paulatsea

Just had the email as well. I’m looking for Aurora or Arcadia 2026 - jan/feb- something special for my 66 birthday and I’ll be an OAP! Fancy Asia or S. America - prepared to spend more than usual and hoping that I (and Aurora and Arcadia) will still be alive - but if not it won’t matter. Will book early if anything looks good and I can select my cabin.

I would arrive at 11:30.

Good plan - hope the weather is good for you. We are on Explorer 2 again next month doing Adriatic affair.

I don’t blame you - for me long haul needs a good modern aircraft with modern facilities otherwise it’s a very uncomfortable experience. We had a TUI Dreamliner replaced with a much older aircraft flying back from Jamaica. Terrible flight- this was on a Thomson cruise years ago.

We did your cruise in May. Explorer 2 was great - bars and dining and cabin and staff were excellent as usual. It rained heavily for the first half of the cruise which spoiled the walking tours we did ! but we still enjoyed it overall. We did ship excursions at all the stops except Bar - which was a mistake as we didn’t find much to do on our own there.

Ditto !!!

Although good tables for 2 are available there are much less of them - in my experience.

My view as well so 2 peoples view. I am comparing to Aurora - and Aurora is much better.

It’s not a joke - many if not most tables for 2 were very close together in the MDR on my cruise last year on SOD. Much better on Aurora. We did manage to find a decent table eventually but the original one we were allocated was so close to others it was effectively a shared table. The cabin and service everywhere was excellent , all inclusive and free transport to ship - but despite all this we still prefer p&o Aurora - it has a better atmosphere for us. Perhaps it’s different on SOA.

Are you on select price amajaa ? If so you could have booked fixed dining first sitting - this would be better for you I think.

Easy to cancel via cruise control - I did this and got a credit card refund in 2 days. Very easy - just click the x to delete the excursion from your bookings on cruise control.

Good luck w3ndi !! Hope you have a great holiday. Please let us know how it goes.

Wow really ? appalling. looks like they backtracked in this case.

PS - if it was me I would tell them I will publish what has happened online and ask Simon Calder to take this up - and I would if I didn’t get an explanation - but that’s just me !

This is bizarre. I find it hard to believe it was a spam email as they offered you compensation and seemed to know about the cabin change so therefore about the email - as you said. More like a mistake and they are backtracking. I think they are using the term “spam” incorrectly - deliberately - instead of being straight with you. Perhaps email the whole story including the original email(with the sender email address included) to customer services and say how upset and stressed this has made you. The sender email address in the “spam” email will show that it was sent by Marella and was not “spam”. Ask for a full explanation and ask why the people you have dealt with appear to have been dishonest. If they now say you are in your original cabin then I would be very confident that that is the case. can you check your cabin details again on your checkin documents online to see if they have changed ? Did you notice the changed cabin number online at all after you got the email ? Might be worth taking copies of emails to the ship to see if they can take this up as a complaint as well - I have found customer service on board to be much better than on land - if you can be bothered. I hope it all works out ok - you have been very badly treated and deserve an apology and an explanation at the very least.

That’s them covered then !

Do the t&c say how much notice should be given for a cabin change ? To have this done 2 days before the holiday is totally unacceptable in my opinion - a real kick in the teeth.

What a great idea !

Let us know - best of luck - I can imagine how stressful this is for you.

🤞

What a horrible thing to do to you at such short notice. They should have offered you the option of a full refund or a suitable cabin change with obc / some money back or even a change of cruise. Does this mean someone else has been given your cabin ? Or it was double booked ? I think it’s totally out of order as it seems you (like us) carefully choose where your cabin is to avoid noise etc. good luck.

Looks a good itinerary - way up to the top. Interesting - I wonder who chartered the ship and for what reason ?

I was on this as one as well. Select price balcony B deck and second sitting dinner - table for 2. Really enjoyed it. great cabin and steward. Good dinner table - wine waiter was a bit abrupt but service was very good. Food was ok - good enough for us but not wow. Horizon buffet was very good for breakfast and lunch. Always tables available and not manic. breakfast in medina was great. loved the crows nest for pre dinner drinks and they had a band on at 19:30 most nights or a pianist. always had some nice background music on which is important to us. everything worked and was in good repair. Excursions were good - Porto was brilliant. great to be back on Aurora again after about 3 years. back onboard December 1st. Can’t wait. ps we stayed the night before at the pilgrim inn in marchwood for a change - we usually stay at the holiday inn or the big pyramid one opposite. it was a mistake - not good at all. Back to the holiday inn for next one. PPS parked with cps - all very efficient. told to arrive at 14:30 for boarding but got there at 13:00 just to see what was happening and we were prepared to leave and come back if necessary. joined the “early arrivals” queue and waited about 45 mins and then were allowed in. very efficient check in and boarding. another advantage of a smaller ship.

Thanks molecrochip - do you know what the extent of the refits are ?

Just got off Aurora - all in good shape. Great cruise. Good service.