Midsomer Madness

I actually wrote to David Dingle about children under 16 being allowed to share a cabin, I was advised it was not permitted and the booking system wouldn't allow it..I did a dummy booking and it let me and I know of many people bragging on Facebook pages about their children being in separate cabins, sometimes on a different deck, I am appalled, I actually think it's against the law it's no different from leaving your children home alone and going out for an evening.

I intend going back to David Dingle on this..it's just wrong in so many ways...say there was a costa Concordia sort of disaster and children were on a different deck etc? It doesn't bear thinking about.

I think you will your letter red book will be more than sufficient! Give it a go before putting yourself through public sector call centres! Take it from me I used to be a manager in one for the MOD lol

Great information. Does anybody know details of where within MOD application for proof of service should be submitted?

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Not sure but hubby seems to think if you contact the veterans agency in the first instance they might be able to help. Hubby kept his "red book" with discharge details showing and we scanned that and sent it off and it was certainly acceptable for Cunard so presume it will suffice for p&o as imagine it's all done in the same office..the email address is certainly the same!

Sorry, yes, my typo, will amend! Thanks! Only I left it too long and now can't amend it..but it is May 2014 and not May 2015!

P&o have introduced military credit for serving and retired British forces on cruises booked from 15th May 2015. Proof of service is needed and cruises booked before that date are not eligible...shame as we missed out on 2...but qualify for 2 so not all bad. The link is here, if links are not allowed i apologise in advance and the info can be found under the frequently asked questions on the p&o website

https://ask.pocruises.com/help/PO/before-you-sail/military

It's about time they introduced this, it's been available with Cunard for years!

I think you can use it again an Early Saver Fare but not a Saver Fare.

We took one out with Cunard and booked a cruise with them, then decided we wanted to change to p&O. I was very surprised when they not only allowed us to transfer the booking for the usual admin fee, they allowed the future cruise deposit to be used as well and also let us have the on board credit associated with it. Was very kind of them. Due to the fact that when we transferred the cruise it was under the old Vantage system, when they changed everything over to select fares and the price dropped for new bookings we got the difference in OBC added too. With my shareholder OBC, we now have £1,000 OBC for our Azura cruise...that should pay my bar bill at least...not sure about hubby's though ;)

Thomson used to be good value for money. However we cruised on the Dream in February this year. We had to go with a Thomson ship because it was a transfer from a Thomson land based holiday. The cost of the cruise per person for an outside cabin was more than what we would have paid for a balcony on Azura with P&O. We were doing the caribbean. We paid full price for the drinks package which worked out around £800 for the two weeks for two of us. However I understand that now there is a supplement for Bombay Sapphire gin on the drinks package. There is also a supplement for Jamesons whiskey which when we last sailed on the Dream in 2012 was included in the drinks package.

The drinks package was a big pull for us as we like to enjoy ourselves however we would certainly think twice about paying full price for it if we ever did the same cruise again.

We are booked on Celebrity Eclipse next may for 7 nights taking advantage of their 123 promotion, from which we picked classic drinks package and gratuities. I understand Celebrity recently revamped their classic drinks package, but because of so much fall out from passengers, they reverted back. I don't think we will need to upgrade to the premium package. The classic package puts Thomson to shame and it does not work out a great deal of difference between the two if you pay full price on Thomson. The standard of drinks on Thomson also left a lot to be desired.

We found the food on the Dream to be mediocre at best. Our waiter who we met on a previous cruise, and his assistant, looked after us extremely well and the staff in the outside bar where we went every evening also gave us fabulous service. However a lot of the other staff were dour, miserable and at times downright rude. The entertainment team were young and so far up their own backsides it was untrue, some of them came across as extremely arrogant.

Therefore you can see why we are not in a hurry to go back, although we would love to see Jodel, Crispin, Neil and "Socks" again...I somehow doubt that we will :(

Of course this is my personal opinion. Friends have recently come back off the Majesty and they too have said no more Thomson for them...its a shame because Thomson go to some great places on their cruises and do tend to stay longer in port than a lot of the other cruiselines. However overall they have just declined too much of late for us to consider them again.

If booked as a saver or early saver there is not even any guarantee that you will all be allocated the same dining arrangements and whilst it is possible to change on board (although P&O say its not) it may not be very easy with such a large party. Forewarned is forearmed as they say!

Has anyone in the UK recently received a survey by email from Cunard? I got one the other day but when I clicked on the link in the email it says "the address is not valid". I am using a PC.

 

At Cunard we regularly carry out consumer research to help us understand our passengers' views and preferences.

 

In this survey we are particularly interested in your views about your stateroom/suite and your dining experiences on board. We would be grateful if you would spare 20 minutes of your time to complete the survey attached to the link in this email.

 

Please note surveys need to be completed by Tuesday 5 August. Simply click on the link and answer the questions, noting that whilst it is possible to complete the survey on a Smartphone, we would recommend that you use a laptop or a PC.

Myself and a couple of other people I know also received this and are unable to access,the actual survey whether on iPad, iPhone, laptop or desktop. I mentioned on Cunard Facebook page and they replied they have reported it and are trying to fix the problem, I've heard no more since.

