davecttr

With a credit card I would also ensure I had a sufficient credit limit.

Try this topic

https://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/topic/2943580-po-arvia-formal-night/

22 minutes ago, AlexMcSpot said:

We have just returned from a cruise on Arcadia.There were a lot of solo passengers and they appeared to have a organised themselves. At the beginning of the cruise they started gathering in the Crows Nest each morning, but I don't think it was organised.

The meeting time and place was advertised in Horizon.

1 hour ago, jeanlyon said:

By the way what is an MDR upgrade?  Extra dishes in the MDR which you pay for?  How on earth would that work>

Extra chips at £1 each or a kilogram of green beans for 50p

36 minutes ago, Interestedcruisefan said:

Basically cutbacks for me are fair enough to allow prices to be so low in real times.

 

Providing what we still get is acceptable. That's important of course. (Some call MDR average or ok now, some call it mediocre, some call it good. Few call it great)

 

But then having the choice to elevate it should you wish seems a good compromise to me for all of us. And like I say even a quality turndown service could return to P and O for those who value it.

 

Which has reminded me of something else. High end cocktail bars have snack menus now where you pay to add nibble to your cocktails. It allows you to add some high end nibble should you choose. 

 

Everything has a cost but people could have the choice to stil pay that cost and recover any quality they feel may have been taken away with the reduction in costs and what they consider cutbacks?

 

 

Only if the nibbles are served individually. When bar snacks were common testing revealed the presence of human urine and excrement, good riddance IMO.

Or just buy a packet of crisps or nuts.

20 minutes ago, Winifred 22 said:

Oh no sad. Let’s hope they find him. 

Yes, although the coast guard was contacted at about 9am. I notice on marine traffic that one of the RNLI lifeboats is returning to port. That military ship was doing 124 knots and it is a SAR helicopter, also returning to base?

2 hours ago, lincslady said:

That does strike me as particularly mean spirited on behalf of P and O.  It is quite possible that cruise lines are not allowed to go into town any more, but at least passengers should be given information so that if they prefer town to the science park they can at least share a taxi with others, or there are probably buses into town; it is just straight up one very long street, if I recall properly.  Helpful info. on that would make a difference.

See post #7

1 hour ago, indiana123 said:

 

We live in your postcode too, on that famous roman road, and as there  are quite a few short bursts of the  road with the same name  in villages etc we sometimes have the same problem.  At one point we were receiving  lots of Police communications but we tumbled he lived in the next town with a similar address.

 

Good luck with all your lovely baking everyone.  I can cook nice meals but I have never been able to make good pastry or cakes.  Good old Morrisons/Waitrose do all my fancy Christmas cooking for me!!!!

I will not feel guilty... I will not feel guilty..........🤣☺️🤣

Apparently Caesar and Brutus visited Dover and Brutus asked what was that shiny new road called? A2 Brutus Caesar replied.

If a pullman is a pull or fold down bed it is a bunk with a ladder and you can't have a queen size because you need access to the pullman.  Would not a cot fit in an ordinary cabin anyway?

Frustrating day yesterday. I waited in all day for a UPS delivery of items ordered Monday for express delivery, nothing arrived but tracking gave a clue to the cause of the shambles.

I live in Gillingham, Kent with a ME postcode and tracking revealed the parcel was being re-routed to the correct address, why? There is another Gillingham in Dorset with a SP postcode. They had sent it to either the Southampton or Bristol  distribution centres and they work overnight. The parcel arrived back in London? at 4am this morning so another  wait.

I think I will claim a delivery charge refund.

1 hour ago, zap99 said:

We had slippers on our last Azura cruise. They didn't leave the wardrobe ( we did ). Cheap and nasty things. £1.99 on ebay.

I keep the bags they come in, very useful for packing small loose items

I should reach Baltic tier next January but not bothered about it. I already get priority boarding with times of 12.00 to 12.30 and just turn up at 12 ish and get waved straight through to check in. What I would like is having my cabin ready. I don't use the ships laundry and the Baltic lunch is formal dress  (On Arcadia) so I won't be going to that.

Arvia disembarkation last April was absolute chaos. i arrived at my group meeting place and there was nobody there except a crew member who said just get off.

