TMSA

6 hours ago, AndyMichelle said:

We have been very lucky with the weather and have managed to use the pools. 

I don't think they are particularly cold for outside pools, you soon get used to it. 

Yesterday the lido deck pool was absolutely packed, but went up to the serenity pool and I was the only person in it for a while and a completely different vibe. 

The hot tubs have been busy every time I have looked. 

Didn't expect to be sipping a pina colada by the pool the day after sliding down a snow covered mountain on my backside😂 

Andy 

Sounds amazing. Thank you x

Hi Andy. Thank you so much for this. I'm going on Britannia on 10th May so you're making me very excited. Have you seen anyone braving the pools? I take it they are freezing? When I was on Arvia a lady was telling me how much p&o had changed over the years and how it used to be so much better for families. She said you used to be able to see steam coming from the pools but now they are all cold.

Thank you x

Thank you everyone. This is so helpful and makes me feel better x

6 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

Your time will come (not wanting to wish your life away) 😂

It already feels like it's flying by. Obviously goes without saying that I love my kids more than a cruise. I just want to take them with me, but maybe not 65 nights. 14 is challenging enough 🤣. I'll have to have a little read though to see how you're getting on

@tring how did this play out in the end? We are going to Stockholm in May and it was through trying to research the ports that I found this thread. How did you find where you were docking? I've tried but can't see. Ours is also showing the OYO experience so starting to worry we might be nowhere near the centre

4 hours ago, Selbourne said:

The Saver fares can, and do, re-appear but obviously it depends on a lot of factors such as availability, demand and movement through upgrades. The prices of them can change as well. 
 

To use our current cruise (Aurora Grand Tour 65 nights) as an example;

 

We booked a Saver fare around a week after balance due date. We paid a lot less than the Saver price shown on the P&O website as we were told it was a ‘Late Saver’. The day after we booked the price dropped by £2k and was less than half the Select fare! I managed to get the £2k refunded but that’s incidental!  The term ‘Late Saver’ never appeared on the website. It still just said Saver, but the price had dropped 
 

This late Saver disappeared after a week or so and only Select fares remained, however, some weeks later they re-appeared. This happened several more times during the period up until departure but every time the Saver re-appeared it was at the lowest price that we had paid. 
 

EDIT - I didn’t see that you had managed to book until after I posted. Well done!

I hope you are enjoying your cruise. I haven't read your live as I'll just get jealous at the itinary and it not being an option with my kids 🙃

Saver fares just came back and I managed to book. It seems, like the thread in 2018, that P&O like to see if anyone will pay more over the weekend 😉.

Thank you. There are cabins as the select fare is still there. It's just the saver that has gone but it was a lot cheaper. Its past balance due date too

Hi all. If a saver fare has sold out, is that it gone for good? I found a thread from 2018 whereby it turned out to be a technical glitch and the saver fares came back. I watched this one sell out for inside cabins and now has gone for balcony so doesn't seem to be an error. I should have booked. Just wondering if they ever come back or if that is it now. TIA.

22 minutes ago, happy v said:

We have been to Scandinavia/Baltic many times in May. I don't know if we are just lucky but we have never had weather so bad I can remember it. If that makes sense. One year we had a heat wave! Mostly it is like a fine day at home. 

The North Sea can be very choppy, cold and windy  

All the pools should be open

Can you book this cruise too please then we might get your luck ☺️ 

Thank you. You've got me wondering what we did now with my son on Ventura to entertain him. He used the kids club a lot there but there were still covid restrictions so we had to stay with him. We actually spent a lot of time in the baby room on Arvia and he came in with us so that could be an option on Britannia. I do remember we drank a lot of tea in the buffet and he was happy lining his cars up on the ledge of the windows. 

Yes i was thinking of the inside pool but i suppose my daughter wouldn't be allowed to use it anyway as she is in nappies. We didn't really use the indoor one on Arvia anyway. My son went in once then cried as a film came on that scared him. I also don't really feel comfortable in my swim stuff whilst loads of people sit around me watching a movie 🙄 

It really does look a great cruise and 2 weeks on what is essentially one large city break with everything included is amazing. I'm sure we would enjoy it. I've even applied @Selbourne logic and its only £63pp per night not including the kids. That is an inside but I'm still terrified of the balconies with the kids! It was £81 for 2 adults in a balcony albeit the chealest grade.

Although we can travel whenever, my son's nursey is attached to a school so he does still have the holidays off. I priced up some summer holiday cruises, including Britannia but it's truly eye watering. Britannia's itineraries seem far superior though. Is that just due to the size of Arvia and the ports it can get to?

I hope you get your answers and thank you again x

31 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

You must be reading my mind! I'm looking at the Aurora cruise a week or so later and was also going to ask for views on weather, ports etc.  Perhaps the nice Scandinavian experts could give both of us their views on general aspects.

 

Regarding Britannia she is my favourite P&O ship and although I have no experience with children personally on all my cruises on her thr children and families all sem to be very happy with the offering.  I assume you are referring to there being no internal pool as your worry in inclement weather.  Apart from this I'd say that Britannia would offer the same sort of facilities as Ventura.  I have sailed Arvia and would say apart from the indoor pool offering Britannia's are superior being considerably larger and less crowded.

