MWINT

Just popped on to post the exact same question. We want to fly from the UK to Hawaii and sail back to the UK from NYC. We don’t need to fancy taking our cruise clobber all the way to the islands so it’s good to hear the service can be trusted and that  it can be rearranged for early departures. 👏

16 minutes ago, Lanky Lad said:

I'm just back from a trip on Ventura and thought I would give my thoughts on the differences between Cunard and P&O

 

Breakfast

 

The menu selection is smaller than on Cunard but all the food was good. Unlike on Cunard they take the juice order at the same time as your main order. One very big plus for P&O is that the toast comes in a toast rack, which gives lovely crispy toast. 

 

Lunch

 

Again a smaller selection than on Cunard but everything I had was good. 

 

Dinner 

 

There were many items that appeared on the menu everyday so the choice was limited, but all very good. 

 

The wine list was on two sides of a sheet of card, not the large folder you get on Cunard. 

 

Bars

 

The selection of drinks was very limited with very few choice of cocktails or spirits. 

 

Ventura has a good selection of venues with entertainment on in each, but not as much live music as on Cunard. 

 

Afternoon tea was only available in the buffet and was self service with quite a queue. 

 

There is no selection of hot food on the breakfast room service menu. There is a charge for the other items on the room service menu. 

 

Fruit juice is only available for free at breakfast, any other time you have to pay for it. 

 

You cannot get food in the pub, but there are four choices of where you can dine and pay extra. 

 

The entertainment was pretty much the same as on Cunard although maybe aimed at a younger audience. 

 

The passengers were younger than on Cunard, although I don't know if that is normal or due to the ship going to Amsterdam. 

 

All in all I enjoyed the trip, but I will not be rushing back to P&O, but that's not to say I wouldn't sail with them again in future. 

Thank you for your review. It has settled a few nerves. We mainly sail Cunard or Viking but have booked a sailing on Azura (Tenerife - Malta). The last time we sail P&0 it was awful. There were people drinking at breakfast, the service was shocking. They actually put a couple off in Madeira for being abusive. That was 2017. I can’t for a second believe the experience can be as bad as the last time. 🤞

No flower for us. Although there were beautiful orchards there already for us when we arrived. 

We had a butler on our recent QM2 TA. The extra looking after you was nice, but we particularly liked that ours (a women) laid the table for breakfast when we requested it in our suite. Much nicer than having food on your knee. 

On 8/21/2022 at 11:00 AM, sugarside said:

Confirmed to me last week that discount in UK is doubled to £200 if you book a new cruise within 30 days of returning from your last  cruise.

Did this and it is confirmed in my invoiced e mail.

Had an email this morning following our departure from Viking Tor, Friday to say we too have the 30 day period,. Shame really as the next cruise we want to book isn’t available yet (Venice to Istanbul September 2024).

Thanks for the response, shame it’s not the year though. 👍

Does anyone know if this is the same for the UK? The website here doesn’t mention the doubling of the discount when booking within a year of disembarking. 

Thanks

Mark

1 hour ago, exlondoner said:

 

Why would you cancel? It's a great cruise with lots of interesting places.

Thats a great point. Having been nowhere for a few years somewhere, cancelling does seem shortsighted. 

2 hours ago, ak1004 said:

It's like removing Buenos Aires from Argentina/Brazil cruise.. Or removing Dubai from the Emirates cruise..

 

Personally I would cancel. Just to shows the cruise lines that politics should not dictate travel decisions, but also because the other ports are really not in the same league. For many travelers St. Petersburg was the main reason to take this cruise, I hope many will cancel. 

I do take your point about the overall experience having been diminished but I am not sure what cancellation options we have. I assume we can can if we are prepared to take the hit on our  deposit but we have a sizeable deposit paid due to precious covid cancellations. 

We have our our revised itinerary for 19 June voyage. Stockholm instead of St Petersburg: 

59 minutes ago, majortom10 said:

That is because QV is sold out for 5th June if you apply Sold Out filter it shows.

Sorry for the confusion, I didn’t realise you could filter this way. 👍

I see on Cunard’s website that the first voyage available for QV is showing as 19 June. My wife and I are booked on this trip. 