I think a lot of people like the casualness of Thomson and also that their cruises are port intensive with not so many sea days. Personally I think the standard of dress, entertainment, drinks package and food has all fallen,there was a marked deterioration in all from our first cruise on the Dream in 2012 and the one we did in the Caribbean this year. We probably won't cruise with Thomson again.

I'm very much in favour of an All Inclusive package and would love it to be in place before my October cruise.

 

But what would I spend all my OBS on, I've already booked my excursions? ;-)

Yes we have £1000 OBC for our Azura cruise in March. We would have the same dilemma, but I'm sure I'd manage ;)

I do wish that once P & O have divulged or leaked this info to. TA or forum that they then post on their Facebook page the details. What is the point of letting this info get out and then not backing up with the details. No mention of this on their face book page.

If they are not ready to give the details then they should not have leaked the info.

I have asked the question on their offical page Sue, will be interesting to see if they respond!

Thanks for that.. I have copied it over onto a private Facebook page which only has a few select friends and is not open to public...keeping fingers crossed this comes in but do hope it's sensibly priced so as not to attract the sort of folk who will then see every cruise as a booze cruise!

Can I ask how long the cruise was for? £200 pp per week is £28 pp per day? That's quite a lot of booze depending on price. And if you saved £500 - how exhorbitant are the prices on Thomson?

It was a 14 night cruise so we paid just under £800 for the drinks package. Yes you do have pay extra for some drinks but the ones we drink were all,covered in the package so our end of cruise bill was very small. We usually spend between £1400-£1500 on board during a 14 night cruise so £800 was great value by comparison, it also obviously included all soft drinks. £28 pp per day may sound a lot but when you add up the cost of the drinks it's actually not that bad...cocktails can be a fiver and a large gin not far off that either...we had excellent bar waiters out on deck at night who assured our glasses were never empty in fact there was very little room for mixer in the glass as it was almost full with gin! I hasten to add the service and quality was not the same in other bars on board ;)

We purchased drinks package on Thomson earlier this year and probably saved £500 on our drinks bill, we paid full price of £199 pp per week, we are not alcoholics....well not all the time...honest...despite what Dai might say :D

Agree fully about the short cruises. I would not like to see it on anything less than a week.

 

Of course it would not interest me at all as I am strictly TT.

 

 

 

 

;)

 

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

:eek::eek::eek: Pinocchio! I have been in your company on New Year's Eve...our bar bill said different lol

I think this would be brilliant, even if you pay for it, at least it means you don't get a huge bill at the end of your cruise, it also means you can spread the cost a bit if you choose to purchase it when booking.... I also don't think it promotes lots of drunken people but agree it should be on cruises of 7 days or more only...

I think Thomson might be flying dreamliners on the Caribbean route from Birmingham come the end of the year..that knocks half an hour off again...

I just take a screen print of my online account clearly showing the date and email that off, not a problem,OBC is usually awarded within 24 hours.

We booked an early saver fare for an Oriana cruise to the Canaries in November. We booked it just when the early saver fares were released and the current early saver price is £200 pp more than what we paid. I know that saver fares will come in a few months before sailing but I'm convinced the price won't be very much less than what we paid. I'm keeping an eye on it out of curiosity because we really did pay quite a silly price for 12 nights!

Out of interest were the fares select fares or early saver fares? Thinking that could be the reason why..we have 3 separate bookings for next March and were told,that as our bookings were linked we would be on the same flight, which we are, but I believe it until I actually saw it.

Oriana is the best for dancing...we didn't get much in on Aurora as they use Carmen's for shows as well as dancing whereas on Oriana the dancing is in harlequins..we rarely bother on Azura as it's in the atrium and the dance floor is far too small...Ventura is obviously the same

We have done both and if I could afford it I would always book Grills!

The Ventura is not doing back to back cruises as such. The seven day cruises have two separate itineraries and the 14 day cruises do not return to their home port, mid cruise.

 

There is a mixture of 7 and 14 day cruises already. There are two embarkation and disembarkation ports which vary dependant upon dates for the 14 night cruise and for 7 night cruises, the variance is down to the itinerary you require.

Ah, thanks for that I didn't realise..just saw lots of ports being the same, so presumed it was 7 nighters back to back!

For us cruising is still 90% about the itinerary. Seeing new places, exploring strange new ports and countries. And, while sometimes it is unavoidable, we hate flying. So we cruise with whatever company has a trip that will suit us. I think P&O are missing a trick if they are doing basically the same trip week after week, year after year. Surely that is good for first time cruisers but for adventurous cruisers , no, that would actively make them stay away.

I think you summed it up there...they are looking to attract the first time cruisers!

Um, stop trying to turn them into Thomsons!

I think one ship in the med is enough, bearing in mind they are having problems filling Ventura this year.

I like the idea of fly cruising with P&O. But feel there should be a mixture of 7 and 14 days, rather than the back to back they are doing now..i'm not a big fan of 7 night back to back cruises.

I do agree they should change the itinierary every year though whichever ship is based there.