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!

I think it depends how comfortable you are being independent from the ship and their excursion. It looks as if the ship’s planned hike will walk you directly from the ship or maybe a very short drive. If you look on a map you will see that Ben Chacraig and Torvaig are hills just above the port. You will certainly have beautiful views from there but the other two areas and in particular the Quiraing is just dramatic and spectacular and both there and the Old Man have wider reaching views and are surprisingly accessible even for those less experienced or fit for hiking. I guess it’s really just how you will get there, if you can find a guide to meet you off the ship, drive you to one or the other and allow ample time for the hike and the drive you by some of the other sights with the remains time. You will pass by the Old Man on the way to and from the Quiraing. Both walks are such that you don’t actually need a guide to walk with you necessarily as they are extremely obvious paths and you can walk as far as you like to see as much as you want and turn back when you are ready to or go all the way up into the rocks and in the case of the Quiraing there is a route through and then up over the hill behind them where you can then look down. This has one steep longer incline to get up above and then is steep down but makes a circular route rather than an out and back. I can show you map routes or my Strava routes for both walks and photos. Both were under 4 miles.

Hi, I spent a week on Skye in November. I’d say that you might want to see the Quiraing and/or The Old Man of Storr from Portree. These are both spectacular rock formations with stunning views. You could hike at both if you have time and if not you can still get a good view from the road. You could likely see both as they are both on the same side of the island, the Quiraing a bit further North. You would also pass and could stop off at the Kilt Rock and another viewpoint of the Lealt Falls too, all of the four are along the same road. Another option would be the Fairy Pools which would let you see the Cuillin Mountain Range up close. it would be hard to do both as they are in different directions but maybe possible with a good local driver. I think you can find local guides by googling, I saw quite a lot come up, or by looking on the tourist board info website. Otherwise there are small boat tours which go out from Portree, they will likely go up the coast and maybe see some of the sights from the sea but mostly they go looking for wildlife such as whales/dolphins, eagles, puffins, otters depending on the season and the area. Wishing you the best with your planning!

Just off Arvia and just confirming what others have helpfully said above. P&O shuttle dropped off outside the Arts &Sciences Museum opposite the large Carrefour shopping centre. It was £5 per person each way if you don’t have them included in your cruise fare. From there it’s about a half hour walk to the old town area or get the public bus for E1.50 pay by contactless on the bus. There is a free port shuttle but P&O obviously don’t tell you this! From the port gates as mentioned above you could take bus 95 all the way to the old town or other locations for E1.50.

I would just be very careful, take on of those special mesh ironing cloths that you can buy which protect clothes, maybe from Lakeland or John Lewis, or else a thin old tea towel and iron on the reverse and test the iron first.

Just on Arvia now and there is an iron and board in the launderette. It’s hard wired into the wall and there is a button to press to turn it on and it’s on a timer. It’s quite a lightweight, basic steam iron. I would take an old tea towel or some kind of cloth to iron through as this one had a dirty soleplate which left a mark on my dress and it also kept leaking water 😩

Hi, I was the one who posted similar about Arvia. We were allocated about 9 days before in the end. One thing that I didn't realise as I kept on refreshing my P&O page and couldn't see anything and when I called the TA about another matter and mentioned it and they said they could see it, I refreshed and couldn't see it. I had to log out and log back in and there it was, so possibly try this if you haven't already. All the best with it.

That made me laugh! 😆 well the wait is over…. We got the cabin assigned today and it’s exactly what we booked a grade GF guarantee. We have got a standard balcony, deck 15 forward, just ahead of the big corner balcony one, it’s a GF on the deck plan. We’re really fine with this, it looks fine, shouldn’t be any noise issues, decks above and below, not totally on the front that you worry about storm doors etc. we really thought we were going to get deck 5 as there were so many of those left, but I guess a lot of people got upgraded to those as they are a few grades higher due to location even though they have the covered balcony. I think we should be fine on such a big ship but given we are high and forward I will be sure to take enough Stugeron 😂

We wer a bit the same, it's been a last minute booking just a month or so before and we looked at what seemed ot be left, decided we were happy with any of the balcony cabins left and so booked the late saver, on the basis that we'd most likely get one of those that were left. Since then there has been quite a bit of movement with previously sold out grades soming back on sale etc. So now absolutely no clue what we are likey to get 😂

Thanks both for the info, I've only very rarely booked a guarantee before and never had it this late. I'm checking several times a day 😂

We still don’t have a cabin number at 10 days out, thought the status has changed and instead of ‘excited to reveal cabin nearer to sailing date’ it now says ‘GUAR deck GT’. Now I assume that just to mean it’s a guarantee cabin. But the GT bit threw me as the travel agent grade says GF which is an actual cabin grade from the deck plans whereas GT is not. I suppose we will end up where we end up but I thought we’d know by now!