9265359

My experience with the ‘app’ at lunchtime on seadays is to open it around 12pm, when there are usually 30 to 40 people already queuing, that queue drops quickly to about 20 in the following ten minutes or so, and then I usually get called around 12.30, with orders taken by 12.45 and food at 1pm - that’s for a table for two. Either people were not impressed when they saw the menu, didn’t want to dress up again, or preferred the Indian buffet in Horizon, but the 8.30pm fixed sitting in Oriental was virtually empty. Of the seven tables surrounding mine, two tables for eight, one of six, one four, and three twos, only eight people were eating - a table for eight that had decided themselves to consolidate the two tables for eight and the table for six, that only had one couple on each, plus a random couple who had just strolled in - they had done the same thing the previous night but had been told ‘no’ by the staff. They would have also got a better reception on the first show if they had actually performed the songs advertised, which was Drifters, etc. rather than songs from X Factor and similar that most of the audience had never heard of and didn’t care about.

Pretty calm day, with sun occasionally peeking out from behind the clouds. But with the high winds due to arrive later at Skagen the Captain was advised by the pilot that getting out of port was going to be dubious so sensibly gave it a miss.

And Skagen is now cancelled. Should have stayed in bed.

It seems to be more like Skeen, but… Anyway despite the Captain saying we were docking at 7.30 we haven’t and Google maps shows we have sailed past and up around the tip and are now heading down the opposite side to Skagen so no idea what is happening.

An as an aside, after watching the Danish TV show ‘Seaside Hotel’ (All4 and completely recommend) it is rather amusing to hear Skagen being pronounced on the ships announcements in the English phonetic way rather than with the Danish pronunciation.

Well an abbreviated stop at Skagen tomorrow from a full day to just the morning (assuming we do actually stop) as the high winds are due to reach us tonight and tomorrow.

Sorry but I disagree with you. I am just relaxing after an excellent lunch in the MDR on Britannia so good food is available there, but if you do choose to eat in the specialty venues they are very cheap for what they offer. Internet prices - no idea, never paid for it and can’t see why I would need to. And wine prices are certainly not up 60% pre-Covid - if they were then they would have been £3.75 for a small glass in 2019 and they certainly were not.

But so have the prices, which is why this Britannia cruise is full to overflowing with passengers - and an awful awful lot seem to have bought the moneymaking drinks package.

Improve the check-in and security process and you don’t need more room.

The response from the airport operators when there are likely to be queues - please come earlier and sit in our nice terminal and spend money in our shops, restaurants, and bars. And the response from cruise operators in similar circumstances - how dare you arrive early, go and stand outside in the rain. I wonder which attracts repeat customers.

And how long does it take to process the queue of people at the departure gate? A flight of 200 is usually processed within 15 minutes, whereas at Southampton with their old fashioned technology it takes far longer even with dozens of staff. Why on earth are the desk staff messing around trying to capture passport numbers with a phone camera rather than using an RFID scanner? Why are the security lanes not set up more efficiently? Invest some money and they wouldn’t need to punish people by making them stand in the rain. And as for the low tech system of not admitting people to the terminal before the time on their printed boarding card - hmm, that’s not hard to overcome if someone was minded to.

No, I am suggesting that if airlines can board several hundred passengers swiftly by a couple of members of staff taking five seconds to scan a passport and check names match, then it doesn’t require the vastly longer amount of time spent processing passengers with a huge number of staff. Says the person who doesn’t arrive by train.

Also likely due to the ‘celebration’ menu being definitely sub-par and not worth dressing up for. We went to the Glass House (now on menu B) and it was excellent - steamed fish in a bamboo leaf for my wife and fillet steak for me - best meal on the ship that invented had on the ship so far by a long way.

