Megabear2

Excellent advice, the proviso however appearing to be avoid NCL as the cabins leave a lot to be desired. The fact is both you and the OP were unlucky, neither event is the norm thankfully.

I'm very glad to hear you are better. Thank you for taking the time to review the cruise in the first place, I'm just sorry it was a bad experience. Good luck in your future holidays whatever you choose.

Crikey, NCL must have pretty dreadful cabins if they're worse than a jail.

Interestingly the government has an ongoing enquiry into airline add ons at present. This includes seat reservations and luggage costs. They believe the airlines have to offer transparency on pricing. Will be interesting to see the result. Re TUI holidays. If you search their destinations you will normally find the offer of a TUI flight does include 20kgs of luggage as standard. The use of Easyjet flights is apparently because TUI currently have insufficient aircraft while awaiting their new plane deliveries. Reading the travel press both here and in Germany they are awaiting around 50% of the planes they have on order and they are well over 18 months late. Eventually they should be able to supply their own aircraft, it is not intended to continue with the other airlines apart from those where BA are offered and these too include luggage.

As the person who asked the original question of the OP about reporting he was unwell, I asked because he stated he had food poisoning after "the mistake of having a shrimp dish followed by clam chowder. This led to the four days of food poisoning". At the point of asking, before the poor gentleman even had a chance to answer or explain, several people weighed in with comments about how he was right not to report it and the list included the medical team confing him to his cabin and insurance excess. All of these in my opinion are very poor reasons to not report any illness which may or may not be a public health issue for the other people onboard. The OP very kindly offered an explanation and as his subsequent diagnosis for which I thank him. Hopefully he is now on the road to recovery and to be honest, reading the thread back he personally isn't actually being given a hard time. He posted in words, maybe accidentally, that he had food poisoning after eating a meal on Britannia which he then said "led to the four days of food poisoning". Anyone reading that last line could be easily led to believe the meal was the source, particularly as he has been pretty scathing about other aspects of his dining experience onboard. The thread has created interest and been an eye opener for me at least.

In fairness that embarkation process was only introduced at the restart by Cunard and they have continued it. Prior to 2020 it was identical to P&Os.

But it transpires he most likely had neither. Surely any person would not take the chance of deliberately ignoring something which could be contagious for the sake of worrying they'd be confined to their cabin or have to pay an insurance excess. That would be frankly outrageous. Reading the OP's story he seems to have been very unwell and I doubt very much the thing going through his head was I'm going to be confined to my cabin. The symptoms he describes would have made going elsewhere a very unlikely option anyway. People are very flippant about things like food poisoning and colds with lots automatically claiming the first as soon as they have a bad tummy and the latter constantly referred to as flu. Accusing somewhere of giving you food poisoning really should only be done with medical confirmation and if you are worried about confinement if you are unwell then perhaps a cruise isn't the best place to holiday.

All cruise lines have introduced apps for dining, all cruise lines let you ignore them - there's a lovely thread on RC at the moment where someone returning for their first cruise since 2019 is being reassured they can ignore it. There are some pretty pictures over there of queues for the MDRs too. In other words this isn't a P&O problem it's a returning to sailing problem for all lines. P&O's problem appears to have been the way it's tried to adopt the new ways, a bit cackhanded on occasion and trying to tell the passengers you will do it this way, tough. However they have learned you have to be flexible. All the recent reviews, bar one from Arvia, are good and indicate the authoritarian approach has relaxed with the effect the 'important people' - the passengers - are now having great experiences. There will inevitably be hard core groups who want what they've always had and the club dining will remain to give everyone a choice. That is as it should be. Trying to run before you could walk (not having the full technology for a proper app) inevitably upset a lot of people but even the RC, Celebrity and Princesses of this world who do have the technology have realised the cruising world simply isn't ready to accept a full remake of what a cruise is.

Generally by 4.00am all the pairs and most middle couple seats are gone. Many do these cruises year in year out and ss such plan to burn the midnight oil for their PE seat reservations.

In recent years most flights have been from Gatwick as they are charters. A few have been from Heathrow - the Antigua flights in 2022/23 - used Virgin Atlantic. I cannot recall Stansted being used in the last 10 years but that doesn't mean there haven't been just that I can't recall any.

You won't be able to know who the airline is this far out. Although P&O plan and sell cruises 2 years out the airlines set their schedules annually. It may not be Maleth in 2025 but it also may not be TUI. You book a fly cruise with a guarantee of a flight there is no definite answer as to who it will be with. It would normally be TUI but that cannot be confirmed until P&O confirm a contract. It's quite normal. Unfortunately this year there is a worldwide aircraft shortage which has led to there not being enough TUI planes. If airline choice is very important to you unfortunately it is impossible to say who it will definitely be but the probability is it will be TUI with the proviso P&O can choose another option. This far out it is impossible for anyone to say.

I would say if you really want to do this go for it sooner rather than later if you want PE. Incidentally only one flight this year from Gatwick is with Maleth, its mainly Arvia Manchester flights which have been affected badly by the plane shortage. No one even knows what the flight arrangements will br for 2024/25 season yet, we will know in August/September next year.

