Cathygh

New Place in Shedfield, Botleigh Grange in Hedge End, both do a park and stay deal, I think

1 hour ago, laslomas said:

 

Or maybe not.

I'm currently on the Arvia, and we had to do a Full muster. That's a good 50 minutes I won't get back. 🤨. Sadly not everyone listens to the announcements and It took a long time to get everyone to turn up and checked off, before the Captain's announcement, the chat and then a demonstration. It seems that Maritime Law demands this at regular intervals, I think it hadn't been done for several months. Just unlucky if you catch one.

What a pain, but necessary I suppose

15 minutes ago, Traderboy said:

 

Thank you Jean for this very helpful description of your recent Japan cruise.

We too have been on a recent Asian cruise on Celebrity Millenium.

The general standard of the Celebrity experience was very good and far superior in my opinion to what is available on P&O.

We did have a few niggles though especially about the included basic WiFi and the basic drinks package. Everything is geared to persuading you to upgrade.

Another problem we thought was lack of space allocated to indoor seating particularly when the weather precluded any outdoor activity.

Far too much space on the ship was given over to Shops and the Casino. Yes I know that is where they make a lot of money.

The ships excursions were far too expensive - though very well organised. We did not feel the need to pay $60 for a speciality restaurant. The food in the main dining room was excellent.

We’re still unsure whether we prefer Princess Cruises ahead of Celebrity because we have all the benefits of elite loyalty tier.

On Celebrity we seem to have no benefit at all from our blue tier or whatever they call it. We have now been on 2 Celebrity cruises.

Yes the the push to upgrade is annoying. I am sure the speciality dining would be full if they dropped the price. The basic wifi is exactly that, but we could access it anywhere on the ship quite easily. As it was our first Celebrity cruise we had no loyaty status. 

It is over a year since I was last on Princess. IMHO the MDR on Millenium is better than Princess but I prefer the Princess drinks package. I would happily cruise wth either at the right price. Next year we are on Holland America, so it will be interesting to see how that compares.

There are a few Arcadia cruises to Norwegain ports that interest me, and  Aurora to Istanbul. I was hoping Azura could nip over to Istanbul too.

I am not sure that we will book as we are concentrating on long haul holidays for the next few years, but I can always fit in a late deal.

They aren't as dressy as P&O but most people were smart. A few men had DJs but most were smart casual. I did not see anyone scruffy in the evenings. For evening chic I usaully wore a cocktail dress, or sequined top and black trousers. 

I hope you  have a good time

1 hour ago, ScotchBoy said:

Thanks for your report; really comprehensive. We have sailed P&O for about a decade, and Celebrity on 4 occasions, and Cunard on 4 occasions between 2007 and 2021. We've enjoyed our Cunard experiences, but don't think that they are worth the money, so won't bother again. P&O are our go-to cruise line, but we have sailed Celebrity when we fancy somewhere more exotic, such as the Far East. The Millie (as the Americans call her) is a lovely ship, and we're sailing on her again next year. 

We would agree that the Celebrity excursions are very expensive, and we try to find a way of reducing that expense. The Celebrity drinks package is very good; whereas I have never been tempted by the drinks on P&O. The Celebrity Specialty dining is also a bit pricey, but we felt it was worthwhile overall, whereas The Beach House and Sindhu were a huge disappointment when we sailed on Azura in November last year. We loved the easy checking in on Celebrity, plus you watch the Muster Drill online before you leave home! Fantastic benefit. 

On balance, for us:- Celebrity for exoticism/adventure every time, but possibly because P&O don't go to those locations, unless you're on a world cruise segment (and I won't do that again; too many cliques and too little sight-seeing).  P&O for the Med/ Caribbean. 

I agree wholeheartedly. I had forgotten you could watch the muster drill online before hand, and just scan your card at the Muster point. It is shame P&O don't do more indepth voyages across the world. I am not keen to try a world cruise or a segment, too many sea days for us.

16 hours ago, waddle said:

Which ship were you on? Apologies, couldn’t see it mentioned

 

We have sailed Eclipse (x2), Equinox and most recently Edge. We prefer the layout of their older fleet

 

I agree with your comments on the drinks package. On the Edge all the Martinis are priced at $17 + 20% gratuity! Given the Martini Bar is the focal point of the midship area, anyone on the Classic Package is effectively priced out of drinking there 

Sorry I should have said we were on Millenium.

The drinks are priced in so that you ugrade to the premium package, so no martinis for us either. FYI Campari was $17!

1 hour ago, Gettingwarmer said:

Was this in Japan? If not where did it embark and where was the cruise going to. 

Sorry for the confusion I have severe jet lag. The Princess cruise was a partial Panama transit.

29 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

Thank you for your report which is very interesting. It sounds like a lovely trip.

 

Regarding Apex and Iona the whole set up and experience on Apex would be very different from your cruise on an older ship, a bit like comparing Iona to Arcadia for instance.  

