molecrochip

No it’s not breaking your contract. I’ve said time and time again, you chose your cabin, but the terms and conditions reserve P&O the right to change it. Airlines have done this for years with paid seat reservations - you can only get your money back if you don’t end up in a similar seat. It is however shocking customer service not to offer any compensation / acknowledgement of change. It’s doubly worse that again it’s being done so close to departure.

I don’t know. Cruises round to March 2025 due to be released end Sep/early Oct. But I doubt it. Reasoning as follows: 1. It’s a unusual cruise for P&O to send such a big family ship on. Normally P&Os odd trip to Iceland each year attracts a premium fare which doesn’t work well with Britannia’s size. 2. Princess usually do a number of cruises to Iceland from Southampton in the summer. From memory, Princess are now deploying two Royal class ships to Southampton so you may still get the cruise, with the same class ship, just with s sister cruise line.

Why would that be a joke? These things happen occasionally but often the automatic system have already dealt with before human intervention is required. Best the crew be alerted and check though, right? As for the original post. In a ship build there is so much welding, small fires are not unusual, and dealt with swiftly. What appears different here is that there is a strong suspicion of arson.

A few points here: Currys aka Dixons has pulled out if all travel retail sites during the pandemic including cruises. So did the retailer that had the older half of the P&O fleet and one Cunard ship. During the pandemic, the contract for the entire P&O and Cunard fleets inc new ships was awarded to Harding Bros. Re tax, Harding Bros should deal with any tax/duty obligations by telling you. The exact detail is complex as generally you’re buying from Harding Bros, Bristol U.K.

Scooters, wheelchairs and buggies/strollers are not permitted in the corridors. However, if they are unpowered and can be moved, wheelchairs and buggies may be overlooked. It depends upon the crew. On most ships that I've been on its been enforced but there is always the odd occasion between someone leaving something outside and enforcement taking place. The reason is that the corridors are designated fire evacuation routes which must be kept clear. I believe (in answer to the unasked question of why is Princess different), the ADA requirements trump the evacuation clear route rules!

P&O's big two no-nos regarding scooters are storage in the corridors, and blocking the exit route from your cabin with a scooter (either side of your door). If, the entire time it is on the ship it is stored in its suitcase form, you will be fine. If you intend to ride it from the cabin to the gangway and off the ship, expect a complaint if you don't have an accessible cabin. That's what P&O will say officially and why you "must" book an accessible cabin. Being devils advocate here slightly, if you're on Britanna, Ventura or Azura where you have an open cupboard hanging area for dresses etc. then most cabin stewards wont batter an eyelid if its stored there. On other ships, there isn't the open wardrobe space for storage.

Very true for those of us holding a small number such as 100 or 1000. But those institutional investors who hold millions of shares wont necessarily be seeing it that way. They will view the shares as worth less until their dividends return. In the couple of years leading up to the pandemic, Carnival were having a tough time with the US courts over environmental matters and US regulators generally. Some of this was industry wide but some was Carnival specific. Add to this that the world was starting to mute concerns about ships and their impact of the environment, Venice and Norway in particular and Trump restricting access to Cuba again. Its therefore not a surprise that the share price had tracked back from its all time peak. Carnival was viewed as a solid hold, with a buying leaning, at the pre pandemic prices.

Suite passengers should still get the turndown service, or a version of it. Maybe no chocolates!

This should be correct. When you do your first cruise, you get your Peninsular Club number issued. Assuming whoever booked the second cruise, found the same details then they will link. Say, you've moved house, got married and changed surname, have different contact details between cruise 1 and booking cruise 2, you might get a second Peninsular Club number issued. If so, then a quick phone call can merge them.

They are not allowed to do that. The question which needs to be asked is are you relying on a term which was always listed as limited life, therefore has naturally extinguished itself? Request your original Ts snd Cs in writing. Remind P&O they have a legal obligation to provide.

