Megabear2

He has entries in both. Declarations will be made tomorrow for Friday, I'll let you know. York is next week.

The current vacancy list doesn't seem to include call centre staff. Interestingly they appear to be looking for lots of onboard kitchen staff including chefs and butchers.

Looks like the weather is going to brighten up until Saturday, not at all pleasant here yesterday but nice fluffy clouds with blue this morning. I've just purchased my train ticket for my four hour journey up to Newmarket for my trainers yard visits later this week and surprised that it o cost £58 for a return but would have been over £70 for a single. As on Saturday I take the train from Newmarket to Chelmsford to meet our family for a cousin's 40th birthday party I bought the return as strangely that single ticket cost a princely £9.50. Talk about confusion, worryingly if there hadn't been ticket office staff I'd have paid in excess of £160 for tickets for these journeys using the SWR/National Rail websites. Have been notified Dutch Decoy has an entry Friday evening at Newmarket too - same race he won last year. After racing it's Newmarket Nights with Olly Murs so a busy few days coming up. Enjoy the day wherever you are and whatever you are doing.

Perhaps it's because of the recent incident with the child who suffered serious heat exhaustion and had to have emergency evacuation from the ship. Whatever the reason it seems a sensible course of action is issue a warning, particularly when there are a lot of seadays and people may not be aware how dangerous the sun can be when at sea. Hope you have a wonderful day in Alicante and you all survive the heat unscathed.

They already do this on Arvia. They also encourage sharing in the Olive Grove and the Diner. I never accepted a shared table in either of these venues and reading DamianG's report on the Diner and Olive Grove the tables in those restaurants couldn't cope with his 7 party size so the sharing option wouldn't offer much relief in there.

In theory yes but the speed of service on Arvia will have an impact. If I sat down on a shared table for 6.00pm I found I was leaving at around 8.05pm and I did not have coffee. Service was very slow in both MDR, I was booked for 8.30pm shows most nights and on one occasion having a 6.15pm sit down had to leave with 5 minutes to spare for my theatre booking. The staff were dealing with very large numbers and as I have said previously many tables were not being cleared when they emptied.

As a matter of interest, I'm seeing lots of talk about the two MDRs, the Diner and Olive Grove in any attempt at calculation. I assume these four spaces are the ones occupied by the 4 dining rooms on Iona? I know there is Olive Grove on Iona too, albeit some items are paid for. What I seem to be missing here is Green & Co's role/impact on the Arvia dining situation. When I dined there in the evening it seemed a very large space which was mainly empty. The sushi bar was busy but not many tables in the actual restaurant. I actually liked the food and dined there three times, twice in the evening and once for lunch. It was always instantly available on the app and a straight walk in but it was also quite expensive with my three course meal being over £30. If this lack of take up is continuing how is this affecting the dining situation? I've seen lots of posts about reservations being made for speciality dining but I don’t see Green & Co getting much clamour for bookings.

I believe there's been a calculation by someone on here, sorry can't remember who, who physically counted the seats/tables on a map and it fell considerably short. I think the figures were in a post late April, certainly before I cruised on her in May

Again don't forget there are two saver fare types. When discussing dining you need to see if you book Early Saver which is before final payment date or saver which is after final payment date. Pecking order for dining choice is Select, Early Saver, Saver. If you are the one in the middle they will try very hard to accommodate you. The ones who are last minute, i.e. book from 12 weeks out are the ones who may have no choice. There's a lot of confusion about Early Saver which does give you a degree of choice and flexibility on dining and cabin location. If the OP is looking to book now for December he will be Early Saver. Come September he will be Saver, ie no flexibility at all, just goodwill.

It will depend on how full your cruise is. In 2020 we struggled on a saver to get changed from 8.30 club, was refused freedom and on day 3 got 6.30 shared table of 6. Our next 3 Britannia cruises we booked freedom and as we eat early was offered a table for 2 in the same section every night at 6.15 in the freedom dining room. As you can read from this it varies by cruise. Certainly the Caribbean ones have been harder to be accommodated on as they sail pretty near to capacity.

One will have been created from his name. Just use the booking reference, name and date of birth, it should open into your booking in his name then. It can be useful as my log in corrupted dining bookings last year but logging into my husband's account it was uncorrupted.

