Selbourne

We get it due to loyalty status and also if we use Superior Deluxe Balcony Cabins.

On the 3 or so occasions (over 65 nights) that I asked for cheese as well as a dessert on Aurora, our main waiter gave me a look as if to say “Really? You greedy bar steward”. Unfortunately we never took to him even as the cruise progressed. Thankfully our assistant waiter was lovely, but there’s no way we could have had 5 courses every night, even if we’d wanted to. We just felt too uncomfortable asking. Never had that issue before, so hopefully it was a one off.

That was the conclusion that we came to as well. Surprised that Cunard don’t provide Champagne. P&O U.K., a more budget brand within the Carnival group does.

I can’t imagine for one minute that it’s a hoax Andy. Why bother going to all that trouble. Makes no sense. As you say, P&O aren’t exactly faultless with the way that they phrase things. Two examples that spring to mind are the misleading communications that we had about the Yellow Fever requirements for our Aurora cruise and the Non-Disclosure Agreements that I’ve had from them in the past that were worded incorrectly. In fact, those NDAs put the onus on P&O and not me, which made me laugh!

Your review on your Saga experience was extremely informative and, having hovered in the ‘do we, don’t we’ bracket for some years re Saga, we decided against booking with them partly due to your feedback - so I think I owe you one! Happy to answer any questions that you have. The advertised Britannia Club dining was the deciding factor for us so, rest assured, I shall be all over it! We have another 2 weeks in Britannia Club on Queen Anne at the end of the year, so we can compare the two cruises, just in case our cruise in a few weeks time is blighted by a few teething problems as the crew bed themselves in (as seems to be the case on board at present, judging by the feedback so far).

Do you still have to adhere to the formal dress code or do they relax it as it’s in the buffet? I could see the attraction if the dress code doesn’t apply.

Thankfully they don’t need to do it on the smaller ships as the MDRs have enough capacity to accommodate all those who wish to dine there on formal nights.

The ‘silent’ disco on Iona was in the atrium, so silent that we could hear it in our cabin 2 decks up. As I said at the time, never before have so many tone deaf people been gathered together in one place, ‘singing’ their hearts out 😂

Thankfully this wouldn’t affect us as the drinks packages wouldn’t be cost effective for us even before the price increase, and we never take alcohol on board with us. However, I note that spirits cannot be taken on board during embarkation, so presumably those who like a tipple in their cabin could buy a bottle at the first port? Alternatively pack a bottle carefully in their main luggage as this isn’t checked. I appreciate that’s a risk, but we always bring our freebie bottle of champagne home in our luggage (carefully wrapped) and, touch wood, it’s never smashed.

I’m sorry to hear that service, for both food and drinks, has been unacceptably slow so far. Let’s hope that this was first night troubles (presumably being the first time that everything has been tested at capacity?) and that by the end of the week everything will be as it should. At least I hope that’s the case, as we are on QA in 3 weeks time and with the price we are paying (for Britannia Club) I would not be accepting of some of the wait times being reported 🤔

Do you mean me? I’d never be invited on a freebie as my live blogs are too honest and ‘warts and all’, whereas the video bloggers are over the top positive, so as to ensure that the freebies and upgrades keep on coming 😂. We are on Queen Anne in 3 weeks time for the Round Britain (and naming ceremony) cruise, but as I’m not known on the Cunard pages I’m going to give myself a break. I’ve only just recovered from my daily blog on all 65 days of our Grand Tour on Aurora and the pressure I felt to keep it going when views went well over 200,000 😂

If it’s going to be a Royal, I’d hope for The Queen (Camilla). Sadly The Princess of Wales is out of the equation and it would be odd for it to be The Princess Royal as she’s called Anne but isn’t a Queen! If not The Queen, I’ve always liked The Duchess of Edinburgh.

It didn’t appeal to us, so we didn’t book it when we were on Iona I’m afraid. I believe that there may be some small additions to the menu over the MDR, but we avoid the buffet like the plague and a tablecloth wasn’t enough to make us change that stance 😂. We prefer the ambiance, table configuration and seating in the MDRs, especially if we are going to the trouble of dressing up in our finery for a formal night. It does come with one advantage though, the fact that you have a guaranteed dining time which, if you dine later (as we do), can apparently be a challenge on Arvia. There are no options to book tables in the MDR other than very early (far too early for us) and quite a few people have reported long waits for tables on Arvia as it has less MDR capacity than Iona. If we were on a 2 week Arvia cruise I’d give it a go, just to see what it’s like.

Welcome home Andy. Delighted to hear that you enjoyed the cruise and in particular that your MDR experience was far better than last year. I wish you could persuade Hyacinth to write a review as well 😂

Which ship? Chefs Table means different things on different ships. On Aurora, it’s an officer hosted fine dining event, for a dozen or so people, at a cost of around £75 per person. This includes the cost of paired wines with each course. On Arvia and Iona it’s a sectioned off area of the buffet where the main dining room formal menu is provided. It was created to alleviate pressure in the main dining rooms (Arvia, in particular, doesn’t have enough capacity in the main dining rooms for all those who wish to dine there on formal nights). As a result it’s no cost and the wines are just recommended, but not included, so in reality it’s no different to the main dining rooms in that you can have some, all or none of the wines and pay for those that you have.