Shelley61

15 hours ago, Windsurfboy said:

 

Have you used your Butler to reserve any speciality restaurants.  Could they get you in.?  Thanks 

We asked if he could get us a reservation at Keel & Cow and he said it didn't work - he'd tried with other guests but they wouldn't take bookings in advance.  That was a shame as we wanted to go there on the last night.  He told us to join the virtual queue at around 6pm, but when we tried it was already full for the night.  It seems everyone wanted K&C the final night!  The MDR menu didn't appeal and we'd already done 6SD and Olive Grove and didn't fancy it again.  Our last night was the one and only night we ate dinner in the buffet!

Keel & Cow wasn't one that was pre-bookable anyway though, so it might be different for other restaurants such as Beach House or Sindhu.  We'd pre-booked the other speciality restaurants before we got on board, but I imagine the butler would have been able to book them for us otherwise.  We noted he'd reserved us a breakfast table at Epicurean, though we didn't ever get round to using it as it was closed by the time we'd dragged ourselves out in the mornings!

1 hour ago, smokey01 said:

We could not book a table at 8pm every night in April, we asked about 3 times. Maybe it was because you were in a suite or maybe they have just changed the rules since April.

Strange.  We only had one MDR booking on the second formal night.  The rest of the time we just used the virtual queue.

My comments re booking came from another guest's posts on Facebook where they said they had a standing booking each night for a table of six.  Another couple said to us on the first night that they'd been told by the waiter they could have the same table every night if they wanted.

My husband woke up for a wee in the night and peeked out the window and said "why is there land in front of us?".  I was too sleepy and just ignored him and went back to sleep, then the next morning we noticed the strange tracking on the map that proved he was right (he was delighted he was right about something!)

We didn't hear a thing with the helicopter though as we were at the front of the ship.

As a PP said, the Mum of the little girl posted on facebook recently to say her daughter couldn't be stabilised after severe heat stroke.  We'd just left Cadiz and had two sea days back to Southampton.  They were still in Spain a few days after we'd got back.

We found it easy to get a table using the Virtual queue.

One thing they don't advertise though is that you can book a table at the same time every night, even after 6.30pm.  You just can't do it before you go.  On your first night, go through the virtual queue as usual, then ask to reserve a table each night.

We were in a suite and our butler booked a table for us that they showed up in the "My diary" section of the My Holiday pages on our phones.

I believe the ship isn't actually docking but will be anchored off shore, with guests on board watching from the ship and, presumably, on the big screen.  The itinerary shows it as a sea day.

The actual number of people on shore will be quite limited I imagine.

I wonder if it's a crew area?  Officer's quarters perhaps? It's not obvious from the external pictures either - there's definitely windows there.

I've found a review of one of the end cabins on deck 17 on FB and they mention there was a crew door opposite their cabin (on Iona), but that they only heard it a couple of times during the week.

I've also checked any reviews for the cabins on Iona on deck 16 directly under that void and they've all said they're really quiet cabins.  One mentioned "no cabins above", but said it was quiet.

Excuse the TikTok link, but I saw this the other day - Overflowing infinity pool

It was from November 2021 and the pool does look less empty on OP's picture, so hopefully doesn't happen quite so dramatically now!

We've booked one of the forward facing corner suites and a couple of videos I've found of the Iona show a solitary sunlounger (yup - just the one!) as well as some more relaxing chairs and a set of standard chairs and a table.  In fairness, the forward facing balconies aren't particularly deep, so it would be difficult to have another sunlounger.  The aft suites look like they have a couple of proper sunloungers. 

You Tube shows even the deluxe balcony cabins at the aft, with their enormous balconies, only having regular table and chairs.

23 minutes ago, clubcardcruiser said:

 

If there's a particular excursion that you really want to take, it might be worth booking at least that one in advance. We booked our next cruise quite late and two of the excursions we really wanted to book were already sold out.

Yes, that's a good idea.  I'll take a proper look at the excursions and ports this weekend.  I looked last weekend very briefly and there didn't seem many listed.  I suspect that's because we're still reasonably far out from next July, so they haven't organised everything themselves yet.

