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Most emergencies are not that sudden and people are sent to their cabins to wait instructions. If it is an emergency along the lines of the MS Estonia then even able bodied will need the luck of the gods to survive.

I am not sure about that. Do you really think that indicates someone who could get to a muster station unaided when there is an actual need to get to the muster station? Depending where they are on the ship when they need to go there it could mean climbing or descending many flights of stairs, and in circumstances when the muster station is actually needed and everyone is abandoning ship then climbing or descending those flights of stairs is likely to be in rather sub-optimal conditions. And that is why it indicates something seriously wrong, or certainly a serious disconnect between the teams, because if the P&O policy is that if you need a wheelchair for whatever reason even if that reason is just for comfort but that means you need an evacuation chair because P&O don't believe you will be up to evacuating independently, then the response from P&O to someone wanting to rent a chair when the evacuation spaces are full should not be "sorry we won't rent you a chair because the evacuation spaces are full" it should have been "sorry we won't rent you a chair because you won't need one as we will not let you board because the evacuation spaces are full".

Something has, because as I said before, refusing to rent someone a wheelchair who needs one because the evacuation facilities are full and your policy is that anyone who asks for a wheelchair needs evacuation facilities, means that the passenger doesn't have the wheelchair they need and they have a passenger they cannot evacuate because there are no facilities.

I sympathise greatly with you, but did those health issues not cause pause for thought when you read the assistance requirements that you have to agree to when booking (with my bolding)? "In the unlikely event of an emergency, it is important we have sufficient and specific support for guests who require additional assistance, and we have advance notice of this. Please read the following declaration of assistance needs for your voyage, even if you are travelling with someone who can support you. Guests who are unable to get to their assembly stations independently (which could involve several flights of stairs as lifts will not be available) due to a disability, health, or mental capacity must be pre-registered for assistance to ensure we have sufficient support. Failure to provide this could result in being denied boarding at your own expense. If you do require assistance using the below statements, please advise us of the level of assistance required. Someone to guide and steady me on the stairs (121 assistance) For anyone bringing a mobility aid this is a recommended minimum requirement. I'm unable to use stairs (emergency evacuation chair) For anyone who is a full /part time wheelchair or mobility scooter user this is a mandatory requirement." If your balance is poor and you can only manage short distances then could you manage several flights of stairs independently without assistance from anyone, including anyone you are travelling with? Plus keeping in mind that this might be using the crew evacuation stairs in sub-optimal conditions if it is an emergency that requires everyone off the ship and into the lifeboats. Denying boarding to someone who didn't notify that they needed assistance and those facilities are full is sensible, even if it might not appear so at the time to the individual concerned. However refusing to rent someone a wheelchair who needs one because the evacuation facilities are full is illogical as that is the worst of both worlds - a passenger that doesn't have a wheelchair they need and a passenger cannot evacuate because there are no facilities. If P&O's policy is that if an individual wants to rent (or bring) a wheelchair then because of that the individual has demonstrated from that fact that they will need assistance in an emergency whatever they say, then either they should be added to that evacuation list or if they didn't notify and those facilities are full then they should be denied boarding, not that P&O won't rent them a wheelchair!

Ironically the change will likely lead to lower revenue for P&O from me. Unlike a lot of people, I am pretty varied in the type of cabin I will book, taking into account a whole variety of factor, such as route, time of year - and one factor in the past that has influenced me to book a balcony cabin has been the ability to sit out on it early evening before dinner with a drink. Now if that ability is restricted (and yes I know that for the moment you can buy a bottle for the cabin - but frankly how long is that going to last before it changes) then as a factor in weighing up whether to book a more expensive balcony then it carries less weight.

Well on my next cruise I have an arrival time of 12:15, and I am very definitely not Caribbean, Baltic, Ligurian, or in a full suite.

I have never seen any "drama" on P&O during disembarkation. Pretty optimistic thinking that everyone reads the paperwork. So still hassle for P&O dealing with people who will be arguing with them to be let back through.

It would just create more hassle for the staff as such people would simply claim that they had used the wrong exit and would need to be let back into the baggage hall, with arguments ensuing if they were not or were delayed doing so. Controlling people getting onto a ship isn't too difficult. Controlling people getting off is more challenging and relies on people doing 'the right thing'.

Those who want to jump the queue will simply leave whenever they want anyway. No chance. At the moment the slot before normal disembarkation gives those who want to self-disembark (for whatever reason) an opportunity to do so, just they need to do it at that time which virtually all accept - and I would actually bet that a significant number of those few people disembarking with bags during the normal disembarkation are not 'self-disembarking' but new cruisers who simply didn't realise the process of leaving bags outside. And if they did change and said there was no disembarkation with the 'punishment' that if you didn't you had to wait until the end, then it would just be more hassle for the staff as people argued with them. As before, the crew want you gone. If that is done at your allocated time that is great, but if it isn't they still want you gone.

At Lanzarote you can walk instead of using the shuttle, and lots of people did, even Select passengers did because the shuttle really was a waste of time. As for it needing to be free, in the past when I have been to Livorno there has been a prohibition on walking from the ship and the only way to get out of the port was to use the P&O shuttle bus, which meant paying if you were not a Select passenger - but that was a few years ago so things may have changed.

