claiream3

there is a saver fare - I booked one 48 hours ago :-)

Thanks so much all for your helpful feedback, it is greatly appreciated.

I am confident our dining preference will not become an issue.

On all past cruises where we have needed to we have happily waited to see the restaurant manager and had our preference changed. However on a 4 night cruise I was happy to pay the saver fare over the select saving a few pounds in the run up to an expensive time of year and save cash for shopping in ports. It would have been a different scenario if it were a longer cruise in the summer i.e. our main holiday of the year.

Happy cruising to all!

Claire

I am guessing there is a difference in Early Saver and Saver Fare? I have a similar query but when I went to the link via the CP upon entering my booking ref it wouldn't let me in. I booked just over 24 hours ago and will try again in a day or so. My main worry is we always like to eat around 8.30pm - we simply are not ready for food at 5.30 or the early setting so my fear is we will be assigned the early fixed dining sitting. We are on a Saver Fare.

Hi, been on Ventura before for a fortnights cruise so I have the 'past cruiser membership number' or whatever its known as....

We have booked a 4 nighter in December on a Saver Fare on a guaranteed grade inside cabin basis and understand that dining arrangement is assigned only once on board.

What i'm more nervous about is this dining arrangement being assigned to me - not that my assigned cabin might end up being in an undesirable location (experience on the Grand Princess as per my signature below says I cannot experience motion like it again going on the location of my cabin on that cruise which is the same ship as Ventura) so can handle that [touching everything wooden in sight]) but its the time I will be told when I can eat in the MDR i'm worried about :(. We like to MDR on the formal night (and most nights) but not at 5.30pm or the early setting per se. On all our past cruises we have always gone for the later sitting if not on freedom/anytime dining.

They say once assigned it cannot be changed but how realistic is this?

Does anybody have any experience of changing a dining plan once on board having booked an Early Saver Fare?

There is an option on their site to submit a dining preference but at this time (booked about 24 hours ago) it is not letting me submit this with my booking reference - is it because there is a difference in 'early saver fare' over my 'saver fare'?

Lastly - as we are past customers of P&O what are the chances of some sort of benefit? It says with saver fare no upgrades apply so that's out (as said not too fussed anyway), so wondering if they would likely look at us being past customers and give us their perceived better dining plan (anytime dining :D)? or am I going to be needing to eat in the buffet for 4 nights at a time that I want (i.e. later than 6pm)!

Surely once on board I can pull a few strings or sad faces and get a table at a time other than 5.30pm?

I know its only 4 nights and at the time of year (13th December) I can't see the cruise being full (but I may be completely wrong) so can cope with having to alter my arrangements to suit but just wondered what others experiences were, if any.

Will look forward to any advice or tips.

Claire

Thank you for your answers and thank you to Pepperrn for the additional info, I will enjoy looking through that of QV & QE as I have had the pleasure of taking my honeymoon aboard QM and I very much enjoyed using her spa and pools.

Knowing that both are open to the elements that gives me some comfort in that at least I am not missing out on one, therefore I am hopeful I will be able to secure the trip on QE in January.

Thanks again,

Claire

It is widely advertised that Queen Victoria does on their marketing material but it does not say the same for Elizabeth. Having studied their deck plans and compared with Victoria I cannot see this.

On photographs I can see that there are signs of a roof but it looks like this only goes as far as over the Garden Lounge seating area?

I ask as I am looking at a mini cruise on her first week of January with 2 sea days and this pool area would be an ideal place to spend those sea days however it may make or break my booking if I knew that the roof is not retractable and therefore this pool would be closed off due to the weather and temperatures over the north sea the first week in January!

I look forward to learning my fate!

I'm looking forward to our cruise on Nov. 25 to Hawaii - rust and all. You can go anywhere and find fault with something in the hotel, beach, etc. I've only had 1 bad experience on the several cruises we have taken, and it was on the Carnival Inspiration. That is one tired ship that should be either sold or taken to the ship graveyard. My friend did the SF-Alaska cruise a couple of months ago and had no complaints about the Grand Princess.

Elliair - funny that you mention Carnival Inspiration. She was docked alongside us in Ensenada. I made comment to my DH 'Carnival Inspiration - because once you're on her you're inspired to sail on a bigger and better ship...'. :eek:

That may be naughty of me as I have never sailed Carnival and everybody has their preference, likes and dislikes.

I'm all for the newer ships - GP is the oldest i'd go now.

I got off the Grand on Friday after reading several negative reviews of research prior, therefore went looking for the faults. I saw none.

Prior to Grand I have cruised on 4 'brand new' ships inc one a substantially newer version/sister to Grand (P&O Ventura) and for her age and the reports I read beforehand the worst I saw was a thread hanging off a sofa, some grouting in the floor tiles of one of the public toilets needing a makeover, and our aircon stopped working on the final night what I can presume to be from the quite rough seas / movement we encountered.

Other than that we hardly knew we were at sea, and I was extremely pleasantly surprised at her condition including my inside cabin and bathroom. I expected so much worse.

There were also a couple public restrooms (single cubicles within) out of order as was the odd sink. I never saw water seeping down walls, stained carpets (not one) or water on carpets anywhere.

She is a classy lady with tasteful public areas, nice food and can only salute her and her captain (UK/Welshman Justin Lawes) for getting us back to SF from Mexico in rough seas.

Hello

I was wondering if anybody could tell me where the exact location is of the tender port in SB?

As you can see we are on the above cruise on 29th September with Princess.

Thank you in advance

Claire

Hi, cruising Equinox 2nd September from Barcelona. On my previous cruises (QM2 & P&O Ventura) a complimentary laundry room has been available on each cabin deck. Having read recent reviews about the Equinox (of which I am very excited to be going on) somebody has mentionned that no irons are provided due to safety reasons. However they did not state if this was in the cabin (no irons in cabins on previous cruises so I dont expect an iron in the cabin [we're a standard inside]) or in the laundry room? Or is there no laundry rooms at all?

These irons and laundry rooms have served me very very well on previous cruises so am I to expect no facility like this on the Equinox?

Thank you in advance for your response.

Claire