doog442

We'd kind of faded away from cruising, instead choosing land based all inclusive holidays (Maldives, Mauritius, Antigua, St Lucia Mexico etc). We have an absolute minimum standard - so decent quality hotels. We did a Princess cruise after Covid in 2022 but it almost put us off for life - clearly struggling in all areas from covid plus an extremely elderly demographic. We thought we'd give it one last go and did the Arvia Caribbean in Feb. We had a fantastic time and it's converted us back, not fully (as we'll still do beach holidays - Maldives next month) but it reminded us why we started cruising back in 2007, they just nailed it. We've booked Cunard for next year ( to sample the Queen Anne) but I have quite a few P&O cruises on my radar.

Funnily enough there was a thread recently about price increases on the RC forum with some threatening to jump ship to Princess.

We also had a decent chuckle at that. As for Utopia, we found that in the Maldives but not if you read the Foreign office advice 🤣

It says the same almost word for word for Antigua, St Kitts, Barbados and others. As regular visitors to Antigua and St Lucia it really is a case of just using common sense. The majority of serious crime in St Lucia for example is locals on locals and gang related. The only area to really avoid at night in St Lucia is one small area of Castries which was pointed out to us by our driver. One of the Islands most regarded hotels (Rendezvous) is literally the other side of the small runway adjacent to the port on Vigie Beach in Castries. We've stayed there without issue, walked into Castries with no problems. Incidentally Martinique (French) Aruba and the Dutch Islands are deemed much safer by the foreign office of course still funded by France and the Netherlands respectively and you can tell infrastructure wise. You have more chance of being a victim of crime in any UK seaside resort.

My wife bought me a kit for Christmas and I've ticked all of the privacy boxes. She bought it for a laugh as hers showed she had a big chunk of Norway and Scotland in the DNA and she wants to know if she's more Scottish than me (my dad was Scottish). That's it no more, no less - simply a bit of fun. I only sent it off yesterday. Incidentally we got one for my wife a few years back when it was all the rage because she's dark skinned and it intrigued us as we can't see a family link . It transpires there was a mass movement of blue eyed dark skinned folk to parts of Norway thousands of years ago from the Med which may explain it - who knows. Anyway it's a decent joke at parties- nope she's not from somewhere exotic, she's bloody Norwegian.🤣

Heads up. OBC has now returned to previous levels as of 4/3 at least across the half dozen cruises on my radar and prices are the same. The OBC isn't a patch on what some of us were getting last year mind. Coincidentally I just received an e mail promoting 'offers incoming' which for one of my cruises is exactly the same as before they slashed OBC to the bone a few days ago. You couldn't make it up🤣...well I guess you could.

oops delete that - brain stutter

Haha. I guess I'm just thinking out loud. As you said earlier its frustrating, we had a window of opportunity I'd kind of decided on cabin etc, they they pulled the rug and the Yorkshire in me appeared. It's no so much the loss of the OBC but as you state what might around the corner. To be fair it now makes our Cunard cruise next year look excellent value - until of course they change things. Enjoy your final black tie night, it seems an eternity since I posted that pic of Aurora from the Arvia in Barbados ! I put on 9 pounds in two weeks and I don't think I was really overdoing it yet you're still at sea, marvelous. 🤣

This is what I can't really get my head around. By all means adjust OBC , prices etc for individual cruises based on demand but they literally cut OBC by more than half across most of the fleet on the same day. There wasn't a particular sales drive happening in that respect unlike the Cunard triple offer which had an end date, the same day they culled OBC on P&O. Are they trying to keep price disparity between both, I've no idea it just seems odd.

Just for interest and please don't shoot the messenger but I noticed this happened yesterday. I've had my eye on numerous dates / ships this year and early next (7 nights &14 nights). In nearly every case OBC was cut by half (and much more) yesterday however the select price and overall prices haven't budged. This appears to have coincided with the Cunard triple spend offer ending at the same time, again no real movement on select prices (I can confirm as I have one booked). I appreciate prices are dynamic etc however future prices seem to be on average 20% higher than last year and now OBC has been cut to the bone for the time being at least. I notice the 20% off the drinks package is now 10% I assume this is 'a correction', either that or they really are selling cabins (I know the Arvia has really kicked off the Caribbean - our recent cruise is now 20% more with £450 less OBC for next Jan) but I don't think they are in all cases. For example Britannia at the end of Aug has loads of availability but prices remain stubbornly high and OBC slashed from £300 to £120 yesterday. Food for thought I guess, some will say perfectly normal but I thought perhaps it could have been a bit more 'subtle'. Incidentally what this did was immediately make me look elsewhere !

As stated West Quay is a decent bet. We use it all the time when popping into Southampton and have left cars in 24/7 - there are loads left overnight. For starters no one really steals a car from a public multi story as they have to pay to get out and it has CCTV and ANPR in this case. Since West Quay was built ( its a big commercial shopping centre) I've never seen any evidence of people breaking into cars ( which is usually broken glass fragments on the ground). Likewise loads of security in the immediate area on foot as I said its a highly productive commercial shopping centre who rely on people using that car park and IKEA next door. If people want to screw cars there are thousands of poorly lit streets and driveways not that far away. That said you still have to get to the immediate port area, although nearby might not suit everyone without the hassle of a taxi.

