Fur coat and no knickers

[jaxw17]

We have done 24 cruises on different lines over the years. We chose this as there were a lot of sea days and we thought there would be lots to do. Wrong. If don't you like line dancing and being given presentation on thing they are trying to sell you then you are left with little else.
The ship is simply too big and the outside spaces and pools too small.
There is a queueing system for everything that I don't like. I like my holiday to be a little more spontaneous We only ate in the main dining room on three night one night we had to wait 1.45 hours for a table and then only got one as I went to complain.
Parts of the ship are dirty in Horizons the carpets and soft furnishing could do with a good clean.
We ate in the pay for restaurants and in three had to send food back as it was so bad. Epicuren was the best. We cancelled chefs table as everyone we spoke to said that it was not good.
There is a lovely adults swim up bar and in front a small infinity pool this is not adults only but by afternoon it was overtaken by kids even though this was a transatlantic sailing falling outside of school holidays.
Some of the staff were lovely and very accommodating and some were very glum and some rude. When I asked for a coffee in the main dining room in the morning the waiter said to me why don't you just say tea Alexa !
There were a number of people put off the ship for fighting and inappropriate sexual activity in the whirl pools.
Some sad individuals even put chocolate in the dryers in the laundry.
It was impossible to get a sunbed on sea days and there were too many of them much more than any other transatlantic we have done we knew this of course but I refer to my opening comments.
People kept saying it was okay for the money they had some extremely cheap last minute bookings. Ours was not one of these so to us it was not value for money.
We made the best we could and blurred it a bit with a few stiff drinks.
I would not return and in fact would in the future avoid these very large ships they are not for us.
In one port because of the size of the ship and there were 2 others in there were 10,000 deposited on a small Caribbean island. 

[Selbourne]

Well the title of your thread will certainly attract interest but, unfortunately, you have failed to mention which ship you are talking about! I think I’ve worked out that it might be Arvia?

[Somerset Cruiser]

I think it's a joke, albeit not well delivered.

[kalos]

16 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

Well the title of your thread will certainly attract interest but, unfortunately, you have failed to mention which ship you are talking about! I think I’ve worked out that it might be Arvia?

 

I thought they were describing the onboard shopping clothes dept ? 🙃

[doog442]

 

Is this the advice for the formal nights 😉

[Son of Anarchy]

5 minutes ago, doog442 said:

 

Is this the advice for the formal nights 😉

Easy Tiger 😀

[Megabear2]

38 minutes ago, Somerset Cruiser said:

I think it's a joke, albeit not well delivered.

It's a very well known saying where I come from, and certainly no joke for the OP from some of this.

 

"Adjective. all fur coat and no knickers (not comparable) (UK, idiomatic, derogatory) Having a superficially positive appearance that is belied by the reality, e.g., superficially elegant and beautiful but actually common."

 

 

Edited November 15, 2023 by Megabear2

[TigerB]

3 hours ago, Son of Anarchy said:

Easy Tiger 😀

Excuse me?  I didn't say owt!🤭

[Harryjacobs]

I often walk around and see miserable looking people and wonder what goes on in their heads....know I know.

[Harry Peterson]

The paucity of daytime activities was very obvious on Azura even before a certain virus caused all the financial problems.  Over the course of a few years we noticed that a pretty full and busy list of things to keep us happy on sea days had been cut down to the point that it was actually boring.  You could guarantee an interesting speaker in the morning and another in the afternoon on most sea days, but that had gone.  The number of new film screenings on a decent screen also dropped.

 

We always had Kindles with us, but used them mainly while waiting for lectures to start. Then we ended up using them as a replacement for the lectures.  Pleasant enough, but I can do that in a hotel or at home at a fraction of the price, and that was one of the attractions of cruising.  I don't want to play bingo, I don't want to be sold iffy 'art' and I don't want to play fruit machines.  I want some interesting talks, and they're just not there now on P&O.  

[Snow Hill]

16 minutes ago, Harry Peterson said:

The paucity of daytime activities was very obvious on Azura even before a certain virus caused all the financial problems.  Over the course of a few years we noticed that a pretty full and busy list of things to keep us happy on sea days had been cut down to the point that it was actually boring.  You could guarantee an interesting speaker in the morning and another in the afternoon on most sea days, but that had gone.  The number of new film screenings on a decent screen also dropped.

