Megabear2

The original poster liked a post about seats and sunbeds on page 8, apparently on Sunday evening. I'd guess she read things and decided it wasn't a good place for her to be. And then we have 4 pages of chocolate, so even if she decided to brave it she probably thought not much point.

I've had several conversations with them recently, thankfully with little difficulty. I call around 50 minutes before closing. Once the robot answers I just say operator. When she moves on I stay quiet and generally that confuses her and she says she will get me help. That seems to work, music force minute or so and then someone answers. Hopefully worth a go. Good luck.

Normally we don't buy that much wine apart from Cloudy Bay Sauvignon as a treat when we go to the Limelight Club. However as we have been given a £500 unexpected gift we thought a dozen bottles pre ordered would be a nice thing to spend it on (particularly as the client told us to "have a drink on him". We only drink white wine so no problem with having two on the go! The Commodore appeals because we can have a bottle of port and my OH has one every night. We can always take it with us as required and also can have a bottle in the room if we want. I'm pretty confident we can finish a bottle a day between us. Looking at the wine lists on offer elsewhere a lot of the wines are approaching £14 for the better quality ones so as non wine buffs there are a few we know on the list that we'd be happy with. We recognise quite a few on the list so that's a benefit.

Thank you very much. Have you by any chance bought one recently and if so how was the availability of the wines onboard? We are looking at the Commodore but the only review I've seen mentioning it I'd dated 18 months ago and suggests there were shortages with cheaper substitutes.

We've not had one of these since our last staycation but a very grateful client has very generously given an unexpected bonus to us as a thanks for working on our last holiday. We though it would be nice to treat ourselves to a wine package as a result but I am unable to find either an upto date menu or the included bottles or the current price. Does anyone have any idea where I can find this information? I can see a telephone number but don't really want to call until I can see which wines are on offer. Thank you.

Thank you. Rebooked internet for £16 saving and also just short of £5.00 each on my husband's three thermal spa booking. Unfortunately my excursions are too popular to be included but a good result.

Where did you see the shore excursions and internet please? I can't see anything on my link. Thanks

I understand your frustration, all I wanted was a seat too. They were extremely helpful, no problem at all. On the other hand, jeepers the problems we've had over a walking sticks ... 🙄

In your cruise personalised under before you sail there's a new online mobility form. I ignored the stuff about walking aids etc just ticked no assistance but on page 3 under hidden disabilities ticked yes and put in there I needed access to a chair at embarkation due to such and such condition. I submitted it and dropped an email to the address on the form explaining I had the hidden disability and received an email saying it was noted. As Tiger said went to the accessible line and my name was on the list and I was whizzed in, chair for a couple of minutes and then straight checked in.

When I couldn't stand following an accident I completed the access form and asked could I sit inside by email. It was acknowledged and the seat was waiting no problem, in fact they were going to let me jump the queue as I had 4.00pm boarding. Excellent service, I'd email if I was you, seems if you're upfront they try everything to help.

Ironically the only bad review is a TUI flight wh7ch again didn't offer the much vaunted entertainment ..

I promise I never try to kill anyone. On a serious note I have a friend who was an Essex traffic cop who had to be taken off duties after years of frequently attending the scenes of motorcycle accidents. He flinches and ducks if a bike passes him on a road even though he hasn't done the job for 20 years.

I live on a main road, have had multiple accidents outside or near my home in the 19 years I've lived here. The road has houses on either side and is a former B road just upgraded to A for expediency the year after we moved in. All the accidents bar 3 are "property accidents", ie no injuries or fatalities and as such don't exist. One of these traffic watch things was set up a number of years back and reports to police. Other than telling us that 65% of drivers are in excess of 40mph in the 30mph zone it does absolutely no good. As residents we've learned that what we call accidents aren't and the speeding is actually not a game changer, more the definition of what was a minor road as a major one causing the increase in collisions etc. Judging by the figures in these documents Wales hasn't much to worry about road accidents before they changed the 20mph. However older drivers seem to be a problem everywhere along with motorbikes. https://www.brake.org.uk/get-involved/take-action/mybrake/knowledge-centre/uk-road-safety https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/reported-road-casualties-great-britain-provisional-results-2022/reported-road-casualties-great-britain-provisional-results-2022

Very true but perhaps the real problem is the decline of respect and morals across the board. Angry older people in a crowded buffet demanding and expecting to get the tea and cakes first and shoving people aside is another pet hate. I totally agree with you about it being prevalent elsewhere, the difference presumably being birds of a feather flock together and on a ship it's even more obvious. As for the Mail, please don't insult me ...

Exactly the case. Quite a few contributors on here like their own company, it's much easier on the adult only ships.

There are only two adults ships though. Actually tye "smaller" ships we discussed, ie Ventura and Azura have always been family along with Britannia and people of all ages like the mix. Personally I love Britannia, a bit of everything. I'm a bit worried about the Beond comments - we are on her at Christmas as we moved from Arvia. Celebrity ships are out of Europe and US are normally boisterous good fun with a great mix, that's why we booked on. Might be interesting ...

Warm weather Mediterranean. La Coruna, Marseille, Cadiz, Palma, La Spezia, Barcelona with 8 seadays. It's her "normal" summer schedule, sometime no La Spezia is an overnight Barcelona instead. Unfortunately the weather was not as expected lots of wind, rain, showers on seadays. A couple of nice warm days ashore. The roof only opened once. Lots of miserable people understandably as they were expecting lots of sunshine which didn't materialise. Ropes, golf etc closed most seadays, Retreat closed as its front of ship and wind issues. That was mine, others obviously different. When the sun did come out not a seat in sight as everyone wanted one!

