davecttr

5 minutes ago, zap99 said:

I'm slightly confused. Am I right that you cancelled 2 P&O cruises and that nearly paid for 1 FO ?.

Yes but there is more. I have 4 P&O cruises booked for this year. 

14 nights on Britannia to the Canaries on 5 July - £1907 to pay

16 nights on Arcadia to Iceland/Norway on 30 July - £1844 to pay

7 nights on Britannia to Norway on 13 September - £1259 to pay

14 nights on Iona to the Canaries on 9 November - £1553 to pay

I will take the Arcadia cruise leaving £4719 saving £1520 after paying for the Fred 14 nights to Svalbard/Norway. That Fred Cruise is more attractive to me than the 3 cancelled P&O cruises combined. I could invest that £1500 in a private Carpal Tunnel Syndrome op on my left wrist, better than waiting 6 months or the appoinment falling in the middle of a cruise IMO.

I followed Dermotsgirl and visited the Mountain Wharehouse at the Chatham Dockyard Outlet Centre, eventually, after a 45 minute wait for a bus that is meant to run at 15 minute intervals. A 'free' flat white at Roos helped calm me and then into MW for a recce and gloves. Gloves sold out so I came out with a pair of socks and a 3 in 1 jacket with removeable liner and hood . Good enough for me at 39% discount. Trespass had gloves but the fingers are all too long. I will try on line. Then into Cotton Traders for a couple of long sleeve 'outdoor' shirts. I already have lots of layers so it is just the long underwear to buy. i will have to shorten the legs though. Luckily my Tesco delivery is not until 4pm.

2 hours ago, jeanlyon said:

We are in an inside cabin. Paid about £150 pppn for a grade one up from the basic.  13 night cruise.  Yes more than we usually pay but did get 400 obc.  Still on board and Azores tomorrow 

£160 pppn for a 13 night cruise suggests maybe £161.50 pppn for a 14 night cruise, a total of £3230 for the cruise. My superior inside cabin cost £3199 which is about a 38% single supplement, not bad as I have had 70% SS in the past. I also have £210 OBC.

It appears that price comparisons can only apply to the basic inside and ocean view cabins as Fred does not have any balcony cabins, or rather the balcony cabins are classified as suites.

7 hours ago, Dermotsgirl said:

+1 for Mountain Warehouse

 

When we did a northern lights cruise we went to the Mountain Warehouse at the Dockside Outlet in Chatham and got ourselves kitted out. 

 

In addition to what other people have already said, merino wool socks keep your feet warm. 

I think I will have a look around there tomorrow, good to know it is still open.

I am visiting Longyearbyen in June by cruise. The average temperature will be 2C to 5C. Any advice please on reliable brands of windproof/waterproof/ insulated clothing would be welcome. There will be a lot of standing around on open decks whale watching.

I have just booked a cruise on Balmoral in June from Newcastle, 14 nights to Norway and Svalbard in an inside single premium cabin. It did not come cheap but I always wanted to visit Svalbard and two new ports for me are Hammerfest and Alta. Lots of midnight sun for whale watching which is why I booked it. The fare was £3199 with £210 on board credit. I have September and November P&O cruises which I will cancel saving £2812 so the difference is only £387 and further savings will come from the lack of a casino. No Blackjack for me. I am pleased that the cabin only has a shower as well as I did not like the bath/shower arrangement on Arcadia. I can have my Blackjack fix on Arcadia in July with 14 nights to Iceland/Norway and two new ports, Belfast and Stornoway. My Arcadia cabin is shower only and only yards from the whale watching deck 🙂

The only problem might be a rail strike.

There used to be a hand sanitiser that worked against Norovirus, or rather it worked against a related non enveloped virus in cats. They had to change the formula because the low volume percentage active ingredient could cause skin cancer if you bathed your hands daily in it for about 20 years.

Apparently all the handrails etc should be brass because copper has anti bacterial properties. It kills them, apparently something to do with the molecular structure of the metal. Did you know RNA can form spontaneously on volcanic glass given the conditions on the early earth, amazing.

Oceana did not have a Crows Nest. Actually it did have a forward lounge with dance floor etc but that was converted into the buffet. I think the ship design was pre buffet era. I liked Oceana and she was my favourite ship.

9 hours ago, carlanthony24 said:

Honestly I found the crew canteen not to my liking that much. Mostly found it catered for the Indian/Philippine crew. It did have some British food like burgers, fish, chicken curry but repeated often. It was just better going up to the buffet or a specialty restaurant most days.

Crew members using the buffet is a problem on Arcadia which has the worst buffet on P&O IMO. In the evenings  one of the serveries and a significant part of the seating is cordoned off and reserved for 'officers', apparently Arcadia does not have a officers mess? There are also groups of staff in certain grades that arrive en-masse and demolish the buffet offerings. IMO the buffet is for passengers and staff who are allowed to use it should be mindful that it is a privilage and that the passengers pay their salery.

Smartphone apps have displays that are too small for my ancient hands It is bad enough having to type this. I have a smartphone without a SIM but use a dumb phone for calls and text. I find no problem with pressing a big key 3 times to type the letter c. A tablet is better than a smartphone but not for carrying around.

I have £150 OBC for my 16 night Arcadia cruise and that works out at £9.375 per day. As I average 2 pints per week nowadays that will be enough for one holiday drink a day and maybe a paid for meal. So no problem spending the OBC and then the 10% discount applies.

