Megabear2

Currently my BIL and his family are on Iona, sailing yesterday. Looking at the photos which are already arriving thick and fast my husband has offered to send me on one of these two now very cheap last minute deals. I've only been to Norway once and that was in Juiy on Queen Victoria in 2016 so have no idea what to expect. Obviously I know Britannia very well and looking at her itinerary it does look the better of the two. However I'm not a big cold weather person and think that Iona might offer more for me as there are more indoor options. As a result I'm leaning towards that but have some concerns and wonder if anyone on here is booked on either of these cruises. 1. I assume that reservations for the shows and restaurants are already open so wonder if I'd actually be able to get in anywhere on Iona? 2. Would there be excursion availability or nothing available of any interest? I note Britannia goes to Flam but assumedly railway etc wouldn't be an option as so popular. 3. How wet/cold would it be normally? 4. What are the chances either ship will actually get to visit the ports on the itineraries? The cruises are extremely cheap so not much to lose. Would you risk it and if so which would you choose? Any thoughts/information greatly received.

Ahh, the article was on cocktails on RC .... I

I was astonished how many calories there are in a cocktail. Found this information on another forum after being prompted there by my surgery nurse before my world cruise on QM2. Mai Tai – a typical one can ‘cost’ as much as 620 calories as it is made from white rum, dark rum, orange curacao, lime juice and orange syrup! Frozen Margarita – anything from 500-700 calories! Piña colada – that evocative drink reminiscent of balmy nights is surely delicious. Its calorie count depends on size but could get close to 600 calories! Mud Slide – a slippery 556 calories! Long Island Iced Tea – (the classic demonstration of how multiple spirits adds up to a calorie-rich drink) 430 calories at least! Bahama Mama – tastes like it sounds but you’ll drink 350 calories! Sex on the Beach – (go on, you’ve always wanted to try it but never dared to ask) … will tot up to 330 calories! Vodka & Tonic or Gin & Tonic quite ‘cheap’ at about 150 calories a time The same place offered some swaps to cut the calories. Instead of a Mai Tai… Have a Mojito! A Mojito weighs in at around 200 calories depending on what it’s made with and it’s a deliciously fresh low calorie alternative. Swap your Mudslide… For a Chocolate Martini. The martini only contains vodka and crème de cacao instead of the two types of ice cream found in the mudslide and is still an enjoyable chocolate treat that comes in at 438 calories. Say goodbye to your Pina Colada… For a White Russian. Whilst still creamy and delicious it is slightly less calories than its pineapple flavoured friend. At 257 calories you can enjoy your dessert in a glass in peace! Ditch the Long Island Iced Tea… For a Cosmo! Whilst still fairly alcoholic the Cosmo is less potent than the Long Island Iced Tea and has 213 calories. Change your Margarita… For a tequila sunrise. You’ll still enjoy that distinctive tequila kick but lose the extra calories of the triple sec. You waistline will thank you as the Sunrise only has 170 calories! Even the "skinny" options looked pretty calorie laden to me!

Have I missed something? At least the last Canaries cruise on Iona was full. Not sure which one Majortom was on though but as far as I know Iona has been sailing pretty full until she started the Norway route.

Yes, I've eaten breakfast, lunch and dinner there.

You can dine outside at the rear of the restaurant on Britannia, I've enjoyed many a tea and cake out there.

ICF you are in danger of becoming Yorkypete in reverse!!! He hates everything, you love everything. He tries to convince us all we're all some sort of drunks who are constantly in bars while you are determined we all stuff our faces in the buffet consuming copious amounts of food before washing them down with even more calories in calorie laden cocktails!! Neither of you seem to want to consider we actually quite like doing it our way. Still it's a good way to turn into a keyboard warrior defending our right to be ourselves I suppose!

Fish dishes including shellfish, pasta dishes (not lasagne type but different ones), risotto, chicken but not fried, breadcrumbed or on the bone. My favourite special is venison. As an aside others might be interested in these MDR menus for Britannia 2014 which I came across recently. Makes a good historical comparison. br_m_dinner.pdf main_rest_menu_1-14n.pdf

ICF did you eat in the MDR - I can't recall? Even my husband who hates formal dining and is quite partial to the buffet chose to eat in MDR on all evenings bar two apart from our Epicurean and Limelight evenings. There is simply no comparison with the food quality or choice. As I said our experience is that apart from a daily roast the buffet tends to offer concoctions which include leftovers from the MDR. In May I will be travelling alone and as such will use the buffet more - mainly for late lunch. I'm very interested to see what I'm going to find there based on your description and if it's good will try for dinner too. Will be interesting I'm sure.

