CruisingSarah

Maybe but it doesn’t really make sense, as similar ship layout to others in the fleet. Similar destinations and time of year to others in the fleet.

I understand that it’s a people issue. It’s more of a why is it so particularly bad for such a protracted length of time now on Ventura? Why just Ventura? Why is it so much worse on Ventura than any other ship? You mention elderly people, but we’re not hearing the same about Azura or Britannia which attract a similar demographic to Ventura. We’re not hearing it about Arcadia and Aurora which really do attract an older demographic. In fact the only other P&O ship that’s been mentioned recently is Arvia and that one attracts a more mixed age crowd.

I get that but why is it that it’s so particularly bad on Ventura? We’re not hearing the same of other ships. Can’t it be a crew issue now?

Apologies if this has already been addressed on this thread, I’ve been following but haven’t read every page but we’ve been wondering at what point and if they ever do cancel/curtail an itinerary to allow days for cleaning rather than an extra two hours every few weeks? If Ventura didn’t sail for a week would that finally sort out the issue? It seems it has been rumbling on since around December now, at what point do they admit defeat?

Yes it is definitely worth it as the savings can be considerable. For example I think the Commodore 6 bottle package is around £180 and the wines you mention I think the Chablis and Sancerre are about £42 per bottle. The main thing is to ascertain that the wines you like are in stock. Fortunately for you the stock issues tend to be with the cheaper wines!!

Can I advise that you wait until you board to purchase and that if you are wanting a particular wine or wines (sounds like you are) that you ensure that they have stock of them. We were recently on Britannia and there were serious stock issues with many wines being unavailable, this also happened on Azura a few months ago too but was worse on Britannia a couple of weeks ago. I have photos of the wine list we were given in the MDR and there were so many asterisks indicating the wine was unavailable.

Briksdal is lovely, I didn’t mention it, but had done it some years ago. There’s definitely a public bus but apparently it’s infrequent, but there are a couple of tents on the dock with independent operators running buses up there. You could try Olden Adventures in advance. Some of the independent operators are a fraction of the P&O price.

Not sure Iona’s itinerary but we did Pulpit Rock from Stavanger and we did go there with P&O due to it being quite far from the ship, but it was expensive for what was essentially a bus ride as it was not a guided hike despite their description. It was fine as it’s a very very obvious and busy trail but it was very expensive for a bus ride. I think you can get independent transport if you’re confident to do that. The Pulpit Rock hike is moderate, tough in places as it’s basically big stone steps ascending steeply in parts, it’s never a scramble but it’s big steps and big rocks and uneven. If you’re used to Wales or Lake District hikes, it’s like that. It’s just over 5 miles and 1700ft ascent. It’s busy. In Olden we walked up to the Mount Huaren Viewpoint which was a very straightforward paved trail up right from across the road from the ship. It’s about 5.5 miles round trip with about 1500ft ascent. Very nice, easy uphill walk, we would have extended it to Lostoylen point too and made it a circular if we had been a bit better organised. In Flåm again we walked off the ship and picked up a map in the tourist office and walked route number 3 up to the Brekkefossen Waterfall and along the river back, that was about 4 miles, mostly flat except the stone steps path up 660 ft to the waterfall. In Bergen we had been before so we just pottered about the town but you can go up Mount Floyen either walking up or down or both or by the funicular, don’t buy the ship’s trip as it’s so easy to do it yourself cheaper. Last year we did Geiranger and Eidfjord on another cruise and again walked independently right off the ship to the waterfall above Geiranger, 7 miles, 2000ft ascent, and Eidfjord we walked a flat trail (yellow route) up to the sand beach of a Eidfjord lake and then up to the Hodna overlook point above the port, it was an easy 4 mile walk, 500ft ascent. I think there may be longer/better walks here but it was a really nice scenic easy one.

Didn’t have any issues hiking around the fjords last week and none of the trails were through long grassy areas, the hikes we did were mainly rocky paths or paved/gravel paths. You could take a tick remover card or tweezers just in case, I usually carry one out hiking. Definitely take normal insect repellent though, we hadn’t thought about it and were bitten quite a lot by midges in the wooded areas going up to Pulpit Rock.

We were there last week. It was fine around the ports but we hiked and midges were a problem in the wooded areas, we hadn’t thought ahead on this and were bitten.

