BanburyBlue

Many thanks all.

Hi all,

We're looking at a cruise that spends 2 days in Ijmuiden.  Looking for some advice on...

1, is there anything in Ijmuiden itself? 

2, what sort of shore excursions are available from Ijmuiden.

I think I've read elsewhere, that the shuttle bus to Amsterdam has improved?

Many thanks

Many thanks both 👍

Hi all,

We're off on a cruise next week that docks in Lisbon.  I'm struggling to find out where the ship will dock, and where this dock is in relation to the city centre.

Does anyone know?

If it helps we're on the P&O Britannia (cruise B927), arriving in Lisbon on Friday 4th October.

Many thanks,

19 hours ago, chrisg1uk said:

Its open to everyone.  Supposed to be adults only.  

 

Thanks.

Hi all,

Quick question.  On Britannia, is the Serenity pool part of the Retreat, or can anyone use it?

Thanks.

5 hours ago, Tilly20 said:

Due to sail tomorrow and received this email late morning. Apparently some technical difficulties and the ship had to return to Bergen yesterday to deal with2 medical emergencies which has added to the delay. (Hope they are recovering!).       We hope you are looking forward to joining us on board Britannia tomorrow for your cruise with us.    We're very sorry, Britannia’s arrival into Southampton tomorrow is delayed due to a technical issue and a medical disembarkation on the return from Norway.    As a result of this delayed arrival into Southampton embarkation will now be later.    For your comfort, please can you arrive 6 hours after your scheduled arrival time printed on your E-ticket.    If you have transfer arrangements through us your coach will depart at the normal time as planned therefore please be ready for your transfer as normal.    If you have independent arrangements in place, we would recommend you delay your journey. Otherwise you can travel into Southampton and enjoy the local area before you check in.    We apologise that we have had to start your holiday with a change to your embarkation, in recognition of this we will be adding £20 per person to your on board account.    Thank you for your understanding, we look forward to welcoming you on board and wish you a very happy holiday.    Yours sincerely,

Interesting that they’re prepared to give people extra OBS for sailing late, but absolutely refuse to give people extra OBS when mechanical failures result in people missing ports, or indeed when they shut all the shops.

14 hours ago, BarmyJackArmy said:

Nothing will prepare you for the chaos that was P&O's version of a full weekend in Amsterdam I kid you not. I pre booked two cruises with them prior to this shambolic trip. But after over 20 years of cruising with them I've had enough, so the one I've already paid for I have no choice but to take .The other I'm seriously thinking of just letting the deposit go , I feel I'm giving over my hard earned cash to a company that gives not one jot about their customers , believe me there are better companies out there.

Yes I can believe that.  Looking at the photo's above tells the story.

I've been reading this thread with interest.

TBH, I get cross anyway when you look at the website and it gives a list of destinations, that once you have done some research turn out to be miles away.

I would be very annoyed if P&O did this to me. I agree with the comments about P&O customer service.  We had an issue last year with the closure of the shops for refitting and the change of alcohol policy (both notified after booking, and the shop refit closures 2 weeks before we were due to sail).  P&O wouldn't budge on anything - very bullish.  We did get a bottle of champagne and flowers in the room in the end, but this was because they failed to respond to emails, not because of their original decision.

In terms of customer service, after the above experience, we had a sulk and booked a cruise with RCI (never going with P&O again!!).  I personally found their customer service just as bad - emails never answered etc.  My cynical view is that they want you to use their premium rate call centre.  And on board, we quickly realised that P&O are miles better at customer service generally.  So back to P&O.

We've had POC cancelled before.  On Britannia the call at Monte Carlo was cancelled because of bad weather, but they took us to Ajaccio instead.  And on last years cruise there was an engine problem, so they held us a Barcelona to fix it and cancelled Nice.

Has anyone ever had any success with ABTA?  I thought about complaining over the onboard shop closures, but didn't think they'd be any point.

We did a cruise on the Oriana a couple of years ago and really liked it.  One really good thing was that you got to know a lot of the other passengers as you saw them again and again.  But I don’t remember it being that much more than the other ships.  There was an 18 day Med cruise that would cost upwards of £7k for the both of us, whereas a 15 or 16 day on another P&O ship was something like £4-£5k.

from experience on other cruises, Oriana does seem a very popular ship.  So perhaps that’s it - people are prepared to pay for one last go.

I’ve just been researching cruises for later this year, and was quite surprised how expensive Oriana compared to other P&O ships?  I assume this is down to the size of the ship?  But even so, there seems to be a massive difference to the extent that on some ships, even longer cruises are cheaper than Oriana?

If they see something in the scanner, they will hold the luggage in security. They will contact you to come down and open the bag(s) for inspection.

Does the same apply to hand baggage at the terminal?

Best part about the footie is you can play pool at the same time

We thought the 5 nights would be a good 'toe in the water' exercise.