On arrival in the baggage hall i was met with several hundred people and two ques to exit  extending back to almost the entrance. With even more passengers arriving some 'enterprising' passengers started a third queue. Of course passengers in the other queues were not happy and the stewards were hard pressed to deal with the attempted push ins etc. It took 40 minutes to leave the hall.

There appears to be an alternative, woth checking out

blue cross - ship parks here and 1.5 mile walk to cruise terminal 

orange cross - cruise terminal, actually ferry but new cruise terminal in future.

red cross - present shuttle drop off point

black cross - old town

When we visited Valencia a few months ago there was a free bus shuttle from the berth to the terminal, hardly used because P&O did not tell us it existed.

Local number 95 bus 8 minute intervals Monday to Saturday and 18 minutes on Sundays, both 7.30am to 10.00pm Single ticket price on bus 1.5 euro. there is also a day pass for all routes

7 hours ago, FangedRose said:

Yes, tips standing for to insure promptness, as well as appalling grammar (ensure would be correct), is a backronym - an acronym invented later to fit the initials. Like posh, which is a backronym for port out, starboard home, which was invented long after the word itself was in common usage.

One one of my early cruises my elderly steward said he was retiring at the end of the cruise. I mentioned this to another steward and he laughed and told me the old man has been retiring at the end of every cruise for years!

8 hours ago, tring said:

 

So in August had they closed the serveries which are on the side of the ship reserved for staff, so they had to walk around onto the passenger side to get their food and return to their seats on the other side?  That does indeed sound odd. 

 

It was much better in June as the full range of serveries on the passenger side was open and was solely available for the few passengers who used the buffet at night.  I wonder if there was illness among the kitchen staff at the time, or if they do have that system at times.  The freedom dining MDR on Arcadia was pretty chaotic at times as it was very badly run.  People who did not want to go into their allocated set sittings were allowed to use the freedom dining restaurant, which was ridiculous as it meant it was totally overstretched.

 

Spa, Retail, Casino and entertainment staff were using the starboard side servery in the evenings and seating on the starboard side. The port side 'officers' area has the port side hot food servery within it. Why does Arcadia not have an officers mess? Perhaps because 'officers' includes a lot more crew and they won't fit in. The Spa staff etc seem to arrive in waves and if you are unlucky most of the servery queue is staff and the serving dishes are rapidly depleted.

By way of explanation I spend most of my days and evenings whale watching and like to eat after 8pm

1 hour ago, tring said:

 

On Arcadia the serveries were a mirror image on both sides, so there is a servery for hot and cold food within the area you have marked up as red and it was definitely open to them for our 16 night Norway/Baltic cruise in June as it could be seen from the rear entrance to their area around the cordoning off sheet.  The staff kept within that red area and did not come through to the passenger area on the other side of the ship to get their food, which as you said was cordoned off from the area allocated to staff.  I can only speak for that one 16 night cruise on Arcadia.  I cannot recall the area further along on the staff side, by your green markings and one of your blue markings as we did not go that side and do not recall any other passengers going there in the evenings.  We  always entered from the rear deck then, as it was glorious weather throughout, so we spent a lot of evenings out on the rear deck and ate in the buffet later on especially when scenic cruising.

 

On the Aurora plan, you have the Beach House area correct, but that plan is not a good representation of the ship around the servery rotunda.  There is a lot more space on the port side between the rotunda and the side of the ship, so there was a wide area of seating that side, c.f. a very narrow part on the Starboard (Beach House) side.  On the port side there is also four sections of seating areas which are separated by walls and there was sink for hand washing between the pool entrance section (that was used for the ship's company to use the exact wording on the notice at the entrance to that), and the section to the side of the servery.  On a real scale diagram, I believe the distance from the pool entrance and begining of the servery is actually further than it looks on the deck plans.  We always sat on the port side, in one of the two sections further aft, which were all tables for two and quieter than the rest of the buffet area.  So your red markings are in the correct general.location, but it does not extend to alongside the begining of the servery area, or the seating to the side of that servery  The staff used the same servery on Aurora, but just had a separate seating area.

 

We left Aurora on 3rd Oct after 37 nights and also had 28 nights onboard last November, so we have a very clear memory of her buffet as we used it a lot.