 

We always had Kindles with us, but used them mainly while waiting for lectures to start. Then we ended up using them as a replacement for the lectures.  Pleasant enough, but I can do that in a hotel or at home at a fraction of the price, and that was one of the attractions of cruising.  I don't want to play bingo, I don't want to be sold iffy 'art' and I don't want to play fruit machines.  I want some interesting talks, and they're just not there now on P&O.  

One reason we only book cruises with the minimal number of sea days, which means we often settle for a fly cruise. 

[Megabear2]

The lack of things to do on seadays  other than sit in the sun or eat and drink is appearing with regularity in comments and reviews.  Selbourne has offered excellent blogs from three different vessels in recent months and he has commented on the lack of seaday offerings every time. 

 

I would guess anyone undertaking their first P&O cruise for some time would indeed find this daytime  removal of options disconcerting.

[yorkshirephil]

1 hour ago, Harry Peterson said:

 You could guarantee an interesting speaker in the morning and another in the afternoon on most sea days, but that had gone.  The number of new film screenings on a decent screen also dropped.

 

 

On the last two post covid cruises we have been on; Arcadia Aurora there were speakers on most sea days morning and afternoon, plus both had a lot of sea days. Now interesting speakers can mean different things to different folk. I would rarely go to the speaker in the morning on a sunny day unless the subject matter was in my field of interest, however we did have a geographical profiler who worked with the police on Aurora who I found very interesting who I would have missed if it had not be cool outside on his first talk.

I think it is the same with films, we had a mix of new and older on both Arcadia and Aurora, we both like the cinema experience on ship on damp sea days, however I do think they could do better with the facilities they have with choice and rotation of films.

[Interestedcruisefan]

8 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

The lack of things to do on seadays  other than sit in the sun or eat and drink is appearing with regularity in comments and reviews.  Selbourne has offered excellent blogs from three different vessels in recent months and he has commented on the lack of seaday offerings every time. 

 

I would guess anyone undertaking their first P&O cruise for some time would indeed find this daytime  removal of options disconcerting.

There are always various talks to attend on sea days

 

Some (not all) involve things you can spend money on at the end but it's never compulsory

 

Whether people enjoy all those talks who knows. I enjoy the ones I attend and theres always at least one a day I attend that looks interesting. The health and fitness ones always end with something you could spend money on (if you want) but until then are informative. A small number of attendees queue to spend some money at the end. The art gallery talks refer to the odd thing they sell during them but 95 per cent of the talk  is informative and any references to things for sale is very very low key to be fair to them

 

Last cruise there were great talks by an actress about Victoria Wood and Agatha Christie plus another I missed

 

I've seen the whale watching ones as well

 

You don't get those  in hotels. You don't get cinemas in hotels. You don't get escape rooms in hotels. You don't get outdoor cinema in hotels around the pool. 

 

Around the dome pool there's more entertainment most of the day for anybody who likes that

 

There's quizzes and bingo going on inside I avoid. Poker/blackjack competitions  in the casino. I've only played that once or twice in total on previous cruises

 

There's many people like to sit, read, relax and sunbathe all day. So I'm quite active in comparison I think

 

For older cruisers I've no doubt the choice of talks may have reduced

 

For newer cruisers the things you can do on a ship on sea days is way more than you can do at a 4 or 5 star beach resort hotel every day which is all they could compare it to that's similar

 

We don't have the spa massages on ships unless it's ships selling them in auctions as they are so over priced

 

On a sun holiday there's plenty to do IMO.

 

Felt the same on Iona Fjords cruise as well tbh

 

Not arguing that in the good old days there would be more speakers and more dancing I imagine and bridge.  

 

But there's still plenty to do

 

And the non retired (like me) really enjoy the chance to just relax a bit on holiday as well and read a bit etc 

[Interestedcruisefan]

1 hour ago, Harry Peterson said:

We always had Kindles with us, but used them mainly while waiting for lectures to start. Then we ended up using them as a replacement for the lectures.  Pleasant enough, but I can do that in a hotel or at home at a fraction of the price 

 

I can understand that retired people aren't as attracted to sea days for the chance to read and relax etc when they can already can do that at home every day if they want.  And obviously aren't looking to recharge as much as non retired.  Although some may look forward to the sun (not all I realise) 

 

When you say at a fraction of the price I assume you mean compared to staying at home only?

