sammydo

Well clearly not a lot has changed, I also got same email 5 minutes ago, so some 8 months on, same email still being sent out, even though CP shows all complete, but it is worrying when they send out emails like this, although I cannot find anything I hav missed, and flights arranged independently as we are arriving in Sydney 5 days earlier, and after flying to Singapore for few days.

Ok, thank you, hope you have a great time.

The trip I have looked at is going via river cruise, departing from the cultural centre pontoon at 10am and arriving back at 3.30pm.

It's just knowing how far and how easy it would be to get there from where our ship docks. Would be great if you have any further info on this after your cruise, but a taxi could be another good option for us, so thank you,for that. Are you pre booking taxi, or will there be loads waiting at the port ?? ..Have done many cruises,..5 in Caribbean, but never been to Australia before, so really looking forward to it.

Hi,

Just found this thread, and we also want to do the lone pine koala sanctuary when in brisbane next march. This is not one of princess tours, so can anyone say how easy is it to do alone, and would it be easy to get from port to where the tour boat cruises up the river to the sanctuary.??

All of the flights that we have done to either Ventura or azura to caribbean have left gatwick either 8.45 or 9.15pm.

They are never much later than this.

Hope that helps

Really sorry, meant to say am.

So yes we hav definately flown between 8.45 - 915 am. We did iin December arriving approx 2.15 pm Barbados time.

Sorry for any confusion..

All of the flights that we have done to either Ventura or azura to caribbean have left gatwick either 8.45 or 9.15pm.

They are never much later than this.

Hope that helps

I have stayed in suite l106 on Ventura, and tbh, wouldn't bother again, as we prefer c deck balconies. Yes the accomadation is larger, but for me the balcony is very important.

When we first went in, I was horrified as anyone on the observation deck can look straight in, although we were told only staff really go up there, and we didn't actually see too many, but on our last cruise in the Caribbean, ( we were then on c deck,) I noticed quite a few passengers up there. Also not keen on the balcony, it has a covered in steel front, is very shaded, and not very wide.

It's not overlooked by the bridge, in fact you look down onto them on the side.

For me a c deck balcony every time, although I would be happy with d deck too.

Personally I don't think it's worth the extra....but some of the suites I would pay extra for.....especially the rear balconies on Oceana

Cover charge is £5 p&p with some dishes having an extra surcharge on top....think the most extra was £5.95 on our menu..(that was on a main course)

Some items, no extra charge.

Have done bay of biscay few times, but on Oriana and Oceana, and side /mid front

It's generally 50/50 chance of it being bit rough in b.o.b. but would have thought you,have a better chance of it not being so rough in August.

We went through once in October, and it was horrendous, but that would not make me give up a c deck balcony if I had the chance. They are very spacious, and plenty enough room for 4 to sit, but the b deck with stanchion is not a particularly social space, and those stanchions are huge, and right down the middle of the balcony, plus it's a more shaded balcony.

C deck has the best of both worlds, where you can sit in the sun, or in the shade.

For me,if that b deck was the only balcony left, that would be a deal breaker, and I would book an alternative cruise.

Don't get me wrong, I don't dislike rear balconies, we had rear suite twice on Oceana, but they were totally different balconies.

I have seen photos on here of b deck balconies, so maybe you,could put it in the search section, and see what comes up...hopefully someone will post one for you.

Also if it is rough, chances are you wont be in your cabin all the time anyway,

And tbh if it is rough, it's going to be a pain wherever you are, so I wouldn't choose a balcony for the sake of one day out, and one day back.

Whatever you decide, make the choice that you feel is right for you and your family. Chances are, you will go through a calm b.o.b.

Go for C deck...hav been in rear cabin..with Sanction running through..only

briefly, while we were waiting to disembark, and hated it.

I would avoid that at all costs.

We have had c deck cabin few times now and always between c247 and c 215, and would always choose that area.

C deck balcony also always tend to go first.

Let me know if I can help further, and enjoy your cruise.

Hi

Yes can definately recommend C deck.

