Windsurfboy

We are all British not Brits

By opening up early, P&O, is pretty well booked up till summer 2024. OK only 5% deposits. Whether people will forgo those deposits is a question. I imagine, booking for late 2024 and 2025 onwards will be slower. As to if Iona and Arvia are wrong ships time will tell. They are better value economies of scale . Traditional p&O cruisers are now just trying them out, if they find they can still enjoy the peaceful cruise they liked and service, then P&O will have ship that serves both markets. If they don't return and ships only attract families and young then this is a more volatile markets, plenty of customers in good years , but hard to fill in tough times.

hope the "can't be bothered" impact of covid doesn't last too long. Seems to effect a lot of people even if it was mild.

Did you get any compensation for moving to smaller cabin.

No it depends on the law in country where the cruise is marketed. UK law in UK, US in US , German in Germany, hence why Germans must opt into hotel charges , versus UK and US who can opt out

In the UK under our consumer protection law it is the information in the brochure that prevails, this being the basis upon which the consumer entered into the agreement. The contract ie t&cs should be contained in the brochure. The only way this would be overwritten , and that terms and conditions applied that are different to those in brochure , was if the consumer was given a copy of the contract to read and sign. On all financial transactions e.g opening bank account , done on internet now in UK , they force consumer to download the contact/t&cs and you can't proceed unless you do this. If you book with Cunard (directly ) it's either via phone based on info in brochure, or on internet based on information easily found by you, as you book. Cunard website doesn't ask you to read t&cs and doesn't check you have at least downloaded them. So if t&cs contradicts brochure /website , its the information that consumer is presented with on booking that prevails. However I'm sure that forgetting to say hotel charges can be removed in the brochure is just a typical Cunard HO lack of attention to detail. If not it is breaking UK law as it should be added into price quoted.

very interesting, but why are Cunard insisting on a folding bike. I would have thought as long as it could go through doors and fit in cabin or on your balcony then what's the problem

Thank you, I will need to be online at exactly midnight, as BA avios flights are released. So I can book a package that runs from say midday to midday.

Exlondoner thank you for this. I know you are now home , but can you remember, when it says for 24hours. Does this mean midnight to midnight, ie a calender day. Or does it run for 24 hours from when you log in.

Solo makes a big difference, our strategy wouldn't work. Have you tried Saga. We were on them in May, they have over 100 solo cabins, and work hard to help solo travellers meet others . All the solo travellers we met thoroughly enjoyed Saga.

I think you Must give every thing a go. We're testing a strategy on bigger ship, given they offer very good value. The big issue is peace and quiet in day. Solution suite with very big balcony at back for sun bathing, no fighting for sun beds. Eat in Epicurean, Sindhu. Then have the entertainment of a big ship.

I agree there is no risk to P&O if he looses his money. I'm sure some agent has got the wrong end of of the stick. The cost of insurance for cancellation for expensive cruises once you get old is exorbitant. Even in 70s. I think answer is treat cruise like a stock market investment, ie don't spend more than you can afford to loose

Always ask your driver if they've been tested that morning.

You forgot to say how much the sight of people in Tee shirts at 6.01 pm ruined your enjoyment, or was it fortunately too dark in the gloomy rooms to see them

Thank you everone. Found this very interesting, and I very much agree with what's been said. This comparison with SS is useful to highlight Saga's strengths and weaknesses. I completely agree Saga offers great value, also good quality. When looking at VFM, there are some things that tothesunset said were better on SS , like toiletries , Napkins , bedding, that I felt were more than good enough on Saga and being any better wouldn't increase our enjoyment at all. Whilst other things like better included drinks , food and service would. Better included drinks can be overcome by buying premium wine on Saga at reasonable prices. Although this seemed to take an inordinate time for them to find what you wanted. Food , as for the main dining room Saga is good but a more expensive line like SS should be better . SS has gone down the route of extra charges for speciality restaurants, clearly if you pay on top of their high base line the food should be exceptional . Saga has chosen not to go down this route. The vast majority of Saga passengers were very happy with speciality restaurants, so I can't see them charging, or even having one or two premium dishes in speciality restaurants. Looking back after reading what to thesunset said I completely agree although the Saga junior staff were great and very willing, the senior staff in the restaurant were there , but were not contributing much. We found the Saga staff soon got to know us by name. Saga offers good VFM. It has become one of our go to lines. It certainly beats Cunard , even their premium offerings, you get a a lot more in a Saga balcony cabin than Cunard Brittania Club at same price. I would put our Saga suite and service above Cunard QG , for the same price. Saga beats similarly priced lines The comparison with the other UK based line P&O is different, a suite on P&O is under half the price of Saga. Clearly a very different ship and atmosphere. But if you have a rear suite with huge balcony for peace and quiet. Eat in pay for dining rooms every night, buy top end wine, perhaps you can get good quality for an even more reasonable price. As for SS we are very tempted even though it's clearly more expensive but whether we would go on a fly cruise is the question. We have two long-haul journeys every year to see family, so it's nice just to drive to Southampton.

This looks like an improvement 😁 Will more than cover our simple needs of odd email and WhatsApp

Sorry

I believe masks work . However on ships there are so many places indoors where you sit down have a drink or something to eat in front of you and take your mask off. No one puts their mask on in between courses. People "legitimately " spend much much more time with mask off than on. Making current mask wearing protocols even if compulsory next to useless. Either ships should very significantly tighten up on mask wearing and social distancing , which they are very reluctant to do, or admit it's just symbolic. Going on a ship is a risk , for some it is a bigger risk than others.

A - do you have missed ports cruise insurance

The taking off of jackets question is irrelevant now jackets are optional. As for shirts dress code says a dress shirt, which actually has no agreed definition. However I think it's accepted it means a collar, but not a polo shirt. No guidelines about sleeve length or pattern, but a Hawian shirts I guess would fail. As for groryjm Neru shirt, in India it would be a dress shirt. Cunard do not say which country's definition of dress shirt to follow. As for groryjm pictures, in principle all look fine within dress code, but I hope I don't sound too judgemental, but an iron might make one or two of them more "smart attire"

I presume all in the UK paid by credit card. If cruise is under £30,000 covered by section 25, so no worry about getting money back keep on cruising. If you didn't pay by credit card then get one, but as Martin Lewis says pay it off in full. If cruise more than £30,000, presume you should be in a good financial position to spend that much on holiday.

Saga is different to other lines, but very good service. I don't know if you've cruised with Cunard, but Saga food and service up with Cunard Queens grill, and it's available to all. Don't have any worries about Saga. Saga are friendliest ships you can find, crew and passengers

When I booked our April cruise, Capetown to Southampton, rang up 2hours after it opened, only PG left. Been looking to upgrade, but no QG released, have now decided, PG rooms on QM2 look very nice, so giving it a go, and will give up looking to upgrade. Will be in QG in June again in QM2. So will have a back to back comparison. We may well decide we are very happy with PG, let's see.

Looking at the menus posted it seems that the number of dishes has remained constant, but some dishes have migrated to the order by lunchtime section. No real hardship as we always look at menu after breakfast before we leave. If it saves waste no problem

This makes absolute sense , when we went mid May "only" 1 million cases per week of covid in UK, we had private transfers. Now at 3.5 million cases, having shared transfers would be asking for trouble.