CaptainPedantic

It's also much MUCH easier to change decks now as well - one click and the whole deck is shown!

Sorry if I missed this being posted previously, but this morning I was checking cabin availability (again) for a cruise I'm interested in and there has been a huge improvement made to the booking process through the P&O website. You can now see cabin availability for an entire deck at a time, rather than having to choose both a location (e.g. Aft) and deck to see what's available. If like me you spend far too much time seeing what is available, this will save you hours!!! Nice work P&O 🙂

I'm loving reading this @Waynetor - especially since we were supposed to visit some of these ports last summer but got Covid onboard Sky and had to isolate for Stockholm, Tallinn, Visby and Gdynia 😞Thank you for taking the time to report - I look forward to the next instalment! Btw that Tallinn excursion "Kiek in de Kok" sounds painful 😄

Frozen jalapeno margarita is my new favourite after our last cruise, but also love dirty banana, Hawaiian tropics, frozen mai tai...

This is really useful to know - thank you! We have been considering booking an independent tour to the Blue Lagoon, but there are only 2 time slots available - we would either need to leave the ship to get a bus at 7.30am (feels risky in case of delays arriving - we're due in at 7am) or return to the ship for 5pm (also feels risky as our all aboard will be 5.30pm)... Not sure I feel comfortable with either of those options, so we'll probably use this shuttle service and explore the city. Thanks again!

Totally agree, but do be careful to pay attention to the return train times and leave enough time to get the shuttle back to the ship. We once missed the return train and had to get a taxi back from Bruges which wasn't so cheap (AND he took us to the ferry terminal instead of the cruise terminal!!!) - probably the only time we've thought we were going to miss the ship. But it didn't put us off taking the train again on our later visits.

Thanks for sharing this review @Neil_c Would be interested to know what independent trips you did in Iceland if you don't mind sharing details

Just to add to Steelers36's reply... If your OBC is not equally shared across passengers, this could be a little more complex - but the overall equation should be the same as long as all your OBC has been used... To explain... By way of example, on a recent cruise I had $350 OBC (shareholder benefit + FCD) and my wife had $100 OBC (just FCD) - these OBCs being non-refundable. I booked an excursion for us before leaving priced at $129 each, and despite having enough total OBC in our cabin to pay for this in full, I had to pay $29 by card for my wife's trip. Our onboard account showed a total of $479 OBC, with $29 of that refundable (from the card payment), and the 2x excursions at $129 each. Overall still leaving a $221 total credit, with $29 of that refundable.

One other point - debark tours do not qualify for the 10% elite discount

A couple of other things to note (from our experience last month): the 10% credit onboard is refundable in case you have other credits and don't manage to spend it all if you are on a b2b cruise (even if not booked as one), your excursions may be charged and tickets issued for each segment individually at the start of that segment - this took us by surprise when we arrived to only have tickets for and see only our first week's excursions charged with 10% refund, but sure enough the 2nd week's excursions appeared at the end of the first week

+1 for this especially with so many regular low deposit offers

Consider getting a faraday pouch for your car keys to protect from these scanners. And a faraday box for your keys at home for the same reason.

There certainly used to be daily specials for $5 but I didn't notice this on our cruise last month - however, we had the plus package so just ordered what we wanted.

Agree 100% - loved using the lounge on Caribbean Princess last month when compared to Sky Princess last summer, in terms of location, ambiance and appetizers. It was pretty full every night too.

Yes they do - and last month I discovered the frozen jalapeno margarita... game changer!

Day cabins were available on Britannia back in Nov 2022 in the Caribbean

We had a similar treat on Britannia in the Caribbean last year, after a 6-year break from P&O. Our flight was the last to leave Barbados so we had time to take a brilliant excursion in the morning, get showered and changed by the gym (great tip!) and enjoy the ship for most of the day. We also had bought the drinks package and this was valid right upto disembarkation. Btw while I was getting changed by the gym, someone who had just embarked came into the changing rooms and helped himself to deoderant and shampoo left behind by others 🙂 not that I'd endorse that, but if you do forget some toiletries it's definitely worth checking to see if anything has been left.

Well that data is definitely still necessary if that's the way they are going to automatically provide a refund! But I've been through the PayIt process with Princess previously and it is straightforward once they finally get around to processing your refund...

Oh wow! I must admit I'm surprised by this and I'd have been really disappointed if this had ever been an issue for us - but I suppose like with everything else, times change!

That's not how I remember it, but then my kids are 21 and 19 now so it was some time ago! There was always sufficient space in the kids clubs, capacity for each age group was managed at the time of booking, and I was never aware of any child being denied access due to being full.

Really grateful for all the advice and shared experiences in this thread - thank you! We've blindly used CPS for years and years having always been happy with their service. But last summer's experience wasn't great and when I was quoted £267 for 16 days this summer, I decided to look around. We've booked P4C for £142 now instead...

The age of your children could be a factor - each of the age groups typically has its own separate capacity, or at least this was the case when our kids were younger (and the ships were smaller). We were once unable to book one summer cruise when our kids were in the 5-8 years old group, even though there was plenty of availability in all the other age groups. It's sad to hear that there have been kids unable to get into the clubs when it has been so busy - our kids had so many amazing times...

We sailed on Caribbean Princess 6-20 May this year and had a fabulous time. No roaches or virus issues as far as we knew. Great staff, great service, food was good, entertainment was mixed but some good shows, overall we had a lovely cruise and would definitely cruise on Caribbean Princess again!

We booked as a single 14-night Caribbean Princess cruise 6-20 May and although it shows in our history as a single 14-night cruise, it also shows we have 2 cruise credits. I suppose this doesn't guarantee though that we would have received 1 cruise credit on turnaround day, so I'm still not sure you'd be able to upgrade part-way through. I did see someone proudly get their black medallion on turnaround day, but I've no idea if they had booked 2x7n b2b...

Love this! Also could be a great solution to the problem of sunbed-hoggers on sea days 🙂