terrierjohn

Our first 2 days have shown a lowering of standards in the breakfasts in the buffet. Too many items are just not hot enough, the english bacon is very inferior to P&Os, and there is no sign of sunny side up soft yolk fried eggs, most are too overcooked. The conserves eg marmalade, honey and the nuts and other toppings for cereals etc, are now in too smallish containers, and far too often empty, and the staff have to leave the toast machines to search for replacements. All minor 3rd world complaints but can be annoying as you struggle to balance several plates.

Well those should definitely put a stop to anyone trying to drive along New Street.

Only on the outside, inside the public decks are totally different and far more cruise shippy, rather Britannias John Lewis look.

We are on Sky Princess, so please keep any gastro bugs to yourselves!!!!😇😎

One further point we are currently cruising at 22kts which will enable us to get to Vigo in only 1 sea day, which is why we will have 7 ports on this cruise.

I doubt that calling their customers such names is likely to lead to them increasing the policing of the wash basins.

We are on Sky Princess at present so decided to post a few musings of our experiences as compared to P&O. This was our first day experience. Embarkation was far easier, apart from getting rather wet walking back from the short stay car park after leaving our car with P4C. We were blue lane and directed straight to the accessible check in, immediately met by a Princess check in agent armed with a tablet, gave her our cabin number and passports and she checked us both in in a few strokes, then sent a colleague off to get our medallions, then straight to a fairly short queue to go through security. The result was we were on board in approx 20 minutes from entering the terminal. The cabin furnishings looked pristine and no stale smells in the bathroom. The shower power was quite a bit higher than Iona in March, and the temperature was constant throughout my shower, again unlike Iona which fluctuated a bit too much for comfort. However shelf storage was a lot less, leaving sink top looking cluttered. Despite having pre booked a shared table for 18:40 in the Estrella MDR, there were lengthy first night queues, and we were not seated until after 19:00., in this procedure the P&O virtual queue system, if most passengers were to use it, is superior. However the menu had far more choice for all courses, the quality was about the same as on recent P&O cruises, although the portion size was higher. I will add my further experiences and any requests you have as the cruise progresses.

TBH if you have a drinks package, especially one like Princess Premier, then OBC becomes rather pointless.

I imagine that 3rd and 4th beds in cabins were mainly introduced to encourage families to cruise, although no cruise line is going to refuse to allow adult passengers to use these beds, although I imagine it will be rather cramped.

It will need to be well priced on P&O because unlike Princess the gratuities are already included in the fare, and there is no gratuity add on for drinks. In addition many people just don't want an internet package while on holiday. I think they will need regular offers to make it as successful as Princess, which of course will reduce its profit for P&O.

Hmmm, the P&O website is rarely up to date, as the recent posts on the benefits of early embarkation for loyalty and suite passengers have indicated. So I will await any official grammatically correct announcement.

I don't think I have ever heard Doris Day on P&O, although Move over Darling was quite good, but maybe not for dancing, and only the odd Elvis track. However if Pulse or the DJ wants to fill the dancefloor, then a selection of songs from the best of the 60s 70s and 80s always proves the best option.

I have lots of issues with P&Os standard disembarkation procedure, but in addition to my preference for having luggage arranged in time slots, I think P&Os lack of announcements over the ships intercom is another very weak point. This allows no flexibility at all if things are going well, or indeed if there are delays, as a result many times I have seen no queues at all at the gangway, whilst the meeting venues are still full. Which is why as a wheelchair pusher I always opt to self disembark rather than wait in the Limelight club for a porter.

I thought the endless feature on the forward pool had been disabled for years?

Really not too bothered about having dedicated disabled lifts, what I want is intelligent lift users who know to move away from the rear lift wall, rather than everyone heading for a wall as we get in, resulting in no way the wheelchair and I can fit in the lift.