minsterman

1 hour ago, Thejuggler said:

Any aircraft under 30 years old is young.  BA operate first generation 777s which are 25+ years old.  I was on an almost 35 year old Jet2 aircraft a few weeks ago, it didn't show its age.

 

No IFE is a first world problem,  Phone or tablet and a spare battery pack.

Couldn't agree more,  but we're on a cruise forum - they're ALL first world problems!

You can pass that on to my 78 year Dad who has Parkinsons and is travelling with us - tell him he can just buy a tablet and charger and then try and just swipe his shaky fingers across the screen to make it work.

1 minute ago, JulesnMatt said:

We have had the same email this morning and feel like cancelling now. Last year on our Caribbean cruise, the people not on the TUI flights had a nightmare with delays/service issues/no inflight entertainment etc. I know its a new operator this year & perhaps you have to give them a chance, but still...

 

We're flying from Manchester.

Did you get charged extra? We know of two that have not had to pay a supplement (one couple on the same flights as us) but they charged us the extra £100 each!

Have written (email) to Paul Ludlow before. Never even got a courtesy response even pretending they're going to listen to you. Too busy trying to attract new customers and not interested in past customers or keeping customers happy.

They seem to be just trying make everything as cheap as possible to attract new customers, so it's all about cost cutting. Of course once they've had the new customers and p***ed them off with their cheapness, they'll then have to try and win them back. 

From MAN. It was broken on our Tui flight back to MAN from Barbados last November too - they announced to the whole plane that we'd be getting compensation as a result but obviously nothing ever materialised. I bet P&O werent happy when they found out someone had announced that!!

We've done a few Caribbean cruises with P&O and always had Tui flights on a dreamliner. They've always been good planes/flights and are part of the attraction of using P&O.

Just had an email from P&O saying that they are now using Maleth Aero (as opposed to Tui) and that there will be no inflight entertainment. Looks like they're a charter company using old Airbus A330's.

Really not happy about this - presumably if there's no in flight entertainment that also means that phones/tablets cant be charged - there's no way mine will last 8 hours without charging if it's being used constantly.

I think it's absolutely ridiculous to expect passengers to put up with 16 hours of flying (both ways) with no entertainment.

I think it's a good job we're not called 35 minutes before all aboard time, otherwise we'd be chatting to them every day! 

We're getting better as we get older, but anything more than half an hour is generally a waste of time ashore. 

I think we've only been last onboard once and we were very annoyed that the tender staff in Villefranche got funny with us, even though there was 5 mins until last tender. If we'd been late fair enough but we'd been sat looking at the tender whilst finishing our drinks about 2 mins walk away, so no way were we going to be late.

3 hours ago, Palaceman said:

As has been mentioned already, Toulon is a nice town, with beaches, bars and history.  I appreciate frustrations regarding the timing of the announcement but in my view it did not detract from the enjoyment of the cruise overall.

Disagree slightly on this. We were on the same cruise last week and it was chosen partly as we'd not been to Marseilles before (we have been to Toulon, albeit a few years ago)

We were very disappointed to be given various excuses the day before. Some may have been valid but just sounded like a list of excuses to us and certainly ones they should have known about and could have informed passengers earlier than the day before, especially given that the last few cruises had also missed the port.

Glad to see they're now telling people in advance.

In the end we decided to get the train to Marseilles anyway - it wasn't cheap around €100 including taxis to/from the station but we really enjoyed Marseilles but given the short notice they really should have given some OBC or refunded port fees.

Yes, the "old fashioned" Great British sailaway seems to have disappeared. What was previously a fun and and enjoyable party is now just a boring sing song that's no different to any of the other events held on the ship. 

We'd loved it before, but on Britannia this time it was very disappointing. 

Hi LindyLoo22

We did a baltic cruise a few years ago and love to do our own thing and enjoy the freedom that gives.

At the time it was pretty easy to get a visa although I think it's slightly more difficult now in that I believe it has to be done in person at the Russian Embassy (we just did it by post). It was quite expensive (around £125 each when we did it, I think).

