Spike11

It will be interesting to see how the fjord itineraries have been adjusted to take account of the restrictions coming in at the beginning of January 2026. I think Flam and Geiranger/Helysylt will be out, but there have been suggestions that Olden might be out of bounds too.

The short stay carpark is just to the east of the terminal. Parking4cruises have a flag and van right at the back (or did when we used them). Hopefully I have attached a photo!

Yes, we are very disappointed and won’t be booking for summer 2025. There seems to be large step backwards in terms of offering a variety of itineraries - which I thought was a big part of Saga’s USP. I suspect that they are finding that there are few options left, in terms of port availability, by the time they get round to finalising their itineraries.

Saga are also sending e-mails out today encouraging preregistration for summer 2025. It just seems bizarre that they are putting resources into preregistration (which you have to do over the phone of course) rather than just getting the cruises out on sale and collecting all those 15% deposits.

We docked on Aurora at Akureyri this summer (though another ship did tender). I understand that Isafjördur have recently extended their quay to allow more ships to dock rather than tender. There are no guarantees of course though - depends on who else is in on the day.

Amazing the effect a discount had on her view of P&O!

The difference is that for the November 2025 cruise you click on a big red button which says “Secure now” , rather than the usual “Book”. There should be an explanation of what this means though.

The local authorities in Key West are now enforcing a limit of one cruise ship a day. So if you’re down to call there on the local port schedule (which you are) then you will be docking rather than tendering. We have had our Key West call cancelled for Venturas February 35 night cruise. Of course P&O tried to hold the line that we were still calling (even though we weren’t on the local port schedule, another ship was) until a fellow passenger contacted the port and they had absolutely no booking for Ventura - so P&O were forced to fess up! I seem to remember you had a similar saga with a Norway cruise some years ago??

Interesting that Tenerife is the same first port, but Ventura gets there the day before Iona!

Sorry you didn’t enjoy your holiday. It would be useful if you could expand on why it was a dreadful cruise. Was everything dreadful, or were there some positives?

Considering the amount of debt they ran up during lock down, now might be a good time to change their policy! Celebrity certainly did a good job of completely transforming some of their older ships to bring them up to a similar standard to their more recent ones.

Interesting that a cruise ship’s life is deemed to be so short. We have just come back from a DFDS “mini-cruise” from Newcastle to Amsterdam (IJMuiden). The ship was built in 1987 and is having another refit early next year. It was all in very good nick - the public areas were very modern - and the cabins were in excellent condition.

In the past P&O have advised to put them on at the departure airport - which we have always done and never had problems with them coming off. If they did come off then there are plenty of P&O staff at the other end to sort out replacements. (We have always travelled Jet2).

The latest e-mail update from P&O is now saying that the improved service with be only in all PUBLIC AREAS by the end of the year. “Work will then continue to integrate with integration into cabins” - but with no date given. Hopefully this won’t take too long, as when we do use wifi, it tends to be when we are in our cabin.

After you arrive in port, it is usually around 30 minutes before you can get off. An announcement will be made telling you which gangways are open. It’s then usually a free for all, but the docking times are usually early morning when a lot of people are still having breakfast (or are still in bed) so there isn’t generally much of a queue. Different if you are docking late morning or afternoon. Back on board time is usually around 30 minutes before you are due to leave - again you will be told this on the day (and also in the horizon newspaper you get the evening before).

According to the port website Alesund.havn.no you are in port 8am to 6pm on 20th September. The port websites generally have more uptodate information than the generic websites like cruisedig and whatsinport - though it takes longer to find each port website. For Norway if you search for “port name” then “havn” - the port website will usually come up!

I’m afraid that I am still not convinced of your arguments that more people are served dinner in the fixed restaurants, compared to the freedom restaurants. I remember being in a packed freedom dining restaurant on Arcadia (where pagers were being given out) and the fixed dining restaurant was half empty (this was first sitting) - presumably because those allocated fixed dining were eating elsewhere. The problem with the fixed dining restaurants is that if those allocated to it don’t turn up, the tables stay empty. This can’t happen in the freedom dining restaurants.

You may be correct, but you also need to consider all the empty places in fixed dining when people chose to go to the buffet, get room service or book into speciality restaurants. I think P&O made Iona and Arvia freedom dining only to provide the greatest overall capacity.

Unfortunately we were unable to pre book any restaurants on Aurora last month (14 night cruise). As others have said, you could do this pre-Covid so why the backward step? They also get more money from you if you prebook as you can’t use your OBC - can’t understand their “business” reasoning.

If it’s a normal Jet2 flight then you use your P&O booking reference at www.jet2/pocruises. However you can’t do this until 60 days before you fly (sometimes it’s not active until a couple of days after this). When you can log in, you can choose seat, meals, extra baggage etc. It should tell you all this on your cruise personaliser - though the info doesn’t always appear until near to the time you are able to do it!

I’ve looked back at the E-mail I received early March this year offering extra OBC if I book “an applicable select fare by 5th June”. Further down the E-mail there is a link to “search all holidays in this offer”. When I click on this link it seems to cover all cruises up to the beginning of April 2025- so excluding the cruises which have just been released. I guess a physical mail shot wouldn’t have that clarification.

You asked whether Saga are worth double the price. Difficult to answer. We are in the fortunate position of being able to cruise several times a year, but do of course have to work to a budget. We try and pick one saga cruise a year (usually with a special itinerary that we can’t get elsewhere), and use P&O for the others. Saga is expensive, but the ship is relatively small and the amount of public space per passenger is high - both of which add to the cost (and the quality of the experience). The quality of the food in the MDR on saga is really excellent - a huge jump up from P&O, and a jump up from Fred Olson in my opinion. There also tend to be a lot more staff about on Saga ships, so service is generally much better. I also think that the interior design of the Saga ships is of a very high standard - though I do also like what P&O have done with Iona. We view our Saga cruise as a special luxury treat once a year, but also really enjoy the P&O cruises. Not sure whether that is of any help to you!

What a lovely review. Must have taken you ages to put together.

8am according to the port. See details here https://www.flamport.no/ship-arrivals2021

Crystal clear then! Best to apply as soon as you can.