Charleyben

We are on the a Encore in October 2018 from Athens to Dubai. I have been informed that no visas are required in advance and will be sorted out on board.

We did a similar cruise with Regent a couple of years ago and it was the same then. The only visa we had to pay for was Turkey, the others were not charged. Whether it will be the same with Seabourn, I don't know.

As the previous post has said, tables do fill up rather quickly. If it is particularly slow, after a short while they will close the table and take orders, no other guests will join that table after that point even if there are empty seats.

This has only happened to us once or twice and the reason it is done is so the first to arrive at the table do not have an inordinately long wait.

It actually works very well. Enjoy your cruise.

We are off on the Encore in October this year and our invoice states the same. It was not expected and is apparently a promotional package available on new bookings departing up to the end of April next.

For higher end suites the package includes unlimited access.

I'm surprised that Seabourn haven't made more of this.

Not wanting to rub salt in the wound but the P&O website says £4.65 a pint:

 

https://ask.pocruises.com/help/PO/life-on-board/drink_cost

This is my fourth P & O cruise this year and prices have been creeping up every cruise. P & O are obviously struggling to keep up to date with price rises on their web site.

Last week it was £4.75, what it is this week is anyone's guess! I will bet it won't be less.

As stated in my first post, the bar menu clearly states a pint.

Thanks for your responses. Just to clarify one point, I queried the issue with the barman who obviously misunderstood me and thought I was complaining that the glass was not full. He pointed out the line on the glass was the measure and I pointed out the fact the measure was 50cl not a pint.

I can't say whether or not if the glass was filled to the brim, it would have held a pint. From the bar tenders comments they were obviously using his line as the measure.

For obvious reasons they would not be filling glasses to the brim on a cruise ship.

The point of this post is that P & O are using incorrect sized glasses. Whether this is by design or accident, I can only speculate.

If there is anyone on Britannia now or soon to go and is not adverse to a pint of Peroni, have a look for yourself.

I ordered a pint of Peroni Lager in the Crow's Nest on Britannia last week. It arrived in a nice Peroni glass and was rather enjoying it until I happened to notice the mark on the glass was 50 CL.

Without trying to sound petty, this amounts to a 13.6% reduction on a pint as promised on the drinks menu.

When I pay £4.75p for a pint of lager, I expect to receive a pint, not half a litre. If a retail establishment in the UK were to do this they would find themselves on the wrong end of Weights & Measure legislation and liable to be prosecuted.

For the remainder of the cruise when I ordered a Pint of Peroni I requested it to be served in a standard beer glass, some of which incidentally had a pint volume marker and others didn't. I may not have been getting any more beer each time but it did make me feel better.

Power to the the people!

Wines from a wine package are sourced from whichever MDR you are using. This does present problems when trying to use the vouchers outside of your MDR.

When you use the vouchers in the alternative dining venues they will get you, your choice of wine from the MDR but sometimes this involves a delay.

Because most of the wines in the wine packages are not stocked in the various bars you may experience difficulty getting them unless you find a particularly friendly waiter who is prepared to go to the MDR. Even then it has to be when the MDR is open and you friendly waiter has sufficient time.

If the wine you want is stocked at the particular bar, they will normally supply their wine and sort the internal elements at a later time.

To summarise it is not straightforward using the vouchers outside the MDR although it is possible. Personally if I fancy another bottle of wine after dinner, I order another bottle with the wine waiter and take it with me to whichever bar I am going.

We were on the Oceana in June and I was told by one of the officers in Cafe Jardin that it was P & Os intention at some stage to transform it into a Glass House.

Her did not know when but I assumed that if this was to happen, it would be done at its next refit.

Personally I think a better location for a Glass House on Oceana would be Le Club which is seriously underused most evenings. I know Le Club is a venue for a number of daytime activities but I am still of the opinion it would be a better option.

The current weight limit on Thomson Premier is 28 kgs and that is what is on my cruise personaliser for a Caribbean Cruise next month. They do add that no suitcase should weigh no more than 23kgs. Cabin bags are still 5 kgs.

If I need the extra weight I will put 10kgs in one of my hand luggage and check it in at the airport.

The costs of the speciality restaurants on P and O vary commensurate on the length of your cruise. Cruises of 14 nights plus are cheaper than shorter cruises.

