P&O Cruisers - What are things like where YOU are?

[Grumpycruiser60plus]

[July morning]

I was in the wide awake club eventually managed to nod off about 3.30am . 

Regarding travel insurance I called All clear for a quote as online I was getting told no offers available husband has been diagnosed with advanced prostrate cancer and we were feeling very down and really wanted a cruise.  Hold on to your seats I could have cover for the sum of £3190.00 they came down to £2985.02 remember the 2p 😂 got to laugh or I'd cry! Anyway we're going to wait until until he's been on his treatment a bit longer to see if that will make any difference.

 

[lancashire_cruisers]

As a veggie for nearly 45 years due to a serious allergy I’m starting to feel a bit victimised over all this furore about the inclusion of vegetarian meals on the MDR menu. I actually preferred it when we had our own separate menu to be honest.

 

I hope there won’t be pitchforks and flaming torches on my next cruise if I dare to order veggie 😳😉

[kalos]

5 minutes ago, July morning said:

I was in the wide awake club eventually managed to nod off about 3.30am . 

Regarding travel insurance I called All clear for a quote as online I was getting told no offers available husband has been diagnosed with advanced prostrate cancer and we were feeling very down and really wanted a cruise.  Hold on to your seats I could have cover for the sum of £3190.00 they came down to £2985.02 remember the 2p 😂 got to laugh or I'd cry! Anyway we're going to wait until until he's been on his treatment a bit longer to see if that will make any difference.

 

 

Sad to read about your husbands health ,lets hope you do manage to get away and 

have an enjoyable time after his treatment . Wish you both well.🙂

[Snow Hill]

A restaurant we frequent labels its menu using the same symbols as P&O, however what it means is that the ingredients are either naturally v, vg or gf or there as version of the dish available that meets the criteria or can be adapted. Clearly any meat related dishes are not labelled as v or vg.

 

Neither my self or my OH are vegetarian, but we will frequently eat vegetarian options, since I cut back on red meat a few years ago, and find them enjoyable to eat. My OH is coeliac, which is not a life style choice, however eating out is rarely difficult for us and have always found P&O very helpful in this respect and great to see that they have taken notice of our multiple suggestions in the past to label the dishes as having gf options, saves having to ask the question every time we sat down to look at a menu. 
 

Just an aside, we were in said local restaurant with my son & partner, my sister &BiL, when someone on the next table as if they could have a non vegetarian version of the mixed vegetables. 🤷‍♂️ We had to stifle the laughs. 

[Josy1953]

27 minutes ago, Snow Hill said:

Just an aside, we were in said local restaurant with my son & partner, my sister &BiL, when someone on the next table as if they could have a non vegetarian version of the mixed vegetables. 🤷‍♂️ We had to stifle the laughs. 

Perhaps they were thinking that they could have some vegetables that had been cooked in beef fat 😂

[kalos]

16 minutes ago, Snow Hill said:

A restaurant we frequent labels its menu using the same symbols as P&O,

 

Unless in the MDR the Ventura /Azura buffet can be a nightmare with their labeling 

especially on the first dessert counter . They are marked up with the tiniest writing 

on the description cards " ls"as low sugar. Could be low salt ? 🤔

Folk walk in grab one thinking they are the same as on the other cake counter .

On Azura they have started putting small photo's into the cards now to show 

folk they are on the diet counter .

[kalos]

1 minute ago, Josy1953 said:

Perhaps they were thinking that they could have some vegetables that had been cooked in beef fat 😂

 

Have you managed to sort your insurance this morning Josy ?

[Josy1953]

47 minutes ago, July morning said:

I was in the wide awake club eventually managed to nod off about 3.30am . 

Regarding travel insurance I called All clear for a quote as online I was getting told no offers available husband has been diagnosed with advanced prostrate cancer and we were feeling very down and really wanted a cruise.  Hold on to your seats I could have cover for the sum of £3190.00 they came down to £2985.02 remember the 2p 😂 got to laugh or I'd cry! Anyway we're going to wait until until he's been on his treatment a bit longer to see if that will make any difference.

