themanwithahat

When we went 'East' had an offer where you got a free bottle of wine if you dined in East that night. Don't know about the White Room. I have a vague memory that it might have been a bit cheaper on one or two nights ?

We much preferred East, the food was awesome.

Cheers.

Is there somewhere permanent I could put a link where lots of people could see it ? (the actual web address itself isn't a problem).

When I went cruising it was the one thing I wanted to know - lots of pretty brochure pictures, lots of interesting advice especially here , but more than anything else, what actually goes on ?

Cruise port on N407

We enjoyed all the food. Some things were better than others but this is personal preferences rather than problems with the food.

Portions are quite small, but we never felt hungry afterwards :)

The 'Classic' dishes were available all the time (this document is 7 menus), you can mix and match between the two. You get a double page menu with the 'classics' on the left and todays menu on the right.

Can a anyone tell me what nights will be formal, cruising Venice to genoa.

 

Thanks

Don't know for certain, but on ours I think it was the 'at sea' days.

As promised, to go with my scans of 'Horizon' (the On board information sheet on Ventura N407), the menus for the same week from the Bay Tree Restaurant.

This is much smaller than the Horizon scan , it's about 5Mb.

Menus

http://www.studio2.org.uk/Menus.pdf

Horizon

http://www.studio2.org.uk/Horizon.pdf

Oh dear! If you're like the rest of here you will come home from your first cruise with an unshakeable and costly addiction. Fun though!

Yep. First one we enjoyed. Second one we enjoyed more, knew more what we were doing. Now Mrs Hat wants to go everywhere ........... can I mortgage the children ?

Hi everyone.

 

We're going on our first ever cruise on Oceana to the Norwegian Fords on 31st August. We booked on Vantage/Select fare last September. We're in cabin A329, which is inside as we didn't want to spend a load of money just in case we don't like cruising. If we get an upgrade to anything we'll be thrilled to bits. I've got MS which is part of the reason for booking a cruise as my walking distance and stamina can be pretty low on some days. I like the idea of visiting different places without the effort!

 

We live in Sherborne so we've only a short train trip to Southampton on 31st August (only £38 return for both of us because of my disabled rail card). We've booked the Flam train trip and Hardangervidda sights and scenery excursions and intend to do our own thing at Stavanger and Kristiansand. Any tips or ideas would be most welcome. By the way, we're 51 and 52.

 

Thanks in advance.

Have fun !

Whilst on board the ventura fly cruise was there any promotion flyers ? Ie happy hour , spa promotions.

 

Do they still give out port information sheets ,telling you a little about the port and a detailed map of town were ship is docked?

 

And did you see any of the open top hop on buses if so were they near to port entrance?

 

Any noddy trains near port for a quick tour round?

 

And how much were the shuttle buses on the genoa to venice trip? And was it easy to walk if you decided not to use the shuttle bus( sometimes it quicker walking than queuing up)

Don't recall a Happy Hour, but there certainly were Spa promotions, they're in the Horizon (some of them) and there were others. If you are a tough negotiator I suspect there is always the option of cutting the price.

Port Information sheets were given for everywhere but the map was monochrome and unusable pretty much :) However, other maps were provided, and in Dubrovnik you are dropped off outside the Tourism Bureau and they do a good map.

Didn't see any open topped buses or trains, but I didn't really look

The shuttle buses were free unless you were the getaway (the cheap fares) - they scanned cards as you got on the bus and I presume the cost was added to your account (don't know for sure)

As for walking, only really Naples was easily walkable. Dubrovnik and Venice I would guess at 30-40 minutes (unsure about Venice), Livorno no idea. Genoa docks look rough. Probably the best way to assess this (apart from asking here) is using Google Maps. There is also a website whose name escapes me which is informative about ports.

As I understand it, (I could be wrong) If you are going on a P&O arranged flight your luggage will be taken to the ship, However, if your travel agent has arranged your flights you will have to collect your luggage from the airport. This is the case with us as at the time of booking P&O couldn't supply Gatwick flights but the TA could.:confused:

Yep. We spoke to a couple of ladies who were somewhat disgruntled with P&O. They had booked through a third party and were flying to Johannesburg and Paris (I think), i.e. not on the package. The problem was that their flights were about 8 or 9 in the evening, and P&O did not have any helpful suggestions regarding what to do with their luggage in the interim other than telling them they had to be off the ship at 9:00. I think they wanted to look round Venice for the day.

