PrincessPete

Thanks so much for the really helpful and reassuring reply. Like you we don't travel light and as we now live relatively close to Southampton having no luggage restriction is very good news!

Can I just ask an "off thread" question about "Oriana". Where was your cabin on B deck? We are quite a way aft having booked late and I know about the vibration in that area. Were you aware of it, either in your cabin if it was aft, or just walking around the stern?

Many thanks again and kind regards. Peter

Hello FiftyOne Plus - I hope you do not mind me replying to your post when I am not actually answering your questions!

Looking at Oriana's schedule it appears you are likely to be on the 28 night Caribbean cruise? We are on a similar itinerary in February, also on Oriana.

We are people who really like to know what we can expect to do in advance and I would therefore absolutely love to see a set of daily programmes for your cruise to give us an idea.

Is there any way you would be able to keep a set for me and arrange to send them on - needless to say I will reimburse you in advance for the postage.

I would also love to ask lots of questions about Oriana (not having been on her for 15 years) but they would be too tedious to keep posting about.

If this was in any possible it would greatly enhance our cruise in February.

As above, I hope you do not mind me replying in this vein.

With kind regards. Peter

Hello FiftyOne Plus - I hope you do not mind me replying to your post when I am not actually answering your questions!

Looking at Oriana's schedule it appears you are likely to be on the 28 night Caribbean cruise? We are on a similar itinerary in February, also on Oriana.

We are people who really like to know what we can expect to do in advance and I would therefore absolutely love to see a set of daily programmes for your cruise to give us an idea.

Is there any way you would be able to keep a set for me and arrange to send them on - needless to say I will reimburse you in advance for the postage.

I would also love to ask lots of questions about Oriana (not having been on her for 15 years) but they would be too tedious to keep posting about.

If this was in any possible it would greatly enhance our cruise in February.

I am not sure if it is the "done thing" on this Forum to ask someone to contact another by email - but my email is "peter.s.smith26@outlook.com". We live on the south coast near Worthing.

As above, I hope you do not mind me replying in this vein.

With kind regards. Peter and Beverley

Hi, we are on a 28 night Oriana cruise in February in a deluxe balcony cabin. Can anyone give us idea about the storage space for clothes in the cabin, please?

We do not travel light and one of the attractions for us in this round trip Southampton cruise is the lack of luggage restrictions with no flights - and a shortish journey from home near Worthing, 50 miles or so from the port

I am sure my wife will want to bring lots of evening outfits (8 formal nights) so I am hoping there is plenty of wardrobe and drawer space and that I will be allowed a small corner!!

Any comments from previous passengers in those cabins on Oriana would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks Peter

Hi all, I was trying to see, as a matter of interest, how much the Flam railway tour would be if booked through Celebrity on our Fjords cruise next year. Although the shore excursions are shown in the cruise planner they are wrong for Flam and show tours in Geiranger.

It will doubtless be corrected in due course but in the meantime has anyone done the tour this year and can advise the price please. I did read a review on another site that people felt "robbed" as they paid $$195 for the tour (on a different cruise line).

Having done the tour many years ago we would like to repeat it but I think not IF the price is that high!! I know we could always book it independently as another option so we can look into that although we do not like being too far from the ship on a non cruise line tour.

Any updates from this years Flam Celebrity cruisers would be much appreciated.

Many thanks and kind regards. Peter

Hi, we have just booked a one week Fjord cruise on Silhouette next year. Quite a while since we took a Celebrity cruise so I would be most grateful if regulars can advise the average number of men who would wear an evening suit/bow tie on Evening Chic nights.

As the title says, I'm not bothered whether I need to take one or not but don't want to be the only man wearing one!

Any comments much appreciated.

Many thanks and kind regards.

Peter

Thanks very much for the reply. I know this would be going away from the original posting but I would love to hear how your cruise on Oriana went as you have just been on her. Our previous sailing on her was 2001 so a long while ago! Am I allowed to ask you to email me? No idea if that is within Forum rules? You will see I have been a member for many years. My email is peter.s.smith26@outlook.com if you were happy to email. If not thank you for the reply anyway. Kind regards Peter

Hi, can anyone advise where the permitted smoking areas are outside on "Oriana", please.Many thanks

Thanks Mark what an incredibly helpful link showing times for the whole cruise.

Many thanks and best regards.

Peter

Hi, we are on the 28 night Oriana cruise from Southampton on 22 February 2019. I have tried unsuccessfully with P&O to get an accurate idea of the time we sail from Southampton so I can consider whether to travel on the day or stay at a hotel the night before.