 

I hope that his treatment goes well.  I know what you mean about wanting a cruise.  I hope that you can get some more reasonably priced insurance so that you can get away.

 

[Josy1953]

2 minutes ago, kalos said:

 

Have you managed to sort your insurance this morning Josy ?

This morning after asking to be put through to a supervisor I was eventually transferred to a very nice Welsh lady named Fion who managed to unlock my account and when I asked why they no longer give us the option to have the documents sent to us she said that most people prefer electronic documents but that they frequently have problems when people are having treatment at renewal times.  She then said that she would have our documents sent out by first class mail and we should receive them midweek.

I have been so stressed with all of the hassle over the last few days that I will never again be insuring with Staysure.

 

[Eglesbrech]

1 hour ago, lancashire_cruisers said:

As a veggie for nearly 45 years due to a serious allergy I’m starting to feel a bit victimised over all this furore about the inclusion of vegetarian meals on the MDR menu. I actually preferred it when we had our own separate menu to be honest.

 

I hope there won’t be pitchforks and flaming torches on my next cruise if I dare to order veggie 😳😉

On the contrary, you are extremely well cared for and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.

 

It’s not extending vegetarian / vegan choice that is an issue. It is the diminution of other choices to such a noticeable extent and replacing many standard pudding with vegan non dairy.

 

I am not vegetarian but don’t eat much meat or fish. I can assure you there are no pitchforks allowed onboard 😀. There is no victimisation, just a discussion.

[Peanut006]

1 hour ago, July morning said:

I was in the wide awake club eventually managed to nod off about 3.30am . 

Regarding travel insurance I called All clear for a quote as online I was getting told no offers available husband has been diagnosed with advanced prostrate cancer and we were feeling very down and really wanted a cruise.  Hold on to your seats I could have cover for the sum of £3190.00 they came down to £2985.02 remember the 2p 😂 got to laugh or I'd cry! Anyway we're going to wait until until he's been on his treatment a bit longer to see if that will make any difference.

 

Sorry to hear about your husband, hope you can both get away for a break somewhere 

 

Michelle

[terrierjohn]

3 hours ago, Josy1953 said:

Personally I think that it is cost, P&O are now one of the cheapest lines to cruise with.  Like any business they need to make a profit so if they are cutting their prices to attract more customers then they have to cut their costs accordingly.  It is short sighted because when the newer cruises try another line they may not come back to P&O.

We had our boiler serviced last week by British Gas and the chap who came to service it was very tanned and when DH asked him if he had been on holiday he said that he was just back from a  7 night cruise on Iona which had only cost £500 each.  I just can't believe that it is cost effective to sell cruises at that price. He said that their only criticism was the poor food.

There probably is no reason for P&O to reduce the quality of the food onboard, the economies of scale, especially on the 2 new ships should be enough to maintain, or even increase profits, and the smaller ships already have higher pricing which should enable them to maintain standards. So maybe it is down to the standard of the chefs, which would account for the variability in dining standards that we so often read about.

[P&O SUE]

1 hour ago, July morning said:

I was in the wide awake club eventually managed to nod off about 3.30am . 

Regarding travel insurance I called All clear for a quote as online I was getting told no offers available husband has been diagnosed with advanced prostrate cancer and we were feeling very down and really wanted a cruise.  Hold on to your seats I could have cover for the sum of £3190.00 they came down to £2985.02 remember the 2p 😂 got to laugh or I'd cry! Anyway we're going to wait until until he's been on his treatment a bit longer to see if that will make any difference.

 

Sorry to hear this, hope you can manage to get a much needed break.

[July morning]

Thank you all for your kind thoughts as you can imagine it's been stressful waiting for the tests etc.

 

[Snow Hill]

1 hour ago, kalos said:

 

Unless in the MDR the Ventura /Azura buffet can be a nightmare with their labeling 

especially on the first dessert counter . They are marked up with the tiniest writing 

on the description cards " ls"as low sugar. Could be low salt ? 🤔

Folk walk in grab one thinking they are the same as on the other cake counter .

