clivep

Don't know about the shuttle but you can catch the #1 bus from the port to the rail/bus station. We did this in April last year and the cost was €2.50 single (pay the driver) with the bus running every 15 minutes.

We did Barcelona to Venice at the end of April 2013. It was dry and hot most of the time. In fact it was sometimes too hot for us with my wife staying on board in Naples where it was 28°C.

When we were on the Oriana world cruise 2012 and Aurora Worldie 2014, there was free ice cream in the buffet restaurant between 11.00 and 11.30 every day. It was in a cone on Oriana but a bowl on Aurora. I don't know if this is the case on all cruises though.:)

I also enjoyed this free ice cream on Aurora. Our last 2 cruises have been on Adonia and unfortunately they don't do this.

It was still silver service in May but the waiter said it was the last cruise before the fully plated meals would be served.

Other cruise lines we've been on show the tours and prices on their websites allowing comparisons to be made before deciding which cruise to take.

P&O only show prices after a booking has been made. Even then the prices shown are for pre-paymant with the prices on board sometimes being higher.

I think we are entitled to 'moan' as we were led to beleive that if the price of our cruise, 'SELECT FARE' which we booked, not the saver fare dropped then as in previous cruises the difference would be reimbursed as OBC.

Select fare = old Vantage fare without the price promise. That's precisely why they introduced the new fare structure.

Who was it who led you to believe that the Select fare had a price promise? If it was with whom you made your booking then that is who you should be moaning to and maybe more than moaning if you were miss-sold the product.

This might help

 

https://ask.pocruises.com/help/PO/life-on-board/dress_code_all

Unfortunately the info on this link is not as comprehensive as it used to be and is little use any more. The dress code .pdfs used to be a good source of port timings and which days the various dress codes were in effect but P&O seems to no longer want to divulge this useful information.

Even the limited information given was not correct for our 21st May Adonia cruise when there were 4 formal & 3 informal nights rather than the 3 formal & 4 informal shown on the dress code .pdf.

 

 

Sent from my iPad

This refers to Early Saver not Saver fare.

Saver summary

Pay in full at time of booking

100% cancellation fee

Cabin grade allocated at point of departure

All dining arrangements will be confirmed to you once on board

Shuttle buses, where they are available in port and should you wish to use them will be chargeable on board

Non-transferable

Was that an official complaint? How would those paying higher fares know which grade you had booked?

I can see Saver fares advertised now - showing 'from £xxx but then there are differing prices - e.g. midship/low deck etc. That doesn't seem to be the same as you describe.

It's quite confusing.

Are you sure you're looking at Saver fares not Early Saver ones. Early saver fares offer a choice of grade but, to my knowledge, all the Saver fares only ever offer the choice of a category (inside, outside, balcony).

The complaints I referred to were those voiced on this forum when those that had paid Vantage fares read about people on Getaway fares getting upgrades when they had not.

This year with Select and Saver fares we may well end up with the same result with those on Saver fares getting allocated better cabins whilst those on Select fares don't get upgraded. This is unfair but still within the letter of P&O's t's and c's as the better cabin allocation for the Saver fare will not be an upgrade according to their definition.

In my experience the cabins have been allocated exactly 14 days before departure.

Saver fares don't get upgrades. However, this does not necessarily mean that you will get the lowest grade of cabin. On Adonia the lowest grade balcony cabin is an HC grade and we were allocated a GC one. Last year when this happened it was called an upgrade and those paying higher fares complained. This year, since you only book a category guarantee not a specific grade on a Saver fare, then it's not technically an upgrade whatever grade you get assigned. Same result but different terminology to encourage people to pay the higher fares.

Or you could try the cheaper 0800 052840.

 

http://www.pocruises.com/bill-of-rights/

 

9. The right to have included on each cruise line’s website a toll-free phone line that can be used for questions or information concerning any aspect of shipboard operations. To contact P&O Cruises, please call 0800 0523840.

I was after a geographic or freephone number to contact P&O to book my last cruise. The one I'd previously used to go via Carnival no longer worked.

