Megabear2

Does it ever get the sun? Hugely impressive size. I have an extended Arvia on the hump booked later this year and wondered about sun/shade there as well.

Can only agree with our US friends. Breakfast is a big thing on Celebrity, RC and Princess. Sadly P&O are a long way off competing in my experience although the eggs can be very good!

Well this is promising. Received today after submitting my assistance request. " Good afternoon, Thank you for your email. Recognising that time in the terminal for guests with hidden disabilities can be stressful, I can confirm I have added embarkation assistance to your booking. Upon arrival at the correct terminal in Southampton, you will be directed to a drop off lane where you unload your luggage, porters are available to assist with this. Your luggage will then be transferred onto the ship and will be outside your cabin when you arrive. When boarding you should only be carrying your hand luggage on board with you. Once you dropped off your luggage, please make yourselves known to the assistance team in the high visibility vests for assistance, they will guide you to the registration area at the enquiries desk, then we can assist you through the terminal and onto the ship, they can also direct you to a quieter space to wait prior to embarking. Once embarkation is underway, the Ground Services team will be able to guide you through security and safely on board as efficiently as possible, in order to make it a smooth embarkation. The Enquiries desks are located at: · Ocean Terminal - Upper level, to the right of the escalator · Mayflower Terminal - Top of the Ramp, to the right QEII Terminal - Right hand side as you enter the check-in area For disembarkation, we would recommend self-disembarking early or to wait in a quiet area and proceed ashore as late as you are able to. We kindly request that you arrive at your allocated embarkation time on your boarding pass or after 15.00. This is an anticipated quieter time for guests embarking with hidden disabilities and 15.00 onwards is generally free flowing onto the ship and a more comfortable experience for all. If guests arrive earlier than their allocated time, an extended wait may be incurred whilst waiting for the available team to prioritise guests adhering to their correct arrival time. No priority can be given to guests arriving early and they may be asked to wait until their allocated time. If you have any questions, please let us know. We look forward to welcoming you on board." I'm very happy with this and hope it works.

This is a critical issue to me. I stayed in a Best Western Hotel last year with the same policy. Unfortunately I had a fall in the bath where I was quite badly hurt, it took 40 minutes to get out with very hot water running and my feet and legs were burnt as a result. Yes a freak accident but BWH have subsequently acknowledged the policy is flawed and have instituted a singles policy of one call a day to check on wellbeing. P&O should at least institute this as of I hadn't been able to get out of the bath I would have lain there forc48 hours until my check out. Single travellers need monitoring, P&O need to step up here.

I'll let you know! Meantime I've booked me trips Gov! We shall see where we go. I quite fancy the overnight in Ibiza my July Britannia has offered. I fancy the rave in bubbles ...

See you onboard. I'm going home!

The trouble is Apex is coming in 2024, I'm struggling no comparison. I love Britannia but...

I bought the basic price for Med 14 days. Cost was £153.72 including 8 1/2 percent reduction for Mediterranean. Certainly not cheap.

19 May still showing Arvia, Celebrity Edge and MSC Seaview. If they aren't letting Arvia in they're leaving it very late to tell P&O unless P&O already know and haven't told the passengers.

You'll be checked in okay, they're aware there's a problem and have already told me that's what I need to do. It will be just like the old days apparently! The lady I spoke to told me they are prepared with a nice seating area for suite and priority guests, just in case.

I'm about to experience a late boarding time for the first time in over 50 cruises and although I know someone has to be last am very concerned about possible delays impacting all sorts of things. First night dinner becomes a problem. Do I book in advance as I won't be able to cancel it if I'm in the queue at the terminal. I also won't have a clue where the restaurant is as I won't have time to find it! Realistically I'm looking at arriving for 4.00pm, join the queue and be processed, board, find my cabin, watch the safety video, go to find my muster station (again with no idea where I'm going) and get myself checked in. The whole process means it's now well on it's way to 6.00pm and I've not even added in trying to book stuff on the app before it sells out. In fact I'm tired just looking at this scenario! Joking apart I can well see why there's reviews saying the first night of dining can be a mess. Take 6,000 people with no idea where they're going trying to find their way around a very large ship, sprinkle in tiredness from long journeys, restless kids and apps that a lot don't understand and chaos may well ensue. Mind you after writing this I think it's room service or the buffet for me first night and my 6.15 Zenith booking best get cancelled!

I managed to get back in to the bookings at around 8.00pm and it allowed me to make bookings for week 2. I eat early between 6.00 and 6.30 so it was important to me to secure reservations in advance as I understand once they're filled that's it. Apart from one night with Olive Grove I have managed to secure my first choice times - quite a few of the things I looked at had no 6.15 or 6.30 options remaining. I'm quite interested in trying the Keel & Cow when I can book onboard. Has anyone who has eaten there know what time dining starts in there, please? Incidentally the reservations I made previously are still not showing in my itinerary although these new ones are including the paid ones. I am confident they must still be there so won't do anything until I get back from the QM2 cruise. This has been quite a trial and error process which I hope will be better for Iona in June. It's a shame I have to eat early as I'm sure onboard booking would have been easier than this has been.

