AndyMichelle

48 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

That’s exactly my point Andy. The threat alone is enough to stop the vast majority of people from taking their own bottle of spirits and clearly bottles found in hand luggage as people board will be confiscated. Thats probably all that P&O need to do to sort out over 90% of the issue.
 

I will, however, be fascinated to know whether anyone feeds back that they have personally been called to reception when on the ship regarding a bottle in their suitcase, especially as some bottles are permitted. I’d be surprised if the cost and effort of doing this, plus the irritation caused to those whose bottle is actually allowed, is worth it, hence my scepticism!

I feel there might be a few to begin with, so word spreads that you 'can' get caught. 

That would be enough to stop most of us, not that we bothered anyway. 

Andy 

3 hours ago, zjc said:

Does anyone know if the Always Available Chicken in the MDR on the Dinner menu has now been removed? 
 

thanks 

It was still there a couple of weeks back on Britannia, although not listed as 'always available' it was 'always available', along with the 5oz steak. 

Andy 

4 hours ago, Selbourne said:

The comments about Iona last week aren’t 100% clear whether they are just referring to booze being confiscated from hand luggage (which we can assume is a given, as the checking is done with the passenger present, so very easy to police) or also from hold luggage (suitcases etc).
 

It would be good to have first hand feedback from someone who has been called by reception to open one of their checked in suitcases in order to establish specifically what is in the bottle that has been detected.

My understanding is that is what was happening, bottles removed from checked in luggage, but as you say, it would be nice if someone this happened to could confirm. 

True or not, there is just as many stories out there of passengers who have ignored the instructions and got away with it. 

The fact that a lot of people who would have taken their own now dont, means it is a success for P&O already, unless we all 'jump ship'... 

Andy 

1 hour ago, sweep2907 said:

Just got off Iona and they were confiscating bottles from luggage and had to go collect on last night. It is certainly being enforced for those thinking nothing would change. What is the point in smuggling a bottle on board to save £3-4? The mindset of some beggars belief.

Yes, friends of ours have just got off Iona too and tell the same story. 

They also received an email before they sailed advising of the changes, so no excuses. 

Andy 

44 minutes ago, MyriamS said:

Hi everyone, when booking our Norway cruise, we choose an inside forward cabin as we do not mind the ship's movement and there are not many entertainment areas there. Today P&O "upgraded" us to an inside cabin midship... right underneath Ocean Studios. They have some late showings in the cinema, how bad will the noise be at night? (During the day, we can be away from our cabin.) I suppose there is nothing that we can do to refuse this "upgrade"?

 

The cabin is 5559 on Iona for reference.

Always worth a call, we did it once and they agreed to let us stay in our original cabin. 

Good luck

Andy 

7 minutes ago, snaefell said:

Last time we were on Arcadia there was talk of a Refurb sometime this year,anybody know if that is in the pipeline at all please guys?

Arcadia scheduled for November this year, Aurora April 2025.

Andy 

9 minutes ago, CountryStyleMe said:

your not allowed to take them onboard when you embark anymore. the only thing thing you can take when you first embark the ship is wine and champagne. 

 

Not sure about this? 

Your post above only says alcohol apart from wine and Champagne are banned? 

Can't find anything on the website to say you can't specifically take soft drinks? 

Andy 

23 minutes ago, jual said:

I think we will try this option,  and see what the weather is like ! Olden Cruise was blocked out for our day in port, so i expect an early start would be the best option the beat the crowds.

Definitely early if the sky is clear. We were straight off, after breakfast of course, tickets bought and on first bus within 10 minutes. 

When we came down about lunchtime, the queue was huge. 

It's definitely worth the visit. 

Andy 

It's very easy. 

There is a portakabin opposite the ship, next to the pub. 

Walk in, buy tickets (£58 each last week) get on blue bus waiting outside, run every 15 minutes. 

So straightforward, even when P&O is sold out. 

Have a great time. 

Andy 

1 hour ago, majortom10 said:

Cunard

Apparently they are following suit. 

19 minutes ago, Photo Andy said:

Thought I would bring you all up to date. It is Sunday night and we are back in UK at home. 

Eventful final few days.

