scooby1

Yeah tried them all nothing showing at the moment, still a while to go.

We have the same thing and no cabin assigned at all, no muster or anything. I think we will be searching for free rooms at this rate when we get there, anyway still plenty of time for them to decided to look for a room for us I guess. Oh and no adding the room into the wallet DOESN'T work, still shows GTY.

From memory the other shows get booked when you are on the ship via the app or in the terminal. Bumper cars are still working, or they offer laser tag type game, roller skating or some sports in the same venue.

To summarise this thread. Food quality is down, costs are up resulting in guest dissatisfaction overall and more looking at other options to holiday. Shareholders are happy for now though as supply is low and demand high still, will that carry on, who knows.

We have a GTY J-Suite for a cruise next year, but at the time it was all that was available in that class and above if memory serves me correctly. There wasn’t the ability to choose a cabin and this was booked whilst on an RCL cruise. We have international flights and kids travelling with us, if they bumped us from the cruise at the terminal I wouldn’t need to post about it, people would hear it from the terminal. As others have said this isn’t a hotel or flight, we specifically choose hotels that don’t have an overbook policy, I mean who wants to turn up and they say oops sorry not room.

Yeah used to be a rule of thumb was £100pppn or thereabouts. I mean who doesn’t like a cheaper holiday but it comes with a double impact of quality of service and more. Many might not even notice but as you say from the 2000s it was 2008 for our first cruise when you had the chocolates on the pillows to the food that was genuinely impressive. Now the sauce’s on the meals seem synthetic and mass produced, tomato soup isn’t fresh and more. It’s a shame that in reality they always want maximum occupancy at all costs and then upsell the trips, drinks and shop sales. Oh and forget being able to get a sun bed these days it’s like Butlins.

Cruising has become way cheaper, we managed to book a 14 days cruise cheaper than it was to get a good half board hotel in the Balearics, that never used to be the case. Unfortunately that is meaning that some who previously couldn’t afford to cruise now can and standards are dropping, both in the service they can offer and the standards of the guests. UK based cruises for us have seen some of the worst behaviours on any cruise from any location post pandemic. We have one cruise booked for next year and will give it a break for a while or look at other brands that we have been on before and see if the situation improves or not. Holidays should be fun and joyous occasions and too many people set out to detract from that and the design of some of the ships doesn’t help either in a pile it high sell it cheap and upsell approach.

I’ve just come of P&O Iona only the second cruise not on RCI, it was great that there were no tips not gratuities nothing, it was even something they promoted. RCI it can feel a bit much sometimes order a drink where is my tip, it’s just a coke that took 20 seconds why do you need a tip. Anyway, I asked our waiter if he had worked on any other cruise ships and he said yes worked on a lot of US cruise ships and many RCI. I asked why work on P&O and not there and do you mind me asking do you get more on any that others. He said you can get paid more overall on US cruise companies but it’s much harder, they really flog you and it’s a tough environment. But he worked on P&O as the money was only slightly less but a lot easier, he said it was great on the other us companies if you are younger and keen but he said those days had gone and it wasn’t worth it to him.

I tried the same - couldn't get it to move to something closer either. It was so zoomed out on Iona to be almost pointless which was a shame.

We have been RCL exclusively and have recently done Azura and have just come off Iona. I’d say @Eglesbrech and @Glitterati are spot on. One extra thing is RC ships always seem to be a little better thought out to navigate around and transit around. Iona has loads of lifts but they are tiny, RC et al they are far bigger meaning more people and chairs can use them without filling them up. Not a big thing but it adds a little to the frustration that they still haven’t engineered out on the newer ships unfortunately.

There was indeed a bright light intense fire which faded as the fire went from cell to cell as I’ve pointed out. The ship itself also reported it as a Lithum battery fire and gave a very lengthy talk / overview of the safety protocols passengers should follow. Also on Iona I noticed that for the first time it even has a plaque in each room not to leave things charging unattended or overnight that I’ve not seen before on any ship, showing their concerns of more frequent occurrences maybe of any battery type. As others have pointed out many batteries are safe but with time many have more issues due to damage, be that water or miss-use either physical or electrical. When the cells go as per that prior link they go and as a fire they are VERY hard to put out especially higher powered batteries as they escalate. I and others along with the things P&O have brought it understand the balance these policies need to strike especially when it could reduce some people’s mobility; but a balance does need to be found. If the worst did happen and a major fire was caused all would be calling out more couldn’t be done, better to limit the risk a little in the first place which it seems they are starting to do which seems a good pragmatic approach.

Iona all underway now and on the way to Rotterdam. Seems that Iona was an active part of the post incident report so good we were passing especially with the facilities a cruise ship like hers has. Doesn’t appear we will get their late but now at close to max speed.

@Megabear2 Great post, there is a balance but when it’s a few people that might have to change a chair or look at other options vs 5000+ souls at risk I’m not sure the balance is quite right at the moment. Something they look like they are reviewing and the incident on Iona will only add to that process I’m sure.

Agreed there should be standards and protocols that need to be strictly followed. It’s good they are already reviewing things this incident is obviously not the only one. The unthinkable is one of these quickly takes over in a corridor at night. People can see getting out of their cabin there isn’t much space to fight the fire / incident and the fire retardant itself as you can see from the picture reduces vision. If a few people are immobile in the cabin that then also might need 2 or more crew each to help them out, things escalated quickly as people maybe have to route along the balcony not into corridor. Anyone let’s hope that never happens, the post smell would be enough to put anyone off as well the acrid smell is not one that fades quickly.

I think it must have started smoking and someone detached it from the chair and left it there. At the beginning people were sat all around it on the chairs, that was until flames appeared and chunks of battery got fired across the floor towards people, fortunately not hurting anyone to my knowledge. A few people had to be helped out if their seats to a safe distance, but it was then clear the battery was escalating and getting worse and the crew started to point the extinguishes at it. To be frank these did nothing much, which is why then the area was quickly cleared and closed. The battery was eventually moved to the dock. The smell is something else and was at least 24hrs later in the atrium and is still there but far less.