But it allowed us do what we wanted and was definitely worth it. We had a morning at the Hermitage and afternoon at Peterhof and then had a meal in the centre before getting a taxi back. Taxis were easy (available at the port and they gave you the port address written in Russian to show your taxi driver for the return journey,.

On day 2 we just stayed in the centre of St Petersburg and saw the usual sights there (Church of Spilled Blood, Peter & Paul Fortress, we did a metro journey and a canal trip amongst other things).

We wandered around at our own pace and weren't tied to anyone else's schedules - all in all it was a thoroughly enjoyable city and felt as safe as any other city we've visited.

We did both on our last Med cruise. We were off the ship early ish and got the train around 9am (we'd planned the train times in advance) and into Monaco. We've been a few times so we could take it easy, It's only around 15 mins from Villefranche. We stayed until around lunchtime (had lunch around harbour) and then got the train to Nice after lunch. The we had 2-3 hours in Nice before getting the second to last train before our departure back to Villefranche. Last tender was at 7pm I think. We even had time to sit and have a drink in Villefranche before boarding the last tender.

Thanks for confirming my thoughts - think we might give this tour a miss!

Ship is docked until midnight!!

I've also posted this on the P&O Board....

We're going to the Caribbean in 3 weeks and a little confused by one of the trips on offer.

The Sunset Cruise in St Lucia departs at 18:00 per the cruise personaliser and is a 2 hour trip to the Pitons.

However, everything I've found online seems to indicate that sunset on the day we're there is 17:33 and we know it's usually completely dark around 30 mins later.

It seems strange that the excursion leaves half an hour after sunset.

Maybe we're missing something obvious?

We're going to the Caribbean in 3 weeks and a little confused by one of the trips on offer.

The Sunset Cruise in St Lucia departs at 18:00 per the cruise personaliser and is a 2 hour trip to the Pitons.

However, everything I've found online seems to indicate that sunset on the day we're there is 17:33 and we know it's usually completely dark around 30 mins later.

It seems strange that the excursion leaves half an hour after sunset.

Maybe we're missing something obvious?

We have just been allocated Cabin G320 for our upcoming cruise on Britannia.

Looking at the deckplans we are happy as it is (slightly forward) midships and near the stairs.

Reading quite a few of the Britannia reviews - people seem to mention poor soundproofing. This cabin looks to be directly above The Crystal Room.

Does anyone know if noise will be an issue in this cabin?

Also, if so, what time does Crystal Room close on an evening?

Hi all - minsterwoman here.

Thanks to everyone for their helpful comments.

I have decided to take the pink dress. I have also just bought a lovely black and white dress for the black and white night.

Just got to get everything in the suitcase now!

I think "minsterwoman" was just a bit worried she might stand out. Especially since, due to luggage restrictions, I think she was planning on wearing it twice.

But if other people do wear colours then that's great.

She has some black formal wear for the black and white theme night so she wouldn't be wearing it on that night.

Looks like I might not have to go dress shopping again. Phew!

We are sailing on Britannia in November on a Caribbean cruise. We have never been on P&O before - only Royal Caribbean. I believe Royal Caribbean are a bit more relaxed when it comes to the dress code.

The OH is driving me mad with talk of her pink dress and whether it will be ok for a formal night. It is a lovely dress (so I am told) and she has worn it to several weddings and the races.

However it isn't just pink, it is PINK. The dress isn't too pink (as it is a little bit patterned with some other colours in it) but the cardigan thingy (bolero?) and the shoes are PINK.

The overall effect is PINK.

Everything we have seen (photos etc) re formal night seems to be a lot more subdued - blacks, blues etc.

So - should she take the PINK outfit or get something else?

I understand that some people like to get dressed up but I must admit that I spend every working day wearing a suit, shirt and tie and when I'm on holiday, it's really the last thing I want to wear!

Smart casual for me is a nice pair of jeans and polo short or t-shirt and jacket, which I think is reasonably smart.

I hope they agree, because I'm going on holiday to relax, not feel like I'm at work, meeting clients and being on my best behaviour!!