@Megabear2 I was saying standards Ts and Cs can only be changed if the guest is no worse off. During the pandemic, it was used to apply temporary easements and changes to rebooking. This was advantageous for the Guest therefore legal. These changes were always listed as temporary with backstop dates (some of which were extended). The legal changes, we’re for example, on restart, P&O we’re only allowed to carry vaccinated passengers. Thus was legally enforced but still led to a temporary change in Ts and Cs and would have been worse for some passengers. Finally, please no one confuse the nice advertising blurb at the front of the book with the Ts and Cs at the back. You are signing up to the Ts and Cs not the advertising blurb unless the Ts and Cs state so. If the advertising blurb is wrong then that’s a false advertising issue rather than consumer law yet still very serious.

Neil Oliver is the lead Entertainment Manager on Arvia. I believe he has recently left Britannia for shore-leave before taking up the position to launch the ship. Emma Alexander is the lead on Iona. P&O didnt have a need for Cruise Director and Entertainment Manager, so the roles were combined but until the Entertainment Manager title. Seperate CD/EM roles become more important where you have multiple embarkation ports on a cruise, Also the american lines keep a CD as it tends to be a revenue focused role. I believe that bit of the P&O CD role when to the Hotel General Manager/Pursers team.

A contract must be agreed in full by both parties. For a standard consumer product, the vendor will supply the Ts and Cs on a take it or leave it basis. Ts and Cs can be changed without consent as long as the other party is not worse off. This typically occurs when there is an ambiquity or a contract is made more flexible. If the other party would be worse off then the Ts and Cs can still be changed but a copy must be sent, including details of the specific change with a cooling off period. Normally 28 days post receipt. During that time the affected party can cancel the contract penalty free and receive a full refund. The only exception to the above is where the law changes and the Ts and Cs must adapt to law. Covid changes were partly P&O flexibility and partly law-change influenced. Finally, P&O must by law, if requested in writing, provide you with a copy of your Ts and Cs from the date of your booking together with any subsequent amendments. I believe P&O accept email as writing for these purposes. But the telephone team do not have to. For anyone booked through a TA - a lot of this responsibility falls on the TA as you contract with the TA who contracts on your behalf with P&O. Same legal requirements still apply.

Carnival have an entire shipbuild team who work with shipyards to design ship platforms - think Grand, Royal, Pinnacle, Excel etc. These covers the basic ship and mechanics/engineering. Each brand then specs their fit out/interior design/deck features. There is massive savings in cost and time from building ships on a platform spec than individually. Because the designs are done in conjunction with shipyards, it does mean that all the Royal class ships were built in Italy, the Excel class are split across the Meyer yards in German & Turkey. It was likely 2016 that Iona was allocated to work Norway before some ports brought in restrictions. These things are planned dar in advance.

Geiranger cocked up with Geiranger. They took the booking, confirmed the ship would fit and provided information confirming it would fit. As I understand it, from crew onboard Iona, Geiranger changed the mooring positions for the SeaWalk which now means you cannot safely moor Iona alongside. Geiranger never told P&O and it was the first pilot of the season that noticed when they checked their paperwork the day before or so. I understand from the same crew that Geiranger will review the mooring position again for next season.

Carnival have a UK brand in P&O, a German brand in Aida, a European brand in Costa, and Australian brand in P&O Australia and a US brand in Carnival. Their other brands are targeted worldwide. I can 100% categorically state that P&O have no intention or desire to push into the US market when in the Caribbean or elsewhere. They wish to be the UK holiday of choice for UK families. Their guests are greater than 98% UK resident/nationals and over 99% commonwealth nations. P&O do not actively market outside of the UK.