(People who had added on hotel nights to the holiday were catered for as the fly home group were)

So if you don't book an 'all in' package with P&O it sounds like it is like Southampton, i.e. you have to get on after a specified time, and leave before a specified time, and it is up to you to sort out how, why , when, you will also have to move your own luggage about and so on.

I suspect the P&O flights, or not, were something to do with them booking out whole planes - everyone on our flight was a P&O person. Your TA might book you on a Venice/Gatwick flight that is unconnected.

I would say that P&O did pretty much everything possible to make the Fly/Cruise work well. The problems were provincial airports trying to do too much at once ; you could argue P&O could have foreseen this I suppose. The problem is returning specifically ; they want people off at a reasonable hour to prepare the boat, but they don't want people off at 5 AM on what is supposed to be a holiday.

Many thanks for taking the time. Were you rushed in Dubrovnik as I see you had an 'all on board at 4:30'?

No, not really. I really liked Dubrovnik, but it was a nice sample - it's not that big, you can walk from one end of the old city to the other in a couple of minutes. Would like to go back :)

We're taking our children (late teens) next year and my son is a bit of a Coke head (Coca cola !). If I take a crate on with me he can have one when he feels like it. Might take some lager as well ; it's quite nice sometimes just to sit on the balcony watching the world go by - or not :)

"Gan Canny Dai" just sounds weird (I'm from Teesside).

Out of interest, have you ever considered other cruise lines are are you just dead happy with P&O ?

Thanks for that. I think I must've read another brochure policy and got it mixed up with P&O. It will come in useful with our next cruise. Especially good for us because we don't drink a lot of wine at dinner, a bottle lasts us 2-3 days.

Actually it took about 30-40 minutes :) Mostly loading and unloading from my scanner.

Mrs Hat is out at the moment, I'll try to upload the menus tomorrow.

Note: I have uploaded the Horizon Composite (7 x Horizons + East menu + White Room menu) - there is a separate thread.

Hi.

As promised elsewhere, here is the Horizon documents for my just finished cruise (7 in total) plus recent Menus for East and the White Room.

It is a big file - 30Mb+ - because it is 44 scanned colour documents. It is a PDF file so it needs a PDF reader to view it ; most computers have these installed. If not, I recommend Foxit's free reader, or alternatively Adobes. It took me 10 minutes to upload it (probably a couple to download it on typical broadband).

If anyone has any specific questions please ask. Mrs Hat has the menus (I think) so if people want that I will scan and upload those as well.

(It is much easier to read if you stretch the width and read a part of a page at time rather than trying to read a whole page at once)

http://www.studio2.org.uk/Horizon.pdf

I stand corrected. I don't know where I got the booze confiscation thing from.

Thx for the link stuff. I suspected it would be okay providing it isn't advertising.

Just been on one :) Can get you another photo if you want.

Basically : the room is larger - there is a sofa bed/table space and second TV in about a 6 foot space beyond the 'bed bit'. Ours had a bath as well as a shower and the bathroom was larger. Storage space is about the same.

The balcony is roughly twice as deep I'd guess, though on D deck (where we were) you are overlooked by all the decks above, so you couldn't sunbathe topless (for example).

You get a bottle of champagne and some chocolates thrown in. You get the dressing gown as well.

It's nice but it's really just a larger space balcony cabin.

Hello Mr "Manwithahat"

 

Thank you for all your answers, glad you had a good time. Not sailed P & O before but hoping to go 23rd April.

 

What was the weather like, any rain? Is it T-shirt weather?

Are the swimming pools heated?

Can you get free coffee/juice/water in the buffet?

Are there lots of activities planned for sea days? Look forward to reading your horizon news.

Can you take alcohol on board to drink in cabin?