Yes, there is a shuttle to take you to the centre for €4pp return, but it is a flat walk of about 25 mins.

Le Havre is far far better than people lead you to believe.

There is the most incredible art gallery with a fantastic collection of impressionist paintings - it is just opposite the multicoloured arch and well worth a visit.

Just past there is a beach if the weather is good

There is an amzing very modern cathedral with some amazing glass.

Keep walking past that and you get to a nice pedestrianised town centre with good array of shops and restaurants.

There is also a great park area (which I have not been to yet.

Great little port.

 

LB > founding member of the Le Havre is not as bad as everyone says it is Club

 

 

 

 

http://www.muma-lehavre.fr/en is the site for the museum

Great thanks - looks promising

There are self serve tea/coffee machines as usual and there will be a separate table set up, near the entrance with someone squeezing fresh oranges, or sometimes grapefruit too.

They also come round with trolleys with tea/coffee on so you don't have to get up and go to the machines.

There are also containers with 'squash' type juices in at breakfast.

 

If you go to breakfast in the dining room, you just ask for it.

 

At lunch in the WJ I recommend the cloudy old fashioned type lemonade which is delicious.

 

I hope you will find the RCI experience far superior (and much more fun) than P&O.

Please come back and tell us how you get on? Are you on Indie or Navigator?

 

WJ = WindJammer buffet area.

We're on Indie. We're relatively new to cruising. Our first couple of cruises were with Cunard, and our last few P&O. Our last P&O cruise just felt 'staid' - not many activities, not much going on. Also getting a tad frustrated with the British "moan" brigade. So we thought we'd look for a short cruise with another cruise line and came up with this 5 day RCI cruise.

I had my power strip taken even though I made sure when I bought it that it did not have a surge protector. Extension cord made it on.

 

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sorry but I'm getting a little confused over extension cord vs power strip.

On P&O, we've always taken on a power lead with four sockets on the end - is this what people are calling a power strip?

As opposed to a lead with a single socket at the end - is this an extension cord?

Does it matter who is doing security? At Southampton in the UK, the port authority does the security check for hand baggage at the terminal, and so does not care about the cruise companies rules. So if you stashed an extension lead/power strip in your hand baggage, would you get away with it?

You didn't ask, but the drink package also includes specialty coffees in the Café Promenade (need my double espresso each morning!), fresh squeezed orange juice, and smoothies in the spa area, if available on your ship.

 

Edit - Didn't see Little Britain's similar response...sorry.

Thanks for clarifying. So how do the breakfast drinks work in the self serve restaurant? We're used to P&O where there are the 'help yourself' tea and juice machines. Sounds like freshly squeezed orange juice is in another category, so have to ask for it in some way?

Yea bottles water is covered but one drink at a time. The wife and I used to do a bottle run at the end of the evening before going back to the cabin. We took a bag and did a quick tour of the ship picking up a bottle of water each from a number of bars so we had a stock for the room every night

 

 

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Thanks - yes I was thinking the same thing - but more get on the ship, whenever you walk past a bar, grab a bottle of water :D

Apologies for jumping on the thread - we sailing for the first time with RCI (departing Southampton, UK on Independence in October).

Is there anyway of finding out how many formal nights there are?

Thanks.

Forgot to ask, does the Deluxe Drinks Package include room service?

Thanks all, excited and panicking all at the same time.

I'm sure it will be fine once we get on board and get going.

Hi all,

UK based - first RCI cruise in October.

1, On embarkation, can I take bottled water on board?

2, If not, we have purchased the Deluxe Beverage Package, so does this cover bottled water?

3, And if it does, where do we buy bottled water on board - is it just 'the shop', or is it available in bars as well? (we're used to P&O where there seems to be a single 'buy everything' shop from toys to toothpaste).

4, In terms of the Deluxe Beverage Package, is it obvious what is covered and what is not? I assume it's available in all bars? And is automatically added to your account, so when you buy a drink and present your cruise card it's all sorted at point of sale?

5, Finally can you buy 2 drinks at the same time (1 for me and 1 for Mrs BanburyBlue), or do we have to buy them individually to get them covered by the Deluxe Beverage Package?

Apologies for the basic questions. I can't seem to get clear answers on the RCI FAQs page, and a lot of info on this site was posted quite a few years ago.

to be honest I find their website very confusing. I seem to spend ages clicking around to find things.

Thanks all,

0800 0182020 worked a treat.

Yes, I couldn't do it when I tried to a week or two ago. Kept getting a similar error message. Had to call them in the end, although as it was a premium number I did it on my phone at work (naughty!). Seems like it's an on-going error then... is there a live chat option? You could ask them to call you back?

Thanks.

No, no 'live chat' option. My cynical side thinks they do it on purpose to ensure we pay using their premium rate phone lines.