We tried to book one excursion on RCI but it was sold out, but managed to nab some slots on boarding day as they had kept some spaces open.  On there the key seemed to be getting on board early and going straight to the desk before the masses.  We do have priority boarding, so will try and do this if there's something we really want to do but haven't managed to book online.

When you break it down, the OBC comes to the equivalent of around £45 a day for 2 people, which actually doesn't make it sound like very much and could easily be swallowed up, especially if we have a bit of a blitz on formal night!

I normally resist glasses of wine on cruises as they don't seem the best value (I stick to gin instead!), but perhaps I'll just treat myself! 😄

Thanks everyone!

Just now, davecttr said:

I can confirm that you cannot use OBC in the casino. You can use your cruise card to buy chips etc but it will be added to your onboard account. IIRC everything else you buy with your card will be deducted from your OBC, until it runs out of course.

Also makes sense. Darn they think of all the loopholes! 😂

3 hours ago, zoe sproodle said:

I perhaps should have added that you can’t pick and choose what OBC goes on - everything you spend on board will come out of it until it’s used up, then they’ll start charging you for real.

Thanks - makes sense. 
 

We’ll certainly make sure it’s spent one way or another!

Thanks Zoe - that's helpful.  We'll have to decide whether we want to book excursions in advance and use the money elsewhere or take the risk and book them once we're onboard and hope they're not sold out.

RCI used to reserve some slots on trips for people to book on board (specifically for those cruisers who might struggle to book online I think).  Do you (or anyone) know if P&O do similar?

I'm sure the money won't last as long as I think once we're on board, but I want to make sure we use it, rather than it go to waste.

Good to know you can use it in the shops though - worst case scenario we stock up on gin on the last night to use the last of it up!

Hello all

As my signature shows, we're new to P&O, so feel a little "inexperienced" as cruisers again!

We have a fair amount of OBC to use on our trip next year (we booked through a TA if it makes any difference in terms of how it can be used).  If I remember rightly, when we had this with RCI you could book excursions in advance of the cruise and use your OBC.  Our TA suggested that this wasn't the case with P&O?  Can anyone advise please?

We don't see the value in the drinks package, so will pay as we go, which would obviously use some of it, plus we'd want to do a couple of the speciality restaurants.  The prices for these, however, are significantly more reasonable than what we're used to with RCI, so we won't use much.

I might be tempted by a spa treatment maybe...

Is there a sneaky way to withdraw it in cash in the casino at the cashiers' desk??

What do you use yours for?

Thanks in advance! 🙂 

14 hours ago, dgs1956 said:

I'm not surprised. We've never experienced it on other ships but always on Britannia.

This has reminded me that I should pack some eyedrops for our next cruise.  We've just come back from another Air Con heavy holiday and my eyes were so, so dry and uncomfortable.

Best be prepared!

It is a shame to read that in this day and age though that there is no encouragement or enforcement to hand washing or sanitising.

I've only ever done RCI cruises before and even pre-pandemic they were encouraging use, especially in the buffet (obviously due to Noro risk, rather than Covid, but still).

We booked at the weekend with an agent and they made it clear at booking what the current protocol is (vaccinations required  but testing only recommended).  They did say that it was down to us to keep on top of any changes in P&O's requirements.

If I were susceptible to potentially serious issues from contracting Covid, I don't think I'd book a cruise any time soon.

The UK particularly is going down the route of "Covid?  What Covid?  No such thing anymore", so it wouldn't surprise me none if P&O followed suit as soon as they can (i.e. no isolation in cabins, etc).

Having had it back in January, and knowing quite a few people that have had it recently, for the majority it seems to be nothing more than an annoyance, just like a cold.

I do appreciate that for some people it can be much more serious and, as I say, if I was someone that was likely to have a serious problem from contracting it, I'd stay well away.

If a policy has changed since a booking (i.e. going from required testing to none), I would have thought there was an argument to say you should be entitled to a refund.

