Megabear2

Because we have to work when we are on holiday we keep one phone on at all times during UK working hours. This was an error because of a time change and I forgot to switch the phone off. Wherever possible we only book accommodation that provides free wifi and find both P&O and Cunard to be extraordinarily expensive and a rip off. The latter in particular disappointed as you used to be able to turn your wifi usage on and off but no longer. The Diamond membership perk on Cunard now only covers about 5 days usage for me whereas I have managed in the past to easily go three weeks. Because the contact with business is essential to us and we couldn't holiday without phone and wifi access I am leaning much more towards the Celebrity and Princess package offerings on future cruises - I'm not happy being a cash cow as a prisoner of communication so to speak. My upcoming Canadian voyage on Sky Princess was a prime example, I'd wanted to travel on Aurora or Arcadia but adding in my wifi costs I saved nearly £600 plus of course drinks etc were also covered.

I accidentally got a voicemail message on Telenor to inform me my car was due a service. That message cost over £12 and appeared on my next billing account after my return to UK. I now switch everything off on my telephone and only use my tablet to connect to my paid onboard wifi and the app.

Very interesting. If you have time could you let us know if you observe this being carried out? On my May Arvia cruise the same Horizon notice was published but no follow up action was seen so I'd be interested to hear if it does actually happen this time. Thank you.

Unfortunately not. We did get fast track security at Gatwick as a perk but apart from that no other airport perk I'm afraid.

Sending you very best wishes Michelle. I hope all goes well for you with the oncologist. As a breast survivor of 33 years who was actually on the original trial of Tamoxifen I'm sure the countless new wonderful treatments will be of great benefit to you and a swift recovery awaits you.

Just been for my last Greek breakfast before flying home this afternoon. Welcomed at the door by everyone in masks with hand gel being offered on entry. Apparently a break out of you know what amongst some staff overnight, so masks to be enforced. That will be hell in temperatures already in the low 30s at 8.00am. The wind and rain at home sounds much preferable at present!

He us correct, it was announced three days ago. It seems to be for European departures too, not seen any mention of UK but suspect it will be here too. The removal of a loyalty club perk has indeed upset many. If it happens on P&O no doubt many priority boarding rights would most likely be removed too. Perhaps something to bear in mind, would a free for all really be better than arriving to your allocated time?

I was told with Arvia/Iona that if there is a delay even of a few.minutes in dusembarkation it knocks on to the opening and boarding for the next voyage. On my arrival back into port pick ups could not get into the port gates and it had a knock on effect to dusembarkation. I was actually meant to be one of the last off at 10.00am or thereabouts but there were a very large number still.onboard when I finally got off. The port staff were run off their feet trying to move trolley and passengers to get everyone off and clear. Then at 10.30ish I watched arrivals turning up to drop luggage, some of whom shouted at staff for not having the luggage holes open. It was actually mayhem, earlier disembarking apparently runs much better, again something most on here prefer to do. Far from having a go at the guys handling luggage, dusembarkation and embarkation I am actually impressed they manage to get any order out of the mess they have to deal with!

Have you tested Moley's reporting process for it? I'd be most interested to see what if anything happens. Certainly the buggies on Arvia were never dealt with, be they baby ones or mobility vehicles.

Nothing better than a good food picture. Often looking at them inspires my eating plans for the day. Currently here in Kefalonia the thermometer has just hit 40°C and a white steam like cloud is forming over the ocean in the distance. I'm astonished at the number of sun worshippers sprawled around the pool area, many already burnt to a frazzle. Our next door room mates had to have the doctor out to their 12 year old son last night after he collapsed with heat exhaustion in the dining room. They'd gone to the beach at 6.00pm the evening before for a 20 minute swim and spent all day yesterday on the shaded terrace and in their room and the lad has still been struck down. He's now on medication to rehydrate him and confined to the room for the next 48 hours. I cannot believe how stupid some people are being.

I asked my postie about that. He explained it's because in wet weather they dry quicker and there's nothing worse than very heavy wet trousers or jeans if you're walking around for hours. He said better to be cold legged than cold damp wet!

Yes, as I said above identical in timing. Once in the terminal building extremely fast, much quicker than my previous boardings with P&O where we were required to sit in the terminal and called in rows to check in. Incidentally I boarded both a Princess and Celebrity ship last year, one in Barcelona and one in Civitavecchia. Security checks were first at these ports but once inside the terminal we were asked to sit and wait until they called us to the desk. On both occasions we had the earliest boarding time - 11.00am - but the process to being onboard was longer than my Arvia and QM2 experiences.

I was given 4.00pm last boarding at 4.30. On arrival at 3.20pm (the only time my lift could drop me off) there were still queues outside and even a coach delivering passengers. I had special boarding for health reasons but still went to sit downstairs in the terminal until my 4.00pm time was called. There were still a considerable number outside but once up the escalator it was one of the quickest check ins I've ever had with P&O and we did sail on time. Everyone can't be first on no matter how much I'd like to have been. A week before my Arvia cruise I'd boarded QM2 as a Diamond priority passenger at noon, I can't say truthfully my experience was any different except one was early and one was late - the time going through check in and security to being onboard was more or less identical.

