Presto2

Thanks - we are looking at booking another holiday and want to make sure that we are home to book the seats for January. Don't want to the seats to become available when we are not home

Just double checking when seats become available to book for our cruise in January 2025.

We fly in to Barbados on Saturday, 25th January.

We think they become available at midnight Friday, October 18th into the early hours of the 19th am guessing - if last year is anything to go by.

Is this right?

Thanks

46 minutes ago, zap99 said:

Quite pleasant 25o in Gran Canaria apart from an old tub spoiling the view. I bet some of you have fond memories of her.

Looks like my beloved Oceana.. was it a sister ship then? Ahhhh happy days. 

Ps NO COMMENTS about baked bean tins before anyone starts!

We have friends on Arcadia at the moment and they have been saying that PO has put lots of things in place. 

5 minutes ago, brian1 said:

Yeah,but we're posh now.We have our lunch at 12ish and dinner between 7 and 8,lol.

No dinner is 12ish and tea is 5ish

Supper is from the chip shop later 😋 

4 minutes ago, brian1 said:

Yeah,but we're posh now.We have our lunch at 12ish and dinner between 7 and 8,lol.

Yuppies ... 

6 hours ago, Josy1953 said:

We always had tinned salmon for tea on Sundays too which is probably why I don't buy it now.  I buy fresh salmon now and grill it to have with either salad or potatoes and vegetables.

We have Christmas Dinner at lunchtime on Christmas Day.

Boxing Day is a lazy day for me since I stopped having family around and I refuse all invitations to go to visit either DH's or my siblings.  There are only 2 of us to cook for so it is leftovers from Christmas Day and then lazing in front of the TV and eating chocolates etc.

Red salmon or pink ! When we got red salmon mum.said we were yuppies. 

10 hours ago, brian1 said:

We always had a tinned salmon salad for our Sunday tea.Followed by tinned fruit in syrup and carnation milk.Hate syrup now but didn't know any different then.Never used the posh word lunch,always dinner then tea.That's why I always call it Christmas dinner even though it's served no later than 4pm.Back in the day I never heard of high tea or supper.

Love this post. Yip Sunday dinner and had me tea about 5pmish. Yes the tinned fruit and carnation cream. On a good day it was something like a thick white tinned cream beginning with an I. Then we had a special treat ... French Fancies by Kiplings!

20 minutes ago, sandancer said:

Well being truthful didn’t help me. I rang our existing insurer to inform them of the tests (as requested on the policy) and they immediately cancelled my other half off the new quote they had just given me. So you are right. Honesty isn’t always the best policy. However, I’m not a risk taker and I need to be sure everything is in place. I only have a few days until final payment and I don’t see me having the answers I need by then. Hence my question about resale. 

I think you are being very wise. I know it is very disappointing to cancel a holiday (we've just had to miss one and probably cancel another) but am wondering if it would be worth not paying the final payment and moving to another cruise if you can. Or lose the deposit and see if you can rebook something as soon as you have the information and cover you need. Paying up and then not being able to sell would cost more. Just a thought. Hope you get it all sorted.

P.S. Re insurance - don't get me started. A business that will do anything not to pay out ....

12 minutes ago, molecrochip said:

The styling of Sindhu is more casual on Ventura as it was a conversion of the former East restaurant.

 

P&O got things wrong with Ventura. Azura was a lot more popular. East became Sindhi. The Glass House was a conversion of Las Ramblas. There were changes to the Exchange and extra cabins next door. 
 

Eventually 17/The White Room both became the Epicurean.

Funnily enough the only thing we really liked about Ventura was the Glass House set up. More so than on Britannia. Thanks for helping out 🙂

3 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

Could it be a problem with the galley for the Glass House, I seem to remember

there have been problems with this in the past?

And Sindhu on one ship? Seems tough not to spread it out across the fleet?

Just now, grapau27 said:

We were in Sindhu twice during our 10 nights cruise.

The restaurant was about 75% full and seemed to have plenty of staff.

They were offering a £21 special for any

Starter.

Main.

Desert.

 

Which makes it all.so confusing !

7 minutes ago, grapau27 said:

When we were on Ventura a couple of weeks ago Glass House was open for Drinks only.

Unlike other P&O ships Ventura's management allowed people on Formal night to Dine in Sindhu in smart casual and not Black tie.

I was told if people were paying a cash supplement to dine they should be able to dine in smart casual wear.

Seems strange then re the changes now. Tbh if they just told us the real reason regarding closures I think it would help folk to understand more and less intolerant.  Self included 

1 hour ago, Selbourne said:

From our experience (and also based upon what our steward told us) the soot problems were determined more by weather conditions. In warm and dry climates the soot rises higher and falls much later, well behind the ship. In rain, the soot falls almost immediately and catches the aft of the ship. Wind direction also plays a part on which cabins are affected. Sometimes the soot catches the port side aft, but not starboard, yet other times it will catch the starboard side aft but not port.

This is what we have found.. and like I said there are similar issues on some Princess and Celebrity ships. 

1 hour ago, Johndavid13 said:

E738 and E740

How odd. We had E741 in January and it wasn't that bad at all. The cabin steward was amazing but he may have left now. He had just got on early January.

