Dinglebert

Have flown with them before to Venice for a RCI cruise. The check in at Edinburgh was different in that their desks were separate from all other airlines and all the bags were just stored in a pile behind the desk for all their flights. Thought we would never see them again! The flight was OK apart from hearing that bloody tune they use in the advert a heck of a lot.

Update My outbound flight became available for me to book seats, meals etc yesterday. I wouldn't normally but I paid £30 extra to sit in row 1. Our last cruise flight in October with TUI was a complete mare with the little darlings in front and behind being ignored by their parents as they shouted, screamed, said Mummy around a few hundred times and kicked the heck out of my chair.

I think all the airlines work on the same priciple. They can seat you across the row or in the row behind or in front and that is considered "together". Just found this on the CAA website. Young children and infants who are accompanied by adults should ideally be seated in the same seat row as the adult. Where this is not possible, children should be separated by no more than one seat row from accompanying adults. This is because the speed of an emergency evacuation may be affected by adults trying to reach their children.

This is considered to be together by the airlines.

I contacted jet2 who asked me to contact P&O. Apparently it should be available to book but isn't yet. The difference is that some flights are chartered completely by P&O other they just take a block booking on. Mine is a block booking. I've to keep a watching eye on it and it will appear at some point.

Not working for me unfortunately

My flights for April are finally showing on the P&O site. Anyone know if I am able to access the flights on Jet2. Can’t see a Jet2 booking number. Jet2 often have reasonable food deals prior to flight which are not available when onboard.

My flights have appeared today. Later flght than I had expected 09.30 as compared to 0630. It helps me make up my mind to stay over the night before. If it has been the earlier flight I would have driven the 90 minutes as I would never have slept in the hotel knowing I had to get up at silly o'clock. With the 0930 flight I can go over to check in around 0730 then up to the lounge and get a free breakfast.

We are probably on the same cruise. I am flying from Glasgow. I phone on Friday to ask and was told they are currently working through March flights. Would/could not put a time frame on for when they will inform us of our April flights. Its a bit of a pain as the timings may be such that I would want a night in hotel the evening before.

Thanks for replies. The way I was reading it was that booking was required rather than something you may choose to do.

We were also on in October and really enjoyed it. Service was good, food was OK, (had better and worse on other lines). Lots of loungers depending on where you want them. Have booked to go again this year.

Our first post covid P&O Cruise is in April. We did do a Marella one in October (very enjoyable). I logged in this morning to check our flight times to find they are still not availabe. Bit of a pain but not the end of the world. However was slightly surprised to find I need to book my entertainment and that I can do that from 22nd March. Is anyone able to expand on what entertainment is bookable and what will just be rock up and sit? Also looking for a current bar price list. Last one I saw had significant increases since our last pre-covid P&O cruise to the extent that the drinks package may actually be better for us (which is something I never thought would happen). It will depend on the maths. Wouldn't work this month as its Dry January time. Many thanks in anticipation.

Stayed in 2 in October. Ideal for us. Always dark at night. Tend to stay in inside. Will take a balcony if cruise is longer and in mid-summer. Otherwise its just a room to sleep in.

So did we for the first time in October and loved it. Small ships, excellent services, excursion prices the best for any cruise line I have been on. Going again next year. Mind we we also have two P+O to go on as well. I was expecting Thomson all inclusvie hotel at sea. It was far better than that.

Bay of Biscay.

You could sell the shares anytime after you get the obc applied. Its based on you holding it at the time of the application.

While I understand your points for me its not like for like, which of course is down to personal circumstances. P+O Iona is far too big a ship for me. I do far prefer the smaller Marella ships. My limit is the Ventura for size. The Bob in January would not be the highlight of my cruise. I would also need to factor in the drinks package cost. P+O for a 12 day cruise would be £480 a person if you took it. TUI on the Marella cruise are flying you to the heat. For P+O from Southampton I would need to add flights from Scotland. I am never driving that route again after this years, 15 hour return journey. We do have due to various reasons 3 cruises booked for next year. Two on P+O one on Marella. Will be interesting to see what happens in the next year or so. P+O have big ships to fill and money may be tight for many. Just hope their shares don't plummet! However I am sure you will enjoy your cruise.

Up until now I would have said the drinks package at £40 a day was not worth it. However, the price increases since our last P+O cruise means that it is now around the break even level. I did wonder if there was going to be a black friday deal but no was the answer. Had anyone ever seen it discounted. I know in the past it has been on offer as part of the package price but more interested if it has been discounted after cruise has been bought.

There is no loss. You booked a holiday at a price. You were happy with that price when you booked. It went lower. Get over it. I could buy halloween chocolate today at the supermarket for less than I could have on the 31st. I could buy an item from Amazon months after its release date cheaper than when it was released. Its a pricing thing. Holidays go up and down in price. You choose when to opt in. Good luck in finding a cruise line which works to the way you want it to. They don't exist.

While you may wish to shop around as you feel P+O have been unfair in not allowing you a discount, you will find it very hard to find any cruise line as a UK customer who would allow you to do that. Once booked its never a good idea to go back and reprice. No good can ever come of it.

Interesting. We found the food to be far better than our Royal cruise in the summer. In itself that says more about Royal than Marella as the standard on Royal was far poorer than our previous Royal cruises. It may have related to having less crew onboard. We had no issues with the food. The excursions were a lot cheaper than both P+O and Royal.

Just back from most of those ports and no there is no testing. You don't need to test pre departure. The only thing to be aware of is that you do need a mask for the tender at Villefrance.

Just flown back from Palma. This will be brief. I had concerns about our Marella Cruise with a thought that perhaps it would be a down market cruise compared to our previous ones. I could not have been more wrong. We had probably our best ever cruise (apart from our first which was Rhapsody so no surprise in liking the ship). The port stops were excellent (and frankly far far cheaper for the official tours than any of the other lines but still to the same quality). The food was good, the all inclusive drinks were quickly served. Staff appeared far happier than on our RCI July cruise. There also seemed to be the correct ratio of staff to cruisers. The entertainment was OK apart from the final night where it was stunning. We are definately fans of the "smaller" ships. Having now done a couple of the RCI big ones they are not for us. Just too many people. I enjoyed the fact we saw the same people around the ship. I enjoyed that everyone without exception were friendly and happy to chat about their day. We tried for the first time the ballroom classes. We started rubbish and ended just bad so an improvement. We also provided entertainment for those watching and people would come up later of an evening to say we saw you. We did meet a great group while doing the ballroom most nearly as good as us. It was just plain enjoyable to enjoy a drink after and occasionally share a meal. The other thing we did this time as we didn't have the kids with us was join bigger tables. Marella were good in that it was a different table each time. All very friendly. Missing the heat already. Now looking to book another Marella for next year.

Must be me now. Done the flight API, printed it off, got the ship boarding printed it off. Got the covid certificates printed them off, got my insurance certificate printed it off. Passport cards plugs medication phone ffp2 for Italy Anything else is something I can get somewhere at some point.

That become available overnight after the Covid quiz.