Thanks - we were just looking at our itinerary and they had a departure time (which I guess is irrelevant once you're onboard!!) and just wondered how long before that we'd be expected to be back on the ship. If the sailaway party starts 15 mins before all aboard it would seem likely that half an hour before the published departure time would be about right.

We've not been with P&O before but are on the same cruise as you, so cant really answer your questions about life on board, however, we're on the 09:15 flight from MAN and from our research it's with Thomas Cook on an A330-200.

I believe there could also be a slightly later flight (if needed) around 10:15 but not sure what plane that is.

We're going on Britannia on 19th November cruise and just wondered if anyone could say from experience what the all aboard time usually is.

We've read both that it's half an hour before set sail time (which is what we're used to on other cruises we've been on) but we've also seen that it's a hour before.

Can anyone help us please?

My parents are looking into booking a P&O Caribbean cruise this November on Britannia. Dad has Parkinsons and sometimes uses a manual wheelchair but can but walk if his tablets are working, but he struggles in confined spaces.

Does anyone know how the standard accessible balcony cabin compares to a standard balcony cabin? Are they the same size or is there extra room?

We are a bit confused with the room sizes quoted as the P&O rep says they're the same size (205sq ft), but clearly the bathroom will be much bigger - is the bathroom space included in the sq ft measurement?

The alternative is the superior deluxe balcony at 280 sq ft but it is 33% higher price which ideally they'd prefer not to have to pay!

We've generally do our own thing in port. In the Caribbean we varied between wandering from the ship, taxi tours, hiring our own car and doing our own thing. We really aren't ship tour people as I generally find it too restrictive for me and I don't like to be told what to do and when!!

Having said that the only place we did a ship tour was in St Lucia, when we did the Land & Sea to Souffriere full day tour (not sure about spelling!!).

We thoroughly enjoyed it and it really couldn't have been any better if we'd done it ourselves. But of course, do your own research as I full appreciate ships tours are not for everyone.

We have been told previously that they usually sell a proportion (50%) of the available tour places in advance of sailing and the remainder are available on board.

Hope you have a great time, which I'm sure will, whatever you decide to do!

Whilst I generally quite like traditional things, I'll be glad when formal night isn't so formal.

Perhaps this is less of an issue in the US where people drive to ports (or maybe baggage allowances are higher?) but I when I fly from the UK, I struggle to justify the luggage space/weight for a formal suit jacket and trousers and usually 2 shirts for just 2 nights. It's simply not worth it.

When I eat, I don't like eating in the jacket anyway and it usually ends up hung on the back of my chair, so I actually wear it for around 15 minutes a night (cabin to MDR and back) if that.

Recently I have taken to taking lounge suit trousers and a couple of shirts/ties to wear and must admit that I'm glad when there are plenty of others who aren't so formally dressed (though still think there should be a degree of "smartness" in the MDR) and I'll be even happier if this isn't necessary going forward!!

I wear a suit at work all day every day and when I'm on holiday I really don't want to wear one then too!!

Interestingly a relative who works in more casual wear during the week, loves to put his suit on for special occasions and if we're both attending a "smart casual" event, he will invariably be in a suit/jacket, shirt and tie where as I'll be in smart jeans/trousers and a smart open collared casual shirt!!

We have travelled with RC on 9 cruises and where we have booked flights have always booked them independently. Our understanding was the additional fee charged by RCI was basically because if the flight was delayed/cancelled RCI would have the "problem" of making alternative arrangements to meet the ship. As we've always travelled the day before have been happy with our independent bookings and subsequent cost saving.

However, we were struggling to find suitable flights the day before our next potential cruise we were considering just paying the extra to book through RCI for the extra security that brought.

However, we've just been reading the smallprint (for UK bookings) and it seems that, despite the extra cost of booking the same flights through RCI that we could get over £100 cheaper if we booked direct, it is classed as a "Build your own" booking and they provide no assistance whatsoever should the flight be delayed/cancelled and we miss the ship departure.

Is this correct or have I misunderstood. I'd be interested in other peoples understandings of how it all works!