molecrochip

Is it a tender port unless you’ve a really small ship?

Absolutely no problem.

Virgin don’t cater for kids who want instant food.

Lee Mead joins today for next week. Chesney Hawkes was last week.

Again passenger demographics in play here. Plant based is amazingly popular in the 15-35 age group. But at the moment they are getting less of that group and more of 55+ than they expect on Arvia longer term.

The research was done about what people wanted in a ship. That would have been based on a target audience. This first season Arvia is getting a different demographic of passenger. It will settle down as it has on Iona. Appreciate that doesn’t help in the short term but Iona’s performance gives me belief.

Passenger mix is not a criticism just an observation btw.

The number of seats in the four main dining rooms and the 8th deck mizuhana/olive grove on Arvia and Iona are the same. Three may be different concepts but covers are the same. Iona now works well which to me says it’s a passenger mix / dining time issue rather than number of seats. Either that or Arvia’s crew aren’t as efficient yet.

But they did in her first season. As I said, dining has been designed for a generation of cruiser who all dont want to dine formally every night. But that’s not the customers Iona got in her first season and it’s not the one Arvia is getting in her first season.

100% agree with this.

P&O now release the seats not occupied at between 5 and 10 minutes to go rather than at the start of the show. It’s an improvement. I’d personally scrap the booking functions on the app! Arvia will also be suffering from the first year syndrome where (statistically) older, longer standing cruisers must go and experience a new ship in its first year, even though they’ve already decided that they will hate it, it’s not for them etc. This is not Arvia’s target audience but they are of course welcome on board. Iona proved that once this first year was out the way and those who sail tend to fit the predicted nature of dining more accurately - i.e. they are not looking for formal dining every night.

Always good to get real feedback. I was talking to someone yesterday who is on Iona this week - they are not facing the same problems so clearly the dining room provision is a big issue at school holiday times. The entertainment booking in an app - some love it, some loath it.

Suite concierge services are really popular across RCI group, Disney and MSC. Also a lot of guests aren’t concerned with packing/unpacking. Therefore, a concierge service is a good alternative as it provides all the rest of the service.

Ship capacity’s in the cruise industry are considered as available lower berths. So Seaview would be considered as having a capacity of 4,142. This is 100% capacity. When it carries 5,000 it will be operating at 121% capacity by using its third and fourth (or upper) berths. Ships don’t usually get that close to their theoretical maximum capacity due to solo cruisers, cabins out of use etc. Cruise lines regularly sail at 97-105% capacity without being sold out. 120% regularly would be unusual. I agree re @Yorkypete other points. I was told last night from someone in the know that passengers starting and ending their cruise are not included in the 8,500 limit. Otherwise 4000 off and 4000 onto Seaview would use the whole allowance with one ship. Seaview still counts towards the other, 3 ship, limit.

Also, am told that the agreement was reached with CLIA Europe which covers the major cruise lines for them to sort out clashes themselves. Also some suggestion that the measure is on available lower berths not max capacity - but that’s to be confirmed.

OK - been talking to a few people. Seaview is standard capacity 4,132 and max capacity 5,110. Arvia is standard capacity 5,200 and max capacity 6,242. Rules state max of three ships but only one over 5,000 pax. Seaview will not sail with more than 5,000 each cruise as ships don’t sail at 120%+ capacity cruise after cruise. However when she does, she has priority over Arvia given her home port status. P&O can either restrict sales or change port. That largely will depend on how many berths are already sold. So yes, they can both be in port together, under the right circumstances.

Completely correct that call centre can’t process complaints. Also worth noting that if a department has blocked cabins for some reason, the call centre just sees no availability as I understand - they don’t see them as blocked. They can check the status of individual cabins but that’s it. @Selbourne I’ve not managed to find out about these specific cruises but don’t believe there is a carte blanche quarantine cabin policy. I suspect it’s a specific country/port being picky.

P&O will be waiting for the port to confirm that they cannot fulfil the contract which they entered into, otherwise it’s P&O cancelling and that costs them. It doesn’t mean that P&O won’t already have backup plans in place.

I don’t believe P&O actively take booking directly from America. Some few Americans onboard it’s not worthwhile the overhead to allow via their website.

Any bed which can be stowed such as sofa bed is not defined as lower berth. I think the only ships which have cabins with more than 2 standard lower berths are Azura and Ventura with their family suites. They have 4 lower berths.

Please don’t quote me but I believe solo cabin to solo cabin is only one upgrade fee. Solo cabin to single occupancy of double cabin would be x2 upgrade fees. So would existing single occupancy of double cabin to better double cabin. Upgrades are based on number of lower berths in cabin. My only wonder is whether if single inside to single balcony upgrade is £800, whether it’s showing as 2x£400. It does need clarification.

I don’t believe that is part of the service which P&O pay for. Although operated by Tui, the service spec is custom for P&O.

@jeanlyon Was the Aurora child friendly post an April Fool or have I missed something big?

It’s been happening for best part of two years since the restart. A part of the ship is sectioned off and used for quarantine. I’m not saying this is it though!

Britannia isn’t going anywhere that other ships aren’t - so that confuses me. Azura is going to Greece so it’s possible they still need some comfort with isolation cabins. My only other wonder is whether there is a significant number of crew coming from a country which still has higher infection rates, who need to isolate on arrival.