No.

I had that just now.

Yes. At 3.00am immediately after I booked they were all there along with my excursion and entertainment. At 9.00am they had disappeared.

Thank you. The stress is more to do with the missing bookings I've already made and paid for. I just don't want to have an argument standing there at reception waving my receipts around. I cannot understand why they have disappeared from my itinerary having shown in there at 3.00am.

Totally unfair of them to not to have it right. I wondered how many other night owls might have booked and assumedly now face my problem. Yours on the other hand is even worse. If push comes to shove I will have to use Quays or buffet but not really want I expected. It's just very much a down after all the excitement of the last few days. I hope you get sorted for your transport okay.

The Arvia situation just got more insane! I have booked and paid for select dining choices for my first week, together with MDR, Olive Grove and The Limelight Club (that one believe it or not is for week 2). I did this at 2.30am this morning (the cat woke me up so decided to have a hot drink and see if it was working!). I have receipts. Just now after speaking to my BIL I went back in, just in case. Now you can't book any dining at all, all greyed out and coming soon! This seems to suggest either the slots are now all full (unlikely I thought but you can never tell) or they're resetting the website yet again. Thankfully I have receipts because my itinerary no longer has any dining in it. And it's a Sunday/Bank Holiday so no one's working at P&O. There's absolutely no way at all I'm wasting my time on this while I'm on QM2 so it now looks like I won't be speaking to anyone about this latest mess until after the Jubilee weekend because yet again we get off QM2 on a Sunday/Bank Holiday. I am so unimpressed.

The Arvia situation just got more insane! I have booked and paid for select dining choices for my first week, together with MDR, Olive Grove and The Limelight Club (that one believe it or not is for week 2). I did this at 2.30am this morning (the cat woke me up so decided to have a hot drink and see if it was working!). I have receipts. Just now after speaking to my BIL I went back in, just in case. Now you can't book any dining at all, all greyed out and coming soon! This seems to suggest either the slots are now all full (unlikely I thought but you can never tell) or they're resetting the website yet again. Thankfully I have receipts because my itinerary no longer has any dining in it. And it's a Sunday/Bank Holiday so no one's working at P&O. There's absolutely no way at all I'm wasting my time on this while I'm on QM2 so it now looks like I won't be speaking to anyone about this latest mess until after the Jubilee weekend because yet again we get off QM2 on a Sunday/Bank Holiday. I am so unimpressed.

Probably very true. I wouldn't know as I'm not a high enough tier with P&O to worry about the time I can get on! I was surprised by the Cunard issue as I've never had a problem with them either here or abroad when I've flown out to join ships. The 4.00pm Arvia time I have is now making me anxious though, not because I'm concerned about getting on but because it appears I can only book dinner times for one week - my booking window opened today and even trying to reserve MDR past 7 days is a no no.

When dining opens for your cruise on Arvia/Iona is it only the first week that's bookable at that point? If so does the second week open before boarding or can you only do it onboard? Mine has just opened overnight for 14 May and I've obtained my bookings for week 1 and The Limelight Club in week two however nothing is bookable in week 2 including pay and non pay restaurants. I get a message saying Availability Has Changed for everything including the MDRs. If this is normal and they will open at a later date do you have any idea when it might happen? I'd hoped to sort things before boarding if possible. Thanks.

I've just had exactly the same with Cunard. I'm Diamond but shown as red never sailed on my boarding pass. Had to call yesterday to get it sorted. I now have a boarding pass with WC number and 12.30 priority. The lady said the systems at Carnival House had virtually melted down on Thursday with the new sales and the Cunard Coronation cruise.

A new thread just opened up with an early arriving passenger for Britannia just sent away until his 3.30 time. They definitely seem to be being very strict at least with the three bigger ships. As an aside Cunard have just told me much the same for QM2 on Tuesday but I have priority boarding so not worried for that. I wonder if Carnival UK have a tighter contract with the shore staff now due to possible staff shortages still occurring.

Just checked in and had a minor query as they'd removed my Diamond status from half my documents so called Cunard. Advised it will not be a problem if 15 minutes or so early but will have to sit in the priority area as 12.30 will be the absolute earliest check in will open. I was informed that on booking day the system crashed so badly they removed WC status criteria from this voyage in an effort to get it back up, apparently untold errors and problems. Several members of staff were assigned to putting it all back in yesterday and it should now all be correct, however mine was only partially reinstated. Hopefully I'm a one off.

You'll be pleasantly surprised that unlike P&O your room will be ready immediately on boarding so you can go there first. I will be arriving earlier too as that's the only time I can be dropped off at such short notice, so about noon for my 12.30 boarding. Very rarely are their queues like we experience on the other side, unless of course the newbies decide not to follow their instructions.