 

 

Happy Saturday everyone. Is anyone able to tell me their experiences of Northern Europe and Scandinavia/the Baltic sea in May? I've seen a very affordable 2 week Britannia cruise (B411). We've done Ventura and Arvia (also Virtuosa) and I'm viewing Britannia as somewhere inbetween. I actually liked Ventura but it was my first cruise and I do prefer the facilities of the larger ships but I did like the size of Ventura. I actually really like the look of Britannia but I think the things which would make it enjoyable for my children (will be 4 and 1) are the outside pools/splash zone which I doubt will be a possibility for that time of year. I rarely get the elder one to the kids club so I'm not sure there is enough to keep them, and us, entertained inside for 2 weeks. 

It's our last year of not being bound by the Summer holidays. I have looked at Arvia and all child places have gone, although i could check at balance due time, but the itineraries don't interest me as we've been to those places already. I dont want to pay money just for the sake of having a cruise when it doesn't actually appeal to me. I love the itinerary of this Britannia cruise.

Please feel free to enlighten me of freak heat waves and joyous times at sea 😀

Thank you in advance

We go for an outside cabin, i won't risk a balcony with my children. I can't go for inside as the small square size with pullman beds doesn't work for us. The children are too young to use them so we need the sofa bed and space for a cot. I do like having the window though.

@Selbourne i know your wife is put off the big ships but I really do think you would be fine out of the holidays. We have a double pram and up until today we have always got in the second lift if the first is full. There are still people who barge ahead though, it amazes me, what do they think everyone is waiting for!? Also, it says in Horizon to give priority to wheelchair etc users

On Arvia now, 126 kids on board, 6 months to 18 years. That's about a 10th of what they have been having. The only pool which allows swim nappies was packed yesterday so i can imagine how busy it was in the holidays.

My son is the same, won't go in the kids club. He tried it but isn't interested. To be fair it's not that exciting in there. They just seem to put films on.

We're going on Sunday. I am a bit worried about my 3 year old. We went on Ventura last year and he did like the kids club but it was still operating under covid restrictions so one parent had to stay. Made no sense seeing as the rest of the ship had people rubbing up against each other everywhere. I guess it was due to staff shortages. We did Virtuosa in June and he didn't want to go at all. Not sure how we will entertain him if he doesn't go or like it and its hard to swim

45 minutes ago, Fionboard said:

Not keen on Marseilles. Last year Toulon was substituted. Was so glad as Toulon is much nicer. Cartagena is lovely 

Toulon would have been nice as the whole cruise is Spain now, which is fine, but nice to go to more than one country.

14 minutes ago, Ardennais said:

Cartagena is lovely. Cartagena in Colombia is also great! 

Colombia came up first on Google maps but my geography wasn't quite that bad to think it was our port

8 minutes ago, DamianG said:

With your children Cartagena in mind seems a much more suitable port with no shuttle bus requirement to get there which also means you can quickly get back on board if you need to. 

If you break off the main thoroughfare Calle Real and head towards the military compound Arsenal de Cartagena you will find a small square surrounded by some nice, less busy restaurants and a small set of climbing frames and typical park attractions for the kids. It’s a few years back since we’ve been but hopefully won’t have changed too much.

Thank you, I've been reading your live review, finding it very interesting. Typical that i read your Marseille posts when i get told I'm not going!

Here's Porto's

Just now, TMSA said:

ALE-HOP 😀. They are everywhere in Spain

And Portugal actually. Trying to think if i have seen one in France...

4 minutes ago, emam said:

Cartagena is a lovely place and very clean. Apart from the amphitheatre there is a roman forum which was still being excavated the last time we were there. You can buy one ticket which will give you admittance to 3 places, the theatre, I think it was the forum and the castle.

 

If I remember rightly there is a McDonalds right in front of where you walk off the ship. Then you have a square and just over the road is the main area. There are lots of shops from Brand names to local shops. One of them being what I call the cow shop, which has a large cow standing at the door. This sells all sorts of things and can be good for gifts. It sells books and colouring pens, note books, to bags, hats, towels and lots more. There is one the same in Barcelona. 

 

There is a little shop which seems to be very popular which sells scarfs, bags and trinkets, this is not very far up from the theatre (thought you come out of there via a different door in the back street).

 

I would like to go and visit the naval museum which was on my to do the last time we went but we never made it.

 

1, (hopefully) is walking off the ship and McD would be just to the left of the photo. 

2, Sign for the roman forum

3, Inside the forum,

4, Main street.

5, A rich persons yacht (you should see the boat inside it), which I think docked near to naval museum.

 

 

 

ALE-HOP 😀. They are everywhere in Spain

7 minutes ago, Red Ray said:

Really hoping there aren't too many kids on this cruise - we booked it specifically because it's the week they should be going back to school!

I mean I only like my own. Most of the time 😉 They are preschool though so no fines this end. 

Also, it did make me laugh as it said we would visit and then have a relaxing sea day the following day. Most of the cruise seems to be sea days

Thank you everyone. I am embarrassed by my lack of Geography knowledge and now wondering if i have never heard of it as I a) genuinely haven't seen it on an itinerary or b) my tired brain didn't acknowledge it because i didn't know it. 

Marseille was going to be for nostalgic reasons but seeing as I had a week there before, i feel like i covered it pretty well. Would have just been nice to revisit. It seems to come up on most of the itineraries i look at though so I am sure I will be back. I had also already done a few of the ports and again, they seem to come up all the time so it will be nice to try somewhere else. 

Thank you for the tips. I'm going with two children this time so this sounds easier and to be honest, I spent most of my time in Marseille very merry on amazing wine so it was always going to be different this time. I do love a small port you can potter around.