pete14

2 minutes ago, Presto2 said:

Yes we noticed that one and are planning to go along. Must remind hubby to book the tickets. Perhaps some of us can meet up ?

Could become a plan. 😊🥴

1 hour ago, Splice the mainbrace said:

I’m awake early (for me) this morning, it’s 4c clear and sunny, listening to Tony Blackburn Sounds of the Sixties. DW is out today with her mum to a nurses reunion, MIL is 90 soon and was a nurse all of her working life, so a quiet day for me staying at home sport watching.

 

Yesterday we finally had our new dishwasher fitted which for various reasons has taken 4 months to arrange (let down by plumber, month long holiday and apathy). I also batch cooked a chilli con carne yesterday which did 8 portions, 2 for tea and 3 x 2 portions into the freezer.

750g of beef mince, 2 onions, 8 cloves of garlic, 2 cans of chopped tomatoes and kidney beans, a can of lentils, some water and flavoured with chilli flakes, cumin, smoked paprika, marjoram and 2 beef stock cubes.

 

 

Chilli sounds great but I always put in diced red and/or green pepper and a small amount of chocolate powder (drinking chocolate) to give it a more shiny appearance. 

1 hour ago, roomba920 said:

We are covered.

Hopefully sufficient to cover all eventualities, not just medical.

10 hours ago, roomba920 said:

That's a very personal question for a public board.

With respect, you started this thread by asking about insurance. Several people have given up their time to write their answers to your question and explain why, in their view, and in some cases from their own experience, it is highly advisable to have travel insurance, even if, as you say, for American guests it is not compulsory. In post 14, you said it was sorted out but you haven’t given any indication of how it is sorted. 

You have now accused terrierjohn, a well respected poster on this board, of asking a very personal question for a public board. I don’t interpret it in this way because he seemed to be seeking advice that could potentially be helpful for others who may be in this situation in the future.

I hope you have a wonderful cruise, whether or not you have bought a policy and hope nothing untoward happens that may necessitate insurance because if so, it will mean something has gone wrong to spoil your holiday. 

Just now, Presto2 said:

That's Azura. 🙂 I'd go back to her anyway. It's her sister Ventura that doesn't float our boat ..

You’re very quick to get in before I deleted the post because I realised I had made a mistake. 

19 minutes ago, Presto2 said:

 

31 minutes ago, FamilyCruiserUK said:

Nothing much floated my boat tbh. Except prices, but i want more then a cheap cruise, for a cheap cruise id go MSC. 

 

I do enjoy P&O to a degree but apart from the price and some specialist resturants the ships are not that exciting for families. I know my daughter (10) has strong feelings on this, she wants more than what P&O have or offer. Slides and bigger pools for example. 

I enjoyed Arvia but found her a little unsure of her place, not fully family but not fully adult with small standing room only pools. 

P&O can easily corner the family market if they just push the boat out a bit more with future family ship designs. So much promise but again played it too safe with Arvia and Iona. 

I appreciate what you say, but some of us of a certain age group would also like to be considered in the future. The two adult only ships in the fleet are the smallest, which is not a problem, but they are also the oldest, most expensive to travel on and probably most likely to be taken out of service and sold. Of course the family market is important and increasingly so, but so is the adult only market. This I think is a dilemma for where P&O are and where they place themselves in an increasingly crowded market.

12 hours ago, roomba920 said:

We're all set. Thank you for your concern.

Does that mean you have sorted out insurance or are you taking the word of your travel agent?

54 minutes ago, jeanlyon said:

Yes but do P&O lay on a shuttle?

They did last November. Drops you near the centre of Tromso. 

43 minutes ago, cublet said:

Hello,

 

Whilst insurance is required, I have not experienced being asked to show it at check-in since Covid.

 

Regards,

 

Cublet

As with any insurance, it seems like an expensive waste of money up until the day you need to make a claim. The cost of a medical evacuation or repatriation doesn’t bear thinking about but it is beyond the means of most people. Asking for proof of insurance as part of the checkin process would add delays and just imagine the complaints about resulting later check in times. P&O make it very clear that full insurance is required and trust that nobody is stupid enough to risk disobeying the requirement (I am not suggesting that anybody on here would take that risk). I know nothing about obtaining suitable insurance in USA but as of course Carnival group operate numerous cruises in USA waters, and worldwide, I cannot understand why their requirements are less than those of P&O as the OP suggests.

26 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

We had B165 on Arcadia (a corner one with wrap around balcony) and the balcony was great, as it was part shaded and part open, so usable in all conditions. We viewed one on another deck and the balcony was entirely covered, so made the suite very dark and it was like looking out through a tunnel. This wasn’t apparent on the deck plan. Just thought I’d flag this whilst you still have options. 

Thanks for your observation. We are on D deck which might be the ones you are talking about because the balcony is not overlooked according to the deck plan. Personally, I don’t see this as an issue although of course some might. Space and fresh air are more important to us. 

Good news that we have the cabin we want for our cruise to Iceland in August 2026. Pre registering and booking direct with P&O has worked really well. 😊😊

The cruise to view the eclipse in Iceland in August 2026 which we had pre registered for is now confirmed with our cabin. The suite allocated to us was absolutely fine but I have changed it to one with a much bigger wrap-around aft balcony a deck lower on Arcadia. Happy days. 😊

12 minutes ago, Clodia said:

Pre registered for that one this morning,  not easy from Fuerteventura. Couldn't resist as it'll be a one time experience. 