We tend only to go on longer cruises so I will quote the lesser amounts. It's been a couple of years since I have been on Azura but when I was last on board Seventeen was £28.00 and Sindhu was £15. The current prices are available on the P & O website FAQs.

It has been my experience that the alternative dining is proportionately more on the larger ships than on the smaller ships. I feel that P and O set the prices as high as they can get away with, which is a normal business practice. On the larger ships they have more potential customers thus the higher prices.

We have recently come back from the Adonia where the supplement for the Ocean Grill was £12.95 and in my opinion, was comparable to Seventeen on Azura. There were a couple of small additional supplements for lobster and a larger fillet steak but this would still bring the cost of the evening well below that of Azura.

I think the quality of food and service to be of the highest levels in all of the additional fee venues and it is a matter of personal choice as to whether you feel it a worthwhile expenditure.

I have not experienced any difficulties in making bookings, in fact my experience is that they are actively pushing them.

So far as the MDR is concerned, my opinion is that the food some 6 -7 years ago reached a low but has improved somewhat since. I have also welcomed the policy of plated meals.

In conclusion the difference between the quality of food and service between the MDR and the speciality restaurants is enormous. With regard to the service issue I base this comment on the number of passengers they are expected to serve rather than the ability of the wait staff. Whether this is a deliberate policy is debatable.

They initially informed me that they had no control on the ship as to when the gratuities were added as this was done centrally.

When I spoke with a more senior officer at reception he agreed to resolve the situation. He achieved this by removing the charges prior to the gratuities and placing them back on after. This had the desired effect of the gratuities being the first items to come off the OBS.

He said no one on board could move he date the gratuities were applied. Although he did not acknowledge it, I had the distinct impression that this was a deliberate policy imposed by the number crunchers at head office.

Although it meant only about £16 difference in my case, when this is applied to all passengers receiving OBC, it represents a significant amount of money.

Was it worth the effort? Probably not but I am the type to cut my nose off to spite my face.

I just find that if, as I suspect, this is a deliberate policy, it should be shown for what it is.

There are some interesting issues raised in this thread. I can also confirm that I have had the loyalty discount applied to the many wine packages that I have purchased on board.

I have never pre booked a wine package before sailing so I am unable to comment as to whether the discount is applied then. I have also read the entry on the FAQs which state that no discount is given and I can only assume that this refers to when the purchase is made prior to sailing.

With regards to the OBC, it is interesting to note that no loyalty discount is given on your account until this credit is used up.

As I normally book saver fares I do not received OBC and the first items applied to my account are the gratuity charges. On our last cruise when we did received some OBC I noted that the gratuities did not appear on our account until the OBC was used up.

I raised this issue with reception and I was informed that the gratuities are entered on the accounts by head office and not on board. I pointed out that in view of the fact that there is no loyalty discount on gratuities then they should have been the first items to have been charged.

After some discussion I won the day, financially it was not really worth the effort but I did consider it a point of principle.

I am quite sure that the P and O accounts softwear is set up so that the the gratuities to not appear on the account until the OBC is used up on other charges which would normally attract a loyalty discount.

I would be interested to hear other posters experiences in this regard.

The term 'all inclusive' can be misleading and what exactly is included can vary substantially between different cruise lines as has been clearly demonstrated in this thread. There is also a need to draw a distinction between all inclusive and drinks packages which are often confused.

The luxury cruise lines pretty much include most things in their package and Regent include certain excursions but even on these lines, certain wines, champagnes and spirits attract an extra charge as do certain excursions on Regent. No line, to my knowledge, provide free spa treatments.

Azamara provide a 'more inclusive' package which includes a basic offering of drinks and also offer various beer, wine and spirits packages and a further option to pay as you go on items not included in their package.

Mainstream lines vary considerably in what they offer particularly with regards to the provision of alcohol. The American Lines tend to include all drinks up to a certain price whist the European Lines are inclined to offer a set selection and generally only provide house wines.

Before I book an all inclusive cruise or one offering drinks packages, I research exactly what is being offered before making up my mind.

Returning to initial posters question. There are a large number of options open to P & O if they wish to go down the all inclusive or drinks package route. Whatever they decide to do will not please all of their customers.

