gsmt47471015

9 hours ago, Gettingwarmer said:

It is a pop up Glass House opposite the Ocean Grill at lunchtime not Beach House. 

Thanks for correcting my mistake ,just another senior moment, now what days is it !!!! 🤣🤣🤣🤣

3 hours ago, LondonLad60 said:

I don't think The Buffet/Beach House option would work on Arcadia - the last few times I was on there, one side of the buffet was closed off to passengers every evening as it was used as an Officers' dining area, and as I understand it, up until a few months ago this was still the case, although I stand to be corrected.

 

You are indeed correct about the evening buffet arrangement's ,the pop up beach house opposite the ocean grill on certain lunchtimes was very popular, which proves that the market is there for one, the downside is that the ocean grill and beach house would have to share kitchens so not sure how that would work on an evening

On 9/26/2024 at 3:18 PM, Son of Anarchy said:

We did Arcadia's worldie this year.  Staff were enforcing hand washing at the buffet entrances, apart from the entertainment team.  Saw them on several occasions going in avoiding washing their hands and ignoring the staff with the squirty bottles.

 

Towards the end of the cruise, gastro intestinal outbreak occured.  Captain had to make extra announcements warning pax that non-compliance of hand washing on entering the buffet or abusing staff doing their job could lead to dis-embarkation.

I may have been misquoted by a passenger on that cruise but I was told that two passengers were actually taken off the ship for non compliance? That been said from what I frequently witnessed a lot more could have been thrown off for non compliance to the point of a arguing with staff as to why they shouldn’t have to clean their hands😟

She is getting on a bit now , as long as you are ok with a slightly dated but spacious interior and the odd plumbing issue you should have an enjoyable cruise , don’t expect massive refurbishment after the refit though 

11 hours ago, terrierjohn said:

We now have to use the stockperks app, and you need to register your shareholding on the app initially.

Thanks for the info , have got the app and submitted my request , could be quite an operation if you don’t have access to a smart phone 😕

I think I may be out of the loop with this topic , however having just tried to request my shareholder benefit for a January 2025 cruise my e mail has returned informing that the address is no longer valid? , I have always used shareholder benefits at carnival .com , am I missing something ? Thanks 

35 minutes ago, zap99 said:

P&O will probably get by without you. We are with Anthem next, then Britannia and then RC again. Good to try different experiences.

I am sure it will not make a jot of difference to them , its the previous experiences with other lines that have made us return to them😃

45 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

I guess your experience with the FCC was an example of the poor training of their sales agents, because we certainly used our FCC  as deposit on one of our cruises.

I suspect you are correct as we didn't understand why it couldn't be used , however tried twice , by telephone and via e mail and got the same response both times, as stated earlier it was only the straw that broke the camels back. Never say never however😉 

13 hours ago, Red Ray said:

And yet here you are on the P&O board....🙄

We were awarded a very considerably amount of fcc following major alterations on our 2024 world cruise ,after attempting to use it as a deposit on a 2025 cruise and been informed this was not allowed and a cash/card deposit was required with the fcc been taken off the balance, we wrote it off, used our money elsewhere and booked with Fred, Celebrity and Azamara .In reality this refusal by P and O to use the fcc as a deposit has made up our minds that our future cruising lies elsewhere and of course lost the company thousands, although it isn't the only reason  We have two future pre  booked cruises on Aurora but have decided that our time on P and O  after those will be our last,  we have enjoyed our time cruising with them but it has become so evident of penny pinching and poor ship maintenance  and unaltering itineraries that the time has come to move away from them. The deal with Celebrity and Azamara is only slightly more expensive but having cruised with them before are well aware of the superior experience , Fred will be a new experience but the ability to board a ship nearer home is another major plus. Am well aware this is a P and O board but keep an eye on all relevant boards to us  ( personal opinion of course)    

6 hours ago, FangedRose said:

I've been on Aurora twice this year and both times Capt Simon Love has repeated that passengers won't see a massive change after the refit. Most of it is behind the scenes and in the engine room. Don't hold your breath.

The narrative surrounding the refit has not changed in two years ,most of the money is to be spent on things passengers do not see , perhaps an odd new carpet here and there and some general tidying up ,we are on her before the refit and six weeks after it and are not expecting a great deal of change

I would indeed agree that contacting P and O via telephone has to be one of life's more frustrating occupations  

Just now, gsmt47471015 said:

We too we’re on the worldie and received extra obc for the deemed major change  , and the fcc ( which we will not be using) , however on return home Nationwide payed out all amounts due within a week of claiming , so pleased we moved to them last year as our previous rolling bank insurance always found some reason to not pay for missed ports ( one been if you had no shore excursions booked at that port the payment was void ) . It certainly pays to read the small print thoroughly 😀

Paid , predictive text😡

We too we’re on the worldie and received extra obc for the deemed major change  , and the fcc ( which we will not be using) , however on return home Nationwide payed out all amounts due within a week of claiming , so pleased we moved to them last year as our previous rolling bank insurance always found some reason to not pay for missed ports ( one been if you had no shore excursions booked at that port the payment was void ) . It certainly pays to read the small print thoroughly 😀

On 8/10/2024 at 7:25 PM, lindylooellalouise said:

Thanks for the info we will probably book the package when we book as it’s only£25 ppn really looking forward to sailing from Liverpool as we are finding the drive down to Southampton tedious.