Yes in particular the Caribbean. We normally do land based AI but avoid Jan / Feb as the prices literally double. Our latest cruise (14 day aft cabin Arvia- ) was coming in at less than half the price of some of our favourite hotels in Antigua / St Lucia and it was weird sat on their beaches this time around. The OBC paid for our drinks (and two tours). Having last sailed P&O in 2019 and comparing it to now I honestly can't say any changes have put us off. As a matter of fact nice as it is we didn't miss turn down as we always felt we had to leave the cabin looking presentable before going out 🤣. We did Princess in 2022 and I'm damned if I could tell any difference between the both apart from Arvias cocktail menu being woeful - especially the Crows nest. Looking ahead I've noticed Caribbean prices aren't really softening for next winter (unlike 12 months ago) with less OBC, probably due to strong demand for what I think is still a very good value product. I think I'll hold off and monitor but that Arvia 22 night TA plus Islands looks tempting. We also saw the bookings desk was very busy most days.

Have you spoken to people ? I was on Arvia after the LGW delay, those on the 7 day cruise said they wouldn't do it again. Likewise those delayed today didn't get to bed until silly o'clock this morning then had to unpack even later - I doubt they had any sleep last night. Maleth as a dirty word dominated the cruise. There's hyperbole and then there's reality. That's why they've been binned off. Keep defending it as normal and expected.

Likewise will move them on for a tidy sum if they bin it. The profit will cover a few years bookings of lost OBC.

Seeing @carlanthony24like this post is a bit of an oxymoron as he suggested it was regular and normal. 🤣 If you've done regular Caribbean flights with BA you'd know the press were talking out of their arris.

I think you mean Easter holidays - half term was last week I believe .From what I can see most are breaking up on 28th March for Easter so you should be fine within reason. It looks like Arvia's heading back for the school run 😉

This is the daft thing, we're retired as well🤣. I'm hoping that 1.They won't be that attracted to a Cunard ship 2.The Fjords aren't that inspiring for kids 3.The parents of the little buggers will still have to pay gratuities for the kids. 4. They'll all be on Iona or RCL 😆 ..obviously none of that will happen and it will be rammed with them.

Sorry for the late reply and thanks for the info and your review. Our dates this year got a little squeezed but I ended up booking new The Queen Anne for our first Fjords cruise next July. They're doing some decent OBC offers at the moment that brought price parity with P&O for what we wanted (gratuities aside). Actually the deal was really good, the issue is that it's in the school holidays which made the deal even stranger 😬 but I'm hoping they're all little angels. When we last went on Britannia that was also in the summer holidays, it was full of teachers😆...to be fair we hardly even noticed the children. Anyway I better have a mooch over on the Cunard forum and start asking some really silly questions.

Hi I didn't see any shuttles per se as we didn't really have the need. Barbados - we did a tour straight from the quay but saw plenty of people walking from the ship with towels etc down towards the beach and town centre (20 mins?) . Tortola - Again we did a tour but the terminal is pretty central to the town, probably a 15 minute walk to town. La Romana - there's a purpose built tourist trap straight off the ship, free pool, bars, usual tourist shops all within a secure zone. 15 min walk to local town (we saw people walking) St Maartin - usual tourist trap shops / bars at the cruise terminal. We did an external tour but saw literally hundreds of people walking towards the town and beach which I guess was a 20 minutes walk. Antigua. You are bang in the centre of St Johns 10 min walk but not a great area out of the cruise terminal shops. St Kitts - usual cruise terminal area then a short walk to the town. Martinique - long pier, town is literally 200 yards away from the waterfront. Castries, a longer walk to the town centre depending on where the ship moors. So yes, everything walkable and nothing like some of the Med ports where you need a shuttle. Just a note. We had a fantastic time with this itinerary and the cruise, I hope you manage to make it.

Of course, wish everyone a safe and non delayed flight.

Sadly we saw no one using the wash basins on Arvia, so that encouraged us to also use them on the way out of the buffet as well . Staff were enforcing the hand gel in the MDR's. The toilet door sensor buttons are also a great idea.

Is the link not on my P&O cruises log in where you print the boarding passes ? ps at the same time you might as well stick in your flight delay claim to Maleth 🤣 Joking aside we were with TUI, perhaps a Maleth victim can help..oops

We had the same issues at Barbados airport last weekend. It was carnage, the airport simply couldn't cope with the number of flights on top of the normal scheduled flights. We were all directed towards an Air Canada flight, boarding passes weren't being checked properly, the staff had lost control at gates 14-16 which were handling multiple flights at once. It's clear that the extra passenger numbers involved with Arvia are putting a big strain on these airports. Best of luck with your claim.

We're looking at the Norwegian Fjords either this June or next year. We last went on her in 2017 and loved the ambience but on a recent cruise I was told she badly needs a refit and that cabins were showing their age somewhat. Recent reviews don't seem that great in many areas and I'm not sure if that's reflected in the pricing. I see she's due a refit between 5-21st April 2024, any idea what's involved ? We have the option of Iona but having just done Arvia I'd prefer a smaller ship. Any thoughts appreciated, thanks.

I had the essential package on Arvia last week and it was brilliant all over the ship. We also used the hotspot feature on our phones so as long as we were together we both had independent internet off the one package.