Ardennais

We visited their shop and tea room in Lubeck earlier in the year. What an amazing place.

I’m currently reading A Village in the Third Reich by Julia Boyd. A real eye-opener.

This Welsh girl hates rugby so I’m really not bothered that Wales are out. Football is another matter, and last night’s result was amazing!

I wouldn’t go that far. Yes, Iona (and Arvia, which I haven’t sailed on) in 2023 are very different to say Oceana in 2012. Aurora in 2012 was a family ship and is now adults only. Whether the product on the smaller adult only ships is that different, I wouldn’t know.

Of course. I had read your original post and understood that rules were broken. So I wasn’t disputing that at all, merely commenting that people sometimes need more space these days as they work from home. I can see why some find it cheaper and easier to extend rather than buying a larger house as somebody suggested. I also know from my teaching days how many families ‘merge’ these days and half or step-siblings often won’t share due to conflict etc. i quite see that this family broke the rules, but I can also understand why some can appear to be unthinking just because their own circumstances are quite challenging,

What a great thread! So pleased for you Selbourne and Mrs S. Looking forward to hearing more about your great adventure,

Remember that a lot of people also work from home now and need more space.

Plenty to do and see in Cardiff. Swansea is another matter though! We we there last week and apart from the Mumbles, which we love, Swansea is looking really worse for wear. Apparently, it used to have a very elegant and prosperous centre before the heavy three night raid in 1941. Don’t think it ever recovered.

I said nothing about food poisoning. Simply that we thought that the standard of food on Britannia this year was the poorest we’ve ever had on P&O in 13 years.

Interesting that you experienced this on Britannia. We also had poor lukewarm food on Britannia in May and felt queasy after eating some chowder. Since then, there have been good reports but there’s definitely inconsistency.

Early Fixed dining is available on Arcadia so would tick the eating early box. As an aside, my mother has just turned 80 and is the only one of her sizeable group of friends able to use a computer. She worked in admin for many years and was introduced to computers through work. I know of many households around here who don’t have wi-fi or any smart devices. There are many people, of all ages, who aren’t computer literate.

I haven’t been complaining. Never had cause to complain aboard on over 25 cruises. I’m just putting my view across which is that I like to relax on holiday. Never had a tight schedule pre-planned and decide in the early evening what we’d like to do. A holiday is a chance to get away from ‘normal life’ in my view anyway. And I repeat, we never felt any stress before the app was introduced. Not that I get stressed by the app, but I don’t want to be looking at my phone all the time. In fact, we hardly ever used to carry our phones around the ship before the app was introduced as there was simply no need. Just a few times to take a few photos. App or no app, we like to get to the theatre early if possible. And we don’t have to rush dinner as we usually go the later show. It’s all very well you saying that you can easily go up or down a level. Not as easy when elderly parents have walkers, or have had joint replacements etc. There as so many people who aren’t disabled, but do have mobility issues to some degree or another.

No? Not in our experience anyway?

Twice this year. It was definitely first in queue were given the ‘best’ tables. I booked the Limelight for Iona the minute the bookings opened around 12.20am a fortnight before we sailed. We turned up just before 7.30 (I think) and we were towards the back. I just assumed that the table would have been pre-assigned. On Britannia a few weeks later, we were the second couple to arrive, about 30 minutes beforehand, and were invited to basically choose our table. I only booked that a few days before sailing.

That wasn’t the case on our last cruise. It was first come, first serve.

I never experienced stress on a cruise before the app! We have a general idea of what we want to do, but not a detailed schedule as we’re on holiday, not at work. We like to settle ourselves in the theatre 20-30 minutes before a show, have a chat with our neighbours or read the Kindle. No stress. On the busy February half term Iona cruise, the theatre was quite full 15 minutes before the start of the show, and had we been our family group of 7, we wouldn’t have been able to sit together. That of course is not a deal breaker, but it’s nicer. You evidently like to pre-plan, which works for you. We are a bit more laid back and don’t really get stressed about anything on holiday.

Looks good and sounds good. Many thanks.

£10 a day x 7 = £70 a week. The OP doesn’t need any lectures about appropriate drinks for a 6 month old child. The question is solely related to P&O and their confusing rules.

I think you must have separate accounts under My Account for past cruising history. That account is different to My P&O Cruises which is for upcoming cruises, cruise personaliser etc. My husband and I have a separate My Account with our individual profiles.

I have enjoyed reading your review. Many thanks,

We found our standard balcony cabin on Ventura very comfortable when we did a 35 night cruise. Our standard balcony cabin on Iona was light and airy, but very cramped - very little room at the foot of the bed and very difficult to use the wardrobe as it opened towards my side of the bed. No drawers or a proper bedside cabinet either. I don’t think a long cruise would be as comfortable on Iona.

These are the dinner menus from some of the other evenings on that cruise.

I’ve found some menus from August 2012 - 8 or 9 nights to the Fjords on Oceana. I think the Welcome Dinner is the same as the one posted above. The menu also had a stylish cover!

With additional bars, restaurants, etc, they would need to staff these venues. I wonder whether that would mean taking staff from other areas and stretching their staffing even further.

We found the food very good on Iona in Feb but sadly very poor on Britannia in April. Meant to add - service poor on Iona but good on Britannia! Very inconsistent,