Cathygh

Just read elsewhere some passengers on Arcadia and Aurora have had refunds as the price of their cruise has dropped. The refund was for the difference between the old and new fare. Has anyone else had this?

All fine. Yes,the ship needs a refit but I've not seen any buckets catching drips. Sindhu was very good last night. I hope they make the popup glass house which is only open sometimes at lunch a permanent fixture so there is somewhere else to eat in the evenings.

I am now over half way through J310. I've not had a hot cup of tea or coffee in the MDR. I am now finding the food repetitive. Someone on our table sends his food back everynight as it is not hot enough. Last night I had hot salmon and cold veg. I had lovely Greek yogurt with my fruit salad every morning until 3 days ago when it was served very runny and tasted bitter. It's improved in the last 2 days but is still runny. I think it's being watered down with normal yogurt. Overall the food is not anything like what I had on Iona in June I am sorry to say. The staff get 10/10. I am enjoying having a dedicated waiter who has got to know us. .

It's usually the one beginning with s that can't spell!

I feel for you regarding dining choices. It's no better on Arcadia either. Ham and mash on celebration night tonight. I think P&O have lost their way with the MDR evening menus.

We have fixed dining second sitting and we do prefer it but 21 days might be too much. We have never had to wait to be seated for breakfast in the MDR so far but then the ship is not full.

Yes you are right but it gets a bit boring if I don't fancy anything else. I had a very good steak but the chips aren't anywhere near as good as on Iona

I'm on J310..all ok so far. 1400 passengers and 800+staff. Some niggles like tea and coffee in the MDR is not hot enough for me. Chicken and steak have been on the menu 2 nights running and again tonight. But overall a positive experience

On Iona, so this might not apply to Arvia, we got a pager at about 6pm and asked if we could have a table at 8pm. We carried on our evening between 6 and 8 as usual and didn't stay within calling distance and didn't wait for our pager to go off. We turned up at 8 and were sat straightaway. It might be worth trying this.

How about Cunard? More expensive but it is better than P&O. I recently saw a reasonable price for a cruise from Southampton to the Canaries. Or MSC but I don't recommend the booze cruises. On second thoughts MSC's drink package is complicated and offers different deals to different agents. With Princess, the service charge is $16 a day each, 18% service charge on drinks. In January a glass of wine was $8 dollars, so about $9.40 with the service charge. I don't know what they charge for wifi but P&O is £20 (I might have got that wrong but it is about that) and I iagine Princess is about the same. The Princess bar prices are published somewhere, so it would be easy to work out if $50 a day each is worth paying. I liked the convenience of having wifi included, but once I retire I won't need to be contactable so might not bother.

That is correct but sometimes there are glitches in the system and people get the P&O loyalty transferred to Princess. My husband's loyalty was transferred and mine wasn't but Princess matched mine to his as a goodwill gesture. .

Same happened to us. If you contact Princess they will match her loyalty to yours. You need to send them proof.

I wonder if the cabin availability is due to the fact that a lot of them were designated isolation cabins for a year or more, so there has been a shorter selling period? There is also competition as a similar cruse on Princess leaves on 15th September with slightly lower prices. The 65 night cruise on Aurora to South America sailed at 60% capacity, I am going on J310 (Norway and Iceland) next week and that has lots of cabins available. Before covid a cruise like J310 would be sold out months in advance. If P&O can't fill these ships it will make their future uncertain. Having said that I don't know if the other ships are full or almost full either.

These are the prices from elsewhere. Inside from £2,253pp,Outside from £2,792pp,Balcony from £3,674pp. Not the price for singles , you have to call them to get that

Thanks

Hi Can someone advise where the shuttle from the Skarfabakki port drops off in Reykjavik please?

I wrote sent a complaint via my TA who advised the answer could take 28 days, and it was 27.

I can only tell you about my own experrience on boarding Ioan, at half term, so very full. We arrived early as we were not sure how long CPS would take, I'd estimate it as 20 minutes. This was for a 12.15 boarding. People with later boarding had waits up to 45 minutes for CPS.

At the moment there isn't enough information to say whether the bidding system gets a bargain or not as not enough people have posted information about their bids. Besides some people might not bid for the reason of getting a bargain, but maybe they just like the idea?

Yes only direct bookings with P&O are getting the bid to upgrade email atm. They seem to go out fairly soon after the final balance has been paid. Some people who didn't bid get a second email.

Some TAs are offering 3 night stays in hotels in Malta and Tenerife for Azura and Barbados for Arvia and Brittania.

Oh nice one.

On Iona you can fill your bottle at filling stations at the Emerald Bar and the Skydome pool. Water is served at dinner in the MDR and lunch I think, but at breakfast you have to ask for it. You can order tap water at any bar, which will be served in a glass, for free. There are self serve dispensers in the buffet, but you can not fill a bottle from these. I think you can take 2 small cases as hand luggage, you might find a case and a back pack easier. You will need to take them around with you if your cabin isn't ready when you board. In May the doors to the cabin corridors were closed until 1.30.

We used the pager Iona at May half term, this worked for us as we like to eat later. If you want to use the app, the virtual queue opens at 5.15 and you would get in by 6, or you can pre book a time bewteeen 5.30 and 6.30 There will be some meet ups for single travellers. These will be listed in the daily Horizon bulletin that is delivered to your cabin each evening, and you might find like minded people to share with. At May half term the ship did have a lot of children. They are mostly by the pools, but you can sunbathe around the side of the ship on quite a few decks. The infinity pools at the back are a great attraction to families but I did manage to find quiet spots there on port days. Beds in the Skydome covered pool are taken very early on in the day, and there will be more children there if the weather is not good outside. We saw lots in the buffet and the Quays but very few in the MDR, and the ones in the MDR were well behaved. There are some child free areas- 710 club and Crow's Nest after 6pm, and may be others as well. On social media you might find a group for your cruise,and there might be a roll call on cruise critic as well. I am sure all will be fine and you will have agreat time

I've just tried a dummy booking on chrome and got the technical error message. I bet IT system can't cope with all of us doing dummy bookings!