We stayed in C 746 (full suite)!several times, and once got friendly with the neighbours who had the mini suite...C747

We had a look round theirs, and it great. They have the bigger balconies..similar to C deck on azura/Ventura, but being at the back the main thing that we loved was the sun stayed there for most of the day, rather than being in the side of the ship, where you either get it one side or another.

We went for the full size suite as we had family in nearby cabins, and this enabled us to all to chill out together on our balcony, but if there was just the 2 of us, I would be more than happy with the mini suite.

Definatlly go for it....and also the balconies are not easily overlooked either on C deck.

Have a lovely time, , we loved the Oceana, and have been on her 3 times, in fact enjoyed our first caribbean cruise on her back in 2007.

We were on azura in the 2 weeks leading up to Christmas, and I thought the sunbed situation was so much better than it had been on previous years.

There were regular announcements throughout the cruise reminding everyone not to hog sun beds, as this causes resentment, and if a sunbed has been left and not used for 30 minutes, items can be removed and taken away and they can be collected from ??? Can,t actually remember where from, but I did find it seemed much better than previous years.

Also there were notices saying seats were not allowed to be reserved in the playhouse/theatre.

Well at least they were trying to address the problem this year on azura.

Not really sure about booking before departure, but when we were on azura couple of weeks ago, we went there several times without booking, and it wasn't a problem, but you can also book on board. Once we went there and had a small wait, ..15 minutes or so..but that was at peak time (8ish)they just gave us a pager, which sounded when our table was ready.

We also went to Amber cove just before Christmas. If I'm honest, I wasn't looking that forward to it, but we all absolutely loved it. I even tried out the zip lining, quite an achievement for me who has a terrible fear of heights.

We were the only ship in at the time, so maybe with more than 1 ship, it may feel bit too crowded, and noisy but our day was perfect. Lovely pool. As the day went on, yes it got noisier, but it was quite a party atmosphere, and everyone seemed to be really enjoying themselves.

There are still a lot of empty shops in the port, but I'm sure in time they will be occupied.

I personally preferred it to Grand Turk, where I would rather go away from the port and find a more remote beach.

It's clearly not going to,be for everyone, and I'm not sure that there's a great deal out of the port that would interest us, but for 1 day in a 14 day cruise, It just made a change.

We also received one on recent azura cruise..back yesterday. We didn't expect anything So thought it was a lovely gesture, and my daughter and her partner who were also cruising with us, were delighted with theirs as they had been playing monopoly together on a phone app, throughout the cruise, so it was perfect for them.

......Some people are just so rude and ignorant. Let's hope they are not on our next cruise..although there's always one. Wonder what butlins would have given them.

Happy new year all.

Last time we did Carribbean cruise, we had to either book through cruise personaliser, and then the week before flight, the online bookings were closed, and seat allocation was given at check-in at the airport...unless anything has changed in the last 2 years...hopefully others will be able to confirm or deny this.

It really depends how bothered you are about your seating, but it is a long flight, so personally I always book, just to be on the safe side.

Have a good holiday

I spoke to some of the waiters on the cruise before the auto tips were introduced and they were all very concerned about how things would work out. On subsequent cruises when I've chatted to either waiters or cabin stewards they seem to be happy with the scheme and indeed some of them have said to me that it's fairer and they prefer to receive tips this way.

On our last cruise, our cabin steward was excellent, and we were 110% happy with his service, but he did tell us he was not happy with the auto tips as sometimes P&O deducted money from the tips if they were any complaints, or they felt that something could have been done better. That's up to P& O I suppose, but if I give tips I want the whole amount to go to the staff, not part of it, ...and what happens to the amount that has been deducted..I do hope this does not end up in P&O,s pocket.. As far as I am concerned they should not have the right to deduct any auto tips I have paid, as they are intended for the staff that have served us, so for that reason, I deducted the cabin stewards auto tips, and handed them to him personally.

We are cruising again in December, so not sure what to do this time. I do worry that some staff would just accept any deductions, for fear of their jobs ????

...and would passengers know that this was happening anyway ???

From what I remember it was something like between £45 and £75 approx

Obviously depending what grade of cabin you ask for,

You can only have them between 10am -3pm.

