Woolmull

Hi folks, can anyone point me in the direction of current Britannia bar menus with relevant prices? The most recent ones I can find online are a few years old. TIA!

We have an idea of who’s performing on our Iona cruise in April as the performer has it listed on their tour schedule on their website… so there are spoilers out there if you fancy a hunt.

Hi folks, Last time we were on Arvia, the formal nights listed before we boarded didn’t match up with the actual formal nights on board. I’ve seen others posting similar comments. My parents are due to board Arvia in February and I’m wondering if anyone can tell me if this issue has been resolved? thanks

It was great on Ventura in August - highly recommended. There wasn’t alcohol in the Retreat. Fruit juice and smoothies. Water. Different boxed meals. However… the ship was at capacity and I’m a teacher so I wanted to be away from children during the day. It was definitely worth the £20 advance fee. The staff were amazing at going to the bar for you. Other passengers were told that it was sold out but there were always plenty of empty spaces. I think that there version of sold out is one lounger, one sofa seat and one dining table per passenger, so it never felt full.

If you’re having glitches on the P&O site when trying to add things like The Retreat, I’d suggest using the ‘private’ mode of your browser. I use an iPad and the ‘privacy’ setting on Safari never glitches - this was recommended by P&O through a twitter message when I asked them about a similar problem. For The Retreat, I’d definitely recommend booking as soon as you can. From our recent cruises, it does get sold out on certain cruises but they don’t seem to overfill it so that guests have the option of a sunbed or a chair at all times. If it is sold out, you can enquire at the spa onboard and they will notify you if a day-pass is available.

The other thing to bear in mind is that what constitutes ‘formal’ on P&O has soon very loose interpretations these days. It feels like the newer the ship, the less formal you’re required to be.

When we were on Iona, it was 50/50 tuxedos Vs suits so I’d say go with whatever you feel more comfortable in.

The feeling I got was very much ‘you no longer need to use the app… just do this instead…’

We were on Ventura a couple of weeks ago. The Epicurean, Beach House and Sindhu were bookable 14 days before departure. Something weird happened though - we booked for the formal nights and a birthday night and then we had an email saying that no speciality bookings could be made before boarding. For a couple of days no bookings could be made, but our reservations were left alone. Then they reopened the bookings. I suppose I’m saying to just keep an eye on it even if it says that you can’t book. On board, main dining rooms were ‘turn up and queue’. If they didn’t have a table, they were giving out pagers, not using the MyHoliday app to book but there were zero issues for us. The ‘extra charge’ restaurants were all still available to book when on board - it was just Epicurean that was unavailable on formal nights as it had been fully pre-booked. MDRs were generally quiet, despite a full ship.

We’re off on Ventura in a couple of weeks and the online itinerary has the formal nights logged as the Mondays and Thursdays on both weeks. Can anyone verify if this is accurate? The reason for my question is that the formal nights listed on an Arvia cruise in April turned out to not be accurate. thanks folks

Thanks Wonky - much appreciated.

Hi Megabear, It’s been well worth it for us from the perspective of this cruise. It’s the Easter holidays, the ship is full and there are many children aboard - nothing awful, but we’ve preferred the quiet of the Retreat. Food wise - there are a couple of breakfast options each day, replaced with four or five lunch options (different meat/veggie/vegan options) and a dessert around 12. At about 2:30 the scones appear and then that’s it. Drinks-wise, the fridge has Heineken, cans of wine (white and pink - the red isn’t in the fridge) as well as a range of soft drinks. There have been loads of beds available - even at its busiest, it’s always been at least a third empty. However, one of the attendants did say that it was very full on all the Caribbean sailings with people claiming beds early. On this cruise, there have been warnings posted about people reserving sun beds and then not using them - but this has been ship-wide so I’m guessing that it was a problem in one of the communal areas, not the Retreat.

Hi, We’ve booked the Retreat aboard Ventura as part of an August cruise and are just wondering if anyone can give us a first-hand account of what’s available inside. Currently on board Arvia and there’s a steady supply of drinks (alcoholic, soft, hot) and food so it’s made the drinks package unnecessary this trip. Just wondering if it’s the same on Ventura or if it’s scaled back? thanks