David&Heather

It is an emergency staircase only.

Which is why it MUST appear on the deck plans.

Would gladly cruise on either ship again, destinations and departure dates would be our deciding factor.

The Grand will always be special to us as we were married on board her, she also has a more traditional feel on board with lots of wood panelling used within the ship.

The Ruby is a lovely ship and we had one of our most enjoyable cruises on board her with the most attentive staff to date. Don't be put off by the extra deck and extra passengers as the enlarged grand ships use available deck space more effectively than the standard grand class.

Whatever ship you choose we hope you have a great cruise.

We were married on the Grand on 17th August 2010 and we simply cannot praise Princess enough, their service far exceeded our expectations.

Suggest you call the wedding dept direct and discuss your booking problem with them.

We had a little problem prior to our original wedding date in April 2010 (a bit of ash in the atmosphere) that prevented us flying out to join Ruby Princess but Princess and our UK TA were simply wonderful in the way that they managed the situation.

P&O Were getting it right by appealing to separate markets by creating the Ocean Village brand but then upset most of the newly attracted customers by closing down the brand in what appeared to be managerial infighting at Southampton as opposed to any strategic planning of ship utilisation.

I was one of those customers and now cruise with Princess which is part of the Carnival group so I an probably not counted as a lost customer but many others transferred their loyalties to RCL, NCL or just stopped cruising.

P&O have been concentrating on a dying market of traditional cruises based from Southampton, a failed strategy as this is a diminishing market. Compounded by a policy of trying to be all things to all people and upsetting both loyal and new customers as a result, reducing port time to save costs, introducing a pricing policy that does not make sense, alienating travel agents who then actively discourage your brand as other brands are more financially viable for them and add to that P&O have upset their loyal and hard working workforce with several well publicised disputes on board their ships.

P&O were working towards their ideal cruise which would be 14 nights ex Southampton with NO ports of call, 10 of those nights would probably be spent bobbing about in the Bay of Biscay - trouble is the customer does not want that.

What I cannot understand is how Ms Marlowe retained her position for so long.

From what I can see P&O have not got any better since closing down the OV brand and have done nothing to attract my custom, it will be interesting to see what happens now.

Glad that you enjoyed our home city so much:)

We don't get price drops here in the UK, booked early last year and saw the price drop significantly before our cruise.

Held off booking this year and its paid off with just over £2000 saving (inc air) compared with last year, that represents a 40% saving to us:).

Diffrent ship but same cabin number as we loved our aft balcony last time so much.

Would love to be able to book early and take advantage of price drops, as it is our best bet is to hold out and hope that your cabin of choice is still available, even if that option was only abailable upto final payment - you don't know how lucky you are in the US.

Whilst on the Star we purchased a set of Crooners playing cards, each of which has a cocktail recipie on it.

We also love the Milky Way Martini, made a few since getting home, even managed to use chilled glasses with white & dark chocolate drizzled over the inside - mmmmmmmmmm:)

We so much wanted to do this cruise over Christmas 2011 but unfortunately Heather cannot get a few extra days off as she works in a school. Sounds like we are missing out on something special. Hoping the school holiday dates in 2012 work out better and we can get to do this cruise.

Just how obstructed is the view from this cabin? Should have some view to theoutside world as it is between lifeboats. Any pictures from this cabin?