Can anyone give me an idea, please? I appreciate it will be mid/late afternoon at the earliest but wondered whether the longer cruises departed later to allow loading of extra supplies (and probably extra luggage).

Any help much appreciated. Many thanks and kind regards. Peter

That's really kind of you and I would greatly appreciate you posting details on your return - in the meantime have a great cruise. Kind regards Peter

Hi all (apologies if this has been asked recently but having just booked our first P&O cruise for a few years I have not been on this forum for quite a while).

I was looking just out of interest at the laundry costs on the Oriana (I guess the same fleet wide?) but can not find it on the P&O site.

What would the costs be to wash and press a man's summer shirt/long sleeve shirt including dress shirts/underwear/ladies blouse/ladies cut downs.

I think my wife would prefer the laundry to using the launderette hence the question.

Do P&O do "packages" or offers for "bulk" laundry use - we will be on a 28 night cruise.

Many thanks and with kind regards.

Peter

Thank you very much for the replies which are most helpful.

Can I ask a further question please - we are early seating for dinner. Is one restaurant reserved for fixed dining and one for Freedom Dining?

I do remember (and doubtless it is on this Forum somewhere) that the aft situated Oriental Restaurant suffers from excessive vibration - or perhaps that problem has now been solved?

Thanks again Peter

Hi all, we have sailed on many cruises including one on Oriana - but have not been with P&O for about 5 years. We took the plunge yesterday after a difficult year (health, moving home, builders currently in!) and booked a 28 night cruise on Oriana in February. (we know she is leaving the fleet soon after).

Just some general questions please if anyone can kindly help:

** On a 28 night cruise are the 4 formal nights on a 14 night cruise doubled to become 8?

** After 5 years away I was interested in what the standard of dress is on the other nights - do men tend to wear jackets even though it is not compulsory?

The next 3 questions are more for any cruise not specific to the 28 day one:

** We like sitting on our balcony with a drink. Can you buy bottles of beer, for example, and keep them unopened at purchase and store in your minibar until use?

** Internet: I will want to send Whats App messages, a few emails and use the internet for news/sports results etc (not for downloading videos etc). Does the "Browse" package cover all of my requirements satisfactorily from experience, please? I gather that is £10 per day but apparently is reduced from £280 for 28 days to £237 by pre-purchase. Is it worth buying (and paying for before the cruise) or are there generally onboard offers likely to be similar to the pre-purchase price.

Thank you very much in advance for any answers.

Kind regards. Peter

My wife and I returned last week from our first Royal Caribbean cruise which was on “Rhapsody of the Seas” – a 7 night round trip from Venice calling at Kotor,Corfu, Athens, Mykonos and Argostoli.

I am pleased to report that we had an outstanding cruise (we have done many cruises on other lines) and thoroughly enjoyed (nearly all of) the Royal Caribbean experience. Most aspects of the cruise were top notch including thefood, service and ship itself.

Before I comment in detail, just to add that we stayed in Lake Garda for three days before the cruise along with about 40 others who were on the same TA package organised in the United Kingdom – we met a lovely couple on the first day of the holiday and ended up eating with them every night at the Lake Garda hotel and then onboard the ship.

EMBARKATION– extremely smooth and quick being onboard within an hour of us arriving at Venice Santa Lucia train station on our transfer from Lake Garda! All very efficient and we walked straight onto the ship once through security.

SHIP– we loved “Rhapsody” which was a perfect size ship for us and pleasantly “old fashioned” which is meant as a compliment. Being of a certain age we are not keen on the larger Royal ships with dodgem cars/ice skating rinks etc and the increased number of passengers, although we appreciate they are great for families etc.

Although20 years old the ship is in immaculate condition everywhere and its stunning 7deck Centrum is more to our taste than the Boardwalk on the larger ships (whichI have been over on day visits).

The theatre is very comfortable with excellent sight lines and the second entertainment lounge at the aft of the ship is a traditional room which we liked very much.

There are plenty of bars although we exclusively used the Schooner Bar, which we found quite delightful, so we stayed put there! I was not too keen on the Viking Crown Lounge at the top of the ship which was quite small with, for us,very uncomfortable looking chairs – I am sure many people enjoyed it but for us the Schooner Bar ticked all the boxes, particularly with its nautical theme.

Weare not keen on the pool area on any ship (see later re: noise) but as they goit was an attractive area. Throughout the open decks there are numerous areaswith sunbeds and we never had a problem getting one when we wished.