 

Thank you very much for any help

1) It rained a little bit. Apparently it chucked it down in Pompeii in the Afternoon. Most of the time it was okay to nice, occasionally it was warm enough to sunbathe. Venice and Dubrovnik were noticeably warmer. Nothing you would classify as baking though.

2) We didn't swim ; did go on Ventura in the North Sea last year and they were I think.

3) Some and some. A lot of the daytime activities are quasi-selling things "Come and learn about acupuncture" will be interesting but will involve being sold stuff. Evening entertainment is good. Quite a few quizzes. I hope to scan it in the next day or two, and I'll put a link to it here - is this allowed ? - so you can see exactly what goes on. A more seasoned cruiser than me said she thought there weren't enough activities. We didn't have much dead time though (Horizon is the daily 'what's on' newsletter on P&O)

4) Officially, no. In practice you can probably sneak a bottle or two on, but if you turn up with a box they may take it off you. They don't seem bothered about coke, water, etc. just alcohol. Something I took this time, more or less by accident, were those little squirt-drinks that are about the size of a sweetener dispenser - put a couple of squirts in water and you get a nicer drink.

2.5) The breakfast buffet has an assortment of juices, tea and coffee, but you can't get juice at the lunch buffet. Never used the evening buffet. The cabins have a kettle and a supply of tea and coffee. If you like Hot chocolate you'll need to bring it. Formal breakfast has juice, tea, coffee as well.

N407. Booked months ago on Select fare (e.g. not the cheap one), originally had an A Deck Balcony, upgraded to a D deck deluxe large balcony (more space, bigger balcony, bottle of Champagne and Chocolates)

It is only our second cruise, and the first was four nights, so we cannot be in any kind of preferential passenger thing - if I was doing it commercially I would target upgrades at people who seem to have more money (i.e. have done more and regular cruises) because they're more likely to do the 'upgrade' next time.

I suspect it was partly because we booked early but mostly sheer dumb luck !

Venice Shuttle Boats.

You bought tickets at the reception (£15/day £25/2 days). The departures started when the boat docked, about 2-3pm or so.

It was just a big queue going back from the main exit on Deck 6. Lots of queue jumping, mainly accidental I think because it was such a scrum. The crew did advise that people not queue and go and sit down, which was universally ignored.

The problem was the trip took about 30 minutes, and there were about 7 or 8 boats each with a capacity of about 80 or so. If you didn't get one of these 600 odd places, then you'd have to wait about an hour at least (for the first boat to come back). We were lucky in that we got there in plenty of time, and waited about 30-40 mins and got on the first boat out. Not sure why they didn't do the thing with raffle tickets for boat places which happened when we went to Guernsey. Really needs rethinking, it wouldn't have surprised me if scuffles had broken out.

We were on early dining and Mrs Hat wanted to go, so we pretty much had to get on the first boats otherwise it would have been pointless going, maybe 90 mins tops.

Most of the flights seemed to disembark before about 9:30ish so it actually worked okay - get up, have breakfast, and wait (we left 8:30) - it was about 30 minutes to the Airport.

As for Venice "Marco Polo" Airport ; well Mrs Hat has flown from several African airports and she says they were far more efficient. Weirdly the passport gate is down the middle of the departure lounge - half the gates are one side of it, half the other. There were two security scans only one of which was in use, with obvious consequences. We followed the signs to gate 26 to be told by a security guy that the big arrow saying "Gates 21 to 28" wasn't actually in the right place, and it was accessed via a back staircase. Led to a room where most of the Ventura departs were crammed into a fairly small space. Shambles. Nice Pizzas though :)

If Marco Polo had used it he wouldn't have got any further east than Trieste....

Q:Our flight to genoa from manchester is very early. will we be able to board as soon as we arrive?

A:I would have thought so. Our flight was 8:00ish (Birmingham), we got on the boat at about 1:00ish (actually 4 hours). It's probably 20-30 mins further from Manchester, transfer is half an hour, check in is half an hour, plane was slightly delayed. I would think if you arrive really early (say 9:00am) you'd be able to board okay but you wouldn't be able to access a cabin for a couple of hours. Chucking out time at Venice (for cabins) was 7:00 Am.

Q:Once we have checked in we are hoping to get off again and get some cans of pop and water from a supermarket. Did you see any near by?