There is a public bus as we saw the stop for it last week. Or as you get off the ship there is at least one maybe more operators on the dockside so you might be able to book on the day. or you could try Olden Adventures.

I’d like to see P&O get a bit heavier with guests on this issue as I’ve seen before on RCI and NCL. Recently on Britannia which has been fitted with soap and water handwashing stations at buffet entrances like the new ships and they were unused by guests. There were no staff policing entrances and reminding guests to wash/sanitise. A number of the sanitiser dispensers were faulty, I reported it to a member of staff who shrugged and said flat battery, they are solar powered, he didn’t offer me any alternative. Same thing happened at the MDR but at least there they produced a manual pump dispenser. I couldn’t believe how lax it was given the recent issues on Ventura.

Has anyone managed to find anywhere to purchase a 1l container of wine, or (2l if there are two of you traveling)? Standard bottles are 750ml, pouches 1.5l, boxes tend to be 225ml or 300ml.

Thanks to everyone, we actually just enjoyed a day wandering around Livorno in the end 🙂

We have done that cruise. My advice would be to not book any P&O trips. You can do anything you want to do very easily independently from Rotterdam especially if you do it on the first day there as the ship is overnight in Rotterdam so no worry about being late back. The second day you can explore Rotterdam itself easily. Be aware that our Hamburg port was changed to another German port, Bremerhaven, and there wasn’t much there but it was ok for a bit of shopping and to see the U Boat. The port for Zeebrugge was Blankenberge and there was nothing much there except a very nice beach, but it was Feb! And it was a relatively early all-aboard time so there you would want to get off early and go on the train to Bruges early to be back. Think carefully about what trips you book with the ship, they can be overpriced and underdeliver! All the best with it!

the last time I leave this stuff to the other half then 🙄

Thank you!!

thank you! Same cruise!! See you onboard! I don’t recall any option to choose seats together, I can’t ring them up, the other week I was on the phone for over 90 minutes to them 😩 Looks as if we will have to take our chances at the airport and hope for the best.

Is there any way to online check -in for TUI flights? Booked direct with P&O so only got a P&O booking reference which I’ve tried on the TUI site and it doesn’t work. I understand that we can’t do night before bag drop so was hoping to do online check-in so that we can at least know we have seats together and go directly to bag drop on the morning as it’s a 6.00am flight. If we have to do the whole check-in at the desk are we likely to have pre-allocated seats together, do P&O arrange this? I would gladly do my own check-in and select seats but it seems impossible! Thanks for any advice, I’ve never taken cruiseline organised flights before, always booked them separately.

There are no changing rooms or showers in the gym and I doubt you’d be allowed to use the spa ones as you’d then be able to access the spa facilities and there’s an extra charge for that.

Thank you! That's helpful! Might try Lucca as never been and have been to the others before.

Thanks both, after a 100 minute call to P&O just now and still no answer as there was a further long wait internally for their flights department I think we will do our own thing or stick with what we have got. The P&O agent was extremely unhelpful and basically told us to phone tomorrow morning as he didn't want to have to wait on hold for flight dept, but having already waited 45 minutes before my call was answered and after trying twice yesterday and the day before for over 30 minutes without getting through I was keen to try and progress this once I was actually on the phone but it was not to be. I think I am going to be going back to using a travel agent, I have found P&O to be increasingly difficult to contact the past 6 months.

It's a long time since I was last in Livorno but I remember going DIY on the train pretty easily to Pisa for a few hours. Is it still easy to do this or to go to Florence? Or could anyone suggest any other straightforward DIY options perhaps for something different? I've ventured independently at many ports in the past but my travelling partner this time round is a bit nervous about travelling independently of the ship's excursions. Thanks for any ideas.

Thank you for this, we are on TUI flights in a few weeks time

Does anyone have any experience of being to change the included flights? We have just had the idea to extend our week's cruise by 2-3 days and wondered if P&O are likely to be able to do this at a reasonable charge. Currently on the third attempt to phone them, so far tried twice and had to hang up after half an hour of no answer. If they can't and we could book an independent one way flight, are there any considerations to doing this? Obviously we would inform them that we would be not be taking the coach transfer to the airport and the return flight. Thanks for any advice.