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If there is a "cruise by cruise consideration" then that consideration must be based on some previously set criteria - unless you are asserting that for every change in schedule that P&O management convene a meeting to discuss and agree what the criteria are for that cruise and why those criteria may or may not accord with decisions made on previous schedule changes. Even though ABTA, Package Travel Regulations etc. have guidelines, those guidelines have to be interpreted and applied consistently by an organisation, and the only way to ensure consistency is to have an internal policy on interpretation and application - unless again you are asserting that for every change in schedule that P&O management convene a meeting to discuss and agree what the criteria are for that cruise and why those criteria may or may not accord with decisions made on previous schedule changes. And for transparency the customer ought to know how P&O is going to interpret and apply those guidelines, so therefore should be provided by P&O with their policy on the subject.

Is it? The tracker on it doesn't seem to be very good...

I suggest you buy a better tracker or a better car! Mine is perfectly accurate. And you have also overlooked the point I made that it also records the distance travelled hour by hour, the speed driven, etc. so even if the tracker was inaccurate (it isn't) it would still show that the car had been driven more than a few hundred yards.

One thing to keep in mind is that a 'charge back' is reversible if the retailer disputes the matter after the bank has refunded you. With a s75 claim, once you have been paid then that's it no matter what the retailer says at a later date (if the retailer / service provider is still in business then whether the bank suffers the s75 loss or they pass it back to the retailer / service provider will obviously depend on the agreement the two have). And so personally if it was an argument about £150 then I might try a 'charge back' first for speed, and then followed by a s75 if that did not work. But if it was a claim for £1,500 or £15,000 then I would just use s75 to prevent any possibility of reversal.

The cheapest 'bricks and mortar' optician by a long way is ASDA. They do not charge extra if you need thinner lenses because you have a 'strong' prescription, do not charge extra for varifocal lenses, and don't charge any extra for coatings. I have bought glasses from them for less than £50 that because I need a strong prescription and thinner lenses would have cost hundreds of pounds from other opticians.

Are you suggesting that CPS have developed the technology skills to be able to hack the GPS receiver and tracking software built into my car by the manufacturer? If so then perhaps the staff should be getting a job with MI6 rather than parking cars.

As demonstrated by a Subject Access Request a certain individual recently submitted to a large company... But in this case there shouldn't be anything controversial with a policy on what is or is not a significant change. P&O staff need to know what the policy is to apply it, and is it fair that customers who pay are denied that knowledge and to be able to see that the policy has been applied correctly?

A calculator! It was a slide rule and log tables for me.

Being aware of what the law is and actually complying with the law are two entirely different things. There are plenty of examples of exceptionally large companies with whole teams of exceptionally expensive lawyers, and yet have not complied with the law and it has taken the regulators or courts to force them to do so. That is not to say that Carnival are doing that, but if as alluded to they have an internal policy document regarding significant changes that they have not made public, then that raises the question of why they don't want their customers to see it.

You are applying 'common sense' and I am reporting what I have seen from the tracker in my car - the tracker that will show to within a couple yards where my car is at any time. And if the tracker itself isn't sufficient evidence, the car also records whenever it is driven (the time of movement, distance driven, maximum speed, energy consumed), which accords with the tracker that the car moved on embarkation day a short distance to the pickup car park - and then that was it until I collected it. Now you may be right that sometimes CPS moves the cars but always - nope.

If P&O (and other cruise lines) have an official policy for the threshold for significant change but don't disclose that to the consumer then they are risk of losing any legal case under the Consumer Rights Act 2015. To quote some extracts from a government publication produced by the Competition and Markets Authority on the subject - 21. A term in a consumer contract is unfair if, contrary to the requirement of good faith, it causes a significant imbalance in the parties’ rights and obligations under the contract, to the detriment of the consumer. 22. Transparency is also fundamental to fairness. The Act requires that a written term in a consumer contract is expressed in plain and intelligible language and is legible. This sits alongside a more general requirement that consumers are given a real chance, before entering a contract, to see and understand all terms that could operate to their disadvantage (see paragraph 28 below). ... 28. ‘Good faith’ relates to the substance of terms as well as the way they are expressed. It is based on the general principle of ‘fair and open dealing’, where terms are expressed fully, clearly and legibly, and with due respect for the consumer’s interests. Agreements with consumers should not contain concealed pitfalls or traps, and terms that might disadvantage the consumer should be given appropriate prominence. A business should not take advantage of consumers’ vulnerability in deciding what their rights and obligations should be and should look like. Businesses need to deal fairly with 7 consumers, taking into account their legitimate interests. Consumers tend to have weaker bargaining power because of their lack of financial resources, their need for the service or product they are buying, their lack of experience of negotiation and their relative unfamiliarity with the subject matter of the contract. Unfair contract terms explained (publishing.service.gov.uk) P&O (and the other cruise lines) having a set threshold for significant change but refusing to tell the consumer what that threshold is, would likely fail the 'transparency' test and would also likely fail the 'good faith' test. If the threshold rules are applied in a fair and even-handed way, then there is no reason at all not to publish what those rules are as everyone knows where they stand. The only reason to conceal them would be for the cruise line to try to not apply them when a significant change has occurred and hope that none of their customers challenge them - and these days, hope that none of the disgruntled customers do a Subject Access Request when all sorts of nasties can then fall out of the cupboard...