2 minutes ago, Johndavid13 said:

To be honest, the major soot problem was just one issue. There seems to be a general lack of care to guests since Covid. We had elevators out of order which meant that my mum in a wheelchair and I had to wait ages to get about the ship. Britannia has always had too few lifts available. The self-service restaurant was extremely crowded a lack of available chairs to sit down. A lack of staff available to replenish food before it had run out. The main Swimming pool very overcrowded never anywhere to sit, nobody policing towels left on chairs for many hours. lack of entertainment by the pool just loud music. Long lines of people queueing to get on and off of the ship. The list goes on. In general, the quality of services has in my opinion drastically declined. Certainly not worth the money. It seems like everywhere you turn these days all they want to do is take your money. 
 

It's interesting that we too had a terrible cruise on her on June 2023 but the one in January 2024 in the Caribbean was 100 times better..... 

3 minutes ago, Camberley said:

I’m not at the stage of transferring to a different ship with P&O but my OH and friends who are also booked on the cruise are certainly wavering. I know some people rate the MDRs and buffet and never see the need to pay extra for meals onboard, but good food is a big part of our holidays and for us the MDRs and buffet barely rise above adequate. The speciality restaurants are always key factor of any of our cruises so eliminating two of them means the other speciality restaurants on Ventura will be booked rapidly.

Like you we love to try out the speciality restaurants on any ship. It's part of our holiday. As I said we didn't particularly like Ventura anyway and the Glass House was our favourite go to. I know they say operational reasons but does anyone think they known what this means?

Also how long is this for? Will give my friends the heads up.

2 hours ago, Camberley said:

And now both Sindhu and Glasshouse on Ventura are going to be “closed for the foreseeable future” in terms of food according to an email I got from them about a cruise on her next year. And P&O’s ubiquitous “operational reasons” make another appearance.
 

Ok, it’s what it is and 1st world problems and all. But disappointing.

That's really surprised me. Friends are giving Ventura a go on the basis they have some of these special dining areas to try out. Personally we didn't like Ventura and it would be a reason to cancel for us if this is long term.

2 hours ago, Johndavid13 said:

We have recently returned from a 2 week trip on Britannia staying in one of the Aft cabins. The soot conditions on our balcony were horrendous. It was a constant battle every day. It made the balcony pretty much impossible to use. In fact, most of the time we were the only people struggling to sit out. Sitting on the balcony was a major part of my mother‘s holiday as she is wheelchair bound and often unable to go assure. We have written to P&O. and they are not taking our complaint seriously. We have been offered £350 in total as compensation on a future cruise for both cabins. This is just not good enough. We should’ve been informed about this potential problem when making our booking. Can you advise on how you managed to get your considerable compensation, please? The only way that this issue can be rectified is if people complain to ensure that future cruisers don’t have to go through what we went through.

IMG_0778.mov

Good grief. We've stayed in aft cabins on Celebrity Silhouette and had F729, F728 and an E deck one  on Britannia and though we have had some issues with spots on both ships we've never had it as bad as  your photos appear to show above.

We normally take a small cloth to give everything a wipe down just incase and sometimes the weather conditions have made things slightly worse and a pair of flip flops for the balcony. I know you shouldn't necessarily have to but we read tips on CC and it helped massively.

Out of interest did they clean your balcony down for you at all? In June 2023 on Britannia it wasn't cleaned once though in the Caribbean they did give it a hose down some days and kept the floor clean.

It definitely seemed worse when the ship had been going flat out on a sea day or over night or the weather been bad.

I know they have put the canopies over but I think that the suites and cabins further down will always be affected as they are on her sister ships owned by Princess. We have sailed on her before and after the canopies and from our experience it hasn't made a difference lower down at all.

It's the same with the Silhouette and her sister ships on Celebrity.. last we heard it was still an issue there too. They used to hose the  balcony daily .. though that was before the pandemic and cuts that have followed. 

On 9/18/2024 at 2:45 PM, FiftyOnePlus said:

There is a little known 'law' in the UK that states a company may not keep your deposit if the room is filled but they may charge a small amount for administration costs.

So if you can prove a ship is full when it sails, you can rightfully ask for your money back.

Does that relate to hotels as well as ships out of interest if you've paid in full and for some reason have to cancel? 

We've sailed on Azura and Celebrity Constellation Infinity's sister ship. Without repeating much of what has been said already if given a choice we would prefer to sail on Azura. We weren't keen on the Constellation at all.

Now if it was the Silhouette or Edge that would be a different matter..... if money was not an issue of course!

1 hour ago, Cruise Junky said:

 

That's what surprised us. Thanks for the dates above. Will message re what out TA.says when we hear from them.

We have just had a communication from our UK TA that the Celebrity 2026 and 2027 itineraries are coming soon. We thought this was very early Celebrity who we thought normally waited until November time. Has anyone else in the UK heard the same news.as us? 

What are gratuities now? Have lost track. 

Thanks so much for your help folks

4 minutes ago, Liao said:

Please note my correction to post #5

Ah thanks. That sounds better ☺️