cabin facilities

[skaternan]

Can a P&O regular tell me please how powerful are the hairdriers as I understand we are not allowed to use our own?

Also do they have Marmite or should I bring my own?

I think there are kettles in the cabins but do they supply tea bags and coffee etc?

[groovechick]

The hairdriers are the standard, beige chain hotel type. I have medium length, quite thick hair, my daughter has long, thick hair and we have always found them adequate.

They do have Marmite in the buffet and probably in the MDR too, but it's the little pre-packed pots. My family tried it once and declared it digusting, nothing like the real thing, so I would say approach with caution, i.e. don't slather it all over your toast, taste it first.

Yes, there is a kettle, mugs, teaspoons, tea, coffee, hot chocolate, sugar and milk sachets in the cabin, which will be replenished every day. Your cabin steward will probably notice which you use more of and tend to give you more of tea, coffee or whatever accordingly. They used to also provide biscuits, but this seems a bit hit and miss now from some reports. If you don't like the milk in sachets, there are little jugs on the breakfast counter above the cereals in the buffet and large jugs of milk, so you can fill a little jug and take it back to your cabin to keep in the fridge. 

[Eglesbrech]

The hairdryers vary from ship to ship. I take my own low wattage one just in case and then use the ships one if it is ok.

 

Yes tea and coffee is provided but some take their preferred brand (my mum always did as she was fussy about her tea, the stuff provided if fine). 
 

I have seen small plastic sachets of marmite onboard but I can’t remember if that was on every ship, others can help.

extract from FAQs

“The cabin electrical systems on board are not designed to take high current capacity items.

Cabin hair dryers and tea and coffee making facilities are provided so there would be no need for you to bring anything on board, these are specially bought for the ships and are of lower current ratings and hence compatible with the ships electrical systems.”

[swaddy]

We don't like long life milk so always take our own fresh milk. It keeps in the fridge for several days and then we top up when we go ashore. Never noticed anything wrong with the marmite on board, it comes in the standard little plastic packs. 

[Warford Lady]

First of  you are allowed to take hairdryers and straighteners on board. They also sell them on board. The ones on Oriana were the Dyson brand.

 

I usually take my own dryer but actually forgot to pack it so I had to use the travel type one provided. Even though my hair is short it wasn’t powerful enough to dry my hair as I like it. Thank goodness I had some straighteners! 

[daiB]

32 minutes ago, swaddy said:

We don't like long life milk so always take our own fresh milk. It keeps in the fridge for several days and then we top up when we go ashore. Never noticed anything wrong with the marmite on board, it comes in the standard little plastic packs. 

Which may go soon as they are looking to get rid of any plastic on the ships. So no flags, stirrers, straws etc. On Ventura the butter was in cubes and not wrapped on the buffet.

[Ranchi]

Don’t know if reduction of single use materials has had any affect on Marmite distribution. Certainly on Aurora in Aug they had replaced foil wrapped butter portions with little individual rosettes ( in the buffet). 

[wowzz]

Long life UHT skimmed milk, in blind tastings,  cannot be differentiated from the fresh equivalent ( sorry to be a geek, but I did work in the dairy industry). People may say they can tell the difference, but in tea or coffee,  93.5% of respondents in blind tastings were unable to differentiate  between the two.

I know that people will now say that they are the 6.5% that can tell the difference,  but I bet, if I put 2 mugs of Yorkshire tea in front of them,  one made with UHT  skimmed and one with fresh, it would be a 50:50 decision as to which was jade with UHT.

[emam]

On Britannia and the Costa on the lido deck, they used fresh milk from bottles you would buy in the supermarket.

[AndyMichelle]

8 hours ago, wowzz said:

Long life UHT skimmed milk, in blind tastings,  cannot be differentiated from the fresh equivalent ( sorry to be a geek, but I did work in the dairy industry). People may say they can tell the difference, but in tea or coffee,  93.5% of respondents in blind tastings were unable to differentiate  between the two.

I know that people will now say that they are the 6.5% that can tell the difference,  but I bet, if I put 2 mugs of Yorkshire tea in front of them,  one made with UHT  skimmed and one with fresh, it would be a 50:50 decision as to which was jade with UHT.

