Megabear2

I assume so, there will be bulkheads and emergency exits. Until they go in 14 weeks out to reserve their seats (£45pp each way so £180 for two) they won't know if they can get them. I'm not sure if anyone has been able to reserve seats on these planes yet as the system apparently crashed on Thursday and back up at midnight last night. Hopefully one of our correspondents will let us know how the seat reservations are going. My friend hasn't been able to get in for her 30/12 flight until the early hours of today.

We have him sent down from Scotland in a big frozen polystyrene box packed with ice. He's very nice roasted or slow cooked. Guess we are philistines eating Bambi and Rudolph on one day!

It's a Greek speciality too. Ss a result a lot served in North London, particularly around the old Highbury stadium.

There you go then - each to his own! If we are at home for Christmas, rarely nowadays, we have venison and reindeer for lunch.

I remember the bangers and mash. The latter was mustard mash and the sausages were venison. Very tasty but most definitely not bangers and mash! By the way, where has venison gone? I'm very partial to venison and apart from in the Limelight Club it's disappeared since the pandemic, even on Cunard I struggled to find it.

No you can't. Last year a lot of flights which were meant to be TUI were actually flown by a company called Wamos. This was because TUI aircraft became unavailable at short notice so to fulfil their obligations to P&O they subcontracted to Wamos at extremely short notice. For instance the first flight from Gatwick on 16 December 2022 was swapped on the morning to Wamos, no entertainment, no PE and everyone automatically moved into a seat of Wamos/TUI choosing. Lots of unhappy people. By the time we arrived at Britannia - we were on the flight behind and delayed 3 hours because of a misaligned aircraft/crew - reception had a queue into the Atrium of people complaining. These 63 in PE were told their money was being refunded to their original card, the rest were as far as I know told to deal with TUI as it wasn't the problem of P&O. At both the airport and onboard I witnessed dreadful behaviour with airline and P&O staff being verbally abused. However despite all this furore as far as I know no one didn't travel and presumably some of those were people who said I won't fly basic economy. Aircraft changes are much more common than people realise. Our flights to and from Kefalonia this year I'd booked and paid for extra legroom seats both ways a year in advance. Two months from departure I received an email saying my seats were being reallocated as the aircraft type had changed - went to an A320 from a 737 - and unfortunately we no longer had legroom seats so the price differential was being refunded.

Totally agree. Very rarely do we eat out, however yesterday we did because today is my birthday. Despite lots of other offerings both my husband and I went for the home made pie option, him traditional steak and ale and myself chicken and chorizo. Both served with mash (well they called it creamed potatoes) a selection of root veg and cabbage. As you say a good pie is a wonderful thing.

Whilst fully accepting the legroom/comfort issue is the main reason for upgrading (I do it myself when flying with my husband), I'm intrigued as to what those who say no PE or legroom won't go would do if their aircraft was changed at the last minute. I fly numerous times a year, both long and short haul. Over the years I've turned up at the airport and it's not the plane I'd expected, sometimes a replacement aircraft of a different type with different seating layout and on others a substitute aircraft from some unknown charter company swapped in by the airline to prevent flight cancellation. I just accept it as these things are not guaranteed. Do others book just expecting things won't change or what? If for instance on the day there's no PE that you paid for would you choose not to travel because you won't fly without that extra space or do you just go with the offering on the day and claim your money back and seek recompense for your not getting the flight you wanted?

I would! I choose the pasta and salad options 8 times out of ten.

I would agree. As someone who used to move around cruise lines every year I was always aware the P&O ones were less inventive. American lines also go very much down their traditional route, ie sirloin, burgers, lobster, shrimp etc. I always put it down to what the British everyday food offering is, unlike Americans not many sit down every day and eat a lobster or ribeye for dinner. Therefore since the second world war certain items have been viewed as "high end" dining when they appear on a menu. Of course life has moved on, availability of things like smoked salmon, high end beef etc are now more or less everyday if we want them Interestingly when visiting high end restaurants in Palm Beach and LA where steak and lobster are two a penny, I find lots of offerings of things like shepherd's pie and liver and bacon. At the end of the day menus are changing in the two main economies for cruising.

The other menus are though. As most of this food discussion revolves around a steak pie appearing on current menus I note that we have a Traditional British offering every day on these menus and they include such items as Lancashire hotpot, Welsh rarebit with bacon, fish goujons, macaroni with cheese etc. I don't doubt the steak pie and suet pudding offerings are following this tradition and are a bonus for P&O that the ingredients are cheaper into the bargain. Looking at those old menus they're extremely heavy in red meat such as sirloin etc. With the newer cruiser being more health conscious as evidenced by Green & Co being tried out it makes sense to make these options less often, again a win on cost.

Got me both ways then!! We have a choice don't pay it and don't go. Pay for the basics and expect no add on or pay to go better. You choose one, I'll choose the other. Banging on about it won't change anything. Capitalism looks for ways to make money, that's market forces. All the long posts on these boards debating it won't help anyone. Eventually we just go round and round. There are extras - you choose restaurants for example - we aren't forced to pay them you choose as do I.

Here's a link you might be interested in "How much more do premium economy seats cost? around 1.5-3 times You might be wondering, how much more expensive is premium economy compared to the basic economy class? Well, it all depends on the airline and the route, but on average, you can expect to pay around 1.5-3 times more for premium economy.31 May 2023 https://jacksflightclub.com › the-airl... The Airline Upgrade Dilemma: Economy vs. Premium Econom However, it's really the same as your cabin choice, we don't all want it and what we choose to spend our cash on is down to us. I'd never spend the huge figures you tell us a meal cost you even if it was the greatest chef/venue in the world. I would however spend the cash on a flight or cabin. Basically we value different thing I'm not going to say your way is worse than mine or mine is better because at the end of the day I respect your choice, wouldn't insult you by saying your way is wrong and would hope that you might offer that respect to me too.

