ScotchBoy

On 4/6/2024 at 11:14 PM, zap99 said:

You could then top it up from the stuff you purchased in Tesco and take it to a restaurant the next night and the next and....not that we would ever Do such a thing.😂

Or you could just drink the stuff from Tesco that is offered in the restaurant. In Epicurean last week, we were served a Yellowtail Chardonnay, that is available in Tesco (and the like), for less than £8 a bottle. I was astonished.  

On 4/12/2024 at 12:37 PM, Cathygh said:

Following on from Jean's report about P&O vs Fred, I thought I would give an overvie of my experience on my first Celebrity cruise. This was a much delayed cruise- 12 nights Best of Japan. We chose Celebrity for the itinerary, and because P&O don't go there for this type of thing. The following is just my opinion.

 

Checking in/embarkation.

Done online. 2 ladies waiting at the terminal, just before we got on the ship, mainly checking our ID on a tablet. 2 people in the queue before us. We could choose our own boarding time. Very efficient.

 

Passenger mix

900 Brits although it felt like more. The rest were from the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South America and Europe. Most made an effort in the evening.I had expected it to be like the cruise we did on Princess in January 2023 where scruffy passengers were the norm

 

Condition of the ship/cabin.

Very good for a 24 year old ship. No leaks anywhere and no broken toilets. Had a $60m refurb in 2019. Cabins and public areas are very modern, but patio doors had a bit of rust. The first night was very windy and we could hear wind and the sea in the cabin. I thought maybe the door wasn't shut properly even though it was locked. I opened and found  I couldn't close it so my husband did and the door partly came off. We could still lock it! Maintenance arrived in about 2 minutes and fixed it back on. It happens a lot on this ship, and hearing the sea is also quite common. The next refit is this year and may be the doors will be replaced then.

The P&O bed is more comfortable IMHO

Hardly saw our steward but there is an evening turn down service. The chocolates were not nice.

Air con- I am not sure it worked well, but we didn't need it as we were never too cold/hot.

 

Dining.

We had freedom dining in Metropolitan. We ate there for all but 2 breakfasts and 1 dinner and also on port days.

Breakfast. Waiters come round with juice, water, tea, coffee and pastries while you wait. Wide choice and always hot. The quality of the eggs, sausage and bacon are superior to P&O.

Lunch - similar to P&O, but one day it was very bad and we sent it back, hot chicken was served luke warm with rubbery chips

Dinner. Usually a good choice and I only ate from the always available menu once. Always hot and tasty. 

Freedom dining was over subscribed so sometimes we were given a buzzer - the maximum wait was 20 minutes if you wanted to share

 

Buffet - manic as you would expect, but food was ok. 

 

Drinks package

We had the classic package, which included drinks up to $10. Alcohol wise the only drinks under $10 were 330ml cans of beer/lager. I drink white wine and there was a choice of 2-3 for $10. They were ok. Cocktails were all $12+. There were cocktails under $10 but there was no list so you had to suggest something and then find out if it was included or not. Baileys was $11 and I thought it was mean not to include it in the package and I was too stingy to pay the $1 and 20% service charge on top.

Wine service at dinner was slow one night. The waiter can take a drinks order, but not for wine, the sommelier does that, and they had a lot of tables to cover.

I think the drinks are unlimited and I was not aware of any drunken behaviour.

 

Speciality dining.

$60 per head plus 20% service charge. They were constantly trying to sell the speciality restaurants. Towards the end of the cruise they dropped the price of the Indian to $45 so we did that. Food was good but the service was terrible. The waiter got our order wrong 4 times. 

 

Note regarding eating in Blu, for which you pay a whole lot more for an Aquaclass cabin, people were complaining that they had to wait to get in, rather than walking in when they wanted and it wasn't worth the extra.

 

Little extras, sometimes they came round with free prosecco or canapes, as a gift from an officer

 

Captain/ officers

Captain Pierre was quite shy, I think, but he did do the daily update himself and & an info session in the Theatre. The hotel director was very visible, she was always there when we left and returned to the ship. Ents Director was also very visible

 

Entertainment

Good and varied but we rarely got to the evening shows which were at 7 and 9. We heard good reports.  We did go to the Skylounge every night where the Ents Director would have a bit of fun and created a great atmoshere. eg on Beatles night there would be a quick quiz which involved most of the audience followed by dancing. He is one of the best ets directors I have come across.

 

The App.

