sandancer

That’s great. Just bought the essential package for our Iona cruise. With the valentine savings and our loyalty discount it was worth taking. 

I agree with Clodia, the de luxe package is well worth the extra few £s. We probably didn’t get the full value of it but that’s just us. We did enjoy ordering a glass of wine costing £16.50. We have a shed load of obc on our next cruise so no package for us this time. We have however booked the Premium package on our next Princess cruise. No comparison to P&O. 

3 hours ago, delgirl said:

When I was on cruise personaliser I noticed on the mdr page it said no booking required. Does that mean we can just turn up or does it mean you don't prebook. Must admit I thought it was the former. Don't want to be bothered with a phone as we usually lock them in the safe.

On Iona recently they had 2 queues, 1 for walk ins and 1 for virtual queuers. The walk in queue was inevitably longer and lots of buzzers being handed out. I think a lot depends on how big the party is and what time you want to eat. We like a table for 2 but if you are happy to share you usually don’t wait too long. 

New bookings can get 20% off the classic drinks package at the moment. 

Thanks Mark. Our TA has checked and there are no CS available on either deck so I think it would be futile to bid. If any become available I’m sure the highest bidder will get it and that won’t be us. We’ll stick with our aft de luxe balcony I think. 

Didn’t realise that Graham. I thought it was only on deck 8 where there was no view or privacy. 

Wouldn’t touch the ones on deck 8. However, had a peek at one on deck 9 and they look great. Plus the perk of breakfast in the Epicurean is very attractive. 

I don’t blame you for being annoyed. There is no comparison between La Rochelle and Le Havre. This happened to us once on a TA, they cancelled Bermuda and replaced it with Le Havre. They immediately started pushing tours to Paris, many of our US fellow cruisers fell for it and were delighted to go to Paris. They weren’t so delighted after spending hours on a bus and about 2 hours actually in Paris. 

Thinking of making a minimum bid for a conservatory suite on Iona. On the bid page it gives 2 options - promenade deck suites and then another line conservatory suites. Not interested in deck 8 and I’m not sure that we would be guaranteed a deck 9 suite if the bid was successful. Anyone done this or know if they would just allocate any available CS. We spend a lot of time in the cabin and the extra space would be great.  

I rang on the reservation number firstly but hung up after 10 mins. This was around 9.30am on Monday. I then rang the 0800 number and waited maybe another 10 mins. The agent who answered was very helpful. You don’t get an email confirmation as it could be a surprise gift. Good luck. 

Well done. We booked the Bon Voyage package and got the 14% discount. It can only be booked by phone and no loyalty discount applied. 

18 minutes ago, majortom10 said:

Iona for me.

 

And me. Just felt Iona was more relaxing with a nicer atmosphere. We are back soon and we are looking forward to another lovely cruise. 

On Celebrity we would always use OBC for pre-cruise purchases. However, Celebrity do not give loyalty discount nor do they give an early booking discount for speciality restaurants. If you plan to eat in those restaurants on several evenings then credit card payment would be the way we would go. 

23 hours ago, Cdude said:

To be clear, I went to the website on my iPad.

I also used my iPad to book our 2 speciality restaurants as suggested by TrixieBel. Worked perfectly. Came up as dining credit and no charge. This was a few days ago so maybe wait a while and try again. 

We feel the same about flying. We have booked the 35 night cruise on Iona for next January. We thought our days of visiting the Caribbean were over so really happy to be going both ways by sea. 

That’s our limit as well. Keep it fun we say. 

Exactly. I put my measly winnings on one side to take back and hand them back to the casino. It’s just a bit of fun for us. 

No idea. We didn’t try it. We were al ready done with the gambling when we found out. On Iona again in 4 weeks. I’ll check then. 

On Iona you don’t have to charge your card to play the slots. The machines take notes. Didn’t find that out until the end of the cruise. 

We did this in Spring 2023 and thoroughly enjoyed it. Lots of sea days, very relaxing and of course no horrible overnight flight home. 

On 2/1/2024 at 1:40 PM, Clodia said:

He's from Tyneside. When he returned home after x factor my school had over 200 extra absences as young girls took the morning off to welcome him back.

Joe is appearing at our local theatre next month. Tickets £75 each in the stalls. Glad we saw him on Arvia. 

I think Fionboard meant once Aviva take over. I hope that is not the case as we will be trying to return to Nationwide for our cover. 

10 hours ago, kruzseeka said:

Have you looked at Nationwide FlexPlus?   It is changing its insurers from UK Insurance to Aviva in May but with the bank account a £13 p.m. charge gives you annual world wide insurance. 

 

There is an age extension which covers 70+ and a medical screen which may incur additional charge but as you say you have no serious medical conditions there may be no or little extra to pay.  It includes cruise cover too (and AA Breakdown cover) though to be eligible to claim for a missed ports/cabin confinement is extra.  (And with the new insurer apparently payable per trip but no indication of additional premium yet - the current insurers charged £40 p.a.with no limit on number of cruises.) You can also get an extension for cruises longer than 30/31(?) days. 

 

You don't need to have FlexPlus as your primary bank account ie no minimum monthly payment in or need for direct debits being paid out. If you have a joint account it covers both parties.

 

Might be worth a look - if it's suitable for you there could be considerable savings on £600.  

 

 

 

Maybe we will try again to get cover with Nationwide when our current policy is due to expire. We have banked with them for over 30 years and for many years have purchased travel insurance from them. This year they refused to cover my DH due to pre existing medical conditions. We had to go elsewhere and paid £1600 for an annual policy. This is not worldwide cover. Maybe Aviva will be more flexible. He does not have any life threatening conditions but is 80 this year. We wouldn’t even consider travelling without insurance, even on our British Isles cruise this year. 

6 hours ago, TigerB said:

If you book via your Cruise Planner for the earlier times they will shows on the dining reservations section on the My Holiday app/non-app after you have boarded and logged on for the first time; it is on that where you have the option to cancel reservations.

Yes, you can make reservations for both MDRs, subject to them being open for bookings on the Cruise Planner.

We had the brilliant idea of getting into more than one virtual queue at a time and then we would go to the one that came available first. That was a no no. Can’t be in more than one virtual queue at a time. 

What I can tell you for sure is that you will be waiting in a queue when you visit the future cruise dept. Do not leave it until the last day when the queue was ridiculous on our Iona cruise. There are 3 agents but sometimes only 2 are in attendance. Also you might ask if there will be any offers later in the cruise. They were offering an extra 10% discount on longer cruises but that didn’t come into effect until around day 3 or 4.