9265359

If you did it in person then you could ask before cancelling - if they do then don't cancel and they don't then do!

Yes and no. Yes, if they returned to fixed dining with two sittings, no with freedom dining and a large portion of the ship want to sit down at roughly the same time (7.30 to 8pm).

The T&Cs (My Cruise Terms & Conditions | P&O Cruises (pocruises.com)) say - Your prepaid spa booking is fully refundable on board up to 24 hours before your treatment time. If you cancel at least 24 hours before your treatment time a full refund will be issued to your debit/credit card used at time of booking. If you cancel less than 24 hours before your treatment time then you will be charged a cancellation fee of 50% of the relevant treatment or service cost. The prepaid charge will be refunded to your debit/credit card used at time of booking and the relevant cancellation charge will be applied to your on board account. So provided the treatment isn't the day of boarding or the day after when you couldn't give 24 hours notice, then it appears you can book before boarding and then cancel and get a full refund as you will have given the necessary 24 hours notice.

Hmm, I have no doubt that they can turn *some* of the tables three times but *all* of the tables in the MDR three times - no chance. That would mean 1/3 of people coming in for an early dinner and then being gone for *only* 1/3 of those dining wanting to eat at 7.30-8pm crowd, but then there being 1/3 of those wanting to dine doing so at 9pm or so. Being a late diner - often 9pm or later then my experience is there are damn all people coming in at that time, so that would mean those 1/3 coming in between the early crowd and the 7.30-8pm crowd - now I am sure you can turn *some* tables three times between 5.30pm and 8pm, but every table - doubtful, very doubtful.

No, it fully deserved the terrible reviews... My experiences on Iona has been that the films shown tend to be around three to five months after the cinema release date, as demonstrated by the current showing - Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania was released to cinemas on the 16th February, Super Mario Bros was 5th April, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 was 3rd May, and Book Club 2 was 12th May. With Indiana Jones, Mission Impossible, and Barbie (which is surprisingly amusing) having cinema release dates of 28th June, 14th July, and 21st July, then I would expect the earliest they would be shown onboard to around October, if not November or December.

The problem with Freedom dining is that the venues do not seat the same number of covers as Fixed, even if they have the same number of chairs. As you say, 3,000 seats on two sittings gives 6,000 covers in total. However 3,000 seats on Freedom - once you have taken into account the disproportionate amount of people who want to eat at 7.30-8.00 and the fewer earlier at 6.30 and those fewer again at 9.00 then you are likely looking at 4,500 covers from those 3,000 seats. And so to cover 6,000 people if all wanted to eat in the MDR then you would be looking at an MDR with 30-50% more seats than is needed for Fixed. But there are an awful lot more people who choose to eat in the buffet - particularly on family ships, so that reduces the burden compared to the old Fixed dining system when most used the MDR and few used the buffet (other than on the last night to avoid tipping...). However that might work on most nights, but it doesn't work on the first couple of nights when people are still 'finding their feet' and tend to use the MDR and it doesn't work on celebration nights for the same reason.

You are overlooking that P&O want people to treat onboard credit as 'suckers' money. For stuff you actually want such as excursions then they want you to pay with 'real' money up front. For the on-board credit that has been given to you 'free' ('free' in the weird sense that you have actually paid for it, but people seem to overlook that), they want you to spend it on overpriced tat in the shops, spa, bars, etc. on things you would not normally have spent - that handbag, watch, treatment, another drink, etc. that you didn't really want but felt obliged to as otherwise you lose your 'free' money, and that additional spend makes them a tidy profit.

Are you able to cancel such appointments without penalty? If you can then surely an option is to book it with a credit card before boarding and then on boarding cancel it and as they now have a free spot then immediately rebook it and pay with on-board credit.

Having sailed on both Britannia and Iona, I would say the range of 'on demand' films was exactly the same on both, with new films being added as they are released.

On Iona you didn't need to select any seats on the screen outside, as the screen just automatically showed a seat was occupied if someone was sat in one, so just identify that there were at least a couple of seats free and head on in. Cinemas haven't cared for at least 20 years if you brought in sweets and drinks from outside, and the only thing you are not permitted to bring in is alcohol or hot food - just have a look at the T&Cs on their website.