CABIN– we were in a Junior Suite on deck 8 which was very well appointed with allthe usual facilities plus a two seater sofa and two armchairs. It had a very nice balcony where we spent a lot of time. The bathroom was fine with an effective shower over a bath tub and throughout the cabin there was a large amountof storage space. As reported in other reviews there was a small amount of noise overhead from the Park Café area but we chose the cabin to be away fromthe main activities on the deck above so it really was nothing to worry about –and the limited nose we heard was only when on the balcony. The cabin itself was extremely quiet at all times of day.

AsI said, the cabin was excellent but I feel describing it as a “Deluxe Balcony”would be more appropriate than “Junior Suite” as in truth it is a large balcony cabin and there are no benefits which are akin to suites. I appreciate this is really just a play on words though.

Wewere extremely well looked after by Georgiana who seemed to anticipate our every wish and when we would be out of the cabin for cleaning purposes. An excellent Room Attendant and lovely person.

MAIN DINING ROOM – we were on My Time Dining and had booked our times in advance for each evening. The friends we made in Lake Garda were also on My Time dining but with no times booked – the most helpful Elena in charge of table allocation kindly linked the bookings and we were able to dine together every evening at our required time.

And the help she gave went beyond that as, after the excellent service on the first night, we asked if it would be possible to sit with the same servers everynight and she duly obliged. So we had the benefits of the same servers knowing our preferences (and having our drinks waiting for us!) on arrival in the dining room.

A special mention to our marvellous waiter Vladimir, surely a Maître D’ in the making with his sheer presence and skills, plus his Assistant Frank who was equally helpful.

And now the food………….this was a major surprise in all honesty as it was outstandingly good in all respects. The surprise element was that in having been on several cruises with other major lines in recent years the portion sizes on most ships have diminished, as has the choice of dishes. None of this was evident here with around a dozen starters and the same number of main courses and desserts.

The food itself was of excellent quality and being someone who likes their food really hot (in temperature, not spiciness) I was delighted to see that it met my wishes. We were prepared to try one of the speciality restaurants but did not do so in view of the quality in the main dining room – and the service.

It is true to say that the tables are fairly cramped in the main dining room but ours was in a good position at the edge of the overhang looking down to the lower floor of the restaurant and we were well away from the waiter’s service station.

WINDJAMMERBUFFET – we were extremely impressed at the buffet area and ate every breakfast and lunch there. We were always able to get a table, albeit often sharing, which was fine, and the food selection was outstandingly good. It was also well laid out and as easy as it can be with a buffet to find everything.

There were a couple of matters which helped considerably – cold soft drinks were laid out at serving stations to be picked up and this was a big time saving rather than waiting for people to pour the drinks themselves. The other thing was that at breakfast, toast was being continually prepared and was available for collection rather than doing it yourself.

There were numerous waiters hovering around always offering to get more tea, coffee or soft drinks for you and the offer of top ups served at your table helped reduce the number of people walking around.

There were also announcements made when the buffet was full politely asking guests to leave when they had finished their meals to allow others to take their tables – this worked well as we have often seen people remain in the buffet for a long while after finishing the meal on other ships therefore blocking tables.

ENTERTAINMENT– we saw a couple of the production shows which were of good quality, although being fans of “live” musical theatre were not keen on the use of pre-recorded music for the shows. The live band in the other entertainment venue were very good. We did not attend all of the entertainment on board but it seemed to be extremely well received including the many activities in the Centrum.

The timing of some of the shows was very poor – for example on embarkation day there was only one performance of the “Welcome Aboard” show at 1945 when at least half the ship were dining.

PORTS– we chose this itinerary as we had been to most of the ports before and just wanted relaxing ambles around the towns rather than going on any shore excursions. Kotor is a lovely town and we were also delighted to go back to Mykonos for the first time in nearly 30 years. There was a lack of information and help given to people like us who only wanted to stroll around, particularly at Piraeus where we were continually given wrong information onboard about bus service sinto town. We have been to the Acropolis twice and just wanted to go to the town of Piraeus, eventually finding a taxi which took us to a delightful harbour area.

WI-FI– I had pre-purchased the drinks package (for me only) and Voom. The internet worked very well including on the balcony of our cabin with just the very occasional break in service. Very pleased with it.

DRINKS PACKAGE – also worked well and I had no difficulty in getting bottles of bee rleft unopened for me to have in the cabin later. Although I never asked for two alcoholic, or indeed soft drinks, at the same time knowing that is not possible (for reasons of sharing) I was always allowed to have a bottle of water to take back to the cabin if requested, in addition to an alcoholic drink.

