kruzgal

Thanks, that's really helpful.

Thanks for this. Out of interest how easy would it be to book a table for 5 people at the 45 days ahead release? I really don’t want to spend a lot of money and then find we are left not able to try the different restaurants. It is the one thing that is putting me off this trip.

When you are booking on the app can you book for more people than are in your party? We are considering booking and joining our son and partner but want to be able to dine with them. Our bookings will be separate and I worry we won’t be able to get reservations together as a result. Thanks.

I really enjoy my job so don't want to retire early but it does mean I am tied to school holidays. If your children are grown up then presumably there is no reason why they couldn't sail with you on an adult only ship? If you had grandchildren you could go on the Celebrity ships that are newer and bigger. To me, making at least a couple of their older ships adult only is a no brainer, as P&O do. We are not loyal to any particular line and will always shop around, largely looking at dates, then itinerary and price. Celebrity has 14 ships so making 2 of them adult only would barely make a difference to me, but could attract others to them. I think they are missing a trick.

Thanks for your comments. I am a teacher and so the option to sail out of school holidays isn’t there at the moment. I don’t particularly mind there being children onboard but it struck me that Celebrity could easily make a couple of the M class ships adult only and offer something different. For as many people as they lose (families) they would undoubtedly gain with people who prefer adult only ships with different itineraries. They have a lot more ships than they used to and rather than trying to be all things to all people across all ships they could create something different with the M class ships. I imagine the alternative eventually will be to sell them off. I don’t think Celebrity should be an adult only line as we also enjoyed the brand with our children but it would be nice to have options.

Should Celebrity make some of their M class ships adult only? We are currently on Infinity and whilst there are very few children (because there isn’t much for them onboard) it would seem to make sense to me for Celebrity to have at least a couple of their ships as adult only. P&O do this with their older, smaller ships and it is very popular. The teen/kids club could be converted into alternative dining venues which would be a bonus. Throw in some different itineraries and I think this could be a win for Celebrity. Thoughts?

That makes sense.

This is very interesting. I have noticed that on Arvia there are whole areas of the ship that say the cabins “cabins cannot be released”. No doubt this is because they don’t currently have the flight capacity to match the number of cabins on the ship. Hopefully, once they have signed up with someone, more cabins will be released.

We loved the 4 voucher system on Royal for the equivalent diamond level, that could be used throughout the day. A cocktail during the afternoon, a pre dinner drink, one voucher for 40% discount on a bottle of wine over dinner and then a post dinner drink was great and we weren’t forced to use our loyalty drinks within a 2 hour window, which isn’t good for anybody.

The bid up from balcony to concierge guarantee is £100 more than if we had just booked concierge in the first place. What is the point?

Can you get 20% off a bottle of wine every night at dinner with Elite or is it just a one use voucher per person? On the fact sheet it just says 20% off any bottle of wine.

Thanks for the responses. We haven’t sailed Celebrity since 2017 when the Captains Club event was held in the Sky Lounge or similar, rather than drinks available in the bars around the ship, so it wouldn’t have occurred to me to ask for bottled water, but that will be great.

So can you get free bottles water during 5-7pm if Elite? That would be good if you can!

Exactly, they have undoubtedly over priced it. Cunard have been marketing their brand new ship Queen Anne considerably cheaper than Apex (thousands cheaper) and it is getting sold out as a result. We will definitely take our chances and wait until after final payment to book. Plenty of other options out there!

Thanks for this as you answered my question. We are looking to return to Celebrity having not sailed with them for 7 years. We are interested in a trip on Apex from Southampton this summer but the prices are horrendous so we are going to wait until after final payment and take our chances. I can see there is plenty of availability at the moment, no doubt because of the price compared to similar cruises also departing from Southampton. I wasn’t sure if the price drops still happened, but clearly they do, so we will wait and see. There are other sailings we could go on so not fixed on Celebrity Apex but would like to give it a try.

I stayed up until midnight two weeks before travel and booked Epicurean and the Beach House. Once onboard we also booked Olive Grove, Sindhu a second visit to the Beach House and Keel and Cow. We enjoyed them all plus dinners in the main dining room on the celebration night when everyone was dressed up. I recommend booking for the 710 club once onboard using the ‘app’ (web page link). If you can’t get in don’t give up as tickets become available during the day on the app, just keep checking. You can prebook some of the theatre shows but it’s also possible to be spontaneous with that as obviously the venue is larger.

“ I know tipping is a hot topic but if everyone would just pay their part the ones that do what the cruise line suggests wouldn't take the hit for everyone.” Or alternatively Royal could go ‘gratuities included’ and add a smaller amount on to every cruise they sell to share the cost evenly across everyone who sails and pay staff properly.

