Camberley

We’ve never taken cash - just credit cards. And if a place does not take cards then that’s their loss - although in all our travels, even buying at street markets and tiny stalls in remote places etc… we’ve never had that issue. We have only had 2 dodgy transactions, but at least with a credit card we were covered and things were easily and swiftly sorted at no expense to us.

It happens almost anywhere: schools, crowded shops, theatres….….. It’s about being as careful - and as hygienic - as you possibly can (whether or not food is involved).
 

True, you can’t do much about the dubious sanitary habits of others, esp. at a buffet or if folk are coughing and sneezing in lifts and corridors without covering their mouth etc…..but life is like that. Otherwise you would never leave the house.

Ah my daughter, Chardonnay. She is not for sale - although there are times when we would happily sell off her stroppy sister Lambrini.

I think it was on the drinks package the other month: we don’t buy the package as it is never even close to being worth it for us - and we do drink a fair bit of alcohol! But a friend on our cruise was on the drinks package and I am pretty sure she was mostly on Chardonnay. But if it is no longer on the package, it is arguably worth buying it as you go.

Ah the best country-style food: evoking memories of the cattle shed floor…..Princess, you do spoil us!

A really great set of posts of the cruise. Wonderful to read

We did a Christmas and New Year cruise the other year on Iona and sadly Christmas dinner itself in the MDR was far from being a celebratory affair. The starters and dessert were pleasant in a standard pub/Toby carvery way, but the main was a disappointment: meagre portions, indifferent waterlogged vegetables (not far off tinned in terms of flavour!), dry and uncrunchy roast potatoes………just poor! I thought I saw Aunt Bessie at another table: I’d have dragged her into the kitchen to cook!

There was a special meal on New Year’s eve but we opted for Epicurean instead and had a fabulous meal that was in keeping with the celebratory nature of it all.
 

But the atmosphere on ship was glorious: there were some lovely carol concerts and the like and P&O captured the magic of Christmas really well.

30 minutes ago, Eddie99 said:

 

Messaged our children asking them if they wanted to pickle our livers to gain their inheritance early?  

 

 

One of the best sentences on the forum. Brilliant!

Have a great cruise 

On 1/9/2024 at 5:41 PM, pugetmandm said:

Yes, there was only one (aft) suite left.

These are, IMO, the best suites for those glorious balconies. I know some like to scoff that it’s all a waste as you never much spend time on a balcony/in the room blah blah blah…..,but you absolutely do. The large aft balcony on a sea day in good weather is fabulous: nice, private enough, away from any hoggers etc…And we love using it for mini gatherings with drinks, nibbles and friends both new and “old” before we go out for the evening.

The challenging thing for us is that suite life is just too addictive!

11 hours ago, CruiserMickey said:

Today I booked the Crown Grill for a party of six. Two of our party have the Premium package and four do not.

 

The amount that Princess charged me does not match what the booking screen said would be charged.

 

After 90 minutes on the chat feature sending screen shots to prove my case, including what was charged on my MasterCard, the answer I got was

 

- “we don’t give out receipts” (excuse me???)

- “you can check what you were charged in your onboard folio” (in three months!?!)

- “call your bank”

 

Has anyone else run into this frustration? Any suggestion as to what I should do besides call my credit card company? I have no receipt to prove what the amount should be because Princess won’t give me one!

Yes, I have had very similar before the cruise for restaurant bookings and a few excursions and it took ages after various emails and different phone calls to get to someone at Princess who could actually confirm a few transactions and explain a few queries/discrepancies. I have always taken screenshots too, but these were not that helpful with one transaction. And as to why bookings I had made and paid for did not always appear on the app or the browser version…..grrrr!

But what a palava. And how utterly utterly crap that Princess do not issue automatic online receipts for paid transactions like this - as I have never once received one

We love the Limelight Club and always book if there is an artiste we want to see. Although we sometimes take a chance if it is someone we do not really know.
 

We have found the food to be reliably excellent (ok, not a wide choice but the food itself was certainly special enough and was far better than the usual MDR fayre and the P&O attempts at the MDR celebration night menus). For us it has always been a lovely, informal and glorious evening. Well worth it. 

I love Britannia as it feels warm, inviting, elegant without being stuffy/snooty but without coming across as cheap and tacky. I like its internal layout and it not being too large. It is hard to describe but for me it has a lovely “feel” and atmosphere without being quite the “pack em all in and be damned” mentality of some of the larger ships/some other cruise - but some folk like that and fair enough!

Even in school holidays Britannia never feels quite as “holiday camp like” that I find Iona and Arvia can almost feel like (just a personal opinion - and I do like a holiday camp from time to time!). But as indeed can ships on other cruise lines. Besides, you get to know where onboard to avoid if you don’t want to be amid families/kids activities - and they are hardly a dominating presence on Britannia. Mind you, I’ve been on ships/with other lines that have been supposedly more upmarket and some of the adult behaviour has been appalling and created a very naff experience.

At the end of the day, P&0 is at the “budget” end of the cruise lines. But that’s fine: it is what it is and it does offer value for money and some excellent experiences - especially if going with a mindset of wanting to enjoy the cruise. And for us Britannia is a lovely ship, with so much to do and enjoy: our favourite in the fleet.