I've just tried the 0800 number you've given above but unfortunately I get the "number not recognised" message.

You could do this quite comfortably by taking the St Petersburg Explorer excursion that P&O offer. The excursion cost was £42 in May and gives you independent time in 3 locations:Approx. half an hour at St. Isaacs Cathedral, 90 minutes at the Field of Mars and 3 hours at Nevsky prospect.

The Siege of Leningrad Museum is just across the canal on the opposite side of the Summer Garden to the Field of Mars so could be visited on either the second or third stop of the excursion.

We took this excursion last October and again this May on our Adonia cruises. In May we used the third stop to visit the Russian Museum of Fine Arts near to the Spilled Blood Cathedral.

Any chance you can give the URL for that website clivep?

 

We are not cruising until next year, but I want to start researching excursions. We tend to do a mix of ship's excursions and DIY. Last year's DIYs were very successful, so I have a reputation with my family to keep up! :D

Info is at http://ports.cruisett.com/

I don't think they're associated with any travel agency so hopefully it's OK to post the link. My apologies to the moderator if posting the link is not allowed.

Some questions re purchasing foreign currency on board?

Did you receive a good/poor rate?

Was there a charge to purchase currency?

Was it charged to your ship board account?

There's no separate charge as the commission is taken by loading the exchange rate. It is charged to the ship board account.

The rate is very poor with a loading of about 10%. e.g. a fortnight ago:

Sell £1 = €1.1058 Buy £1 = €1.3639

so if you sell back currency you purchased you'd loose nearly 20%.

It's so annoying that P&O don't publish the port times any more. A certain website had accurate timings for our recent Adonia cruise so hopefully the following information I've copied may be helpful to you.

11-Jul-14 07:00 11-Jul-14 16:30 Southampton, England 4410Aurora, Adonia

11-Jul-14 16:30 14-Jul-14 09:00 At Sea

14-Jul-14 09:00 14-Jul-14 17:00 Olden, Norway 1822

14-Jul-14 17:00 15-Jul-14 08:00 At Sea

15-Jul-14 08:00 15-Jul-14 17:00 Andalsnes, Norway 4340MSC Magnifica

15-Jul-14 17:00 16-Jul-14 09:00 At Sea

16-Jul-14 09:00 16-Jul-14 17:00 Trondheim, Norway 1822

16-Jul-14 17:00 18-Jul-14 08:00 At Sea

18-Jul-14 08:00 18-Jul-14 17:00 Lofoten Island, Norway 1822

18-Jul-14 17:00 20-Jul-14 09:00 At Sea

20-Jul-14 09:00 20-Jul-14 17:00 Aalesund, Norway 1822

20-Jul-14 17:00 21-Jul-14 08:00 At Sea

21-Jul-14 08:00 21-Jul-14 17:00 Flaam, Norway 1822

21-Jul-14 17:00 22-Jul-14 08:00 At Sea

22-Jul-14 08:00 22-Jul-14 17:00 Bergen, Norway 6849Queen Victoria, MSC Poesia

22-Jul-14 17:00 25-Jul-14 07:00 At Sea

25-Jul-14 07:00 25-Jul-14 16:30 Southampton, England 5652Arcadia, Aurora

Options for Alesund:

A visit to the Atlantic Sea Park is good. Although the public bus does not run on Sundays there supposedly is a shuttle bus laid on by the sea park... see http://www.atlanterhavsparken.no/english/menu/shuttlebus

There's also usually a small road train operating in Alesund that goes up mount Aksla. It's often busy so you need to get tickets for a departure a bit later in the day.

Just explore the town. It's very picturesque particularly the harbour area to the North.

We visited Saaremaa Island on Adonia last July and booked the tour which incorporated a walking trip in Kuressaare including a visit to the castle, then a little bit of free time in the centre of town then a drive round the town and places of interest. From memory it cost about £34 (though I could be wrong!)

 

There was a little bit of walking on a very hot day though you could have asked to be dropped at one of the cafes and missed the castle.