In December we were really lucky, the following cruise was not full, and our cabin steward allowed us to stay in ours until we left (at 1pm )

He made up the cabin, and left us extra towels so we could have a shower before leaving if we wanted....just a lovely cabin steward who looked after us, but definately unofficially, bless him !!!!!

In the past we have once paid for a cabin for the last day, but personally I wouldn't bother in the Caribbean as we would rather sit out in the sun, or go for a wander, and by the time we had lunch before leaving, the time spent in the cabin is minimal....but of course it's nice to have the choice.

In November, I think ours was about 4pm on Saturday afternoon.

It will definately be before sailing, and once all the new passengers have embarked on the Saturday.

Have a lovely cruise.

If you do get stuck with Freedom you will have to be up early on the first day. A friend currently on Azura emailed to say her husband joined the queue to book for Christmas and New Year's day at 7am and was 30th in the queue!

That is just ridiculous, especially when people have booked and had booking confirmed for Mdr. I too would be absolutely gutted, even more so if I was on a xmas cruise, probably the most important time of all to want to know that your chosen arrangements are honoured. It's not like they had a late booking either.

I sincerely hope that this gets sorted out for those disappointed passengers.

As someone else said, the last thing you want to do after a long journey, is to have to worry about getting up early to sort out dining arrangements, .that is why you opted for Mdr in the first place, so this should be down to p and o to sort out.

With ships sailing only part full this year, I would have thought they would have been trying really hard right now with their customer relations.

We have always been loyal to p and o, but if this happened to us......especially at xmas, not sure I would be giving them a 2nd chance, but do enjoy the cruise, and don't let them totally spoil it, the Caribbean is a great place to be :cool:

So the rumours were true then. We were on Ventura for the two weeks previously to you and were told by some passengers(on Baltic tier apparently) that they were offered a further two weeks at no extra charge. Dismissed it at the time as an urban myth being bandied around but they also quoted the 2000 passenger figure as you have done. Seems that the Caribbean is being flooded with both Azura and Ventura out there, especially in the run up to Christmas. Will probably wait to book next years cruise. Even with the new fare tiers I'm guessing there will be bargains to be had with both ships out there again next winter

Yes, and apparently the same for the cruise that has just left barbados today, but as expected the cruise that follows is the xmas cruise, which is full. One couple i spoke to had been offered to stay on board for further 2 weeks at a price of £300,..but they declined. They had paid 999 for the 2 weeks and offered inside, outside or balcony,which obviously they opted for the balcony, which they were given on B deck, so they were very happy., but as already has been said, not sure how P&O are going to change this, as with all these bargains, many people are still going to take the chance and wait for last minute bookings next year,...just a vicious circle, the more last minute bargains there are, the more people are going to wait to take advantage of them. As i said ...time will tell !!!!

there were just so many empty cabins as we looked out from our balcony, and the tamarind was never busy after dinner, just a handful of people, and the same on deck 15, when they had a group on up there, just a few people sat listening to the music,..i felt really sorry for the guys on stage, almost playing to themsleves, and they were really good too.

I also think they need to change their routes a little, the itinary for next year, is pretty much the same again as this year..what happened to mexico, jamaica, grand cayman, aruba, to mention a few.......i love aruba, but they havent been there this year and its not availble next year either.

I totally agree with Bee-ess, they need to come up with something different, to keep us all interested, before they lose even more loyal

passengers.

i agree, a christmas/new year cruise might be different, but last week, we ate in east twice, and only booked few days before, and nearly every night, there was loads of space. not sure about mpw. went there once on another cruise and i didnt particuarly enjoy the food, as it was not unlike the food in the mdr, but it is quite popular, especially if you want to dine outside there.

There are 2 menus in east, and they were both very good, in fact i wish we had eaten there more often, and the service was just first class, so i would book asap once on board.

enjoy your cruise.

