Megabear2

Every day for coffee on the morning, every afternoon from 3.00 or thereabouts, seadays, might time ...

Hope you didn't get too wet today - out balcony is flooded. If you are deluxe can't understand why no dressing gown, certain we had them before. We did have to ask in 2020 but since our deck 15 deluxe experience we won't book deluxe cabins unless they're on deck 12 and far removed from the deck noise. Saying that we have been serenaded for the past hour from drunken Liverpool football fans three doors down from us. .not sure if you've met these delightful characters yet but security had words with them at the party outside the night before last. I've not used the cans of water as none were free, I bring two refillable.bottles and have ice delivered so they make cold drinking water, tastes just the same. The flights are a worry, hope all is better going back for you. At least we did get our PE and not the horrendous Spanish A330 on the first Gatwick flight. Incidentally met a lovely Irish couple on the beach today who are on the Norwegian ship. They were left in New York onboard for 2 days without any reason given, missed two islands and have subsequently learned Norwegian couldn't get any fuel for the ship! Compensation was $60 and 10% of their next cruise. You really wonder what the hell is happening. Enjoy the last formal night, I'm hoping for an upgraded menu as the food really is disappointing me! Oh look, there goes Dumbo and a herd of flying pigs!!

What idiot decided it would be a good idea to bring Britannia, Wonder of the Seas, Symphony of the Seas and Norwegian Gem into St Maarten together????? Going to be interesting I think!

There are some rather misguided people booking the cabins as they think they'll have them until their flight. You will.not as they are strictly time limited to 3.00pm. Having just received our flight details nearly all the flights are within a two hour window with most leaving here for the airport between 3.15 and 3.30. The flight problems are not P&O's rather TUI and the airports. It is unreasonable to blame P&O as some on-board have been doing. We are told we will.hear of flight delays at 11.00am if there are any and have been warned that we most likely will have problems arriving in the UK. On our arrival on 16th the people scheduled for the Glasgow flight which never arrived were brought back on-board after the notification of the problem in the UK. Previous years there have been an hour or two delay on some charters and arrival time at the airport were adjusted accordingly. With the UK airport situation as it is it is unfortunately a lottery at present for you but it would be churlish to say P&O are responsible.

Hello neighbour. A lot of your comments are correct. Not sure which cabin type you have but can confirm I have never had a dressing gown on Britannia apart from a deluxe balcony. Water was also in tins from restart over COVID so this is also not new to us. We have the premium internet purchased prior to departure and it has worked well from day 2 - good enough for my husband to work and complete everything for year end. We too are considering our Arvia booking for December 2023.

We do the tour as you arrive before the crowds. There's usually around 2 hours 45 at the airport. The cruise passenger queue avoids the main line for the airport and we are generally through in 15 minutes so do our cricket shopping and buy our rum. Of course if the flight's delayed we may be there a while. As my OH cannot handle crowds due to health issues we find this works for us.

Indeed but they are all sold, only insides available today apparently. Comparison: early check in at Hampton by Hilton Gatwick £40 for 2 hours, late checkout 12 to 2.00pm £50!

Departure day cabin prices: Available 10.00am to 3.00pm Inside £45 Balcony £70 Deluxe Balcony £85 Bookable from yesterday Also tours ending t airport: 1. Farewell to Barbados leaves 10.30am arrives airport 2.30pm 2. Atlantic Hotel Farewell to Barbados leaves 10.15 am arrives airport 2.45pm 3. Copacabana Beach Club - offering a day on the beach, shower and changing facilities and trip to airport - leaves 9.30 am arrives airport 3.00pm All of these are limited availability or sold out. Assumedly on Arvia there would be another room available as outside.

We have a lot of younger people on here at present and 600 children. Many of them are late bookings since October on cheap prices and are trying Christmas away for the first time. October and November cruises are pretty useless to families and as a solo cruiser it has always been the case that these months on most ships have the lower prices and offers for singles. Weather is vital to some groups. Not only is there the term time issue but if you are taking a main holiday families want warmer weather. I've just had heavily reduced offers from Princess as well so all lines are trying to encourage commitment before the recession really hits home. A lot of people have been taking the Norway cruises with children and the bigger ships offer plenty for the children. Really a case of each to his own. My family have all just returned from 12 nights on Aurora to Norway with temperatures of -30 on a daily basis. Wild horses wouldn't drag me there but they loved it. Smaller ships are appearing to be filling faster because not only are there less cabins to sell but those who like them worry they won't get a cabin of choice so book earlier to ensure they do. Looking at Britannia, Iona and Arbia from April through September they are selling well - I've actually gone through availability on quite a few cruises whilst on-board here and cabins in some grades and places were surprisingly limited. Those who are happy to just stick with their favourite small ships will always pay a premium. On other lines the older ships tend to come cheaper while the new ones carry the premium. I'm told that Celebrity and RCI for instance mark up their prices on the ships which are newer. If P&O are doing otherwise it is most likely due to the different clientele demographic not much else.