 

If you are comparing to hotels I think cruises are way better value than hotels myself? Still with more to do  as well 

 

The talks are there always. Whether they appeal fair enough. There's no doubt the more cruises people have under their belts the more likely they've seen similar talks before or no longer find talks so appealing as newer cruisers 

 

Theres a huge number of speakers/talkers available to book to entertain people. It's something I do for a Rotary Club away from cruising. 

 

The fact is though there's probably only 10 per cent that advertise that would have enough mass appeal for a cruise line and many along the same lines even so

 

Having said that some speakers who's talks might not instantly appeal can be great speakers but wouldn't work for mass appeal on cruisers

 

It's actually hard finding new and interesting speakers for talks. And especially hard doing it for people with experience of seeing many talks already in the past Harry such as yourself or experienced rotarians

 

Will likely take something extra special or unusual or interesting to tempt you nowadays?

 

Understandably

 

Meanwhile Agatha Christie or Lowry talks will interest the masses time and again 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 16, 2023 by Interestedcruisefan

[cruising.mark.uk]

6 minutes ago, Interestedcruisefan said:

 

I can understand that retired people aren't as attracted to sea days for the chance to read and relax etc when they can already do that at home.

 

 

This (semi)-retired person is!  My wife and I have done 8 transatlantic cruises across Cunard, P&O, Celebrity and Princess.  And we have another coming up next May.  I absolutely love sea days and haven't noticed any real reduction in what there is to do on board (for those who want it - very rare that we participate).  But, whether people find that sufficient or not will depend on their own personal preferences.  Personally, we don't feel the need to be 'entertained' and can spend hours and hours on a balcony or the prom deck or by a window just admiring the majesty of the ocean and watching the world go by.  It is so relaxing.

 

And we also do most of what you listed at post 13 above as well.  Having crammed all that into the day, there's very little time for anything else!

[Megabear2]

14 minutes ago, Interestedcruisefan said:

There are always various talks to attend on sea days

 

Some (not all) involve things you can spend money on at the end but it's never compulsory

 

Whether people enjoy all those talks who knows. I enjoy the ones I attend and theres always at least one a day I attend that looks interesting. The health and fitness ones always end with something you could spend money on (if you want) but until then are informative. A small number of attendees queue to spend some money at the end. The art gallery talks refer to the odd thing they sell during them but 95 per cent of the talk  is informative and any references to things for sale is very very low key to be fair to them

 

Last cruise there were great talks by an actress about Victoria Wood and Agatha Christie plus another I missed

 

I've seen the whale watching ones as well

 

You don't get those  in hotels. You don't get cinemas in hotels. You don't get escape rooms in hotels. You don't get outdoor cinema in hotels around the pool. 

 

Around the dome pool there's more entertainment most of the day for anybody who likes that

 

There's quizzes and bingo going on inside I avoid. Poker/blackjack competitions  in the casino. I've only played that once or twice in total on previous cruises

 

There's many people like to sit, read, relax and sunbathe all day. So I'm quite active in comparison I think

 

For older cruisers I've no doubt the choice of talks may have reduced

 

For newer cruisers the things you can do on a ship on sea days is way more than you can do at a 4 or 5 star beach resort hotel every day which is all they could compare it to that's similar

 

We don't have the spa massages on ships unless it's ships selling them in auctions as they are so over priced

 

On a sun holiday there's plenty to do IMO.

 

Felt the same on Iona Fjords cruise as well tbh

 

Not arguing that in the good old days there would be more speakers and more dancing I imagine and bridge.  

 

But there's still plenty to do

 

And the non retired (like me) really enjoy the chance to just relax a bit on holiday as well and read a bit etc 

You are assuming the OP is retired, they don't say that.

 

On long cruises it isn't necessarily a "sun holiday", some sail in the most bad conditions possible - you highlighted the Saga ship yourself, Fred had problems, Ventura and Iona too.  It is unreasonable to compare either a 7 night Fjords cruise or a 14 night Caribbean fly cruise.

 

On my not such good weather Arvia cruise in May there was one speaker the whole cruise, a very interesting and nice man who talked about life as a film extra.  Very well attended but by his last talk he told us he'd actually run out of things to speak about because his normal itinerary was 3 days - P&O asked for two full weeks worth 8 seadays.

 

Art lectures are interesting however they run for 30 to 40 minutes and are a sales pitch yo get people in and signed up.  For a number of years you couldn't set foot on a cruise ship without Clarendon trying to sell you Rolf Harris prints or lecturing on his work.  These galleries run programmes based on what they'd like people to buy.

