rdmaidment

I had this email as well but haven't received any new booking confirmation.

I have discovered that if you access the pay outstanding balance page (there is a link in the cruise personaliser) the price of the cruise has been adjusted.  The difference isn't trivial, this is for a 21 night cruise on Arcadia in 2025.

Wikipedia says sold for scrap.  I haven't been able to find any confirmation of this, I do hope not.

Has anyone had any success in getting a simple refund of deposit or transfer to existing booking rather than FCC?

I ask as we're due to go on Britannia in August with a number of friends (linked bookings) who meet the criteria for cancellation (over 70, existing conditions) so it's likely that they will have to cancel.

Our problem is that we have 7 cruises booked and cannot really book another one between now and March 2022!  Our preference depending on the outcome with our friends may be to cancel and ideally obtain a refund.  Otherwise we stand to lose our deposit or just blow it on a 2 nighter.

On Ventura last week they were ding the early bird free bottle of wine all week

Whilst clearly there was a reason why the berth wasn't in use for this cruise; the boat show, we have on more than one occasion tendered into Monaco when the berth was empty.  The berth seems capable of accomodating large vessels such as Azura as we have visited Monco on one of the newer Carnival ships.

It doesn't strike me that running a tender operation all day is a good way to save money, so it would be interesting to learn why in general P&O seem to tender in Monaco.

On Azura last week we dined in the select restaurants and they now charge half price for children under 17.  They were also doing some children dine free later in the cruise.  This doesn't include the Glass or Beach House.

I enquired and it's a new policy, not sure if it works online though but did when booking and paying on the ship.

These are nice cabins with a full sized sofa that will convert to a sofa bed.  Basically the cabin is longer to accommodate the larger sofa.

They all have a connecting door one side which does make the sound proofing poorer than normal.

Yes there are plenty of irons and ironing boards

Same here for the mini bar.

Once I think this arose as we emptied the fridge and stored the drinks in the cabin on one of the racks above the dressing table.  Knowing that we wen't using the mini bar the steward would 'borrow' drinks and this probably left our cabin short.

We've moved to asking for it to be removed and stored and haven't had an issue since.

The D deck cabins are excellent value and very convenient, being a short walk to the atrium.  We prefer the starboard side to the port side as you avoid going through the door into Raffles.  Avoid D150, it's by a crew entrance and showers/toilet.

We also liked the larger inside cabins up on the port side of B deck, B128, B122 etc.  The only issue with these is that they have interconnecting doors which hinders sound proofing.  These cabins are nice with a full sized sofa.

We take an Aeropress, it makes really good coffee and doesn't require electricity.  They only cost £25-£30, nice and light to carry and use ground coffee.  You can stock up on extra milk from the buffet.

P&O restrict the use of electrical items for a good reason and their rules should be followed, they are there to protect everyone.

We were on Britannia last week and at the Baltic lunch were told that the midship staircase wouldn't be changed as feedback that the lack of a staircase has not been sustained over the years and it is no longer seen as an issue.

I think it is £399 for a week and £599 for 2 weeks judging from the quotes we had.

The quotes ended up being £359 and £539 due to the 10% pat passenger discount being applied at the moment so a very good deal. We booked a better grade than normal as the price per person comes down.

OBC seems to be an either or situation at the moment and sometimes seems bonkers, e.g. superior deluxe cabin - 2 weeks Britannia £140 OBC or car parking, Suite £290 OBC or car parking so the suite person loses out unless they take the OBC and sort out the car parking themselves.

We have had great success on Aurora with the inside cabins on D deck, forward of Sindu. They are quiet and very convenient for getting around the ship. Avoid D150 though as there is noise from the crew entrance.

We also like the large inside cabins on deck B forward. These have a 3 seater sofa which can be made into a sofabed. However these do have interconnecting doors which provide poor sound insulation as we found on our last cruise 2 weeks ago where we had a noisy family next to us.

We often stay in D149 and have found it very good. Avoid D150 though as the crew come through here and there are some crew showers close by. Noise from the theatre is minimal as they are towards the entrance of the theatre.

We also like the larger inside cabins on B deck (B128 etc). These have a large sofa that will convert into a bed and in fine weather you are a short walk to the front where there is an observation point which you will mostly have for yourself.

Personally I would change the cabin. We were in that cabin on Grand Princess on one cruise and we found it noisy in rough seas. You could hear the cables clanking all night.

There was no noise apart from that so you may not be affected as the caribbean is generally smoother than the Bay of Biscay in April but given the choice to change I would.

Nor me annarack, I booked a suite for later this year, for my special birthday cruise. First time in a suite, so I was trawling the FAQ for suite related questions. Some of the FAQs are amazing, some are just crazy! It gives a fun 5 minutes thinking “surely no one asks *that*?”!!!

 

Anyway, When I saw they had pod machines, I hoped they’d provide chocolate pods, but they obviously don’t, so I may buy a few Senseo chocolate pods, and take with me (the buffet hot chocolate tasted weird last Christmas)

 

Enjoy your suite :)

You need different pod holders for the chocolate pods as they are different to the coffee ones, I doubt they will have the correct holder on the ship.

Hercules tours do a tour with 4 stops including the lighthouse and Mount of San Pedro. It's very similar to the ships tour but only 15 euros if you book online.

It gets quite popular but if you book you get the best seats and a small discount.

We transferred a cruise last week and the price for the new cruise was at current prices.

As a family we are very disappointed that P&O have taken this move. Aurora is also our favorite ship by a considerable margin. We frequently cruise on her and had 3 trips booked.

Whilst I can understand why they are making this move in the light of Adonia going what really niggles us is the lack of planning and that P&O make changes after they have accepted bookings for the period in question. I now feel how aggrieved people were when Adonia was sold and people's cruises were cancelled as a result putting people to extra effort, inconvenience and expense.

We booked an Aurora cruise for August 2019 and have now had to change. P&O have given 5% future cruise benefit in respect of the original cruise cost as a sweetener but this doesn't really cover the inconvenience and costs associated with the change.

We booked when the cruises were released which gave us a 5% early booking discount which is no longer available. Also Select prices have generally gone up over this period for holiday's in peak periods. We have ended up moving our Aurora August booking to an early saver booking at Easter on Britannia and moving our Easter Azura select booking to Summer 2019. Whilst rather convoluted we were able to save £500 on our Easter cruise and the change means that the 2 cruises we have will have different itineraries which if left unchanged they would have been the same as the original Aurora August itinerary was different to our Easter cruise on Azura. We still ended up £700 worse off though even after the £500 saving at Easter but hats off to the P&O representative who understood our reasons and waived the £100 transfer fee for the Select booking change.

P&O seem to be moving goal posts after people have booked (alcohol policy and gratuities for example) which doesn't show great regard for their customers.

I don't see why certain ships can't be adult only for most of the year and allow children in school holidays. I suspect the real motivation is to add cabins to Aurora like they did for Oriana which makes this not feasible.

The apple juice in the bars is a cloudy variety which may not be to your sons taste, they used to do cans of 'ordinary' apple juice but no longer stock these. They will serve from a carton if you ask if they have it available but we tend to take on a couple of litres and keep it in the fridge. The apple juice at breakfast is more conventional so you can stock up then, just don't fill your bottles from the machine, use a glass and decant.