Christmas day was spent on board enjoying the fun and games in the atrium and up on deck. It was quite windy so many took part. Santa's was in his den meeting and greeting and a special egg nog cocktail was served all day. Dinner in the Epicurean was excellent with great food matched with good wines. We.then enjoyed the Military Magician in the theatre before retiring to bed at a relatively early 11.30. Today it's St Kitts. Weather hot with showers and squally gusts so we wandered into the old town and then back to the port shops. Back onboard at 1.30 we enjoyed lunch and a bottle of wine before retiring to the balcony to read and catch up email, WhatsApp and other communications. Interestingly our phones are connecting to Medallion Wi-Fi from Enchanted Princess next door rather than Britannia. Just goes to show how good modern internet could be if you bother... Happy Boxing Day to all. Tomorrow Antigua.

But don't make money according to the sales guy on Britannia at present. I've just booked Iona March 18th with single select balcony for £1299 plus OBC. The desk is very busy. He told me they are instructed to push the Azura fly cruises, it's not size that's her problem rather the flights.

Friends in Southern Florida (Key Largo) told me the vote last year was to attempt to restrict cruise ship passenger visits to Key West to no more than 1700 per day. A quick look at the annual schedule shows only Carnival Dream at approx 3,600 passengers and Ventura at 3,060 are over the 3000 mark for the whole year. Everything else through 2023 and 2024 are below the 3000 passenger count. Number of passengers rather than size are being used in Key West and therefore calls by the new P&O ships would appear to be off as a result of that rather than actual physical size.

Water taxi was running yesterday. My money won't stretch to Saga so I'll do without the chocolate! Can confirm Santa visited and left gifts for all. The new P&O rum is very nice I can confirm! Nice touch at breakfast as even in the buffet free Bucks Fizz and extra vouchers for free drinks. Very windy today blowing force 8 and just passing through a deep rain shower. It looked like the film The Fog for 10 minutes or so. Great party on deck last night with Pulse returning - they haven't been performing so far. Everyone enjoyed several great sets catering to all. We also had the evening cruise out of St Lucia so continued the party after a swift bite in the buffet. That was our first visit there and it was noticeable far less choice than on previous cruises, not a complaint just an observation that compared with other years and my cruises on Celebrity and Princess earlier this year far inferior. We were late risers this morning after our 2.00am stumble to bed and have spent the day wandering and socializing. The ship has a nice happy vibe today after the service this morning and many are enjoying coffee and cake. We are trying for take two of the panto shortly.

Santa comes this evening at 5.00pm. Traditionally arrives at the funnel with his bag of gifts and then makes his way down to the open decks to.join the party - Sailaways are back big time. We will track Santa on his journey. Normally there's a link to Azura but as we're alone in the Caribbean this year not sure what will happen about that. Christmas gifts for all will be delivered this evening I'm told. Christmas day everyone has fixed dining. You chose before departure or if a late booking allocated. It's a 2 hour extravaganza. Christmas carols tomorrow morning with the choir, panto at 1.15 and a special Christmas themed headliners show. Various events around the ship.such as ice carving etc. We personally are dining in the Epicurean with a special Christmas menu with matched wines. Not cheap at £50 each.but the price has remained the same as last year so.we are happy. Everyone in Christmas garb today, formal dress tomorrow and then wear a Christmas jumper(!!) On Boxing Day.

Currently on Britannia and they are being quite strict on the rules (Good!). Brodies can wear shorts etc...Non formal nights smart jeans can be worn in dining rooms - emphasis on smart. On formal nights 90% have been DJ and suits. Pleasantly surprised they are doing their best to uphold the code.