On Royal it’s all about the gimmicks…bumper cars, laser tag, x box etc but we are not interested in any of that now. It takes up lots of space and, combined with the promenade, results in less space for bars, lounges etc hence the difficulty in finding a seat in the evening. We had no issues with service on Iona and personally I prefer the low key interactions as opposed to the more ‘in your face’ style on Royal. The service on Royal in the dining room was poor and they haven’t moved on in the last 20 years - waiters parading singing ‘O sole mio’ to canned music and waving napkins is so dated to the point of being naff. Why the management of Royal aren’t moving it on with the times is beyond me. It shows a complete lack of imagination that they just keep churning out the same format. The gratuities on Royal and Celebrity are now way out of hand and I find the expectation uncomfortable. I would much prefer staff are paid a proper wage and tipping is for extra good service if desired. It really puts me off cruising with either line and is a big draw for P&O. You can take 1 litre of spirits on to Iona per person for in cabin consumption plus soft drinks. For beer drinkers the choice on Iona is way better than Anthem and our bill, despite the lack of complementary drinks on Iona compared to Royal (as a result of our diamond status we got 4 free drinks a day) was very reasonable. We didn’t buy a drinks package on either trip. We also made use of the free laundry on Iona which is very handy. Overall we loved the dining concept on Iona with so many venues to choose from. It really felt varied and the band in the 710 club provided some of the best entertainment. We loved our trip and would happily go on her again.

In the past we have mostly cruised with Royal and Celebrity, but this year we have sailed Anthem and Iona, both from Southampton. They depart from different docks. For us Iona wins hands down and we would happily go again, but would be very unlikely to sail Anthem. For us, an all adult party, we loved the fact that we could see the sea on Iona. There are lots of open decks at the aft where you can sit and watch the wake, plus the Crow’s Nest (forward) to sit and watch the views of the fjords with a drink as you go. Neither of these venues exist on Anthem. We struggled in the evening to get a seat in a bar on Anthem but had no issues on Iona during the summer holidays. The food in the main dining room is better on P&O than Royal, although the buffet has much less choice. We never use the buffet so no impact there. We loved the variety of dining venues with speciality dining being at relatively low cost compared to Anthem. We dined in most of the restaurants and enjoyed them all. Desserts are much better on P&O than Royal where it is mostly jelly and gelatine! We really enjoyed the 710 club and went most evenings. The theatre is nowhere near the standard of Royal but we always found things to do, music to listen to etc. We are diamond with Royal and enjoyed our vouchers for free drinks, but taking into account the cost of the trip, gratuities etc. it was cheaper on P&O, even with the speciality dining taken into account. We loved Wonderland, Jamie’s and Chops on Royal but they were the only decent meals we had. I hate the begging for tips from the waiters towards the end, which you don’t get on P&O - a refreshing change. Personally I wouldn’t sail on older P&O ships (we have done Britannia a few years ago) but wouldn’t hesitate to go on Iona or Arvia. If we had children in the party I am sure they would prefer Anthem but as adults only it’s definitely Iona for us.

The issue for me on a ship, unlike at home, is that the towels don’t dry from the morning so I end up using a wet towel if I want to shower again late afternoon after a day of sunbathing, at the beach etc. We got around it by asking for 2 sets of towels to be left when the cabin had its once a day clean in the morning. Problem solved.

Personally I wouldn’t book the Loen skylift with P&O. It is very expensive and the trip is somewhat weather dependent. There is a company ‘Olden Adventures’ just as you get off the ship and if it’s a clear day you can just get off, buy a ticket for half the price of P&O and off you go. Get off early to avoid the queues or go in the afternoon if the weather is better than in the morning. Mid morning is the busiest. We had a lovely day in Haugesund but we were very lucky with the weather. When we got off the ship we picked up a local map for free. There are walking trails on there and we did the blue trail up the coast to the Rising Tide sculptures. It took about 3 hours round trip, with some stops on the many picnic benches along the way, and we thoroughly enjoyed it.

I have contacted them via messenger and been given the ‘operational reasons’ response. I have now submitted a complaint via email. We booked this trip on the day of release in November 2021 when Iona was actually scheduled to stop in Geiranger. Now we won’t even be sailing up the fjord as promised. P&O suggesting in their email that we book one of their shore excursions just added insult to injury. Perhaps they would like to pay the £525 it’s going to cost us for a rib tour. It’s so disappointing as I was looking forward to the cruise and also our return to P&O since our last cruise with them in 2015. If we had known this was going to happen we wouldn’t have booked this ship or itinerary. Feeling very let down.

It isn’t the cruise we were sold at all, but since we are past final payment and have 3 cabins booked I don’t see what we can do. Ironically on the P&O website Geirangerfjord is still listed on the itinerary, very misleading. I have submitted a complaint..doubt they will respond!

Exactly. When we booked we were supposed to moor there. Now we won’t even be sailing up, which was added a ‘compensation’ for the pulling of this port as a stop from the itinerary due to ‘operational issues’. They then wait until after final payment for the busy summer cruise period to pull that as well. Very low behaviour by P&O and they then have the cheek to suggest we can book one of their excursions instead at great expense.

Totally agree. There is no transparency at all with this decision.