Selbourne

Probably not, yet all the ones I see seem to be in possession of a litre bottle of spirits that they manage to consume without it being confiscated (sorry - couldn’t resist it 😂)

We live ‘down south’ where prices are more inflated 😉

I just don’t accept that P&O drink prices are a rip off. As previously mentioned, they are no more than any pub or restaurant that we use ashore. You just cannot compare the cost of a bottle of booze bought from a shop versus the individual drink price in a pub, restaurant or cruise ship. As with any service business, the cost to buy the product is only a small amount of the cost of supplying the service.

I completely understand that, as I do hidden disabilities etc, but the difference with a wheelchair user is that they need more space. Those who are just elderly or have hidden disabilities can usually stand in a lift (or the disability isn’t hidden) and therefore can still get into busy lifts. The issue we had on Iona was that most lifts were arriving half to two-thirds full and, as a result, we couldn’t get in as the lifts were ridiculously small. We’d not had the issue on any other cruise ship and were hoping that this wasn’t going to be an issue with all new builds.

Oh dear. That’s the last thing that I wanted to hear given that my wife is a full time wheelchair user and we have no option but to use lifts. We’ve mostly cruised with P&O and, other than disembarkation morning which is always a nightmare, we’ve usually coped OK. However, when we went on Iona the lifts were a nightmare. Far too small given the fact that it’s such a huge ship that everyone was using them. Also, on other ships, during the safety announcement the Captain always asked people to give those in wheelchairs etc priority at lifts and there were often signs to that effect at the lifts themselves. On Iona there was none of that and to make it worse the lift etiquette was appalling, with able bodied people charging ahead of us to get into lifts when we had been waiting ages. It was so bad that my wife refuses to go back on that ship, or sister ship Arvia. Is it a naive hope that Cunard customers may demonstrate better lift etiquette and that our cruises on Queen Anne won’t be spoiled by the same issue?

We were really looking forward to the Planetarium when we were on QM2 last year. We saw both shows that were running and were extremely disappointed with both. I was expecting something akin to the London Planetarium, where almost all the show is the night sky and showing the marvels of space whereas, in reality, it was more like a large screen documentary with much of the subject matter being based on Earth. We didn’t even find it interesting and yet I love Space subjects.

Cunard Queens Grill is an entirely different experience to having a suite with P&O though, so not comparable IMHO. Using speciality restaurants every night wouldn’t appeal to us, other than perhaps on a 7 night cruise, as I’d find the menus too restrictive and repetitive. I like the choice and variety of the MDR menus, even though with P&O the menu descriptions can sound fabulous whereas what actually arrives at the table can be a little less impressive! One thing that could persuade us back to higher level accommodation (than a balcony cabin) with P&O would be if they could come up with the equivalent of Cunard’s Britannia Club. When we went on QM2 (admittedly in Princess Grill, but similar concept) we absolutely loved having a fixed table that we could turn up to whenever we liked for breakfast, lunch and dinner for the whole cruise, with no pagers, apps or queueing whatsoever. It was ten times better than what we’d been used to with P&O and massively enhanced our cruise experience as a result. By contrast, when we stayed in suites with P&O, the sole dining privilege was breakfast in a speciality restaurant and even that we abandoned some days as the experience had been spoiled by a screaming baby and some unruly toddlers whose parents didn’t give a damn about the fact that it was ruining it for everyone else (admittedly that’s a bad parenting rather than P&O issue though, so can happen on any ship).

Exactly the same with us.

I was about to make a similar point, but you have explained it better than I would! Carnivals debt burden is almost like that of a small country so, as you say, the operating profit is but one part of a much bigger picture. You only need to look at the share price pre and post Covid to see the damage that debt mountain has had on the value of the business. It’s worth less than 25% of what it was at peak, in spite of all the new ships.

Certainly the last two launches have had what I would describe as ‘ambitious’ prices. As a result, but also due to not wishing to commit two and a half years out due to my wife’s health, we haven’t made any bookings. I remain optimistic that, as with last year, we may pick up the odd cruise well within our price cap, especially after balance due date, but if we don’t then so be it. Like you we have branched out beyond P&O now, but certainly not abandoned them - even though we currently have no future cruises booked with P&O. Our next two cruises are with Cunard. Both are in Britannia Club on Queen Anne. The first one is expensive (booked at launch - lesson learned) but the second one was booked well after launch and is much cheaper. There is no equivalent of Club on P&O (although I would argue that, cabin size aside, the benefits of Club are far better than having a suite with P&O) but after deducting OBC (inc shareholder benefit) the cheaper cruise nets out at £136 pppn. So there are even bargains to be had with Cunard!

Whilst I agree that there have been a large number of changes, and the combined effect is that the P&O product has evolved from a mid-market to mass-market product over the last 10 years or so, I personally feel that the prices (in the main) reflect that shift and consequently can still offer good value. The way that we got our heads around it was to revise down the price that we’d be prepared to pay for a P&O cruise to a maximum of £100 pppn for a balcony cabin. This is quite easy to achieve on the family ships, but challenging on the adult only ones, which is why we book far less cruises on those ships now as we don’t feel that they represent value for money any more. That being said, our recent 65 nighter on Aurora cost us £73 pppn for a balcony cabin and we considered that to be exemplary value. In fact, deduct from that the money we saved by not being at home for that time during the winter and it was a net cost of around £50 pppn. I don’t think we could have done that on any other cruise line. So yes, it’s not what it was, but neither are the prices (if you look hard enough).

I hope that you enjoyed your cruise and found Club dining to be up to scratch? Would you be kind enough to share what the fixed a ‘La carte additions are (those that you can remember)? I’d be most grateful.

I agree. Where it’s possible, we prefer to walk into places rather than use shuttles, even though we usually book Select fares, but Haugesund is one of the few places where I think that P&O really should provide a shuttle, especially as the free one provided by the town has gone. It’s not just the distance, but the bridge. At the very least, they should provide an accessible shuttle, as my wife ends up staying on the ship there.

I couldn’t have tolerated that even for 5 minutes. I’d have challenged them directly (much to my wife’s annoyance) as it would absolutely infuriate me and I would call for the deck manager every single time they did it. If they still carried on after deck manager intervention I’d be pushing for them to be removed from the ship at the next port.

You posted at the same time as me! I had assumed that the shuttle was arranged by P&O as we didn’t pay and were on a Select fare, but I’ve no reason to doubt your info. Either way, it’s now a pain for wheelchair users.