 

It is very easy to have a laugh about someone commenting about lack of entertainment on long voyages during the day but not everyone takes part in fitness activities or visits the gym.  It doesn't help to get a rise out of some moron thinking it's funny to put chocolate in the dryer or any of the other minor but wrong things either.

[Interestedcruisefan]

11 hours ago, Megabear2 said:

It's a very well known saying where I come from, and certainly no joke for the OP from some of this.

 

"Adjective. all fur coat and no knickers (not comparable) (UK, idiomatic, derogatory) Having a superficially positive appearance that is belied by the reality, e.g., superficially elegant and beautiful but actually common."

 

 

I've also heard "red shoes no knickers'

 

I googled and they have an equivalent phase in Texas, USA I quite liked:

 

"Big hat no cattle!"

[Interestedcruisefan]

1 minute ago, Megabear2 said:

You are assuming the OP is retired, they don't say that.

 

My posts aren't all replying to the OP MB. They thread has lots more contributors now I'm replying to.

 

 

[Interestedcruisefan]

6 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

Fair enough but only one person had chocolate in the dryer and this thread opened up after two removed posts as you are well aware as one was yours and the other mine!

Didn't realise posts had been removed? 

[Megabear2]

6 minutes ago, Interestedcruisefan said:

Didn't realise posts had been removed? 

Yes, before Harry Peterson's one which is how Harry's post started the rest of the discussion.

 

Whilst I appreciate your humour, using an individual's comments and ridiculing them is uncalled for. I've been victim of it enough over the past 10 years on various sections of the forums to realise it can be detrimental to willingness to share.

Edited November 16, 2023 by Megabear2

[Interestedcruisefan]

1 minute ago, Megabear2 said:

Yes, before Harry Peterson's one which is how Harry's post started the rest of the discussion.

 

Whilst I appreciate your humour, using an individual's comments and ridiculing them is uncalled for. I've been victim of it enough over the past 10 years on various sections of the forums to realise it can be a detrimental to willingness to share.

Fair enough

 

Was only trying to add some humour. Like I say the title of the thread made me go that way tbh

 

 

[Megabear2]

3 minutes ago, Interestedcruisefan said:

Fair enough

 

Was only trying to add some humour. Like I say the title of the thread made me go that way tbh

 

 

I love your humour its refreshing.  I'm just seeing the other side as I say I had a hell of a lot of sarcasm on the Cunard and Princess boards due to UK and in particular US humour being so different.

 

Carry On ...

Edited November 16, 2023 by Megabear2

[majortom10]

Can only speak for my experience on Arvia in September and it seems to me that the "new" cruiser's P&O are trying to attract are not interested in speakers or daytime activities. All they seem to be interested in is camping out in the SkyDome for the whole duration food from buffet or Taste 360 and getting value of the drinks package.

[Interestedcruisefan]

11 minutes ago, majortom10 said:

Can only speak for my experience on Arvia in September and it seems to me that the "new" cruiser's P&O are trying to attract are not interested in speakers or daytime activities. All they seem to be interested in is camping out in the SkyDome for the whole duration food from buffet or Taste 360 and getting value of the drinks package.

Only a very small fraction of new cruisers could possibly sit around skydome all day even if they wanted to Majortom?

 

Let's be honest about it

 

You are doing a huge disservice to new cruisers there IMO. And making a sweeping judgement which doesn't actually stack up

 

Some people will like what the skydome offers but on any given sea day it only houses a small fraction of passengers.

 

Furthermore not all of them choosing to be there will be new cruisers and only a small fraction of those that are there will actually be there on the drinks package

 

Whoever is on the drinks package could actually be anywhere on the ship as always. You have no idea. Unless you follow every guest to every bar

 

On sea days on Arvia all the spaces are filled all around the ship. I know as I walk around the decks on sea days constantly. So absolutely false to suggest all new cruisers go to the skydome all day on drinks packages. 

 

Maybe there's a very small fraction that do that. A very small fraction of a very large number of new cruisers

 

Don't tar everyone with the same brush it's unfair

 

You don't like the skydome yourself. Clearly some do just like many more don't.

 

Let the ones who do get on with it.

 

Some of the guests on the skydome may also go to talks as well

 

You are just guessing and making a sweeping statement tbh

Edited November 16, 2023 by Interestedcruisefan