laslomas

Tui, as do many other airlines, increase their fleet in busy periods by leasing planes from other companies. My daughter is crew on Tui based from Gatwick, and this summer she completed extra training due to being on different planes, to fly for 5 months on Avion Express. They were still Tui flights, with Tui crew and catering etc. Tui also used this company in 2022 to increase their number of planes available. She did say that passengers were surprised to see a plain white plane, but after that everything was fine. I realise this may be different to what is happening with Maleth, but it seems to be quite common. So even when booking direct with Tui, you could end up on planes from leasing airlines. BA have also been using Avion Express planes out of Gatwick. I think the problem with what has happened this P&O Caribbean season is due to the lack of Premium Economy, and possible P&O should have been aware of this to enable correct information to be provided. But with fly-cruises being booked so far in advance, currently up to April 2026, how can that work? Who knows what the situation will be in 3 years time. Flights are usually only available for booking 11 months in advance, so it's all guesswork really.

I think it should be mandatory for any company to start by showing the base rate for whatever is being sold during a 'sale' promotion. On the Celebrity website the first time you actually get to see the base price of a cabin is after making a dummy booking. I just did a dummy booking on an infinite veranda for an 11 night cruise from Southampton. It seems the base rate for this is £4674 pp. I am sure I have never seen their prices advertised as this high. I believe they decide the price they want to charge and then work backwards to the base price they invent for their current promotion. It will be a completely different base rate in the next 'amazing offer'. I remember when they had brochures with the prices included. Yes, I agree they think we are idiots!! I have just checked this cruise on the US website and the base rate is $7199. Shocking - not sure how they do their exchange rate!!!

Not Caribbean related - but wonder if anyone has any idea when more dates will be released for Celebrity sailings from Southampton? The last Celebrity cruise advertised from Southampton is the 23 October 2024 Transatlantic repositioning. I really wish Celebrity would keep a vessel sailing from UK into the autumn / winter months with sailings to the Canaries and North Africa. If I want to do this in the cooler months I have to choose other cruise lines.

In my post #9 I stated I had only attended them on my Celebrity cruises. I agree the P&O Roll Calls are also not very active. For my P&O cruise in April 2024, a Roll Call was started in April 2022 and there is only one post!! Maybe it is more a US thing. The ones on US cruise lines are certainly more active, and they do include many Brits too.

The Cruise Critic Meet and Mingle (see the tab at the top of this page) was a way for CC Forum followers to meet with each other on their cruise, and with Officers and Staff. Was usually very informative, especially chatting with the Hotel Director and the Chef. You needed to register, and a minimum number was required, 25 I think. But I think Covid put an end to most of these meetings.

After reading that attachment, especially the part about toxic smoke, I think I would pass comment to Guest Services if a mobility scooter was being left in the corridor, especially if overnight. It really should not be happening.

I attended several Cruise Critic Meet and Mingle events on Celebrity cruises pre-Covid. Not on P&O though. There were always a good number of crew and officers present and they 'mingled'. A welcome drink, nibbles, pastries, and tea and coffee were provided. Sadly since covid I think many cruise lines are no longer hosting these events. I always found them interesting and it was good to meet some of the officers.

A cargo ship has collided with another ship in the area and gone down. I believe Iona is involved in the search for survivors.

An idea would be to have a price guarantee whereas the difference in price would be given back as On Board Credit. So not actually refunding the money. Some passengers would probably spend less 'real' money on board due to the extra OBC, but at least the cruise line has their original money in the coffers. I wonder how the cruise lines manage in the U.S. as they honour price drops for their customers in the form of a refund up to final payment, and as OBC after that.

Since posting this after changes were made to pricing, it has all changed again. I must have jumped in before they had got it working right. Currently when looking on the UK website the main thing I notice is that the only option now is cruise only or cruise only plus gratuities. So I wonder if that will change to have the option to add drinks and wi-fi at the time of booking??

Massive price rises as far as I can see!! But the other thing I notice is that going through the booking process the Cruise only, and the upgrade to All Included (which still includes tips) are the same price. So basically there is no cruise only price. An example of the huge prices is a cruise I was interested in, from Southampton in September 2024 to Spain, Portugal and Mediterranean, 13 nights. The starting price is now £4361 pp for the cheapest inside cabin / £6076 pp for cheapest veranda. I can't imagine this will be booked out soon at those prices. I have lost interest.

I always have one, or two, Prawn Cocktails on Celebrity. It is on their everyday choices. There is a choice of sauce - Marie Rose, or the one they simply call "the hot one". personally I love the hot one. The problem with these on Celebrity is the prawn/shrimp, which are very large, have been decreasing in number over the years. Hence my need to order two. Last year, on a couple of nights there were only three in the dish.

This was something available on Celebrity cruises until a few years ago. You could pre-book everything through their website, even the dickie bow and patent shoes. I thought it was a great idea, especially for fly cruises when weight could be a problem.

