Megabear2

Just up early or at the airport yet, ICF? Will be interesting to hear if Selbourne as someone who enjoys good food thinks these extras are good value. It's not the provision of them I doubt, it's the quality and cost.

I think Starlink being relatively new to Carnival hasn't gone live on many ships yet so hard to say. However in recent times I've used the WiFi on Britannia and Arvia and found little difference in the workings of either. Really it is a question of managing your expectations and of what you intend to use it for. For obvious reasons being a shared system the more people logging in the less responsive it will be. Interestingly, on Britannia although an older ship and presumably less sophisticated I found the WiFi quicker than on Arvia. Not being technically adept at such things I put it down to sheer volume logging into it and also what actions they were undertaking. Noticeably on Arvia virtually every other passenger was glued to their telephone and every child and teenager appeared to be doing something with their screens as well. The complexity of the tasks being undertaken be it Facetime, Skype or just posting on their social media accounts is naturally going to place a strain on a shared system. With whole families apparently having their own package P&O must be raking in the money on every family ship! That said we us wifi to work onboard and for most basic applications have always found the system able to cope on most occasions. If however you download masses of data (or upload large amounts for that matter) you will encounter problems. A lot of the complaints about "poor systems" relate to these types of processes from what I hear. Ships being very large metal things are not really conducive to electronic signals passing through them as I found to my cost during my medical emergency situation on Regal Princess last year when most of my phone battery was used up connecting and reconnecting to calls and failed Internet connections. I anticipate Starlink massively improving the access but even that will encounter problems on older ships I'd imagine due to the actual build of the vessel. Interestingly over on the Cunard board the discussion seems to indicate that the Starlink access to their vessels in cabin will require quite a lot of extra wiring work on top of simply fitting the system. If this is correct with two UK fleets to fit retrospectively the work undertaking on the older vessels will be massive looking at the ages Aurora 2000 QM2 2003 Arcadia 2004 QV 2007 Ventura 2008 Azura 2010 QE 2010 Britannia 2015 Iona 2020/1 Arvia 2023 QE 2024 Perhaps some of our IT experts can confirm whether the gossip is correct, I'd be very interested to hear what they believe will happen.

Has the P&O buyer been out seeking extras to serve on his upgraded menu? Australia is in disarray over green beans ... Insane $40 price for green beans shocks internet As the cost of fresh produce continues to increase, the price for a very common vegetable has sparked outrage and confusion.

The business seats may well have been allocated on a first booked basis to odd premium economy passengers. This happened last year when Wamos planes were switched in last minute by TUI. Even on the TUI aircraft certain seats are blocked out in the middle section to allow them to accommodate groups of 3 or more. With this 2 4 2cseat layout if you get a family of three you will presumably seat them centrally at check in so unless the buy seats in advance will need to adapt the seat reservation map accordingly. With 3 3 3, couples can only book a window and middle or 2 aisles to facilitate this.

Why so personal? I couldn't give a hoot to be honest, I stated my view that people could get a meal elsewhere onboard for less money. Others have stated their opinion too. This thread isn't the ICF and Megabear show. I'm glad you'd love it, personally I won't be trying it. My choice just the same as I choose to sail other lines.

Guess who said this: "Certainly not expecting to be able to enjoy fillet steak cooked to order in MDR. Nobody can be surely". I assume unless you pay was the add on!

1. On the current Queens one speciality restaurant at cost, plus extra pay for themed section of the buffet which becomes a separate restaurant at night. Britannia restaurant is high quality, much better than other cruise lines imo but not you call very high end. I'd say every bit as good as Epicurean but it's a matter of taste. 2. No only Queens Grill guests in their restaurant, same with Princess and Club. 3. Nothing better than Queens Grill. You can order off menu, if you want caviar, lobster, fillet steak every night you can ask for it. You are allocated your own dedicated table however somecare shared. You choose when to come.

Per cabin. 14 nights Mediterranean on Queen Anne.

When you say the "best dining" you misunderstand the concept of the Grills. High end individual service where nothing is too much trouble or impossible is the ethos. For example I have a Britannia Club cruise booked for September- a separate dining room again - for two £7100 Cunard fare (currently £8200 and rising). An inside on sale today normal Britannia is £1359 saver but the cheapest Grill suite is (no savers on Club or Grills) £12098 Princess or £20998 Queens. No one is paying those high end prices just for the "best dining" I'm sure you'd agree. Of course there are extra pay restaurants everyone from inside to top grade Queens Grill can pay for but the truth is all food grades are extremely high so unless it's a longish cruise most choose not to. I think you may have misunderstood the concept of these "no go" areas both on Cunard and the other lines.

These areas are not food and drink places people are barred from. They are areas with dedicated facilities of all sorts including pools, health areas, sunbeds, terraces etc. Yes there are bars in those areas but generally only one restaurant for those select passengers to dine in. You need key access to the facilities but the restaurants are generally in the main areas of the ship.