 

The drive was mostly through forest and quite interesting, and the drive round the town was worth doing, but having said that if I ever cstopped there again the town centre itself would not tempt me back especially. There was a small market and a couple of cafes and that was about it. Castle worth seeing with the moat.

 

We were in Visby on the Sunday and it was closed!! Not much to see. I did enjoy Kalmar and wandering round the town

The walking tour of Kuressaare excursion was at least £40 this year, either £45 or £50 if I remember correctly.

Our visit to Visby was also on a Sunday. We visited the cathedral, botanic gardens, stopped for coffee and had a very enjoyable walk around the rest of town. This was probably our most enjoyable port of call.

Last time we went to the North Cape it was 27°C and the reindeer were seeking out snow in the shadows to lie in and cool off.

The average for July in Tromso is for the temperature to get up to 15°C. It's about that now but yesterday it only got up to 9°C although a week ago it was 22°C.

Be prepared for anything. As the port lecturer said on one of our cruises to the North Cape "you can get 5 seasons in one day". We never did find out what the 5th season was!

The area around the cruise port is mainly forest. There are a few houses on the way to the small fishing village but we did not encounter any shops or cafes on our walk.

There's a cafe at the cruise port but that was closed when we were there.

We visited Visby and Kalmar on the 2 days after Stockholm rather than having a sea day then Bornholm so I can't help you there.

I'm sure you'll enjoy Adonia, we certainly have. Our October 2013 Adonia Baltic cruise had been the best cruise we had been on which is why we booked again for the May/June 2014 Baltic one on her. It was just as good.:)

The following info should provide useful to those wishing to go ashore independently...

Contrary to the route map shown on the 'Ports and excursions' page of the online description, the ship sails to the North of the island and docks at the new cruise terminal in Kudema Bay on the Northern coast rather that sailing to the South of the island and docking at Kuressaare on the Southern coast.

P&O's port information guide is supposed to give info on the distance to the nearest main town/destination. For Saameraa Island it says 'Ship docks in port' and 'No Shuttle Service'. That's a bit useless as I usually find that most times when a ship docks it's actually in a port! Kuressaare is the only town on the island and is about 27 miles (40-45 minutes by bus) from the cruise port.

My research had shown that Thomsons and Fred Olsen normally offer transfers (at a cost) from the cruise port to the town and I was expecting that P&O would do the same.

The guide to Saaremaa Island on the TV said that shuttles could not be provided due to difficulties in getting coaches over from the mainland (involving 2 ferry crossings).

I asked about transfers at the shore excursion desk and the supervisor said that they were going to be offered but were still working out a price. A couple of days later (after they'd got many people to buy their main tour to Kuressaare) they sent out a flyer offering a 'Kuressaare On Your Own' tour for £25. Two times were offered, 9.30-3.00 and 11.00-4.30.

The cruise port is located in an isolated area with very little habitation apart from the cruise terminal itself.

It was a pleasant sunny day and with 3 busy days ahead we decided (along with plenty of others) to walk up the coast about 2km to a small fishing village. I can highly recommend this option.

The tourist information center in the cruise port was very helpful and plenty of passengers and crew were making use of the free wi-fi.

There were no taxis waiting for fares but the girl at the desk at the info center was making phone calls to order them if requested. She said it was about €100 return for a taxi for up to 7 people.

There's a local bus that goes to Kuressaare but it only runs once a day - leaving before the ship docks and returning after the ship has sailed.

They are only able to change if it suits the company and there is a passenger on select who wants to move the other way. So the move is for the benefit of the select passenger not the saver passenger.

This may be the case for sitting changes but not for table size changes.

Having just returned from Adonia on a Saver fare, this was my experience of the dining allocation…

The announcement that cabins were ready came just before 2pm. Once in our cabin we found our allocated dining to be table of 6 in second sitting. This was perfectly acceptable although we would ideally prefer a table for 2 so I went to see the restaurant manager to see if I could get it changed.

In the restaurant notices stated:

The restaurant manager would be available from 2.30pm.

Priority would be giving to earliest bookings.

No tables of 2 were available.

1st sitting was full.