GRIPES – the only criticism we had of the whole cruise was the incessant noise everywhere – it was very difficult to find anywhere to sit and have a quiet chat due to the level of background noise everywhere. It may be this is the same on all Royal ships but at times it became quite annoying. The worst example was one afternoon (when in Piraeus and the ship was nearly empty) and we decided to get a sunbed around the pool area. There were only a dozen or so people in the area and, understandably no activities going on, but the music blared out at ridiculously high levels. Several passengers including ourselves made repeated requests for it to be turned down to no avail. I was left with the impression that the music everywhere is largely for the benefit of the crew as every passenger we spoke to did not like it (other, of course, than when it was an integral part of a poolside activity).

SUMMARY– an excellent cruise (great weather), loved the ship, food, service, ports and would happily repeat it. We may well go on another Royal cruise on either Rhapsody or one of the other Vision class ships as we found the size and number of passengers just right.

(I know the question was about Allure but.....) just to mention that on our Rhapsody cruise last week we had towel animals virtually every night. It became a ritual to send photos to our family at home every night! Great fun

Hope it is alright to ask this question on this thread as it is loosely connected to the issues raised......

On our Rhapsody cruise which finished a few days ago we gave extra tips in cash (in WOW envelopes - new to us as first Royal cruise) to our superb waiter, assistant waiter and stateroom attendant who all went the extra mile.

I am hoping that they can keep the extra cash - but is that the case or do they have to "hand it in"?

We did get a few comments from them about the importance of the survey and "10's" but only AFTER they had provided impeccable service all week.

My finger slipped during the survey (joke!) and I answered that no one had mentioned it to us......

On our Rhapsody cruise last week 3 people were smoking on a balcony one deck below us on day two. After a quick visit to Guest Services I gather they were were warned disembarkation could result with a further offence - never saw them on the balcony again.

Hi, for what it is worth, we have just returned from our first Royal Caribbean cruise (on Rhapsody, great cruise, review to follow in a day or two) and the two formal nights were largely ignored by everyone. A tiny number of men wore dinner jacket, a small number a suit, the rest were as scruffy as every other night. I make no comment - I am merely relating the facts. Kind regards Peter

Thank you very much for the most helpful replies. I will report back in due course to assist others in the future.

Many thanks again

Hi, we are on Rhapsody on Saturday including Athens as a port. We have visited the Acropolis a couple of times and would now like to visit the centre of Athens, including the Parliament building.

Does anyone know from the ships many previous visits there this year if they offer a shuttle into the City Centre?

I know there is Metro/Hop on bus option from Piraeus but just wondering if the ship had a basic transfer without any sightseeing as such.

Many thanks. Peter

Hi all, we are on the Rhapsody next Saturday for a 7 night Greek Isles cruise from Venice (mega excited does not begin to explain!!).

I believe there will be two formal nights. Do most/many passengers dress formally - bow ties for men etc?

Are the other nights all "Casual" or will men wear jacket and tie?

We love dressing up for the evenings on a cruise but I am not trying to start a thread on the rights and wrongs of "dressing up" merely trying to find out the current position.

Many thanks and kind regards to all

Peter

On the question of beer.....can you get draft beer (lager) onboard........or the 16oz aluminium bottles of Budweiser?

If so, the rough cost before gratuity?

On Rhapsody in 3 weeks (new to Royal).

Many thanks.

Peter

Hi all, firstly SORRY as I am sure these questions will have been asked before but there are so many threads to scroll through and I can not find the answers. Not new to cruising but new to Royal Caribbean (Rhapsody in 3 weeks time) and have gleaned so much information from you experts!

****Firstly gratuities.........I much prefer to tip our steward and waiter personally. On other lines I have been able to ask for the gratuities to be deleted from my onboard account - can that be done on Royal (I know I could just give them a little bit more and keep the gratuities on my account as well but I prefer the old fashioned way of giving everything to them in cash). I know some readers may think that means I will not be leaving anything but that really is not the case!!

****Next, onboard credit - I have purchased quite a lot of onboard credit (paid for, not credit that came with our booking). If I do not use it all is the balance refunded to me on the last day? If so would that be by cash or returned to the credit card I used?

****Finally, drinks package.......with the package will the bartenders serve me a bottle of beer unopened for me to drink later on our balcony?

Many thanks for your advice and apologies once again if these points have been covered before.

Kind regards. Peter

Thank you for the replies to date. If I buy plenty of OBC and my account is in credit after each day's expenditure - gratuities, drinks etc - do they still authorise the daily spend on my card when in fact I don't "owe" them anything?

Thanks again