You surely don't believe that's what you'll be getting? It will come out played from the kitchen with exactly the same accompaniment as everything else. There's one kitchen serving the dining room. They aren't going to have a special chef standing there tools in hand to prepare Mr and Mrs ICF's dinner. Those Cunard Grills passengers will have that, food cooked more or less on request. Most of the big new ships have things like the MSC Yacht Club, Celebrity Retreat etc. So you're not going to be able to sail on them if you don't like being "barred". RC has dedicated lounges for their high tier passengers where they get free drinks every night. Maybe if they want to upsell P&O need these things for high paying passengers not special dining arrangements?

If you refer to the Grills which I'm assuming, there is nothing comparable on P&O as they are dedicated restaurants built to serve their respective stateroom grades. People pay very high end prices for these rooms and are accordingly given a separate restaurant, lounge and terrace area - think Celebrity, MSC etc where large areas are "ships within ships". None of P&O's ships have areas suitable to offer these high end restaurants - suite passengers on P&O apart from breakfast in Epicurean or wherever have to eat in the MDR. Cunard's menus in Britannia restaurant although cut back from 2019 levels are fairly diverse and offer high quality food. There are no extra charges. The difference with the Queens is very few extra pay restaurants on offer. Queen Anne will be interesting, the big test will be if quality and selection in the MDR lessens. I do not believe in upselling in restaurants, no problem with speciality at all but I think more and more reduction in choice will occur if the slippery path is taken. To answer directly, no I do not believe better dining should be offered to those paying more unless it is in a dedicated individual restaurant.

It was £14.95. Kalos was talking about Cunard I believe and I thought we had moved on from your challenging every statement someone else made ... You can remove the tips/gratuities on all lines bar one in my experience - you mention Celebrity, yes you can. However there are many on here who pay those gratuities because they want to or in some cases fear they'll be shamed if they say they remove them. In answer to the point directed at me personally I wasn't suggesting everyone should go to speciality restaurants I was actually pointing out that for £14.95 the Beach House offers better value than the proposed extras in the MDR. For what it's worth my view is once you let the genie out of the box for extra charges in the MDR it won't stop with the odd fillet steak or lobster claw, they will look at other things too. All those egg benedict breakfast regulars look forward too ... hmm how about an extra fiver? That'll do nicely sir! And as once more you're back on this cheap cruising hobby horse, £8,000 for two weeks in a balcony on Aurora ain't cheap by anyone's standard or for that matter £7,500 fly cruise on Arvia. The least people should get for that sort of money is a decent piece of steak now and again at no extra charge!

Why? It looks pricey and other options like Beach House offer more choice for same money.

Remember the list only shows one third of the actual flights and therefore there will be other TUI flights on the same days. If the airline worries you I would suggest either booking direct on the telephone and asking for confirmation of the flight number and time or using a good t/a and seeking confirmation from them before booking and handing over any cash.

Shame they took St Lucia off as the sailaway past the Pitons is lovely.

The sailaways are pretty short for the Caribbean islands. Very little to look at after about 10-15 minutes for the obvious reason they are mainly small. You may find some days you get ready to eat much earlier than in Europe.

You have no option but to book return seats at the same time as you have to reserve both ways. They are chargeable both ways - £45pp each way so £180 for two passengers. You pay this on top of the PE charge.

Not sure if P&O do them but Cunard offer the early morning group walks around the deck generally 1 mile or 2 miles. A bit of competition sets in and it's very sociable. With Aurora having the promenade perhaps you could form your own group if there isn't an organised one..

Turning off the water is great advice. A work colleague went to Thailand to get married over Christmas but unfortunately got caught up in the tsunami disaster, arriving back after a traumatic three weeks to find her house completely flooded and ending up spending 6 months in temporary accommodation as a result. Luckily her insurer was kind but a dreadful start to her married life.

Just the one brief comment

Yes but you got the difference back in OBC which would be totally useless to me. Even on my world cruise on QM2 my account including gratuities struggled to make $1,000. On a normal cruise I'd not be able to spend it as I don't buy handbags, am allergic to most perfumes, the clothing onboard is usually too small for me and my alcohol consumption is minimal. However it's a mute point as the single fares very rarely drop anyway so we are disadvantaged to start. If the OBC could be spent before sailing (Moley intimidated coming soon) I might be in a better position as I spend a very large amount on excursions when I'm alone and if my OH is with me speciality dining and excursions would do well.

Princess and Cunard have as far as I know only issued a release in September covering up to end 2025. P&O are a little out of alignment with cruises to March 2026. That is their newest release isn't it, up to November 2025? Not sailing on them regularly I pay scant attention but thought they'd not long had a release and this comment/policy referred to that release.

Apparently though this Princess "promise" is for cruises in the new release, not 2023/2024 which have been on sale for a long time. Any action from other members of the Carnival family including P&O will presumably be from the release for April 2026.

No, sorry no lounge. You do get fastrack through included, well at Gatwick we do.