FangedRose

Not technically free. As you say the cruises that have these things are more expensive. So I would be paying for things that I would not be using.

Or, carve out your niche and aim at a particular section of the market. Which is where P&O are getting a bit lost. They are not sure what they are aiming for. Apart from being British.

You can view your account through the 'app. It's worth using just for that even if you don't want to book dining and entertainment.

Could have a visa thing? Some countries won't issue a visa if you had visited certain other countries. And, if you don't have all necessary docs for the places the cruise is visiting you will be denied boarding.

I know that in the evening cabins stewards were delivering meals to covid isolation passengers. My cabin steward brought my meal at least twice during my six day isolation.

Yes, but outside of the six week school holidays the average age of passengers is very much 50+. Not many of that age would be interested in waterslides (would insurance even cover it?). USA school holidays are much longer (three months?) therefore have the younger family market for a greater length of time. The thing that puts me off the larger 'resorts type ships is the amount of stuff that takes up most of the space that I am not interested in doing, unable to do and/or is pay extra. I look at them and see such as flo rider, climbing walls and water slides etc and think 'well I won't be doing that'.

Yes Yes, but they are cans now. Yes Yes If you want towels changed leave them in shower or bath. Don't know Yes No. On boarding you go to your muster station to get your boarding pass scanned (proves you know where it is), then proceed to cabin where safety video will be playing on TV. Yes

Yes, on 5th July cruise (so first one back after lay off) there was entertainment in the Globe (mainly the showband Pulse, but others too), there were singers/musicians/quizzes in most if not all venues throughout the evening.

Just read a post on fb. They were complaining that people wearing masks 'claiming' to have covid wouldn't let them in a lift when trying to disembark this morning. They obviously hadn't read the disembarkation instructions which gave everyone specific timings to avoid covid/non covid passengers mixing. And rather than thanking the covid passengers for trying to keep them safe they are complaining!

Always travel on coach. Only problems I had was with Eavesaay. Moving pickup point two weeks prior to cruise. Adding 1 1/2 hrs to an already lengthy journey to pick up two passengers. Offloaded some luggage (not mine) at the wrong ship (never had Intercruise/Cruise Connect deliver passengers to different ships). On the return journey the driver twice unloaded my luggage at wrong place. (Luckily my seat was above the hold and i could see). Was then transferred onto a minibus which was late and then broke down! Only trouble I've had with Intercruise has been caused by the passengers. Late disembarking because they hadn't finished breakfast, late arriving at pick up points etc.

Been told not to wait to check on luggage being unloaded as the luggage isn't unloaded at the same place as the passengers. Last cruise got off and as we were being ushered into the terminal the coach moved off to the luggage hold.

From Carlisle the pick up is much later for Eavesway than for cruise Connect/Intercruise

Only one UK plug in cabin, so take adaptors or multi gang extensions.

Seen further posts that mask wearing is being encouraged and the indoor pool is also closed, so same situation as previous cruise. We will get an estimate of numbers at disembarkation when if is obvious how many people have been isolated.

Ah OK. I prefer the liquid handwash myself. Anyway the point is that liquid handwash/hand soap, shower gel and shampoo is provided. It would be prudent to fetch anything else you want yourself.

It's not clear whether Dorset Cruise Fan did not have any tablet soap at all (which I would find strange seeing how hand washing is strongly encouraged, especially after using the toilet). Or whether they wanted extra to use in the bath/shower. Ranchi says they had to ask for tablet soap, but liquid soap provided. Again, not clear if the soap had been replaced by liquid hand wash by the sink or it was just an oversight on the stewards part.

I see from a fb post that covid has hit Arcadia's current cruise. At exactly the same stage as it hit the previous cruise.

In the shower (sorry no idea about a bath) there is large pump bottle of shampoo and another of body wash. At the sink there is a bar of soap.

The conditioner and body lotion are in plastic bottles.

Not a supply problem. They have been phased out. At first first it was a Covid thing. Now they are citing reduction in plastic use. The one's you got on Iona must have been the remains.

A poster on annother thread, specifically regarding Iona has posted that Epicurean and Glass House are closed.

I was on 5th July cruise. Dining issues were resolved on day three. Did not notice any closed bars. Yes, speciality restaurants were closed, in common with most other P&O ships. And Cheese and Biscuits have been reintroduced on the present cruise.

It was no problem after the second day, when I remembered. Just go along port side corridor until reach aft lift lobby,then cross the lobby. It us only the cabins directly behind the lifts that are shut off.

The previous policy was a waste of time and money.(Never mind the stress of trying to upload test without a PC). It never prevented the massive outbreak on Arcadia J212.

In phone calls with tablemates I was told that the MDR was deserted. The Palladium had blocked a third of the seats and there were still spare places, the daily programme (which we still got delivered), was very sparse with a lot of activities cut. In general the ship was very quiet. Did you walk down the cabin corridors and counted how many tables were outside rooms? Each table indicated a covid cabin, and that did not include the isolation cabins behind the aft lifts on every floor which were full. Some had to isolate in inside cabins. If you had seen the queue stretching from the Palladium to the doors of the mdr at 7.05am yesterday (we had been told not to leave cabins before 7am) wearing ship issues ffp3 masks you would have seen how many of us there were.