Useful for checking in beforehand. The drinks, menus for each restaurant and the entertainment for the whole cruise was listed before we arrived, You could book dining and shore excursions on it. What surprised me  was that they still use pen and paper to take orders, not tablets. It worked well.

 

Shore Excursions

Very expensive. You got up to 15% off if you prebook. We did our own thing. Food and transport was cheap in Japan and the metro system was easy to use, once you got the hang of it.

 

Price

On one TA website a week to the fjords in an inside cabin on June 8th is £660 on Iona, Celebrity  Apex is £1007 plus gratuities. Is Celebrity worth the extra? Not really TBF but Celebrity is meant to be a 5* line, not a 4* line, so perhaps a better comparison would be Cunard. 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for your report; really comprehensive. We have sailed P&O for about a decade, and Celebrity on 4 occasions, and Cunard on 4 occasions between 2007 and 2021. We've enjoyed our Cunard experiences, but don't think that they are worth the money, so won't bother again. P&O are our go-to cruise line, but we have sailed Celebrity when we fancy somewhere more exotic, such as the Far East. The Millie (as the Americans call her) is a lovely ship, and we're sailing on her again next year. 

We would agree that the Celebrity excursions are very expensive, and we try to find a way of reducing that expense. The Celebrity drinks package is very good; whereas I have never been tempted by the drinks on P&O. The Celebrity Specialty dining is also a bit pricey, but we felt it was worthwhile overall, whereas The Beach House and Sindhu were a huge disappointment when we sailed on Azura in November last year. We loved the easy checking in on Celebrity, plus you watch the Muster Drill online before you leave home! Fantastic benefit. 

On balance, for us:- Celebrity for exoticism/adventure every time, but possibly because P&O don't go to those locations, unless you're on a world cruise segment (and I won't do that again; too many cliques and too little sight-seeing).  P&O for the Med/ Caribbean. 

On 4/19/2014 at 4:26 PM, hunnibunni123 said:

I only wondered as last year on our first cruise we were in the glass house. When then trying to get to the sailaway we had to queue for the lifts and many people were rude pushing in etc. we have to use lift as mum is wheelchair bound. With it being our first cruise we would have liked to see leaving southampton but no such luck, we were moving before we got to sailaway. I just wondered if we would have better chance of being there this time. Sorry if it all sounds bizarre...thats just me haha

 

 

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I don't know if this helps, but when we boarded Azura in Tenerife in January this year, we could visit the muster station as soon as we boarded. You just bleep your cabin card to prove that you have been there; then you can watch all the muster information on your cabin TV. It's a much better system than the bunfight for lifts/sailaway, etc, as there is a steady flow of passengers instead of a stampede.  

On 3/29/2024 at 1:05 PM, purplesea said:

We flew from Bristol to Tenerife in January with Jet2 and weren't able to check our luggage in the night before. The Hampton at Hilton, although on site is a far step from the airport terminal.

We also had to collect our luggage on arrival and it was then transfered, with us, by coach to the ship.

I agree, which is why we didn't want to schlep up to the terminal the night before, only to find that we had to take our luggage back down the hill, to have to repeat the whole process at 4am the following morning ! The less we have to bother before the early flight, the better 😄

Thanks newport dave. That's great news! The flight departs at 5:55am, so we can just wander into the terminal half-asleep, and then go straight to departures. Happy days 😎

My understanding of Jet2 is that they permit you to check in your luggage the evening before a flight. We tried this is Birmingham when we were going to Tenerife to board Azura. We were advised that we couldn't check in as we were on a chartered flight. No problem, we took our luggage back across the road to the Hilton and we just checked in the following morning, as per usual. 

This summer we are flying to Malta to join Azura, but travelling on a Jet2 scheduled flight. Does anyone know if we can check our hold luggage in the evening before? We are flying from Bristol and staying at the Hampton, i.e. on site. I don't want to drag my luggage up the hill to the terminal, only to be told that we can't do an early check-in. 

On 3/2/2024 at 10:28 AM, enjoysailing said:

 

That is so ridiculous to hold you up at boarding for manicure scissors. P&O's own guidance allows scissors or blades less of than 4" or 10.16 cm. in length. I am so glad you got them back - I would hate to lose my well travelled scissors from my manicure set.

I agree. I was teetering on the edge of becoming apoplectic. The port staff were in more danger of receiving a savage tongue-lashing than any damage I could do with a tiny manicure scissors. But they have all the power, so we must do as they ask.........