Sounds a great idea. However on my last Britannia cruise you'd have been very hard pressed to eat how you describe! Only cold fish on offer most days was smoked mackrel, can't recall when I last saw smoked salmon in the buffet or a mussel, prawn or even a crab stick! Soup: well some interesting options there including on three days my much recited Bubble and Squeak one. Unfortunately the soups were often cold as well although fellow passengers taking off lids to investigate the contents didn't help. Salad, now that was an interesting one. Chopped up iceberg, cucumber and large tomatoes who on occasion looked so off people were asking to speak to the chef to see why they were even being served. 14 days of non changing beetroot salad, cold pasta shells and tinned sweetcorn completed the picture together with hard boiled egg halves, non descript grated cheese and what was clearly the leftover meats from the night before - being a Christmas cruise roast turkey was very prevalent for almost a week. Cheese board: well every day we had the same three cheeses consisting of cheddar, red Leicester and brie in miniscule slithers - I actually made a sandwich from the cheddar it was so thin. These regulars were interspersed with Danish Blue and another soft blue cheese which was rather shiney and runny. Stilton appeared on Boxing Day and vanished just as quickly. I don’t eat sweet but understand from those I spoke to that they were mainly sugar free and vegetarian options. So to conclude, if I'm able to eat on Arvia in May half of what you describe I'll be thrilled but I'm not holding my breath!

Definitely not strange. I only have one for travel as in the US debit cards appear to be a tool of the devil!

I often take excursions with food included such as those in the Caribbean or Italy where you visit someone's home or have a meal cooked by a chef. Consequently I don't eat onboard on my return as I've had my main meal elsewhere. My main meal on the ship unless it's a special event (something like the old dinner with Strictly stars or having a celebrity chef cook for me) is breakfast. However if I'm on Cunard the dining is the big event for me and I work my day around my dinner. Different ships call for different arrangements- we had a free dining package on Celebrity Edge last year and it was superb. My drinks bill is paltry when I travel alone although if I'm with family or friends then a trip to the bar may occur more often and certainly the odd cocktail in the afternoon may happen on a seaday. Having said that I do like to sit at a seafront cafe with a coffee or an icecream and have spent ages in places like Sorrento just people watching whilst drinking a cappuccino with an almond biscuit.

Yes, I did most of my P&O Greek cruises on Azura as well. I recall Corfu, Rhodes, Piraeus and Kefalonia in particular. Never sailed into Santorini as after land based holidays there assumed the journey from the port would be rather a chore! Kefalonia I visited on QM2 and QV with my mother and subsequently my husband and I now holiday there every year at the beginning of July. I do recall most of the Central Mediterranean cruises were in September and October which was great for me as tied in with anniversary and my birthday.

It's not just cruises. Recently had a problem with Hilton hotel at Gatwick. Original booking made 9 months in advance held against my debit card as my credit card would expire just before travel. On receipt of new credit card changed the reservation to reflect this and assumed debit card would be removed. My husband on check out was asked if he wanted card on file charged and said yes - they email your invoice so nothing physical to check against. Meantime I open up bank account on line and find £143 pending charge plus a £185 normal charge- enquiry led to my husband having had a beer and a meal the night before. I complained then told they'd taken money from the credit card. Sure enough £185 debited day after check out so effectively we were paying three times. The pending charge did not drop off for 10 days and it took 7 days for the wrongly charged amount to process back into our account. Despite a very big complaint nothing sped it up although I did get 10,000 Hilton Honours points as an apology. Lesson learned by me, never let anyone have your debit card details as a hold for a booking!

I find this quite interesting apart from the obvious disappointment for the people booked. As mentioned by Britboys above the 2025 release shows little or no Greek ports on the schedule on ex Southampton cruises for P&O. Apart from the Azura fly cruises it looks as if Greece is becoming a no go area for P&O travellers and I wonder if the 2024 cruises booked to go there will suffer the same fate when the ports start "diviying" up who gets a berth. Very noticeably the fly cruise ships on P&O and other lines (I looked at Princess and Celebrity for myself) seem to be predominant in most Greek ports including the popular islands. I cannot find hardly an ex UK sailings mentioning Greece for the next three seasons. Could this be the way of the future with tye intended reduction of cruise ships welcome in the Med or is it just the cruise lines saying well the Spanish ports are still selling well so why worry. Also since the Venice ban there are markedly less cruises visiting Italian ports and Croatia on ex UK sailings yet I've previously done quite a few on Cunard and P&O. Hopefully this isn't the way things are going to proceed but the 2025 schedules I've seen to date aren't looking too promising for anywhere central Mediterranean unless its fly cruise with the prices being substantially higher to reflect the rarer ports.

Sorry to highjack your thread but I'm considering booking Arvia Retreat for my mid May cruise and see you are currently onboard enjoying it. Is your experience good and how are you finding it in general? I note you mention drinks and food, is this a fairly good selection? I'm a solo traveller on this occasion with just one day out of 14 booked for a shore excursion so intend spending a fair amount of time onboard. I am assuming Retreat will be sold out for entire voyage and would be interested in how you find bed availability etc and also the times of operation. Any information would be much appreciated. Thank you.

