Dinglebert

Your quote is very expensive. I enjoy going on Marella. I definately enjoy Ex2 as its adult only. I must enjoy them as we are off tomorrow on Ex2 doing Western Med. I really like the Croatia iteneries. Did them twice last year. All that said your price is just too expensive. You will get P+O going out of Malta at that time from Edinburgh for £800 at the same time going to Croatia.. No drinks package but the drinks are quite reasonable on P+O.

Heres the blank one if anybody needs it.

I did message marella and they are saying its a software issue. Probably same issue that makes the specialty dining not bookable at the moment. They did send me a blank one so if not fixed I'll be doing it myself. The queue at airport will be a pain if very few have passes.

There appears to be an issue with the tickets. Try to download but its just cycling around.

Ariva is far too big a ship for me. I don't enjoy the floating holiday camp type ship with didgem cars and water slides., balcony cabins facing inwards to view other people on their balcony cabins. Last year we did P+O Azura and Marella Ex2 and D2 It was our first P+O post pandemic and in our opinion a lot of things had gone downhill. We were not the only ones as the complaints were frequent. They were all basic and perhaps petty but its part of what makes a cruise. Less staff on board. The turndown was removed as the cabin staff were having to wait tables in the evening. Frankly they were not very good at it. I lot of mistakes, meals arriving well after one another etc. There were shortages of basic food items. No orange juice one morning. Certain cereals just not there. Butter felt it was being rationed. If there were 6 of you at the dinner table then you got 5 portions of butter. The menu choices in the MDR had halved from what was available pre pandemic. We bought the Captains Wine package of 6 bottles of wine. It was only after we bought it that it became clear that many of the selections were not available (usually the expensive ones). The entertainment was still great and the ship was good. However we won't be back to P+O unless there are imprvements in what is offered to guests and probably new destinations. I do think using the massive ships to do the Norway run is a mistake. Yes Marella ships are looking a bit tired but I can't fault the MDR food or the staff.

i have ordered two beers on one occasion. It was allowed but I could see the barman struggle with it. I ordered two bottles as what I wanted was a pint but the kegs were out. That said there is beer in the buffet in large ice containers and there is no-one to stop you taking what you want. You can take drinks to your room no issues. Most of the fridges are gone in Discover 2. Some of the balconys still have them. The speciality dining for the steak restaurant is around £30.

Very true. We asked them to stop after a few days. The water is warm and it just takes up space. Now if only we had a fridge. Wish they had never removed them.

I have searched and indeed searched. At the end of the day I know it’s my ultimate choice but I can’t work out if premier is worth it and would welcome opinions. The price difference for our 12 night Baltic cruise is £324 for the cabin or £162 each. I know the plus works for us. Don’t know it premier does. Drinks. Looking at what I can see online there are not that many drinks above the $15 mark. As a whisky drinker there are some very premium whiskies above the limit which I would enjoy. OH likes her cocktails but I’m not seeing a large amount over the $15 and there seems to be lots available. We enjoy a nice sparkling and the Champagne is over the threshold but Prosecco is available. However am I using an outdated price list. Latest I can find is early 2023. if we had premier we would enjoy the speciality dining. Not sure we w oh ld be using the deserts that frequently. Unsure also about the casual dining as it’s our first Princess cruise. Do they Aksumite do these at lunch on sea days? The photo but would be good. E have tended in the past not to take cruise photos as have always found them too dear. Are there a lot of photographers around. Have had very different recent experiences with different lines. RCI they were everywhere to the degree of almost annoyingly not being able to have dinner without a photographer sat next to you. Marella were ok, Pando could see a photographer when you actually wanted one. the seats for the shows I’m not sure about. Are these at the front so you can walk in at last minute? I do like the thought about not being concerned what drink we get or wanting photos etc. Equally like the idea of having £32; to spend on excursions any experiences welcome

Completely disagree. I have had some cracking deals on Sonos, Ninja Kitchen. Prices could come close to being matched elsewhere.

I phoned this morning at exactly 8.30. Now have a 15 minute wait. which has turned into 30 so far.

I have emailed them twice well over a week ago with a simple question. No response at all.

I have tried searching for this both here and on the web and while it brings up a list of hotels when you actually investigate none of them actually do a shuttle. My logistics for next year are all a bit off. Flying in from Edinburgh the day before the flight lands at 9.15 pm so I really just need a bed for the night. Yes I know I could get a taxi but was just looking to see if there were any shuttles available.

I have a cruise which has now been moved three times due to covid/cancer and death! I am no longer convinced that we want to do this particular cruise. I know I can move it as long at what I move it to costs at least the same. I am thinking I want something we fly to rather than Southampton. Nothing is really jumping out at me for next July. However I would be interested in say I week cruising and a week on shore but cannot find that on PandO site. Is this something they offer?

