molecrochip

I don’t earn as much as Captain Paul! It’s not scraping the barrel. She’s just fitting with the target audience. The skydome entertainment under development is particularly exciting but again really is aimed at a specific audience.

Announcing Nicole Scherzinger.

or maybe Alexandra Burke. I’m gonna keep you guessing! Not long.😉

Announcement this afternoon….. smart money… Alesha Dixon.

I'm sorry you were affected.

I don't know. Presumably the same place every other cruise ship with scrubbers does.

So, yes P&O have implemented the changes announced in the Ambassador piece above. Scrubbers were installed on the older ships during dry dock. Britannia was either the last Royal class ship delivered without scrubbers as standard, or the first as standard and I can't remember which. This is part of the reason we've seen so many ships retired during the pandemic - they are just not cost effective enough to have the big expensive engineering upgrades needed to be compliant.

And yes, very usual that a contractor will stay in a cabin that needs fixing. Otherwise you have an additional cabin taken out if availability.

Now the occasion has passed… My understanding is it was completely to do with the door to the patio in the forward facing cabins/suites. Not just was there the chance of violently opening/closing the door, the effect of the wind meant that the doors only needed to warp by a few mm and they funnelled wind through at one corner - making quite a noise. A contractor was onboard to make changes. As I said previously, once the materials/parts were available, it was booked asap so changes could be made. I didn’t mention the detail earlier as I didn’t want anyone thinking there was a safety issue that there wasn’t - before the changes when the door was closed it was fine, and passengers were briefed by cabin steward/butler not to use, or take care, when ship was in motion.

It’s not true as suggested. I understand that certain ports are looking at restrictions but this is based on emissions. A large number of ships have now been fitted with scrubbers to clean the emissions. This mitigates the new oil burning rules. Said rules are already in place in various parts of the world where the company cruises. Cruise ships aren’t nearly the problem that some container ships are.

Due to Covid, and then the war in Ukraine impacting the energy sector, the roll out of LNG facilities around Europe has been delayed. In fact, at one point, you couldn’t bunker LNG as all the suitable bunker ships were holding surplus supplies at extortionate prices. A ship that uses LNG 50% of the time will still be cleaner than one that is heavy oil only. I believe Barbados and Antiqua were due to be LNG bunker ports but not sure on progress. It takes longer to bunker LNG due to the need to cool, bunker, warm. So yes, longer stays. Unless thing gave changed I believe Haugesund in Norway is the main LNG bunker point for Iona, along with Rotterdam, Barcelona and Tenerife. Southampton is usually heavy oil bunkering.

Yes, however she tends to bunker heavy oil more frequently on her Canaries / Spain cruises as there are less opportunities to bunker LNG.

The Scene was only ever intended to be open at school holiday times.

Id be surprised if P&O spend a large amount of money on a 25 year old ship.

Its largely the MOT style jobs to meet the 5 year requirements.

Back to normal.

I want suggesting you were asking for anything, and I would agree that they not resolved your issue correctly. It was within their gift to do so and they failed.

I don’t doubt your experience but the chicken and salmon were certainly there as they are part of the kids menu. You should have been offered this on enquiry. The problem is there have been so many guests moaning about things just to try and get a free meal or compensation, that dealing with honest requests is getting lost.

What you’re seeing is effective use of staff. Due to less staff than usual in the gallery, passengers are being encouraged to eat from the standard MDR menu of the night. How? By not displaying the other items which are cooked on an as and when basis. It’s doesn’t mean they are not there and due to the many dietary requirements they cook for, I can almost guarantee that they are there. The biggest problem you may face is a new waiter who has yet to learn how far off menu he can go!

It’s is the kids menu. But it’s not only kids that order from it. It’s the same quality of ingredients that would be found on any MDR dish. So if you wanted a chicken great it’s always there.

I know they weren't on the menu but did you ask for the Salmon, prawn cocktail or pan fried chicken? You may have been surprised. Did you know that you could ask for any of the following any night in the MDR: Beef Burger in Buns Pizza Margherita Mini Minced Beef And Onion Pasty Spaghetti Bolognaise Chicken Nuggets Grilled Chicken Breast Poached Salmon Pork Sausages Fish Fingers Pasta with Tomato Sauce Hot Dog Fried Egg Omelette The chicken breast and Salmon are covered here.

Often a substitute port will be lined up but if P&O publicise they might not be calling then they probably they loose out on any cancellation compensation.

The problems is that the cruise lines book with the port authority 3-4 years ahead. The local or national law bodies then create new laws restricting numbers of ships or passengers and this creates a massive problem. Inevitably, this is a local issue for port authorities to resolve with their local or national bodies. As I’ve said before, it’s for the port authority to cancel so that the cruise line don’t incur cancellation fees hence why it’s so late on.

Having booked the port calls 3 years ago, there was an expectation that a further exemption would be given however it appears this never materialised. If I understand correctly, the port authority have now cancelled that call. It is likely that further discussions are being had about the rest of the season.

I have a answer on this one - at present there is officially no library on Arvia. Therefore P&O are not furnishing it with a large range of books. I think the hope is that it will become more of a book exchange with people leaving books at the end of the cruise and then they will slowly get added. I think its acknowledged that its not in the right place on Arvia. However Andersons was redesigned to fit the high working tables (which have plug points) for those who want to stay connected.