I have a bit more time now, so let me tough on how I think water slides are a really interesting proposition. Firstly, you need a ship thats big enough. Arguably Iona and Arvia are the only three ships which are big enough and we know that Iona was built for serving Norway and winter Southampton based cruises so we can discount her. That leaves us with Arvia at 184,700gt. If you compare RCI's fleet, The Freedom class at 156,000gt have a water park, however you're looking at the Oasis class (223,000gt) and the Quantum Class (168,000gt) before you have proper 'flume' water slides. Arvia will have a waterworks water park on top of the ship. This will include a water slide but not a flume. Its easy to add a water park as she is not first in class for such activities however none of the Excellence class ships have a flume therefore the engineering, design and maintenance cost of a one-off item is disproportionately huge - especially when its still only a small proportion of your audience it appeals to. Conversely Mardi Gras has the Bolt coaster however this features on all three of the ships being delivered for CCL in the class. Turning to some of the other "destination-ship" activities on ship, it was the 2006 Freedom Class which debuted the ice skating rink, rockwall together with the FlowRider. The 2009 Oasis Class added the Ultimate Abyss flume slides and the 2014 Quantum Class introduced RipCord and Northern Star but dropped the ice skating rink and rockwall. What you'll note here is that with the exception of the Freedom Class features, those activities are all on ships which are significantly bigger than Arvia. Most of the features are also included at the expense of an aft pool / sunbathing space - all of which is still highly sought after on P&O ships. The Americans are known for keeping busy and not sunbathing as much as us Brits. They are also happy to pay for the premium RipCord / FlowRider / Northern Star experiences which help finance these activities in the first place. I'm not sure that works as well in the UK. Speaking with a friend at RCI, Anthem of the Seas, when based out of Southampton, doesn't sell those experiences as well as the rest of the fleet. I would argue that family cruising in the UK is 15 years behind the US. On that basis, our ships should be keeping pace with the Freedom Class. Arvia is. OK she has no ice rink but she has dedicated cinemas and an escape room. She has the waterworks up top. She is the 2022 equivalent of the Freedom Class. So for those who keep asking why there are not more "destination ship" activities on P&O, I ask you this - do you want their ships to be 20-40% bigger again?

I should really do a long response for this but don't have the time: Iona/Arvia generally make a profit above 35% full Britannia generally makes a profit above 40% full Iona/Arvia were the only ships available to order at the time. The other Royal class ships were already allocated and by the time Iona was ordered, they were old designs and not meeting current company requirements - such as LNG. Princess have since ordered two new Sphere class ships instead of more Royal class. The research says that UK punters don't want to pay the extra for surfing or flights over the top deck - therefore return on investment is difficult. This is in part still because P&O has to balance offseason demand being very 50+ whereas American ships, because of their quick access to say, the Caribbean, still attract a good mix of 30-80+ during off season. New ships will continue to develop the offering but most items won't be forced upon the older ships. Finally, P&O have taken the point that people like the branded shows that RCI offer, and have taken a first step with bringing Greatest Day onboard Arvia. This is the rebranded musical orignally called The Band and is based around the Take That songbook underlying the continued relationship with Barlow and Co. This highlights well the demographic being targeted.

Ariva crew are a mixture of experienced well performing crew from across the fleet. They have all rotated off over the last couple of months and will slowly rotate on to Ariva, mostly in November. Yes, massive recruitment drive underway to recruit more staff. These both backfill existing roles on teh current fleet plus potentialy a few roles on Ariva too. I understand recruitment is going well. On the other point, speciality restaurants being closed is now down to staff availability. Earlier this year, the random closures were partly due to supply chain issues.

The TV issue is an interesting one. The whole fleet was supposed to be upgraded to minimum 32 inch TVs in cabins following the introduction of Britannia. I know Arcadia has been done and suspect Aurora too. I don't recall why Ventura and Azura didn't get done. Azura and Ventura dont look too bad they do look like they are one or two classes before Iona, and rightly so.

Look for the gaps in the itineraries. One's I know are: Ventura N304 11 Feb 2023 (was previously March 2013 and March 2018) Britannia B407 6 April 2024 (was previous October 2019) Otherwise: Iona currently sometime November 2024 thru April 2025. Azura was done August 2021 however unclear if next one reverts to original timetable so October 2024 or late 25/early26. Aurora was January 2022. Will we see another dry dock before she leaves the fleet? Would make her 26. Arcadia was February 2022. Will we see another dry dock before she leaves the fleet? Would make her 21.