Wednesday in Alesund, we walked up Mt Aksla with many people from P and O Iona and an Aida ship. The footpath was very busy,  I took my camera / tripod images of Alesund  but not from the cafe as it seems permanently closed. Walked back down into the town and fell off a pavement and injured myself up, mostly my right hand knuckles, deskinned and bloody, avoided any facial injuries, a quick check and nothing seemed broken. Back on ship cleaned up, then back out into Alesund to buy some dressings, tape and scissors. (I used to work in the NHS doing tissue viability so self dressing is not a problem). Have you ever tried to pass through ship security with a pair of scissors longer than 40mm? They looked at the dressings we purchased, the tape and my bloody fingers etc. They allowed the scissors on board but we could not open the packet until in our cabin and could not take them out of the cabin. We were meant to have a pm cruise on a fjord but just did not feel up to it. 

Thursday - heavy rain, fog and 35mph wind and the ship had 2 attempts to enter Haugesund but no luck. On the upside we were refunded our excursion money. 

Friday, packed, had a table for dinner at the Keel and Cow, lovely meal, clean plates. 

Saturday, our disembarkation time was 8-55am, in the car and on the way home by 9-30am. 

This was a great holiday, the hand injury was my fault, but Iona was excellent, food, crew, venues etc. Missing a port excursion seems to be an issue in Norway, just stay cool and enjoy the ports you can visit.

BW

Derek.     

Welcome home Derek. 

Glad you had a great time, despite the setback.

Hope all heals up quickly. 

Surprised to hear the cafe is closed at Alesund, it seemed to be doing great business when we went a while back. 

Thank you for reporting in, feedback like yours helps a lot of people and we enjoy following along. 

Andy 

2 minutes ago, Ilovemygarden said:

Exactly.  I cannot understand how P and O’s new policy has stirred up so much angst!

Well, 558 replies and over 25k views says it must mean a lot to some people. 

9 minutes ago, Eglesbrech said:

My local pub has a decent bottle of Chenin, Pinot Grigio or shiraz for around £15. Beers like Stella are £4.30 a pint, Moretti £4.60. Cheaper beers are £3.50.

 

Food is £10.25 for a large portion of fish and chips (£8.00 for pensioner portion). Fahitas are £10 for veggie, £12 for chicken and £13 for steak. Steak pie etc around £10.
 

 

That shows the divide. 

No pints under a fiver down here, except 'Spoons', Peroni £6.20. 

Any meal in a decent pub is around £18, even a burger. 

A steak starts now about £20, a decent cut nearer £30.

Large cod & chips, take away from the chippie is over a tenner. 

Andy 

Our local pub wine list. 

You connoisseurs will tell me if this makes P&O expensive? 

Our nearest comparison was a bottle of Zinfandel Rose on board was £25, £26.50 here. 

Andy 

1 minute ago, vitrocmax said:

 

 

Thanks for your messages, apparently the A34 is closed so we'll be having to use the M25 which had already added some extra time to the journey. 

The coach is comfortable and my wife is watching the football on SkyGo.

We've booked an early dining spot in the Olive Grove so we won't have much time to explore before dinner. Got a front facing cabin up on deck 14 so that's going to be interesting.

Have a fantastic time. 

Andy 

2 minutes ago, Jennizor said:

On our recent Arvia cruise there was always someone at the MDR entrance holding hand wash. I never saw anyone walk past without taking it. 

Same on Britannia, but we did see a Japanese guy refuse the hand sanitiser, but he was the only one. 

The bigger worry for me was in the toilets. Lots of men do not wash their hands... 

31 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

Apart from the opinion this is a step too far for those who want to bring alcohol onboard and say its therefore a deal breaker, have any of the defectors checked prices and terms on all these supposedly better cruise lines?  If so may I ask which lines and how they compare price wise and rule wise?  To be fair it would be interesting ti say price a 7 night Fjords cruise in a balcony and a 14 day Mediterranean in an inside cabin.

 

Anyone want to take the challenge?

Not quite taking on your challenge MB, I am not that brave... 😊

But I have been comparing like for like for 7 nights Fjords next year and there isn't much between P&O, Princess and Cunard, if you take into account the expected better experience. 

Our balcony, select fare, same cabin as this year on Britannia is £350 dearer then we paid this year, with slightly less obc. 

Princess, including Plus, was obviously dearer, but if you take into account what we spent on board and if we used the WiFi, there was about £100 difference. (I would definitely drink more) 😂

Iona was slightly higher than Britannia, but had better ports (Flam). 

I know the bargains can still be found, but I think they are getting less and less on the popular cruises. 

Andy 

1 hour ago, S1971 said:

 

I agree Andy, but we can add that ethos to everything in life.

 

The overall impression they are giving me is of greed and profiteering.