At least their clean. Following on if your concerns are correct all the RCI and MSC ships won't be welcome either. Might as well shut up shop all round!

Are they on sale now? I hadn't realised. I've directed my friend's to look at them for 2025 so I'd better tell them to crack on. They're hoping for the £99 kids places which were on offer for this year.

Not on every line, no. Celebrity Beyond has 3,260 passengers, Queen Anne 3,000, Rotterdam 2,700. Granted RC and MSC are going for giants which dwarf even Arvia and Iona but plenty of other lines are going smaller with of course the specialists like Saga going even smaller. It mustn't be forgotten a lot of the very big ships were ordered before the pandemic as well. What comes next we will have to wait to see.

Multi million pound ships are not exactly Ford Fiestas to be traded in every 3 years. Times do move on but a cruise line won't invest in something that will easily last 20+ years and not expect that it's clientele will change or the ship updating. Aurora and Arcadia were once state of the art and market leaders and not adult only, they may not be now but then neither are the Freedom class RC ships or even Independence of the Seas who one correspondent waxes lyrical about. Of course the newer builds are going to follow latest trends just like other transport options. Lots loved Boeing 707 aeroplanes but it's mainly nostalgia and if their flight to New York tomorrow trundled one out they'd scream blue murder they want a nice 787 or Airbus 350. Who's to say come the next time Carnival decide to treat P&O to a shiny new ship they won't pick something smaller and more innovativein different ways? We can't and should not assume. I'm pretty sure they know what's successful and the indication of money being spent on the older ships says they're not being written off just yet.

It will still leave Azura, Ventura and Britannia which very few over 60 dislike. There are only one or two on here who are adamant nothing other than Aurora and Arcadia will do. My aunt returned to Fred in January on Bolette. Although her experience was complicated by catching covid she has stated she won't ever sail on an older vessel again because it simply didn't compete with her Princess cruises in Regal and Sky last year. We are now looking at round Britain cruises for her later in the year but the older ships are not featuring on any line. Not a good idea to just write off P&O based on the two big girls, many are very happy with her smaller mid sized sisters. Judging by how many on here are enjoying Azura's fly cruises I'm guessing itinerary changes are more likely to be a problem than the ships.

Very good point on the drinking laws. On a couple of ex UK RC cruises when they applied their 21 age rule I've seen arguments about people being able to drink at home because of the age 18 legality difference. RC amended their age to 18 to fall in line with European laws accordingly. However my experience on RC compared to P&O is they are still very much tougher on anti social behaviour of any type. As others have pointed out here they are also far more expensive and I presume if you've paid double or sometimes treble the price for your cruise you're more likely to take heed of the warnings. Part of the problem in the cross over is what different age groups deem acceptable. I recall people moaning about "ferile hordes" of teenagers when Ventura was introduced. I very much doubt they were either just groups of bored youngsters hanging out together. On my one and only Celebrity cruise there was a section of the ship handed over as an evening meeting place for that age group where computer games etc were available. Big beanbags, lounging stuff, fairy lights etc. Seemed very popular. As someone with no children or grandchildren it looked a great idea and no one seemed bored or wandering aimlessly like I've sometimes seen on Britannia or Azura on my Caribbean cruises. Do Iona and Arvia have spaces like this for the evenings, if not surely it might be welcomed by the parents and the youngsters.

There's no reason why those itineraries within Europe at least have to be restricted to the adult only ships. Variety of ports existed on all lines I sailed until a few years back. This "shuttle" planning has crept in at the expense of mixed itineraries and is my main complaint about ex UK cruises. As a member of the new demographic for cruising it would be great if your group could emphasise your desire for variety to P&O etc al and hopefully it might happen.

Depends on which behaviours I'm supposed to find acceptable, be they rich or poor. Unfortunately the level of drunkenness and anti social related behaviour onboard vessels has notably increased in recent years (not just P&O) in the same way as it has at big events in society. Whilst having accidentally become caught up in a brawl at Glorious Goodwood a couple of years back was frightening encountering it on a ship (as has happened on some US sailings) in a closed environment would be far worse. Carnival recently laid out very clearly what will happen to passengers causing disruption to other passengers including fines and being forced to leave the ship, but will it stop the problem. Whilst UK sailings on any line rarely have the problems they are trying to address the cruise lines have to be careful that it doesn't creep in through the back door. My last cruise over Christmas was spoilt by drunken fellow passengers and the disappointing reaction of staff to their behaviour. Just a one off I hope, but the memory lingers and does cause a little anxiety that this one off experience won't become the norm.

Hope the senior crew and captain can keep their eyes on where they're going then. Aren't their quarters up there with the bridge?