Francisdrake

On 4/14/2024 at 6:07 PM, Cloudyrain said:

We had the upgraded download internet and were able to watch the live football on an app. Occasionally it buffered, but that was probably the dodgy app 😂

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.  

8 hours ago, ScotchBoy said:

Does anyone have first-hand experience of plumbing issues on board Azura, or any other ship for that matter. Heard some horror stories at the weekend, but mostly anecdotal, so was wondering if it was a regular occurrence.  

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,

On 8/21/2022 at 3:06 PM, Francisdrake said:

Never had a real upgrade only supposed upgrade I've had is to a higher category of the same type of cabin but never noticed any actual difference.

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.

On 10/11/2023 at 1:47 PM, T101 said:

We are on Arvia's transatlantic cruise out of Southampton on the 27 October. We received our flight details a few weeks ago. We are flying back to Manchester with Maelth Aero on the 11 November to Terminal 1. Flight Nº MLT1975 leaving Barbados at 17.30, arriving Manchester 05.45 on the 12th.

I assume we will have to leave Arvia shortly after breakfast. Annoyingly P&O don't mention what happens between then and our flight. We are assuming we a free to do our own thing and then have to make our own arrangements to get to the airport. Has anyone have experience?

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.

23 hours ago, Megabear2 said:

The confusion is between Early Saver and Saver.  As you say you take early saver you just pay a deposit and then the normal cancellation terms are in place. The Saver is what was a late saver, ie offered much closer to sailing.  This is 100% payment at booking and also 100% cancellation charge. 

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 ? 

1 hour ago, Windsurfboy said:

One thing to think about now is you pay for saver in advance. If you book say 12 months before payment due, you can now earn 5% on your money . So that's equivalent to a select fare being 5% cheaper .

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.

On 6/9/2023 at 6:38 PM, Wonky said:

Think you need to change the title to buy anything anywhere! If you bought something in B&Q and the next day the price had dropped would you be so annoyed?!

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.

On 5/28/2023 at 12:46 PM, Britboys said:

Thankfully not... Adele, Ed Sheeran and Lewis Capaldi amongst others!

Think i'd prefer Vera 😂

On 5/27/2023 at 12:46 AM, TigerB said:

I'm looking at several cruises on Azura, one with an outbound flight to Valletta and a return flight from Tenerife. We would choose Manchester rather than London.

Is it likely to be TUI that are used for both those routes?

Do the aircraft they use have PE cabins, and if so, does anyone know the approximate cost for the upgrade?

Thanks in advance.

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.

5 hours ago, jeanlyon said:

Do you still get the usual perks, £50 fee, extra OBC if you book on board?

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.

On 4/10/2023 at 1:21 PM, Interestedcruisefan said:

Also I reckon most people on here if they properly worked out what they spend on food, electric, heat, petrol and general weekly living costs are spending closer to 43 per person per night than they realise

 

It's honestly getting to the stage where inside saver cruising is cheaper than living at home

 

 

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.

On 12/22/2022 at 1:10 AM, GOQ said:

I have booked an Early Saver fare for the K301A cruise next month however no cabin has yet been allocated and the check in page states:

 

“Your cabin will be allocated when you join us on board”

 

What do I do about luggage tags, since I will be taking the Intercruises coach down to Southampton, how will the coach driver/P&O know where to deliver my case?, a bit of a worry.

 

A friend of mine had her cases delivered to the wrong ship last summer so P&O had to sort her out with some clothes for the voyage, so she was not very impressed with P&O.

 

Also I have only previously cruised with P&O to/from Southampton, this time I will be returning from Barbados to Gatwick by air. I have my flight details and seat number but there is no mention of flight boarding passes anywhere, there doesn't seem to be any option to download them. How do I get boarding passes for the return plane journey?

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.) 

On 10/27/2022 at 2:59 PM, gsgbrumuk said:

That's what I find very 'fishy'. Was it a convenient ploy as they knew/heavily suspected it would not go ahead.  So give paid up passengers a refund and then this would reduce any future cruise credit offered.  Am I a cynic or is it sharp practice.

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.

On 10/19/2022 at 2:18 PM, r1955 said:

We are thinking of taking a Canary Islands cruise from Southampton in February. There are 2 days at sea getting there and back. Does anyody know what the sea is like at that time of the year? My husband is a little prone to seasickness.

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. 

5 hours ago, ladyofhay62 said:

Hi 

 

Just wondering if anyone booked on P & O cruises to fly out and are waiting for their flight details,or have had to wait?

We booked a cruise April 2022 for April 2023 and at time of booking it stated any London Airport.

This is fine we dont mind where we fly from but need to book an overnight stay the night before with parking can't do this until we know the airport.

Told at time of booking we would know approx 8 months prior but still no news and i have rung and e-mailed no response.

Anybody any idea how long you have to wait to know 

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.