The clock restarts and you are charged again on the second day. As for only charging for two trips, they know that the number of people who will make two trips is tiny - when I was on a Canary Islands cruise in December and mentioned to people about going back into Funchal in the evening for an hour or so to see the Christmas lights as it was a late sailing (11pm iirc) they looked at me as if I had suggested they take a trip to the moon.

That must be back in the mists of time! One other thing with where the bus stops is that you might only want to use it one way, for example in Lisbon the bus stops way up in the top of the city and if you are walking down through the city from there then it is likely easier to simply walk back to the ship (or catch a public bus) than walk all the way back up to the shuttle bus stop. And if my memory is correct, P&O have now stopped being 'helpful' by charging two single fares for each direction when you get on as you leave the ship and now charge as you get on for each ride.

If P&O shuttles and not free port shuttles, then there will be a member of staff directing you to the shuttle buses, a member of staff will scan your cruise card and those on saver fares will be charged to their cabin bill, and they operate on a combination of 'fill and go' and timetable - i.e. if busy they will leave immediately they are full otherwise every 15 minutes or whatever the schedule is. Returning is the same, with a member of staff at the stop scanning cards. If you return at a popular time then it isn't unusual to have to queue and wait, but my experience is that P&O anticipate this and it isn't usually too bad. What is well worth doing if you are on a saver fare and paying, is checking out where the bus will take you. This is because the fare charged seems to be unrelated to distance, and for example in Lanzarote the bus ride is about two minutes long and takes you to the port entrance, but the fare is the same as in for example Valencia where it is about a 20 minute ride. For those on a Select fare it is a bit irritating to have only been taken two minutes away, but if you have paid £5 (or whatever the fare is these day) then it is far more annoying!

Your platform doesn't allow you print a page to PDF and then just use the PDF editor to redact? I would guess that is a pretty minimal number of Carnival customers who have chosen such a platform, but for everyone else it is easier and quicker, and as before, cheaper for Carnival.

The cost to Carnival to validate shareholder statements is likely to be trivial - it will all be outsourced work to somewhere that pays pence. As for passengers - even needing to provide a certificate through the app resulted in a far quicker application of OBC for me (and others here), so even if they ask for updated statements, then that is fine with me.

No experience of this, but I am sure that the crew would be rightly grumpy with you about it, and I suppose that possibly they might tell you to wait until all the other disembarkation groups have left. However I rather suspect that they would just want rid of you and you would be ushered off in a gap between the groups with a flea in your ear and told not to do it again.

They were not at the times that I self-disembarked, which tended to be around 7.30 to 7.45am. Hence the people that ignore the disembarkation time slots - all the bags are out and waiting, and nobody is actually checking that you are in that particular slot, they just want you gone from the ship to get it ready for the next load of passengers.

Whenever I have self-disembarked (with my luggage) it has involved walking though the normal hall, and all the normal disembarkation luggage had already been already set out for collection in the hall and none of the staff were engaged in putting any more out.

We recently came back from Tenerife and was chatting to another couple in the airport on the same flight. They had been there for five days and had a 20kg+ suitcase each plus a carry on suitcase each and they found it impossible to believe we just had a carry on bag each despite having been away for two months. Anyway self-disembarkation, we have done it many times and have found that if we leave the ship just before normal disembarkation starts at 8am(ish) then there are very few other people leaving the ship at that time and it is quick and easy away, so there should be no reason not to be at the train station for a 9.30am train.

For anyone using an Apple Pay on an iPhone or Apple Watch on TFL then I suggest they set the card on the phone or watch they are going to use as an 'Express mode for transit' card and then you don't need to unlock your phone or double click the watch in order to tap in/out, you just tap and go through - Use Express Mode with transit cards, passes, and keys in Apple Wallet - Apple Support The system only works with approved transit operators such as TFL so there isn't a risk of unauthorised transactions elsewhere. Sorry, no idea whether Google Pay has a similar feature.

More hassle trying to fit the bottle under a tap than the easy refilling points.

If memory serves me correctly, there is a filling point on deck 6 near the forward lifts so not an awful long detour.

So if these marketing techniques are industry wide, then why expect P&O to change their strategy to one that is less effective by allowing people to use OBC prior to boarding with a discount?

Not at all - just that P&O's marketing techniques persuaded you to spend far more than you had intended by the combination of restricting the use of OBC to onboard and offering discounts prior to boarding. Now if P&O can persuade you, who is not a fool, to spend far more than you intended, then why would they change their marketing as you seem happy with that additional spending.

Doubtful because of what you did - You had £500 of OBC which you had paid for - yes you had bought it for cash as part of the overall package - but decided to 'save' money by instead of spending it onboard you pre-purchased your drinks and internet. The result being that you ended up with the OBC that you had bought that you couldn't spend on anything that you actually wanted, so used it to buy a watch that certainly had a massive mark up despite its apparent discount (was it the usual 'ship special' only sold onboard so no way of actually checking the real price). What a marketing wheeze from P&O - they sell you OBC and then persuade you to hand over even more cash to buy the stuff you actually wanted in the first place, and then they sell you overpriced stuff you didn't actually want with the OBC you bought.