Had an amazing cruise though, on lovely Oceana 🥰. 

On 3/1/2024 at 3:16 PM, tring said:

 

Can you remember if you were on a schedule flight rather than a P&O charter.  I suggest you were.  As I and others have said, pre COVID the cases from charter flights went straight to the ship, but if on a schedule flight (which would have non P&O passengers onboard), it has always been necessary to collect your cases at the airport. 

 

Now everyone has to collect luggage from the carousel in Malta and the luggage is now taken to vans, which delivery it to the ship, so the next time you will see it is outside your cabin.

 

I'm afraid that level of detail escapes me, but you are probably right. It was quite possibly a scheduled flight, in which we would obviously have had to collect our own luggage; makes perfect sense. 

We have just booked our flights direct with the airline, as FBC quoted an additional 25% if we booked through them. It was a no-brainer.

25%!! more expensive 😲

We are doing a Celebrity cruise next year, and are considering their flight options. Can you tell me if their prices compare favourably to booking direct? Previously, we have always booked our flights direct with the airline.

On 2/28/2024 at 10:50 PM, Snow Hill said:

We did a Fly Cruise to Malta in 2017 on Oceana baggage went from airport to ship we didn’t see it after check in at Birmingham until we got to cabin, going back went from ship to airport next time we saw it was on carousel at Birmingham. 

In May 2017, seem to recall that we had to collect our luggage post-flight, and take it to the transfer coach. I recall grumbling "We don't have to do this in Barbados," etc.....

Also, I had a very unpleasant experience with the port staff at that time, who wouldn't let me take one of my checked-in bags onto the ship, as it contained a manicure scissors (I kid you not!). They told me that they would break into the case unless I handed over the scissors, as it was a "security risk". I protested, but it was no use. I gave them the tiny pair of scissors. The following morning I went to the purser's desk armed with the fairly vicious corkscrew that was in my cabin, courtesy of P&O, and retrieved the scissors. Such a fuss over nothing. 

12 hours ago, Francisdrake said:

 

Been on Azura maybe half a dozen times now and had issues with the plumbing on one cruise.   Balcony cabin & the toilet regularly wouldn't flush,   reported it and they'd get it sorted fairly quickly (they didn't need to go into the room to sort it) but i'd come back a few hours later & it'd be the same issue.   About halfway through the cruise though they must have done something different as they sorted it & I didn't have the issue for the rest of the holiday.

We were on Azura last week and we had to call the engineer out on 4 separate occasions to fix this exact same problem. The flush button would not work. We woke on debark day at 6:30am to find a recurrence of the problem. Called reception and an engineer arrived at 7:45am. Not a great start to the day, as we had to keep running back and forth to the nearest toilets whilst getting ready to leave the ship. 

Just before 8am, we left the cabin and asked the steward had they discovered what the problem was. "Yes, madam", she replied, "It is you. You are putting wet wipes in the toilet". I was flabbergasted, and rebuked her accusation, but she was insistent. "Yes, madam, it is your fault".  (At this point, I could describe my toilet procedure, but it's too close to breakfast!).

We are fastidious about toilet systems, and NEVER put anything down the toilet other than toilet paper at home even, not even tissue paper from a box (which some passengers seem to think is okay. No, it is not.)

Anyhow, she insisted it was me (specifically me) and said that she would get the engineer to 'prove' it to me. Over 20 cruises, 10 on Azura and never experienced a plumbing problem. This is why I asked the question: If my actions were fastidious, then, how did we have a problem? The cabin steward was insistent. I am aggrieved. No OBC offered for our inconvenience (!) either 😡

Does anyone have first-hand experience of plumbing issues on board Azura, or any other ship for that matter. Heard some horror stories at the weekend, but mostly anecdotal, so was wondering if it was a regular occurrence.  

15 hours ago, majortom10 said:

I have found any issues I have had is much better sorted by private message to P&O on their Facebook page rather than long repetitive calls or e mails.

Thanks majortom10, but for me, it's not a strong enough incentive to sign up to Fakebook 😒

I've spoken to someone at P&O who confirm that it is incorrect. They promised to have someone from the Loyalty Team call me back, confirming that it has been rectified. No such call transpired. I've emailed twice (after having been on hold for over 25 minutes on 2 separate occasions - and life is too short when you're my age!). Neither email has received a reply. Our past cruise history demonstrates that "Words and Figures" do not match, so I presume that it is a computer glitch. I'll call again when I can multi-task whilst on hold.

