CruisingSarah

We have done that cruise. My advice would be to not book any P&O trips. You can do anything you want to do very easily independently from Rotterdam especially if you do it on the first day there as the ship is overnight in Rotterdam so no worry about being late back. The second day you can explore Rotterdam itself easily. Be aware that our Hamburg port was changed to another German port, Bremerhaven, and there wasn’t much there but it was ok for a bit of shopping and to see the U Boat. The port for Zeebrugge was Blankenberge and there was nothing much there except a very nice beach, but it was Feb! And it was a relatively early all-aboard time so there you would want to get off early and go on the train to Bruges early to be back. Think carefully about what trips you book with the ship, they can be overpriced and underdeliver! All the best with it!

the last time I leave this stuff to the other half then 🙄

Thank you!!

thank you! Same cruise!! See you onboard! I don’t recall any option to choose seats together, I can’t ring them up, the other week I was on the phone for over 90 minutes to them 😩 Looks as if we will have to take our chances at the airport and hope for the best.

Is there any way to online check -in for TUI flights? Booked direct with P&O so only got a P&O booking reference which I’ve tried on the TUI site and it doesn’t work. I understand that we can’t do night before bag drop so was hoping to do online check-in so that we can at least know we have seats together and go directly to bag drop on the morning as it’s a 6.00am flight. If we have to do the whole check-in at the desk are we likely to have pre-allocated seats together, do P&O arrange this? I would gladly do my own check-in and select seats but it seems impossible! Thanks for any advice, I’ve never taken cruiseline organised flights before, always booked them separately.

There are no changing rooms or showers in the gym and I doubt you’d be allowed to use the spa ones as you’d then be able to access the spa facilities and there’s an extra charge for that.

Thank you! That's helpful! Might try Lucca as never been and have been to the others before.

Thanks both, after a 100 minute call to P&O just now and still no answer as there was a further long wait internally for their flights department I think we will do our own thing or stick with what we have got. The P&O agent was extremely unhelpful and basically told us to phone tomorrow morning as he didn't want to have to wait on hold for flight dept, but having already waited 45 minutes before my call was answered and after trying twice yesterday and the day before for over 30 minutes without getting through I was keen to try and progress this once I was actually on the phone but it was not to be. I think I am going to be going back to using a travel agent, I have found P&O to be increasingly difficult to contact the past 6 months.

It's a long time since I was last in Livorno but I remember going DIY on the train pretty easily to Pisa for a few hours. Is it still easy to do this or to go to Florence? Or could anyone suggest any other straightforward DIY options perhaps for something different? I've ventured independently at many ports in the past but my travelling partner this time round is a bit nervous about travelling independently of the ship's excursions. Thanks for any ideas.

Thank you for this, we are on TUI flights in a few weeks time

Does anyone have any experience of being to change the included flights? We have just had the idea to extend our week's cruise by 2-3 days and wondered if P&O are likely to be able to do this at a reasonable charge. Currently on the third attempt to phone them, so far tried twice and had to hang up after half an hour of no answer. If they can't and we could book an independent one way flight, are there any considerations to doing this? Obviously we would inform them that we would be not be taking the coach transfer to the airport and the return flight. Thanks for any advice.

thanks so much, this is really helpful and fits with what we’ve had on the past two cruises, I can’t remember previous ones!

thank you very much!! The photo has cut off a bit but I think I can tell what you mean definitely about the bathroom anyway, but unsure about how you know the bed position?

Ah yes, good point! I have done this in the past, was just wondering if any way from the deck plans such as if cabin has extra beds, or for example the end cabin on a section is always right hand or whatever the pattern may or may not be!!

Just wondering if there’s anyway of knowing which way the cabin is arranged just from the deck plans? If you enter and the bathroom is on left or right? We prefer the layout where the bed is by the balcony doors rather than by the wardrobe. Walking along the corridors on disembarkation day it seems they alternate but are there any clues on the deck plans which let you know? One idea I have is that if there’s a 3rd and 4th bed then the bed will be by the wardrobe not the balcony door as this was the case in our recent cabin but I don’t know if this is always true! Thanks for any input!