That's a whole different question. You are assuming everyone is anti kids, I haven't seen anyone say that. I have no children or grandchildren, I do however have a myriad of nieces, nephews and godchildren and as such like the company of children. There are very few bad children but unfortunately there are plenty of bad parents who " have rights" and want to do just as they want with no rules. The rules aren't to spoil fun, they're to prevent accidents, people can and do get seriously injured, even crippled people landing on them in a pool. The entitled parent would soon shout if their offspring was injured by someone and perhaps should consider that before shouting everyone is against our kids.

I'm sure that in the Caribbean last year Moley mentioned there were reduced numbers of passengers due to being unable to source flights so that may have been an effect. Certainly the cruises after Christmas on neither ship were showing as sold out at any point. Britannia has a known sunbed situation on seadays due to her odd layout and lack of shade and yet at Christmas last year it was noticeable you could find sunbeds far easier than normal so I'm guessing the lack of full capacity may well have been there as well, particularly as it was Christmas. Your observation about The Retreat is one very well made but not for dodging the kids, more to guarantee a seat, particularly in the shade! I recall the chessboard. I actually got a seat there on one of the non wet days but it was very blustery. Even then it was a busy place but as we were going in and out of squalls I ended up being there alone until the heavens opened and I went inside the skydome on that level - that's where I managed to get a seat and the water cascaded in all over us when we were chatting and having a coffee. It was probably drier outside! I walked a lot around the ship too. Being a solo and interested in taking a perspective on her due to being booked on her for a cruise with my OH I wanted to really see how she worked and what was on offer. You could say I wanted to look for problems - probably a fair point. The trouble was the "problems" were so obvious it probably looked like I was over egging them. I tend when I'm alone to literally be the observer and think now how would that affect so and so, or that group. I guess I am the true critic! So yes, I did notice things like the types of seating, where they were and who was using them. The seating in the Skydome at pool level for instance was all the chairs. Makes sense, big screen, events at night easy to clear etc. Absolutely dreadful though on a cold blowy seaday when families need to keep the kids amused and use the area as a type of local swimming baths with food and drink on tap. Not a hope in hell of a seat there after 8.30am never mind trying to watch the films, take part in the quiz etc. The problem is ICF Arvia is indeed the "sunshine" ship, great in sunny climes no doubt, but stick over 5,000 people on her with 8 seadays some which will be blustery and even damp and she isn't really that good for it. I do not believe Arvia is alone on the lack of outside seating. Unfortunately P&O in my experience have a very low ration for outside seating to passengers (can't speak for the two babies) and always rather "crammed them in" with sunbeds in rows with very small areas between them. Come the pandemic they had to space things out more, suddenly very noticeably people were having even more troubles finding sunbeds, seats. I'd hesitate a guess the number crunchers might have overlooked some of that for Arvia. Put people on a ship in hot climates, particularly Brits (and Germans for that matter) and a very large number "camp" on seats all day and no one moves off until late afternoon hence "no seats". Yes there might be a couple on deck 8 at any one point but not much use if you're on 16 or 17 as by the time you've wandered down they're gone. First seaday I searched for an hour, not knowing where I was going and finally nabbed one on the cold windy side of the promenade as a somewhat frozen gent left. So yes, I can confidently see why no seats is now a common complaint. Caribbean will hopefully be different, much warmer, more ports less seadays = happy shiny people.

Err ... I think that's Andy said! "Sunbeds" and Arvia is something of an anachronism. A very large number of the seats/beds whatever you want to call them are actually not beds, they're an odd design of reclining chairs - a good 50% from my observations. Traditional real "sunbeds" are therefore in pretty short supply particularly around the small infinity pools, in fairness there are more in the front section around in the adults only areas. I've mentioned this before. Most of the seating on the promenade deck is this "chair" hybrid. I struggled to get a seat anywhere other than on one of these hybrids on the few dry seadays on my May cruise. On port days returning around 3.00pm I could get a sunbed at the front near the adult only pool but certainly nowhere actually around it, and finding more than one available would be a challenge, luckily being alone I was okay. So ...

Now this is really a big one!

I thought you said you like chocolate, that's not chocolate ....

Cunard were excellent for us. Still getting nowhere with P&O. Our problem is not so much now the walking stick more the query of what is intermittent use with fibromyalgia, that's from the other hidden disabilities box and is why the form is being queried. The guy at Cunard is medically trained so although both emailed/called for details from this box Cunard understand the illness varies day to day and P&O don't.

Just for you. I remember how shocked I was when I saw this and drank regularly. I believe it was based on Carnival ships menus so obviously different lines, different calories. I recall the bartender on Allure of the Seas telling me had s drink with over 1,100 calories once. Here is the list of the calorific content of those delicious drinks… 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! All of which make the more typical Vodka & Tonic or Gin & Tonic quite ‘cheap’ at about 150 calories a time! Oh, and remember a rule of thumb calculation would tell you that men should consume no more than around 2,500 calories and women 2000 calories a day…depending on how active you are, of course!

Sorry to hear that. People queue through the night to bag their seats in PE and it doesn't help that every single plane for that day from all airports goes live at the same time. Now we have extra planes for Arvia the queue to get in is even longer as there's more flights as well. On average I try to get in dead on 00:00 but I never secure my seats until around 2.30am. This year I was lucky and made it shortly after 1.00am. It's a wonderful money spinner for P&O though! Enjoy your cruise.