You ,Me and thousands of other northerners😒

7 hours ago, tring said:

  

Thanks, sounds like it is probably a trial then.  It is only last week that Fred announced the permanent changes on the other ships and they mentioned they would be doing trials on Balmoral before deciding what to do on her.

 

We are on second sitting, so 8pm, better for us, having said that the time is are a bit different on formal nights (8.15pm) and I think embarkation day is different as well.   The problem is they are very few people have been choosing second sitting as it is so late.  First sitting is extremely busy, with very few on second sitting.  Will be interesting to see what happens with the new times.

  

We too are on second sitting and were happy with 8.30 now changed to 8 pm ,we are ok with this but do not wish to eat any earlier, normal time on other ships (with freedom/anytime dining) is between 8.15 and 8.30, it will be different having a set time and set table on this cruise however we are prepared to give anything a try 

The e mail stated it was in response to guests requests but said it was this cruise but stopped at saying only this cruise , so unfortunately you may have to wait and see ,and yes the change is exactly as the other ships👍 

On 7/30/2024 at 2:16 PM, tring said:

Dining times have now been changed to 6pm for first sitting and 8pm for second sitting.  Makes second sitting a bit better, but still no sign of the flexible dining which was promised and bookable on those ships when they were first marketed, so you could eat early some nights and later on other nights, which we are expecting now.

 

Seems he is going to do trials on Balmoral, so may be some sort of change there in the future.  They still stand at 6.15pm and 8.30pm respectively at present.

 

just had an e mail confirming dining time changes on Balmoral also , its only 30 minutes so not an issue , we have never had set dining in over twenty years so another first for us😀

Really looking forward to trying Fred, we have two pre booked cruises with P and O on their adults only ships but suspect they will be our last, the cutbacks have now reached epidemic proportions and we are desperate to move away from the "stack them high sell them cheap"  model, heard so many good things about Fred, only dealt with their customer service so far but it blows P and O out of the water, if the rest of their service is as good we will be booking again  

One theme running here is that Fred appears to be attracting customers from P and O, as a top tier passenger with P and O  I can fully understand why 

Having spent 99 nights on her in January its fair to say that in that amount of time you tend to notice things you probably wouldn't on a normal length cruise, there is no doubt she has lacked serious investment in certain areas (seating in the rising sun were way past their useful life ,in fairness we did not frequent that venue often) the public toilets' were a constant issue ( not working or blocked) carpets in some areas were ready for replacing and paintwork again in certain areas needed refurbishment , one major problem was leaking ceilings in the belvedere with towels often laid out on the floor, the upper decks had water under them and the mock flooring did bubble up when it rained ,  and our balcony was in a poor state with severely worn fixtures.

All this should not detract from the fact that she is an older ship and has been mentioned is due a refit ,quite what will be done during this work is an unknown factor but mention on our cruise was that most of the work was to be mechanical not cosmetic.

This was our fourth time on Arcadia and we did enjoy our cruise but it has to be said that upgrading needs to be done for her to compete with other lines who appear to have bigger budgets to keep their older vessels in good repair.

We are on Aurora next which appears to have aged better than Arcadia.

Hope you have a wonderful cruise and enjoy all Arcadia has to offer😀 

On 7/17/2024 at 4:21 PM, Eddie99 said:

This is good to hear

I’m obviously behind the times (or maybe don’t do many cruise line excursions?)

Good to hear, no pun intended🤣🤣🤣🤣

Tbh that has now become the norm , more so on crowded city tours , and have to say very welcome

12 hours ago, Eglesbrech said:

@gsmt47471015 there are so many of us in Scotland and North England who get fed up with the long journey South. You would think that one of the big cruise lines would look at that market and try to capture it, as the South is now saturated.

 

The only northern choices there seem to be are Fred and Ambassador, both small lines with older ships.

 

I hope you enjoy your first cruise with Fred. There are things you perhaps won’t like as much depending on who you have cruised with before but there will also be lots that you will hopefully really enjoy. An open mind is a good start.

Thank you ,really looking forward to trying Fred after listening to so many other cruisers opinions of them ,which were nearly all positive.

We have sailed with various other lines ,both big and small .old and new, have no problem with older ships as they do have character ,as long as they are maintained to a decent standard.

Totally agree about the North/South issue, there must be quite a large untapped market to be captured with the right destinations other than Northern Europe and Great Britain .

We too have booked our first fred cruise out of Newcastle after years of procrastinating, our dealings with them up to now have been a pleasure and the reviews of the ship ( Balmoral) are mostly positive , we always approach a new line with an open mind and it will be interesting how we feel after it , also greatly looking forward to the two hour journey to Newcastle as opposed to the long drag to Southampton😃

If your into sunbeds then Aurora and Arcadia well suit you fine as there is plenty of deck space to find a suitable spot which is not hemmed in on the other ships