We were booked on this voyage until yesterday. Decided to book St Petersburg on QV instead. Fed up with with the inability plan our leave for another year. I wonder if you had our cabin?🤔

On 10/23/2020 at 2:55 PM, lextrvlr said:

One of my very favorite hotels on all of this planet is The Pillars in Ft. Lauderdale. In my book, as close to perfection as you will find. Though small, they have an outstanding chef as well as top notch accommodations. In any case, have a look at their website.

I would second this , The Pillars is magnificent. 
 

Mark

My wife and I have added Spain & Guernsey from Southampton, 28 May to our QM2 voyage in Nov. 🤞.

On 10/11/2019 at 3:48 PM, Bigmike911 said:

Several years ago we had the pleasure of sailing from Southampton on 5 November. There were bonfires along the Solent as we passed. It was very interesting to see. 

Our first cruise was November 5 2007. Fireworks and bonfires the length of the Solent. Mesmerising. Best sail-away ever. 🛳

Many thanks for your replies, especially the confirmation the voyage is still operating. Much appreciated. Will will just have to keep our powder dry for a few weeks. 😀

Just got off my second Cunard voyage on Sunday and I am itching to spend my future cruise credit bought on board QM2. I was hoping to be spending it tomorrow by there is still a big gap in Queen Elizabeth’s summer 2021 itineraries. I was hoping to be booking Vancouver to Tokyo. Does anyone have any insight into if this trip will be available please? If so, when it’s likely to go on sale? Many thanks in anticipation. Mark

My wife and I have just booked our first Viking trip. We have sailed many times with Royal and Celebrity but wanted to something different. Was surprised that we could get onboard for about the same money as an Aqua class cabin on celebrity. We have done very big ships, this will be a chance to try a fairly small one in hopefully stylish surroundings.

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I have stayed a few times at the Novotel. Very near the port and the amenities of Southampton. It’s a decent four star hotel and absolutely fine for one night.

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We usually prefer the walk-off option. Because I do not like being rushed on the last morning, Hubs and I have developed a nice little disembarkation routine... on the second last morning, we go up to the buffet and choose some fresh fruit, a couple of containers of milk, cereal, yogurt, muffin, etc, and basically take a easy quick 'breakfast' back down to our cabin and put it in our fridge. The next day on our final morning while I am in the shower, Hubs goes to Cafe Al Bacio and gets us a couple of Americanos and we enjoy one last peaceful breakfast in our cabin. We finish last minute packing and then head down to wait to leave. It works very nicely for us and is much less stressful not having to deal with any possible cranky rushed people in the buffet and elevators, etc.

This is what my wife and I do. Except here in the UK we have kettles in the cabin for one last mug of tea.

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Been lucky to sail on Oasis, Harmony and am booked on Symphony in May. We have also sailed numerous times with X. For me I would book the ship based on the experience you want. The Royal ships are great fun with more to do than you can fit in a week (will get around to a TA on one at some point). X are more refined and the experience is much more grown up. Both are great but different.

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I am pleased you have posted, You will no doubt be told by someone on this thread that people being thrown off could not have happened on P&O, like I was told. Clearly not urban myth then!

Definitely no myth. The captain made a public address apology to the crew and passengers. He had the people responsible confined to their cabin until he could put them off. The Azores was the fist port of call after leaving the Caribbean. This was one of the few things P&O did that really impressed me.

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We get tired in the evenings so request a table for 2 these days (although we had some of our best cruises on tables with others). We have a table for 2 request in our voyage personaliser, I know its no guarantee on our saver fare and booking order but our fingers are crossed as I'm told that there is a pretty good chance of getting one in Club these days.

 

 

 

Hattie, many thanks for that link.

It's funny but not being able to eat with just the people you are on holiday with is the one feature of cruising that we have always struggled with. I have this image in my head of booking a table at a land based restaurant and being fine with eating with total strangers at mile stone life events (which is often when people cruise). For us antisocial gits, Celebrity are really good with their open dining.

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We sailed both P&O and Cunard this year for the first time. QV was streets ahead of the Britannia in our view. Our balcony cabin was much bigger on QV and food and services was as different as night and day.

Beer with breakfast was a common sight and two people were thrown off in the Azores for being abusive to others onboard as well as the staff. Never again for P&O for us but we have already booked again with Cunard.

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