Azafran

Have been looking into this cruise. Can anyone recommend pre-registering for a cruise (as you have to for this cruise at the moment), good, bad etc.:confused:

Our RCI and Celebrity cruises have had a more international mix but they definitely do not arrive on flights on the day. Americans/Canadians/Japanese/South Americans could never risk a flight arriving on the day of departure and either overnight in Southampton or have a pre cruise vacation in London. Either way they can be at the port early if they wish and have no issue boarding.

 

The kerb to gangway in 10 mins has no impact on security protocol which is the same in the Ocean Terminal (P&O) and the City Terminal (RCI, Celebrity). The difference is everything is done online in advance and on the biggest ships passengers select their own boarding slot. As they have selected their slot they are more likely to stick to it rather than being given an arbitrary slot by P&O that bears no relation to their travel arrangements. RCI and Celebrity invest in better procedures to benefit their passengers whilst P&O take backward steps and inconvenience their passengers more.

 

Having boarded Celebrity 5 times and Royal twice in Southampton I can confirm they have the boarding process managed extremely well. Maybe this is based on US boarding where Americans wouldn't stand for underinvestment leading to delays or enforced random arrival times whereas P&Os clientele (at least on here) roll over and accept whatever P&O impose in them.

 

Before we moved from P&O to the US lines our early arrivals at Southampton never seemed to be an issue. They were smooth and the Ocean terminal coped. I really don't see where the notion of a shipload of passengers turning up before noon has come from as it wasn't our experience, especially as the coaches would be spread from 12-3pm dependant on where they originated. P&O have spun their propaganda machine to support set boarding times and unfortunately many have swallowed the lies. There is a better way and the US lines already know that.

 

 

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Having just experienced for the first time a Celebrity check-in at Southampton Ocean terminal for the Eclipse (I think the same cruise you were on) we were amazed at how BAD it was and were laughing to ourselves, thinking and they say P&O & Cunard boarding is bad, it was chaos, we got there at mid-day and stood in long lines waiting to check in, so all this talk about Celebrity are so much better, in our opinion and experience is not true. Not enough staff at checkin, even some of those there had to travel from Harwich that very day to help out.

Not everything is rosy in the garden of Celebrity check in. Not saying it is all good with others but please stop this talk about Celebrity being excellent at check in.

On Eclipse now and confirm all above.

We have been on Arcadia twice and loved it, infact booked the UK to the Caribbean and back for later this year on her as a special Anniversary trip. Cannot offer any reflections on Aurora as we have not been on her.

Another plus for us on Arcadia is that she is Adult exclusive.

Have fun planning

Just off Wednesday, November 25th.

During our 13 day cruise, the planetarium was NOT operational.

Concerning, on for 26 nights very soon, huuby looking forward to that part!!:confused:

I went to our local McMillan Charity shop and got a lovely hat for £5 to go with one of my cocktail dresses which I will be wearing for our upcoming cruise on QM2. Not sure whether to wear hat to dinner or go back to cabin after dinner to collection it.

Advice greatly rec'd. Hubby won't be wearing a top hat & tails tho. Tux suit for him with matching bow tie to my dress/hat colours.

We assume prebooked tours are going to be changed by P&O, no mention of that on the email rec'd today. Anyone know?

Would be very interested in the attire worn at the 175 Formal Ball. We have just had our dress codes come thru for our QM2 cruise in Dec and I note there is one of these themed balls scheduled. I understand it is a celebration of the Cunard 175 Anniversary but would like to know what is expected dress wise. Many thanks, enjoy your cruise.

American lines definitely seem to be more casual overall, but much depends on the caliber of the passengers. I'll never forget the nice Hawaiian couple in the cabin next door on HAL who asked us to show them how to tie the husbands neck tie - as they said they never need to wear wear ties on Hawaii, but they were determined to dress up. They said they would loosen the tie and keep it knotted for future use - I wonder if it still goes on cruises?! :)

 

I would love to do a Cunard TA but I'm to short to wear full length dresses and dont want to be under-dressed :o

I too Sea Green am vertically challenged (short, 4ft 11") but you certainly do not have to wear long dresses, alot of my cruise formal wear is short cocktail dresses on Cunard.

We remember a situation when a couple from 'over the pond' so to speak (no dis-respect intended) turned up for a formal evening in Shell Suits and were surprised to be turned away from the MDR. Every one/nationality has different ideas of Formal.

Book a Cunard cruise, sure you will love it. Doing our first TA this Dec.

We didn't get offered this on our QM2 Dec cruise either? Is it part of the add on packages you can buy? We paid full price also, altho supposed to have the 'ultimate upgrade' package but this was sold out, so not sure why it was still being advertised on our cruise.

Love a ginger cosmo also.

Many thanks Solent Richard, your reviews were very informative.

We last travelled on QM2 in PG, some years ago I hasten to add, so it was nice to read about the Britannia Club cabins/service etc, really looking forward to our cruise even more now.

Waiting for the excursions to come on line for sale now. Altho we have been to the Caribbean a bit, NY is new and would at least like to see some highlights on the 2 day change over at the beginning and end of the Caribbean part, after and before the TA part.

Thank you again for your reply

Totally agree Bob. See my comment above re Deck 11 and Deck 12 differences.

Thats handy to know re Deck 12 as we are on that deck (Britannia Club) in Dec/Jan. Havn't been able to get online in Stateroom before.

Did you enjoy this Deck and also Britannia Club?, we are in A1 cat.

I have booked R749 on Azura for my mum and me for a 7 nighter in Sept.