Totally agree and it was identical on Arvia. Telephone rarely answered. Even at 1.30am when ringing about noise issues it took 20 minutes to be answered and that was both numbers. Consequence was reception constantly busy with queues first thing the next day, in fact most days there were queues of around 15 to 20 people. One family resorted at 1.00am to going down to reception from their cabin in their night wear to discuss the noise problems they were encountering. I got the impression the phone had to be ignored to deal with the physical visitors.

Interesting point on corridor obstruction. On Arvia deck 4 in May I counted 5 fully assembled large baby buggies in the immediate corridor around my room. Deck 4 of course is all inside and outside cabins and I assume the limited space was a surprise to the many families filling them. Some of these buggies were so big that to pass them you needed to walk sideways past them. How long before we start to see restrictions on the size of buggies or instructions they must be kept in your cabin.

Well there you go! Learn something new again. Joking apart there are Aeropark's all over Europe however I smell a rat about this Southampton and Heathrow offering. There are no reviews but there are reviews leading from a website entitled Southampton Port Parking and this Aeropark's booking seems to take you there. If you then look up reviews for Southampton Port Parking they tie in with the company formation date and there are at least 50% one star reviews and horror stories on Trustpilot. I'd be very, very careful on this one unless anyone living locally to Southampton knows differently or someone on here has used them.

Aeropark Southampton Ltd are apparently a new company registered in June 2023. There is a reputable company called Aeropark Developments in Southampton which is a construction company and this new company appears to be listed on Parkopedia at the same address. There is an Aeropark at East Midlands airport bookable via Holiday Extras so this may well be a company expansion. I notice there is also a Heathrow one, formed same day and same director. I suggest checking them out first. https://suite.endole.co.uk/insight/company/14916023-aeropark-southampton-ltd

The benefits are over rated despite what some may think - noisiest cabin on the ship - tick, latest boarding time available - tick, broken lavatory - tick, security shrugging shoulders when you're accosted by a drunken passenger - tick ...

Just to clarify, your "P" won't be on your cruise card or visible to you. It's in the computer on P&O's side so you may well have one if you've had a problem previously that went higher up the chain in Southampton. I only heard of mine when some dining went haywire on Britannia at Christmas 2021 and the hotel manager and head chef starting appearing every time we visited a restaurant to the point where I asked what on earth it was all about. Mind you the very nice bottles of our favourite wine were most welcomed. If we start to hear of deliveries of mysterious Peller Ice to your room ....

Sorry!! I hope you have a great cruise.

Lindor it is then.

Clearly your experience on Arcadia was not pleasant and as I have no knowledge of the ship or its procedures I cannot guess what had gone wrong or not. I can however say with a fair amount of confidence that P&O executive office have confirmed to me in the last 10 days that Arvia's problems on my own and other cruises are unique to that ship and is down to the number of passengers, seating availability and the app which is not operating as intended on that one ship. Of course there is no option on Arvia or Iona for anything other than freedom dining which makes them totally different from Arcadia and the others and there is also the large capacity to manage. It was acknowledged to me that the dining situation on Arvia is not working which is why they are trying the new 50/50 bookable approach to see if it helps with the issues. I was told Iona is mainly working as intended after the smoothing out period. I did not discuss any of the other ships so cannot comment on them. In respect to the senior staff not doing their job properly I do not believe this to be the case on Arvia. People are turned away nightly if they have no reservation and the app queue shuts down often with 200+ people in it already - again admitted by P&O to me as one of the main complaints they are receiving from returning guests. These turned away people do end up in either the buffet or the Quays. Pagers are handed out at the desk for people in the standby queue from 5.30 onwards until it too is closed by volume issues but again i was told this often falls short of the number wanting to dine. The allowing of prebooking between 5.30 and 6.30pm in freedom dining rooms is something I first encountered on Britannia in 2021 after the restart. At the time I was told it was to encourage the filling of "dead time" for dining room staff, no doubt caused by lower passenger numbers being on-board. When I mentioned this concept in my call last week I was told there unfortunately is no dead time on Arvia as every single second of capacity is vital to be filled and used. It was confirmed my observation of early pre booked diners on shared tables lingering is correct and although service is finished, short of physically telling people to leave, the larger tables can in fact show as released for new diners by the app when there are in fact still some people seated there. Apparently the programme is a maximum 2 hours - again not me saying that but my P&O caller. I can confirm on several occasions my time at the table overran that time. The actual time your meal is "programmed" for is between 1.25 and 1.50 hours. The other 30 minutes or so is apparently for leeway, table clearance and reset. I found this information very interesting and informative, particularly having seen time and again dinner taking considerably in excess of 1 1/2 hours. My intention in passing the information given to me by P&O was to assist the OP who is travelling on Iona as he stated. His thread title does not mention exclusively Iona and so we have wandered off topic somewhat. The information I have offered into the general conversation is regarding Arvia alone and may well be irrelevant to the other vessels in the fleet, however it is direct from P&O that they know they have a unique problem on that particular ship and are urgently seeking a resolution. If the information is not helpful in any way that is fine. I'm not going to get bogged down on the merits or otherwise of how things are on different ships or voyages, but hopefully the situation on Arvia in particular will improve sooner rather than later.

Any chocolate preferences?

Great. We can have a party!

We are on 13 January, is that you too?