Ardennais

I don’t have an old runabout but a decent car and if I began to stress about marks etc on my car, my hair would be white by now. Small, narrow roads and overhanging branches mean that real country folk don’t stress about the state of their vehicles! They’re washed for funerals and weddings and that’s about it.

When this was discussed before, I seem to remember it being said that P&O also had to ensure that there were enough adapted cabins available for disabled passengers requiring isolation. So really, they’re ensuring that there IS provision available for disabled passengers.

Oligopoly and Tired Mummy - you are certainly not bad parents! I fully understand where you’re coming from having been at once time a very very tired mummy of three under 4s on top of working full time. We all need a break and as I see it, you booked your holidays with the expectation, based on how things used to be or how they are marketed, that you would have some adult only time. No doubt someone will say that you should have ‘reset’ your expectations - that phrase comes from another thread and still riles me! Many posters over the last few months have suggested that P&O are trying to attract a younger demographic. If so, they need to resolve these issues asap!

It’s all very well saying that people haven’t ‘reset’ their expectations, but I can’t see that P&O (and probably other cruiselines too) have actually ‘reset’ their marketing either. They still promise the same as before so you can hardly blame people for having the same expectations! It works both ways. Personally, I think that we have to be realistic and accept that there will be changes. You’re spot on with your assessment of P&Os poor communications. I just wish someone in head office would go through the website carefully and just consider things from the customer’s perspective. Same goes for the Geiranger situation - can’t head office see how awful it is to expect people now to pay for the transfer there? Or even honour the current Mt Dalsnibba price instead of nearly doubling it?

John - hope you have a fantastic cruise. Being onboard once again must be wonderful!

And in the Gerianger fiasco, it also costs the passenger money!

I think we all appreciate that there will be missed ports now and then - we have only missed 2 in over 20 cruises and they were indeed inaccessible on the planned day. i understand where you’re coming from regarding looking at the region in general, but there are some places which do make us choose a particular cruise. For instance, next year we are looking to visit Barcelona, having only been there once and keen to return. So it’s not a silly to look at cruises which visit Barcelona! The Gerianger situation is different. Someone, somewhere had slipped up. What makes it worse is that now P&O are offering the trip to say Mt Dalsnibba for much more than the one which was cancelled. Don’t know about you, but we used to cruise with our children which would have incurred a considerable additional cost. So it’s not about compensation as such, just that P&O absorbs that additional cost, and not the passenger who has been let down.

Thank you. So are you able to tell us what the problem is? Is it something that should have been checked and verified BEFORE the itineraries were signed off? And as Selbourne put it so well, why is that the customer now has to pay a substantial amount to visit Gerianger, which was an advertised port of call when the passengers booked? I am so angry about this.

It wasn’t like that when we visited in high season, but that day, only Oceana was there so there were fewer cruisers. Which begs the question, why on earth did P&O think it was a good idea to send a huge ship like Iona to Gerianger?! And worse still, find out after taking people’s money that Iona couldn’t actually stop there? And worse of all, asking people to pay extra to actually visit Gerianger, an advertised port of call?

It’s definitely not a place to avoid!

Traffic is very different around here in Summer too. To begin with, there’s more of it. Then you get two different types of visitor driving styles. The ones who crawl along, 20-30 mph and brake as they go round every corner, and the nutters who still think they’re on dual carriageways or motorways! I much prefer the first type even when stuck behind them! Then you get those who just can’t reverse and expect you to reverse every time you meet them along the small narrow lanes and the ones who start tooting when stuck behind farm vehicles and tractors. They’re just out of their comfort zone, as we are when travelling on motorways and facing huge roundabouts. I nearly cried a fortnight ago when stuck on the Coldra roundabout near Newport. The Ed Sheeran concert caused terrible traffic problems from the Severn Bridge all the way into Cardiff. If I’d known that he was performing, I would have avoided the area!

So Moley confirmed on 2 June that it affected all up to G218, but P&O probably knew even then, a full week ago, that they would also be unable to visit Gerianger at all this year. Not good at all.

Also cancelled as far ahead as G230, Sept 2nd.

Could be his spectacle case.

We have no motorways around here! Bendy roads, poor surfaces, 30mph speed limit in every village and 20mph around schools when children arrive and leave. I used to have a Passat 508 with a 6th gear. Used it once I got in the motorway to Southampton - so 3 times a year!

It really is, and we rely on our own transport around here!

It is. In Welsh, we pronounce Iona with 2 syllables, Ion-a, not with 3 syllables as in P&O’s I-on-a

Iona is a popular Welsh name for girls as is Ioan for boys and we have a Iona and a Ioan in our extended family!

You’re right of course. No need for patronising comments!

I find information about shuttle buses helpful when planning for a cruise, not just the night before. Useful when there are mobility issues (as when my parents cruise with us) and also in deciding whether or not to book an excursion. Google has loads of information, of course. When teaching, I used to suggest to my pupils that they type something like ‘Information about Rome for children’ - I know that restaurants and the like wouldn’t feature in the results, but you will often get bite-sized chunks of information, or useful lists. Adding ‘for children’ means that the search results are normally concise and clear. Not always, but mostly!

Really! Well done you. I’ll have to try it out!

Where have the missing posts gone??

Friends of ours returned home yesterday after a week on Iona. I think their boarding time was 3.30-4.00 but they chanced it after lunch and boarded just after 2. They thought Iona was too big for them and they’re quite a few years younger than us - took ages to walk from end to end and usually long wait for lifts. They weren’t impressed with the food and thought that the buffet was really poor. Entertainment was ok. Before I even asked about the deck 8 situation, they said that they would never choose one of those cabins. They haven’t sailed with P&O for 4 years and their last few cruises have been with Princess. They’re glad that they tried Iona but they think that Princess will be their first choice from now on. They like the drink packages and Wi-fi and on that score, they think that Princess offers better value for money.

FO is pricier overall, I agree. I have cruised in a balcony in Balmoral, but the balcony suites on their newer ships are out of my range. You mentioned the FO terraced cabins, which I have looked at in the past but they’re very careful on their website not to describe these as balcony cabins. They just mention that you have direct access to the Promenade deck. It’s fairly clear to prospective cruisers what the situation is regarding these Terraced Cabins and I know that I wouldn’t feel comfortable in one of them. I don’t think the true nature of the Deck 8 Iona cabins is clear at all, unless you have a good trawl through Youtube etc. I don’t feel the need to try one out before giving an opinion - I’ve seen enough to know that I would feel uncomfortable and exposed in one of them.

I understand your point!