We booked it last year on Iona and Britannia initially via their “app” if at a busy time, but at other times to be honest we rarely had long to wait if we just turned up. Still one of my favourite eateries when at sea for a quick and always delicious bite or two.

I hope you enjoy the cruise. Yes the inside cabin would indeed be a pain compared to the balcony you wanted in normal circumstances - but for a free cruise, the sun and everything else in this case I am sure this will not adversely affect the whole experience once you get settled in. 
 

But do ask at Southampton on Saturday about a balcony and reiterate to them how you were initially downgraded etc and if there is now a balcony free…. as there may well be no-shows.

9 hours ago, 1412p0oi said:

Is that shown on the Princess Platter after we get on the ship, or should one ask beforehand?

You can certainly ask when you board, but it is probably best going to each MDR in turn to find the one that is open. We have found sometimes crew will blatantly lie and tell you only the buffet is open: the last two times we explicitly asked about the MDR embarkation lunch and each time crew members told us the MDRs are all closed and we should instead go to the buffet.
 

We now know to go to the MDRs to find the open one: which doesn’t take long.

We loved it there and it was a real foodie highlight. We do afternoon tea a lot anyway - it’s possibly even something of an addiction! - and a good one is always a treat: this was an excellent one.

We usually have an aft suite on Iona (and recently on Arvia ) and use the balcony a lot but we had no noise issues from the bar at all.

33 minutes ago, cattolica said:

Okay……it’s time for me to ask……..

What do you mean when you say “a bit dated in places”?

The Regal Princess is only about 9 years old.  That’s fairly young for a cruise ship.  

 

We have been on about 50 cruises over a period of 30 years (35 cruises on Princess) and I have never seen anything that I would refer to as “dated”.   
 

Thanks

You see, it’s a personal opinion isn’t it?

We felt a lot of the furniture in our cabin and in some of the venues looked…well, dated/a touch old fashioned. Maybe that is one of the many styles they aimed for. Not tatty or run down at all, but not “modern” - which stood out only a bit only because of some of the attempts at modern-type styles elsewhere on board. But this was not an issue in the slightest as there is so much about the ship and the experience to love.

We felt she was in great shape recently, if a bit dated in places,  

On 12/6/2023 at 1:47 PM, Ardennais said:

It really doesn’t bother me what people wear. I’m always pretty chilled on cruises and just enjoy seeing people having a good time. 

Agree fully. Other people’s attire is their business and if they are happy in what they are wearing, that’s great.

1 hour ago, mklions said:

We normally book a suite with P&O and an aft cabin is our preference.

The secret we found is book early if you want a suite as they tend to get snapped up quite quickly ( especially the aft ones)

Prices were around the £2k price PP pre covid, you would do well to get one under £3k PP now.

Yes we just go for suites now on P&O: and the wraparound aft ones. And a good suite/wrap-around balcony on P&0 at their cost is far more enticing to us than spending a similar amount on a few other cruise company’s ships in a standard cabin with a standard balcony. Even with P&O’s pitiful attempts at making canapés!
 

We have also found booking asap is always best for us. And while P&O suite benefits have never been the best compared to similar company’s suites, there have indeed been a few little cuts with P&O suites as well in recent times. But for us nothing too drastic enough to put us off. There are instead other things with how P&O is becoming that are more likely to put us off….

I’ve never had any issue with my TA who take what I think is an acceptable deposit. But to be honest, even if they wanted a little more as a deposit or balance dates were earlier etc, they are 100% worth it for us for the hassle-free way they deal with our bookings, queries and other great offers that we just do not get with booking directly. So for us, our TA offers true value, excellent service and no stress,
 

On the other hand, the times I had formerly booked directly with P&O they were appalling at many stages: very hard to get hold off, throwing out an excess of “standard” responses/excuses when things had gone astray, lacking any decent personal service….almost flirting with competence but then missing the mark. It was as if everything is too much effort for them - and there are only so many hoops I am prepared to jump through! Thankfully their team is great when onboard and there are many other things to commend them for.

we have enjoyed some lovely ports in Norway, with enough time at most - well, of those ports the ships have ended up going to! But perhaps oddly, for us we’ve found cruising the fjords to be less about the ports themselves and much more about the sailing serenely through the fjords themselves and taking in the majesty of it all

That’s really wonderful to read. They get a lot of bad press - and rightly so for their many flaws that many of us have experienced from time to time - but it is great when they do things well like this.

12 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

So it's not the ship that concerns you, but the clientele??

Sometimes it is a small portion of the clientele and how they behave. Absolutely. Similarly, with some dreadful behaviour on more expensive cruise lines. But the ship itself is key to our enjoyment

7 minutes ago, Interestedcruisefan said:

Plenty of the nastiest, vilest people in the UK are more than wealthy enough to have their own super yachts let alone cruise on any cruiseline whatever the budget

 

And at the same time many of the nicest people in the UK probably can't even afford to cruise at all

 

I honestly don't think budget creates nicer or less nice people tbh

 

Maybe the wealthier nasty and vile people just know how to disguise it better? Or whisper more?

 

And am I not correct in saying many far more expensive cruises include as much as you could possible drink as part of the deal for every customer? 

 

Just saying....

 

Being nice or vile is not all about  alcohol and/or choice of cruiseline IMO

 

And certainly not about budget

 

Clearly not about agegroup either based on these 3 women from different generations

 

 

To a point.