Cathygh

Was the teminal really full of people sitting down, or was it a case of a long wait at the check in desks? I ask because on Iona in May they only let people in when they could go straight to the check in desk, and held people at the bottom of the escalator until the queue cleared. No one was waiting on the seats in the terminal.

I wonder if the queues are so long because people have turned up without their yellow fever vaccination or exemption certificate?

The weather here is better than yesterday but still  not that great.

Have a wonderful time @Selbourne

If you want to see the act then book it but you need to do it as soon as reservations open. You can try asking in board, they might hold some seats for those who don't do the internet, and they have a waiting list you can join in case there are cancellations

I'm very late to this thread but I would like to make a couple of comments

1 The P&O 'app'

I have recently become aware of an app called dojo. It allows you to join a virtual queue for cafes etc that are listed on it. It lets you know how long the wait is, checks you still want a table and tells you when it is ready. This is what P&O need.

2 River cruises seem so expensive, even befoe covid. And prices seem to have risen by at least 25% and doubled in some cases making them more so. I'd love to go down the Danube, Douro and the Nile but I can have 2- 4 week's sea cruising for 1 week on the Danube. 

14 minutes ago, AndyMichelle said:

That's why we don't need to go into 'town' anymore Cathy. 

All our Christmas shopping was done in the places you mentioned, for the rest, we have Whiteley down the road. 

It was not a planned shunning of Southampton, just prefer the shopping/dining experience in the smaller places, with the added benefit of supporting local businesses where possible. 

Andy

We rarely go into Southampton now, only if we want to go to John Lewis or Ikea. Or get on a ship🛳️

I can get most things I need here in Bishop's Waltham or Hedge End. I still like Winchester but there's not a lot of Independent shops there now.

It's perfect time to get off the ship and pootle over to Wickham, pop into my shop, spend all your money, before we change hands in a week's time. 

Lots to do outside of Southampton- Wickham, Bishop's Waltham. Alresford, Stockbridge, all totally unspoiled and non touristy. If anyone wants a model of a P&O ship there are a few for sale in Warwick Market in Wickham (not my shop).

12 hours ago, Selbourne said:

The bathroom furniture can be changed on Aurora. The reason I know this is because in one of our cabins we had a white toilet, surrounded by the usual pink everything else 😂 

 

Agree that the TVs need upgrading, but can I add Ventura (and presumably Azura) to the two adult only ships? As far as I know, only Britannia, Iona and Arvia have anything approaching a decent TV!

The toilets don't seem to be be part of the premoulded elements. On some ships the walls and the tiles seem to be premoulded, making it difficult to change the colour scheme. 

11 hours ago, ChadCabriolet said:

I'm on the Aurora now for my first cruise and it has put me off coming again if this is what P&O have to offer.

 

The staff are lovely, but the rooms are really dated, the TV's don't have proper reception so the picture quality is terrible, and there is only 1 plug socket to charge our phones.

The whole décor of the ship makes it feel like a floating retirement home, but that does explain why all the entertainment is aimed at the retirement community.

 

There are burst pipes on the Lido deck by the burger bar, in the Curzon theatre which cancelled a show tonight and also in one of the cabin hallways on deck 6 (I think, I may be misremembering the deck number). 

And to top it all off we are now spending Christmas day at sea, leaving Alta a day early than advertised because everything will be shut on shore! Surely they would have known that before advertising the cruise?

The problem with dated cabins is changing them. I believe but I stand to be corrected that the cabins are premoulded so changing them is an expensive challenge especially for bathroom fittings. 

The other ships apart from Arcadia are much more modern. Just been on Britannia and had excellent tv coverage and a goid selection of films and box sets. Aurora and Arcadia need to be brought up to that standard at least.

18 hours ago, Technoman2 said:

 

 

We enjoyed our holiday on the whole in spite of a few days of windy and rainy weather and it was the first time on Britannia and it is a ship we would consider again BUT there were a few unsavoury people on board and they should be banned from future P&O cruises particularly the girl who disrupted the quiz in Brodies laughing and shouting and generally being an obnoxious irritating bore.

 

 

On the previous cruise to yours 31 passengers ( allegedly) were taken off the ship for drunken behaviour. They had sat in a bar in the port all day drinking. Though people who actually saw them come back to the ship said they were not abusive just in party mode. There were also reports about drunken behaviour at the Lido Bar in the early hours. 

BTW at Barbados aiport it is slightly cooler at the gates, the area by the bars and cafes is extremely hot.

Thank you, I was on the cruise before yours and enjoyed it very much.

Regarding the missed port, did you get a substitute? If you didn't you might be be to claim off your insurance company, but you need a letter from P&O saying that the port was missed and that they aren't giving any compensation for it. We got £150 each back for a missed port in May this year.

13 hours ago, jaydee6969 said:

 

After sailing on Arcadia for the first time this year, not a ship for us and has put us off booking a world cruise on her or Aurora.