Smaller cabin, different desk to check in, extra legroom, wider seat (leather whoopee!), drinks, wider food choice, real knife and fork, first on first off. Really just the same as everyone described for the charter. Seat bookable on booking for Virgin, not until 24 hours for BA. They both have luggage although there is a "classic" which is hand luggage only. That has to be offered due to a Directive and is part of the reason there are 4 or 5 fare types in economy on some airlines.

Have either of you flown long haul on any scheduled flights? TUI actually offer more space ECG than most of those airlines.

Time to move with the times, my friend. I need a roundtrip LHR to Miami mid March. BA and Virgin currently have a sale so these are reduced fares. BA economy £645.61 premium £1366.61 Virgin economy £553.61 premium £964.61 I can push the BA one up by using better timed flights, the economy roughly the same but premium can rise to £2366. Virgin, stopping premium I can get up to £1,300. This is 14.3.2024 out 21.3.2024 back with 1 23kg bag no flexibility.

Apparently it doesn't work Sundays either! My friend asked why Wednesday and was told well they aren't working tomorrow because as you know we don't open on Sunday.

ICF if everyone chose to ignore Brodies, the Club House and the Atrium all the other places you mentioned would be rammed. The ship has 5200 passengers, big venues are needed to hold the events that are part of the cruise. You go to bed early by your own admission, many don't and want to go somewhere lively where they have a sing and dance, watch the late night comedy etc. It's totally impractical to say that the rest of the small venues can soak up these people. You speak of Azura and she's a totally different animal. In her day she too was the most up to date and modern offering of the day. More importantly people didn't want to eat in all the speciality restaurants, for British ship she and Ventura were a revelation in having 17 as it was then called. The many cruises you told me your been on last year are in the scheme of it really quite small. There are people here on this forum who will do that number in a eighteen months or so (not me I hasten to add). Arvia cannot in any way be called "serene"! Have a look at the Food thread for a current example of what I mean. Her public areas inside are large, often crowded and noisy. That's fine if people go aware of it. As someone who sails all year willl tell you a Caribbean port intensive sailing is not comparable in any way with a cut back itinerary in the Med with 8 seadays and only 6 ports. You too might find that a different experience and not be quite so enthusiastic. Until you try it is suggest you withhold comment on such a cruise. Evening dress in the Quays? Yes they are inviting you to go there in it. On celebration night they've tried to relieve the pressure on the MDRs by offering special pop up food offerings in the Quays, one such being a tandoori offering. Here's a scenario. Mr and Mrs Fred book Arvia and love one or two nights in their posh gear. They think they'll get into a main MDR for that nice meal in their best big and ticket. On boarding the MDR has no availability so they ask reception where might be nice to eat for that special night. We have a pop up in the Quays says the man. Oh that sounds nice says Fred. Result, he finds himself dressed up in the Quays eating his self served Tandoori. Don't mock it ICF, if you read enough reviews elsewhere it's happening - not everyone is I hasten to add complaining just telling their experiences. Before jumping in defending the big ships you should remember that because you want to sit listening to quite stuff drinking cocktails many would gate that. They want to dance, have a laugh etc and therefore need to use those venues you dislike. Ps: Brodies is a pub, it's MEANT to be.

Definitely in 2020, 2021 and 2022 went from North terminal. We use the hotel connected directly to the terminal and its out the door, up the escalator and check in to the right. My cruise personaliser for January also states North but we are still on TUI. That said the seat selection is apparently currently not working for the New Year Britannia flights. I have friends trying to select seats and after staying up literally all night following receipt of the email saying opens 00:01 they have been told that it's broken and keep trying until Wednesday.

In fairness reading the trade papers they had little to no choice on this occasion. The interesting thing will be what happens going forward. Do they continue to provide charters or do they go the way of other lines and say well it's all too difficult to get the planes so we will sell you a flight to go with the cruise, putting the fare up by doing so. Cunard used to offer flights with their transatlantic and fly cruises. Not anymore you pay to add them on. If the only planes available are with these secondary airlines and people don't want travel on them what would you have them do?

Assumedly then last year's Wamos flight was TUI in disguise. We are normally second flight of the day and have always checked in North terminal even when it was Thomas Cook which is assumedly why we've always been North terminal.

Is your flight timed yet? Normally the flights are all from the north terminal. There are P&O staff in the area and they deal with both the charter flights, generally in the TUI area on the same level as departures. I cannot envisage the P&O staff not dealing with their part of the process - they do the check on insurance, health etc before passing you in to luggage drop and check in. We are on the second flight of the day and the check in opens separately for both flights.

As you are constantly saying they are much cheaper than anyone else so really no need. They have to make some money!

Prawn cocktails ... These are Celebrity's 2023 menus for a 7 night cruise. Very prominent on every night is "Shrimp Cocktail". https://profcruise.com/celebrity-7-night-menus-2023/

Glad to help. Let me know how you get on. Nightmare with the personaliser at the moment as the flight booking site has crashed everything apparently. Couldn't finish my excursion/internet booking yesterday but worked okay for that side at 10.00am. Flight checker according to my contact yesterday has caused a meltdown!