Exactly. Although I have used the app in the past and am more than happy to deal with technology (just spent an enjoyable morning getting Windows 11 running in a virtual machine on an Apple Mac that doesn’t have Intel silicon), on my upcoming cruise in December where I have Freedom dining, I will not be using it but will go back to the old ‘turn up and seat me or give me a pager’ approach.

Bookable tables are not an issue when they are offered for early or late slots - which P&O has on occasion done in the past. Let someone book at 6.00pm and it is not an issue as they will certainly be gone by the time the main rush comes at around 7.30 to 8pm. Let someone book at 9pm, and again you can be certain that tables will become free. The issue is when you allow tables to be booked in that peak 'hump' period when an awful lot of people want to eat. That's when you run into the issue of - do you hope the previous occupants of the table have finished and if they haven't do you hurry them along, delay the booked guests, or simply keep the table free because you can't be certain. How would people feel if they were being sat at 6pm but were told "you need to be gone by 7pm as we need the table back by then"? I doubt many would be too happy with it. Now if you have a large MDR with lots of tables AND lots of other places on the ship where people will eat regularly, then it is easier to juggle and allow a number of those peak time bookings. But with the pile it high and sell it cheap P&O megaships running 'overcapacity' during the summer when all the families are on board and the pull down berths and bed sofas are used - well things are rather more difficult.

Before the court claim I would be tempted to go s75 to the credit card company who are jointly and severally liable. If the supplier has demonstrated in writing that they don't have a clue about what they are doing, then it is rather doubtful that a credit card company would try and support any such argument, particularly as the credit card company would have to answer to the Financial Ombudsman as to why they did so.

But that's the problem with the 'Chef's Table' - it might have waiter service on those nights but you are still sat in the buffet even if they have set the tables out with table cloths. Similarly with the 'Asian' and 'Indian' spreads they do on the celebration nights to try and divert people away from MDRs. On my recent cruise on Britannia I took a look at what was on offer on the Indian night but it didn't impress. Not only would you be properly eating in the buffet as there was no pretence at doing anything with it, the menu on offer was pretty lacklustre - it was all the most bland British of British 'curry' offerings that could possibly exist. The chefs on board obviously know how to cook decent Indian food, and occasionally these days it still occasionally appears on the lunchtime menu (although unfortunately not as much as in the past when it used to be a different dish almost every day), so why not get them to do that? Why feel the need to 'dumb down' the menu - is it because it is in the buffet and people using the buffet want a 'dumbed down' menu? Now if they had set aside one part of Horizon as the 'Indian' only or 'Asian' only spread, dressed it up a bit (or at least just turned the lighting down a bit so there was some atmosphere), and put on a properly decent spread - well then I suspect it would be the place that was overflowing and not the MDR. But then I suppose they fear that would pull paying customers away from Sindhu so they have to make it 'worse' than that.

It was capacity I was referring to. A 500 seat fixed MDR with two sittings can with certainty seat 1,000 people if they choose to turn up. A 500 seat freedom MDR has a capacity to seat fewer than 1,000 because only a small portion of that 1,000 will turn up at 6.30pm or earlier, certainly not the 500 allocated to the same size fixed dining MDR. The bulk of the freedom dining people will try to turn up at 7.30pm because that is when they want to eat, but a significant portion will get fed up of the queues and go elsewhere because they don't want to eat at 9pm after those lucky enough to get a 7.30pm table have finished and the table become free again, and then only a few people will actually go in after 9pm as the MDR is emptying. And that reluctance to dine at 6.30pm is evidenced by your example, since I assume you are not comparing how busy fixed and freedom were at 6.30pm itself, but later in the first fixed seating service period that runs from 6.30pm to 8.30pm, and thus covers that 7.30pm time when most people actually want to eat.