The trouble is from one ship to another there appears to be no consistency. Sarah is on Ventura and booked before going, Arvia I was offered it constantly. I'd just like to know what I can book in advance, if not asking for the world!

Just double checked my Britannia cruises, both still say "Coming Soon". Interestingly on a non dining issue, the Retreat has gone to "Enquires on Board".

There's nothing wrong with fixed dining for the many but for those who for personal and health reasons it can be difficult and even embarrassing. My husband finds it very difficult to eat in close proximity to people he doesn't know, I had to cut my mother's food u for her and I've read on these pages of a deaf person who was personally insulted by table mates. Freedom dining and tables for two help in these instances.

I cancelled my booking for Arvia Caribbean after my experience. I have booked a Celebrity cruise for over Christmas and join Britannia on 13 January instead. The Britannia cruise will be my 6th successive year on her in the Caribbean even though the itinerary has unfortunately not varied in recent years. I find Britannia a very good choice for the Caribbean due to the outside space - I've also done this cruises on Azura and in my opinion Britannia is superior but it is of course personal choice.

It has been happening since the restart. Originally it was on Britannia for 5.30 to 6.30pm to fill in "dead time" with less guests and spare staff. It seems to have mutated to if a waiter likes you they will offer it if they see you at the same time more than once.

Have a wonderful time. I hope you get a break in the weather, fingers crossed.

They do still exist, there's lots of confusion about what a saver is. https://www.pocruises.com/our-prices-explained

With the Early Saver you can choose an area rather than a cabin. There is a small price increase depending on the section, ie fwd, mid, aft and the areas inbetween. Theoretically by choosing an area you may be able to avoid the dodgy cabins, particularly now there are bids to fill up the other cabins rather than you being auto upgraded. It's a gamble but with some ships not such a high one. Ironically my noisy Arvia cabin was actually a free upgrade from the very cheapest select inside cabin and those on savers got a far better location and deal. A straight saver, ie bought after the cut off date, normally final payment date, you have absolutely no control, take what you're given and no argument. With Arvia it's difficult because of the known 100 odd noise affected cabins and the promenade. Incidentally I noticed the other day if you book a select fare on Arvia the deck 5 balcony cabins seem to be the ones with a bigger fare uplift, £150 difference to the base fare compared with £30-£50 for other decks.

She's still in Europe at the moment, some good 7 night deals through to October on Iceman site. Next year doing some Alaska (ones I looked at) and Hawaii cruises before going down south. I was very tempted by the quick week but they want £3,700for a single.

Yes, visited him most days!! I loved that part of the ship at night and spent a lot of time just sitting on the sofas near the bar. We also ate in the open air restaurant in Cannes when we sailed at 11.00pm so we could watch the fireworks. I was very sad to see Edge is going off to Australia now that Beyond is in operation as i had hoped to go on her again soon. My friend and i have booked Apex for next year.

I love Edge. My friend and I went on her last year. Flights, 4 nights in Rome in a 4* hotel, private transfers from the airport and to the port, 7 nights in a sunset veranda with the superior drinks, wifi and gratuities, private transfer to Barcelona airport from the ship £4,032 for the two of us (that also included a 2 day HOHO Rome bus. That was good value as we priced Azura and Wonder of the Seas and the Edge was the best value. My OH and I are sailing on Apex in the Caribbean over Christmas, that was actually cheaper than Arvia was goingbto cost us but currently nearly all things I'm pricing on Celebrity, Cunard and even P&O are coming in very high for 2024. At the moment we are waiting to see how our two Britannia cruises go before committing to anything else as a couple. I will continue to seek out solo deals - my Canadian adventure beckons next month.

Alaska next August. I priced another one for Spain and Portugal with the iceman in case it was a computer glitch. It wasn't! 30/7/2024 - 9 nights on Celebrity Equinox from Barcelona including the flight is £11,683. I don't think with the best will in the world I'll be going.

Hope you enjoy it. The cocktails are very unique and worth ago, the candy floss one was delicious.

My visit to the chemist yesterday was an interesting one. Apart from the fact I take no medication myself I'd no actual idea how much an item cost as my OH is 66 and gets his free. I was intrigued by the notice setting out the £9.65 per item cost as it stated in big bold letters that it is a Tax made by HM Government. The last time I'd looked at one of these notices I could have sworn it said it was a contribution towards health care costs.