Francisdrake

Cheers sounds promising, will be through the DAZN app so don't need to worry about the app itself.

Any idea if it's good enough for streaming video through an app? wouldn't mind watching the Boxing on my cruise on 1st of June & i'm presuming P&O won't have rights to show it on board.

Been on Azura maybe half a dozen times now and had issues with the plumbing on one cruise. Balcony cabin & the toilet regularly wouldn't flush, reported it and they'd get it sorted fairly quickly (they didn't need to go into the room to sort it) but i'd come back a few hours later & it'd be the same issue. About halfway through the cruise though they must have done something different as they sorted it & I didn't have the issue for the rest of the holiday.

Don't worry about the inside cabin, they aren't that bad you get a cracking night's sleep with no light pollution in the morning,

That's changed now, got upgraded from a standard balcony to a deluxe balcony on Azura in the canaries in February this year, still the same in that it was still an upgrade from a balcony to a higher grade balcony cabin but the balcony was one of the really big ones with a lot more space than a standard balcony. Guess any free upgrades are unlikely to happen now they've introduced pay for an upgrade though.

Usually in Barbados you are free to do what you want until your scheduled departure time (when we flew back from Barbados in November last year we didn't have to leave Britannia until about 14:30 for our evening flight) so we went for a walk around Bridgetown for a couple of hours in the morning & then came back for a spot of lunch before disembarking.

Never had any major issues with Eavesway or Intercruises, minor issue on the last Eavesway one that they'd had to get the driver out of retirement due to a driver shortage & he took us to the wrong cruise terminal but it was resolved quickly & didn't cause any issues as we were there in oodles of time anyway. If i had to pick a favourite I'd probably go Eavesway as the coaches are good every time, with Intercruises we've had some of the good Ellisons coaches (once we even got one of the coaches the top football teams use) but because they contract out the buses sometimes the coaches they've turned up in haven't been great at all.

Check your local drop off point it might not necessarily be the services (two of the local ones to me are Barnsley bus station & Leeds interchange with Eavesway) could be an option to get on a stop like that if it's easier than getting to the services. Not sure if Intercruises have any stops like that as it's been years since we used Intercruises as par of select fare as the extra for select fare on all the recent cruises i've done have been a lot more than the saver fare so it's been cheaper to book saver & pay for Eavesway.

If it's only offered close to sailing chances are any Select fare would be due in full as well then as it's a late booking ?

I've never had to pay for saver in advance (though it's usually called early saver) is this a new thing ? For me if it's £600 per cabin cheaper I'd be going saver fare and chancing my arm with the cabin, I already got onboard credit because of my shareholding & that £600 saving would more than cover my drinks spend for the trip.

To be fair if i'd bought something from B&Q & the next day the price dropped, i'd take it back & get a full refund and re-buy it if they wouldn't refund me the difference. Difference with a P&O holiday is you haven't the cooling off period to be able to do this.

Think i'd prefer Vera 😂

It's TUI they are using for our flights to Malta & back from Manchester in July. When we went to Tenerife in February from Manchester though they were using Jet2 flights.

This year they had all the Canaries cruises between January & March 2023 with no single supplements in the run up to Christmas might be worth checking the pricing on the January - March 2024 canaries cruises if those appeal to you.

Only on Select fares if it's same as when I was looking to book on board earlier this year.

Just lost Taranto for Katokolon for my cruise from Malta in July which is disappointing as the only reason we'd booked the cruise was because of Taranto being a new port for us.

If only the Internet was fast enough & reliable enough to 'work from home' 😂

They seem to be aiming towards families for the most part currently which is understandable as much as it does alienate some of the passengers who's seen the standards change over the years. P&O do seem to have a better balance than some of the other cruise lines though as they haven't gone all out with their attractions for families there is still a lot of the more traditional aspects of cruising available for those who want it. Ultimately it's the families that are going to bring in the revenue long term as they tend to be younger they are going to be cruising for more years generally with the added bonus of getting the next generation (children) into the habit of cruising before they grow up. That way when it comes to them being old enough to start working & going on their own holidays cruising is 2nd nature to them.

I've not had any of the extra on board credit on any of my cruises post covid either (the upcoming one at the end of this month will be my 3rd P&O plus I did a Princess staycation cruise) Wondering if it's because I generally go saver fare as the select fare seems to be a lot dearer than saver every time I book & the difference in on board credit doesn't cover it.

Did your cabin get allocated before your cruise in the end ? Just looking at mine going in a couple of weeks time and it's saying the same thing (despite my relatives booking the same cruise the same day having their cabins allocated.)

What's the benefit in that ? Surely giving FCC rather than cold hard cash benefits them more as it means they are guaranteed to go on another p&o cruise & get to keep cash in the bank. Giving them cash back means there's no guarantee they get a re-booking if the customer is disgruntled or just decides they can no longer afford it due to the cost of living crisis.

I did it once in January from Southampton & it was like a millpond.

For the moment it seems booking at the death is the way to go, with the size of Britannia, Iona & Arvia they'll take a hell of a lot to fill them particularly with them making the same port calls every year. I made the mistake of booking early thinking I'd need to book early to get a single balcony before they sold out. (nearly £3400 for the fortnight in the Caribbean going 5th of November) Since then I rebooked again just before payment was due to be made as it was only £3100 for a standard balcony cabin including the single supplement so I paid less for a bigger cabin by re-booking even taking into account my lost deposit. I've just checked it out of curiosity and it's now available direct from p&o for £2238 for a balcony with the single supplement included.

It was only about 10 days ago I got my flight details for my Caribbean cruise on the 5th of November so presume you'll not get your flight details until much closer to the time.

Depends what you drink really, Might be worth it if you just drink pints and manage 8 or 9 a day plus a couple of speciality coffees. It wasn't worth it for me when I went on Iona earlier this year because I tend to drink cocktails while on a cruise & the majority were over the price limit meaning it was extra cost on top of the drinks package.