On Azura they have started putting small photo's into the cards now to show 

folk they are on the diet counter .

Always a nightmare when we have visited on rare occasions, my OH never trusted that the GF options were not cross contaminated and always approached someone for a fresh gf option, too risky not to.

[Adawn47]

5 hours ago, Eglesbrech said:

According to the vegetarian society it is 4.5% of the population (veggie and vegan). According to UKGov it is 3% vegetarian and 1% vegan.

 

They add significantly more to their carbon footprint too😷😇

Avril

[grapau27]

3 hours ago, July morning said:

I was in the wide awake club eventually managed to nod off about 3.30am . 

Regarding travel insurance I called All clear for a quote as online I was getting told no offers available husband has been diagnosed with advanced prostrate cancer and we were feeling very down and really wanted a cruise.  Hold on to your seats I could have cover for the sum of £3190.00 they came down to £2985.02 remember the 2p 😂 got to laugh or I'd cry! Anyway we're going to wait until until he's been on his treatment a bit longer to see if that will make any difference.

 

I'm sorry to hear your husband's diagnosis.

I hope you get better news soon.

[lincslady]

lancashire cruiser - If the menu choices are no more in number than previously, then the number of meat/fish choices are presumably fewer, if there has been a noticeable  increase in the  number of vegetarian/vegan dishes.  As I believe fewer than 5% of the population are vegetarian, this does seem somewhat biased.

 

It is good if you have a wider choice, but I do think it should not mean a loss of choice to the other 95% of the population.  To have separate menus, as you mention, does seem the way to go (but I doubt if it will happen).

[Eglesbrech]

@Britboys was going on Aurora and was going to review. Did I miss it?Haven’t heard from Andrew in a while, hope all is well.

 

Harry has also been quiet recently, Wowzz has vanished completely and some other have disappeared too eg Devon cruiser etc etc

 

It was however really nice to see @Bazrat pop back in.

[lancashire_cruisers]

2 hours ago, Eglesbrech said:

On the contrary, you are extremely well cared for and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.

 

It’s not extending vegetarian / vegan choice that is an issue. It is the diminution of other choices to such a noticeable extent and replacing many standard pudding with vegan non dairy.

 

I am not vegetarian but don’t eat much meat or fish. I can assure you there are no pitchforks allowed onboard 😀. There is no victimisation, just a discussion.

When it goes across more than one thread to the extent it has it does feel more than just ‘discussion’ and I will leave it there!

[zap99]

38 minutes ago, Eglesbrech said:

@Britboys was going on Aurora and was going to review. Did I miss it?Haven’t heard from Andrew in a while, hope all is well.

 

Harry has also been quiet recently, Wowzz has vanished completely and some other have disappeared too eg Devon cruiser etc etc

 

It was however really nice to see @Bazrat pop back in.

Wowzz posts on another forum.

[Grandad John]

4 hours ago, zap99 said:

On a different post, spellchecker changed Horlicks to Hollies.

They were never the same after Graham Nash left for sunny California instead of rainy Manchester. He was also Joni Mitchell’s boyfriend for a while. I just don’t see the attraction myself, much!

[pete14]

2 minutes ago, Grandad John said:

They were never the same after Graham Nash left for sunny California instead of rainy Manchester. He was also Joni Mitchell’s boyfriend for a while. I just don’t see the attraction myself, much!

But what a great and brave performance she gave at the Grammies last week considering what has happened to her life, health wise, over the last few years. 

[Eglesbrech]

17 minutes ago, lancashire_cruisers said:

When it goes across more than one thread to the extent it has it does feel more than just ‘discussion’ and I will leave it there!

How you feel is how you feel and no one can dispute that.

 

I think however you are conflating an issue with reduced choice for meat eaters and those who prefer puddings with dairy content with your choices which is actually not the point.

 

I enjoy vegetarian food but I recognise that the choice for meat eaters has reduced. That’s not a value judgement, it’s simple a fact.