That said, I know of a few people that went on cruises where testing was required, yet Covid was still rife on the ship.

If anyone has a package that charges for using their phone abroad, I'd highly recommend a Three PAYG sim.  We just went to America and paid £10 for a SIM package that gave you unlimited (UK) calls and texts and 12GB of data for a month.  We used it as a sat nav on a fly-drive holiday and it was great.

O2 (I'm on a business tariff), however, wanted £99.99 for 30 days access to data and a max of 2gb downloads... rip off merchants!

They do, however, allow you to use your contract as normal in the EU (for now at least!)

We did this ourselves too when we were there on an RCI cruise.  We got a taxi over to the cable car for opening time though, so managed to beat the cruise excursions.  Because we were there just as they opened for the day we had a whole cable car to ourselves, rather than sharing, and had completed our toboggan run before the excursions had even got there.

Taxi to the cable car wasn't much - can't remember now, but even at €10 I think it's OK.  €12.50 per person one way on the cable car and around €15 per person.  We walked back in to town from the end of the toboggan run.

So, so much easier and better to do it privately, either before or after the cruise excursions take over.

You also have the option to look around the botanic gardens at the top too, but we were too early for those as they were shut!

I have domesticated work to do today. I’m off to the lower decks.

 

I imagine someone’s already said this, but it looks like CLR could do with this bag...

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I’ve also just searched and found that it may be serving Indian dishes. We love Indian food and coming from the midlands region of the UK we have many authentic curry houses to choose from, so I was hoping for Sabor to be serving Mexican food. I guess I will find out when we board in a weeks time!

 

 

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We were on NOTS a couple of weeks ago. We didn’t try Sabor but it smelled AMAZING! There were lots of Indian crew eating in there one night so I think that says a lot.

I had quite a few curries in the MDR and they were delicious. The Maharani Dal was my favourite.

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My in-laws are on this cruise so it’s good to get a bit of an insight into their trip!

Sorry your stargazing was cancelled. We did a land holiday in Tenerife last year and did a private stargazing tour and it was brilliant. Do you know the name of your guide that had the accident? I’m hoping it wasn’t the same man (Henry) who did ours!

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I stumbled on this thread by accident (I clicked the wrong link), but boy am I glad I did! We're contemplating this exact cruise for next September, so this is just what I wanted to read!

We have always done traditional dining, but 8.30pm seated is getting too late for us now (or are we getting too old?!). By the time you finish dinner it's at least 9.30pm and we still feel too full at bed time(OK, so that DOES make us sound like we're getting old!). On the other hand 6.30pm is too early for us. MTD seemed to be the perfect alternative. Perhaps we'll just go for MTD, try and get 7 - 7.30pm reservations, but pick up one of the speciality dining deals for the first night to avoid the chaos.

Thanks for your review! Love the cabin too - I was looking at this exact one only the other day - the balcony looks perfect!

Got off this ship last week (boohoo cruise blues!). It’s the Starboard side. I hadn’t thought of this when we booked our deck 7 starboard balcony cabin which was almost directly above the forward doors, and I was worried that the smell would travel up, but it didn’t.

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The return of GatorWop!

 

Omg! [emoji12]🤣[emoji23]🤣

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Harmony bridge wing controls look a lot more “21st Century” than the Navigator ones we saw last week!

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I just wanted to pitch in and say 2 things:

1. I LOVE this review! Your attention to detail and enthusiasm is amazing. I hope you had as great a trio as you make it sound.

2. I TOTALLY agree with you on the tardiness of the other cruisers! I read your last post and was getting “excursion-rage” as I went through it! I don’t think I’d have been able to contain the snarky comments as they walked past. Angry on your behalf, but hope you made the most of the time you had in Florence.

Michelle

P.S. Just got back from our cruise last week and wanted to thank you for the Travelon bag tip... I bought one on Amazon Prime literally the day before we sailed! I felt so much more comfortable with a bag that could be protected and it’s so lovely that I’ll use it as a weekend bag too. Love it!

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