Hope no too bad as Mum has had a rather trying 6 months and this is supposed to be a relaxing re charging girlie get together etc.

Been on Azura twice before but never had an aft balcony before.

We have booked on the 'ultimate upgrade package' A1 Club on QM2 but have been told by agent that the upgrade to P2 is full. So does not look like we will. Xmas/New year cruise. :):(

We have booked Riviera deck on Azura cabin R749, aft balcony, so any opinions good or bad gladly appreciated.

The only noise we have heard about is from the sea, which if you are on a ship what would you expect?!

Always fancied one of the aft balconies so hopefully we won't be disappointed.

Enjoy you are on holiday:)

We know this has probably been asked before but we cannot find an answer on P&O website for example, we are doing a 2 nighter on Azura next week in a DA grade cabin and we are trying to save packing space plus weight.

Can anyone confirm if the white toweling robes are in this grade of cabin on a 2 nighter?

Many thanks in advance

Anybody know when sales will start for RCL Anthem of the Sea's from Southampton Summer 2015?

The point that seems to have got lost is that we could smell cigar smoke in our cabin with our balcony slider shut.

I don't mind if the people in the cabin next door smoke Turkish or French smelly cigarettes or the most expensive Havana cigar. It should not recirculate into our cabin through the aircon system.

The fact that NCL could have charged us 250$ because an employee might have smelt cigar smoke in our cabin was the main point. Do you think this it is unreasonable to ask them to have checked our cabin?

Its a tough rule to enforce when its a balcony stateroom .. The fact you had cigar smell in the ventilation says someone was being naughty and I hope they checked a few of the cabins. But lets say a heavy smoker is on their balcony with the slider open ? It sure will smell in the cabin. So Im going to say , unless there is overwhelming evidence NCL will most likely deliver a few warnings and then go from there.. Perhaps one day we will hear from someone that was caught .. ;)

Durhhhh. The fact we had turned the heating up meant that the 'slider' door to our balcony was closed. You would have to be pretty dumb to turn up heating and leave the balcony slider open. But perhaps with a balanced view - 50% of people are clever and 50% are dumb.

We very much doubt they would have sent anybody to check on neighbouring cabins without incurring the wrath of the occupants. So perhaps it is a fact of life that crew don't need hassle and therefore won't bother investigating reports that cigar smoke has permeated a cabin. Either way - we suffered cigar smoke and nobody could give a damn.

We were on Spirit for the New Year cruise, in a balcony cabin on Deck 10. We suffered a strong cigar smell in our cabin when we turned the heating up. Having read the in-room info pack and seen the 250$ charge if they have to clean the room due to smoke smell, we contacted guest services straight away.

We do not smoke and my husband has asthma and recirculating cigar smoke doesn't help. Their reply was that they would look in to it but rest assured, whatever they found we would not be charged!!!!!

No-one came to check our cabin, despite contacting guest services the next day when it occurred again. Same reply was received.

Our only guess is that perhaps the filters in the air-con/heating unit needed changing but because the ship was having a re-fit in a few weeks time, they didn't want to do anything because it would cost money. Either way - they did nothing so perhaps the 250$ charge is just a frightener.

I have received this questionnaire after every NCL cruise...and I have always completed it to the end.

 

I have sailed with NCL, RC and Carnival...so I don't think that's a factor.

 

What I think is the determining factor is the question that ask your "profession". One of those categories makes or breaks if you get to finish it to the end IMO.

 

I'm in the medical field and that's one of the check off boxes on there. :)

We didn't get that far as to the question 'what profession' we were booted out after we answered who we had cruised with before and how many times. So I don't think profession has anything to do with it.

Also we sent an email to UK guest services as suggested in their email with the questionnaire and todate we still have not rec'd a reply from them also!

What is this all about? We don't fit their profile therefore they are not interested in our views or opinions.

NCL sent us an email questionnaire an hour ago to ask our opinion and get feedback regarding the recent cruise on NCL Spirit that we disembarked from in Malaga on 4th Jan 2014. Whilst onboard we asked the reception desk for a questionnaire because we thought we had some positive input to make the whole experience better.

We were told that we would get an email asking for our input and as promised it did arrive. After completing a few pages that simply asked our cruise history and 'tick-boxes' for the various cruise companies we have used in the past, a message popped up saying we did not fit their profile for the type of passenger they wanted feedback from. That was it, we were then booted out.

Being suspicious, does this mean they only want feedback from passengers that have been travelling with NCL for many years? Obviously the feedback would be weighted in favour of NCL and the results would look better for the shareholders? Either way, our input seems to have been censored. Would be interested if anyone else has had this experience.

I agree that the LH side of the menu changed, but the content was pretty similar to the RH side. On one evening one of our party had the new york strip from the RH side of the menu and another had a beef steak from the LH side of the menu. The only difference was the style of potatoes served with each steak. The cruise was 9 nights and the main problem was food temperature. We sent a couple of dishes back only the get the cold meal returned to us on sizzling plates.

Another Fawlty Towers meal was an Italian meal ordered specifically with no cheese. The waiter moved the pasta dish from one side of the plate, scraped the cheese on to a side dish and then re-assembled the same meal into the middle of the plate.

The lunch menus never changed in Windows. And don't order tartar sauce with fish, you get garlic aioli sauce, even though we had told the waiter that one of our party was allergic to garlic and therefore he didn't want anything served that contained garlic.

Anyway, it might just have been the luck of the draw. However we have heard from different sources that some cruise liners purposely serve food colder than UK taste would like, to avoid litigation from diners burning their tongues on hot food?