Very little to report from yesterday's call at St Vincent. Most people who did not take an excursion were back onboard long before lunch. The general consensus seemed to be why do P&O choose this port as UK unless you go to the beach, climb a volcano or are a fan of Pirates of the Caribbean you will be disappointed. Those who managed to book the Mustique and Bequia excursions seemed pleased but having considered them we felt the prices were way too high for us. I have noticed that excursion prices onboard are considerably higher than when they launched and I'm very glad I booked in advance. An example is the Nevis trip from St Kitts which is now over £30 more than we paid before we departed. Limelight club for Chesney Hawkes last night was good but I'm unsure if he was really worth the extra £10pp more than Eric & Ern. Today we are on St Lucia. Weather currently good but we are warned of a heavy rain risk later. We are going on an evening catamaran trip having visited St Lucia many times before. Could be a wet one! Santa arriving at 5.00pm but his elves visited early ... A sighting of a very rare item ...

Are you listening P&O???

Sorry, forgot to post reply. We used Epic Tours for a private booking on their larger catamaran. We had sailed with them in January 2020 via P&O on their smaller vessel Mushi Mushi and kept the details for a private booking for a longer day on the bigger catamaran. The P&O trip is around 2 1/2 hours and has a 45 minute snorkelling stop. We had 6 hours with an on board bbq and two long stops including Kleine Bonaire. The groups in the water were smaller as well.being 4 to a group I can't recall what we paid but there were only 12 on board our vessel.compared to around 30 on the previous P&O trip. I'll check up when we are home and let you know the cost pp. We did look at other companies such as Salty Dog who have excellent reviews but part of the attraction for us was the catamaran and we couldn't find anyone else offering it.

The onboard internet works better at night ... Joking apart it was very difficult to book the seats as I think absolutely every flight was released at once. I understand it's very normal for the access to be difficult on release of the seats.

Seats went live at midnight on 22 September for our 16 December departure. It took until 2.30am for me to get in and I did manage to get a pair. I believe those that tried around 8.00am found little available in the pairs - on our outgoing flight spoke to several who were either in the middle or one behind the other.

Yes the lack of any power was interesting to say the least. The Captain was going to great lengths to emphasise no other ships around and I wasn't sure if that was a blessing or not at the time! The oddest thing for me was how quiet it was. After about 50 minutes we could hear lots of banging from below. We've met a couple who have an aft cabin on deck 9 and they told us at breakfast this morning their entire balcony and doors are thick black with soot. Their steward and a couple of crew were trying to shovel (Their words,) it up when they came to breakfast this morning.

Good afternoon from Grenada. Lots of excitement before we made it here this morning! Happily watching the pantomime yesterday in The Live Lounge when at around 1.20pm we were plunged into darkness as the ship lost all power. Emergency lighting triggered and it became eerily silent - funny how soon you become accustomed to the engine noise. Anyway after 10 minutes the captain came on and stated we had lost everything as the engines had failed to switch. Engineers were investigating. Not the most comforting announcement: nothing to worry about for his passengers YET, 39 miles from land and 1,500 metres of water below us so we could drift in safety. Further update in 20 minutes. Lots of mumbling as we all sat tight. Next announcement about 25 minutes later, now 40 miles from land but no.clue as to why things weren't working, please do not use the toilets but you can return to your cabin but don't flush. At this point Widow Twanky reappeared and proceeded to try to raise spirits so at least here we were being entertained but obviously no drinks could be served. After 50 minutes engineers think they've located the problem, sorry it's getting hot. Then a couple of minutes later please clear the open decks as we will have chemicals and smoke from the funnel when we restart. The pools will be closed for 30 minutes or so as well. All good we thought we'll soon be back up. The panto characters left and the magician appeared (as if by magic!) and announced he would give us a show as he didn't need electric. Just as he started things started to whir and a few lights switched on. All good we thought ... wrong we were to quote Yoda. Just as the magician started to produce flags of paper from his jaws we were plunged into total darkness. This time the emergency lighting was a little slower and when it triggered the magician could be seen distorting yards of paper as quickly as he could. He probably got the biggest round of applause he's ever had. We continued to drift for another hour or so without any power. The crew were amazing running from place to place trying to provide bottles and cans of drinks and operating a handwritten payment charge system. Walking towards our cabin we found a chain of people running up stairs carrying trays of rolls and cold foods to deck 16 buffet. Ingenuity was everywhere and the lengths the crew were going to was extraordinary. We finally regained power nearly 3 hours after it went off. Amazingly dinner was only delayed until 6.30 for opening. Some systems came up more slowly such as t.v. in the rooms but overall by 7.00pm you'd never have known. We went to Limelight for Eric & Ern and here the service was very slow with a full.house and only 4 waiters to begin with. This was due to deployment to assist move the various backlogs but by the time the main course arrived normality resumed. The food was good although noticeably cut back from previous visits not enough to spoil things but definitely noticeable. Today I managed to get the app on to my phone for the first time. Out of interest I checked the availability for Epicurean, Sindhu and Limelight for the rest of the voyage. Apart from Christmas day I could book Epicurean for all other nights at either 6.00pm or 9.00pm, no night is full. Sindhu has availability most nights at 8.00pm, 8.30pm or 9.00pm. Cheney Hawked and John Partridge in the Limelight are sold out although Chesney has availability on Christmas Day. The Beach House is only available at 9.00pm every night but you can get in which surprised me. All of the Cookery Club dinners are sold out. It would appear therefore that speciality dining isn't of high importance to many on this cruise. The Retreat however was sold put on day 1 for the whole voyage as were a large number of spa slots. After a few showers here early.morning we had a wander ashore and did a little shopping before enjoying a local beer. The ferry to the beach was very busy so we passed on this occasion. It is $5pp.each way to Grand Anse and $10pp to one I can't remember the name of which is about a 20 minute boat trip. It's a lovely afternoon now although more cloud can be seen on the horizon. We have the deck party tonight from 7.00pm to 11.00pm so hopefully we don't catch the showers. Tomorrow St Vincent assuming the repairs today have ensured no.more excitement!