Tui use a mixture of 787-8 and 787-9 aircraft. These have different configurations and have slightly different flight times. Likely that Tui are still shuffling the pack. It also may be a case that P&O are using some Virgin capacity at the end of the season (when they have 2 ships in the Carbbean). If this is the case, they will be wanting to understand why curve balls Heathrow are throwing at then to ensure their flights are not cancelled.

Carnival have already said that during this quarter (to 30 August), they expect to return to a operating profit and monthly cash in-flow. As soon as this happens, the cash burn stops. Once this happens, the rates and which they can sell bonds will fall (within the overall market which is rising). However, the analysts are acting on knowns (i.e. previous quarters) and the fact that Covid and Ukraine are unknowns. People complain about Carnival's debt profile. If they had not of taken on debt, they would already have been declared bankrupt. That made taking on debt the correct route. Now the journey begins to pay down the debt. For a number of years, Carnival is not going to be a good buy for big investors. Nor is it likely to generate significant capital returns, especially as the current big investors will have taken significant positions above the current price. Accordingly, whether you publish an expected valuation of $0 per share or $7ps it makes little difference to the investor who spent $40ps. So, the $1bn pays down some debt - less interest cost therefore more retained cash therefore less debt refinancing in future. This is now already factored into the share price Say, Seabourn is sold and pays down some debt - less interest cost therefore more retained cash therefore less debt refinancing in future. This is unlikely to affect the share price as you offload assets and debt $ for $. The final step could be a debt for equity swap. This would again dilute shareholdings, or alternative a rights issue. All of which could bring debt down below $20m by 30 Nov 23. Just my thoughts based upon various commentaries and knowing nothing. I'll put my crystal ball away now - it keeps glitching. One final comment. Paying down debt for a big company is a bit like a mortgage. Potential capital repayments (amounts not be refinanced) start off slow, release a little more cash (as not used to pay interest) which then allows a slightly bigger debt repayment... repeat. The next 2 or 3 years will be tough but the Corporation finance team will have projected this over 10 years.

To clarify a couple of points: Of course people get sick on ships. When that happens the operator such as P&O does care - I didn't mean to suggest that they didn't. They have large care teams for such incidents. Where we are now is that the difference between how we treat Covid and say Norovirus is disappearing. 2 years ago, if Covid spread through the ship, you risked say 60 people in a life threatening state. A ship is not set up to deal with that. If norovirus spread through the ship, you would still get the same number ill but because we knew so much about it and treat it, the mass risk to life didn't exist. The medical team could deal with any serious cases. Yes the passenger experience would be poor but loss of life was not a high risk. We are now at the stage where covid can be treated in the same was as norovirus. Many may get ill but we understand what you need to do to avoid large numbers of serious cases. This is why restrictions can reduce even though Covid is still at large. If a new variant came out which was more deadly, then I would expect restrictions to be put back in place swiftly. Regarding NHS tests. It was the government who said they could not be used for travel as they felt that it was their place to fund such tests. They also told the likes of P&O that they should not be used for travel and not to advertise this as an option. As I understand it, if P&O know you used an NHS test then they are not allowed to accept it. Of course, this comes onto the crucial point, how will P&O know. They won't. In fact, they won't know if you've taken one at all except for what you tell them. I would expect this step to disappear soon except for the fact that passenger feedback supports a level of testing - even if minimal. P&O meanwhile rely on the vaccine keeping cases in the non-serious category and out of the life-threatening category,

COVID-19 testing for the purposes of international travel is not available on the NHS. Testing for this reason is only available through private providers who must have self-declared that they meet the UK Government's minimum standards for the type of commercial COVID-19 testing service they offer. https://www.fitfortravel.nhs.uk/advice/disease-prevention-advice/covid-19-health-considerations-for-travel/coronavirus-covid-19-frequently-asked-questions