BTW thanks for clarifying the position - we didn't think we could be "demoted" either. 

Sorry to hijack your question, but I've contacted P&O on 3 occasions with this query but no answer yet......

In November 2023, we were Mediterranean tier, but for our next cruise later this month, we have been designated Atlantic tier. I don't understand, as this means our benefits are reduced.

Can anyone enlighten us? 

TIA 👍

On 1/1/2024 at 11:57 AM, jeanlyon said:

Now there's a surprise.  Never seen people queueing for drinks though.  Usually steward service?  And anyway, isn't this a 4 days cruise.  No drinks packages on those.

5 nights, I believe

9 hours ago, Interestedcruisefan said:

Always possible to do walk ins here - that's the whole point. Obviously you need to be prepared to wait some times but not always

Not any more. You have to book, but can only do so once on board. Friday embarkers (?) have an advantage here. This is something P&O need to address. 

On 11/23/2023 at 6:23 PM, carlanthony24 said:

Pop down any day. 

By Wednesday mid-afternoon, the only evening options available were Friday, at 6pm, 9pm, or 10pm. Nothing available for the Wednesday nor the Thursday. We popped in on the Wednesday evening (just in case) but our request to dine was unsuccessful.

As we had a long day's excursion planned for the Friday, the 9pm reservation suited us, so we booked that. However, the Glass House was very quiet by 9:15pm, and we were practically alone by 9:45pm. No-one having a wine flight, or dining. What is going on............ ? 

2 hours ago, ScotchBoy said:

For all those Glass House fans, from now onwards throughout the winter season, the Glass House is not open for lunch on port days. This is detrimental to our holiday enjoyment, and would be interested to know others thoughts. 

At this point, all we can say is that when we went for lunch today, we were informed that from this cruise (going forward) the Glasshouse no longer serves lunch on port days. No reason given; just a shrug. This is a big problem for us as it is our go-to restaurant. We haven't used the MDR in over 9 years, and we have lunch and/or dinner in the Glasshouse every day. On this cruise, we pre-booked The Beach House and Sindhu. Unfortunately, both were disappointing. We couldn't get a table in the Glasshouse last night, nor this evening. This might be the last straw.......... 

For all those Glass House fans, from now onwards throughout the winter season, the Glass House is not open for lunch on port days. This is detrimental to our holiday enjoyment, and would be interested to know others thoughts. 

On 11/7/2023 at 5:02 PM, Megabear2 said:

Well what's different with the Caribbean charters then? You most definitely can buy extra luggage, indeed someone posted the details a week or two back.

I am told by P&O that it is the carrier, i.e. Jet2, that stipulates the luggage allowance. I don't actually want more luggage allowance; I just want to take one carry-on bag of 10kg max onto the flight (and around the airport); and put the remaining allowance of up to 54kg into the hold. I don't mind paying for this personal preference, but we are not permitted to do so. Est quod id est, as they say. 

As an aside, I do not like the idea of cabin bags weighing 10kg, as I am always anxious that they may fall out of the overhead locker - ouch! 

Well, having spoken to both Jet2 and P&O, it appears passengers are being mis-informed.

Our booking states that if we wish to increase our luggage allowance, we must contact the airline. I did this and was first advised by Jet2 that it can be actioned directly with P&O. I disputed this, based on the information from the P&O booking. Then, Jet2 provided me with the portal address in which to achieve this. However, a tour operator number is required, i.e. from P&O. I did not have this, so I called P&O.

I spoke to someone after 32 minutes on hold. They tried hard but could not answer the question, and subsequently called me back later. They state (contrary to their booking information) that when passengers are travelling on a chartered flight, we are not permitted any additional luggage allowance. So, case closed (or not ! if you pardon the pun). 

We want to increase our hold luggage allowance on our next cruise. We're happy to pay for a little extra. Has anyone managed to do this on a Jet2 flight? You can do it through the Jet2 website, but require a tour operator booking reference from P&O. Anyone know what it is?  

On 10/28/2023 at 6:07 PM, pennib said:

I tried to post this yesterday but it seems to have been taken down. Has anyone done the cookery club on Britannia. I would like to know if you have to stand a lot as that would rule me out.

thanks

We did it last time we were on Britannia, and absolutely loved it. I still do the recipe that we had. Yes, you have to stand, but I'm sure you could ask for a stool. Well worth doing.