molecrochip

It appears there is a supply chain issue affecting the Glass House and Eppicurean menus. Rather than offer a reduced menu service, the decision was made to close and relocate staff to other restaurants where there were gaps. This is temporary and appears to affect supplies loaded in Southampton hence Iona and Ventura most at risk as most regular visitors. It really is turning into a challenging summer for P&O where delivering their core product is less than straight forward.

They weld around the outline of the lettering so as to make it easier to repaint the name in the future. the skirt is the stencil.

Usual cruising speed is 17 knots correct. Design speed is 21 knots. Doing 20-21 knots requires the four service engines to be in use at maximum capacity. This is only sustainable for so long as it does have a higher risk of failure. 17 knots is the magic 80% x 4 engines. 3 engines can get to 16 knots at full power, if one engine is out of use. On the passenger side, passengers will feel more movement when ship is doing 17-21 knots. Likewise you need the right sea conditions. If you're heading through the bay of Biscay in stormy seas at 21 knots the ride may be very uncomfortable or even unsafe.

P&O have certain ratios of adults to children to abide by. Staff shortages make this a problem hence the restrictions. This is purely health & safety of your kids.

Not so. Actually, there is a strong business case for new larger more efficient ships which replace older ships. The financing for ships is somewhat separate to the rest of their debt, and is a very specialised market. The debt is also secured upon the ship like a mortgage. It won't surprise me to see an agreement in principal announced later this year, once the new CEO takes over. This would be for ships to be delivered 2026 thru 2030. Yesterday's update was bright. Omicron has reduced 2022 optimism but they are now cash positive month on month (which includes paying their debt interest). This is a big step as it means they no longer need to find new liquidity. 2023 booking trends are still up towards the highs seen in 2019. This is great news. Onboard spend per passenger was at record levels last quarter but has dipped slightly - this really reflects the cost of living squeeze seen worldwide. Most importantly, the institutional investors on the stock market liked it. The US stock was up 12% by yesterday close. (I mention US stock here as that had a full trading day post the announcement whereas the UK stock only had 2.5 hours, although still made a 8.5% increase). You won't get such a swing from retail investors.

They will usually try to ensure a service of remembrance at some point in the day or two surrounding. Like Easter and Christmas, you may actually get a minister of religion travelling to conduct a multi-faith service, instead of the captain. Often the captain still attends and will do a reading.

It depends upon availability. I believe a recent Iona cruise basically sold out the Epicurean for the entire cruise, before the start of the cruise.

Clearly this is not standard operating practice and by Christmas, I’d anticipate crew levels being restored to normal. in practice, any venue closures will be short term as any staff shortages shouldn’t be enough to be noticeable.

That’s a misinterpretation of my post I’m afraid. Once a ship is fully staffed up, crew rotate in and off most weeks. it’s been one of the difficulties of the restart, getting the crew all back into their staggered rotas.

Some crew who are joining Arvia will start rotating off shortly. They may have up to 4 months at home before joining Arvia in late October - mid November for a 6-8 month contract. Others will join straight from another ship. With a new ship, the crew is normally always experienced crew taken from across the fleet. New crew backfill across the fleet. If you follow P&O on LinkedIn, you'll note that there is a big recruitment drive across India and Asia to increase their pool of staff to contract across the fleet. I've been asking around and understand that Virgin have not attracted many P&O staff. The bigger problem is that is that a) staff are not returning to cruising, instead choosing to remain at home or take on bigger family roles (e.g. following covid deaths in the family); or b) staff are still contracting Covid in their home country therefore not able to travel to take up their contract.

Not on Iona's run from Southampton - Fjords and from Fjords - Southampton. The timings are fairly tight and so I will be a real high speed run.

Actually, it’s four ships as Carnival Jubilee was originally destined to be a new build for Aida.

Venezia and Firenze to also move across ‘temporarily’ from 2023 and 2024 respectively U.K. become Costa by Carnival.

At airport, they will want to see your cruise ticket/boarding pass.

Don't disagree. Normally calculates between two pilot stations as you arrival pilot station normally is a fixed agreed time.

It never hurts to check direct with P&O however my understanding is that the vaccine proof requirements will be the same as the ex-UK Princess sailings: For international, non-UK guests, the following formats are acceptable proofs of full vaccination: Digital or paper records, or QR codes, showing the vaccine type, the date of each vaccine administered, the individual’s name and date of birth or other identifier. What specific document this proves to be will depend upon the health authority you live in.

As you say, 7 night cruises, to a country with a low infection rate. Iona has very few back to back passengers because of the repetitive itinerary. Perfect trial opportunity.

It’s a trail.

Wording has been clarified because people expect 20% discount against headline price. VAT only makes up 16.7% of headline price in the U.K. hence the clarification. Yes, Harding Bros have taken over all the duty free shipping on board the Carnival U.K. fleet. This change happened during the pandemic. The commercial agreements are complex as they include rental, performance but also agreements relating to staff, their roles, lodgings etc. With regard to products, except for real high end brands, often items for sale are not available in high streets and form part of a suppliers airport/cruise duty free range. Take Molton Brown who product specific sizes and gift sets for the duty free market. Means Harding Bros can offer a price match guarantee without much risk.

Undoubtedly, Virgin are trying to move the market on staff pay, but not that excessively. What they have done is rescope job roles which means potentially a little less working hours a day. You also have the guarantee of working on a new ship, with solo crew cabins etc. There is movement of staff across the fleet as Arcadia starts up again, but not all from one area on a ship. Likely that it’s closed for a couple of days whilst new staff get up to speed.

Lost property is offloaded at the end of each cruise. So it could have been offloaded with the following weeks property.

You should try again re your iPad. Crew regularly hand stuff in, but they don’t hand it directly to reception. Lost property gets passed up the chain therefore, if handed in on turnaround day, it takes ages to be logged by reception.

Agree with many, Christmas and New Year on board is magical. As some have mentioned, if you’ve got a cruise which covers both you should be fine. The 4-5 night new year only cruises do turn into a bit of a glorified party cruise.

And if you ever watch BigJetTV, the number of 'go-arounds' at Heathrow is high on such gusty days. Actually Iona's Norwegian voyages require fairly full speed running when in international waters to stay to time. Really simple answer. The preferred embarkation doors for turnaround are on the Port side of Iona (2 air-bridges) which line up to bring you into the atrium on deck 6. On Britannia, the preferred embarkation doors for turnaround are on the Starboard side, jut aft of the blue bar on deck 5.

They would have been berthed heading East ready to depart straight from berth. Iona is berthed headed north and has to back out of the dock (south) whilst avoiding the tugs alongside at berth 44. Then she has to pirouette 90 degrees to head East out of dock. Given the sudden forceful gusts we've been having in Southampton, I can see why they want to wait to do the more complicated manoeuvre.