16 minutes ago, Cathygh said:

 

 

It has been widely reported else where that G532 and G533 (October 2024) have been cancelled and Iona will have her refit then instead of March 2025. It will be for 17 days. Lots of complaints, obviously, especially as alternative cruises have risen in price. I expect there to be replacement cruises for March 2025 to be announced soon.

That confused me. I am booked on iona G437 and that departs on the 9th November.

Just now, yorkshirephil said:

I find a lot of help lines very rude, you should have heard the suggestion I got from the suppository help line.

If it was an Italian help line about Inuendo

1 hour ago, twotravellersLondon said:

 

 

We would check very, very carefully.

 

We've had the same suggestion and after a little research removed the email from our system, removed all cookies and deleted all history. Why... we've not used that antivirus software for over 10 years and that was on computers that have long since gone to the IT-graveyard in the cyberspace.

 

There is currently a Microsoft windows defender security warning doing the rounds... it's a phishing scam used to gain to the a device.

The email is from North Face and I have no intention to email their help line. My anti virus software is current but I have not clicked any links. I will delete cookies and history.

My Anti virus software has been occasionally reporting a data breach since xmas and suggesting I pay for an upgrade. Now I think I know why.

I bought a North Face waterproof jacket last year and I received an email from them this morning. Their parent group had a data breach in December and potentially personal information such as name, address, phone number etc was stolen. However no passwords or bank/ credit card details were compromised and the only thing stored was I paid by credit card with no further details, the system has now been restored.

I supose paying for that upgrade is a good idea.

Having had my Equiniti shareholding verified I filled in the redemption form on Stockperks. I had this information to hand.

Broker - Equiniti

Equiniti Shareholder Ref - XXXXXXXXXXX

Name - XXXXX

Booking Ref - XXXXXX

Ship - P&O Arcadia

Sailing date - XXXXXX

I can't remember if all those details were required but NO passwords. My redemption application and the amended invoice from P&O took an hour or so.

Is Stockperks based in the USA? If so their working day starts at least 5 hours later than hours. Maybe the time at which we submit the redemption claim makes a difference.

6 hours ago, davecttr said:

I will try it now

That went well. I submitted my redemption claim via the Stockperks App at 16:30, received a reply from them at 17:58 stating P&O had approved the application and received an amended invoice from P&O at 18:17. This was for an Arcadia cruise at the end of July, much more than 90 days from departure and the final payment is not due until early May.

37 minutes ago, kruzseeka said:

Well, well, well!!! 

 

Following our discussion, yesterday I booked an October cruise (actually it was a swap from another one) and thought I'd give the Stockperks thing a whirl. I already had the App so just had to give the booking ref, date of sailing, name and email and got an acknowledgement immediately saying 'Congratulations...... your request has been successfully submitted' timed at 13.21.   At 14.59 I got a further communication saying £150 had been applied to my reservation.  At 15.03 I got the updated Booking Confirmation from P&O!   

 

Impressed!  No need to send in a new redacted share holding statement, and couldn't have been much quicker.  Won't work for cruises in 2025 but I was pleased to be able to tick it off along with car parking (booked within a couple of hours of the cruise booking although they suggested waiting 72 hours)  So associated booking admin now done! 

 

Clearly the 90 day requirement of the past doesn't apply so it seems you could do your Arcadia cruise if you wish.  

 

 

Big improvement on before.  

I will try it now

3 hours ago, Megabear2 said:

Sad to hear the 507 is no more.  As a commuter to Lincoln's Inn from Waterloo for 13 years its big benefit was using the tunnel rather than queuing to get on Aldwych and all the traffic lights.

 

Regarding the trains on Thameslink perhaps alighting at Blackfriars on the south side of the river (ie travel in the rear) might be good for Dave and then it's a quick hop on the bus direct to Waterloo main entrance and up in the lift to the concourse or even a pleasant stroll of around 20 minutes.

Not on my old legs dragging a suitcase and carry on. I will probably end up getting a taxi.

46 minutes ago, Red Leicester said:

507 was withdrawn last year.  You need an 11 now been Vic and Waterloo. 

Why did they cut the 507? Victoria terminus to Waterloo terminus was an easy route. now you have double deckers, good luck getting a suitcase up the stairs.

3 hours ago, Red Leicester said:

That said depending on the Medway town you may need to change at Dartford or London Bridge for Waterloo East.  Some Medways only have the Thameslink service to Luton. 

Yes, it appears the best option is a train to Victoria and then a 507 bus to Waterloo to catch the half hourly fast service. It would be prudent to travel the day before departure though.

On 3/1/2024 at 5:42 PM, kruzseeka said:

Mine looked as though it hadn't shown the full image either dave but it went through OK! 

I've since had two messages from P&O acknowledging my application and directing me to Stockperks when I've already had the updated booking confirmation with the obc credited.  😏

Just had confirmation from Stockperks that my Equiniti holding has been validated 🙂

The final balance is not due until the end of April so no point in applying for my Arcadia cruise credit until then.

Medway towns so 3 rail routes into London. Victoria, London Bridge and St Pancras also Maidstone is not to far on the bus. Also national express dover-london service.

Cruise is 5 months away so no panic

4 hours ago, Megabear2 said:

Agree with this unless you hit a problem like today.  Absolutely no trains in and out of Waterloo due to an incident outside Woking.

 

Southampton is a difficult one to find alternatives by train although the Southern service is most direct.  The rail strikes are the other problem.

The rail strikes is wht worries me. If i was travelling by train I would travel a day early