Think most of the ports of call that we did had great beaches, if you let me know which ports you are going to i can giv you more info,

i think definately do tours in dominica and st vincent as they are black sand beaches. havent been to st vincent for a few years though so not sure ehat tours are on offer, but in dominica we went on the indian river boat, and totally loved it, thats if you want something gentle and peaceful.

have also done river tubing there, although i enjoyed it, i have done river tubing in better places, just that at the time we did it there, the river was quite low in places, so kept hitting the bottom of the water, which spoiled it a bit.

this time, we found some great beaches that were quiet, through our taxi drivers, rather than being herded into a mini bus, being taken to where they want to take you.

hiya. Bee-ess

No. did not book water taxi, just got off the ship and went to a stall that was offering water taxi there every 45 mins, it cost us 10 dollars each way, but there was also another larger water taxi that went there, and i think that may have been possibly better and cheaper.

we went for the first one we saw, but if you go past those stalls and walk a bit further on, the bar that i mentioned, had the larger water taxis going from there.

the trouble with ours was that they said it would be leaving at 10.15, then when we went back. they changed it to 10.30, as they needed 15 to go on the taxi, (that was full capacity) (she also didnt mention this at the time we paid) and then still at 10.30, she was dithering, saying she couldnt find the captain, eventually after a bit of a walk, we got on it, at 10.50am, (with 15 people, ) but coming back was fine, just waited until we saw it coming across, and got on. if i did it again, i would walk to the bar and get water taxi from there,...at least it would be definately worth going there and checking out the times and price first, nothing to lose.

when you leave the ship, turn left through the little stalls, and just keep walking along the water front until you get to the bar, which goes out into the water, the water taxis stop there. its not far, you will be able to see it from the port side of the ship when you dock.

the ship also did a trip over there, but leaving at 8.30 and returning at 11.30am,...bit early for us, but also the cost was about £48 each, so i thought that was really expensive, and had it rained on the day, i would rather have not gone there, but as it was we loved it, and had great weather.

dont hesitate to ask if you need to know anything else.

Loved it...there just a few days ago, we got water taxi over to Klein Bonaire a little island about half mile out...you can see it from the ship, there were lovely white sands and great for swimming snorkelling etc, but there are no facilities and only small amounts of shade, but definitely worth a visit if you are a beach lover.

We then retuned and had hr or so in bar overlooking the harbour, which had greats food and cocktails, then went round the town, but tbh could have done with another few hours there. Will definitely love to go back there again. Didn't get a chance to go and see the flamingos, so that's on our to do list if we get to go there again.

We have just returned yesterday from 2weeks on Ventura in caribbean and had a fantastic holiday...our 3rd in 4 years on Ventura in Caribbean. We paid full price on first day of bookings 18 months ago and we chose specific deck and cabin no of our choice. But whilst on board we did not meet one person that had booked more than5 weeks previously and even then they were moaning had they left it another 3weeks they would have got it for 999 instead of 1299 that they paid. Even at 999 people were still getting balcony cabins.

There were only approx 2000 on board, so lots of empty cabins and great for getting around on sea days and in the evenings in the different venues. No problem getting a seat.

The flight out was on the new Dreamliner, and again only 106 people on board in stead of 299 so we were able to move around and take up as many free seats as we wanted., but one of the Dreamliner flights that went out the next day only

Had 17 people on it...incredible, but they had full flight coming back so they to go out.

Overall fantastic cruise, although standard of food in Mdr had definitely gone downhill a lot, although else food was just as good as ever, And the overall service through the ship was definitely improved on our last holiday despite what we may have thought once the automatic tipping started.....I will be mentioning the ups and downs of this in a separate thread

Not sure what will happen to the prices next year, according to staff on board, with the new pricing structure, and carol Marlowe gone, they have said that there will not be these massive reductions, and that they are prepared to send out the ship half empty than make drastic reductions, in fairness to those that book early......aa it has apparently caused alot of ill feeling amongst passengers on board, ...... time will tell !!!!

We were happy with what we paid, and prefer to know that we have all our choices met, and time to organise work, dogs etc, so going

last minute is really not suitable for us at the moment.

When I have time, I will write a full review on our holiday and also the automatic tipping system on board, that apparently seems to work for some staff but not others .??