You don’t have e-Gates with facial recognition at airport departures, they are for passport arrivals. At departures you scan the boarding card with no human intervention to allow access to the departure area - that would be simple to install at a cruise terminal. Then you pass through security, which is much more efficient than at cruise terminals as up to six people can be loading the belt for the X-ray at the same time. And finally just a scan of the passport and a human name check of the passport name against the boarding card, which takes 10 seconds, and again could easily be replicated at cruise terminals in the area after security and before boarding the ship. if they wanted to cut the queue they could easily do it without making people stand outside in the rain.

Quicker - take a look at any airport. Boarding card scanned yourself to enter the departure area, then a scan of the passport and visual check of the boarding card at the departure gate to ensure the names match. That’s an awful lot quicker than a minute per party. Now there is no medical questionnaire or insurance check at checkin, then really what is the point of the old fashioned checkin process.

As there was nobody at all sat in the terminal when I was allowed in and only four people in front of me in the queue for security, then they are certainly keeping the terminal empty. As for those forced to stand outside - keep up with the beatings until morale improves, or more likely people choose a different way to holiday where the company they have paid thousands doesn’t treat them in that way.

They have certainly changed from what was shown on the cruise planner before we left - so bad luck for anyone booking specially restaurants to coincide with those nights. Presume it was the usual P&O right hand not knowingly what the left was doing.

I always make sure I tell the TA I am a Carnival shareholder and ask if they will process the claim for OBC for me or do I need to do it myself. If they failed to advise me that OBC was not available because ‘reasons’ then I would be making a complaint and would expect them to cover the loss.

So now you are suggesting that someone gets a taxi from the train station to a coffee shop, humping their luggage in and out of the car, then another taxi from the coffee shop to the port, again humping their luggage in and out of the car. And all so P&O can keep the terminal building free from any of those pesky paying customers who want to sit down. As before, it takes a long time to build a good reputation. It takes moments to destroy it, and punishing your customers is a good way to do that.

Firstly they don’t - the final Black Tie night is Hamburg. Secondly my objection is the events are supposed to be special and running them ‘back to back’ means they are not. If you can’t spread them out, then cancel one and have three not four across the two weeks.

And having just seen Horizon, what on earth is going on. Black Tie night again tomorrow, despite the last one being yesterday. Utterly, utterly ridiculous.

With P&O not advising your embarkation time until close to the cruise date, then for those driving that’s fine. However for those travelling by train then it is far more difficult as you need to book tickets before you know the allocated time, and so having to sit around in an unheated station waiting room (assuming there is one) or otherwise stand outside in the rain and cold is a pretty rubbish way to start a holiday. It takes a long time to build a good reputation. It takes moments to destroy it, and punishing your customers is a good way to do that.

The only thing that bothers me about the lack of an evening cabin service was towels not being changed in the evening (they simply don’t dry overnight) and so I now ask the steward to leave four rather than two towels, so four can be changed each morning. On the previous non-sea days I had joined the lunchtime MDR queue at 1pm for a table for two with perhaps 10 people in the queue, but then I had been almost instantly notified the table was available. Yesterday anticipating problems I joined the queue at 12:40 with 44 people ahead of me and the table was available at 1pm. However outside the restaurant there were hoards of people with pagers moaning that they had been waiting 40 minutes, but more annoyingly the staff at the ‘you have been called’ reception side were not telling walk ups to go to the other side. It was interesting to see last night the ‘bouncer’ on the door to the Crows Nest employing an erratic strategy as to who could come in. Guy wearing jeans, a casual jacket and no tie - no problem, come on in. Following guy wearing smart trousers, collared shirt, tie but no jacket - get lost. I didn’t think it as good as their first set a few days ago, but it wasn’t bad. And if anyone is sailing on Iona that’s apparently where they are headed, as they were disembarking as we were getting back onboard at lunchtime (no queue in the MDR today…).

So I guess you are currently watching the ‘three point turn’ as well!

Like the disappearance of a proper afternoon tea, canapés in the Crows Nest, wine waiters in the MDR - heck I didn’t even get a map of the ship this time. Anyway, with a 6:30 all onboard just been watching a couple stroll back to the ship at 6:28 with not a care in the world with the dockside ship’s officer restraining themselves from telling them to get a move on.