Britchic4

It might also depend when you are going and how many ships are going to be in. We are there next month and there are going to be 5 ships in, 3 of them very big ones. I'm concerned the whole island might actually collapse, let alone that we might have a long wait at the cable cars, LOL! Obviously the more ships are in, the more crowded the streets are going to be which might affect whether you want to be navigating them in a wheelchair.

Yes we are on Crown Princess in Chania/Souda Bay on Easter Sunday. I'm expecting only some shops & restaurants to be open, not any sights. I imagine there will be a little more open in Athens.

Actually Bergen has very nice shops! That might persuade her....

Truthfully there is something magical about the Fjords. Mine are a couple of years younger but I'd have no hesitation taking them. I do think it's important she can still go in the kids' club though, 19 is a difficult cruising age when they can't go in to club any more but still want to hang around with friends rather than boring old parents.

If only that sort of offer were available then I don't think anyone would be complaining.

 

P&O also said that the actual per minute cost of the Internet (to them) had been reduced dramatically with their new arrangement and so it made it less viable economically to offer this significant reduction to pax and the bundles now offered were agreed with their provider.

 

I found it difficult to understand such a justification and said so. "So your costs have reduced and in return, rather than pass on this reduction to your clients, you package this in such a way as to cause a likely quadrupling of cost". There was no sensible answer to this.

Definitely not sensible! In my email I pointed out why it would be more sensible to offer a whole cruise package in addition. Let's say over a 14 day cruise some passengers a willing to pay for 3 days max, that is £23.10. However if they could buy a whole cruise package for £40 they would be much more likely to purchase this. They are still unlikely to use more than 72 hours worth of internet. I also pointed out the anomaly of charging by the day for social media when heavy social media users will want to check every day but would definitely not pay £7.50 * 14. They are much more likely to ditch P & O entirely and use free wifi ashore.

Had a call from P&O yesterday evening to discuss my concern about the changes to the Internet packages. The gentleman I spoke to advised that these have been introduced in conjunction with their service provider but they are looking closely at the feedback and if there is enough demand or dissatisfaction with the new offerings then they may review this and something may change. No promises were made and they will also be closely monitoring the take up of these services.

 

He stated that they'd had a fair bit of positive feedback and also an amount (though less) of negative comments but also accepted that the people who are most likely to be enthusiastic about the change are the heavy social media users who are also more likely to be commenting.

 

So as I stated earlier, if you're not happy about the changes, tell them, they are listening!

Actually I don't think this is true. If you're a heavy social media user you want to check Facebook etc every day, so you'd need to spend £7.50 every day. I am a freelance social media manager and I would gladly pay a reasonable sum over the whole cruise for internet access just to check my client's accounts are OK. Yes it's my holiday but when you work for yourself there has to be a compromise.

I feel a bit of a fraud complaining when I haven't even seen the new system but I will.

Someone on Facebook said they had seen an offer of Azura of £33 for the whole cruise though, and I would happily pay that.

We loved the Fjords, we'd go back like a shot. Don't think we could afford a balcony this time though which would be a shame.

I suppose the best advantage having to have school holiday cruises is that we do know when the holidays will be for the next 2 years. Every cloud .......

 

Any idea what the weather would be like in the Fjords in late May / early June?

We've been then and had gorgeous weather in the daytime everywhere but Bergen, where it rained (it always rains there!). Nights were a bit chilly.

I'm debating whether to book that one even though DH can't arrange holiday for then yet, as it's only 5% deposit.

Congratulations on your cruise booking. We're looking at one of the Oceana ones for the Eastern Med. over Easter .... or maybe a cruise to Norway (for a change) for half term in May on Britannia. :D

We are looking at that Britannia one. DH hates flying so Oceana is out although I do love her ports!

Yes I've been called back by P & O this morning about two cruises and the quotes included 10% discount on both as past passengers, but this is only if you book before end of November I think. The lady this morning said September, but that's not what it says on the website T & Cs.

The 5% deposit is definitely useful as it can be difficult to book holiday allowance so far in advance.

There is a 7 or 14 night fly cruise to Greece on Oceana in the Easter holidays which is interesting. Not for us as DH hates flying but it does open it up a bit for people.

No idea if you're making a mistake (hope not!) but in my experience the kids LOVE the kids' clubs, even if they say they won't beforehand. I think there are very few areas they couldn't go in (it has certainly never come up as an issue for us) and it's likely they would want to be in club a lot of nights anyway. Some nights we were desperate to go to bed but had to go and drag them out of club!

Having said that, I'm sure you'll love the cruise you're about to book, the ports look fabulous.

We have never found the ice cream cards worth it, they can have it at kids' tea anyway and they always see some fabulous concoction someone else has and want that instead! We have never ended up using the whole card unless my son has treated all his kids club friends to it as well which rather defeats the point...

If she is anything like my daughter she will want to dress up, but I wouldn't go too overboard as she will probably want to have kids' tea and go to club some nights. My daughter had a couple of smart dresses, a bolero cardigan and a couple of sparkly handbags with some pretty shoes. Oh and some costume jewellery!

We haven't cruised with P and O for a couple of years but are hoping to go on Ventura next April (woeful shortage of cruises during the school holidays as usual!). We also come down to Southampton the night before and there is absolutely nothing we as a family want to do there so have always gone to the terminal quite early. On next year's cruise it seems we are likely to get a 3.30 check in time in which case I won't be happy about it, for aforementioned reasons. We would have to build in so much contingency time if we travelled on the same day that we would either be really early or the traffic would be awful (as it was last week and some ships were delayed I believe) and we would be late. I am positive that we will have a wonderful 17 days after that, but it would be nice if the start of the holiday were a little more relaxing.

 

Dorset Cruiser, what was missing on Ventura? We are sailing on her sister ship next August and would appreciate your views.

Azura is fabulous Jo, you will love her. Don't miss the speciality restaurants, The Glass House, Sindhu and Seventeen. In fact Seventeen was so fantastic we went twice.

We are on Oceana next year from 21st March, I wonder if you are on the same cruise from your sig?