 

But on Azura/Ventura would be a different prospect.

What put me off Arcadia was the cruise cough I had for 3 weeks when on board(August) which disappeared when I was in the fresh air. I have done 12 cruises since the restart, including one last month, and I only had the problem on Arcadia. 

If I were to bet on any ship beeing sold off I would chose Ventura or Azura. If P&O can't fill their ships to the level required for a good profit cutting capacity by 3000 might make a difference, and give them a cash injection

Thank you

Your comment about the food being bette than Britannia earlier in the year caught my eye. IMHO the food for me can influence how much I enjoy the cruise

I have come to the conclusion that who ever is in charge of a particuar kitchin has great influence over the quality of the cooking. So If I were to rank the MDR food on the 3 P&O cruises I have done this year I would say

Iona (May) Excellent

Britannia (November) Very good

Arcadia (August) improvement required

Yet now I am reading complaints elsewhere that the food on Iona is below par and it seems like Britannia has improved since you were on board.

All comments are IMHO.

5 hours ago, kayelbee said:

Thanks Cathygh, I assume you recommend this wine?

 

Yes I do, I ordered it not having tried it before and not realising its price.  

I don't have the list but Vergelegen is £34 and is included in the Captain's package.

Glasshouse on Britannia is part of the virtual queuing system. The queue closed at about 6.30 everynight and did not reopen before 7.30 which is when we like to eat. I don't know if it opened later. Someone told us they tried to walk in and were told there was a 45 minute wait. We asked if we could go in for a drink- yes they said. We hadn't realised you coud just pop in for a drink, and I don't think many other did either as it was relatively quiet(compared to 2018 when it was rammed every night with drinkers far outnumbering the diners). Then once we were seated we were asked if we were dining. We declined, but I do wonder if they did not knw we hadn't been in the dining queue, and if we had ordered would they have twigged? 

I like the concepts and the songs in the shows but not the singing in broad American accents and the screaching girls. This is not how the cast is taught on their performing arts courses, this is how the Production Team in Southampton tell them to sing. Even US singers sing in a mid atlantic accent,  not the broad accents I have heard in the shows. IMHO the Production and Musical Directors need to be replaced. And the Sound Engineer who makes the drums drown the other instruments out. I am referring to my recent cruises on Arcadia and Britannia, the one I did on Iona on May had much better singing. 

Just remembered there is another thread on this ssubject too.

13 minutes ago, Bloated While Floating said:

 

 

Overnight storage for your opened bottles of wine… gone!

A second pack of biscuits left in your cabin… gone!

Available on Arcadia on for fixed dining though.

On Britannia last week we had a best Christmas jumper or T shirt competition on a casual night, a much better idea IMHO. We did not enter the competion ( clashed with dinner) and most passesngers who spotted us in our T shirts told us they didn't get the email asking passengers to bring them.

However on Brutannia they scheduled the Indian Buffet on a formal night. So like your Christmas jumper night I suspect that this is a way of dumbing down formal nights and gives P&O an excuse to drop down to formals on 2 week cruises.

2 hours ago, JungleJim42 said:

Onboard they got

£20 OBC

100 minutes wifi

1 international phone call

a cabin until 10pm

 

and told they would get flight compensation forms on arrival UK

I wonder if that was a decision made by Arvia's onboard management or shoreside? I have read that those left on Britannia were given the obc, but no cabin to use. 

The last thing I heard yesterday before my flight left Barbados for Gatwick  was that passengers flying back to Manchester were going to be collected from the ship at 9pm. It was clear that the flight from Manchester to Barbados had not left at that point. There is a social media page for the cruise but no one has commented on the Manchester flight yet. People we met on board who had flown out with Maleth were very unhappy - the plane was filthy, and 3 hours late. They were told that the pilot was stuck in traffic but those who checked on google maps could not see any traffic problems within 40/50 mile radius.

Just off Britannia. The last formal night was not a sea day it was the last port day. And someone thought it was a good idea to have The Indian buffet on the same night.

I think the food was far superior to what we had on Arcadia in August..but my DH still thinks the sausage and bacon served in the MDRs at breakfast is poor. He used to love the P&O breakfast.

On 11/23/2023 at 4:58 PM, Megabear2 said:

Excellent... which package as I can't see it on the list!

 

Leaflet-Wine-Packages-23-(POC) (4)-2.pdf 1.29 MB · 16 downloads

It's the Captains package 

Sorry for the late reply no signal most of the time!

I've been drinking Picpoul from the wine package and no problems so far🤞

20 hours ago, david63 said:

Once the initial rush has finished you do not, in my experience, need a ticket - you just go down to the tender. Also anyone in a suite does not need a ticket at any time, they too can just go straight to the tender.

We like to go early. We have learned from experience that if you wait too long then the tenders are suspended die to the weather so we miss the port. Or even if we get over then they are suspended when we want to come back. We have a few hours stranded shoreside in wind and rain