Just back two days ago from Explorer 2, the adult only one. We had two more booked one this October and one next October. I booked Explorer 2 for next April yesterday. I was unsure about Marella before our first one. Thinking it would be all football tops and drink. Its anything but. The meals in dining areas are good. The buffet is average. the speciality restuarants are superb. The dining club 7 course menu with wine matching was a three hour experience and worth every penny of the £45 it cost. Crew seem friendlier than on our last PandO. The entertainment tream were excellent. On our last PandO the cutbacks were noticable. Far less choice in the restaurants, shortages of some foods (butter was rationed). No such issues with Marella. Its now my first port of call when looking for a cruise. yes the ships are older but they are also smaller and friendlier. Personally I don't like the big ships. They may have extras like dodgem cars and ice rinks but they also have thousands more people and not enough space for everyone to sit.

For many different not great reasons last week I have had to move my P+O cruise which was tomorrow to next year at the same time. We are now in a position to book a cruise again this year and I have plumped for Explorer 2 on the 13th of July. A number of reasons for booking this cruise in that it will be going to a couple of places we have not been before as well as some we have. This the adult only was the biggest selling point though! We were in Trieste in April on another cruise and while we very much enjoyed a nice Easter Sunday relaxing at a restaurant we decided we would like to do the trip to Venice this time. Of course after booking and getting access to the excursions its sold out. Do they ever make more available or would there be a chance of availibility which we are on board?

It will never be cheaper on the ship. If they did that no-one would ever buy it before they went.

Just as I posted that the reason popped up on my HL newsfeed Sharecast News) - Analysts at BofA Securities upgraded their recommendation for shares of Carnival from 'neutral' to 'buy'. They also hiked their target price from $11 per share to $20. The decision followed meetings with all three of the publicly traded cruise companies in Miami. Their main takeaway from those meetings was increased confidence that demand in the industry was steady at a time of consumer uncertainty. So too, they judged that the pricing environment was rational and that booking curves were in line with company expectations. "In our opinion, the cruise industry's long booking window and strong current demand could allow it to be less susceptible to a slowdown in the leisure consumer relative to other areas of travel," they added. Among other factors buttressing their improved view on the company were a reduction in balance sheet risk, a greater focus on revenue generation, a better mix of ships in comparison to before the pandemic and the fact that the company0s valuation was not stretched by any metric.

Well beyond that now. I’m not aware of any Carnival news which could have triggered this surge.

We were due to be on Ventura for 14 nights on the 1st July. Flights to Southampton and back from Heathrow booked, car parking at airport booked, hotel booked and coach from Southampton to Heathrow booked. This is a cruise we had to move from 2022 to 2023 already. Due to reasons of health of a close family relative we were no longer able to go. I won't go into detail but there was/is a real posibility of having events happen either before we went or during the cruise meaning flights home. It was difficult to think the cruise could be enjoyed under these circumstances. The only option I could see was to try to move the cruise to 2024. The same cruise was available leaving 20 July next year. While I do have insurance the difficulty in getting a doctors letter stating dates etc for someone who is not actually going on the cruise is lets say just a bit problematic. Reading the P+O webpage is was also clear given the closeness of the cruise that they were not under any obligation to do anything. I fully expected to be losing quite a bit of money yesterday. However when I phoned, explained the circumstances they could not have been more helpful. No problem moving the cruise. We were a saver Superior Deluxe Deck 9 aft. We are now a Select Superior Deluxe Deck 9 mid aft. A bit more expensive but there is a big chunk of onboard spend which my shareowner credit will also add to. Holiday Inn at Southampton which I had booked with points were also very accommodating when they didn't need to be. Points returned and I will book again when I am able to in August. BA flights were were also points flights were also cancelled easily and points returned. Airport parking again didn't have to under T+C's have given us the credit for the booking to be used within a year. The only thing I can't cancel is the coach travel but given I used Tesco points its completely minor. What was looking to be a very difficult day turned out to be an far "easier" process than I thought. Obviously I would rather not be in the situation we are in but its also a part of life we all have to experience. So thank you P+O and all the others for making it simple. Depending on the circumstances we will try to get away this summer. It will probably be a cruise but its wait and see at the moment.

We were late on to Discovery 2 last year (9.30). Only option was the buffet and at that time the choices were very poor. Sorry can't help with timings for Corfu

It is worth checking which wines on the list they actually have before buying. We only discovered that all the more expensive wines were not available after we purchased the package.

Out of copyright tend to be free if you search. The 99p is not going to the author it just goes to someone chancing their arm.

I have found that Marella are a bit slow in getting their tours on and its worth checking every week as when they do go on they sell quickly. From my own experience however Marella cruise trips are very competative as compared to other cruise lines. Probably half the price of RCI trips. If it were me I would look at what I wanted to do at each port, price it independently but wait till Marella publish theirs and then decide.

Ok thanks. It’s an upgrade then!

Ok thanks I did say no upgrade. Suppose the next question is is is this cabin overlooked. It’s very close to aft