Captainclive.

I personally love the smaller size ships, as they are more intimate so you get to know staff and fellow passengers.

Huge ships have their pluses with more facilities, but with 4000 passengers on Britannia, I found the deck space to be insufficient, and it always seemed crowded, and impersonal.

So its Aurora for me with Oriana going, and when P&O eventually sell her as well, then its goodbye from me, and I will find another line with smaller ships

You are pretty much the same age as my wife and I, and we are about to go on Aurora for the 3rd and 5th time respectively.

The age group is pretty much 45-80, with plenty of lively 50 somethings to keep the bars buzzing.

We love Aurora, as she is just a beautiful ship to look at from afar, and well laid out inside, with just the right amount of space to never seem crowded. We have also found that on smaller ships you do get to know a lot of your fellow passengers, and definitely the bar and restaurant staff, and that is a good thing.

Never been on Arcadia so cant comment on her.

As others have said "You pays your money you takes your choice" we like to select our cabin, as strangely (Or so it seems) my wife likes to feel the ship moving, so we always book frwd on the Lido deck.

Also second sitting, big table, set dining is what we enjoy, so the fact that we can book both cabin position and dining options with select booking, and the on board credit we get (£450 on our upcoming R815) means that is for us.

Yes def gonna take a pack or 2 of Fevertree with us, and have already checked with P&O who have said that will be no problem at Southampton.

My wife's tipple is Bombay Sapphire which is certainly comparable from room service.

Didn't do Gordons as my wife doesn't like it, looked at Bombay Sapphire gin and Grey Goose vodka.

All the same, paying £2 more is certainly worth it to have it delivered with glasses, ice and lemon to the cabin, rather than carting it to Southampton in my luggage I.M.O.

Spirit drinkers check out the room service prices for 750mil bottles of branded spirits, they are less than the average UK supermarket, so you are not gonna save a penny by bringing it on with you at embarkation, plus the hassle of packing and carrying it.

With regards to the logistics of checking 2000 peoples bags for alcohol whilst trying to embark them in a short time frame from a foreign port just doesn't work. I work at an Airport, and passenger flow is always more of a concern, than trivia like smuggling on the odd bottle of wine.

So until I see an enormous slow moving queue when I am getting back on board, I will not believe that they will enforce it, they will just rely on people being worried about losing their booze.

Regarding the need to bring booze on board, daiB was kind enough to post a room service menu, and having gone online I cant find the spirits any cheaper anywhere else in the UK, so I for one am not gonna bother buying and packing 2 litre bottles in my luggage when I can have it delivered to my cabin with glasses, ice, and slices of lemon, and even save a few quid over supermarket prices.

Thanks daiB

At those prices its hardly worth the hassle of packing 2 litre bottles in the bags!!

Good on P&O for keeping it real when tightening up on what you can bring on board.

Over the door multi pocket organisers are great to keep all the bottles of ladies beautification equipment from rolling around whilst crossing the Bay of Biscay ;)

If you get one for shoes then you can also fit some in as well, as my wife turns into a centipede when on a cruise!!

Hi All,

Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but am going out on Aurora on the 31st to the Baltic, and don't want to cart 2 litres in my luggage if I can still buy bottles at a reasonable price from room service on the ship.

Has anyone recently been on a cruise and used room service for a bottle or 2??

Are the prices still what they were in April, or have P&O started to ramp up the room service prices as well.