 

People are not naive enough to know that they are a profit making business, but there has to be a line in which it stops, that line has been crossed for me at least.

 

The difference pre covid to what it is available now is considerable, so many small things have been removed, alongside reduced menu, bar increases, reduced cabin services, less staff so slower service, this alongside other things already mentioned on this thread.

 

When all things are taking into consideration I don't feel they now offer good value for money, more especially on the older adult only ships.

 

P&O used to be a quality product, now it's nothing other than ordinary and basic.

 

I fully appreciate that this is only my opinion and others won't agree, but when I read through this thread again and noted all the changes and the inability to deal with some serious bad behaviours, I don't feel P&O suits my need anymore.

 

Great thread by the way, thanks for starting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Totally agree with all you say. 

It is nothing like the pre covid offering, but a lot of the cuts haven't really affected my ability to have a good holiday, but I drastically have to adapt my expectations. 

We are looking elsewhere and have Cunard booked, but as you have pointed out, things are changing there too. 

P&O still offer enough for me to have a good time, at the moment... 

The bigger worry for me is that like for like prices are creeping up, whilst standards continue to drop. The argument of being so much cheaper is diminishing. 

We did see a few instances of not great behaviour, but there is still thousands of lovely people having a great time without offending anyone. 

Andy 

6 hours ago, S1971 said:

 

I don't think £7.50 for a cheese toastie sounds like a very signature dish to me!!

I agree it doesn't sound like a signature dish, you don't have to buy it though... 

The MDR on Britannia offers a signature 3 course meal for £14.95, it didn't look very inspiring, so we didn't buy it. 

It took nothing away from the included menu, and it seems like the Golden Lion is the same. 

These are not things that used to be free, at least not in recent history. 

Ice cream is not included on P&O, but many buy it. 

Is Costa Coffee 'premium'? 

Like everything on this thread, we have choices to make, and always have... 

If we don't like it, we know what to do. 

Andy 

Portsmouth to Southampton is an easy journey with a few alternative routes, so no real worries there. I would allow about an hour. 

Be careful not to assume all hotels with a PO postcode are in Portsmouth, you could easily end up on the Isle of Wight... 

A suggestion for parking. Get hubby to drop you, the kids and your bags at the port and park in West Quay car park. It is a few minutes drive and 10-15 min walk back, costs £6 per day. You take your ticket with you, there is a barrier and pay when returning to your car. 

If you have the budget, the Loen skylift is worth doing. Exploring the snow covered mountains, going inside a real Igloo and messing about in the snow is great fun. 

Have a fantastic time. 

Andy 

10 minutes ago, S1971 said:

 

My apologies I missed this part of your reply.

 

"There was a shuttle bus and though it said it was the official P&O shuttle it was £5.50 each"

 

Taken from another ongoing P&O thread.

 

This is at Haugesund, which is only a 950m walk into the town, so for many, and in P&Os eyes, a shuttle bus is not required. 

The problem is, it's over a steep bridge, which obviously causes issues for some. 

I didn’t think the shuttle bus was anything to do with P&O, but I may be wrong. 

I don't see this one as a cutbacks, as I don't believe it was ever offered free, but again, I could be wrong. 

Andy 

6 hours ago, Funboy said:

I have not been thrilled by Haugesund on my two visits. This last time we faced an hour or so walk into the city(we are both 76). There was a shuttle bus and though it said it was the official P&O shuttle it was £5.50 each. Because of the distance there should have been a free shuttle as P&O sometimes provide. On our next visit we will not bother leaving the ship.

 

Yes, we struggled to get ' Grandad' over the bridge, so he got the bus back. 

Fortunately I am able, so managed to have a fantastic walk out to the lighthouse then a nice coffee in an independent bakery. 

I agree though, the town is uninspiring. 

Andy 

2 hours ago, S1971 said:

 

Glad to see P&O are thinking if the planet by removing disposable cups, at least you can BUY one of theirs. 

Unless this has changed as well since last week, you can and they do encourage you to bring your own reusable cups and are happy to fill them. 

Obviously this is only for take aways, you still get a 'proper' cup if you drink in. 

Andy 

11 minutes ago, Ardennais said:

Such a shame. There was a mini heatwave there last Thursday!

And Wednesday when we were there. 

It made all the difference in Haugesund as last year the weather was miserable and didn't really take to the place but saw it in a completely different light in the sunshine. 

Andy 

Do I still need to wear black tie😂