Spike11

Good luck. I’ve been looking back through Carnival Annual reports for mention of the 3 month restriction, but can’t find anything. Perhaps it was some rule P&O had. However, back in 2015 you could apply for the OBC no later than two weeks before the sail date. Then it went up to three weeks. For the latest annual report just out it now says no later than 4 weeks before sail date.

Well in that case, I seem to have been slipping through the net for years. Different named people in the shareholder benefits team have added shareholder OBC 12 or 15 months in advance with no problem for at least four years now. Just had it added for two cruises in 2024. Maybe I’m a VIP and didn’t realise it!

Might be to do with WHEN you applied. Carnival have just extended the end point from July 2023 to July 2024 (they tend to do this once a year following the AGM in March/April). So until recently you could only apply for OBC for cruises departing in the next three months. However, you can now apply for OBC for cruises departing in the next 15 months - and that period will gradually reduce until next March/April.

Just to clarify, you can get Shareholder OBC applied for any cruise up to the end of July 2024. It doesn’t need to be within 3 months any more. Just had it applied for May 2024.

Now confirmed on the P&O website that pre registering in from 19th April and cruises on sale 26th (high tiers), 27th (March-June) and 28th (July to September).

Saga tend to go to the more interesting ports (not sure if this applies in your case). In terms of the suite wrap around balcony, on the saga ships you can get a balcony cabin right at the back with easy access to the lovely terraces that tie down the back of the ship. I would also say that the public areas of the saga ships are much less busy and seem more spacious and beautifully laid out than Britannia, so I’m not sure you’d make much use of the extra space in the suite. As others have said, you get so much included for the standard balcony cabin on Saga ships that there’s not much more in the way of extras you would get in a Britannia suite. I would take the extra days!

Interesting to read reports from Aurora today that people are still joining virtual queues for freedom dining. It is of course optional, but I do hope that they keep this option for those of us who like to use the My Holiday “app”.

You could try jet2.com/pocruises and use your P&O booking code. That has worked in the past, and the page is still there.

Arvia is just now setting off to Southampton from Bremerhaven.

The 12 night Aurora cruise we just got back from didn’t have an Entertainment Manager/Cruise Director. No one came on at the end of the headliners show to lead the thank yous, so we asked one of the entertainment staff what was happening. Apparently the Entertainment manager is on leave and will be back in December. Presumably there wasn’t anyone available to take their place. I guess the other staff had to take on extra duties and do the best they could. Hope the same thing doesn’t happen when the Captain goes on leave!

A good point, but I have seen two good size ships tendering at Geiranger at the same time, so would be surprised if this was the reason for Iona not tendering there. I was on the first Iona cruise that didn’t call at Geiranger and the only other ship there at the time was the relatively very small World Explorer which only has around 170 passenger if full.

So when it was discovered that the sea walk was incompatible with Iona, why didn’t Iona tender in Geiranger?

Yes, Arcadia is the only P&O ship where we’ve had significant problems with freedom dining. One time when we eventually got a table we looked down to the fixed dining and almost every table was only half full and some were empty - and this was mid service. Since there seemed to be be more tables downstairs, we wondered why they didn’t swap the two dining rooms over.

Visited the Meyer Werft shipyard at Papenburg earlier today (from a cruise on Saga’s Spirit of Discovery which was also built there) and it really is a fascinating place. Hall 6 is massive and is apparently the largest covered dry dock in the world. There wasn’t a brilliant view of Arvia from the galleries we were able to visit, but we could see that the part of the promenade deck that goes round the atrium is yet to be attached (perhaps this is done once she has been floated out). Carnival Jubilee is being constructed next to Arvia and is in the foreground of the Arvia pictures. The guide suggested that Arvia would be floated out next month (August) to the basin and that the transit down the River Elms would be September or October. Anyway, here’s a few pics (including models of Iona and Oriana).

This seems to happen to all Ionas Norwegian itineraries (it happened to ours last month). A few weeks before departure it looks as though Olden and Hellesylt have been removed, when they haven’t. Something to do with the “cruise bys” taking priority over the actual port when being displayed on the cruise personaliser. It’s a shame that P&O can’t get this sorted, because it has confused/upset many cruisers.

I can still see the calls on these sites. If it has N/A next to Iona, it actually means that the docking time is not available ( as P&O don’t publish docking times unlike just about all the other cruise lines!), not that Iona is not docking!

I’m not sure how often the crew site is updated. Also some sites say N/A next to P&O ships - which can be easily misinterpreted as the port call being deleted when it actually means that P&O has not provided a docking time!

Just looked at the official port sites and Hellesylt and Olden calls are still here. Perhaps an IT glitch when you looked?

Iona still due to call at Hellesylt on 27th July. See port site here https://www.stranda-hamnevesen.no/cruise-calls/ Also still due at Olden on 26th July. See port site here.https://www.nordfjordhavn.no/en/cruise/cruise-list-2022/ Is this where you looked?

Interestingly, Iona has been deleted from the Hellesylt port cruise schedule for this week, but hasn’t been replaced by any other ship. Wonder if P&O will explain the reason for the change or whether it will be due to “operational reasons”!

For pre booking speciality restaurants all you need is the number of people dining. They just want to know who is paying for it - they don’t ask for the names of the diners!

Thanks for the update. We are on a trip to the Papenburg shipyard on 7th July (from a Saga Spirit of Discovery cruise calling at Emden). Hopefully Arvia will still be there.

I don’t think I can give any assurance that it will work out for YOU, but what I can say is that we had a very enjoyable cruise on Iona to Norway last month. We have been cruising with P&O since 2013 and to be honest haven’t noticed any major changes - certainly nothing that would stop us from cruising with them in the future. I guess it depends on what is important to you. Some things that took place pre-Covid are still missing, but I suspect that they will come back in time.

We actually really liked Haugesund - even though it was a national holiday when we were there! Admittedly it was sunny, so the sail in and out was lovely. It’s only about a 20 minute walk over the bridge to the centre past the shipyard and the quayside was a lovely place to sit and watch various ferries and other boats go and in out. I believe there is quite an unusual sculpture another 30 or so minutes walk away which we didn’t get to ( see photo below) and also a national monument, but we did pop along to the Marilyn Munro statue - something to do with her grandfather coming from the area?? Would also recommend the excursion to Ryvarden Lighthouse which we did in the morning.

From the guides description, I would only want to pass through the actual village in the summer. The way she described it was that you just can’t move through the streets. I’m sure the surrounding area would be fine though.