Genoa docks looked pretty rough and ready and dark and dingy, it was a bit like a multi storey car park (!) - there probably is somewhere nearby though. I didn't see anywhere. Horizon says nothing about a shuttle bus. The 'information' sheet says taxis and buses are available nearby.You could have a nose around with Google Maps 3D view maybe ?

Q:What time did the ship depart from genoa and was there a sail away party?

I've kept all the Horizons and plan to publish them as a PDF soon so people can see exactly what happens. On N407 the departure time was 9:00pm. There is no Sailaway listed in Horizon so it probably didn't happen, because the staff would be busy with other things I guess. Certainly there were sailaways from the other ports.

Q:How did the dining allocation go for early savers and saver fares . We would like freedom dining we have booked early saver?. so we have filled the form in to say we would like freedom.

A:Don't know, we like the fixed dining, did speak to a couple of people who booked late fares but were on Freedom dining. Didn't meet anyone who was forced onto either due to late booking.

Q:Did any one book the beach trips that were offered by p&o?

No, didn't speak to anyone who did. Beach trips in April would be a bit chilly :)

Q:And what excursions offered by p&o did you do?

Florence on your own - coach to Florence basically :) About an hour travel. Florence outside the obvious art galleries is IMO overrated, and very touristy and priced to fit.

Pompeii - well run enough but too controlled and too short (about 90 minutes). Would suggest taxi or bus service and do on your own. Place itself is awesome. About 25 minutes away. Seem to recall there was a bus service running from Naples Dock which was about 10 Euros return or something, haven't checked this. You can easily walk into Naples from the docks (I think).

Dubrovnik - had a free (not getaway I think) shuttle to town, about 20 minutes out and 10 back (one way system !). Loved it. Looked to be taxis about on the pier.

Venice - shuttle boats running to and from the main town, about 30 minutes. Tickets were £8 (single) £15 (all day multi return) £25 (two day multi return) pp. No obvious alternatives (we are cruise rookies) but there was a water taxi not too far down the way. Service was good but huge queues on Ventura with lots of queue jumping I think :( A ticket system would have been far better. Venice ranges from fairly expensive to extortionate but is a great place if you avoid the obvious scams.

My pleasure :)

Hand luggage was weighed at BHX, as were the hold luggage, as is normal. We did check the weight on return (there's a set of scales at reception) but hand luggage was not weighed as far as we know, nor was there anything about hold luggage either. Mrs Hat's case was right on the edge so we did wonder.

Bags/HandBags weren't a problem at either end, though I suspect you have to be reasonable about it. I had a 'man bag' and a shoulder bag with all the documents etc. in and no-one bothered. May be airline/airport specific of course. I get the impression airlines are starting to clamp down on the people who use 'hand luggage' as an excuse to bring another suitcase which I have seen in the past.

The whole thing actually was very simple. The problem parts were the bits the Italians did which P&O cannot control. There are lots of people with P&O boards and uniform guiding you about and the luggage transfer worked well, nice comfy coaches and so on. There was plenty of transport vehicles.

I would guess once on board there is nothing to stop you exploring Genoa if you wanted.

There was a rumour going round that at Malaga (the previous main embarkation to Genoa) because everyone had arrived at the same time, the coaches doing the transfer had taken rather extended routes to the ship so all the passengers didn't arrive at once.

This may well be an issue ; at Soton the times are staggered anyway, and people will naturally arrive over a period of time. With fly-cruises you get large groups arriving in bunches.

The real minus point for me anyway was the early start. Not that I mind an early start, but getting up at 4:00 impacted that day and the next one a bit (we stayed over at BHX before the flight)

We tried both East and the White restaurant.

IMO it is no contest. The East restaurant is half the price but twice as good. Mind you we do love Indo-Chinese-Thai-sortof food which is what it does.

But even allowing for that it was terrific. I think it was obvious we liked it as well. Noises emanating from our table probably sounded like rumpy-pumpy was going on :) The White restaurant was nice, but not worth the extra cost.

On our cruise there was a special offer on the first day where they chucked a bottle of wine in as a freebie as well.