Flights are generally allocated around 3 months before the season starts. There is no guarantee that in 2025 either of these airlines will be allocated to anyone. Historically it has been TUI and with Thomss Cook before their demise. Some in the past were with scheduled airlines rather than the charter. Generally as a rule the earlier you book the more chance you will get the PE. However you have absolutely no choice or control over the flights as P&O has to book a contract with the airline.

With all my Cunard bookings we are only interested in Caribbean itineraries at the moment. We love Dominica so always put it in ports, lo and behold those two popped up. Now debating whether to take the plunge. The February one isn't as appealing but we always go away for Christmas and the November one could prove complicated. Decisions, decisions...

28/29 November 2025 6/7 February 2026 Calls to Jamaica, Grand Turk, dominica and Tortola on first one, Jamaica, Grand Turk and Dominca on second one.

Just looked at the February 2026 Britannia cruise I liked. Select fare balcony cabin £6,700, add on PE goes to nearly £8,000. Considering we have 35 nights QM2 in Jan 25 for £7,800 in a balcony I think that will be a no for now. Noticeably easy to get in to the site. Assume it will be busier when they go to normal sales.

If it doesn't it will be a measure of the popularity of early booking! Interestingly on Cunard launch day last week no crashes so perhaps the IT department has improved things - we can live in hope! Having said I won't book early again I'm going to reserve on one of the two one off Britannia Caribbean cruises which are actually going somewhere different, just a shame there's only the two.

I hope you feel better soon. Thank you for taking the time to let us know when you are clearly still very unwell.

Hello from Glorious West Sussex. Warm and slight cloud cover but the sea is warm - yes I did brave it! Just setting off to walk from Worthing to Peasmarsh for a stroll. Apparently 5.miles, brought the bus pass just in case I collapse from hunger and can't make it back. Only sign of food so far was a fisherman selling this morning's catch from his boat. Bit strange I could have sworn all.coastal areas have nice men with cups of coffee and Greggs bacon butties!

This was the middle of New York which is one of the most safest cities in the USA we are discussing here. I assume the trip was not taking place in the middle of the night but shortly after dark and there would be many people around the ESB as it's in a busy area only around 2 miles from the Manhattan Cruise Terminal. That being the case I would have done exactly as the OP did, enjoyed the trip and either sourced an Uber or a taxi back to the port. He does not say which evening of the cruise it was but assumedly it was day 1 or 2 of the overnight stay so no worry about timings to return to the ship. As a woman in her mid sixties travelling alone i can safely say I would feel safer in New York than a vast number of other cities in Europe and the UK which I've visited in recent years!

I assume you are on 1 or 2 December sailings if its 8 weeks. The Maleth flights only went live last week if I recall correctly so it may be that the system is loaded for flights departing earlier. There are 14 departures across both ships before 1 December. The whole affair has been messy and as there are apparently only two planes from Maleth flying for P&O charters it must have taken a lot of sorting out, particularly as the flight booking system collapsed for a number of days.

A possibility, yes but as no doctor was consulted unfortunately the OP will most likely not know unless they eat these foods on another occasion. Clearly he has been ill however it would appear because he has miserable about the cruise and overall experience he just assumed it was a nasty case of food poisoning rather than something like you suggest. Whatever the cause hopefully they are soon fully recovered.

Sorry, if I read this wrong and you are not saying that the shrimp and clam chowder were served by P&O. However anyone reading a comment such as this in a review of a bad cruise would seem to me to say you believed that those items of food caused you to be unwell. I have every sympathy that you clearly have been very unwell, it must indeed spoiled any enjoyment of your cruise but there is a responsibility with serious issues like food poisoning to be certain of the facts of where it came from if it was indeed food poisoning.

I certainly am not doubting the poster was ill, clearly if they were unwell for 4 days and ongoing it is quite serious and this is my concern that it should most definitely have been reported. Having just been involved with a serious food poisoning event which hospitalised my husband I do not like to see these things not dealt with. We are due on Britannia for our next cruise and if there were lessons to be learned I would have preferred P&O to have had the chance to rectify anything that may have gone wrong. Clearly the OP has had a rough time and has chosen to tell us, however P&O should be the ones who were told at the time it happened so they would have had go investigate. It is true that they may not have taken responsibility if it was a one off (initially this happened with our hotel in July) but if others reported illness they may well have had to. Real food poisoning rather than just eating something our stomach disagrees with is an extremely dangerous thing and in some cases can be life changing or even cause death.

Sadly as it wasn't reported we will never know, however going on to a public forum and stating uncategorically that the ship is to blame is a serious matter unless you can have proof that is the case. However if a food poisoning outbreak has occurred I have no doubt it will only be a matter of time before we hear of it in through other channels. It is all well and good to say insurance claims are too difficult but a matter of public health should override anything else. What if it was something like E-coli or botulism which can kill, not reporting it could have tragic consequences.