I would personally not like to see them going down the all inclusive road as my wife and I are mostly wine drinkers. We do not particularly enjoy the Ollie Smith house offerings and would prefer to choose our own. The price of wine is very reasonable on P & O and it does not break the bank to move up from the house wines.

I would not worry about them introducing drinks packages as I can choose whether or not I want to purchase them.

Confused? I am!

I was simply attempting to give my opinion with regards to our experience on Azamara. We are gold Severn seas society members wirh Regent but I would not attempt to compare Azamara with Regent.

I only made reference to Oceania Cruises because they compete with Azamara price wise.

Azamara appear to be the only cruise line who can't make up their mind where they stand. They provide an all included package but at he same time they see a need to offer a myriad of alternative/additional products.

This arrangement may be to some peoples liking but from my point of view, Azamara are now not providing what I am looking for.

I don't get the Azamara approach to their included drinks package. Providing a very basic package of complimentary drinks and then having various packages for spirits, beers and wine and also sub packages within the spirits package is a total mish mash.

My wife and I drink mostly wine and enjoy the occasional cognac which when on Azamara, we purchased as we went.

We have only done two Azamara cruises, the first being on the Quest which was its first inclusive cruise, the second was last year again on the Quest. The wines on offer on the first cruise were vastly superior to those on offer last year. I acknowledge that tastes in wine are subjective but it was quite clear to us that the amount Azamara are now spending on the wine has decreased significantly.

It was also apparent that securing an alternative wine on our first cruise was not a problem. The second time however we found it a lot more difficult.

In our opinion Oceania cruises with their drinks package is a far better product for us. I regret this as Azamara have some of the best employees of any cruise line but I really do feel that they have lost the plot with their current offerings.

We are on the Romantic Rhine and Moselle departing 26th April.

Once again thanks for your replies. I do find it odd that they cannot give at least some ball park figure as to how long you will be moored at a particular destination. The river cruise lines have done these schedules on a frequent basis so must have some idea of the length of the visit.

My reason for asking is if here is a particular tour or visit you want to plan in advance, it is difficult to organise unless you have some notion of how long you will be staying at that particular location.

Thank you all for your replies. We are about to do our first river cruise on the Jasper and this will be a totally new experience for us. I am pleased to note that we not be bucking the trend if we turn up for dinner after 7pm and that there is flexibility built into the system.

On a different note, how can we establish the times that we will be arriving and leaving the various ports of call. I understand that times may not be set in stone but will we be given some indication as to how long we will be spending at each stop prior to our embarkation. Will this information be included in our cruise documents when they arrive?

Once again your replies will most welcome.

Sorry to disagree with you Dai but I have always had my loyalty discount taken off the wine packages I have bought.

Check out the two different wine packages on the P & O website to see if and what you like. On a 24 day cruise I buy two 12 bottle packages which works out just right. The biggest savings are on the 12 bottle packages (around 15%) so it is worthwhile provided the wine in the packages is to your taste. It is worth noting that if you want you can have 12 bottles of one particular wine or mix and match as you wish.

Your second question is a little more difficult. In theory you can but as your wine is sourced from whatever dining room you are eating in, it can be difficult to get outside of the dining room opening hours.

If the bar you are ordering from sells the wine you want they can let you have a bottle and sort it out with the dining room later. This however depends how busy the bar is and whether the waiter concerned has a can do of can't do attitude. I personally have experienced both.

Hope this helps.

Thank you for your replies. I was hoping this was the case. 7pm is a little early for us.

I am sorry if my terminology is confusing. I understand that it is open seating in that there are no pre-arranged tables. What I am trying to establish is whether guests are expected to arrive for dinner at 7pm or whether they can turn up at any time during the opening hours of the restaurant. To be clear, is it open sitting or fixed time sitting?

i would be most grateful if someone could tell me the current position regarding dinner on board the Jasper. I am not clear as to what is meant by open sitting. Am I to understand that guests can arrive for dinner at any time between 7pm and 9pm as is the case with ocean cruising. Other postings give the impression that it is a fixed sitting starting at 7pm rather than a true open sitting. Any information from recent cruisers on Scenic would be appreciated.

Thanks for your response. My cruise personaliser still shows cabin not allocated. A large proportion of world sectors are packaged by cruise agents and do not follow the same rules as Saver/Select fares.

I was just wondering when they normally allocate cabins on this arrangement.

I will speak with my TA and see if they can assist.