Based on the twice I have been on Iona. All four will be open for dinner, but only Pearl for lunch - but it didn't seem to have the same issues as we both experienced recently on Britannia. As for choice - Pearl is nice if you can get a seat towards the windows at the back as it is then a massive height to the ceiling as the Coral floor only covers part. Aqua is more intimate than Pearl and Coral, but the narrow space can be an issue if you are sat were the waiters are rushing though. Opal I guess is the same but never ate in there. The Olive Grove is a very good choice for lunch and a nice alternative to dinner, but you *must* book when you board as it will be fully booked otherwise. Also the 'Asian' outlet in The Quays was not bad for a quick bite. An early slot in the 710 club is quite nice - sit on the far side over on the right for the best view and space for your wife's wheelchair. Other than that my preference was the Crows Nest as the Glass House lacked atmosphere, but when I was last onboard they were doing the stupidity of only certain bars doing certain drinks, so every evening on the way to the Crows Nest I had to stop at Anderson's to pick up a Negroni as they were the only bar doing them! Can't help there as the thought of sitting on a damp deckchair in a room smelling of chlorine to watch a show didn't exactly appeal. The same band plays in there six nights a week, and then they get someone else in for the night off - usually it seemed to be the ship's 'busker' and I never saw Pulse in there. The only time there was a change when the lead guitarist fell ill that day and was substituted by the guitarist from the orchestra who had a day off as Headliners were not performing, so had to learn the set in an hour. It is a different show each night (and that same show three times a night), but as it is a vocal show from a singer on an upright piano, two guitarists, and a drummer, then there are similarities between each show - so a 'jazz show' isn't pure jazz and a 'rock show' isn't pure rock, etc. But there is enough difference to see multiple shows - and that's what I did on the last two week cruise I did, when I visited the 710 club on a dozen nights. Also the cinema is good as it is four separate screens usually showing different things, and does have wheelchair seating.

These days no company would ever go anywhere near the subject and will simply accept what people tell them. To do anything else would risk bring down a huge storm of whipped up social media anger upon them.

"and if you turn up 15 minutes late then boarding may have closed and you have lost all your money"

Yes I did notice, especially as on embarkation I was in a lift with one of the wheelchair porters and chatting to them they mentioned how many assisted embarkations they and their colleagues had done - and it was a lot, an awful lot. And yet on the ship... surprisingly few wheelchairs, scooters, walkers, even walking sticks, compared to other cruises I have been on.

And despite the queue of those standing outside, were 100% of the hundreds of seats inside unused as they were when I was there a month ago? 'The beatings will continue...'

Sorry but that just isn't the case. When I sailed four weeks ago on Britannia and went into the terminal (on-time) there was nobody, absolutely nobody, sat down on the hundreds and hundreds of empty seats. To repeat, there was *nobody* sat down. And yet outside there was a hundred or so people stood in a queue not being allowed into the terminal to sit and wait for their allocated time. No matter how much you argue for this, this is obnoxious behaviour by P&O and such behaviour will be repaid to them.

Is this going to get to be like some aircraft flights when on embarkation a significant number of the passengers seem to need a wheelchair and are boarded first with their families, but on disembarkation when assisted passengers have to wait until the end to leave the aircraft, then suddenly their have been multiple miraculous cures and they can get off and walk through the terminal unassisted. https://www.entrepreneur.com/business-news/passengers-furious-at-southwest-airlines-for-wheelchair/454882

Only if you have that many people arrive early, which never happened in the past. And as those hundreds and hundreds of seats are never intended to be used again, presumably the terminal will be demolished just leaving a space for the check in queue and security.

So seat 1,000 people and when the terminal gets full then make people stand outside. But keeping 100% of the seats unused and making people stand outside because they have arrived 15 minutes early is just being obnoxious.

The reasoning would seem to be that the terminals cannot cope with the number of passengers on P&O's larger ships, particularly as many of those people cruising on those newer ships are first time cruisers and are not used to the counterintuitive 'protocol' that is the opposite they are used to when flying. With flights the airline says 'the flight is leaving at x time and make sure you arrive at least three hours before', because that is the sensible thing to do to make sure you are there before the aircraft leaves. However with cruises the cruise lines say - the ship is leaving at x time and then tells some people to only arrive 15 minutes before boarding closes. Well that's just plain daft and understandably people (particularly people who have never cruised before) ignore it and turn up at a sensible time beforehand, and in the past this wasn't an issue as they went into the terminal and sat down and waited for their time slot to be called. But now P&O have decided they don't want that and in their infinite wisdom they really do want people turning up 15 minutes before boarding close, but the only way they can persuade people to do that is by being obnoxious to them and if they deign to arrive as much as 15 minutes before they are told to arrive they are made to stand outside in a queue, and not any queue, but a queue looking through the glass doors at hundreds and hundreds of empty unused seats in the dry and warm. Now in August that might be just about acceptable (it isn't but let's pretend it is), but in February when it is below freezing and the rain is slashing down - I can't quite see people being as forgiving.

Again - Exactly. It is rather patronising of those traveling in suites or having high status commenting that 'you just need to arrive at the right time' when all someone wants to do, is what they have always done - arrive not in a last minute rush and sit down in the warm and dry waiting their turn to be called.

Exactly. But just wait for all the dismissive posts from those sailing in suites or having high status.

Arriving at 3pm would still mean waiting in the rain for an hour or more if they were then allocated a 4pm or later boarding time. So the only way your clever idea could work is if people aimed to arrive just before the ship sailed - I don't think that is the best idea in the world. You have clearly never sampled the delights of a train station cafe.

And were there lots and lots and lots of empty seats inside when they did deign to let you in?

I didn't know there were free taxis in Southampton to take people away from the terminal and into town and then back again - could you tell me the phone number of the firm so I can book one next time I am there.