Absolutely - that's why in the earlier post I completely agreed that some tables could be turned three times but I disagreed with the assertion that most were being turned three times. If you have a table where the occupants sat down at 6pm and were there for an hour, turned it again to a new group at 7pm and they were there for an hour, then you could turn it again at 8pm. But really, how many people only spend an hour in the MDR in an evening? It certainly isn't most, and once people are spending longer than an hour then turning the table three times is impossible unless you have a combination of lots of passengers wanting to eat very early and lots wanting to eat very late - a pretty unlikely scenario. No queues, particularly as you approach closing time at 9.30pm as they can't tell you to take a pager and they can't tell you to go away and not feed you. Again as I mentioned in an earlier post, even at 9.30pm there will still be people in the MDR, a few just finishing their main course if they are on a sharing table and someone had soup and a starter, most on desert, and a few on coffee. But what you are certainly not getting are the queues of people looking to be seated after 9pm that you get at 8pm.

Does that mean you do go into the MDR after 9PM and have seen vast numbers doing the same? If not, then how do you honestly think you can turn the tables three times an evening with 90 minutes for each sitting? As I said at the start, I am sure you can turn *some* tables three times, but *most* tables - not a chance.

The credit card pre-authorisations are only £1 per day, so presumably if you have a few hundred pounds of pre-authorisations then the debit card amounts are significantly higher.

And have you ever gone into the MDR after 9pm - I have, but there is virtually nobody else doing so. There certainly isn't 1/3 of the ship doing so, which is what you would need to happen for the majority of tables to be turned three times. One of the reasons why they don't need to adjust the 9.30pm closing time is that even if you go in after 9pm service is very rapid and you certainly won't be taking 90 minutes for your meal - go in at 9:15 and you will most likely be out by 10pm, leaving behind many sharing tables who went in far earlier but are sat there chatting over coffee.

Unplug whatever is already plugged in...

That isn't going to happen. MDRs do not make money so the space for them is kept to the minimum. 90 minutes max dining time - so working back, from an 8.30pm dining time which most passengers would consider the latest acceptable time, that means the first sitting is 5.30pm, then 7pm, before the 8.30pm - and that is with no downtime for cleaning, getting people in, etc. You really think that 1/3 of passengers want to eat at 5.30pm, and for the 7pm sitting then I suggest that is either too late or too early for the next 1/3. You cannot do three covers for the majority of passengers.

There are, but as the TVs are fitted tight within the surrounding wood frame they are virtually impossible to reach. Then there is also the issue that the TVs on Iona are running 'hotel TV software' which frequently locks out the other inputs from being selected even if you did manage to get something plugged in. That said, if you can access the HDMI sockets and select them, then rather than plugging a laptop in directly, a neater solution is to use a Chromecast and a travel router and then 'cast' to the TV from the laptop.

From my experience the best ones are the ones 'on a corner' such as 15317, 15316, 15515, and 15514 (and the equivalents on the other decks). Those balconies are huge, absolutely huge, and extend far out beyond the overhanging upper decks so you can choose whether to have shade or take the five minute walk to the end of the balcony and get sun. But equally *never ever* pick 15315, 15314, 15517, or 15516 (and the equivalents on the other decks) as someone stood at the end of the balcony of 15317, 15316, 15515, and 15514 will be looking straight into you cabin - not just the balcony, but the whole cabin. I wouldn't, you will get people walking past all the time and your cabin and balcony is in full view - it would be like sitting in a deckchair in your front garden on the high street.

No, as before, Freedom gives less capacity than Fixed - Fixed you *will* be able to turn a table twice 6.30pm and 8.30pm, but with Freedom you *might* be able to if there are sufficient early and late diners, but if they all turn up at 7.30pm then you are out of luck. The decision to put Freedom dining onto the ships wasn't to improve capacity, but to provide the illusion of choice to customers. The old 6.30pm and 8.30pm Fixed dining suited the traditional cruising customer base, but as P&O have reached out to a new and younger customer base, then telling people they were eating at 6.30pm, a time few would ever consider eating, was not going to sell too many cruises. And so they instigate Freedom, and you only find out the issues with it once you have paid your money and are onboard the ship. For as long as P&O has had Freedom dining there has been pre-booking, it is just that in the past it was done by pager. Moving to booking using a phone *should* be easier for the customer as they don't have to trek to and from the restaurant to collect one. I say *should* because the implementation of the mobile booking by P&O leaves a lot to be desired, and is not helped by the retention of the pager system and the staff on the desks being reluctant to tell people stood there to 'go away' and giving them priority over the mobile booking system. And yes in the past there might have been fewer queues because people were happy to share tables, but again times change and people are less happy to do so, and if you have the majority of passengers willing to share then it is easy for the restaurant to continually fill and serve tables, but when the majority has flipped over to wanting non-sharing tables then that becomes harder to do. Of course you literally pay the price for doing that - just compare the per night cost on a mega ship to a small ship and you will see the price premium you are paying. And of course you are happy doing that, but P&O with the mega ships is aiming to a different market to you - and likely one that is more profitable to them despite the lower per night cost due to the amount of high profit drinks packages sold on the mega ships compared to the small ships.