Captainclive.

When on a P&O cruise I have never been asked by a member of staff to give them a good rating.

However when cruising on RCCL I have been almost pestered by waiting staff to complete the PSQ and give them a bigup, it really came across as though their pay depended on it.

From hanging around here reading posts it seems to be the least popular of all the ships.

Personally have only done a short Bruges (read booze) cruise on her, so not long enough to form much of an opinion about the ship, just the "Different" clientele, that we encountered.

They were brave on that jet ski!!

Busy bit of water that, and lots of very big ships.

Think P&O are very generous when it comes to alcohol when compared to American ships, having cruised on RCCCL several times, their drink prices are sky high, and bringing on any alcohol is a big no no, I was dragged to the naughty room to check that my one bottle of wine was actually just wine, a very labour intensive process for them I thought.

So when it comes to drinks packages, on RCCL they are very necessary, P&O much less so, especially when you consider the price of room service bottles of spirits, and the bar prices in general.

My wife and I do enjoy a good drink, but looking at past bar bills after OBC I think even we would struggle to drink £80 a day!!

I've been cruising since 1993 and never been woken at night for a medical emergency, so think that this was an exceptional circumstance and something highly unlikely to occur often enough to put anyone off cruising surely.

I'm sure we would all be understanding of the need to get emergency assistance to a fellow passenger even if it disturbed our schedule for a short while??

We have only done one “Taster” read “Stag/Hen” cruise, and I must say it was an eye opener.

As someone whose father lived in Benidorm for the last 10 years of his life, and thus I spent many holidays visiting him, I am fairly broad minded, but the sight of a dozen drunken woman resplendent with a 5’ inflatable Penis on board Ventura was truly unexpected!!

The cruise certainly was different to our normal P&O experience, and was our first and last, shame as the day in Bruge was a nice short break option.

We recently returned from a 14 night cruise on Aurora, and when leaving our cabin at Southampton we spoke with our lovely helpful cabin attendant, and she was saying that she was dreading the next 3 days as Aurora was on a short trip.

I imagine the room stewards end up cleaning up a lot more than used bath towels bless them.

Have never had an issue with wine being “moved” to a different venue, just give them your table number and heh presto it will arrive.

My wife prefers the Prosecco that is only available in the glass house, so we do it every time.

Thanks to all who gave advice, managed to book B753, was my second choice after C747 which was not available.

Comes up smaller in Sq Ft than the D deck cabins but with the better balcony which was an important factor for us.

Routine maintenance read too many people logging on and it’s blown up.

Fingers crossed, credit card poised.

True, so even less chance of getting one, as I’m only a low loyalty tier I will probably be beaten to them by higher up customers but we will see Tmw.

Thanks for your replies, will look at the aft cabins when the booking window opens, but with only the 6 available sounds like they are going to be hard to get.

Thanks Spike, will do that.

As I say I have never been on her before so just going on what you experienced cruisers have found.

Thanks Annie.

Just spoke to a friend who had the B753 cabin, and he agreed it was larger, the downside for him was vibration early doors when docking at Ports, and lack of sun on the balcony.

So seems like everything there are pluses and minuses.

Will see what's available when I can get on and book on the 19th.

Thanks Dai, will look at those.

Just tried to book a June 2020 cruise and the "Book now" option is not available, does that mean it will be weds before that comes up??

Hi all

I am looking to book a Mini Suite on Oceana for the E014A Greek Islands cruise, and wondered if anyone had any snippets as to the best location for a mini suite??

Kinda thinking fwd on B deck??

Never been on her before so it will all be new to me.

Regards

Clive.

Neil Turnbull is great!!

He has me in stitches with his "Super super saver passengers" gags :)

Horses for courses.

I have just returned from a Baltic cruise on Aurora, and as usual we were second sitting on a large table.

This fits perfectly for us, plenty of time for showers and grooming followed by drinks in the cabin, then a pre Carmen's show drink in Charlie's or the crows nest, 730 show in Carmen's, downstairs for dinner, then off to the 1030 show in the Curzon, and back to the crows nest for a nightcap.

The large table fits as well, as in the last 6 cruises we have never had a bad table, it seems P&O group ages together, as all our fellow dinner guests were our age, and over the 2 weeks we enjoyed getting to know each other. Also the same trio of Waiter, asst waiter and wine steward for 14 days means you get to know them as well, and I have found that compared to freedom dining, which we have tried several times, the level of service is far better, and definitely more personal.

So for us set dining suits, but only with the caveat of a large table, just in case your 2 significant others on a table for 4 are really not your cup of tea, and with the second sitting, as rushing around to eat at 630 would not suit us, especially as we are partial to a bit of the afternoon tea and cakes at 4 :)

So Iona where all dining is freedom doesn't fit for us, surely they could offer set dining as well as freedom on such a large ship??

Just got back from the Baltic and a 2 day stop in St Petersburg.

Due to the cost of the "Get it yourself visa" we opted for 2 P&O excursions, full day on day 1 and half day on day 2.

Both were excellent, and our Russian guide was knowledgeable and very interesting.

So after deducting the £300 it would have cost for our visas the tours didn't work out expensive IMO.

Fantastic city, and fantastic area (Baltic) so definitely go, and Tallinn was just amazing!!

Just got back from the Baltic on Aurora and as usual had a great cruise on my favourite ship!!

Only problem was I had to get off at Southampton, and stay off!!

Oh for the day when I can just get off for a few hours, buy a new dress or 2 for my wife and then get back on for a different cruise, its surprising how many people do it, but work is still getting in the way :(

Havnt done them all but the ones I have I would rate in the following order.

Aurora, first by a long sea mile.

Azura/Ventura ( Couldn't really tell any differences)

Brittania, for me too many people fitted into a nicely styled ship, with a strange lack of a lift?

The LIDO deck cabins are the best for us, one deck down from the Crows nest, perfect for pre dinner and last thing drinks, straight out to the Adults only pool or the sun deck should the sun shine.

Same deck as the buffet, and as dear old John would say "Its the rule of the sea!!"

One set of stairs away from the gym, please see above, and next to the Laundry and library, not sure which gets used more :)

We are going to be in L108 in 9 days time for the Baltic cruise, have been on the Lido deck on Aurora 5 times now, and it suits us perfectly as it is a quieter part of the ship, and with the Library above us I don't expect too much late night partying from that direction ;)

Cant wait, counting down the days!!

Hopefully P&O won't abandon all their small/mid sized ships and try and become British RCCL, because if they listen to their customers, not everyone wants to sail on a ship the size of Blackpool with 5000 other guests.

We have a 15 year old son, and so we split our cruises between P&O and RCCL, because he wants flow riders and rock climbing walls etc, and we don't. But having spent 30 days on Oasis now I can say that it was nothing like being at sea, just more like a huge AI resort that happened to stop off at a few different ports occasionally. On a few evenings as we sat in the small champagne bar looking out at the Car parked in the middle of the concourse, I said to my wife we could easily be at Lakeside, which is a large regional shopping centre near us in Essex, shops, bars, restaurants, and hundreds of people milling about, and with no noticeable movement due to the humungous size of the ship.

I have to ask the question, is this really cruising? or just another AI holiday like so many we have been on.

For me, small ship, teak decks, and some good old sea swell is what I want from a cruise.