 

We found the buffet food quality to be good in our opinion at all times, but food opinion can of course be very subjective.  

The red enclosed area is for officers and other staff grades share the one servery with passengers. Spa,Retail, Casino, Entertainment etc. This stresses the one servery if numbers of them arrive at the same time.

I agree that part of the servery on Aurora was used for the Beach House but I found the buffet there a better experience than Aurora. I am cruising on Ventura next month and hope things are OK in the buffet. Iona's buffet was good and Arvia's was good except sometimes on formal nights when the lack of 4 dining rooms had part of the buffet as the Chefs Table.

1 minute ago, kalos said:

 

Look on the bright side ,at least you have a new beanie hat 😉 and a spare 🙃

Take it easy Dave and rest .!

The beanie hats were spitting and hissing yesterday but they are now friends and cuddled up on the chair

The repaired combi boiler just broke down again and I strained my shoulder yesterday resulting in about 2 hours sleep last night. Not happy 😒

7 hours ago, tring said:

 

The servery on the side used by staff was indeed open in June, so no conflict whatsoever regards acces to the servery for passengers.  Nothing at all like breakfast or lunch times when the buffet is very busy.

 

I would happily have eaten there most nights, rather than just the 20% or so of the time we actually did, because it was so  peaceful and pleasant with a choice of what to eat after seeing the options.  We prefer The MDR at lunch times on sea days though, if we want to eat at peak times, since the buffet can be chaotic then. 

 

Even if staff were not using the other side of the buffet, I do not believe it would have be open to passengers as there was just not the need for it.  Sections of buffets are always closed at quiet times on all ships and all cruise lines.

 

 

 

 

It was not for 3 weeks in August!

Red area reserved for officers

Green area sometimes 'fenced off' in the evenings

Blue serveries are vegan etc

Yellow is hot food servery

The remaining area is available to non officer crew and can stress the single hot servery, they take all the best stuff. I also wonder if the daily budget is lower in the buffet because crew are allowed to eat there and their daily budget is lower?

Aurora buffet red area crew evening dining blue area Beach House

8 hours ago, LondonLad60 said:

My last cruises on Arcadia were before the main Covid lockdown, but as I recall, one side of the buffet was always closed to passengers in the evening and was solely for the use of officers and entertainment staff. The only servery open was on the passengers side, which led to long queues, shortages of some items and frayed tempers. Of course, things may now be different.

It is just the same now

3 hours ago, Ilovemygarden said:

Not sure what happens now but many years ago on American ships many people tipped the barman, waiter etc on the first day - tip stood for “to improve performance” so they were then assured excellent service for the whole cruise!  

That is bribery IMO

ps this subject has been debated to death on several occasions

I got a very cryptic text from my doctors surgery about a shortage of GLP-1 injections for diabetics. On doing my own research apparently the licensing of the medications for weight loss has led to a rush of prescriptions and demand has outstripped supply. Normal supplies may be restored by next summer. On collecting my prescription today the Liraglutide pens were not available 😨 

Luckily I have a reserve stock but I would have liked an invitation to discuss my options, especially as I had my annual diabetes review a couple of weeks ago.

5 hours ago, grapau27 said:

Good afternoon.

I hope everyone is safe and well.

I lost my Beanie hat the other day, either in Costa or Sainsbury's, I asked but it was not handed in so i bought a new one in M&S. On arriving home there it was on its usual chair 😵

4 hours ago, gsmt47471015 said:

Numerous people on other boards and social media confirm that this is indeed the case , if there are issues with their dining locations then it needs to be rectified as it is general knowledge that passengers pay to cruise and should not be inconvenienced for the benefit of staff , no matter what grade they are, as we are boarding in January and are onboard for 99 nights I suspect we may well use the evening buffet just for a change as alternative eating options are the most severely limited on  Arcadia

Arcadia does not have a Beach House which I used to enjoy but the fare is getting too spicy for my taste anyway . I enjoyed the pop up Glass House in Intermezzo but it was only open on some sea day lunchtimes. They used the Ocean Grill galley but maybe did not have enough ingredients, maybe just an experiment.

With the right price and itinerary I would consider Arcadia again.