Yes you are right. I only chose Iona and Apex as comparisons are they are both doing similar itineraries at th same time. I haven't done the Maths but I think Millenium prices are about the same as Arcadia. I was on Arcadia last year and I would choose Millenium over Arcadia at present

Following on from Jean's report about P&O vs Fred, I thought I would give an overvie of my experience on my first Celebrity cruise. This was a much delayed cruise- 12 nights Best of Japan. We chose Celebrity for the itinerary, and because P&O don't go there for this type of thing. The following is just my opinion.

Checking in/embarkation.

Done online. 2 ladies waiting at the terminal, just before we got on the ship, mainly checking our ID on a tablet. 2 people in the queue before us. We could choose our own boarding time. Very efficient.

Passenger mix

900 Brits although it felt like more. The rest were from the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South America and Europe. Most made an effort in the evening.I had expected it to be like the cruise we did on Princess in January 2023 where scruffy passengers were the norm

Condition of the ship/cabin.

Very good for a 24 year old ship. No leaks anywhere and no broken toilets. Had a $60m refurb in 2019. Cabins and public areas are very modern, but patio doors had a bit of rust. The first night was very windy and we could hear wind and the sea in the cabin. I thought maybe the door wasn't shut properly even though it was locked. I opened and found  I couldn't close it so my husband did and the door partly came off. We could still lock it! Maintenance arrived in about 2 minutes and fixed it back on. It happens a lot on this ship, and hearing the sea is also quite common. The next refit is this year and may be the doors will be replaced then.

The P&O bed is more comfortable IMHO

Hardly saw our steward but there is an evening turn down service. The chocolates were not nice.

Air con- I am not sure it worked well, but we didn't need it as we were never too cold/hot.

Dining.

We had freedom dining in Metropolitan. We ate there for all but 2 breakfasts and 1 dinner and also on port days.

Breakfast. Waiters come round with juice, water, tea, coffee and pastries while you wait. Wide choice and always hot. The quality of the eggs, sausage and bacon are superior to P&O.

Lunch - similar to P&O, but one day it was very bad and we sent it back, hot chicken was served luke warm with rubbery chips

Dinner. Usually a good choice and I only ate from the always available menu once. Always hot and tasty. 

Freedom dining was over subscribed so sometimes we were given a buzzer - the maximum wait was 20 minutes if you wanted to share

Buffet - manic as you would expect, but food was ok. 

Drinks package

We had the classic package, which included drinks up to $10. Alcohol wise the only drinks under $10 were 330ml cans of beer/lager. I drink white wine and there was a choice of 2-3 for $10. They were ok. Cocktails were all $12+. There were cocktails under $10 but there was no list so you had to suggest something and then find out if it was included or not. Baileys was $11 and I thought it was mean not to include it in the package and I was too stingy to pay the $1 and 20% service charge on top.

Wine service at dinner was slow one night. The waiter can take a drinks order, but not for wine, the sommelier does that, and they had a lot of tables to cover.

I think the drinks are unlimited and I was not aware of any drunken behaviour.

Speciality dining.

$60 per head plus 20% service charge. They were constantly trying to sell the speciality restaurants. Towards the end of the cruise they dropped the price of the Indian to $45 so we did that. Food was good but the service was terrible. The waiter got our order wrong 4 times. 

Note regarding eating in Blu, for which you pay a whole lot more for an Aquaclass cabin, people were complaining that they had to wait to get in, rather than walking in when they wanted and it wasn't worth the extra.

Little extras, sometimes they came round with free prosecco or canapes, as a gift from an officer

Captain/ officers

Captain Pierre was quite shy, I think, but he did do the daily update himself and & an info session in the Theatre. The hotel director was very visible, she was always there when we left and returned to the ship. Ents Director was also very visible

Entertainment

Good and varied but we rarely got to the evening shows which were at 7 and 9. We heard good reports.  We did go to the Skylounge every night where the Ents Director would have a bit of fun and created a great atmoshere. eg on Beatles night there would be a quick quiz which involved most of the audience followed by dancing. He is one of the best ets directors I have come across.

The App.

Useful for checking in beforehand. The drinks, menus for each restaurant and the entertainment for the whole cruise was listed before we arrived, You could book dining and shore excursions on it. What surprised me  was that they still use pen and paper to take orders, not tablets. It worked well.

Shore Excursions

Very expensive. You got up to 15% off if you prebook. We did our own thing. Food and transport was cheap in Japan and the metro system was easy to use, once you got the hang of it.

Price

On one TA website a week to the fjords in an inside cabin on June 8th is £660 on Iona, Celebrity  Apex is £1007 plus gratuities. Is Celebrity worth the extra? Not really TBF but Celebrity is meant to be a 5* line, not a 4* line, so perhaps a better comparison would be Cunard. 

10 hours ago, drakes2 said:

If that's in USD not worth it. I bought mine on the leap day special at 29% off

I think these sales are only avaiable in the US? In the UK we didn't have a leap year sale or St Patrick's Day sale

On 3/18/2024 at 3:06 AM, zitsky said:

I see with gratuity it’s almost $50 pp.  Not sure if I’ll do it again.