As a kid, my mum would have an emergency carton of long life milk in the cupboard for when us kids drank all the 'good stuff' in the fridge. 

She swore you could not tell the difference but I swore I could. 

Looking back, it was probably down to one being kept in the fridge and being swigged from the bottle and the other straight from the cupboard into mum's stewed tea straight from the pot. 

Thank you Wowzz for making me realise my 40 odd year perception was not right. 

Andy 

 

[annieuk]

My hair is very thick and the hairdryer provided is just not powerful enough to dry my hair so I always take my own.  If you have fine hair I'm sure the cabin one would be fine.

[NJS53]

Can anyone tell me what sort of mugs/cups are provided in the cabins please? We like a big mug of tea first thing in the morning and I'm wondering whether to bring our own mugs. Sailing on Arcadia in a couple of weeks. Thanks!

[Waju]

16 minutes ago, NJS53 said:

Can anyone tell me what sort of mugs/cups are provided in the cabins please? We like a big mug of tea first thing in the morning and I'm wondering whether to bring our own mugs. Sailing on Arcadia in a couple of weeks. Thanks!

Not been on Arcadia but I assume they're all the same - Aurora has a mugs - not huge but certainly bigger than a tea cup!

[Les_ldh]

33 minutes ago, NJS53 said:

Can anyone tell me what sort of mugs/cups are provided in the cabins please? We like a big mug of tea first thing in the morning and I'm wondering whether to bring our own mugs. Sailing on Arcadia in a couple of weeks. Thanks!

I like a decent sized mug of tea as well. Take it from me that they will be too small for you, so pack your own, but maybe not your best ones in case they get damaged.

Les.

[terrierjohn]

24 minutes ago, Les_ldh said:

I like a decent sized mug of tea as well. Take it from me that they will be too small for you, so pack your own, but maybe not your best ones in case they get damaged.

Les.

The mugs are certainly big enough for us, not quite as big as you would get in a transport cafe, but big enough to satisfy most peoples early morning cuppa.

[Les_ldh]

1 hour ago, terrierjohn said:

The mugs are certainly big enough for us, not quite as big as you would get in a transport cafe, but big enough to satisfy most peoples early morning cuppa.

I agree, however there are those of us who like mugs that would probably hold the equivalent of two “normal” sized mugs and just can’t get on with the ones P&O supply. If you saw what my sister uses you would understand as she uses a pint mug for her tea. Now that’s a bit big even for me! 😂

[pete14]

2 hours ago, NJS53 said:

Can anyone tell me what sort of mugs/cups are provided in the cabins please? We like a big mug of tea first thing in the morning and I'm wondering whether to bring our own mugs. Sailing on Arcadia in a couple of weeks. Thanks!

If this is your first post, welcome to the madness / earnest debate.

If you are sailing on Arcadia in two weeks, I assume you are going to the Northern Lights. If you want to join our thriving online roll call for that cruise, you are most welcome (click the ‘find your roll call’ tab at the top of this page).

[NJS53]

On 11/9/2019 at 10:59 AM, Les_ldh said:

I agree, however there are those of us who like mugs that would probably hold the equivalent of two “normal” sized mugs and just can’t get on with the ones P&O supply. If you saw what my sister uses you would understand as she uses a pint mug for her tea. Now that’s a bit big even for me! 😂

Thank you to everyone for your various comments!

[peteukmcr]

On 11/9/2019 at 10:59 AM, Les_ldh said:

I agree, however there are those of us who like mugs that would probably hold the equivalent of two “normal” sized mugs and just can’t get on with the ones P&O supply. If you saw what my sister uses you would understand as she uses a pint mug for her tea. Now that’s a bit big even for me! 😂

Why don’t you just make another fresh mug pf tea when you’ve finished the first one? Saves carting a mug with you in your baggage surely. 

[Tablelamp]

On 11/9/2019 at 9:05 AM, Les_ldh said:

I like a decent sized mug of tea as well. Take it from me that they will be too small for you, so pack your own, but maybe not your best ones in case they get damaged.

Les.

I think it is a matter of personal taste, I always take my own as the ones provided in the cabins are huge!