board her next month for her repositioning cruise to Tenerife.

Thanks Huggsy. We're over the worst I think. Just feeling a bit lethargic and can't taste or smell much. We've got away lightly compared to many.

4 hours ago, Al_W said:

Sorry to hear you had to cancel. We are just back home after being on this cruise.

 

We flew out from Bristol and arrived 3 hours before the flight as instructed at 3am. Was very busy in Bristol with long queues but all went ok and we were through check in and security in about an hour and a half. Once we got to Malta was a dream, bags on the carousel and then taken to coaches and onto the ship by midday.  Room was ready about 1pm and the bags arrived in the afternoon.

 

Azura is showing a few signs of her age but still a beautiful ship and the staff were all so friendly and you could really tell they were pleased to be back on board. I’d say the rooms need some refurbishment soon, but public areas were more modern especially the Planet Bar, Blue Bar and Glass House.

 

The food was ok, main dining isn’t as good as our last P&O cruise, the portions are much smaller which isn’t always a bad thing. Choice much more limited. Buffet was fine and as always, although our friends said there was hardly anything available if you wanted midnight snacks. Glass house and Beach house was delicious and well worth the extra spend. Sindhu was closed all week. Epicurean was sold out all week so didn’t have a chance to try.

 

Entertainment wasn’t up to much… a mediocre girl group doing Motown and a comedian which I heard mixed reviews of so we cancelled our booking, although Astonishing was well worth watching and would recommend that. The house band were good.

 

We didn’t buy the drinks package and worked out at the end that we spent about £70 per day on alcohol on drinks that would not have been available on the package as we like a glass of champagne, decent wine and cocktails. 

 

Didn’t miss the evening turn down.

 

Did 2 po trips to Dubrovnik and Split and both were very well organised and nice to go straight outside to meet the coach without needing to hang around waiting for a silly little sticker in the theatre. 
 

Have always wanted to see Dubrovnik and Split and they didn’t disappoint, Korcula was beautiful and we will definitely go back for a weeks holiday there. Zadar was ok but not up to the others. 
 

All staff wore face masks but customers only have to wear on coaches, although most still don’t. I have tested positive for covid today 🙄

 

Flight home was all fine, got to the airport no need to drop off bags and straight through security. Flight was a little delayed and got into Bristol about 40 mins late.

 

We had booked this last minute so was a good deal, first time we did the saver rate (with middle ship supplement) and was given a perfect room. So glad we didn’t spend the  £500 pp to chose the room. 
 

Fab cruise, Croatia was beautiful just a shame to come back with covid. 

 

 

We arrived home last Thursday (2nd Jun) after 14 nights on board Azura. No problems at Birmingham for early flight and as you say embarkation in Malta was a breeze. We thought the standard of food was still very good but like you we reckoned there was nowhere near as much choice as we remembered. We used the app thingy to book all our meals in the 2 mdr's and found it worked perfectly except in our cabin where there was no signal. Regarding Sindhu, we were told it was closed because they were using it as a canteen to feed newly arrived crew who were still quarantined.  Mask wearing was compulsory for the first week and was then relaxed for week 2. I felt sorry for the waiters on deck who still had to wear them when we were in Piraeus and Kusadasi where it was 34°C. We both enjoyed the cruise and are booked on Azura again in October when she heads to Tenerife from Malta. Unfortunately, we both tested positive for covid the day after arriving home. It seemed as though half the passengers on the flight home were coughing but we both had sore throats the day before returning so must have caught it around day 10 or 11 

1 hour ago, kalos said:

 

Thanks for the update that will help others .

Have a safe cruise and enjoy 

Thanks kalos. Will do.

On 5/16/2022 at 5:24 PM, kalos said:

 

I think you are about ready to go cruising . Could you please let us know how things go with 

your testing  if you find time . Oh and enjoy your cruise 

LFT's done at local Lloyds Pharmacy this afternoon. I did ring them this morning to make sure they were expecting us. Pay on the day and issued with paper certificates. Glad to say we're both negative. Taxi at 2a.m. to Birmingham.  

11 minutes ago, kalos said:

 

I think you are about ready to go cruising . Could you please let us know how things go with 

your testing  if you find time . Oh and enjoy your cruise 

We have tests booked at our nearest Lloyds about 3 miles away. However after reading reports of Lloyds cancelling at short notice I have collected a couple of Randox test at home kits as back up.