OMG gratuity is added? Not sure I'll bother

I've just seen a posting from a TA saying the new itineraries will be released in April

Thanks everyone, that has eased my mind

We are sailing soon on Millie and I can't find the white wines that cost $10 in most of the bar menus that I have seen on the app. Will they have them, say in Cellar Masters? Also cocktails up to $10 are included but I can't find any for that price. Can someone tell me which bars serve them or do I need to become a beer drinker? 🤣

I would like to do this but I can't see what day it is on. How do I find out please? I'm going to be in Millenium soon

26 minutes ago, davecttr said:

That confused me. I am booked on iona G437 and that departs on the 9th November.

Mea culpa . I copied and pasted from elsewhere and they had put the correct codes in but got I got years mixed up. The refit has been moved to October 2025, not 24! Sorry. I tried to correct the original post but it seems I can't.

It has been widely reported else where that G532 and G533 (October 2024) have been cancelled and Iona will have her refit then instead of March 2025. It will be for 17 days. Lots of complaints, obviously, especially as alternative cruises have risen in price. I expect there to be replacement cruises for March 2025 to be announced soon.

3 hours ago, Megabear2 said:

In my experience if you complete the Feefo one you get a questionnaire follow up and if there are genuine points with problems a call or reply asking you to pass the things on to customer service.  This has happened with my last five P&O cruises.  Some of my points were pretty mundane but I still got asked to do the follow ups.

We always fill in the feefo review, and always make comments and have never had a call back. I would love to be part of their focius groups so I can actively try to find solutions to gripes rather than whinging on the forums. Not all of my comments are negative BTW.

On the subject of food, the Exec Chef on Arcadia said they did a tasting of the evening's menu every afternoon at 4pm and then made adjustments. I can only think that he had lost his sense of taste (covid maybe?) and thought cold food that was meant to be hot was hot when it was tepid. 

Thank you for a great blog, I can't believe over 65 days have passed. I  do hope your throat is better.

A note regarding uncommunicative Captains. I am going on Celebrity soon and I read that if they miss a port, the Captain holds an information session in the theatre where he/she explains, along with slides, why the port was missed. It certainly shows that a decision to miss a port is not taken lightly. P&O captains could follow this example.

Secondly, regarging priority boarding which I think caused chaos on your cruise and also on the 35 nighter on Ventura.  I don't expect much support for this idea but some cruise lines don't have priority boarding in the same way. EG Princess and Celebrity  let you choose your own time, but they also know who is coming by coach. So if your coach is due at 2pm but you select 12 o'clock boarding you will be allocated 2 pm.

I do agree that CPS and Intercruises should have been more prepared and making all those elderly people stand in the cold for all that time is simply not on. As I have said before, there is no one sitting in the chairs inside the terminal so why not let people in? The alternative is that P&O stagger boarding times for the higher tier passengers, which will understandly annoy the passengers.

IMHO P&O, Intercruises and CPS know how many people are coming, but won't pay for extra staff to keep the queues moving. It's another cost cut and shows they don't are less about the passengers. 

Thank you both. We will be there at the end of this month, just in time for cherry blossom. I will take a look at your suggestions and draw up a shortlist. I know we can't do everything so I'll just concentrate on may be three must sees.

We have 1 free day in Tokyo, and it might be the only time we go there. Can any one recommend are the top 5 things to do that are easy to get to from the Mercure Ginza please? thanks. BTW we like history and culture, and may be a tea ceremony

1 hour ago, Selbourne said:

It’s always worse late afternoon and evening when, of course, we are always on the ship. I also have a sneaky suspicion that it might be the air con, which is why I feel that I’m stuck with it until I am home. If I still have it after a few days at home then I shall definitely see my GP. 

Mine magically disappeared when I went outside.Next time I go on an older ship I will be looking for hints and tips to avoid it. Ice bucket in the cabin I read somewhere. We opened the door before we went to dinner and then kept it open all night, as that seemed to ease the coughing at night.  It has put me off going on Arcadia again. 

@Selbourne does your sore throat improve in the open air? If so I wonder if it's the ship's aircon? The only time I have had cruise cough since covid was on Arcadia, which has an older aircon system probably similar to that on Aurora. I had to have the balcony door open at night, which I've never had to do before. Just a thought. If not I agree with Snow Hill, see your GP asap.

6 minutes ago, TigerB said:

I hadn't noticed that it wasn't on the Epicurean menu. But yes, the fruit salad is always on the MDR menu for breakfast, and occasionally on the lunch menu. It is often also available in the Cattle Market that is Horizon, and at the Quays.

We used to have it with plain yogurt at breakfast, it certainly wasn't Greek yogurt and didn't taste like the Greek style yoghurt either. To be honest, it did have that fat-free taste to it. These days we have it with fruit yogurt.

Thank you. Shame they don't have it on the Epicurean one.