An idea would be a charge, a minimal amount, £10 or £20 maybe, to guarantee seats together, anywhere on the plane. That is all many people want.

Thank you for the review - following as I have a cruise booked on Arvia for April next year. Referring to the post above, the crowding is something I am a little concerned about. But, surely, if ships keep adding more and more passenger decks beneath the pool deck this will always be a problem as the pool / lido deck is still the same size. The earlier ships I sailed probably had up to 5 passenger decks compared to 8 or 9 on current new ships. Sun beds were set out in two's with a small table between. It was lovely. I accept the cruise lines want to increase passenger capacity, so my choice is to always book a balcony cabin to ensure my own outside space. But the 'old days' were certainly less crowded.

Yes I know there are 'sunset verandas', but as well as being more expensive, they sell out quickly too. Did you choose it as you wanted to be in an aft cabin, or because you wanted a 'real' veranda?

I have been a Celebrity cruiser for the last 10 years, on Eclipse, Infinity, Silhouette, Reflection and Equinox. I agree with most described here. I now have my first P&O cruise booked, on Arvia, as I want to sail from Southampton next year and do not like the idea of the Infinite Veranda on Celebrity Edge class ships. Celebrity only have one ship sailing from Southampton. So at the moment I am not able to compare Celebrity and P&O but I am trying to gain as much information I can from the P&O forum, and am looking forward to trying P&O. The only comment I disagree with above is the mention of announcements in multiple languages repeated several times. I never heard this on any of the ships. But I only sailed Mediterranean, Caribbean and British Isles itineraries. The availability of wonderful ice cream and sorbet, without charge is great. The lovely hand mixed martinis in the Martini bar are amazing. The happy and chatty attendants in the washrooms mean they are spotless. The speciality dining on Celebrity is very expensive, in my opinion, as are the drinks packages, and the itineraries on the Edge class ships seem way higher in price than the other ships in their fleet. Celebrity are adding more and more suites, and bigger suites. Suite Class have a separate dining room, bar and Retreat area. I realise P&O will be a different experience especially as the passenger demographic is probably 90%+ British, I am not saying that is bad - just different. I will keep reading this thread so to be prepared for my P&O cruise. I just wish P&O offered some kind of status match with Celebrity Captain's Club loyalty scheme, similar to that offered by MSC. I now have to start at the bottom again 😞

This is the detail on the P&O website. Is that really true? Certainly not from what I have been reading on this forum. It seems you need a lot of planning to eat in the MDR, so I would think there are not enough places and the description needs a bit of tweaking.

I have just tried my Login and get this message, so something is not working. Maybe they are inundated with people, like me, trying to log in to see if it is working 🙃

Just a little query - with no evening turndown service, when is the Daily programme delivered? Is it just in the post box?

According to a social media post it was a 'medical emergency' with a helicopter evacuation at around 2:30 am. Hope all are well.

It seems really pointless for P&O to allocate arrival times that are totally inappropriate for some passengers. If driving a couple of hundred miles and knowing that 3:00 - 3:30 would be a good time, it must be really annoying to be given a 12:15 check in time. Or staying overnight in a local hotel knowing checkout is by 11 am and then finding you have 3:30. Arriving late for your time means you will not hit the 'too early queue' but will impact those that arrived on time and their queue is larger than expected as it has late arrivals in it. All the suggestions on how to waste a few hours are useful, but do not suit everyone - especially those without their own transport. Why, oh why do they not ask? It works perfectly for Celebrity (ok, smaller ships). Choosing the time is on a first come first served basis when completing online check-in, but not everyone wants the earliest times. They don't suit everyone's travel plans. I pity anyone in the too early queue today as the weather forecast is not looking good, and wasting time walking around will be just as bad!!

Totally agree. It reminds me of the arguments children have with parents about school uniform. They always want to tweak it a bit and try to get away with little adaptions, shorter skirts, etc. Rules are rules. If that is what we tell the school kids, surely it applies to the older generation too. There are many cruise lines to choose from, something to suit everyone.

Surely the baby buggies will fold?? Then they can go in the cabin with the family. If it is a tight squeeze they will know to book a balcony cabin next time and the buggy can be stored there. No way should they be left in the corridor where they impede all the other passengers on that deck.

I think I understand the sentiments stated above. I have been a regular Celebrity cruiser over the years but find their recent price hikes have made me have a re-think. I was considering whether to plan and book further ahead with Celebrity and miss a year. I enjoy cruising from Southampton but even if I could stretch to their prices for next year I would not want to as the only ship they have sailing from Southampton only offers 'infinite verandas'. So I have also booked for the first time with P&O and know it will be 'different' but I cannot accept being priced out of cruising altogether and am looking forward to my first P&O cruise. I'm especially looking forward to a few formal nights which no longer exist in the recognised way on Celebrity. I'm also intrigued to see how it different it will be with a large contingent of cruisers from the UK. Good, or bad? who knows? So I accept it will be different (and cheaper) - it could become my new regular cruise line.