Welcome along! I suspect we are not alone.

6 minutes ago, happy v said:

I'm waiting for the postie

They are on P&O website. Who knows when the postie is going to arrive these days?

23 minutes ago, Presto2 said:

Have only looked at a few so far, but from what we've seen it looks an ok list of cruises, with more new ports than of late (I think). There also seem to be more 7 night cruises from Southampton to Spain and France outside of school holidays - which can only be a good thing.

Off to look at my brochure now ....

I agree that there are some new ports included in some cruises which is a good thing. Shame we can only book one of them. Our Iceland cruise has new ports and overnight in Reykjavik and Greenock for Glasgow on the way back. It also calls at Belfast and Cobh for Cork. All three UK ports are new to us which is great. So a combination of Iceland and UK cruise with the eclipse thrown in as a free attraction.

14 minutes ago, happy v said:

We did a total eclipse and Northern lights cruise on Oriana. It was breathtaking, awesome, and a bit magical. Definitely one of my most memorable moments.

Thanks for that. Being August, it is unlikely we will see the Northern Lights but you never know. At least we saw them last year and I agree they were awesome and magical.

After a 10 minute wait earlier this morning, we have pre registered our ‘total eclipse’ cruise. Arcadia to Iceland which is scheduled to be in the total eclipse path. All we need now is some cloud dispersant on the afternoon of 12th August 2026 and everything will be fine.

21 minutes ago, Presto2 said:

I thought they were coming live today so that you could see them ..... 😞

Tomorrow I think (if P&O technology can cope).

3 hours ago, 9265359 said:

 

Doubtful because of what you did - 

 

 

You had £500 of OBC which you had paid for - yes you had bought it for cash as part of the overall package - but decided to 'save' money by instead of spending it onboard you pre-purchased your drinks and internet.

 

The result being that you ended up with the OBC that you had bought that you couldn't spend on anything that you actually wanted, so used it to buy a watch that certainly had a massive mark up despite its apparent discount (was it the usual 'ship special' only sold onboard so no way of actually checking the real price).

 

What a marketing wheeze from P&O - they sell you OBC and then persuade you to hand over even more cash to buy the stuff you actually wanted in the first place, and then they sell you overpriced stuff you didn't actually want with the OBC you bought. 

Having the internet package, my son, being sensible, checked online to see the price before deciding to buy it. The identical watch online was nearly 50% more and that was the cheapest he could find it. So no, it appears that there was not a massive mark up, nor was it a ship’s special only available onboard. It was something he wanted but had it been overpriced, he would not have bought it. Neither he nor I are fools which you seem to be implying.

33 minutes ago, 9265359 said:

 

The same opportunities exist as they did before the discounts, it just means that £100 OBC is only worth £80 if there is a 20% pre-boarding price for the stuff you want to buy - quite clever marketing.

Of course the same opportunities exist, but only for those who do not pre purchase. Pre purchase discounts for packages encourage people to pre book and if they take advantage, they could easily end up with OBC that they can only spend by buying things they neither need nor want in the shops onboard. On a cruise last year, we pre booked drinks packages and internet at a discount and struggled to use approx £500 OBC because there was nothing we wanted or needed and speciality restaurants were fully booked. We ended up giving much of it to our son to put towards buying an expensive watch that he wanted which was already discounted in the jeweller onboard. Hopefully Moley’s  prediction about using OBC prior to boarding comes to pass. 

14 minutes ago, mrsgoggins said:

 

On to more mundane matters, we have been besieged by small black flies.  Ugh!  The sort you don't pay much attention to when there's only the odd one but then you do start to notice when they multiply.  We really don't know what has caused it, old bits of fruit in the kitchen bin?  Except we have never seen them around the bin.  Anyhow we found some old (and probably now illegal) fly spray which got rid of some of the blighters yesterday, and then thanks to Mr Google, I tried a dish of white vinegar last night and this morning, discovered that IT WORKS 🙂.

 

@indiana123 I hope you get some permanent relief very soon.

 

Off to finish my last minute packing for tomorrow's Florida flight, but I hope to pop in from time to time 👋

 

 

I must ask what you do with the white vinegar. Do you drink it, sprinkle it around the house or put a bowl of it on the floor to drown the little b***ers? 

It is quite noticeable that now P&O is offering incentives to book drinks packages, internet access, excursions and speciality dining before you set foot onboard, the opportunities for using onboard credit are diminishing. You have £150 which shouldn’t be too great a problem but some cruises offer much more with shareholder OBC to be added. We have a booking for 2026 - a 14 night cruise with total OBC of over £1000. We will probably use it to book drinks and internet packages onboard but will lose out on any pre booking discounts. Limited availability means that we will book speciality dining and any excursions in advance though. 

Paul McCartney and the fogs chorus?

2 hours ago, Caullkhead said:

Any songs for fog? Can just make out my neighbours & st Just has completely vanished now! 

Is the folk song ‘One misty moisty morning’ acceptable?