Hello from Britannia at sea. We are heading to Grenada and enjoying a Clement day in the Caribbean sea. We have some head winds and those around the Serenity pool are having fun holding on to their towels and hats. 29 degrees has brought out the sun lovers but many are enjoying the onboard activities such as the pantomime, juggling lessons and meeting Santa's helpers who are hard at it in the atrium. There is a definite excitement in the air with last minute Christmas shopping under way - all that OBC being put to good use! The open decks are busy with not many sunbeds unoccupied. I learned we have 600 kids onboard this morning but to be honest I wouldn't have known as all the ones we've met have been very charming and polite. Breakfast was notably busier but as we eat earlier we just had a normal table and waiters. Dress code was being strictly adhered to this morning and we saw several sleeveless gentlemen sent to change. Everything calm, no problems with over indulgence that I've seen, just general high spirits. We have our first Limelight visit this evening for Eric and Ern's last night which we are looking forward to. All nights have apparently been sold out. Sindh and Epicurean are advertising today with availability although how much I do not know. A few pictures for you below.

Safely back onboard after a truly memorable day in the reefs of Bonaire's National Park. Weather perfect with a stiff breeze to enable pure sailing rather than motors. I cannot recommend this enough if you are able to organise it. I believe P&O offer a short version for anyone not wanting to do it themselves. Everything one the island is as before the pandemic despite them being one of the last to reopen. Being part of The Netherlands they have been fully supported and it shows. We look like we are going to have a storm and there was a brief rain shower while we waited to reboard. Coming back on was a bit of a mess with unexplained long queue forming. I think it may have been due to the winds increasing but no one actually told us. Once back we nipped up for a quick scone and tea but the ambiance is not the same now everyone is in the cafeteria. One cuppa and we left. There is going to be a sailaway this evening, out first. I'm going to venture out to use my free drinks voucher and it will be interesting to see how it goes. I did note a few unsteady but happy ladies on deck 16 when popping to the ladies before tea. Not sure how their menfolk will be faring. We have the Gravity headliner show tonight which is the first one. Last night were two acrobatic performers who were excellent. Tomorrow we are at sea so plan a nice quiet day with fitness dancing (!) at 9.30am and part two of the lectures on unexplained phenomena. We had planned a swim but will leave it to late afternoon to avoid the sunbed wars! We have Eric and Ern (a Christmas tradition for us) in the Limelight tomorrow. Just found an excellent Greek wine in the Glass House which may become my new favourite. On the subject of wine my favourite Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc was £42 last year but is now £55. I'm giving it a miss - currently on sale in Tesco for £23 so I'll wait till I'm home. Apart from that most wines are reasonable but definitely increased by £5 or do each a bottle. Can't get the photos to load properly at present so will try again later.

Britannia steerage passengers ...