At that point there was only one couple waiting to request a change. They had expressed a preference (so not on a Saver fare) for 1st sitting but had been given 2nd. Whilst I was there a couple turned up who had booked a saver fare and got 1st sitting but wanted 2nd. They agreed to swap tables and waited for the manager to arrive to arrange this.

I returned to my cabin and went back at about 2.20 only to find the manager already there and only 2 couples queuing. When I saw the manager I said that I knew there were no tables for 2 available but politely asked if he would wait-list me in case anything turned up. He put me on his list which had all of about 3 lines on it. Later that afternoon a new table allocation note was delivered to our cabin with our table for 2 (actually a table for 4 with 2 empty seats).

I was very pleased to see that the on-board dining allocations were being handled as per the t’s and c’s and the manager was able to use his discretion in line with what my P&O Personal Cruise Specialist had informed me before the cruise. The "AND CANNOT BE CHANGED" wording about the dining allocation that appeared on the booking confirmation was not in the t’s and c’s and was plainly incorrect.

The dining experience was excellent with our waiters, Mandeep and Vikash, being the best we’ve had on all our cruises.

We've just returned from a Baltic cruise on Adonia.

In Tallinn on 27th May it was 10°C with drizzle. Two days before it had been 29°C.

In St. Petersburg on 28th May it was 11°C and raining. The day before had been 7°C but a couple of days before that it had been 28°C. For our second day on 29th May it was 13°C with showers. A week after we left it was 31°C.

As P&O no longer publish the port times on the dress code pdf I've listed the times for the Adonia Baltic cruise we've just returned from. I've also shown the times from our Adonia 1st October 2013 Baltic cruise for comparison.

......................May/June 2014....................October 2013

Copenhagen.............9-5...................................8-8

Saaremaa Island.......9-5.............................(Gdynia 8-6)

Tallinn.....................9-5...................................8-6

St. Petersburg....7-overnight-6....................7-overnight-6

Stockholm...............9-5...................................9-7

Visby......................9-5...................................8-5.30

Kalmar.....................8-5............................(Karlskrona 9-5.30)

Sassnitz..................9-5...................................9.30-6

The all aboard/last tender times are 30 minutes before the departure times listed.

It is evident that P&O are reducing their times in port to satisy their publicised goal of saving fuel by slowing down the ships. We were happy with the amount of time in each port but some people may find the reduced times not to their liking.

P&O/Cunard seem to be about the only ones not to let you know the port timings until you get on board. Carnival give port times for it's Princess & Costa brands so why not for the others?

If auto gratuities have increased how come P&O have not told us :confused:

It seems that anything that may have a negative effect on bookings is not publicised or is hidden away somewhere/not disclosed at all.

At least the new charges are disclosed in their FAQ's if you search.

Port timings, which used to be found on the dress code pdf, are no longer available. Presumably this is so that they can further reduce port times without anyone having the right to complain. I seem to remember reading a post last year when P&O had to backtrack on reducing port times in the Med following complaints. I'll post a separate thread on the reduced port times we had on our Baltic cruise.

Prices for shore excursions are not available until after you book and even then the prices shown in the cruise personaliser are only the ones for booking in advance. The prices on board are often slightly higher.

Just back from our Adonia cruise and noticed the auto gratuity charge on the bill had risen to £3.95 per day. It was £3.50 last October and £3.15 the year before (the figure still shown on Cruise Critic's Cruise Line Tipping Policies page).

That's a rise in 2 years of over 25%, somewhat above inflation and normal pay rises. I know P&O's gratuities are still much lower than the other mass market lines. Is it likely they will continue large percentage increases to catch up with the other lines so that they can reduce the salaries of waiters/stewards?

See P&O website

https://ask.pocruises.com/resources/carnivaluk/life-on-board/az_dresscodesv14.pdf

Brian

Just be aware that the pdf may not be accurate.

The Adonia cruise we've just returned from was listed as having 3 black tie and 4 smart, jacket required. Once on board we found there were to be 4 black tie and 3 smart, jacket required. This was not a problem for us but I can imagine some who take such things seriously being upset over it.